Goal
The purpose of this assignment is to get you to apply what you have learned during the second and third units of this course. Using information about, primate and hominin anatomy and behaviors you will evaluate the description of a hypothetical fossil described below and explain to your reader what these skeletal characteristics tell you about the potential behavior of these fossilized skeletons.
Instructions
Using the information [osteological data, paleoenvironmental data, stable isotope data and cultural data] presented above, you will analyze and discuss the following five behaviors/factors:
Locomotion: H ow did they move about their environment?
Diet: W hat kind of food did they eat? Territoriality over food?
Tool Use: D id they use tools? If so, what kind of tools and what were they used for?
Social Structure/Mating Pattern: N oyau, pair-bonded, polyandry, s-m polygyny, m-m polygyny? How many males/females mated and other possible behaviors (choice, mate-defense, promiscuity, dominance hierarchy, alpha-males regulating other male mating behavior, sneaker males etc…); Territoriality?
Taxonomy: Are your fossils hominins? If so, assign them to a taxonomic group (genus, species). You can assume all of the skeletons belong to the same genus and species. Use popper binomial nomenclature (i.e. yours is Homo sapiens)
Please analyze each behavior/factor independently of all others! Please head each section of your analysis with the behavior you are analyzing.
When discussing the possible anatomical and social behaviors of these fossils, please consult your book and past lectures in the Primate and Hominin sections of the course. It is here that you will find the information you need in order to explain the possible “behaviors” of your fossils.
Remember to support your discussion with evidence from the readings as well as the described skeletal characteristics above. Do not just list or briefly discuss possible anatomical/social behaviors. For example, if you think the rocks are tools, why do think so, how do you know? If you think these fossils are hominins how do you know this, what evidence (physical, environmental, cultural etc.) indicate this?
Please take the perspective that YOU are the teacher and I am your student. When you write to your audience (me) you can assume I am an educated individual but I do not have any knowledge of this topic. Therefore, in your paper, you will need to educate your reader as to why the skeletal anatomy and rocks, suggest certain behaviors.
Apply and utilize the appropriate anthropological vocabulary when discussing the primary areas of physical anthropology (genetics, primatology, the fossil record, and modern human variation)-The part of the SLO for this paper focuses on applying vocab and concepts from primatology and the fossil record.
Module 7, MLO #2: Identify and/or explain and provide evidence of a specific primate social structures when given a description
Module 8, MLO #2: Explain the perspective of sociobiology, and how it helps to explain primate reproductive behaviors
Module 8, MLO #3: Apply primate physical and social behavior to early hominin behavior
Module 9, MLO #5: Understand the importance of comparative anatomy and apply it to the study of the fossil record
Module 9, MLO #6: Explain how key features of the human skeleton indicate bipedalism
Module 10, MLO #1: Discuss the characteristics that define a hominin
Module 12, MLO #2-ish: Discuss the evidence for scavenging vs. hunting
The year is 2022. You are a paleoanthropological graduate student working in east Africa. While excavating the Kibish Formation near the Omo River, you and your team discover over two-hundred fossilized bones representing as many as 20 individuals. The fossil remains include both adult males, females and juveniles. The sediments date to between 2.8-3 million years old. Your first assessment suggests they could be possible human ancestors (hominins).
Data:
Osteological Data:
Skull
Centralized foramen magnum
Brain size is around 600 cubic centimeters
Face is prognathic (compared to humans but much less when compared to apes)
Dentition (Teeth)
Mandible and maxilla
teeth show apical and occlusal (grinding) wear
jaws lack diastemas
jaws show medium-small canines
large flat molars with rounded cusps
thick enamel
The teeth show a microscopic wear pattern of light scratching, no pitting like robust Australopiths
Post-cranial (below the skull) characteristics
The post-cranial skeletons show
The arms are slightly longer than their legs
The hands have small slightly curved phalanges
Pelvis is bowl-like
It has a short robust ilium that curves front to back
it has a short robust ischium
The femur
is robust
shows a long femoral neck and a bicondylar angle
and an obturator externus groove
The tibia is robust
The foot
shows a large convergent toe
longitudinal arch
The male skeletons are approximately 20 percent larger than the female skeletons.
Paleo-environmental Data
Analysis of the fossilized pollen you collected from your site suggests the environment these fossils lived in consisted of pockets of wooded areas, interspersed throughout a very large, open grassy landscape. There are many predators including lions, hyenas, snakes, birds and even large bodied primates. The wooded areas offered a variety of trees and shrubs that appeal to a range of insects, birds and small mammals as well as fruits, grasses leaves and roots.
Stable Isotope Data
Stable isotope data from the teeth shows a C4 signature.
Cultural Data
Located at the same site, you also found some rocks and bones
Some are thick and pebble-like, with battered, sharp edges
Some are thinner, with sharp edges
Others are round stones that fit in the hand but have evidence of percussion marks (small scars on the rock)
The rocks are not uniform. They vary in size and shape.
Near the rocks you found some highly fractured animal bones. You find a lot of:
highly fractured leg bones
highly fractured skulls
Under a microscope you see that the animal leg and skull fragments show
some abrasions have a V-shape to them
some abrasions show parallel sides
