ANTH essay Discuss the evolutionary importance of culture as a hominin adaptation. How did the capacity for culture enhance selective fitness? What i

ANTH essay
Discuss the evolutionary importance of culture as a hominin adaptation. How did the capacity for culture enhance selective fitness? What is the earliest evidence for cultural behavior? As part of your answer, compare the evolutionary fates of cultural hominins with those hominins that do not appear to have been strongly cultural. Be specific and cites dates, species names, and other data that show an understanding of the material.

Exam 1 Questions and Instructions
Anthropology 150
Fall 2020
First Examination

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Questions

1. Discuss the evolutionary importance of culture as a hominin adaptation. How did the capacity for culture enhance selective fitness? What is the earliest evidence for cultural behavior? As part of your answer, compare the evolutionary fates of cultural hominins with those hominins that do not appear to have been strongly cultural. Be specific and cites dates, species names, and other data that show an understanding of the material. 1

Lecture 4: The Evolution of Primates
In this lecture, Ill discuss the origins and diversification of the order Primates, beginning
about 65 million years ago (abbreviation 65 mya).
In order to understand that evolution we need a little background in how plants and
animals are classified and how it reflects evolutionary history. Well start with classification:

Outline of the lecture

I. Goals for Lecture 4

A. Phylogenetic classification

B. The Dynamics of Primate evolution.

Phylogenetic Systematics

What is phylogenetic systematics you ask? It is an attempt to determine relationships.

Its like going to a family reunion and reconstructing your family tree by looking at noses, eyes,

hair, or how tall someone is. Except that instead of families, we deal with species. Instead of

looking at the hair color, we look might look at cranial size, or the length of the arms, the shape

of the teeth, even the entire adaptive focus of a species.

Classification is a step on the road to understanding evolutionary relationships, but it

didnt start out that way.

Phylogenetic classification is an attempt to classify living things by their relationships to

one another. This system was created by Linnaeus (Carl von Linne; 1707-1788). The Linnean

system of classification divided all living things in a dendritic structure of similarity based upon

three criteria:

1) Body Structure morphology. The number and type of limbs, for instance.

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2) Body Function for example, the way an animal gives birth

3) Sequence of bodily growth Mammals are distinguished from reptiles. Placental

mammals are distinguished from marsupial mammals. Fetal development was also studied

because, as Darwin said, ontogeny is the replication of phylogeny.

Linnaeus derived his classifications solely on the basis of comparative morphology. He

had not clue about modern genetics. In fact, he was opposed to any concept of evolution. He

believed that there were the same numbers of species now as had ever existed. This is the man

who came up the idea of the Great Chain of being, in which every animal is placed on a rung of

the ladder on the basis of how close it comes to God.

Linnaeuss system, and his assignments have been modified based on genetic evidence,

but one has to be in awe of his organization capacity and his encyclopedic knowledge of

comparative morphology.

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An Example of Phylogenetic Classification

Humans

Kingdom Animal

Phylum Chordata. Display gill slits and notochor, spinal

system. Sub-phylum Vertebrata

Class – Mammalia: live birth, constant body temperature, nursed by milk

Order Primates- hands and feet capable of grasping. Tendency to erect posture. Development

of binocular vision, tendency to larger brains.

Family Anthropoidea . Characterized by more rigid bodies and longer arms.

Sub-family Hominidae : Ground dwelling with bipedial locomotion.

Genus: Homo Larger brains. Reliance on cultural adaptation species sapiens

sub-species : sapiens

Whereas Linneaus scheme was originally static, modern phylogenetic classification is

decidedly dynamic and evolutionary. The goal of modern classification is to reconstruct

evolutionary relationships by including a timeline. Each branch of the classification represents

an evolutionary event in the past. For instance, at some point in the past there was only one

population of primates. At some point, however, that population split into two groups. One

became the anthropoid primates and the other became the prosimian primates. By examining the

fossil record and the geological record, we can identify when that event happened.

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II. The Dynamics of Evolution

These phylogenetic classifications may seem boring and somewhat arcane. But they are

the key to understanding evolutionary relationships.

To understand those relationships better, you need to take the evolutionary

perspective that we discussed in the previous lecture. Think of these relationships in terms

of populations, adaptations, and changing allele frequencies.

Each of these branches represents a separation. Each of these taxa is related to other

taxa at some point in the past. Each separation represents an event in which a population

separated into two or more distinct groups. Each of those groups entered a new environmental

situation with new selective pressures. Through time as each group adapted to its new

environment different mutations occurred and different traits were selected for. These

processes eventually resulted in two distinct populations with traits different from their

common ancestor. Just like those two species of finches in the Galapagos Islands: one

developed a thick, robust beak, one developed a long, slender beak.

One term that we are going to hear a lot in the next few weeks is adaptive radiation.

Adaptive radiation is simply the process that weve been discussing, the divergence of new taxa

from a common ancestor. Radiation here refers both to the phylogenetic separation and to the

geographic spread of the species. Geographic separation is part of the process of branching, the

separation into distinct breeding populations.

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Homologous and analogous traits
In looking at evolutionary relationships we need to distinguish two types of traits:

Homologous and analogous.

Homologous traits are those derived from a common ancestor, traits that indicate

evolutionary relationships. For example all primates have stereoscopic vision. That was a trait of

the original primate population and is present in all subsequent populations.

Analogous traits are those produced by Convergent Evolution, usually driven by similar

adaptations. A good example here is the similar structure of fish and aquatic mammals.

Mammals who live in water came to superficially resemble fish because there is an optimal

structure needed if you want to be successful while living in water. Selective pressures drove

mammals in water to be more fish-like.

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Geological Time Line

Phanerozoic Eon
(544 mya to present)

Cenozoic Era
(65 mya to today)

Quaternary (1.8 mya to today)
Holocene (11,000 years to today)
Pleistocene (1.8 mya to 11,000 yrs)

Tertiary (65 to 1.8 mya)
Pliocene (5 to 1.8 mya)
Miocene (23 to 5 mya)
Oligocene (38 to 23 mya)
Eocene (54 to 38 mya)
Paleocene (65 to 54 mya)

Mesozoic Era
(245 to 65 mya)

Paleozoic Era

Cretaceous (146 to 65 mya)
Jurassic (208 to 146 mya)
Triassic (245 to 208 mya)

(544 to 245 mya)
Permian (286 to 245 mya)
Carboniferous (360 to 286 mya)

Pennsylvanian (325 to 286 mya)
Mississippian (360 to 325 mya)

Devonian (410 to 360 mya)
Silurian (440 to 410 mya)
Ordovician (505 to 440 mya)
Cambrian (544 to 505 mya)

Tommotian (530 to 527 mya)
Precambrian Time
(4,500 to 544 mya)

Proterozoic Era
(2500 to 544 mya)

Neoproterozoic (900 to 544 mya)
Vendian (650 to 544 mya)

Mesoproterozoic (1600 to 900 mya)
Paleoproterozoic (2500 to 1600 mya)

Archaean
(3800 to 2500 mya)
Hadean
(4500 to 3800 mya)

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The Primates

Primate is a taxonomic designation. Linnaeus set the primates apart from other animals,

and he included humans among them, for which he deserves a lot of credit.

The name of our order comes from the Latin primus, meaning the first. Come criticize

Linnaeus for his anthropocentricity placing humans at the top of things. But Linnaeus showed

great insight in his groupings of organisms based strictly on comparative anatomy. Not only did

he put humans with the primates, but he recognized whales as mammals, no small

accomplishment in his time.

Primates are an order of mammals, a taxon, a group of animals that belong together

because of shared characteristics. There are many orders of mammals – Cetacea, Perissodactyla,

insectivora (some of the most primitive mammals, like the earliest mammal ancestors)

Monotremata, etc. Where do primates comes from? The order arises in the early Cenozoic,

about 65 million years ago (mya). At that time primates were quite different from today. They

looked very much like shrews. After 65 million years of evolution there are lots of extant

species, and the fossil record indicates that there were lots more species in the past, many of

which went extinct.

There are lots of primate species, each with its own binomen, or two-part name. Ham

the space chimp belonged to the species Pan troglodytes. John Glenn is of the species Homo

sapiens. There are about 154 living primate species, in 52 genera. We can arrange the species

along a horizontal line according to the relative closeness of each one to ourselves. When we get

down to the far end, the tree shrew, we find than there is a controversy. The tree shrew doesnt

fit neatly into either the primates or the insectivores, so we sometimes see it classes differently.

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But the importance of the tree shrew is that it gives us a good idea of early primate ancestors

the tree shrew has changed very little in 65 million years.

The primates are divided into two sub-orders: the prosimians and the anthropoids. The

split between the two occurred sometime between 65 and 55 million years ago. The prosimians

are the small cute critters like lemurs and tarsiers. The anthropoids include the monkeys and the

apes (of which humans are part).

The anthropoids are further divided into 2 groups: the strepsihini (New World Monkeys

with flaring noses) and Haplorhini (Old World monkeys and apes with flat noses). The Haplorhini

are then divided into Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys baboons, leaf eating monkeys, etc.

of Asia, Europe and Africa), and Hominoidea (gorillas, chimps, and hominids).

As I said, we can take this classification and turn it into a dynamic model of evolutionary

relationships by giving events a timeline. At some point in time, the anthropoids and the

prosimians shared a common ancestor. At some point in the past, there was a single population

that gave rise to gorillas, chimps, and humans We can tell when anthropoids separate from

prosimians and we can tell when gorillas, chimps and hominids separated. The next step is to

identify how and why those splits happened. What selective pressures drove the differentiation of

prosimians from anthropoids? What pressures resulted in the separation of the homins (the line

that leads to modern humans) from the other apes?

Well answer those questions soon, but lets back up and look at the evolutionary history

of the primates. Well focus on the lines of descent that lead to modern humans.

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Lets start by looking at the evolutionary explanation for the trends seen in the primate

line. In the 1920s the neuroanatomist G.E. Smith proposed the Arboreal Theory. He said that

the first primates were shrewlike insectivores, which eventually went arboreal. Arboreal life was

proposed to account for all those trends. Living up in the trees is quite different from living on

the ground. The receptors in the snout (both olfactory and tactile, meaning the whiskers) are not

adequate to provide guidance up in the trees. Tree-dwelling animals cant sniff about for food.

So vision came along to replace olfaction as the dominant sense in these early arboreal animals,

and they became primates. They needed vision to see their food, and then to enable them to get

it. Thus, the arboreal hypothesis could explain the development of primate traits.

F. Wood-Jones, a student of Smith, went further. He argued that hands became

specialized claws were lost, pads developed on the fingers, and that primates became

preadpated to erect walking because of climbing vertically in the trees. The Arboreal theory of

Smith and Wood-Jones became the accepted explanation of how we could have started with a

primitive form like a tree shrew and evolved a lemur. By simply taking those trends further, we

got a monkey, then an ape, and finally, a human being.

Sounds good, but think about the squirrel. Matt Cartmill, a paleontologist from the

University of Chicago, did that. He asked: Why are there so many species of squirrels? And

why are there no primates (other than humans) in Chicago?

Squirrels are consummate tree dwellers and highly successful. Yet they eyes on the side

of the head, no reduction in smell, claws rather than nails. And they are even better than

primates at climbing trees with big trunks. Squirrels have no opposable thumbs. And no toes.

Why havent they developed primate-like traits? Squirrel traits long snout, sense of smell,

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clawed non-grasping hands and feet are all primitive mammalian traits. Their loss isnt isnt

explained by living in the trees alone.

Cartmill came up with an alternative hypothesis, which he called the Visual Predation

Hypothesis. The Visual Predation Hypothesis holds that early primate ancestors were mostly

terrestial, sniffing through scent-ladden leaf litters for insects. Meanwhile, just above them in the

low shrubbery of the forest was a wealth of high protein insects. The proto-primates went up

into the arboreal environment, which was an open environmental niche. Primates evolved

grasping hind feet so that they could anchor themselves while they grabbed flying insects with

their hands. They evolved stereoscopic vision in order to gauge the distances of insects. Thus,

primate tendencies started as a result of visual predation on insects.

Other mammals with similar characteristics are owls and cats. Both are visual predators

with stereoscopic vision. Some primitive primate still have this adaptation, e.g. the loris. They

are mostly nocturnal, however.

The first certain primates appeared about 65 mya at the Mezozoic/Cenozoic boundary.

The last period of the Mesozoic is called the Cretaceous, the first period of the Cenozoic is called

the Paleocene. At the Cretaceous/Paleocene boundary we find the first primates. Late

Cretaceous environments are pretty well known, especially in North America. The environment

reconstructed for that period was sub-tropical. It was warm, with lush vegetation. The planet

was dominanted by dinosaurs. But there were very small mammals, they are known only from

small fragments, mostly jars and teeth. In fact teeth patterns define the primates. They are flatter

than insectivore teeth. They have lower cusps than insectivores and little basins. They are on

their way to becoming herbivores.

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65 mya is the great divide. Most people now accept that about 65 mya the earth was

impacted by a meteor. This is marked geologically by the Iridium anomaly, first noted by Luis

and Walter Alvarez of UC Berkeley. The effect of this impact was cataclysmic. Ash was

thrown up into the earths atmosphere and there was period of darkness for 1-2 years. This would

have been a massive upset to all terrestial ecosystems. Correspondingly, we see in the

paleontological record, mass extinctions of dinosaurs, along with many mammals and aquatic

species as well.

After the beginning of the Paleocene we see radiation of primate species, Lots of open

ecological niches came about because of the dinosaur extinction. Primates filled them.

35 mya start of the Eocene.

At the end of the Eocene there was a period of dramatic cooling, ending the Eocene

adaptive radiation with the extinction of most of the primates, especially those in North America,

south america, and Europe. With cooling, ecological niches collapsed, and there was

competition from rodents.

At this time we see a major break in the anthropoid line, and the separation of into

strepsihini and Haplorhini.

End of the Eocene is marked by dramatic cooling and increasing dryness. Many of the

ecological niches occupied by primates collapsed, leading to the extinction of many primate

forms. So there is an early Eocene radiation followed by an extinction at the end.

Oligocene 35 -23 mya

During the early Oligocene there were no primates in N. America or Europe; it was too

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cold. From the Middle Oligocene, about 30 MYA there is 1 site for primate fossils in the whole

world: El Fayum, Egypt. In the Oligocene the climate here was wet and war, leaving river

settlements behind for geologists to study. humid conditions Haplorhines (sub-order that includes

monkeys and apes) become numerous and diverse..

The split of monkeys and apes occured at the later part of the Oligocene, The first secure

member of the cattarhine infraorder (ancestral to old world monkeys and apes) is

Aegyptopithecus molars are ape-like. Skull 3-4 inches long, big canines. Good vision. Large

visual cortex and smaller olfactory lobes. It is ancestral to both old world monkeys and apes, but

not to NW monkeys. It has 2 premolars, not 3.

Early Miocene (23 mya – 17 mya)

Catarrhinne primates were restricted to Africa at the beginning of the Miocene period. At

17 mya they spread into Eurasia (land masses were joined to Africa) and Europe.

The first Miocene ape in Africa is proconsul (four species). Proconsul clearly closer to a

chimp than a monkey, so it post-dates the splits of monkeys from apes. Range in size from

baboon to gorilla size may be sexual dimorphism. There are lots of specimens; it was a very

successful bunch of apes. The best known specimen is slightly smaller than a chimp with

hominoid dentition (Y5) and relatively large brain compared to body size. Its post-cranial

skeleton is quadrapedal, with grasping hind feet

After proconsul there was an adaptive radiation of apes into Europe and Asia. The

European apes are called Dryopithecines and the Asian apes are variously called Sivapithecines

or Ramapithecines. The Dryopithecines go extinct when conditions in Europe become chilly at

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the end of the Miocene. The Asian apes are very successful during the late Miocene and diversify

into many species, including the enormous Gigantopithecus. At the end of the Miocene most of

the Asian apes go extinct, but some survive and one of them eventually gives rise to the modern

orangutan.

The African Apes.

At the end of the Miocene there was a die-off of African apes, and only one group

remained. That group gave rise to the living African apes: Chimps, gorillas, and humans. How

that late Miocene population diversified is fascinating, and it will be our focus next week. First,

however, lets look at some similarities and contrast among the living African apes:

We humans have many shared anatomical characteristics with chimps and other apes:

1) Lack of a tail. Generally large body size, shortened trunk, stable spine, and the

position and musculature of the shoulder joint.

True Brachiation: the ability to rotate the arm to allow swinging arm over arm under the

branches of trees. Originally an adaptation to feeding at the end of branches. Monkeys have

limited arm mobility and display what can be called semi-brachiation. Should joint oriented

upward; upper body is fairly erect.

The rigid trunk of apes facilitiates some degree of bi-pedalism. Strictly speaking, chimps,

gorillas, and orangutans are quadripedal, but they do walk upright for limited periods of time.

Chimps and gorillas often use a form of locomotion called knuckle-walking.

Finally, we can mention larger brains. Relative to body size, all apes have larger brains

than other primates and the monkeys. This is probably the most important.

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Modern humans , gorillas, chimps, and bonobos last shared an ancestor somewhere between 8

mya, when the Miocene peridod ended and 5 mya.

With the divergence of the apes from the monkeys, we are increasingly concerned with

more and more complex adaptations. All of these species show some degree of complex learned

behavior that is passed generationally, something that we might go so far as to call rudimentary

culture. This is especially true of our nearest relatives, the chimps and gorillas. In discussing

hominoid evolution in the last 10 million years were concerned with much more than just gross

morphology, although morphology is still our best evidence. Were concerned learning and

behavior. Thats why it is so important to study the behavior of other primates for clues as to

what our early hominoid ancestors were like.

Gorillas live in social groups dominated by a single adult male, called a silverback. The

silverback lives with numerous females and their young. He drives off other adult males and

prevents them from having sex with the females of his group. He will maintain his exclusive

sexual relationship with the females until another male successful challenges him and drives him

off. Gorillas have a high degree of sexual dimorphism, which is characteristic of species with a

high degree of competition between males for sexual access to females.

Gorillas are primarily vegetarians and they eat a lot of tough vegetable matter, such as

tree bark. For that task, they have large molars and very heavy jars.

Chimps, in contrast, have a more fluid social organization. Their groups include both

males and females of adult age. There is a hierarchy among them, but no male is capable of

preventing another male from mating with females. Instead, females choose their mates and

frequently mate with many males while they are in estrus (the period during which they are

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sexual receptive).

Chimps have many complex social behaviors, including hunting and tool use. Chimps

will make and use many types of tools: they have been observed making stone tools and

sharpening sticks into short spears. In a dramatic scene several years ago, chimps were observed

using the spears to kill monkeys. Recently, chimps have also been observed using fairly

sophisticated strategies to hunt small game. For instance, a group of male chimps were observed

driving monkeys through the trees toward another group of male chimps who were waiting to

catch and kill the monkeys. Hunting is not a primary adaptation of chimps, but some groups will

engage in such behavior.

Chimps are much more omnivorous than gorillas. They primarily eat fruit and tender

leaves, but as noted, they will eat meat when they can get it.

In sum, humans are much more like chimps than they are like gorillas. Nonetheless, the

three groups are very closely related. Genetic evidence indicates that the humans are more

closely related to chimps that to gorillas, but that does not mean we can look at chimps as an

analog for what our last common ancestor was like. As well see next week, the first hominids

were distinct from both chimps and gorillas.

Summary: Applying a Darwinian Perspective to Primate Evolution

Evolutionary change is driven by selection. But what are the factors effecting selection?

Generally, the most important are food and competition for food. Ultimately animal life depends

on plant biomass, which is influenced by climate. So climatic change is a huge factor in

evolutionary change. Climatic change operates on a broad scale, but what counts is the local

impact. Selection is always driven by local conditions.

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Competition is also a key factor. Other species are out there who also may be potential

competitors for open niches. Other species are also potential predators.

Radiation, Diversification, speciation.

Why does radiation occur? The short answer is opportunity and pressure. Opportunity

may come in the form of an open niche caused by the extinction of another species or the

appearance of a beneficial genetic mutation. Pressure may come from success in reproduction.

They may be too many individuals in a population relative to local resources. In that case, the

group will split and separate. The separation may take one or both groups into new environments

where they face new selective pressures. Again, that is the process of adaptive radiation.

The split between the apes and the monkeys was driven by feeding behavior. Monkeys

are small and more arboreal. They live higher up in the trees and eat fruits, insects, and tender

leaves. The exception are the gibbons, but their terrestrial feeding behavior is a recent

development (recent in the evolutionary sense, meaning within the past few million years).

Apes, having larger bodies, originally lived in lower stories of the forest canopy. All

living apes spend a great deal of time on the ground, and feed a great deal on terrestrial resources.

After the Miocene period, speciation among the apes was largely driven by successful

populations moving into new enviroments. That is to say, it was a geographical spread with

subsequent speciation.

Speciation, or diversification, is a product of radiation into different environments and

different niches. One population may move into a humid river valley. Another may move into

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an open, dry savannah. The traits favored in those two distinct environments will be themselves

distinct. And if the two populations are separated and dont share genetic material, they will

eventually become distinct species and possibly later theyll be distinct at the genus level.

The diversification of the apes is a wonderful example of why evolution cannot be

modeled simply as anagenesis. Evolution is not the development of a single line. Natural

selection operates on populations as much as on individuals. That is, whole populations, and

sometimes whole species, frequently go extinct. So, the entire cycle of evolution should be

though of as a great many incidents of adaptive radiation, followed by extinction of many of the

new populations.

Another way to think of it is this: adaptive radiation is like the branches of a bush. An

ancestral population may be successful and undergo an adaptive radiation, wherein many

daughter populations move into new environments and give rise to new species. The chances

are, however, that many of those new species will go extinct. In effect, some of the branches of

the evolutionary bush are trimmed by natural selection.

The process of evolution isnt progressive because many species are primitive in the

sense that they greatly resemble the ancestral population. We talk about the prosimians as being

primtive primates because they are more like the early primates than are the anthropoids

(monkeys and apes). Monkeys are apes are called advanced because they have more derived

traits (traits developed since the split with the more primitive species). But the prosimians are

just as successful as the anthropoids in an evolutionary sense: they are living and reproducing.

Indeed, in many senses they are more successful because they developed an adpatation that has

worked for tens of millions of years, whereas the anthropoids are still trying to get it right.

18 Anthropology 150
CSUN
Michael Love

Lecture 2: History of Anthropology
Outline of the Lecture

I. First steps in the Renaissance
II. Enlightenment studies: interest in evolution. Classification, documentation
III. Late 1880’s Formalization of the discipline Early Evolutionists
Lewis Henry Morgan
Tylor

Many new intellectual trends: Geology, theory of natural selection, Freud

IV. Cultural Historical School
Begins with the arrival of Franz Boas in the US in 1883
IV. Functionalism
Comes out of the European tradition of sociology, esp. Durkheim
V. Neo-evolutionary school – the new functionalism
Classification, derivation of laws, Science
VI. Structuralism and Hermeneutics
The return of idealism and emic studies: emphasis on meaning.

In Lecture 1, I said that anthropology really has two dimensions of interest.

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