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.
