BIOLOGICAL AND

CULTURAL EVOLUTION
FROM AUSTRALOPITHECUS TO HOMO SAPIENS
BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL
EVOLUTION
BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

 Refers to the changes, modifications, and

variations in the genetics and inherited traits of
biological populations from one generation to
another.
 Scientists study the changes in physical body of
humans, the changes in the shape and size of
their bones, brain, dentition, and fingers for
instance. It also includes the changes in posture,
movement, and the development of bipedalism or
walking in two feet in an upright position.
BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

 Biological evolution is based on the theory of

evolution that was introduced by the famous
English naturalist and geologist CHARLES DARWIN
 he introduced the concept of evolution to the
explain the origins of modern humans. He
published his work entitled “On the Origins of
Species by Means of Natural Selection”.
 Darwin wrote:
 “Species are not immutable, but those belonging to what are
called the same genera are lineal descendants of some other
and generally extinct species, in the same manner as the
acknowledge varieties of any one species”
BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
 Natural Selection is defined as the outcome of processes
that affect the frequencies of traits in a particular
environment. Traits that enhance survival and
reproductive success increase in frequency overtime.
 Three Important Principles of Natural Selection
 Every species is made up of a variety of individuals wherein some
are better adapted to their environments compared to others.
 Organisms produce progeny with different sets of traits that can
be inherited.
 Organisms that have traits most suitable to their environment will
survive and transfer this variations to their offspring in subsequent
generations.
CULTURAL EVOLUTION (Will be discussed
in Lesson 2)
 Refers to the changes or development in cultures
from a simple form to a more complex form of
human culture.
 Scientists study the cultural evolution of humans
by analyzing the changes in the latter’s way of
life reflected in the different tools and other
human-made objects that they have used.
THE BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL
EVOLUTION OF MODERN HUMANS
FROM HOMONIDS TO HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS
HOMINIDS

 The general term used by scientists to categorize the

group of early humans and other humanlike creatures that
can walk erect during the prehistoric times.
 FOUR CATEGORIES OF HOMINIDS
 SAHELANTHROPUS
 ARDIPITHECUS
 AUSTRALOPITHECUS
 HOMO
SAHELANTHROPUS TCHADENSIS
5-7 million years ago
SAHELANTHROPUS TCHADENSIS

 It had both apelike and humanlike characteristics: a skull

similar to the Australopithecus and modern human;
 height almost similar to the chimpanzee;
 brain size of about 320-380 cubic centimeters; s
 mall teeth similar to other hominids; and
 had the ability to walk upright.
ORRORIN TUGENENSIS
5.7 million years ago
ORRORIN TUGENENSIS

 Orrorin tugenensis is the one of the oldest early

humans on our family tree.
 Individuals of this species were approximately the
size of a chimpanzee and had small teeth with
thick enamel, similar to modern humans.
 The most important fossil of this species is an
upper femur, showing evidence of bone buildup
typical of a biped - so Orrorin tugenensis
individuals climbed trees but also probably
walked upright with two legs on the ground.
ARDIPITHECUS Family

 Means ape on the ground.

 It had two species:
 Ardipithecus Kadabba; and
 5.6 million years ago
 Ardipithecus Ramidus
 4.4 million years ago
ARDIPITHECUS

 Height of about 4 feet;

 Weight of about 120 pounds;
 Skull similar to an ape
 Small brain
 Biped
 Lived in jungles and forests like chimpanzess
AUSTRALOPITHECUS
AUSTRALOPITHECUS
 “southern ape”, they lived in the African jungle from 5million to 1
million years ago.
 Brain weight of 500 cubic centimeters or almost 1/3 of the modern
human brain
 Upright
 Biped
 Tool users and not tool makers
 Used sticks and stones for digging
 Lived in small groups
 Distance of movement was estimated to be 15km or more to search
stones to be used as tool
 Food scavengers
 Ate insects, egg, plants, fruits, and sometimes meat
AUSTRALOPITHECUS

 6 kinds of Australopithecus
 Gracile australopithecine (small teeth and jaw)
 Australopithecus anamensis
 Australopithecus afarensis
 Australopithecus africanus
 RobustAustralopithecus (large teeth and jaws, and
muscular built)
 Australopithecus aethiopicus
 Australopithecus robustus
 Australopithecus boisei
AUSTRALOPITHECUS (LUCY FOSSIL)
AUSTRALOPITHECUS (LUCY FOSSIl)

 Lucy was considered as one of the modern

human’s earliest ancestors and remains as the
most famous hominid fossil discovered.
 It was discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia in November
1974 by paleoanthropologists led by Dr. Donald
Johnson.
HOMO

 Theywere classified as humans and not

humanlike creatures because they had
bigger brains and were bipedal.
3 Species of Homo
 Homo Habilis or handy man
 Homo Erectus or upright man
 Homo Sapiens or wise man
Homo Habilis
HOMO HABILIS
 Scholars believed that Homo Habilis based on
evidence shows that it was the direct ancestor of
the modern human because of its ability to
produce tools.
 Characterisitics
 Height of about 3 to 4 feet
 Brainsize half the size of modern human (700 cubic
centimeter)
 Made tools called Oldowan which were used as cutting
tools and made from volcanic stones
 Used tools for hunting and gathering food
HOMO ERECTUS
HOMO ERECTUS

 It was estimated that they lived from 1.8 million

to 300,000 years ago.
 Characterisitics
 Brain
size of 1000 cubic centimeters or 2/3 of the
modern human brains
 Height of about 5 feet
 Walks upright
HOMO ERECTUS

 They were believed to be more intelligent and

more adaptable compared to Homo Habilis.
 They used their intelligence to invent and develop
different technologies.
 They are famous for making complex tools used
for digging, cutting, and scraping and they also
make hand axe tools for slicing, chopping and
digging. Because of this they were considered as
skillful hunters.
TOOLS OF HOMO ERECTUS
HOMO ERECTUS

 They were the first Homo species that to us

fire and live in caves and small houses.
HOMO ERECTUS

 Through the use of fire they were able to live in

cold and dark caves and also allowed them to
cook food and meat.
HOMO ERECTUS

 It was also believed that they were the first to

use spoken language to exchange ideas with each
other, planned cooperative hunting, and helped
others doing different activities.
HOMO ERECTUS in Africa
 In North Africa in 1954–55, excavations at Tighenif, east of
Mascara, Algeria, yielded remains dating to approximately
700,000 years ago whose nearest affinities seemed to be
with the Chinese form of H. erectus.
 Some of the more convincing evidence for the existence
of H. erectus in Africa came with the discovery in 1960 of
a partial braincase at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. This
fossil, catalogued as OH 9, was excavated by Louis S.B.
Leakey and is probably about 1.2 million years old.
 Much of this material is fragmentary, but gaps in our
knowledge of East African H. erectus have been filled to
some extent through finds made by Louis Leakey’s son,
Richard Leakey.
HOMO ERECTUS in Europe

 Heidelberg Jaw
 One of the oldest European hominin fossils is an
isolated mandible with teeth, found in 1907 in a
sandpit just north of Mauer, Germany, near Heidelberg.
Dating to about 500,000 years ago, it has been given a
variety of names over the years, but its exact
relationship to other fossils remains uncertain, partly
because no associated cranium was found.
HOMO ERECTUS in Europe

 Homo Erectus in Italy

 Evidence for the presence of H. erectus in
Europe has come from Ceprano in central Italy,
where a skull lacking its face was found in
1994. The Ceprano individual displays the
heavy continuous brow, low braincase, angled
rear skull, and thick cranial bones that are
characteristic of H. erectus.
HOMO ERECTUS in Europe

 Other important fossils have been recovered in

the southern Caucasus region of Georgia.
Excavations at the medieval village of Dmanisi
revealed a jaw with a full set of teeth in 1991.
Found along with animal bones and crude stone
tools, this specimen has been likened to H.
erectus, and it is much more ancient than the
remains from Mauer or Ceprano. In 1999 two more
craniums were reported from the same site.
HOMO ERECTUS in Asia

 THE JAVA MAN

 First fossils attributed to Homo erectus were discovered
by a Dutch army surgeon, Eugène Dubois, who began his
search for ancient human bones on the island of Java,
Indonesia in 1890.
 Dubois found his first specimen in the same year, and in
1891 a well-preserved skullcap was unearthed at Trinil
on the Solo River.
 Several years later, near where the skull was
discovered, he found a remarkably complete and
modern-looking femur (thighbone).
HOMO ERECTUS in Asia

 Another series of finds was made in China

beginning in the 1920s, especially in the caves
and fissures of Zhoukoudian, near Beijing.
 Remains found at Zhoukoudian by Davidson Black
became popularly known as Peking man; virtually
all of these remains were subsequently lost by
1941 during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45),
though casts of them still exist.
HOW DID THE HOMO ERECTUS
REACH EUROPE AND ASIA?
HOMO SAPIENS

 Characteristics:
 Largebrain size that is almost similar to the brain of
modern human beings.
 Lived in shelters
 Food gatherers
 Ate plants and fruits
 Hunted animals
 Learned to gather and cook shellfish
 Used fire
 Crafted metals
HOMO HEIDELBERGENS

 Homo heidelbergensis, extinct species of archaic human

known from fossils dating from 600,000 to 200,000 years
ago in Africa, Europe, and possibly Asia.
 The name first appeared in print in 1908 to accommodate
an ancient human jaw discovered in 1907 near the town of
Mauer, 16 km southeast of Heidelberg, Germany.
 Among the fossils found with the Heidelberg jaw were
those of several extinct mammals that lived about
500,000 years ago.
HOMO NEANDERTHALIS

 Neanderthal, (Homo neanderthalensis, Homo

sapiens neanderthalensis)
 member of a group of archaic humans who emerged at
least 200,000 years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch
(about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) and were
replaced or assimilated by early modern human
populations (Homo sapiens) between 35,000 and
perhaps 24,000 years ago.
 Neanderthals inhabited Eurasia from the Atlantic
regions of Europe eastward to Central Asia, from as far
north as present-day Belgium and as far south as the
Mediterranean and southwest Asia.
HOMO NEANDERTHALIS

 Thefirst human fossil assemblage described

as Neanderthal was discovered in 1856 in
the Feldhofer Cave of the Neander Valley,
near Düsseldorf, Germany.
CRO-MAGNON

 Cro-Magnon, population of early Homo sapiens dating from the Upper

Paleolithic Period (c. 40,000 to c. 10,000 years ago) in Europe.
 In 1868, in a shallow cave at Cro-Magnon near the town of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
in the Dordogne region of southwestern France, a number of obviously ancient
human skeletons were found.
 The cave was investigated by the French geologist Édouard Lartet, who
uncovered five archaeological layers. The human bones found in the topmost
layer proved to be between 10,000 and 35,000 years old.
CRO-MAGNON
 The prehistoric humans revealed by this find were called Cro-Magnon
and have since been considered, along with Neanderthals, to be
representative of prehistoric humans. Modern studies suggest that
Cro-Magnons emerged even earlier, perhaps as early as 45,000 years
ago.
 CHARACTERISTICS
 Cro-Magnons were robustly built and powerful and are presumed to have
been about 166 to 171 cm (about 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 7 inches) tall.
 The body was generally heavy and solid, apparently with strong
musculature. The forehead was straight, with slight browridges, and the
face short and wide.
 Cro-Magnons were the first humans (genus Homo) to have a prominent
chin. The brain capacity was about 1,600 cc (100 cubic inches), somewhat
larger than the average for modern humans.
 It is thought that Cro-Magnons were probably fairly tall compared with
other early human species.
MUSEUMS: VENUE TO APPRECIATE
BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION