Human Evolution

Classification Things

Fossil record is sparse because primates are most abundant in tropical forests. The tropics were much more widespread in the early Cenozoic, and the best fossil record of the earliest primates is limited to those areas that are now temperate.

• Order Primates
• Suborder Plesiadapiformes: Plesiadapis

• Suborder Prosimii
• Infraorder Adapiformes (Extinct: Eocene to Miocene)
• Infraorder Lemuriformes (Lemurs: Pleistocene to recent Madagascar only)
• Infraorder Tarsiiformes (Tarsiers, one fossil from the Oligocene of northern Africa)
• Suborder Anthropoidea (Questionable earliest forms in Eocene of Burma, unquestioned in the Oligocene and onward)
• Infraorder Platyrrhini (New World Monkeys: South America starting in the Oligocene)
• Infraorer Catarrhini (Old World Monkeys and apes: Oligocene of North Africa)
• Superfamily Cercopithecoidea (Old World Monkeys: Starting sometime in the Miocene)
• Superfamily Hominoidea (Ancestral forms: Aegyptopithecus Oligocene Northern Africa; Proconsul ancestor to apes and man Miocene of East Africa)
• Family Hylobatidae (Gibbons possibly some from North Africa Oligocene, otherwise no fossil record)
• Family Pongidae (Apes: A paraphyletic grouping without Hominidae) Ancestor of orangutan (Pongo) represented by Sivapithecus from European and Asian Late Miocene. No fossil record at all for Chimpanzee and Gorilla (too much jungle?).
• Family Hominidae

History of the Hominidae

• Mid Miocene-14 my ago: Possible ancestor to hominids: Kenyapithecus You might guess it is from Kenya.
• 4 my ago Australopithecus afarensis "Lucy" Fully upright, but retaining strong upper body, long arms and smallish brain (500 cc). Front teeth and molars very large.
• 4 to 2 my ago Other thin (Gracile) form A. africanus (possibly in the direct line to humans); Massive forms of Australopithecus include A. boisei and A. robustus. Probably used teeth to break hard seeds-Very large jaws and teeth.
• 2.1 mya first worked stone tools
• 2 mya Homo habilis. Brain slightly larger (700 cc), much smaller teeth (face looked more human), upper limbs still long
• 1.75 mya Homo erectus Larger brain (850-1000 cc), limbs of modern proportions.
• 1 mya Homo erectus spreads from Africa into Europe and Asia.
• 300,000 yrs ago, first Homo sapiens
• 100,000 years first fully modern Homo sapiens, Africa
• 70,000 to 30,000 years ago Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, live simultaneously with ancestors of modern humans, brain slightly larger than modern humans, but also very robust build. Apparently adapted to the cold climates of ice age Europe. Supplanted by more "modern" humans during end of last glaciation. Interestingly, the neanderthals are termed "archaic" because they retain some more primitive looking features.
• 40,000 years ago first cave art, burials.
• 12,000 years ago, first domestic animals
• 8,000 years ago, first agriculture.