Early Species of Genus Homo

Chapter 14 of our text page 323 ; 10 questions repeated below

Test 2 questions; DUE IN 2 WEEKS , APRIL 23

1)What defines the genus homo ? (You have to ask yourself “what is a genus ?” )how does genus Homo differ from genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus ( genera from chapter 13) ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genus

Genus /ˈdʒiːnəs/ (plural genera /ˈdʒɛnərə/) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classificationof living and fossil organisms as well as viruses.[1] In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus.

The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major taxonomic ranks. A family contains one or more genera. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.Going up in the diagram are increasingly inclusive , phylogenetic categories : family tree logic.

E.g. Panthera leo (lion) and Panthera onca (jaguar) are two species within the genus Panthera. Panthera is a genus within the family Felidae.

all lions are in the genus panthera , but not all panthera's are lions; some pantheras are jaguars and other species. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomists/phylogenicists , and now geneticists . The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however,[2][3]including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful:

monophyly – all descendants of an ancestraltaxon are grouped together (i.e. phylogenetic analysis should clearly demonstrate both monophyly and validity as a separate lineage).

reasonable compactness – a genus should not be expanded needlessly. distinctness – with respect to evolutionarily relevant criteria, i.e. ecology, morphology, or biogeography; DNA sequences are a consequence rather than a condition of diverging evolutionary lineages except in cases where they directly inhibit gene flow (e.g. postzygotic barriers). Moreover, genera should be composed of phylogenetic units of the same kind as other (analogous) genera.[4]

(WHAT ARE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE AS DEFINED BY PROFESSOR BROWN ? )

2) what are the earliest named species of genus homo at the beginning of the Paleolithic ? What characterizes these species and where are they found?

3) what is the distribution of the fossils that are placed in the species Homo Heidelbergensis ? In what ways do they differ from homo erectus at homo ergaster?

4)what areas of the world do we find remains of homo Neanderthalis ? What are some of the physical characteristics of Neanderthals that differentiate them from other hominin Species?

5) what does the term Paleolithic refer to? What are the divisions of the Paleolithic? What do we know about early stone tools and how they were used?

(Paleolithic is the Old Stone Age named for the stone tool artifacts MADE BY DESIGN and therefore made by hominins with language or symbolic thinking. )

6) when did humans first use fire? What functions may fire have served for early Hominins?

Use fire means control fire to help themselves in the struggle to exist , to make a living in the Darwinian adaptation sense .

7) how did early members of the genus homo get food?

8) What changes in brain structure and function involved in DNA in the genus homo that differentiated it from earlier hominins?

9) what features describe the culture of the Neanderthals?

10 ) what are some ways in which the hominins described in this chapter might have been related to each other?

This chapter is on human species. Chapter 13 was on pre-human species . The essential and necessary characteristic differentiating we humans from all other species is that we have language and culture in the anthropological sense . That’s why we have bigger brains for our body size; so that we may communicate in language or _symbolic_ signs .