9/14/22

Lecture Note for class three

Test #1 is due two weeks from today, September 28

Bipedalism- Hominins

Hypotheses on how bipedalism was selected for in the Darwinian sense over quadrupedal-knuckle walking .

Speculative hypotheses on the origin of bipedalism are from the text and other texts,

1) that standing erect and taller allowed seeing over the tall grass , and thereby getting early warning of approaching predators.

2) Freed two forelimbs as hands allowed carrying babies to safety more efficiently.

I have some sports hypotheses:

1) Baseball a) a pitcher or any thrower in baseball has more leverage on the ball standing tall than standing short; this would allow more speed in using rocks as thrown weapons more ;b) it would allow welding clubs as “bats” more powerfully.

2) Football carrying allows carrying babies to safety more efficiently than if on all fours, without forearms free.

3) Basketball: “shoot “ a baby up to a nest and safety.

Referring to the Origin of the Stone Age on the Natural History Timeline . The Stone Age consisting of the Old and New Stone Ages , with the Old Stone Age beginning about 2.5 million years ago with the fossil Homo Habilis found associated with very uniquely and stereotypically shaped stones. This is the beginning of humanity ! Hurrah ! Hurrah !

Why do I call this Our beginning ? Because the unique shapes of the stones are due to their being MADE BY DESIGN, ACCORDING TO A PATTERN. This means that they are made be primates-hominins with imaginative thinking; they are made according to an abstract plan all in the same style. Imaginative thinking is a form of SYMBOLIC thinking. And it means these are artifacts made by hominins with Symbolic communication, language and culture. Having these unique abilities defines them as human , as I said in previous classes.

The Missing Link species discussed last class, the middle link in Darwin’s hypothesized chain or line of descent leading to humans , Ardipethicus and Australopithicus , etc., are before the Stone Age . They are not human. At least , they are not associated any symbolically designed artifacts.

For this reason it was somewhat misleading to name the famous australopithecine fossil , Lucy, because it’s a human name , and that fossil was in the Missing Link species that are immediately ancestral to the first humans, Homo Habilis, with bigger brains than australopithecines ,with culturally made , designed stone tools.

HUMAN NATURE CHART

This is one of my favorite handouts; because among the academic intelligentia there is a large crowd who want to claim humans have no _natures_ ! That with culture , language, tradition ,customs, “soul”, we humans have transcended nature; that we are super-natural beings. Anthropology, especially physical or biological or Darwinian anthropology refutes this.

The chart is the human slice of the Tree of Life/Phylogenetic Natural History. On the right is a summary of many human natural characteristics or Human Nature. I had to add that humans are sexually reproducing and that primate’s , unlike most mammals, have eye-sight as our primary sense, not smell or hearing. Page 56 of the text explains primate Binocular and stereoscopic vision.

Read HUMAN NATURE chart page 96 of the text has a colorful timeline portrayal of the natural history and evolution of HOMININS or habitually bipedal primates. The anatomy of bipedalism is discussed beginning on page 83 of the text. There is explained how paleoanthropologists, like Raymond Dart can determine that a fossil was habitually bipedal from only some bones dug up.

The page with what I call the Human Nature Chart, also has several definitions , including the definition of SPECIES, critical and unique phylogenetic ( and taxonomic) Category. Two animals of the opposite sex are members of the same species if they can mate and produce viable and _fertile_ offspring. This definition gets at the essence of a species which is necessarily MULTIGENERATIONAL . Who ever heard of a one generation species ? If there is no reproduction of a new generation that can produce new generations , that produce new generations…perpetuate, the species is extinct or not a species anymore.

I demonstrate the idea of same species, by the example of the mule. A mule is the product of the union of a horse and a donkey. But a mule is not _fertile_. It is viable , lives a life, can pull wagons for humans, but it cannot reproduce. Therefore, a horse and a donkey are not the same species.