Prehistoric Cultures Selected Major Discoveries Events ca

Prehistoric Cultures Selected Major Discoveries / Events ca. 1850 – Present Web Version

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1856 Neanderthals • • Neander Valley, Germany Homo sapiens neanderthalensis a separate species ? 300, 000 / 100, 000 - 32, 000 b. p.

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1856 Neanderthals • significance: 1. first widely known non-modern human or part-non-modern human fossil “discovered” 2. only major fossil upon the publication of The Origin of Species

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1868 Cro - Magnon • village of Cro-Magnon, France (near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne region) • Homo sapiens ("moderns") • 34, 000 b. p.

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1891 Homo erectus • • aka Pithecanthropus erectus aka "Java Man" Trinil, Java 1. 8 - 0. 8 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1912 “Piltdown Man“ • Piltdown, England • discredited in early 1950's by chemical tests which showed jaw and skull completely unrelated

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1920 s "Peking Man" • Choukoutien, China (now Zhoukoudian) • Homo erectus • 0. 5 - 0. 2 mya

Major Sites Zhoukoudian = Choukoutien ( Chou-kou-tien )

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1924 “Taung Child” • Taung, South Africa • Australopithecus africanus • 3. 0 - 2. 0 mya • Raymond Dart

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1934 /1969 Ramapithecus • aka Kenyapithecus • aka Sivapithecus • Siwalik Hills, India • 13 - 8 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, Ca. 1850 - Present 1936 Australopithecus africanus • Sterkfontein, South Africa (in the “Transvaal” Region) • 3 - 2 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1938 Australopithecus robustus • aka Paranthropus robustus • Kromdraai, South Africa (Transvaal) • 3 - 2 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1950 s to present Many finds of Mary and Louis Leakey and Richard and Meave Leakey

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present e. g. , 1959 “Zinj” • • Zinjanthropus aka Australopithecus boisei Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania 1. 79 +/- 0. 03 mya (+/- 200, 000 years)

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present e. g. , 1961 Homo habilis • • Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania 700 cc brain tool manufacture 1. 85 - 1. 6 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present e. g. , 1972 Homo habilis • Lake Turkana, East Africa • “ 1470” (and “ 1590”) • 2. 0 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present e. g. , 1972 "1470" (and "1590") • Lake Turkana, East Africa • Homo habilis • 2 mya

Major Sites KNM – ER - 1470

Fossil Naming Conventions

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1975 - 1976 "Lucy" and "The First Family" • Hadar, Ethiopia (locality 333 on the Awash River in the Afar Triangle) • Australopithecus afarensis • 4 - 3 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1976 Footprints • Laetoli, Tanzania • 3. 7 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1985 "The Black Skull" • Australopithecus aethiopicus (KNM – WT - 17000) • Lake Turkana, East Africa • 2. 5 mya

Major Sites KNM – WT - 17000

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1987 "Mitochondrial Eve” • Rebecca Cann • Berkeley, CA • 200, 000 - 150, 000 b. p.

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1988 “Qafzeh Boy” • Qafzeh Cave, Israel • Homo sapiens (Prehistoric “Early Modern") • 92, 000+ b. p.

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1991 "Ötzi: The Iceman" • Italian / Austrian border • Homo sapiens (Contemporary "Modern”) • 5, 300 b. p.

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1994 Australopithecus ramidus (aka Ardipithecus ramidus) • Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley • 4. 4 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1995 Chauvet Cave • Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France • 20, 000 b. p. • June 1999: 25, 000 - 27, 000 b. p. footprints • Cave Paintings

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 20 th Century Cave Paintings • Best Known: France / Spain • Upper Paleolithic – 10, 000 - 35, 000 b. p. (at least)

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1995 “Dragon Bone'' Cave • Longguppo, China ("Dragon Bone” Cave = Zhoukoudian) • Homo erectus (with similarities to Homo habilis = Pre-erectus ? ) • 1. 78 - 1. 96 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1996 Pope Vindicates Darwin Pope John Paul II

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1997 Stone Tools • Gona, Ethiopia (Hadar Region) • 2. 5 -2. 6 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1998 "Little Foot" • Sterkfontein, South Africa • world's first-ever find of an entire "ape-man" skull - and its skeleton • 3. 5 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1999 “ape man” • Awash Valley, Ethiopia • Homo habilis or Australopithecus ? • 5 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1999 “tool factory” (2000+ pieces) • "Hand Axe Hill, " Kenya • Homo habilis or Australopithecus ? • 2. 34 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1999 Equatorius africanus • Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley • earliest ape to descent from trees ? • a new genus of hominoids ? • ca. 15 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 1999 "Madeleine" • Sambungmacan, Central Java • shows features of both Homo sapiens and Homo erectus, and "probably had a capacity for language close to that of modern humans” • 1 mya ? or 100, 000 - 200, 000 bp ?

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 2000 "Eurydice" • Drimolen, South Africa • Australopithecus robustus • "the most complete ape-man skull ever excavated" • the "best opportunity to compare the differences between [P. robustus] males and females” • 1. 5 - 2 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 04 December 2000 "Millennium Man" [sic. ] • Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley • TBA (? tugenensis) • “Not only is this find older than any else previously known, it is also in a more advanced stage of evolution” • “at least 6 million years old”

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 22 March 2001 Kenyathropus platyops “Flat-faced Man of Kenya” • KNM-WT 40000 • Lomekwi, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya • “. . . most likely a completely new genus and species of early human ancestor” • “The find suggests. . . at least two species of hominin, predecessors of modern humans” • 3. 5 – 3. 2 mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present 11 July 2001 Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba • Middle Awash River Valley of Ethiopia • "A team of scientists. . . has discovered the fossilized remains of what they believe is humanity's earliest known ancestor, a creature that walked the wooded highlands of East Africa nearly 6 million years ago. ” • 5. 8 mya (5. 2+)

Continue on to Set # 10 A Special Skills Used to Study Early Humans In the Field