This document summarizes the evolution of man from early apes to modern humans based on fossil evidence. It describes how early primates evolved around 60 million years ago. Around 35 million years ago, the ancestors of man and apes split into two groups. Fossils from 10 million years ago show characteristics of early man-like apes. Various Australopithecine species evolved between 3-2 million years ago. By 2 million years ago, Homo habilis and Homo erectus appeared, with Homo sapiens emerging around 100,000 years ago. The document examines the taxonomic classifications of hominids and related groups.

1. Evolution of Man

2. • The rise of man: - Fossils of Man’s ancestors are difficult
to find, because only a few fossil exist. But we can trace
Man’s evolution to some extent.
• Early Apes:-
• The primates first evolved in the Palaeocene epoch, about
60 million years ago. Apes, such as Aegyptopithecus and
Propliopithecus, appeared during the Oligocene epoch,
about 35 million years ago.
• Towards the end of the Oligocene epoch, scientists believe
that the ancestors of man and those of the true apes split
into two separate groups.
• Fossil pieces of jaws of an early man – like ape called
Ramapithecus dating from about 10 million years ago,
show several man like characteristics.

4. • Australopithecines:-
• After Ramapithecus, Man’s evolution becomes rather
indistinct, we know that the Australopithecines evolved
during the Pliocene epoch and finally became extinct
during the Pleistocene epoch.
• Australopithecines included Australopithecus robustus, a
large heavy boned type and Australopithecus afrianas also
called Australopithecus grucilis, which is a lighter form.
Some people believe that Man evolved from A. africanus.
• But recent finds in East Africa suggest that early Man have
lived alongside the Australopithecines, even in the early
Pliocene period (chart).

5. • True Hominids:-
• By the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch, true hominids
(man- like creatures) definitely existed. Homo habilis
(“handy man”) is the name given to several fossils that
date from this time. But some people believe that some of
these finds belong to the Australopithecine group and that
the rest are early forms of Homo erectus (upright ape
man).
• Even if Homo habelis did exist, he may have became
extinct. A homo scull, known by its find number, 1470,
found at Olduvai, Tanzania, may have been a more
advanced form of man than Homo habilis.
• Whatever their origins, the Homo erectus group was well
established in the middle Pleistocene epoch. At least two
lines of Homo sapiens evolved from it.

6. • Homo sapiens:-
• Neandertal Man, or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, who
appeared around 100,000 years ago, became extinct at the
end of the Pleistocene epoch. Modern Man, Homo sapiens
sapiens, appeared right at the end of the epoch.
• But it is uncertain which of the earlier fossils of Homo
sapiens are on the direct line of evolution from Homo
erectus to modern man. Steinhein Man and Swanscombe
man could be ancestors of both modern man and the
Neanderthals.
• Some fossils, such as those from Broken hill (now
Kabwe), Zambia and from the Tabun cave at mt. Carmel
Israel, show Neanderthal like features so they are probably
not the ancestors of modern man.

7. • A hominid is any member of the biological family
Hominidae. (the "great apes"), including the extinct and
extant humans, chimpanzees, gorillas , and Orangutans
• . This classification has been revised
• several times in the last few decades. These various
revisions have led to a varied use of the word "hominid":
• The original meaning of Hominidae referred only to the
modern meaning of Hominina, including only humans and
their closest relatives.
• The meaning of the taxon changed gradually, leading to
the modern meaning of "hominid" in which it includes all
great apes. The Primatological term is easily confused with
a number of very similar words:

8. • A hominoid is a member of the superfamily Hominoidea: extant
members are the lesser apes (gibbons) and great apes.
• A hominid is a member of the family Hominidae: all of the
great apes.
• A hominine is a member of the subfamily Homininae: gorillas,
chimpanzees, humans (excludes Orangutans).
• A hominin is a member of the tribe Hominini: chimpanzees and
humans.
• A Hominan is a member of the sub-tribe Hominina: modern
humans and their extinct relatives.
• A human is a member of Homo sapiens sapiens or Homo
sapiens idaltu and might also be used to refer to any extinct
member of the genus Homo or members from other hominan
genera. In more hypothetical and fictional contexts it might also
refer to a being out of an other evolutionary lineage who looks
very similar to a member of Homo sapiens sapiens.
• A Humanoid is a vaguely human-shaped entity.

9. • Certain morphologicalcharacteristics are still used
conventionally to support the idea that hominid should only
denote humans and human ancestors, namely bipedalism and
large brains.
• These points of departure between human beings and the other
great apes are important, but according to geneticically based
taxonomic classification, is not enough to divide us into separate
families.
• Genetics, rather than morphology, as the standard is now
generally accepted as the critical test of relatedness and in this
respect humans and the other great apes ought to be of the same
family.
• The terms hominid and "great ape" are now effectively
coterminous. Anthropologists use the term to mean humans and
their direct and near-direct bipedal ancestors.
• Whether the critical standard should be strictly genetic or
morphologic, or a combination of the two is yet to be
determined.

10. • Hominini is the tribe of Homininae that only includes
humans (Homo), chimpanzees (Pan), and their extinct
ancestors. Members of the tribe are called hominins (cf.
Hominidae, "hominids").
• Through DNA comparison, scientists believe the
Pan/Homo divergence was completed between 5.4 to 6.3
million years ago,
• After an unusual process of speciation that ranged over
four million years. It is interesting to note that no fossil
species on the Pan side of the split have been determined;
all of the extinct genera listed to the right are ancestral to
Homo, or are offshoots of such.
• However, both Orrorin and Sahelanthropus existed around
the time of the split, and so may be ancestral to both
humans and chimpanzees.

11. • In the proposal of Mann and Weiss (1996), the tribe Hominini
includes Pan as well as Homo as separate subtribes. Homo (and,
by inference, all bipedal apes) is by itself only in the subtribe
Hominina, while Pan is in the Panina subtribe.
• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Primates
• Superfamily: Hominoidea
• Family: Hominidae
• Subfamily: Homininae
• Tribe: Hominini

21. • WHY STUDY BONES
• Archaeologists study people in the past, so study of the
physical remains of actual people is fundamental.
• The study of human remains adds another dimension to the
past which study of the material culture cannot usually
provide, namely the health and physique of a population.
• The basic requirements of the archaeologist dictate the
major aspects of work carried out by the archaeological
human bone specialist: age and sex structure of a
population; physical size and appearance; general stresses
and strains of daily life; and diseases in the past.

22. • The techniques of analysing bones
• Introduction
• The following is an introduction to the work of the
archaeological human bone specialist, osteoarchaeologist,
or physical/biological anthropologist. The general
techniques are used widely by both archaeological and
forensic specialists in human remains. Further and more
detailed information is available in the books referenced at
the end of this page.
• Age
• The most basic distinction is between child and adult.
Although clearly children are generally smaller than
adults, this is not a reliable method of distinction beyond
the age of c.12 years.

23. The ends of the long bones and
parts of some other bones are
detached in children's skeletons.
This allows the bones to grow.
These detached parts are known as
epiphyses, and they all fuse at
different ages, from c.15 years
onwards.

24. • The stage of fusion of the bones can therefore be used to age an
adolescent. Before this, the most reliable method is to study the
developmental stage of the teeth.
• As a rough guide, the first permanent molar erupts at the age of six
years, the second at twelve years, and the third at c.18-21 years - you
need to know the difference between milk molars and permanent
molars first though! If the teeth are not present then the long bone
lengths are also a good indicator of age in younger children.
• Ageing skeletons becomes more difficult as the individual gets older.
Once all the bones have fused there is really no reliable simple method
to use.
• Tooth wear gives some indication, but only if members of the group
being studied were eating a fairly coarse diet. Other methods of
ageing, such as changes to the face of the pubic symphysis (the joint at
the front of the pelvis) or cranial suture closure, have largely been
discredited in recent years.
• The best we can do is to place skeletons into simple age categories -
young, middle-aged or old.

25. • Sex
• It is not generally possible to sex the skeleton of a child, unless it has passed
puberty and is starting to show some of the characteristics appropriate to its
sex.
• Adults are more easy to deal with, as long as you remember that humans are
continuously variable and there is not always an easy distinction to be made
between a small man and a large woman.
• The best indicators of sex in the skeleton are to be found in the pelvis. This
is because one of the major biological differences between men and women,
that of having babies, largely determines the shape of that part of the body.
• A woman's pelvis is wide and bowl-shaped whilst a man's is tall and narrow.
As the pelvis is made up of three bones (two innominates and the sacrum),
this can be seen in the width of the sacrum, the sciatic notch and the sub-
pubic angle, and sex can usually be determined even if part of the pelvis is
destroyed.

26. The next best indicator of sex is the skull. The face shows subtle
differences in the shape of the eye sockets (orbits), the angle of
the forehead is more vertical in women, the brow ridges and
mastoid processes are smaller, and the muscle markings are less
robust.
In fact this is the main criterion for determining sex if only the
long bones and a few fragments of skull remain - as a general
rule men tend to be more physically robust than women.

36. • Now compare these measurements with the chart
that follows. (Remember to take your
measurements in millimeters.)
Measureme
nts
Female
Probably
Female
Indefinite
sex
Probably
male
Male
Diameter of
head of
femur
<41.5 41.5 to 43.5 43.5 to 44.5 44.5 to 45.5 >45.5
Trochanteric
oblique
length
<390 390 to 405 405 to 430 430 to 450 >450