Raymond Dart and His Killer Ape Men Famous Anatomist Studied in South Africa and Found Taung Child Taung Skull Not Accepted as Human Relative Fossilized Bones from South Africa Lessons to be Learned From Dart Dart was an Australian anatomist famous for 2 ideas o Au Africanus was a hominin a human relative o Au Africanus was a vicious weapon wielding predator correct incorrect Studied in South Africa system o Plio Pleistocene hominid sites and the African Rift Valley o South African caves are actually old sinkholes o An unusual primate skull discovered at Taung limeworks 1924 The Taung Child Two derived features Human like teeth Foramen magnum at base of skull Dart toured Europe with Taung skull but nobody accepted it But it was ape like in other features brain size was a human relative Why not teeth and other traits Piltdown hoax o Juvenile specimen o Widely believed that large brain evolved first and then the Parts of cranium jaw and some teeth discovered in England in 1912 argued to be of a single individual Made of many different animals 1913 1923 a few scholars identified it as a hoax wasn t until 1953 that it was widely believed to be a o So he looked for additional evidence of human like behavior fake seeded at the site fire hunting and violence tool use even though among great apes these were unknown at the time Other fossilized bones from South African cave deposits there were bones from many different animal species o some patterns emerged some body parts vertebrae ribs were too rare others heads limbs were too frequent bones were often broken in regular predictable ways o no stone tools in South African cave sites big problem o Dart argued that broken bones were tools fabricated his own culture Osteodontokeratic bone tooth horn the notion of early humans as killer apes fit with recent experience WWI WWII Cold War popularized by writer Robert Ardrey African Genesis The Territorial Imperative o 1981 The Hunters or the Hunted An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy by C K Brain Brain found that wild dogs hyenas and leopards separate bones of carcasses the same way as what Dart saw found fell into sink holes Leopards were the main culprit of all the bones Dart When limbs fell out of trees where leopards eat they Hominins were the hunted not the hunters o Scientist cannot help but be influenced to some degree by the o An idea may receive widespread acceptance more because it Lessons to be learned society around them is easy to accept than because it is the best explanation content bias o Science is self correcting and is not static o As new data accumulates and new ideas are proposed old explanations are constantly challenged and re evaluated Early Homo Oldowan Toolmakers Early Homo Earliest Archaeological Evidence The Oldowan and Mode 1 Tools First Archaeological Sites Oldowan Scatters Provide Early Evidence Who made them Early Homo o H habilis H rudolfensis o Compared with the Australopiths H habilis has found in E Africa and possibly South Africa reduced canine size reduced sexual dimorphism 2 8 1 5 mya enlarged cranial capacity 500 750cc Slightly larger braincase 20 larger More rounded higher cranial vault forehead Flatter less prognathic face Smaller molars BUT a similar post cranial skeleton o Stone tools and 2 different hominin species were found at Olduvai Gorge brain H habilis one with a smaller brain P boisei and one with a larger shows that these were existing in the same time possibly existing together o Leakey et al assumed that the larger brained one was responsible for the stone tools hence the name habilis able or handy man o Evidence for an Advanced Plio Pleistocene Hominid from East Rudolf Kenya H rudolfensis 1 9 mya Koobi Fora Kenya o Will the real H habilis please stand up 775cc braincase KNM ER 1470 1 9 mya Koobi Fora Kenya 510cc braincase KNM ER 1813 Larger group of H habilis only one H rudolfensis 1 8 1 5 mya extending the timeline of genus Homo o H habilis from South Africa Stw 53 o an exciting new find pushes our genus back to 2 8 mya Dikika Ethiopia around 3 4 mya Earliest archaeological evidence Oldowan tools and sites o The oldest possible potential evidence of tool use comes from o The oldest stone tools Gona Ethiopia 2 6mya o The Oldowan refers to the stone tools made by hominins o Note that these may not actually be the earliest tools used by The Oldowan Mode 1 beginning 2 6 mya hominins as many organic materials would not preserve as well as stone o Oldowan tools include simple forms such as choppers flake tools cores and spheroids Tools are relatively easy to make 5 10 min Hominins display decent understanding of stone fracture stated with little evidence of imposed design Form of tool determined by the shape of the stone they Oldowan choppers cores Flake tools sharp edged chips of stone struck from choppers or cores anvil stones o Minimal tool transport during the Oldowan Plio Pleistocene hominids sometimes carried raw material or tools up to 5 km 2 3 miles this may indicate some planning ahead o Function So we ve found tools what were they used for Unlikely weapons Good for breaking open bones cutting into Perhaps simple woodworking tasks Possible cut marks on bovid bones 3 4 mya carcasses of animals The first archeological sites in East Africa Oduvai Gorge Koobi Fora Gona o A scatter of Oldowan artifacts and bones o Remains of a shelter Or tree falling ring o First archaeological localities show association between stone artifacts and broken up animal bones How did hominins get the animals Did they hunt or scavenge Re evaluation led to the conclusion that they Initially people thought that they were hunters scavenged large animals and killed smaller ones Were these butchering sites or camps What went on at these sites Researchers used to think of them as home Males hunted females gathered male Oldowan hominins shared food slept ate and bases provisioning worked in the same place Still these Oldowan scatters provide early evidence of o Stone tool use o Carnivory o Carrying stone and possibly food from other places o Stone tool use indicates that hominins were entering new ecological niches setting the stage for many later developments So we ve found stone tools who made them o A Gahri o P boisei o H habilis o A Afarensis Homo ergaster Homo erectus and the Acheulean Early Pleistocene Homo ergaster Homo erectus New Tool Technology the Acheulean Acheulean Development In the early Pleistocene a new kind of hominin and new technology appear