Some of the hominin traits that can inform us about modern human biology that we went over in this week’s lectures are, bipedalism, brain size, height, limb distribution, and dental structures. These traits allow us to link our prehistoric past and see the evolutionary traits that we have evolved from over millions of years. It is interesting to see how we evolved from these possibly related hominin traits to our now present-day human.
The first trait that can inform us about modern human biology is bipedalism. Seeing how these hominins evolved from walking on all fours to then a bipedal stance allows us to see the link between us and early hominins. Although these hominins have a diversity between each of them, we can see the slow evolutionary trait. With the diversity we see some Hominins with long arms still indicating that they lived in forestry areas that they use their arms as a means to travel along with the ability to walk on two feet.
Another trait that I found that really allowed us to learn about modern human biology was their height and limb length. We began to see their heights increase over time as a diverse trait. Their height could indicate a more efficient form of traveling on feet as each stride gets longer and longer with longer legs. This trait could show that humans in a present day with longer appendages is an evolutionary efficient tool for us to travel at maximum potential on two legs. Although many of the early hominins were very short as they just began the idea of walking on two feet instead of all fours or from swinging in trees, this evolution allowed for them to live in much different climates and environments being able to walk far distances.
The third trait I found important was the brain structure and brain size. With a larger brain and a larger head structure it can typically indicate a sense of intelligence in the animal. While humans have large brains, hominins had smaller brains. I found it interesting in how brain size could evolve skull bone structure and creating the optimal skull shape that we find today in humans. This evolution in brain can show how developed in thinking that these hominins evolved at. Some of these hominins that developed a larger skull and larger brain saw signs of tool usages such as the Australopithecus Garhi. The ability to use tools shows a higher level of thinking that typical animals could not think of.
These three traits I found important in the learning of evolution of humans. It is interesting in how these fossilized skeletal remains of these early humans allowed us to piece together historic hominins and piece together our evolutionary traits. Such as “Lucy” one of the most completed skeletal remains of an Australopithecus. With those remains we were allowed to recreate with mirroring of the limbs up to 80% of the skeleton and judge almost exactly how they lived millions and millions of years ago.
Hi James!
I really enjoyed your blog post as it pertained to the ability to distinguish specific evolutionary markers on hominins and humans. I found it immensely interesting to learn of all the characteristics which differentiate our modern-day selves from our ancestors. I too wrote about the importance of the switch to bipedalism, and the effects that came from this change as well as the reasoning behind it. It is interesting to note how the switch to bipedalism indicated the increased ability to adjust to varying climates as well as travel for larger distances. Your point about increased height being an evolutionary trait indicating the ability to maximize the potential of bipedal movement was very interesting as it highlights the fact that the smallest details sometimes offer such grand information regarding the larger picture of the history of human evolution.
Hello, I agree with your post as you made some really great point on how the hominin traits allow us to connect with our prehistoric past and how the traits also give us as humans insight on modern biology as well. I think it was great to look as these species and be able to compare them to humans as a whole. Their similar features and traits help give understanding to how these characteristics are able to help with early creation of humans. Looking at the prehistoric history allow us to see how anthropologist like some of us looking to go in to this similar role is able to to come up with findings 1 million year ago. The cycle definitely goes on but the techniques is more technical.
Hi James! I found it really informative how you discussed the importance of height and limb. There are a lot of changes that occurred due to hominins being able to obtain bipedal traits. Being able to walk on two legs not only is a huge calorie burner and requires lot of energy, but also would affect the way the rest of the body grows. This makes sense why the arms of bipedal species are longer and the legs are tougher. With bipedalism, mammals lose traits such as the strong toe. We do not need this trait to obtain resources anymore. I enjoyed that you brought up brain size as well. Brain size is a huge indicator of intelligence and how we as humans can be separated from other species such as chimpanzees. This is interesting considering we are from the name lineage.
Hey James! I really enjoyed your blog post. I think that having a run down of all the traits that separate us from these various species that we are related to was a great start. Diving into bipedalism next was also important as it was the most covered topic in this week’s material. Height and limb length was not a trait I wrote about so hearing your perspective on this topic was incredibly informative. I think it was important to point out how this allowed the hominins to live in much different climates. Your final trait was brain structure and size which I didn’t cover either but you point out the use of tools being an important key to evolution. Overall great job and thank you for spending the time to make you blog post as comprehensive as possible.
I found your post to be very interesting and definitely addresses the key concepts from the lectures and readings. I found the concept of bipedalism to be super interesting especially when discussing evolution and how species have transformed over time to walk upright. I think it’s interesting to learn about the primitive traits and look at the physical aspects of evolution. I agree that it’s important to examine hominin traits to better understand development overtime and history of species and evolution as whole. Understanding physical changes along with changes in the environment helps us to understand what it was like millions of years ago and the reasoning for the evolutionary changes. I found it interesting the changes in brain size, canine teeth, legs and arms, as well as feet/big toe.
Hi James, I like how you brought up bipedalism as the first trait that lead towards human biology. I felt that this was the most important because it signified the change from primates living predominately in trees to making their home on land. This lead to so many more changes such as the change in dental patterns and brain size. The evolution occurred over such a long period and did not happen in distinct steps, rather a gradient. The condition of the skeleton can have such a profound effect on the information we are able to obtain. The fossils that were in great condition have allowed us to recreate so much information. It is sad to know that many fossils were not preserved and that there is so much information out there that is unknown regarding our ancestors.
Hi, James. You have made great summary about the physical changes we have experienced. As you mentioned, it included bipedalism, brain size, height, limb distribution, and dental structure. These physical traits have helped hominids to go through all these environmental challenges and accommodated to the new conditions in their habitats, as well as travel such a long way from Africa to all over the world. Also, I think it is also worth mentioned that besides all these physical traits, human beings have also created great material and abstract cultures in this process. These physical traits could help us to make and use tools, to form large communities, to raise and domesticate animals, and even to involve in artistic creations. I think both the cultural and the physical traits are very great.
I think you did a nice job of summarizing some of the most prominent traits/features. In my own post, I focused on more of a big picture in terms of what the traits can mean for evolution. I like that your approach was nice and to the point. I believe that the two most significant traits we looked at were the the increased brain size and the bipedal transformation/focus. It is nice to see that you also elected to focus on these aspects while simultaneously allowing yourself to mention some of the other factors in a direct manner. I associated the bipedal ability with the fact that they were starting to distance themselves from the trees. With this association I kind of skimmed over the length of arms, legs, etc. So its nice to see that you mentioned these aspects.
Hi James,
I really enjoyed reading your post, you encapsulated the lectures and main points from the readings as well. I agree with you that, the changing of hominins height and limb length over time, to where we have now evolved is very interesting. It is cool to think about how there were numerous ways of travel, and that arms used to be used for swinging from tree to tree to get from point a to point b. I also thought that a very interesting hominin trait is brain size. It is super cool how brain size has evolved over time, which is something that I for one never even knew before this week. Overall, being able to look at fossilized remains is super important for evolutionary purposes and being able to understand how humans have evolved to where we are today, and specifically for what reason.