Learning about different hominin traits this week, a few interesting ones stuck out to me. The derived features of the A. garhi was one that first caught my attention because of its similarity to the genus Homo. It is said that they have many things similar to this genus including the large front teeth, similar shape of premolars and arm to leg length ratios being very similar. The larger and stronger premolars and molars of this genus may be able to suggest the way in which primates/apes and humans may be able to eat many different kinds of food. This specific hominin also did not have a head that was as robust as other and resembled more of the genus Homo. Characteristics of a genus like this one with larger teeth than the modern human may indicate the ability to have variation in different species over millions of years. Modern humans are able to have many different kinds of variation within the species itself, and knowing that can let us know that there may be variation within a genus, and the fossils found do not always have to suggest certain evolutionary theories and points.

Other features I noticed were of the Australopithecus afarensis. This species had features like long arms and long, curved fingers, a small brain and sexual dimporphism of the body and teeth. Beside the smaller brain, these features can help with suggesting many things about the evolution of modern humans. The appearance of sexual dimorphism especially in the body is something that is crucial to identifying humans in the modern day. From illustrations that I have seen of this species and its bipedalism, it reminds myself of that timeline illustration many people know and refer to when looking at the evolution from primates to humans. It is as if this species, from the outside, looks very similar to the modern human.

The last feature I noticed often in these hominins was the small brain that many of the species had. While modern humans may not have particularly small brains, the hominins with small brains, particularly Ardipithecus, have brains that are comparable to apes (along with other features that they have). This idea of being able to link it to a species that has been overwhelmingly compared and confirmed to share a lot of DNA with modern humans.

As scientists look at different fossils, it may be hard to draw specific conclusions, but is helpful to have general concepts that can help all scientists that study fossils to reach a consensus. Things like Mosaic evolution and Relative Dating help them know that certain traits may exist in some species and not in others, while also being able to date the species based on where the fossils are found can help them draw connections between different features where there may be inexplicable. Having the ability to also have chronometric dating narrows down more of the different ideas and traits existing at one point of time for a certain reason or how and why it may have evolved or changed into the kind of feature(s) they are now.