This week’s material focused on the introduction to the concept of paleoanthropology, or the study of fossil remains to investigate human evolution. Fossils are very informative as they can estimate life span, environment, and evolutionary landmarks of individuals and populations. Specific methods for this research were covered, as well as disturbances in evolutionary patterns that make it difficult to properly estimate characteristics of that fossil.

When first starting to track human evolution, it is important to refer to the hominins, or bipedal apes, which date back millions of years and eventually lead to the modern human. The most obvious and distinct trait of the hominins are their bipedal locomotion and upright posture, explained by the location of the foramen magnum. The foreman magnum is a hole in the skull that is the site of the attachment of the spinal cord. Early hominin fossils have this hole directly beneath the skull indicating bipedal feature, as modern humans do as well. Another trait is the tooth size of the canine used to tear food when biting, such as meat. Lastly, hominins exhibit a big toe that is larger than the others that allows to grasp objects. This gave rise to human hands, and opposable thumbs that have the same anatomical function.

Diversity is present in all species across all time points. The diversity in hominins lead to the development of humans, development of new species, as well as the extinction of species that had traits not suitable for their environment. The traits that exist today in humans have survived this long because it serves a function for daily living and procreation. Conversely, some traits that didn’t survive in humans may have in other species that shared the same descendent, based on need from the environment and evolutionary decencies. The study of evolution using paleontology allows us to build a timeline of human nature. We are able to chronologically order species and even predict patterns of evolution in the future. This is important for other outside fields such as immunology and clinical trials because it also predicts the response to environment. Diversity is inevitable, so behavior is different across species, but this line of work has made miles of scientific advancement that serves other disciplines. I think this is the point of how anthropologists can “learn from the past”. By understanding our history, motives of behavior, and patterns of evolution, one can assume to not repeat history and move forward in terms of diversity and modes of change. This compiled research obviously takes a lot of time (millions of years actually) and works to better the understanding of our human race. Apart from human race, studying fossilized material can explore the environment of past years and pain the picture of lifestyle for extinct animals. This investigation can then lead way into ways of extinction prevention, and how to build a more sustainable earth for everyone. I didn’t realize how far the scope of anthropology truly reaches, but this week’s material really proves the importance of our ancestors shown through anthropology.