As the weeks go on, everything begins to connect more and more. When discussing hominin traits, and what they allow us to know it relates back to evolution overtime along with primatology. When looking at specific hominin traits and what exactly they may tell us about human evolution, it is important to note that these traits also allow us to see just how much we have evolved over time, and that is what makes learning about these traits so cool. When taking a look back at early fossils we are able to see traits that can inform us about why our human biology is the way it is, and also how we have adapted to our environment over time. Hominin traits are a representation of a time in history when humans started to lose the defining characteristics of ape features they had and acquired traits we see on humans today.
One of the first hominin traits that is discussed is, bipedalism. Bipedalism started to emerge around 3 to 4 million years before enlarged brains did. A bipedal is basically just an animal that uses two legs for walking, versus a quadrupedal that would use four feet for walking and running, such as a dog, cat, or even lion. Since our ancestors were hunters and gathers, they did a lot of walking to find food.
As seen in the lecture videos, apes teeth are significantly bigger than humans are. This is because they use them for fighting, more so than for the purpose of breaking down food as we do. So naturally, apes have more prominent canines than humans do for purposes of fighting, and getting around (swinging from branches by using teeth). Over time, the canine teeth turned into modern human teeth, and are now molars. This is also an example of evolution and how hominin traits are able to inform us of our own biology along with the evolution that has occurred over time.
In conclusion, fossilized skeletal remains of early humans allow us to get a snapshot in time of what things may have been like during that time. It also allows us to get a better idea of how people may have operated, and got around. It also lets us see just how much we have evolved since then. We can also get a look at the route that evolution took, and the route that it did not take, it allows for an idea of history to be re-created in our minds, and understand our biology better along with ourselves. Not only this, but we are able to extrapolate what was found, determine what time period it was from and we can fill in the missing pieces from there. Overall, fossilized are an extremely important part of the study of evolution and understanding where we come from, and how we have evolved to our current state.
Hi Jenna,
I liked when you said, “hominin traits are a representation of a time in history when hominins started to lose the defining characteristics of ape features they had and acquired traits we see on humans today.” I think that was a great way to explain this week’s content. It showed the periodic evolution of traits such as bipedalism, larger to smaller teeth, and smaller to larger brain size.
I agree that fossilized skeletal remains allow us to get a picture of just how much we have evolved over the years. Also, I like that you mentioned that these remains of our ancestors allowed us to see the route evolution took to get us where we are today.
Hi Jenna
I agree that by learning about these traits it truly shows how much we have evolved. It is so interesting to see how our ancestors or former species used to look like and behave like. Plus, like what you stated, how our environments have changed over time, For example, how some hominins had large canine teeth to cut through meat, but mainly to fight. Then, other hominins had large premolars and large molars into order to crush and grind hard seeds and nuts. Yet, overtime our canine and molars haven’t gotten smaller, because we no longer need to do the activities hominins had to perform. Relating to when you said by having fossilized skeletal remains of early humans allows us to have a better idea of how things were at this time, Lucy particularly helped with this. I thought the fossil of Lucy was extremely interesting since she was part primate and part human.