1. Climate and Human Evolution; the last 4.6 billion years
                                                                  
By Kristin Hepper

2. Time gone by… Earth is 4.5 billion years old
Archaean Era 3800 to 2500 million years ago
Proterozoic Era 2500 to 544 million years ago

3. Stromatolites

4. Ice Ages Huronian Ice Age- 2.3 billion years ago
Gnejso Ice Age- 950 million years ago
Sturtian Ice Age- 750 million years ago
Varangian Ice Age- 600 million years ago

5. Muir Glacier at Glacier Bay, 1971

6. Phanerozoic Eon Archaean Era, Proterozoic Era, Phanerozoic Eon
544 million years ago to the present
Divided into three Eras
Cenozoic 65 million years ago to the present
Mesozoic 248 to 65 million years ago
Paleozoic 544 to 248 million years ago

7. Pangaea- one supercontinent 300-200 million years ago

8. Laurasia and Gondwanaland
Triassic- 200 mya

9. Say Goodbye to Pangaea…
Jurassic

10. Cretaceous

11. But, they are still moving….
The question is…where are they going?

12. Just one hypothesis…

13. Now that we are at the present, let’s jump back 5 million years…
To the Pliocene
5-1.8 million years ago
What is going on?
Antarctic ice sheet melts back significantly
Climate is oscillating
Tethy’s Seaway

14. What about our ancestors?
Earliest known hominoid- Proconsul africanus
16 mya
East Africa
Divergence from the great
ape lineage
5 mya
Timing estimated from
molecular clock

15. Ardipithecus ramidus (Pliocene)
From Aramis in Ethiopia
mya
Primitive dentition
Oldest taphonomically determined example of australopithecines
Maybe the missing link???

16. Ardipithecus ramidus: upper right molar

17. Australopithecus anamensis (Pliocene)
Lake Turkana, Kenya
4 mya
More adaptations to bipedality

18. Australopithecus afarensis (Pliocene)
Known to the world as “Lucy”
Hadar, Ethiopia
Varied from m in height and kg in weight
Ate fruits and nuts and some meat while living in a wooded environment
Brain size cc’s

19. Laetoli Footprints- Tanzania
Preserved in volcanic tuff erupted out of Mt. Sadiman to the east, which is dated back to 3.7 mya.
75 ft long
69 total prints

21. Australopithecus africanus (Pliocene) The Taung Baby
Material comes from all over Africa
Sterkfontein, Makapansgat, and Taung
3-2.4 mya
Has more derived characteristics
Lived in a more open environment and maybe used underground resources such as roots
Brain size- 450 cc’s t

23. Pleistocene- 2 mya-10,000 ya Biotas were similar to modern ones
Characterized by distinctive large animals
Global oscillations of ice sheets
Global oscillations of productivity
Humans…here we come!!!
Glacial maximum

24. Homo habilis (Pleistocene)
First appearance of Homo 2.4 mya
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Brain size cc’s
Specimens show high variability of traits
Stone tools

25. Homo ergaster (Pleistocene)
Lake Turkana, Kenya; Olduvai Gorge, northern Tanzania
1.8 mya
Big brain- 900 cc’s
Very human-like body
Associated with tools

26. Homo ergaster

27. 600,000 to 400,000 years ago Homo heidelbergensis
Around 600,000 ya hominids start
Showing some differences from H. ergaster
Had larger brains cc’s
Out of Africa

28. Remember…
Out of Africa- what was happening in Africa in the Plio-Pleistocene
Habitats were unstable
Grasslands were expanding and contracting
Climate is oscillating

29. Homo neanderthalensis
Neander Valley, Germany
200,000 to 35,000 ya in Europe and W. Asia
Tools
Burial
Had thick brow ridges
Brain Size1300 cc’s
Human
Neanderthal

32. Homo sapiens Anatomically modern Homo Africa: 100,000 to 90,000 ya
50-45,000 ya evidence of culture
Reach Australia between 50,000 and 35,000 ya

33. Homo sapiens 35,000 ya adapted to cold Siberia and Alaska
14,000 ya crossed the land bridge into the Americas
Islands of Pacific were settled around 3,000 ya
New Zealand was the last 1200 A.D.

34. Features of Homo sapiens
Big brains 1500 cc’s
High foreheads
Face is flat and pushed in
Small brow ridge
Long limbs