PDF-(READ)-The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution

One of the most remarkable fossil finds in history occurred in Laetoli Tanzania in 1974 when anthropologist Andrew Hill diving to the ground to avoid a lump of elephant dung thrown by a colleague came face to face with a set of ancient footprints captured in stonethe earliest recorded steps of our faroff human ancestors some three million years old Today we can see a recreation of the making of the Laetoli footprints at the American Museum of Natural History in a stunning diorama which depicts two of our human forebears walking side by side through a snowy landscape of volcanic ash But how do we know what these threemillionyearold relatives looked like How have we reconstructed the eonslong journey from our first ancient steps to where we stand today In short how do we know what we think we know about human evolution In The Fossil Trail Ian Tattersall the head of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History takes us on a sweeping tour of the study of human evolution offering a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insiders look at how these finds have been interpretedand misinterpretedthrough time All the major figures and discoveries are here We meet Lamarck and Cuvier and Darwin we learn that Darwins theory of evolution though a bombshell was very congenial to a Victorian ethos of progress right up to modern theorists such as Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould Tattersall describes Duboiss work in Java the many discoveries in South Africa by pioneers such as Raymond Dart and Robert Broom Louis and Mary Leakeys work at Olduvai Gorge Don Johansons famous discovery of Lucy a 34 millionyearold female hominid some 40 complete and the more recent discovery of the Turkana Boy even more complete than Lucy and remarkably similar to modern human skeletons He discusses the many techniques available to analyze finds from fluorine analysis developed in the 1950s it exposed Piltdown as a hoax and radiocarbon dating to such modern techniques as electron spin resonance and the analysis of human mitochondrial DNA He gives us a succinct picture of what we presently think our family tree looks like with at least three genera and perhaps a dozen species through time though he warns that this greatly underestimates the actual diversity of hominids over the past two million or so years And he paints a vivid insiders portrait of paleoanthropology the dogged work in the broiling sun searching for a tooth or a fractured corner of bone amid stone litter and shadows with no guarantee of ever finding anything And perhaps most important Tattersall looks at all these great researchers and discoveries within the context of their social and scientific milleu to reveal the insidious ways that the received wisdom can shape how we interpret fossil findings that what we expect to find colors our understanding of what we do find Refreshingly opinionated and vividly narrated The Fossil Trail is the only book available to general readers that offers a full history of our study of human evolution A fascinating story with intriguing turns along the way this wellillustrated volume is essential reading for anyone curious about our human origins. Assessment Statements. Outline. . the method for dating rocks and fossils using radioisotopes, with references to . 14. C and . 40. K.. Define half-life. Deduce the approximate age of materials based on a simple decay curve for a radioisotope.. THEORY OF EVOLUTION. The theory of evolution is scientists explanation of how living things began. .. Also called organic evolution . LIVING ORGANISMS HAVE CHANGED GRADUALLY OVER TIME TO FORM NEW ORGANISMS THAT ARE MORE COMPLEX.. Will Cranford. Complex Structure. Other Auditory Systems. Inner Ear Bones. Incus (Anvil). Malleus (Hammer). Stapes (Stirrup). Traceable through fossil . record. Inner Ear Bones. ...the discovery that the mammalian malleus and incus were actually homologues of visceral elements of the "reptilian" jaw articulation ... ranks as one of the milestones in the history of comparative . Variation. Evolution. What is Evolution?. Evolution is the idea that many small-scale variations can produce large-scale directional variations which give . rise to offspring . which are of . a different kind than their ancestors. Data Driven Process Supported by Evidence. TEKS. (7) . The student knows evolutionary theory is a scientific explanation for the unity and diversity of life. . The student is expected to. :. (. A)  . Irreducible complexity of cells. Creationists argue that there is no catalyst or driving force to cause evolution, that the law of entropy means things become more disordered on their own. Biochemist Michael Behe popularized the concept of . Early Life on Earth. 3.8. billion yrs ago, all organisms lived in the . ocean. Fossils provide evidence of . life . Many . different. types . Age. = relative age (layers) and . absolute. age (radioactive dating).. Webquest. Evidence. 2. Where is . Hadar. and why is it significant. ? . Ethiopia, Africa; place of pilgrimage for those who wish to study where humans came from. 3. What is a hominid. ? . A creature that walks upright. Causes of Evolution: . Natural Selection . Migration. Mutation. What is Natural Selection? . Survival of the ‘fittest’. Occurs through INHERITED adaptations. What is migration?. Movement of animals from one area to another. . Suzanne Phillips. Loma Linda University. The . B. ible. tells us that God created everything including humans. . Modern Science . (naturalism, humanism, etc.,) . is interpreted . to tell us we arrived on earth by evolution.. Suzanne Phillips. Loma Linda University. The . B. ible. tells us that God created everything including humans. . Modern Science . (naturalism, humanism, etc.,) . is interpreted . to tell us we arrived on earth by evolution.. Chapter Introduction. What do you think?. Before you begin, decide if you agree or disagree with each of these statements. . As you view this presentation, see if you change your mind about any of the statements.. INTRODUCTION. Evolution is a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.. Biological evolution is defined as organisms reproducing but experiencing changes with each generation. Evolution can happen in a small and large context. There are small genetic changes between generations, as well as large changes that happen over multiple generations.. Two discoveries of early human relatives, one in 1924 and one in 2003, radically changed scientific thinking about our origins. Dean Falk, a pioneer in the field of human brain evolution, offers this fast-paced insider\'s account of these discoveries, the behind-the-scenes politics embroiling the scientists who found and analyzed them, and the academic and religious controversies they generated. The first is the Taung child, a two-million-year-old skull from South Africa that led anatomist Raymond Dart to argue that this creature had walked upright and that Africa held the key to the fossil ancestry of our species. The second find consisted of the partial skeleton of a three-and-a-half-foot-tall woman, nicknamed Hobbit, from Flores Island, Indonesia. She is thought by scientists to belong to a new, recently extinct species of human, but her story is still unfolding. Falk, who has studied the brain casts of both Taung and Hobbit, reveals new evidence crucial to interpreting both discoveries and proposes surprising connections between this pair of extraordinary specimens.