Article Summary: From Grunt To Grammar

Miller, Jeanne. 

"From Grunts To Grammar: The Evolution of Language."  

Odyssey, Adventures In Science 

Oct. 2009: 34-36. Print. 

Current scientists from different fields of science try to answer this puzzling question" When did human learn to use talk with actual language?" There is a couple possible ways we could get a small idea of how. First we would have to determine when the human body was ready, meaning when did the brain become complex/smart enough and when was the voice box ready. 

 Some evidence found in the cavities of Homo Habilis's brain suggests that the brain evolved in speech. This gave scientist the theory that small parts of speech evolved 2 and 1/2 million year ago.

As speech evolved over  the years the Larnyx also known as the voice box (it is what makes the sounds)for mammals started to descend down the throat and to diconnect from the nasal cavity. Before this change the Larnyx sat high in the throat and connects to the nasal cavities allowing us to breathe and swallow at the same time. After this change for the genus homo that lived 1 1/2 years ago changed the way they breathed, swallowed and made sounds. 

As many of you know we don't breath through  our nose as much as we breath through our mouth. Scientists believe that we changed from breathing through our nose to our mouth more because it helped us let more air in while chasing game and let us run longer distances. Ever wonder why or how our brains grew? Well scientist believe that what we eat/ our diets is what make brains grow. Of course not in a week but over a couple if years.

Our ancestors must have used some type communication, if they didn't how would they be able to tell each other that there are predators around, where they had to go during a journey and teaching each other  how to make things just like we do. Our ancestors possibly communicated with  language, speech and sign language. Sign language such as gestures. One thing that I found interesting is that maybe they didn't communicate at all with real languages (English), well just until later. Maybe they really didn't need language, they had big enough brains to see and copy things like a parrot. They could have just looked what others were doing to learn. We see people everyday wearing clothes that we don't have and things that we don't do, but we don't always have to talk to them to wear and do what they do we could just look at them.

Taming Fire, The First Scientist?

Beth, Mary. "Taming Fire, The First Scientist?"  

Odyssey: Adventures In Science Oct. 2009: 29-30. 

Print. 

Prehistoric people, our ancestors,created our living styles we just changed a few things as our brains

 became larger.

Wildfires are a cause of animals and prehistoric peoples migration. Wild fires would force

 the animals to migrate or just get out of the way. But these fires did help the prehistoric people in one way.

 The animals that couldn't get out of the way in time burned which left a delicious but burnt meal for prehistoric people. 

Since fires are such a scare to prehistoric man you would never think that they would make and use fires them

 selves, not wild fires though.

Humans have used fire for 250,000 years, we would know this because scientist have found hearths or remains 

of hearths. This is evidence that prehistoric people used fire intentionally. Hearths are used to contain a fire, to stop it

 from spreading these are usually in stone shaped circles. 

The hearths are also evidence that the fires weren't wild fires because hearth fires allow artifacts like bones to be closely analyzed for chemical changes because of the higher temperatures. From the analysis from the chemicals in the bones we can get a few hints that the first use was by humans more than 1,000,000 years ago.
More evidence that we used fire in different ways was discovered in the Swartlands in South Africa. Remains of prehistoric animals bones that were burnt. 

This could suggest that they learn't to cook their meat. But it is also a possibility that they did not make the fire themselves. I came to the suggestion that maybe the prehistoric people didn't light a fire or cook the animal at the time they simply dragged the animal back to the cave from the wildfire.
But fire to our ancestors was very important fire could give them
Cooked food which make it taste better
 
Killed parasites
 
Kept them warm throughout cold weather
 
provided light 
 
Kept predators away
 
And lastly made migrating from cold to warm weathers possibly for prehistoric people

Have you ever wondered how we primates came to walk on 2 legs?

 Anthropologists are among the people that can answer
this controversial question on Human evolution.
 Primates such as chimps, are not our ancestors
but they do share an ancestor in common with us,Australopithecus Afarensis,
that lived six million years ago.

 Primates have a few things in common, and many differences most notably those involving our skulls. Our face is pretty flat while chimp's stick far out.  The biggest difference between Australopithecus Afarensis "Lucy", us and Chimps is the Foramen magnum, the hole at the back of the skull that the spinal cord fits into. Our Foramen magnum is at the bottom of our skull at the back, and our spinal cord fits in horizontally,  if we are standing up it would obviously be vertical. This is what allows us to walk on two feet. Similarly the Foramen Magnum of "Lucy" is also placed at the bottom of the skull and the spinal cord is horizontal. This similarity is evidence that "Lucy" walked bipedally like us. In contrast, the chimp's Foramen Magnum is "Angled backwards and downwards," suggesting that they walked on all fours.

The fact that bipedal creatures with roughly bigger brains than chimpanzees walked the earth only 2 million years ago, that were before humans ever evolved shocked scientist all over the world.

Many theories proposed why creatures preferred to walk biped ally. One argues that it is to free their hands to create stone tools. Interestingly stone tools only appeared in the fossil record after the creation of bipedal walking. C.Owen Lovejoy a scientist at Kent State University believes that we started walking bipedally so that our hands are free to get food for the other members of the group. Thus making a parent of young to give more attention to her children. I think this is a very reasonable theory but sadly scientist don't, they have rejected his theory because they believe that there is no specific evidence. Another belief is that we started walking bipedally to cross and swim streams or even seas.

Who's Who Among the Early Hominids?

Susman, Randall. 

"Who's Who Among the Early Hominids?"

Odyssey Adventures in 

Science Oct. 2009: 

22-25. Print. 

The records of early Hominins also known as the Ape Men and our 

ancestors date back to 7m.y.a and supports evidence of our close 

relationship with, and evolution from, the African ape.   

The fossil record of early hominids evolution show Primitive and Advanced. 

Primitive focuses on ape-like evolutions while Advanced focus on 

Human-Like evolutions. The definition of Hominins are members of a 

group of primates that includes modern humans and all of our ancestors. 

Homininds only refer to the living primates such as us.

Some examples of early hominins  

Sabelanthropus
Orrorin
Ardipithecus
They are hominins because they are dead now, if they are living they
would be hominids.When we study fossils to classify what species they
are in we are classifying the taxonomic. Taxonomic is having to do with
the classifying of living things, so classifying go hominins. 
When we are studying fossils of species we can lean about the positional behavior, 
meaning the way animals stand and move.



Also we can look at the wear patterns on the teeth and this will determine what
the hominin ate. One of the most important parts is looking at the sexual
dimorphism, this is looking at the difference of size and shape between males
and females, it is important to when studying the fossil record to acknowledge
if the fossil is of a male and female of the same species or of different species.
All of the early homos that lived in the past are the first members of our species.
Most of the fossils of early homos were found in east and south Africa about
2 m.y.a.The period of the homos was an epoch period. Epoch is a period of
time in history that is important/ noteworthy. 
The early homos such as 
Homo Erectus (The Upright Man)
Homo Habillis (The well known Handy Man)
Homo Rudolfensis
These three to me are the most well known hominins of the Homo species.
There are others such as the 
Homo Georgicus
Homo Florensis
Homo Neanderthalensis

Why We Study Human Origin

Susman, Randall.

"Why We Study Human Origins."

Callipoe Sept. 1999: 4-5. Print.

In the past people relied on religious teachings and myths to explain the beginning of humanity, they relied on Human origins.

People these days such as myself always have the curiosity of how life was like in the past. The questions that we tend to ask each other or our selves is Why did human come to be, and Why did Hominids survive, Where did we orginate? All the questions are part of the human origin. There is also another answer to all these questions known as the Fossil Record. “The Fossil record  can provide interesting information about the evolution and the history of life on earth such as the way the particular species have lived during a specific geological period and then evolved in time”. (http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Fossil_Record) Fossils can help us learn about how early our ancestors lived and how they adapted to their surroundings, they also give us a good idea of their physical features and behavior. 

Charles Darwin a scientist from the 1800 developed a ground breaking theory called Theory of Evolution by observing plants and animals. This theory is proposing that hominids  have descended from hominids like us. For example we have descended from the homosapians, this is what Charles Darwin is trying to say. "Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations". (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-definition.html)

 

Henry Huxley a well known scientist had proposed that apes and humans anatomically more similar than apes and monkeys. In this sentence anatomically is referring to the anatomy of apes and humans compared against apes and monkeys. Interestingly enough during the time periods of Huxley and Darwin there were no fossils found of our ancestors therefor their theory's were not proven by any evidence. Later on during 1925 Raymond Dart dicovered the first fossils, they were first found in Africa. This had proved to historians that our ancestors were bipedal. This is the theory that we no know today, we were descendants of Homosaphiens and Homosaphiens are descendants of other hominids. It just keeps going for another 6 million year and maybe even more.

I last thing, I would love to share this funny advertisement by Ogilvy Pr about human evolution. 

Theories of Stonehenge

Stone henge is located in England, Wiltshire. Stone henge is made of tall standing rocks called Sarsen stones and smaller stones called blue stone. The large stones stand up right with either a smaller sarsen laying on top. The Sarsens are on the outside creating a full circle and the blue stones are inside the Sarsen circle creating a smaller blue stone circle.

                  This is a animated  Stonehenge       

 

This is what stone henge looks like 

today. As you can see some stones 

have been knocked down over the years.                                                                             

                                        

Now that you have an idea of what Stonehenge looks like I am going to tell you a few theories of why Stonehenge was built.

Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield has the theory that Stonehenge was built a sacred place for the dead while a different monument, Woodhenge, made of wooden pillars is a place for the living. He also believes that Stonehenge is a part of  bigger more complex monuments in the area.

A very different theory suggesting that Stonehenge was a place of healing. People visiting from far and wide believing that Stonehenge would cure them of their diseases. Many remains excavated from the ground show signs of people having injuries or illness. Some remains excavated were teeth and bones and when tested people found that these remains were of people from far away places such as Wales, Northern England and Ireland.

Amazingly one of the most popular theories is that is was created as an Astronomical Observatory used to mark mid-summer. Evidence shows that people visited in the summer but also during the winter solstice, when the sun sets between the largest of the central arches.

Others also suggest that Stonehenge was used to predict solar and lunar eclipses.

Lastly Stonehenge could have been used to demonstrate the movements of the moon. Lionel Syms of the University of East London proposed that the creation of Stonehenge marked a change in society, from hunting to agriculture. The change is similar to the change from lunar to solar worship. When observations of the sun and the moon were combined, our ancestors could have been trying to show that they were part of the same spiritual force. 

There is one specific theory that i found a bit wacky, was the UFO theory. People are convinced that they saw UFO'S and are positive that Stonehenge was a landing area for aliens.

Human Ancestors May Put Twist in Origin Studies, New Studies Say

A New fascinating discovery is found!  Bones and possibly 2 million year old skin from our ancient ancestors the Australopithecus sediba  were discovered in the Malapa region of South Africa in 2008 and now described for the first time last april.

After scientists researched the sedibas anatomy they believe that sedibas could have been capable to make tools and use them. Also they may have found the fossilized skin which will mark the only discovery of soft tissue ever found. 

The people involved in this discovery is the study leader Lee Berger an anthropologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Scott Simpson a paleontologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and a team of researchers. 

The scientists have found that the fossilized skin and bones belong to a Male and Female Sediba both about 30 years old. Very interestingly the scientists also were able to discover that the pair died about at the same time. Possibly days or hours apart. 

This pair had fallen into a chasm ( a natural death trap) and rested upon a underground cave. This underground death trap had killed many more animals and were littered with tons of bones. Over time these bones were covered with a thick cement stone material also known as breccia that help preserve these bones just for the researchers to find.

After studying these bones the researchers were able to find that the Sediba had many human features. The Sediba was in fact able to stand up right much like a human. The ankles were very human like but the heels were more apelike.

One very interesting fact that i had read was that "With every heartbeat, the brain pounds out its shape on the developing skull of a child, eventually leaving a beautiful impression of the external shape and form of the brain on the inside of the skull," study co-author Kristian Carlson, also from the University of Witwatersrand, explained in a statement.

Huge Gladiator School Found Buried in Austria

In this article they talk about an amazing new discovery. In Austria Franz Humer the scientific director of Carnuntum Archaeogical Park and Stephen Dyson an expert on the history and archaeology of the roman empire and many more researcher have found a Gladiator school in Austria.

This school is enormous! It's said to be about the size of 2 Walmart to all those americans out there specifically 200,000 square feet ( 19000 square meters). The researchers suspect that the school was  built around A.D 150 during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius also the same period of time as the 13000 person amphitheatre.

Now for the big secret! How did could they have possibly found this place?

The Archaeologists detected the magnificent artifact with tractor- mounted radar equipment that penetrates the earth to produce three dimensional images of buried object that you can see on a computer.
They suspected something suspicious when the radar revealed a range of subterranean structures around a central courtyard. The most fascinating this is that they were able to see tiny dormitories to massive rooms with floor heating. Im guessing that the students stayed in the tiny dormitories while the trainers and maybe the king who would visit maybe every once in a while would get the massive rooms. Around was a small amphitheater were the gladiators could practice their moves. In the amphitheater there were bleachers and also in the arena. Humer one of the researchers predicated that most of the gladiators were actually slaves.

If i recall i didn't mention that it is actually based vey close to the river bank of the Danube river in Austria.

This is what the school looks like in google sketch up.

AMAZING ISN'T IT!!!

How do historians learn about the past?

Historians learn about the past from sources. Sources are a part of historical evidence. There are many types of sources, such as written and non-written. Written sources are obviously things that have writing such as Tombs, Songs, Speeches and posters etc.  Non- written are those that have no writing including Drawings, Bodies, Fossils, Artifacts and Cities.

After the Historians have found the source they must evaluate the sources, by Questioning the source and finding the time of origin. The questions that the historians ask are; Who was the writer, What kind of source is it, when was it produced and why was the source produced?
Time or origin means When it was created? My first thought was, " Oh their telling me to say 3000 B.C and prehistory. Brut no it is looking for the primary source and secondary source. Primary source is a sources that was created at the time of the event. Secondary source is a source created after the event.
One of the famous writers had written about the volcano eruption in pompei at the exact time he was writing as he was seeing it with his own eyes, this would be a example of a primary source.

The steps that historians must go through are

1st: GATHER a variety of sources
2nd: CATEGORIZE sources ( non- written, written)
3rd: EVALUATE sources ( asking questions, time of origin)
4th: INTERPRET sources (point of view)
5th: SHARE their findings(theories)

In the past, where did humans tend to settle and why?

In the past, where did humans tend to settle and why?


Peoples jobs often affected where they would live. In the past people mostly depended on their land for their jobs (farming specifically) . People are influenced where to live by topography and climate of the area. 
The 3 main things people look for in an area is

• Level land areas
• Climate is warm
• Lots of rain

Climate is the general pattern of weather in an area over time.
Topography is the study of the physical features in an area( mountains, valleys, rivers lakes)

Farmers NEED ; fertile land with lots of water/ rain and of course a long growing season.

When the land cant adapt to the people the people have to adapt or modify the land. If that is not possible they are forced to move. That area no longer is any use to them.

There are 3 main types of movement:

1.Temporary: going to and fro
Cyclic Movement: type of movement that happens over and over again.

2. Periodic: Moving to a new place and staying there for a period of time ( Most farmers do this type of movement)

3. Migration: People leaving their homeland to live permanently in another place ( sometimes this happens with farmers, the land could be just perfect)

The most densely populated areas are the ones that have great growing seasons, lots of rain and obviously
 LAND!!