Virtual Exploration 1. Our Primate Origins: An Introduction
The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History ‘Human Origins Program: In Search of What Makes Us Human' website offers a rich assortment of valuable and informative links. Click on the Our Primate Origins: An Introduction link and read the title page information: http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/primate.html Now follow the links:
Eocene [http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/eocene.htm],
Oligocene [http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/oligocene.htm],
Miocene [http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/miocene.htm], and
Pliocene [http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/pliocene.htm]. Make a brief timeline to show the general dates for these four epochs. Now mark on your timeline the following events: - Appearance of the first primates with modern primate characteristics (grasping hands and feet, nails, reliance on vision)
- Arrival of primates in South America
- Appearance of ancestors of Old World monkeys and apes
- Evolutionary split between Old World monkeys and apes
- Diversification of apes
- Appearance of common ancestor of chimps and humans
- Appearance of bipedal apes
Virtual Exploration 2. Becoming Human the Documentary
http://www.becominghuman.org/news_features/item_view_fs.php?typeID=3&ID=79 Watch the video " Becoming Human the Documentary" from The Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. This executable program requires that you install it on your computer. Go to the above website. In the upper left-hand corner of the screen, select the Mac or PC version, then download and install it. The program is introduces in the Prologue by Don Johanson, paleoanthropologist at Arizona State University . - There are 5 sections to the program: Prologue, Evidence, Anatomy, Lineages, and Culture. Each has a documentary.
- Select the Evidence segment and play the documentary section.
- Now select the ‘Explore a Dig' related to work at the Hadar site.
- Place your cursor around on the ‘virtual forward' and ‘virtual backward' buttons within the frame for a virtual exploration of the Hadar site.
- Who are some of the different types of physical and social scientists working at the site? What types of instruments and equipment do they use?
- Set your cursor in the "Related Exhibits" section at the bottom and navigate left and right to view other interesting materials.
Virtual Exploration 3. Did Humans Evolve
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/11/2/e_s_5.html
Watch the video "Did Humans Evolve " (5 minutes 33 seconds) from the PBS Evolution website. - How are humans related to chimps? Are humans descended from chimps, gorillas, or orangutans, or none of these?
- How long ago did apes and humans share a common ancestor? Might this chronology change in the future, or is this an established fact?
- What kind of evidence best helps us understand the relationship between humans and other apes, fossil evidence or molecular evidence? Which seems more convincing to you? Are they complementary?
Virtual Exploration 4. Our Early Kin Lived in Trees and Ancestral Handful [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1121_021121_PrimateOrigins.html]
Read "Fossil Implies Our Early Kin Lived in Trees" from National Geographic News (2002). - How long ago did Carpolestes simpsoni live?
- Is it classified as a primate, a non-primate mammal, or a transitional animal in primate evolution? Where has it been placed on the human evolutionary tree?
Now read [http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040103/fob4.asp] "Ancestral Handful" from Science News Online (2004). - How long ago did Teilhardina live? Where was it found?
- Does this find create problems for the previous classification of Carpolestes as a primate ancestor?
- How is Teilhardina different from Carpolestes ?
- What kind of information is needed to help resolve these questions and conflicting theories?
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