Visit our textbook-specific Online Learning Center Web site at www.mhhe.com/relethford8e to access the exercises that follow.
Teenagers Special: The Original Rebels
Read the article "Teenagers Special: The Original Rebels " from the March 2005 New Science article: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/teenagers/mg18524891.100. The article considers the possibility that the Turkana Boy found in Kenya at Lake Turkana in 1984 may represent evidence of an "adolescent phase" in the hominin record.
What has been the predominant argument for the delay in physical growth in hominins?
Why does the Turkana Boy fossil discovery cause some scientists to reconsider this explanation?
What unique information do fossilized children provide?
Why are there difficulties in assessing the age of a skeleton based on "development markers"?
What alternate arguments are offered by Susan Anton (New York University) and Steven Leigh (University of Illinois) concerning the interpretation of Turkana Boy?
Do you feel that Turkana Boy offers new insights into our understanding of hominin development? Why or why not?
Is What We Call Homo erectus a Single Species?
As noted in this chapter, some anthropologists argue that the species Homo erectus actually consists of two species, Homo erectus and Homo ergaster. Go to the Web page of the Smithsonian Institution Human Origins Program: http://anthropology.si.edu/HumanOrigins/
Click on "The Hall of Human Ancestors" link and then click on "Go to Human Family Tree" link.
At the bottom of the Web page, click on the link for Homo ergaster, read the description, and examine each of the fossils displayed on the page.
Return to the "Human Family Tree." Click on the link for Homo erectus, read the description, and examine each of the fossils displayed on the page.
What are the major arguments for placing the African and Asian specimens in different species?
What alternative interpretations can be made for geographic variation in what is generally referred to collectively as Homo erectus?
