World of Paleoanthropology

Cultural Report-The Hadza of Tanzania

By Kaitlyn Hanson-Chagi; Edited by Seth Chagi

Hadza man eating honeycomb and larvae from a beehive.

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There are few people alive today, who can truly say that they understand the ways of our forefathers and mothers, of our ancestors. We live in a society that is so wrenched away from the natural world, in favor of our modern world, that we have lost touch with almost all things that make us “Human”. A big reason for this is our separation from our food and where it comes from, from the land itself. Animals, as we all know, belong in the wild. So many of us have lost the wisdom of knowing just what it means to be Human. So many, but not all! “The Hadza of Tanzania are one of the very few societies anywhere in the world who still live by hunting and gathering.” The fact that there remains such a group of people in our day and age, is a testament to their skills of survival, and knowledge of their environment. “Hunter-gatherers are people who forage for wild foods, practicing no cultivation or animal husbandry.” This lifestyle is very rare in the world today and is only found in other similar geographies, such as places around the equator, including areas in the Amazon Rain Forest. A big reason for what is considered to be rare behavior is quite interesting and involves the way in which Agriculture evolved within our species in general; which we will get into. Why are the Hadza so different? “Was there some sort of “failure” in the collective learning of the people there? Why didn’t the first farms, the first cities, and the first empires emerge in sub-Saharan Africa, where our ancestors had roamed and innovated for hundreds of thousands of years?” The culture of the Hadza people is very unique, and one that allows us to learn a great deal about not only ourselves now, but where we came from as a species, learning also where we are headed to. As one of the last hunter-gatherer groups in the world, and in fact genetically one of the oldest lineages, we can learn a great deal about what our contemporaries may have lived like, how they gathered and hunted for food, and how they lived culturally and economically amongst themselves. Can any light be shed on early populations of Homo sapiens, if not other species of hominin? We will explore these questions and find out.

The Hadza People, whose locality ranges from the Cradle of Humankind, deep in Northern Tanzania, near Lake Eyasi. (Which they call Balangida) By the time of the writing of the book where some of this information comes from (2009) there was near 1,000 Hadza people living in this area. However, while they may be used to having free rein over the Savannah, aside of course from rival groups, their territory is now shrinking. The reason for this is the encroachment of that which they exactly are not, farmlands, farming, and agriculture. As with most of the wild places left on Earth, the land itself is endangered by the encroaching “concrete jungle” of modern life. Of course, this also has a strong effect on their economy and the way in which they interact not only with each other, but other groups, either tribesman or “city dwellers” as well. Typically, the Hadza trade in goods that they make themselves, gather, or find. They are fantastic artists, and storytellers, retailing visitors with the tales of their ancestors and of the history of humankind according to their sages. Of course, one of the biggest commodities that comes with a hunter-gatherer society is food. There is nothing more valuable nor rare. For a person of the Hadza people to share, or trade a parcel of food, it must be for a good reason! Mainly, at least when they are amongst themselves, is trading services for other needed services, as they work within an as-needed, economic community, as we believe most hunter-gatherers societies have always done throughout Homo sapiens history.

The Hadza, also known as the Hadzapi, Hatsa, Tinder, Watindiga, Kindiga, Kanegeju, and the Wahi, speak a completely “unique to them” language, which is spoken by no other people in the world. This language is dubbed Hadzane by the Hadzabe (as they call themselves) is a defining feature of their culture. It is used to determine whether someone belongs to their tribe, or is an outsider, is by whether or not they speak Hadzane. This language is currently endangered with only 1-2000 speakers worldwide. Now considered an isolate language, there are no other languages that are used that have any connections or relatedness to Hadzane, making it critically endangered. This is why, if someone is a fluent speaker, there is a good chance that the person is of the Hadzabe people, chances are one, if not both of their parents are of the people. If that is the case, then they are considered to belong to the Hadza.

The religious views of the Hadza people are, as most things with them, very unique. WE can imagine, that their beliefs are something like that out of our ancestor’s worldview, and we would probably not be wrong. Pinning down exactly what they believe as a whole is not as simple as it may seem, or in reality is, with other cultures. The Hadza believe different things depending on the person. They of course have certain traditions that they follow, especially when it comes to body deposition and burial. Anthropologists have described the Hadza as “having no religion”.

Among the thousand or so Hadza, monogamy is the way to go, with only “4% of men having two wives at once, and those marriages do not last long,”. The median age for marriage is 21 for men and around 17 years of age for women. Marriages are not arranged, and both sexes are free to choose their spouses. The act of marriage, is simply of two people living together for a period of time, but before a woman is considered married, she may seek a mate in various men, and this can lead to violent conflict, and even fatalities among the young men, leading others to intervene, “asking that the female decides on her mate”. Gender appears to be mostly understood as binary within the Hadza, although there have not been many cases of gender fluid, or non-binary individuals who have announced themselves. Thus there is little understanding of their view, if they have any.

One of the most interesting things about the Hadza, is what separates them so much from any other culture on the planet, being the oldest, and final true hunter-gatherer society on Earth, we can learn so much about our early behavioral and cultural evolution from them. They are, or so we believe, near unchanged over the millennia. Living exactly, or near to, how our ancestors lived prior to leaving the African continent. Knowing how we evolved culturally, into the first Homo sapiens, and to the Anatomically Modern Humans that we are today. We have come a long way, but to be able to have a window into the past, where we can see the way the Hadzabe live, is a great gift of time.

The Hadza are a fascinating people, a population that is near extinct, with their entire culture facing being wiped off of the face of the Earth. With less than 2,000 native speakers of the language, which is the way in which the population is determined, isolation, land, and loss of their food sources, is leading to smaller and smaller ranges for the Hadza People to travel and collect food, barely enough to survive. There are many conservational agencies and groups that are attempting to do their best to preserve the Hadzane language, but there is no way to know if their efforts will be fruitful or not. Only time will tell. For now, we must do all that we can to keep their unique, and special culture safe from extinction and the effects of globalization. While of course there are many benefits, keeping things special, is always a nice touch.

Bibliography

Apicella, Coren . HIgh Levels of rule-bending in a minimally religious and largely eglaitarian forager population. (n.d.). https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/evoreligion/files/high_levels_of_rule_bending_in_a_minimally_religious_and_largely_egalitarian_forager_population.pdf.

Baker, David . “The Origin of Agriculture in Africa.”

Frackowiak, Tomasz, Anna Oleszkiewicz, Marina Butovskaya, Agata Groyecka, Maciej Karwowski, Marta Kowal, and Piotr Sorokowski. “Subjective happiness among Polish and Hadza people.” Frontiers in Psychology 11 (2020): 1173-73. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01173.

IRM. “General Info .”

Lake Forest College. “The Hadzabe .”

Marlowe, Frank. The Hadza: Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania (Volume 3) (Origins of Human Behavior and Culture). First ed. University of California Press, 2010.

Marlowe, Frank W. “Mate preferences among Hadza hunter-gatherers.” Human Nature 15, no. 4 (2004): 365-76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-004-1014-8.

———. “What explains Hadza food sharing?” In Socioeconomic aspects of human behavioral ecology. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-1281(04)23003-7.

National Geographic Society . “Hadza.” August 19, 2019. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/hadza/.

Newenham, Newenham-Kahindi, Aloysius, and Charles E Stevens. “Ecological sustainability and practical wisdom from the Maasai and Hadza people in East Africa.” In Practical Wisdom, Leadership and Culture, 13-33. Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429055508-3.

“The History of Ancient Civilization.”

Woodburn, James. “Stability and flexibility in Hadza residential groupings.” In Man the hunter, 103-10. Routledge, 2017. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203786567-14.

The Story of Us Ep #27- Dr. Ellie McNutt and the new analysis of the Laetoli Footprints!

Today we are very excited to have a wonderful new guest on the show! Today we are featuring Dr. Ellison McNutt Head author on a new paper that provides a new look and analysis of the track A trace fossil footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania.

While these tracks are not newly discovered and have been known to science for over forty years, this new analysis brings something new to the table. What was thought to be Ursid (Bear) tracks walking bipedally for a few steps, has now proven to be something else….something far more human.

Check out this episode to find out all the news about the Laetoli Footprints! We had a wonderful chat and hope that you will join us, and enjoy with us!

Learn more about these finds here, as well as the actual paper that Dr. McNutt et.al published!

Please enjoy and let us know what you think!

Did Imagination Make Us Human?

If you would like to take part in our discussion, please visit my Academia.edu page!

The Creative Spark, How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional, an Analysis

Seth Chagi

California State University Northridge

Anth 423 Human Behavioral Evolution

Dr. Christina Campbell

December 13th, 2021

The Creative Spark, How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional, an Analysis

The Creative Spark, How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional by Dr. Agustin Fuentes, is a fantastic look back through the deep Human journey into why, and how we are who we are today as Anatomically Modern Humans. Published in 2017, this book discusses the biological evolution of our species, from the start of the hominin family to Homo sapiens. We discuss art, language, cooking, hunting, and just about everything that makes a Human a Human, and what makes us similar to our Non-Human primate relatives. A great deal of our evolution and coming about is based on our genetics, and the evolution of our DNA, but so much of it is based on our environment, and the simple, yet astonishing ingenuity of the Human, and Pre-Human species. We are like no other animal, living or extant, and there are many possible reasons for this, as we expand the fossil record and learn more about our closest living relatives, certain ideas become more clear. But there is still much to learn. What do we have to learn from Dr. Fuentes, and what do our ancestors have to tell us about what makes us “exceptional”?

The important aspect that Prof. Fuentes would like us to understand for us to begin, is just what Paleoanthropology is, and how Human Origins and Evolution works, as it is understood today. About 7 MYA hominins split from our common ancestor with the Great Apes, somewhere in Africa, we believe in North Africa. Since then, there have been many fossil discoveries, depending on whom you ask, there are over twenty-five known hominin species today (others will contest this very strongly). Each one is a “missing link” in the braided human family stream. We are a mosaic of evolution, some parts of us are derived, other parts are more modern, more adapted to our environments. The study of all of this, and how we came to be how we are biologically, is dubbed ‘Paleoanthropology’. We learn what made early hominins different from our ape cousins and ancestors, and how our behavior adapted to go along with our physical changes. Being creative, as discussed thoroughly by Prof. Fuentes as the main theme of this book, is importantly pointed out as the main reason for what makes us different, what makes us truly unique. The ability to craft abstract thoughts and ideas, to communicate at such an advanced level, that no other animal that we know of can compare. It has been a long road for us Humans, and we may have a long way to go, but as we learn more about our past, it will enlighten our future.

Creativity is the force that has led and caused our evolution to continue to be spurred forward. Unlike our Ape relatives and ancestors, we think abstractly, meaning that we can have an image in our head of something that is not right in front of us, we can imagine. We can think of ways to use items around us to create other items, such as tools, advanced tools unlike any other animal had made before. Our advancements grew quickly as we soon discovered the many uses of fire. We do not know how it came to be, but there is no doubt that it was our Human curiosity and creativity that lead to our experimental use of fire, leading to our use of it in cooking. Cooking, as we learned from the Wrangham book, made it possible for us to achieve higher rates of nutrition from our raw foods and vegetables. It allowed us time to gather around, and interact with each other, form and create language to communicate, and maintain social bonds in large groups for extended periods. With the added nutrients of cooked food, our brains expanded, as well as our faculties. Tools became more complex, we can assume language did as well, although this is near impossible to determine from the fossil record. Art was invented, and traces of it pop up around South Africa 60-100 KYA during what some call the ‘Neolithic Revolution’, at least the one in Africa. There was a massive behavioral shift at this time, that truly made us Anatomically Modern Humans, with modern behaviors. What would come next, would be a level of advancement of culture and sophistication and diversity that we have yet to see in any other species, including that of hominins. Homo sapiens are truly an exceptional species. Look simply at the caves of Chauvet, and there can be little doubt.

Today, it is not uncommon for us to take advantage of, or forget how impressive the world around us is. We are so separated from the natural world, by the one that we have built around us, that we have forgotten that we are a part of it. There are downfalls of course to being such an advanced species when compared to other animals on the Earth. Advanced is a questionable term when one considers we are also the only species to destroy our own environment with abandon. Modern Culture, as we understand it has taken a long time to develop. Millions of years of biological and behavioral evolution, from the forests and jungles of Africa to the plains of North America just a few thousand years ago, have come a long way. each step has taken its toll on our species, and more so the species around us. For we are the ‘Lone Survivor’ (Stringer, 2013, pp. 1-365), the last human species on Earth. Why that is, we are not entirely sure, as Neanderthals were known to be creative as well, possessing many of the “modern” features that we have as well. (Sykes, 2020, pp. 245-250).

So what makes us so different? There are many theories, hypotheses, and ideas. Our more recent development, and spread across the world, our speed and advancement, are unlike anything else. Our unique diets, advanced language, art, and development make us who we are today. Unlike our primate relatives, we can work together, learn, and pass down information to future generations. Knowledge gained, is not knowledge lost. While we can observe some specific individuals, such as Kanze the bonobo, who supposedly has a command of many English signs, and language understanding. While this is rare, even in our ape cousins, it still does not come to a level seen in modern Humans.

In Creative Spark by Dr. Agustin Fuentes, we learn about what makes modern humans special. We learn what makes us exceptional in fact, and how we are different from not only our modern-day Great Ape relatives but also from our hominin forebearers. Our brains have developed in a way that no other animals’ have before, and we need to be thankful for that; we would not be here, or at least not in the same way, that we are today. The use of art, language, culture, food, diet, hunting, living, and just about everything we do is special and unique among the animal kingdom. It is truly imagination that makes us extraordinary. While there are many reasons and possibilities that could have led to our exceptionality, as explored by Professor Fuentes, it becomes clear, that combined with the other books we have read this semester, that Human behavior cannot be discerned by one thing or another. Rather, it is an amalgamation of factors, both environmental, genetic, and sometimes it is down to just pure luck.

We may never know the answer to some of the current questions about why we are so special, so exquisite, and exceptional. Learning how to express our newfound emotions, thoughts, loves, fears, and hopes changed how we interacted with the world around us. it separated us from the natural world that some of us are not attempting so drastically to get back to. In the Creative Spark, How Imagination Made Us Exceptional by Dr. Agustin Fuentes, we learn about the biological and behavioral adaptations and revolutions that occurred throughout our multi-million-year history that has led to how we function as modern-day animals in our modern day societies. Our social structure, as advanced as it is, has its downsides, but as we learn more about our past, and how certain aspects of ourselves came to be, we can find resolutions to these issues, and hopefully create and provide a better world for all those involved today. Humans are, for lack of any better word; exceptional.

References

Fuentes, A. (2017). The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional. Dutton.

Stringer, C. (2013). Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth (First ed.). St. Martin’s Griffin.

Sykes, R. W. (2020). Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art (Bloomsbury Sigma) (1 ed.). Bloomsbury Sigma.

The World of Paleoanthropology and its Effects on Modern Anthropology

Find this article on Academia.edu and join the discussion! If you are on Academia, id love to get your feedback!

For much of Human history, including today in many areas and regions, there is a disconnect of sorts between the common person, and those in what we like to call the “Ivory Tower”, or the world of Academia. One is not better than the other, not by far, in fact, many think that the Ivory Tower is a group of stuck-up snobs who think they know better than everyone else. In many cases, both sides are correct. But it is when those in Academia, use their brain power, and what they learn and understand, to better humanity for the whole, and not just for themselves, or some sort of personal, or even financial gain. Those that are truly in it for the progression of the Human race as a species, set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. It is these individuals, who become what we deem “Science Communicators”, such as Professors, Teachers, Educators, Media Personalities (think Bill Nye, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, Carl Sagan, etc.). This paper is about the story of a science communicator, and their efforts in bringing a field of science, Paleoanthropology, one of the slowest fields to adapt to change in the STEM fields, and bring it to the modern world, to modern people, and not just to academics. Rather, to everyone who has an interest. By breaking down complex ideas and theories, we can help communicate specific ideas and thoughts to those anywhere, using the right tools and mindsets. SciComm (Science Communication) is one of the most effective ways to bring this knowledge out of the Ivory Tower, and down into the hands of the people, where it will be employed for the betterment (hopefully) of our species. Today, we will be discussing, as mentioned a particular field, and one project that is trying to bring SciComm to a whole new level. Today we will be discussing a project deemed “The World of Paleoanthropology” a science communication website, and a project that was founded, and run by myself, Seth Chagi, and has helped many people realize that yes, we (meaning all modern Humans (AMH)) share a common, and shared recent African origin. We are not different, there is no such standing for biological race, and so much more that is misunderstood and needs to be conveyed properly if our modern day societies are ever going to tackle some of our most prevalent problems, such as systemic racism, economic inequalities, negative stigmas that cause mistrust and seeds dissent within all ranks of our society. Using what we have learned about Human Evolution, our Origins, we can learn about not only our past, and where we are today, but about our future as well. It is crucial to communicate this future in terms that everyone can understand. But does it work? Will what I created have any lasting effect or presence once I am gone, or even just no longer operating it? We shall see in the following pages based on my observances from a non-biased, open point of view. Does the World of Paleoanthropology affectively communicate the complex ideas of human evolution to the public? Let us find out!

So to properly begin, I think it is important for us all to be on the same page, and that means understanding just exactly what Paleoanthropology is! Paleoanthropology is the study of Human Evolution or Human Origins. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, as some of you may know, we, being Homo sapiens, are Anatomically Modern Humans, but we are not the only “Humans” to ever walk this earth, not by a long shot, not even in the last 50,000 ka. (Years ago). There have been many species of “proto-human” named hominins taxonomically, to date (depending on whom you ask) there are twenty-five known species of hominin, with even more Hominids (which we will save for another paper). These creatures, while not all being ancestors of ours, are most surely cousins, just like we are cousins to the Great Apes of modern times, the Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Bonobos (Pan paniscus), Gorillas and Orangutans of various species, as well as the Gibbon. All of these apes, share with us many common features, not only genetically, but in appearance, behavior and can reveal to us much about how our distant cousins and ancestors acted and how they survived to evolve unto us, or for the most part, to die out somewhere in the fossil record. Some of these hominins, we can determine are direct ancestors of our species, such as many of those in the Homo genus, H. habilis, H. erectus, etc A. afarensis, just to name a few. So to summarize, Paleoanthropology is the study of all of these creatures, their remains, whatever that may be, (genetic, fossil, or archaeological), and how they relate to us, modern-day humans, as well as dabbling into where we are headed as a species as well! Studying this science, this field, allows us to understand who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. It shows us who we are to each other, that we are not as different as was once believed. We are all Human.

Now that we have a general understanding of that, let us move on! Why is communicating this field, and the method in which we do it so critical? What is SciComm? Science Communication, it the challenging, but often very rewarding act of taking complex ideas, of a scientific nature, I.E the Theory of Gravity, or how a neutron star is formed, or, more about us in this situation, how Homo naledi evolved, and why it deposited (it is almost safe to say now, buried!) their dead deep in the caves of Rising Star! Biology and Evolution are by no means an easy set of topics to understand, and it does not help that they seem to change every other day as new and relevant discoveries poor in from the various fields that call Biology their home. Being able to explain these ideas, without delineating them, and taking out important aspects of their understanding is an important skill and talent for any researcher and scientist to have. And it is critical for educators to have, and to have access to said research, etc. through Open Access education. But again, that is for another paper. SciComm is how we learn about our world, how we fix our problems, and how we become informed about ourselves. How can we fix the problems that face us, those mentioned above, if we do not understand them, even from a basic level? By communicating those intense topics methodically in a way that anyone who wants can understand, and dare I say, find entertaining and even fun. Bill Nye, “The Science Guy” as my generation so fondly knows him, is one of the best examples of this, inspired by Carl Sagan, perhaps the greatest science communicator of modern times. And yet, despite these great individuals, this particular field has seemed to lack a champion of science communication. There have been many who have attempted to bring the field to light, and yet it was only this year that the majority of Americans have accepted Evolution as the origins of Man vs. creationism (ScientificDaily.com). This is of course a major step in the right direction, but there is much more work to do before we are even close to reaching the lofty goals of a well-educated and informed populous. SciComm, despite all the challenges that are faced, is the key to combatting these challenges, however.

So, one may be asking themselves at this point, how does a Science Communicator communicate science? What are the tools, and methods that are employed to help everyone, from children up to adults, learn about science, and in this case; Paleoanthropology. The number one thing that someone can keep in mind, according to the American Association of the Advancement of Science, is, “do not dumb the science down”. Often, scientists believe that they need to take an approach where they make things more simple for the “layperson” to understand. Everyone is capable of the same understanding and knowledge if given the right tools and education! Methods that can be employed, are making science fun, as Bill Nye is well known to do, Carl Sagan was known for making difficult information, such complex ideas, into easy to digest packages that never lost any of the detail that was involved. It has been shown by the National Institute of Biotechnology, that SciComm is an effective method of communicating science, and as we know, the more educated a population is, whomever they are, the better off they end up being, the more bright their future looks. Teaching SciComm is passing on the history of our species, all that we have discovered, learned, and created, to the next generation. It is one of the major things that makes us different from our non-human primate relatives. We can pass on information to our descendants, thousands of generations into the future. What we have discovered, and rediscovered throughout human history, is that Science, is a key to understanding the natural world around us, and without it, the world seems to be a much more bleak place.

“Have you ever sat, looked up at the stars and wondered, where did I come from?” (World of Paleoanthropology) This is often a question that many of us come to us at least one point in our lives, some of us spend our entire lives attempting to answer this question, not even just for themselves, but for our species together as a whole. Some people, rightly or wrongly, I will leave that up to you, the reader to decide, that evolution, and Human Origins are not something we need to spend time and resources worrying about. Rather we should spend time working on the problems we face today, and in the future. In the opinion of many STEM educators, is that we cannot combat the challenges that we face as a species today, without knowledge of the history of our people. Our people, as we are all one species, all with a recent African Origin, are not a mix and match of different animals, but cultures and societies. People need to know about our shared human origins, and we can share that using our tools and SciComm skills. We must support the continued use, and even the expansion of SciComm in our educational systems, and even in our everyday lives. So then, to answer the original question, what will the lasting effects of the World of Paleoanthropology be? Of course, I have no answer that I can give that is definite, but based on the ideas, opinions, and information shared with me from various Professors, and Researchers, famous Paleoanthropologists, and the like, this is something different, that has not been offered before. That the World of Paleoanthropology fills a niche gap that has been there since Anthropology became a study. The future, to me, for W.O.P.A as this project is known, is bright. People are interested, and the audience grows and grows, as more and more people become interested in learning about what makes us alike, versus what makes us different. It is time for people to come together, and to stop tearing each other apart. We can only do this once we understand who we are and where we came from, using the tools that SciComm provides, and the knowledge and information of those involved with W.O.P.A, we are effectively educating people all over the world in a way that will be remembered for years to come. It is our hope, and our goal to educate people in such a way that things are fun and memorable, easy to understand, but full of information. To that end, I think we have succeeded.

Let me know what you think!

New Analysis of Foot Prints Found at Laetoli!

A new, and exciting announcement coming from Dr. Ellie McNutt and Dr. Jeremy DeSilva et al found in Nature! The following is taken from Prof. DeSilva’s Twitter and explains the findings quite well!

You can access the paper here:

New Foot Prints Found at the Well Known Site of Laetoli, Tanzania!-Dr. McNutt et al. Download

Today, Dr. Ellie McNutt & a large team announced in @nature the discovery of 3.66-million-year-old footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania. These tracks are different from the famous site G trail–evidence of a 2nd species of bipedal hominin at Laetoli!

Footprints at Laetoli were discovered by Mary Leakey’s team in 1976 after Kay Behrensmeyer, Andrew Hill, and others famously had an elephant dung fight. Ultimately 18,400 footprints were documented at site A from different mammals, birds, insects. Image by K. Behrensmeyer.

In September of 1976, Philip Leakey and Peter Jones found 5 consecutive tracks made by a bipedal mammal at site A. Mary Leakey and Dick Hay proposed in the pages of @nature that they were made by a hominin with a “somewhat shambling” gait. Image by J. Reader.

But, the footprints were strangely shaped and, if from a hominin, were from one that was crossing the left foot over the right while walking, like a model on a runway.

In 1978, the famous trackway at site G was discovered by Paul Abell and Ndibo Mbuika. These footprints were clearly hominin. Photo by John Reader

So, what were the strange site A prints? Some wondered if they might have been made by a bipedal bear. Prof. Russ Tuttle found that the trackway and footprints showed some affinities with bears. Dismissed as non-hominin, the site A prints fell into obscurity.

BUT… Tuttle also wrote, “until detailed, naturalistic biometric and kinesiological studies are performed on bipedal bears and barefoot humans, we will have to defer choosing among the hominid and ursid hypotheses on Laetoli individual A.”

And the site A prints were never fully excavated. Tim White and Gen Suwa wrote, “reliable identification of these enigmatic prints at Laetoli site A will be impossible until they are more fully cleaned and followed laterally.”

Up here in the woods of @Dartmouth, we have a lot of bears. Dr. McNutt worked with Dr. Ben Kilham—a black bear expert—and collected footprint data on black bears whose feet were about the same size as the footprint maker at Laetoli site A.

Bear heels are narrow, they have fan-shaped toes, and they sometimes leave claw marks. The Laetoli site A prints preserve none of those features.

Plus, bears cannot balance on a single leg easily and wobble back and forth when they walk bipedally, leaving widely spaced prints. Chimpanzees do this, too.

In fact, the easiest way to produce a trackway with one foot directly in front of the other is to have an abductor mechanism and/or valgus knees. These are key characteristics of hominins and hinted to us that the site A prints were not from a bear.

In June 2019, Prof. Charles Musiba @CUDenver led a team to Laetoli to, in part, search for these prints. It is not easy to get to the outcrops.

We were even joined by Joshua Gates from @ExpeditionUNK for a day.

We used Mary Leakey’s maps to measure to the exact spot where the A prints should be (if still preserved), and luckily found the juvenile elephant prints that ran parallel to the bipedal trackway, before Kallisti Fabian uncovered the first print.

Seasonal rains had not washed the prints away. It had pulled enough sediment on top of them to preserve them for forty years. We brushed them clear of matrix, uncovering details that were still obscured in 1977.

The team found the original 5 prints and excavated back into the hillside but could not find any more prints, unfortunately. We plan to return to search for more. Image by Shirley Rubin.

We laser scanned the trackway and took enough photos to do photogrammetry. These were tools unavailable to researchers in the 1970s.

Kevin Hatala worked his magic and showed that the shape of the site A footprints are as different from the prints at sites G and S as a chimpanzee footprint is from a human’s.

And then there is just the eyeball test.

There is growing evidence that multiple hominin species coexisted during the Pliocene of Eastern Africa. The Burtele foot from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia demonstrates that different kinds of hominins were walking differently from one another at this time, too.

Not only were different hominins coexisting—some of them shared the same landscape. The Laetoli footprint tuff captures a snapshot in time. As the site A hominin was walking north, a group of A. afarensis—2km to the west—were trudging that way, too.

Skeptical of our interpretation? That’s ok. Science is not about belief—we welcome other teams to assess our findings and attempt to replicate our results. That can only happen if fossils/footprints are available for study.

To that end, you can find high-resolution 3d scans of the footprints on morphosource.org. They are great for teaching, too! @Evo_Explorer @WrldOfPaleoAnth

One question that remains for me is what hominin made the site A prints? In our paleoanthropological Cinderella story, what foot will fit the proverbial slipper? There are secrets still hiding in the ancient ash at Laetoli.

The Story of Us! Episode 26-Hominin Reconstructions!

Hello and welcome to not only the next episode of our previously known “interview series”, and welcome to the full blown show, “The Story of Us!” This is the first episode to bear such a name and we are so excited to be bringing this to you!

We have some great guests on this time, Gabriel and Ryan, and they have some awesome stuff to share with us! This episode is a little different than our usual, and I really hope you all enjoy it, and learn a great deal from it! I know I did!

Watch to learn all about Pio-Pleistocene hominin reconstructions. Mainly dealing with the cranial features, at least for now; Ryan and his partner Gabriel are testing and developing a new way to create reconstructions of all, and any hominin based on features that we all share as apes. Using modern humans and non human primates, along with the fossil record, they try to show the world what these long dead creatures may have looked like.

Check it out!

If you like what you see, please like, share, and subscribe! We would also love to hear any questions that you have (leave them in the comments below!) and would love to hear what you think!

Until next time!

Thanks!

Seth Chagi

Project Director

World of Paleoanthropology

P.S I misspoke at the part where I said it was the anniversary of the discovery of the Lucy skeleton! It was actually the anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin! Ooops!

We Are Expanding!!!

Hello to each and everyone of you!

In the hopes of creating more conversation, and community with our readers/viewers, I would like to introduce you to our brand-new Discord Channel!

Please come on by, I will admit I am not too familiar with Discord, but we can all learn along together! But I am sure we can have some amazing, and interesting discussions, and all learn together! For we all have different things to teach from our amazing, and varied experiences, for is that not what makes us human?

So come on by!

Hope to see you there!

Seth
Project Director

The Story of Us-Meeting Homo habilis!!!

Listen to this Post here:

Happy #FossilFriday!!!

Well! Here we are again, finally! I am so glad to welcome you to our next Morphology video, the next episode in our show The Story of Us, and I hope you enjoy your time and learn a great deal! If you do, let other people know about us! We post new content, and keep up on the news all of the time!

On this episode, we explore the fossil KNM-ER 1813, one of, if not the best and most well known Homo habilis cranium. The following is a brief description provided by the Human Origins Institute:

Read what esteemed Paleoanthropologist John Hawks has to say not he matter, and especially in relation to another species that we did not discuss today, A. sediba that actually just made headlines last week with the announcement of the first near complete lower spine of a hominin found! You can read all about that in our “News” section, so be sure to check that too! Catch his blog post here: https://johnhawks.net/weblog/fossils/habilis/er/er-1813-africanus-malapa-2010.html!

I would like to remind everyone that this is but an introductory video/ post to this species, there is of course so much more to learn and discover about this species, that even the experts in the field are not sure about yet! Please, do your own research, allow this only to be one of many tools in your kit, as you learn about Human Origins, and the roots of our shared humanity! We will be going more in depth about this species, and this particular specimen at a later time. But for now, I hope that this will suffice as a good introduction to habilis, and that you have indeed learned something from my efforts!

If you have a spare moment, please be so kind as to comment, like, share and most importantly SUBSCRIBE to stay up to date with all of our major going ons! We produce content regularly, and the more interest/ help we get, the more we are able to do it! So please, show your support! There are many ways to do so!

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you next time!

Seth

My Anthropology Library!

***Update: Apparently some of my Lord of the Rings books got in XD. TOLKIEN FTW!!!***

Just thought I would share a quick view of what is currently in my library!

I will admit, I have not read them all yet, but I will get through them! For Black Friday, my local used book store is having half off! So good thing I made some room on the shelves!

Book Track.pdf Download

I would love to see what is in your library and what books you recommend I should add! I pretty much add whatever I can get my hands on!

-Seth

Ancient human relative, Australopithecus sediba, “walked like a human, but climbed like an ape.” New Fossils Improve Our Understanding of Bipedality and Being Human

Ancient human relative, Australopithecus sediba, “walked like a human, but climbed like an ape.” New Fossils Improve Our Understanding of Bipedality and Being Human

*BREAKING NEWS*

Newly described fossils of A. sediba show that sediba was capable of walking equally as well arboreally as terrestrially! Join us as we take a deep dive into this new announcement from Dr. Lee Berger et al.

Sediba first emerged with then nine-year-old Matthew Berger’s finding of the Malapa hominins on August 15^th, 2008. As we have seen so many times before with such discoveries, the paleoanthropological world would never be the same again! This new species would hold many secrets, and li ke other finds before it, answer many questions. The thing with science, and especially paleoanthropology, is that the more we find out, it seems the more questions we have! There is always more to learn!

So, who is Australopithecus sediba? Sediba was found in Malapa, Gauteng Province, South Africa in a cave that was blasted open by miners nearly a century ago. Professor Lee Berger, Matthew, and a few friends were exploring the local area with their dog. Berger looked at his son and told him, “Go find some fossils!”. Little did he know, and dare he not expect what was about to happen.

“Dad I found a fossil!” rang his son’s excited voice, and there, in a large rock that had been blown out of the cave, was a piece of hominin clavicle. Even from a distance Prof. Berger knew what this was, for he had done his dissertation on the very thing.

After excavation, examination and analysis, A. sediba was officially designated as a new species, and it was given a preliminary place on our family tree. Two partial skeletons were discovered: the holotype, MH1, a juvenile; and MH2, an adult female, newly dubbed “Issa,” which means ‘Protector’ in Swahili. Dating to 2 million years ago (MYA), these fossils did not seem to belong where they were found. These creatures seemed to be clearly adapted for a life in the trees, as shown by their upper and lower limb morphology. Examinations from Berger’s team tentatively assumed that sediba was an arboreal hominin, unlike some of its more well-known kin such as Lucy, (A. afarensis, 3.4 MYA).

One of the biggest questions in paleoanthropology is when did we become obligate (or full-time) bipeds? Bipedality is a universal feature of modern humans, and of hominins in general. It is one of the defining features. But we do not know exactly how bipedality came about.

In the history of the Earth, bipedality was nothing new. Dinosaurs and other early creatures experimented with it. Birds are bipedal. But no animal did what the ape lineage began to d o some tens of millions of years ago in the forest canopy. They developed long arms and legs and divergent big toes, and long, grasping fingers to hold onto branches securely as they moved through the trees.

The original sediba fossils from 2008 support the conclusion that like many arboreal primates, sediba could also move on the ground and probably even bipedally, but there was little direct evidence to show that they could walk for long lengths of time, as later hominins do.

But now we have these new sediba fossils – several contiguous bones of lower spinal vertebrae. These new fossils show us a view we have never had of an early hominin, a complete view of their lower spine.

These lumbar vertebrae show some very specific features that support the hypothesis that sediba was an obligate, or full-time, bipedal hominin, who by choice or necessity could also easily climb through the tree canopy.

These new fossils show that Au. Sediba had what is called a lumbar lordosis, or curvature of the spine—-think of the “S” shaped spine of modern humans. This S shape is only found in creatures that are fully bipedal, providing strong evidence of sediba’s ability to move easily on the ground.

If this hypothesis proves to be true, sediba could be an updated type of “missing link” — with features extremely primitive and ape-like, as well as features that are found in you and I!

Despite the features of the 2008 fossils have that showed that sediba was adapted for climbing and arboreal locomotion, these newly described 2015 fossils show that sediba had very modern traits as well, traits that allowed it to walk upright through the woodlands too. These new finds shed light on a part of our history that we have so many questions about. While we may now have some answers to our questions, there are of course more and more questions! Only the future, and continued analyses and study will reveal the many secrets that these hominins contain, as a glimpse into our very distant past. There is much work to do!

So what does this all mean? Well, Sediba was is a perfect example of mosaic evolution, some parts of the fossils are more modern, while other parts are more primitive. There is no one link, no one species that fills all the gaps, checks all the marks. But what we have learned about sediba, will lead to a better understanding of how we began to walk upright, when, and possibly even why.

Well, there you have it! If you would like to learn more about these new fossil finds, please refer to the official media release statement from Dr. Berger and Wits University, as well as the Q/A that they have provided!

Media Release

“Ancient human relative, Australopithecus sediba, “walked like a human, but climbed like an ape”

New lower back fossils are the “missing link” that settles a decades old debate proving early hominins used their upper limbs to climb like apes, and their lower limbs to walk like humans

New York and Johannesburg – An international team of scientists from New York University, the Unive rsity of the Witwatersrand and 15 other institutions announced today in the open access journal e-Life, the discovery of two-million-year-old fossil vertebrae from an extinct species of ancient human relative.

The recovery of new lumbar vertebrae from the lower back of a single individual of the human relative, Australopithecus sediba, and portions of other vertebrae of the same female from Malapa, South Africa, together with previously discovered vertebrae, form one of the most complete lower backs ever discovered in the early hominid record and give insight into how this ancient human relative walked and climbed.

The fossils were discovered in 2015 during excavations of a mining trackway running next to the site of Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, just Northwest of Johannesburg South Africa.

Malapa is the site where, in 2008 Professor Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand and his then nine-year old son, Matthew, discovered the first remains of what would be a new species of ancient human relative named Australopithecus sediba.

Fossils from the site have been dated to approximately two million years before present. The vertebrae described in the present study were recovered in a consolidated cement-like rock, known as breccia, in near articulation.

Rather than risking damaging the fossils, they were prepared virtually after scanning with a Micro-CT scanner at the University of the Witwatersrand, thus removing the risk of damaging the closely positioned, delicate bones during manual preparation. Once virtually prepared, the vertebrae were reunited with fossils recovered during earlier work at the site and found to articulate perfectly with the spine of the fossil skeleton, part of the original Type specimens of Australopithecus sediba first described in 2010. The skeleton’s catalogue number is MH 2, but the researchers have nicknamed the female skeleton “Issa,” meaning protector in Swahili. The discovery also established that like humans, sediba had only five lumbar vertebrae.

“The lumbar region is critical to understanding the nature of bipedalism in our earliest ancestors, and to understanding how well adapted they were to walking on two legs,” says Professor Scott Williams of New York University and Wits University and lead author on the paper.

“Associated series of lumbar vertebrae are extraordinarily rare in the hominin fossil record, with really only three comparable lower spines being known from the whole of the early African record.”

The discovery of the new specimens means that Issa now becomes one of only two early hominin skeletons to preserve both a relatively complete lower spine and dentition from the same individual, allowing certainty as to what species the spine belongs to.

“While Issa was already one of the most complete skeletons of an ancient hominin ever discovered, these vertebrae practically complete the lower back and make Issa’s lumbar region a contender for not only the best-preserved hominin lower back ever discovered, but also probably the best preserved,” says Berger, who is an author on the study and leader of the Malapa project. He adds that this combination of completeness and preservation gave the team an unprecedented look at the anatomy of the lower back of the species.

Previous studies of the incomplete lower spine by authors not involved in the present study hypothesized that sediba would have had a relatively straight spine, without the curvature, or lordosis, typically seen in modern humans. They further hypothesized Issa’s spine was more like that of the extinct species Neandertals and other more primitive species of ancient hominins older than two million years.

Lordosis is the inward curve of the lumbar spine and is typically used to demonstrate strong adaptations to bipedalism.

However, with the more complete spine, and excellent preservation of the fossils, the present study found the lordosis of sediba was in fact more extreme than any other australopithecines yet discovered, and the amount of curvature of the spine observed was only exceeded by that seen in the spine of the 1.6-million-year-old Turkana boy (Homo erectus) from Kenya, and some modern humans.

“While the presence of lordosis and other features of the spine represent clear adaptations to walking on two legs, there are other features, such as the large and upward oriented transverse processes, that suggest powerful trunk musculature, perhaps for arboreal behaviors,” says Professor Gabrielle Russo of Stony Brook University and an author on the study.

Strong upward oriented transverse spines are typically indicati ve of powerful trunk muscles, as observed in apes. Professor Shahed Nalla of the University of Johannesburg and Wits who is an expert on ribs and a researcher on the present study says: “When combined with other parts of torso anatomy, this indicates that sediba retained clear adaptations to climbing”.

Previous studies of this ancient species have highlighted the mixed adaptations across the skeleton in sediba that have indicated its transitional nature between walking like a human and climbing adaptations. These include features studied in the upper limbs, pelvis and lower limbs.

“The spine ties this all together,” says Professor Cody Prang of Texas A&M, who studies how ancient hominins walked and climbed. “In what manner these combinations of traits persisted in our ancient ancestors, including potential adaptations to both walking on the ground on two legs and climbing trees effectively, is perhaps one of the major outstanding questions in human origins.”

The study concludes that sediba is a transitional form of ancient human relative and its spine is clearly intermediate in shape between those of modern humans (and Neandertals) and great apes.

“Issa walked somewhat like a human but could climb like an ape,” says Berger.

Note: The virtual fossils published in the new study are free to download on Morphosource.org

Link to media pack:

https://cutt.ly/kTxq7YN

For more information contact:

Professor Lee Berger (South Africa)

Lee.berger@wits.ac.za

(+27) 83 454 6309

Professor Scott Williams (USA)

SAWilliams@nyu.edu

(+1) 212-992-9583

Wits University’s centenary celebrations

https://wits100.wits.ac.za

More Wits Research News

http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/

More Wits Research Videos

More Wits research stories in Wits’ Research Magazine, Curios.ty

https://www.wits.ac.za/curiosity/” (Wits University)

Q/A Provided by Wits and Lee Berger et al.

Questions and answers about the lower back of Australopithecus sediba

Q: How were these new fossils discovered?

A: The block containing the fossils was removed from a trackway built by miners, who had a century ago blasted rock from what would later become known as the site of Malapa. The lumbar vertebrae discovered within the block were found to refit perfectly with previously known lower lumbar vertebrae of the MH2 skeleton.

Q: How do we know about the curvature of the lumbar spine and how does it relate to back problems in living people?

A: The upper and lower surfaces of the vertebral bodies are not parallel to each other. Instead, they form a wedge such that several lumbar vertebrae together create a curve, the lumbar lordosis (lumbar depression). This curve contributes to a balanced position of the center of body mass so that no force is needed to stand upright. If this balance is not achieved or if body mass compresses the lumbar spine too much, back pain can result.

Q: How do we know how many regional numbers of vertebrae a fossil hominin had?

A: Like us, all primates have multiple vertebral regions that serve different functions: cervical (neck) vertebrae, thoracic (rib-bearing) vertebrae, lumbar (lower back) vertebrae, sacral (pelvic) vertebrae, and coccygeal (tailbone) vertebrae. Most fossils are incomplete to various degrees. As far as completeness goes, the A. sediba partial skeletons are fairly complete. The adult female (MH2) now has a nearly complete lower back—all five lumbar vertebrae are represented, and we know that’s all there are because we also have the lower thoracic vertebrae and the sacrum, which surround the lumbar region.

Q: Might the curvature in MH2’s lower back be due to the fact that she was a female? Is it possible that male members of A. sediba didn’t have lumbar lordosis?

A: This is certainly a possibility. A. sediba falls nearest the modern human female mean, whereas a male A. africanus specimen, a close relative of A. sediba, falls near the modern human male mean. Modern humans are sexually dimorphic, where females demonstrated more lordosis on average than males, although significant overlap between the sexes exists. We might expect male A. sediba individuals to show less evidence for curvature than Issa (aka Malapa Hominin 2) and other females. There is a male partial skeleton (“Karabo,” Malapa Hominin 1), but it belongs to a juvenile individual currently known from just two lumbar vertebrae.

Q: What movements does one observe in the lumbar region?

A: The lumbar region allows flexion (forward bending) and extension (backward bending), with limited lateral bending. Rotation is restricted in the lumbar region, whereas it is achieved in the thoracic region. These movements are achieved (and prevented) largely by the orientation of the intervertebral articular facet joints, which are generally flat in thoracic vertebrae and curved in lumbar vertebrae.

Q: We know now that A. sediba had five lumbar vertebrae, just like humans. Why is that important to know?

A: Numbers of vertebrae above the pelvis (presacral vertebrae) are highly conserved in mammals (https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/48312-on-the-backs-of-mammals-evolutionary-constraint-in-the-evolution-of-the-mammalian-vertebral-column). Therefore, they are useful for figuring out how fossils are related to each other and to living species. As far as we know, all hominins have five lumbar vertebrae, but A. africanus, A. sediba, and Homo erectus differ from the average modern human in having a more mobile last thoracic vertebra, adding to the mobility of the lower back and potentially facilitating lordosis in these species.

Q: With its mosaic features, is A. sediba a “Missing Link”?

A: The term “Missing Link” is often used to speak about ancient human relatives. It derives from the idea that evolution is like a “chain” where one species inevitably “links” to the next more advanced. This is where the misleading image often seen on T-shirts of the “march of progress” from a primitive four-legged ancestor all the way to modern humans. Evolution doesn’t happen that way and the actual image of human evolution is more like a braided stream, with complex interactions occurring between species in the past through gene exchange. Some species go extinct, some share their genes with others, and some persist through long periods of time, but may make no contribution to future generations. Issa’s spine though is a sort of missing link between the upper body and lower body. Some scientists had long thought that australopithecines like A. sediba climbed well due the anatomy of their upper limbs. Other scientists disagreed seeing the adaptations in the lower limbs as committed to terrestrial bipedalism and early hominins would climb no better than a human and certainly not as well as an ape. As the spine “links” the lower body with the upper body, it shows us, in Issa, that she could and did climb using her upper limbs as well as many apes, but it also shows she could walk on two legs extremely well. So, the discovery of her spine was in some ways the “missing link” for proving that A. sediba could climb as well as an ape, but still walk on two legs efficiently.”

What an amazing announcement! We are so grateful to be a part of sharing this amazing news, and helping educate and share the information so that all can understand it! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact myself at worldofpaleoanthropology@gmail.com or any of the listed contacts above!

Now, before we go, let us give a quick thanks to all of the authors involved!

Well, and there you have it! What an exciting day! I thank you all for participating with us here, and I hope you have learned a great deal and are now up to date with some of the latest ideas and hypotheses!

Be sure to join us next time!

Seth Chagi

Project Director

World of Paleoanthropology

You can find a link to the actual paper below, and in our Featured Papers section!

williams-et-al.-2021.-new-fossils-of-australopithecus-sediba-1 Download