Becoming Human Documentary & Questions

1. When and where was Lucy discovered? How old is Lucy? What species is she? Why was the discovery of the Lucy fossil so important?

Lucy was discovered in the Afar region in Ethiopia at the end of November in 1974, precisely at noon.  She is 3.2 million years. She belongs to the species Australopithecus afarensis. The hominids fossils that had been found before her were older than 3 million years. She was the most recent found ancestor. All of the human ancestor fossils found after her have been compared to and analyzed according to her.

2. What is a hominid? 

A primate that can walk upright.  

3. What impacts did a changing environment on earth have on hominids? What was the environment like towards the end of the Miocene (10 to 5 million years ago)? What were some consequences of this?

Towards the end of the Miocene, 8 Million years ago, the environment became dryer and colder, and the rainforests became woodlands. Many apes that thrived in the previous arboreal environment thanks to their grasping toes, and high mobility of arms and shoulders went extinct. The common ancestor of Apes and Humans survived.

4. Who is our closest living relative? Does this mean we evolved from this species? Why is the “missing link” concept between humans and apes living today a false idea?

Chimpanzees are our closest living relative. No, it doesn’t mean we evolved from them. What this means is that we share a common ancestor. Evolution does not happen chronologically, or linearly as people often imagine it to. There is no species in between apes and humans, that evolved into humans and therefore went extinct. We all evolved, apes and humans, from the same ancestor. One that probably looked very different from both modern-day apes and humans.

5. What is bipedalism? What is its importance in hominid evolution?

Bipedalism is the ability to walk upright. It was an evolutionary advantage because it improved and expanded the actions of many activities such as feeding, caring, and using gestures.

5. What is the Turkana boy fossil and why was he important? Describe some of its anatomical features. What is his age? What did he eat?

The Turkana boy fossil is the most complete Homo Erectus skeleton found. He was alive about a million and a half years ago. He is a 9-year old male and is 5 feet and 4 inches tall. He is a carnivore. Homo erectus is the first human ancestral species who has initiated species dispersal; Homo Erectus left Africa. Being a carnivore, it has a wide home range – meat everywhere works just the same – and moves depending on the number of members of its species in the land he inhabits.

6. What are some similarities and differences between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens?

They both have a generalized diet, and they both don’t have high sexual dimorphism. Although Homo Sapiens has slight sexual dimorphism, while Homo Erectus has some.  Homo Sapiens have a larger brain size and a higher variability as far as environments they can survive in. Furthermore, Homo Erectus has medium size brow ridges, while Homo Sapiens does not have a pronounced brow ridge at all. Yet, they both have fully bipedal anatomy.

7. Why did Homo erectus leave Africa and populate other areas of the globe?

Homo erectus left because of the numbers of members of its species in its ancestral land.

8. Carol Ward says that “Selection favored habitually terrestrial bipediality”. What selection pressures favored humans walking on the ground over swinging in trees?

The lack of trees – the deforestation of the land – was the reason behind the natural selection. Furthermore, it allowed them to hunt animals and therefore be able to colonize other areas, as carnivores have a larger home range than herbivores.

9. What is the major question about the evolutionary relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans? Explain the different ideas/conflicts about this. Compare the ideas of Paleoanthropologists Ian Tattersall and Cathy Willermet.

The major question is whether Neanderthals are a completely different branch of hominids and modern humans do not share any DNA with them, or they are a common ancestor of modern humans.

Tattersall believes that Neanderthals are a different species that has gone extinct. He thinks they are too different in face and brain case structure to share DNA with modern humans.

Willermet instead believes that Neanderthals have gone extinct but before that have mixed with Homo Sapiens. As a consequence, we share DNA with Neanderthals.

10. Africa was the only place that human evolution took place for the first three or four million years of hominid existence. The first species to spread into new continents was Homo erectus.  There are different theories about how our species, sapiens, spread across the globe.  Compare the Out of Africa theory to the Multiregional theory of modern human evolution and dispersal.   

According to the ‘Out of Africa’ theory modern humans evolved in Africa and then from there spread to other parts of the world. Other archaic human species that were present went extinct without mixing with modern humans. The variations in human populations occurred later in time, more recently. In this case breeding between Neanderthals and modern humans cannot happen.             The ‘Multiregional’ theory, instead, claims that modern humans evolved in various parts of the world, mixing with archaic human species, and evolving with the specific variations of their regional environment. In this case modern humans mated with Neanderthals.      

We originally come from Africa for both theories. However, in one case homo erectus evolved into modern humans within Africa and then migrated to the rest of the world without mixing with archaic humans. In the other case Homo Erectus migrated from Africa, evolved into modern humans and mixed with other archaic humans.

11. Scientists have discovered and investigated finger engravings in Australia, 24,000 years ago. What might these findings mean for human evolution?  What can we learn from studying people still living today, such as the Aboriginal people?

We can study the way our ancestors perceived the world, their culture, society, and activities.  We can find the origins of human consciousness. Finally, the paintings might show the way their environment was, the kind of vegetation and animals that were present.

12. Building shelters, hunting, tool making, controlling fire, language, wearing clothing, burying the dead, making art- all of these give us clues to our early cultural evolution. How can studying our past cultural evolution help us determine what our place is (or should be) in nature today? 

I think it definitely will be helpful. The past is always helpful for the present and the future. As long as we don’t start believing that the past is better than the present/future, and we keep progressing, I think looking back is useful. We are very similar to our ancestors, but we are also very different. You cannot unlearn or reverse the effects of experience. We are who we are and there is no going back, just moving forward. Hopefully, it will be for the better.

13. Explain whether thinking about the evolution of hominid species alters the way you think about human beings in general or yourself.

Even though I know this, often my subconscious forgets that we are animals. Studying evolution reminds me of that. It also reminds of how much we are deeply connected to the environment we live in. It makes clear how fragile but at the same time how resilient is this relationship.