1.1. "They are interested in people and their ancestors, wherever or whenever they lived. Simply, you are studying a field that is holistic, unlike any you have studied before,"(Larsen 5).
1.2. Physical Anthropology is the study of the human body. This includes a study of genetics, anatomy, the skeleton, adaptation to diseases, adaptations to the environment, growth, nutrition, human origins and evolution, human variation, primates, and much more.
1.3. Human Evolution: Crash Course Big History #6
2. Chapter 2: Evolution: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory
2.1. "Many evolutionary biologists today limit their definition of evolution to genetic change only. However, nongenetic developmental change—biological change occurring within an individual’s lifetime—can give an adaptive advantage (or disadvantage) to an individual or individuals within a population," (Larsen 60).
2.2. Evolution is essentially descent with modification from preexisting species or cumulative inherited change in a population of organisms through time leading to the appearance of new forms.
2.3. How Evolution Works (And How We Figured It Out)
3. Chapter 8: Fossils and Their Place in Time and Nature
3.1. "Fossils are the very heart of the study of evolution. They provide us with the only direct physical evidence of past life and its evolution, from the simple bacterial organisms that lived more than 3 billion years ago to the complex organisms that evolved later," (Larsen 237).
3.2. A fossil is the remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock.
3.3. https://youtu.be/bRuSmxJo_iA
4. Chapter 9: Primate Origins and Evolution
4.1. "By the late nineteenth century, other French paleontologists had realized that Cuvier’s fossil was that of an early primate, a finding that has been substantiated time and time again during the twentieth century, making Adapis the first primate fossil described by a scientist," (Larsen 274).
4.2. Primates are mammals that usually have grasping hands, large brains and flat faces that set them apart from other mammals. Humans, gorillas, lemurs and tarsiers are all examples of primates.
4.3. The Evolution of Primates 🦍
5. Chapter 10: Early Hominin Origins and Evolution
5.1. "The morphological characteristics and behaviors inferred from these characteristics shared by living humans and their ancestors but not shared by apes reveal what is distinctive about hominins. For example, living humans speak, use language, depend fully on complex material culture, and have advanced cognition—living apes do not have these characteristics," (Larsen 310).
5.2. A Hominin is a primate of a taxonomic tribe, which comprises those species regarded as human, directly ancestral to humans, or very closely related to humans.
5.3. Our Earliest Ancestors
6. Chapter 11: The Origins and Evolution of Early Homo
6.1. "Modern humans are distinctive in having large brains and in depending on material culture for survival. Rather than relying on their bodies for the collection, processing, and eating of food, modern humans rely on tools and technology as part of their adaptive strategy," (Larsen 355).
6.2. Homo erectus is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago, and its specimens are among the first recognisable members of the genus Homo.
6.3. Homo Erectus - The First Humans
7. Chapter 12: The Origins, Evolution, and Dispersal of Modern People
7.1. "What do physical anthropologists mean by modern? This question is very important because the answer to it provides us with the baseline from which to assess the origins, evolution, and geographic distribution of modern Homo sapiens," (Larsen 393)
7.2. An occipital bun, also called occipital spurs, occipital knob, chignon hooks or inion hooks, is a prominent bulge or projection of the occipital bone at the back of the skull. It is important in scientific descriptions of classic Neanderthal crania.
7.3. Human Origins 101 | National Geographic
8. Chapter 13: The Past 10,000 Years
8.1. "By any measure, agriculture ranks as one of the most transformative developments in the record of hominin evolution. It was the foundation for the profoundly important adaptive transition from foraging to farming," (Larsen 447).
8.2. Domestication is the process of adapting wild plants and animals for human use. Domestic species are raised for food, work, clothing, medicine, and many other uses.
8.3. Are Humans Domesticated? How We Got This Way
9. Chapter 3: Genetics: Reproducing Life and Producing Variation
9.1. "Consider forensic science, where fingerprints and blood types were once the primary evidence. Thanks to DNA, far smaller samples—of tissue, bone, hair, and blood—can be used to identify victims’ remains and to identify criminals with far greater accuracy," (Larsen 88).
9.2. The genetic code is a collection of genes that are passed down from generation to generation. It is used by DNA, which stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, and it is essentially the scientific blueprint for all lifeforms on earth. Genetic coding is similar to computer coding in the sense that it determines what we as people will end up looking like and acting like.
9.3. What is DNA and How Does it Work?
10. Chapter 4: Genes and Their Evolution
10.1. "Human populations exhibit some remarkable biological differences, and the science of genetics helps biologists answer questions about those differences. The questions and the answers are founded on Darwin’s discovery that phenotypes—the physical manifestations of genes—change over time. In addition, Mendel’s research on garden peas revealed how the inheritance of genes produces variation in phenotypes. These two revolutionary scientific discoveries inform our understanding of biological variation and its evolution," (Larsen 90).
10.2. Genetics is the science of heredity, dealing with resemblances and differences of related organisms resulting from the interaction of their genes and the environment.
10.3. Heredity: Crash Course Biology #9
11. Chapter 5: Biology in the Present
11.1. "The idea of race—that human variation can be classified—is a recent invention. Early written records do not use the concept. For example, even though ancient Egyptians represented sub-Saharan Africans in their art, they never referred to the Africans’ race. The Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 484–ca. 420 BC) traveled widely but never wrote about race. Similarly, the great Venetian historian and traveler Marco Polo (1254– 1324), who saw more of the known world than anyone else of his day, recorded huge amounts of information about his sojourns in Asia without mentioning race," (Larsen 126).
11.2. Race is defined as each of the major groupings into which humankind is considered (in various theories or contexts) to be divided on the basis of physical characteristics or shared ancestry.
11.3. The myth of race, debunked in 3 minutes
12. Chapter 6: Biology in the Present, Other Living Primates
12.1. "Among the practical applications for the study of primates are advances in medicine. Many types of primates have some of the same or closely related diseases as humans. In the past 50 years, millions of human lives have been saved around the world because of the study of diseases found in both primates and humans. For example, chimpanzees are susceptible to polio. The vaccine for polio, a once-dreaded disease that killed and debilitated millions around the world, was developed via primate research in the 1950s," (Larsen 168).
12.2. A Microcosm is a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger.
12.3. Primates- What is a Primate?
13. Chapter 7: Primate Sociality, Social Behavior, and Culture
13.1. "Underlying much of what motivates primatologists to study primate social behavior is one central question: Why are primates social? To seek answers to this question, primatologists study primate societies all over the world with an eye toward social diversity and ways that primate societies are organized. To understand sociality in our nearest living relatives is to gain insight into the origins of sociality in we humans," (Larsen 208).
13.2. A Primate is a mammal of an order that includes the lemurs, bushbabies, tarsiers, marmosets, monkeys, apes, and humans. They are distinguished by having hands, feet that are similar to hands, and forward-facing eyes, and, with the exception of humans, are typically agile tree-dwellers.
