AMAZING WORLD OF SCIENCE WITH MR. GREEN
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humans as primates webquest

Introduction

Have you ever visited the primate house at a local zoo or watched a television program about primates? Many people are amused at the antics of gorillas,chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs as they eat, play, and explore. Did 
you know that humans are primates, too? All primates have opposable thumbs, a relatively large brain, good binocular vision, and flexible joints. Theearliest  primates were prosimians, a group that includes present-day lemurs.

Humanlike primates were called anthropoids. Present-day anthropoids include the monkeys  and the hominids—apes and humans. Although humans,
gorillas, and chimpanzees are  close cousins genetically, humans did not evolve from the great apes. Instead,  humans and apes probably evolved from a common ancestor between 8 and 5 million  years ago. These two different groups formed the hominids – primates that can  walk upright on two legs. 

Whereas the apes continued to evolve into the  gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons of
today, humans  followed a different path. What hominids were the ancestors of present-day  humans? How long ago did human ancestors split off from the rest of
the  hominids? Where did humans first evolve? Why is there just one species of humans  alive today?
These are some of the questions you will explore in this
WebQuest  on hominid fossils.
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Task

Your job in this WebQuest is to learn all about the evolution of humans. You will learn about the earliest hominids that may be part of the evolution of humans, and about the fossils that have been found which support this idea. You will look at photographs of these fossils and read about their similarities and differences. You will find out how scientists have pieced together the story of human evolution, and discover that the story is far from complete. You will
fill  in a table that lists which hominids play a part in human evolution. Finally,  you will answer a few questions about hominid fossils to demonstrate what you  have learned in your Internet research.

Resources
 
Look at the web sites given here to find the information that will enable you to complete your table on hominid fossils and answer a few questions.
 
  • Prominent  Hominid Fossils. Visit this site for a comprehensive listing of all  hominid fossils that are important either for their scientific or historic  interest. Scroll down and click on any photo to see a larger image and a  description of the fossil.
  • The  Evidence: Hominid Fossils. Go to this University of Texas site to learn  about the more important hominid fossils and what they can tell us about the  evolution of humans. This is a very interesting site.
  • The  Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution in China. At this site you can learn  about recent discoveries
    in China that provide new evidence about human  evolution. Click on the skull to read the article.
  • Human  Evolution. Visit this site to see a proposed chart of human evolution  from 5 million years ago to the present. This chart illustrates the best fit for  known fossil specimens to date, but it is not accepted totally. As new fossils  are found, they tend to impact thoughts about human evolution.
  • Human  Evolution: The fossil evidence in 3D.
    Go to this site for an interactive  comparison of the crania of five modernand five fossil primates. You will need  shockwave plugin (available here) to view the gallery. Hold down the lefthand  button on your mouse and move the cursor over each photograph to see the front  and side views of each cranium.
     
  • A  Science Odyssey: You Try It: Human Evolution Activity. At this site you  can use your mouse to move
    through a timeline of human evolution. You can stop  at any time from 5 million years ago to the present to learn about the hominid  species that may, or may not, be a part of human ancestry
  • Early  Human Evolution. Visit this site by Palomar College, San Marcos,  California for an online course on human evolution. Click on early transitional  humans to learn more about the earliest hominid species. Then scroll down and  click on nest topic to read more about Homo erectus.
  • Human  Ancestry: Species. Go to this site to see a timeline with the hominid  species from each time period. Click on any highlighted species name to read a  short article about that species. This is a very detailed and excellent site.
  • Early  Human Phylogeny. At this Smithsonian Institution site you can see  another timeline showing the evolution of hominids over the last 5 million  years. Scroll down and click on any species name to learn more about that  species. Or you can click on catalog to see a particular specimen in the  National Museum of Natural History’s collection. 
  • New  Hominid Species Complicates Early Hominid Evolution. Visit this site to  read about a 3.5 million-year-old skull found in Kenya in 1998-1999. This skull  is a new species called Kenyanthropus platyops. It is strikingly  different from Australopithecus afarensis fossils from the same place and  time period.
  • In  the Beginning: Humans and Environmental Change. Go to this site to learn  more about the environmental changes that led to hominid evolution in Africa and  beyond. 
  • Guided  Tour – Hominid Evolution. At this site you can learn about the  earliest hominids and see photographs of the fossils. You can also learn more  about associated topics, such as bipedalism, at this site.

Process

Now that you have completed your research on hominid fossils, prepare a table like the one below with the information that you have gathered on each of the  species listed. For each species, list the location in which the first fossils of its type were found and the estimated age of that fossil. You will need to   look at all of the web sites listed in order to complete the table. Once the table has been filled in, answer the questions that follow.

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Questions about Hominid Fossils
 
  1. A new species named Kenyanthropus platyops was found recently in Kenya. Between what two species would you place this species in the above table,  and why?
  2. Another new species was discovered in Ethiopia in 1999. What is the genus and species of this fossil? Where would you place it in the above table?
  3. Name three of the clear trends in the evolution of hominids from early australopithecines to recent humans. For example, one clear trend is increasing brain size.
  4. Which step in hominid evolution came first – bipedal locomotion or larger brains? How do scientists know this?
  5. What happened about 8 to 5 million years ago in Africa that may have led to the development of many different species of hominids?
  6. Why are Neanderthals sometimes given the name Homo sapiens neanderthalensis?
  7. Why is there still so much controversy over the evolution of humans from hominids
  8. In your opinion, do you think they lived in the same region and is there a possibility that they interacted with each other?
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