All language subtitles for 5 0 Introductiontohumanevolution angl

when we think about what makes us human

we often think about things like our large brains

our complex societies

our sophisticated technology

this also includes things like our upright posture

and our ability to walk and run very efficiently

but when we look in the past

we can see that a number of these features

came about at different times and in different species

hi I'm Tanya Smith

I'm an associate professor

in the Australian Research Center for Human Evolution

at Griffith University

Today I'm gonna give you an overview of human evolution

we're gonna talk about

7 million years of human pre history

we often think of the early part

of the human fossil record

as being made up of species that are fairly ape like

when you look at the skull of a chimpanzee

our closest living relative

you can see that they have fairly small brains

and large faces

they also tend to walk on four limbs

they're quadrupedal

as opposed to humans

who are bipedal

we know today

though through modern genetics

the chimpanzees are

in fact our closest living relative

and the early part of the human fossil record

shows that in very good detail

humans have been evolving in Africa

for more than 7 million years

the earliest part of the fossil record is pretty spotty

we actually have only a few different bones

from species

that live between 4 and 7 million years ago

we recognize them as human ancestors

because we think they walked

on two legs

they actually had very small brains

similar to chimpanzees

and fairly much unlike our own brains

we don't have any evidence that they use tools

and we don't know very much about their social groups

so when we think of human

and our ancestors

technically

we call this whole group homonens

that would include relatives

as well as direct ancestors

of our own genus and species

Homo sapiens

the record of homonens goes back 7 million years ago

we can think of human evolution

kind of like a three act play

the earliest scene takes place in Africa

7 million years ago

with some of the most primitive members

of our human family tree

we call these early hominins

different names

depending on where they were found

and who discovered them

but what unites them

is the fact that they were fairly small brained

really short

and stature

and they didn't use very complex technology

some of the earliest

common in fossils

that we find

actually share more in common with chimpanzees

than with humans living today

for example

you can see this chimpanzee skull

has a very large

projecting face

and a very small brain case

this fossil hominin

is one of the very earliest fossils we've discovered

at 7 million years

it has a large face

and a very small brain

and a projecting facial portion

similar to the chimpanzee

the second act in the play

or scene if you will

is made up of the australopithecines

again fairly small brained

large faced

hominance which had

in some cases

very large ridges

on the outsides of their skull

this is a more diverse group of species

which live throughout Africa

for several million years

we start to see the earliest evidence

for tool use

in the Australia epithenes

however they didn't yet have the large brains

and modern like bodies

that we see in our own species

last act in the play

the genus Homo

moving from the Australia pithesines

the middle part of the fossil record

to the genus Homo

you can start to see

that the face is getting a little bit smaller

while the brain is actually starting to enlarge

the genus Homo

turns up about

two and a half million years ago in Africa

we start to see an enlargement of the brain

somewhere in this period

as well as a realignment of the body

to be even more efficient in walking and running

the genus Homo used tools in a new way

in a more sophisticated way

over the last few million years

we have a number of different technologies

that we can recognize

members of the genus Homo

specifically Homoractus

were built to be able to walk and run

efficiently hunt

they certainly produce stone tools

with increasing sophistication

and they left Africa

somewhere close to 2 million years ago

and started to spread out throughout Eurasia

as well as into Asia

it's at that point

we start to see a real diversification

of members of the genus Homo

one of the most interesting and well represented

species of the genus Homo are Neanderthals

Homo sapiens

our own species

represented by this skull

has a very small face

comparatively

and an even more expanded brain than the Neanderthal

by volume however

the Neanderthal has the largest brain

Homo sapiens arose sometime around 300,000 years ago

we have evidence from North Africa

a large brained species

with a long developmental period

and we start to find fossils as well

throughout Africa in the last 200,000 years

it's at that point

we start to see a real diversification

of members of the genus Homo

we see a number of really interesting species

Homo floresiensis

for example

we find it on the island of Floris

is a very unusual and unique member of the genus Homo

we see other species arise

for example

the Neanderthals in Europe

um very large brained species

very robust

large bodied

stocky interesting

and very different than um

other species that we find

for example

in South Africa

like homonoletic

so the radiation of the genus Homo

over the last few million years

has given rise to a number of different species

our species

Homo sapiens

over the last hundred thousand years

engaged in some really interesting

and complex symbolic behaviors

we start to see things like pierced shells

the use of pigments like ochre

the designing of personal adornments

like pierced animal teeth

as well as other abstract forms of artistic expression

this is something that may have given us an advantage

over other hominins that were living at the same time

including the Neanderthals in Europe

or other species in Africa and in Asia

we're still trying to understand

who made some of the symbolic art

in some cases

it's actually not clear whether it was our species