"THE DAWN OF HUMANKIND"
After a brief review of hominid evolution, this video provides important information about Neanderthals. Pay close attention to the following sections of the film:
• explanation as to whether Neanderthals were or were not capable of speech
• what the shape of their limb bones tell us about their behavior and how it may be similar or different from contemporary humans
• what their bones and teeth tell us about their health
• what their stone tool technology tells us about how they differ from earlier tool-making hominids
• what fossilized pollen tells us about their behavior
The video illustrates evidence from sites in the Middle East. It explains how a new dating technique, thermoluminescence, changed our understanding of the place of Neanderthals in human evolution. Make note of what this tells us about t he phylogenetic relationship and closeness in time of Neanderthals with modern humans.
A very important section of this video presents two sides of the debate which you are expected to be familiar with--
1) the "Out of Africa" theory (often known as the "Eve hypothesis"--represented by Chris Stringer in the video) and
2) the "Multi-regional" theory (represented by Milford Wolpoff in the video) on the evolution of modern humans.
Both morphological and DNA studies (mitochondrial DNA) are central here, and used as evidence in this debate. You would do well to read pp. 468-473 in your textbook before viewing this video. Be sure to understand the basic ideas of eac h theory.
• in viewing the video ask yourself what the two theories have to say about contemporary "races"
• what do each of the theories say about where (geographically) humans originated?
• what do each of the theories say about the fate of Neanderthals--were they ancestors of modern humans or not?
• what do these theories say about evolutionary continuity in different regions of the world? about replacement of one population by another? about mixing of populations?