Laboratory inquiry 3: Forensic case
In this laboratory exercise, you will work to uncover the identity of a hominin fossil.
The bones that make up the shoulder are the scapula, clavicle and humerus.
Your task in the first laboratory inquiry assignment is to develop a hypothesis about the anatomy of the common ancestor of two species of anthropoid primate...
Note: This page will change, as your inquiry assignment progresses. Keep checking back here.
In this course, you will be working extensively with skeletal anatomy. The skeleton provides the primary evidence about our evolutionary history. Skeletal ev...
When talking about bones and teeth, we will need to use several terms to orient ourselves. Some of the terms are obvious, like right and left. Other intuitiv...
Anthropometry is the science of measuring the human body.
Many of the differences between Neandertals and modern humans can be found in the face and jaw. Neandertals had relatively tall faces, and substantial progna...
For anthropologists, Africa was a point of exceptional diversity between 2 million and 1.5 million years ago. In both East and South Africa, the fossil recor...
At this station, you’ll find some articulated human feet. “Articulated” means that the bones are assembled together at their joints – two bones that articula...
Here you will find a cast of the Piltdown specimen. Both the skull and mandible were real bone; the problem is that the skull was human and the jaw orangutan...
Neandertals were very robustly built. This means that they had relatively thick bones, with thick layers of cortical bone. It also means they had relatively ...
The Neandertals were Late Pleistocene inhabitants of Europe, and their skeletal remains were among the first fossil humans that scientists recognized as repr...
By the end of the Middle Pleistocene, people throughout the inhabited world had attained brain sizes in the range of living people. Technology had ad- vanced...
This lab has a take-home assignment, which is worth three points when you turn it in at next week’s lab section.
The basic measure of genetic difference between two populations is the statistic, FST. In genetics, the term F generally stands for ``inbreeding’’, which ten...
Individuals whose ancestry derives mostly from different parts of the world sometimes have different cranial features. Forensic anthropologists have studied ...
Determining sex from human mandibles (as you will do in another part of this lab) depends on a series of characteristics that tend to differ between male and...
The Mauer mandible comes from just southeast of Heidelberg, Germany, and was found in ancient sands deposited just more than 600,000 years ago. Upon its desc...
The mandible can provide important evidence in assessment of sex from skeletal remains. Male mandibles are generally heavier and larger than female mandibles...
The cranium has a very distinctive shape, which varies between people to some extent. Some features that vary between individuals in their size or shape are...
The cranium includes all the bones of the head. Altogether, there are 26 cranial bones plus the mandible. Except for the mandible, these bones mostly are fus...
The cranium includes all the bones of the head. Altogether, there are 26 cranial bones plus the mandible. Except for the mandible, these bones mostly are fus...
This station includes several casts of early fossil Homo erectus, from the Early Pleistocene of Africa. These include:
This station has several of the key cranial specimens of Homo habilis, together with Sts 5, the representative of Australopithecus africanus. The H. habilis ...
Homo erectus entered Asia as early as 1.8 million years ago. One of the earliest specimens of the species is the Modjokerto skull, from Java. The spread of t...
The pelvis is a complex made of three bones: the sacrum and the left and right os coxae, also called “innominate” bones. The sacrum forms the posterior part ...
The pelvis is the most accurate indicator of sex in the human skeleton. Its central role in the birth process means that the pelvis has several shape differe...
This station has several casts of remains attributed to the species, Australopithecus africanus. This was the first australopithecine species discovered, and...
Humans are bipeds. The pelvis in humans has undergone radical changes in orientation and shape compared to other anthropoid primates. Many of these changes s...
Teeth have a close association with longevity. Enamel is the hardest substance in the body, but it does break, wear out, and is sometimes attacked by microbe...
Often the skeleton bears signs of disease or injury that occurred during an individual’s lifetime. Not every disease affects bone, but some have highly recog...
The long bones grow in parts. Early in fetal development, the bones are formed from cartilage. Bone tissue forms as special cells (called osteoblasts) lay do...
At this station are casts of Aegyptopithecus zeuxis. This species comes from the Oligocene, approximately 30 million years ago. It is from the Fayum fossil b...
The incisors are the front teeth. They are basically flat and have a blade-like occlusal surface. Each quadrant has two incisors.
Like most mammals, humans have two sets of teeth. The first set is called the deciduous dentition, but you probably know these as “baby teeth.”
The canine teeth in humans range from pointy-shaped to incisor-like in shape. There is only one canine in each quadrant, and it is the third tooth just dista...
Most humans have three molars, but many — especially in America — have their third molars (called wisdom teeth) extracted. Some people do not develop third m...
The premolars are directly distal to (behind) the canines. Generally there are two premolars in each quadrant. Counting backward from the front of the jaw, t...
Different kinds of primates have different numbers of premolars in their dentitions. The ancestral number of premolars in primates is three in each quadrant ...
The most distal teeth are molars. Most humans have three molars, but many — especially in America — have their third molars (called wisdom teeth) extracted. ...
The robust australopithecines existed between 2.5 and 1.5 million years ago. At this station are skeletal remains from two kinds of robust australopithecine....
The cranium includes all the bones of the head. Altogether, there are 26 cranial bones plus the mandible. Except for the mandible, these bones mostly are fus...
This is a very simple lab station. The size of the opening for the ear canal, called the external auditory meatus, is larger in humans than in most other kin...
The form of the earlobes varies in humans. At one extreme, the lowest point on the earlobe is attached to the flesh of the cheek. If not, the earlobe is to v...
The gorilla is the world’s largest living primate. Gorillas are presently distributed broadly across West and Central Africa, in forested areas where human a...
The radius and ulna are the two bones of the lower arm. Rotation of the wrist is actually accomplished by a rotation of the radius around the ulna. The radiu...
The bone of the upper arm is called the humerus. It articulates with the scapula at the shoulder joint, and the radius and ulna at the elbow.
The spine extends from the head to the sacrum, and in most people consists of 24 vertebrae. The vertebral column can be divided into three segments:
Each vertebra has several parts. The most important are:
Between the skull and the sacrum, humans have 24 vertebrae. Well, most humans, anyway. Sometimes humans have a few more or less.
The tibia and fibula are the bones of the lower leg. The fibula forms the lateral part of the ankle joint, preventing dislocation in that direction.
Anthropologists have collected data from many populations in the world, showing the relationship between the parts of the skeleton and body size and stature....
The stations in this lab will introduce one of the best-known species of fossil hominins, evidence of bipedal locomotion early in our evolution, some basic a...
The most striking piece of evidence for bipedality in our earliest hominin relatives is a series of footprint trails at Laetoli, a fossil-bearing site in Tan...
At this station, you’ll be taking some measurements of your body. This is a graded exercise, but we expect that you’ll have no problem getting all the points...
The femur is the bone of the upper leg. The proximal end of the femur connects to the hip joint. It is marked by a spherical ball, called the femoral head, t...
Goals:
The incisors are the front teeth. They are basically flat and have a blade-like occlusal surface. Each quadrant has two incisors.
The cranium includes all the bones of the head. Altogether, there are 26 cranial bones plus the mandible. Except for the mandible, these bones mostly are fus...
TemporalThe lower sides (left and right) of the vault, including the ear opening, or external acoustic porus. OccipitalThe rear and base of the skull, inclu...
These pages are the exercises for a laboratory in introductory biological anthropology.