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Ahmed 1 Kazi Ahmed Dr.

James LePree WCIV 10100 Section E 11 October 2011

Bipedalism, when compared to quadrupedalism, requires more motor skill and thus a more capable and more complex musculoskeletal system. So it follows that a larger and more complex brain is necessary to control such fine motor function. When Charles Dawson and Smith Woodward found the Piltdown Man in 1912 while digging gravel for paths at Barkham Manor, Piltdown, they thought they had discovered the connection between apes and modern day humans. Their theory was strongly supported by the very human like skull because in their time it was widely accepted that the cranial capacity of a species would increase before it can walk upright on two feet (Oakley, et al., 1955). The skull that they found was a combination between a brain-case that was very human and a jaw that was very much like the jaw of an ape. However, the jaw was found separately from rest of the skull, and Woodward reasoned that the jaw, however ape-like, still had some human features such as flattened molar teeth - a characteristic that is very unlike apes. Thus, the jaw had to have belonged to a very human like creature, and since the discovery of the jaw coincided with the cranium of the Piltdown Man, Woodward suggested that they belonged to the same species (Oakley, et al., 1955). Subsequent discoveries in China and South Africa of Peking Man and the Taung Baby, however, challenged Dawson and Woodwards discovery. The new discoveries, with brain cases that were decidedly ape-like, differed from Piltdown Man in their skull characteristics suggesting

Ahmed 2 that bipedalism preceded increased cranial capacity. Nonetheless, Woodwards theory stood as he suggested that there could very well have been several different paths to human evolution. The story of the Piltdown Man was definitively rendered to be a hoax in 1949 through the then new fluorine dating method which measured the amount of fluorine absorbed from the nearby soil. Using contemporary elephant tusks from Barkham Manor, the Piltdown Man dated to be younger than 50,000 years old, and thus the Peking Man and Taung Baby theories superseded the Piltdown Man propositions (Oakley, et al., 1955). Even then, the link between modern humans and apes, the evolutionary connection of bipedal locomotion, was missing. Since neither Peking Man nor the Taung Baby could provide for the connection, the search was still on. Fast forward to 1974 when Dr. Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discovered Lucy in Hadar in northern Ethiopia (BBC). They did not first find the skull nor the pelvis, but rather a knee joint. The joint was similar to that of a humans but was not an exact duplicate. That led Johanson to share his finding with his friend Owen Lovejoy, an anatomist, parttime forensic scientist and an expert on animal locomotion. When Lovejoy first saw the joint, he immediately said that it was a human knee. The joint had all the characteristics of bipedalism, not quadrupedalism (IN SEARCH OF HUMAN ORIGINS PART ONE - Nova). According to Johanson, walking upright is something that only humans can do which requires a special kind of knee joint that can be locked straight. The knee joint that he had found had a locking mechanism, indicating that the organism that the joint belonged to did indeed walk upright on two feet as the primary form of locomotion. Chimps do have the ability to walk upright, but since they lack a joint that can be locked straight, they are forced to walk with bent legs when they do walk upright. This is tiring and impractical for the main mode of movement. Using this reasoning, Johanson concluded that the owner of the knee joint walked upright (Nova)

Ahmed 3 After learning the knee was designed for an organism that walked upright, Johanson needed to know how old the artifact was, so he dated it using a Potassium-Argon dating technique. Using light colored volcanic ash from hills in Hadar where the specimen was found, Johanson and his team found out that the knee was over three million years old, thus easily one of the oldest human fossils ever found. This could be the connection between apes and humans (Nova). The following year, with more funding and resources, Johanson and his team went back to the area to search for the rest of the remains. One day, as he was about to head back to camp, he saw something sticking out of the ground and immediately recognized it as another set of artifacts from the same species as the knee joint from the previous year. The expedition obtained bits of a skull, jaw fragments, pieces of a leg, and a shattered pelvis among other parts. The pieces of a leg included a new knee joint. Johanson noted that this new joint was identical to the one he discovered in 1974, suggesting that this new organism they discovered also walked on two feet (Nova). Upon putting the pieces together, they concluded it belonged to an adult female, now name Lucy, at three and a half feet tall. Her cranial capacity was not what was expected because people thought the missing link would be a smart ape that walked on all fours instead of a relatively unintelligent bipedal creature. Lucys pelvis did not hint at bipedalism at first but Owen Lovejoy noticed a physical defect in the pelvis that may have been caused by extraneous circumstances. So Lovejoy subsequently remodeled the broken pelvis back to its original shape. Then it showed that the animals pelvis was indeed designed for bipedal locomotion and that Lucy walked on two feet (Nova). Further research independent of Johansons and Lovejoys work further supports their conclusions. Mary Leakey led an expedition a thousand miles from Hadar near Laetoli, Tanzania that resulted in the discovery of footprints. The prints were preserved as they hardened into rock due to

Ahmed 4 volcanic eruptions that covered the then fresh prints with volcanic ash. The three and a half million year old footprints showed a couple of individuals walking side by side. The footprints and walking patterns were almost identical and indistinguishable from those of modern humans. The biggest indication of bipedalism was the lack of an imprint from a free great toe, and thus an arch in the footprint. A chimpanzees footprint, however, shows a very clear free great toe and no arch. Given that the arch acts as an energy absorber, it is logical to conclude that the animals walked upright for a significant amount of time. Additionally, since Leakeys discovery dates back to a time period similar to Johansons discovery, the two pieces of evidence together strongly suggest that human ancestors walked upright three and a half million years ago (Nova). Then it became important to understand why Lucy and her kind found it advantageous to walk upright. Even before Lucys time, the climate in Africa was changing. The voluminous forests were slowly receding as desertification took hold. Forests slowly became grasslands and it became necessary for some animals to adapt to the changing circumstances. The monkeys were able to retreat back into the forest and find shelter and food in the tree canopies, and antelopes colonized the forest edges. Apes, however, were declining in number because they could not reach the tree tops, and could not find food in the grasslands. Lucys kind was able to adapt to the circumstances by standing upright and foraging for food across a wider field. Lucy would be able to go from one patch of forest to another with relative ease increasing her chances of finding food and thus her chances of survival. She had her hands free to collect food because she did not have to use her arms for balance or movement (Nova). Johanson knows that the environment was not as dry and arid as it is in the modern day because of the many other fossils found in the vicinity of Hadar. He found elephant tusks and pig teeth suggesting that there was plenty of food and vegetation. Geologist, Tesfaye Yemani, conclud-

Ahmed 5 ed that Hadar was wet and forested millions of years ago by sampling ancient layers of the Earth that have been exposed in the Great Rift Valley. Using this information, Johanson supports his analysis of Lucys changing environment (Nova). The discoveries provide compelling evidence that Lucy and her kind was indeed a human ancestor. She provides connection in the missing link between apes and humans. Apes are starkly rugged animals in comparison to humans and Lucy shows the transition from the apess quadruped characteristics to humanss biped characteristics. Even though Lucy differs from apes in that respect, she is very similar to them because of her torso which is indeed very apelike. Her cranial capacity also coincides with those of apes. Lucys remains show a hybrid of both apes and humans. But thats not all the evidence. Johanson reasoned that Lucys kind abandoned the harem culture that apes are associated with, suggesting a monogamous culture that transitions into more human behavior. Arguably, some pieces of evidence are debatable, namely Lucys pelvis. While Lovejoy did remodel the pelvis and, in the eyes of skeptics, possibly changed it to fit a preformed conclusion, it is misguided to thereby assume that Lucy did not walk upright given the other sets of information provided by the Laetoli prints in addendum to Lucys knee joint. The discoveries are also are in accordance to Charles Darwins hypothesis that modern humans began to evolve in Africa. When seen in concert, the evidence very strongly suggests that Lucy is indeed our ancestor. However, that should not discourage further expeditions. They may very well point to a drastically different scenario, but only further research can lead to more discoveries and conclusions. Johansons work contrasted the idea that the brain would develop before a species became bipedal animals. This important piece of information may raise new questions of human definition. If, as a species, humans differentiated from their ape counterparts because their method of locomo-

Ahmed 6 tion and not intelligence nor abstract thought, then it may be necessary to redefine humans without using the explicitness of higher intellectual capabilities. Work that gives new information on human evolution can also serve in the medical communities. It is important to understand when and why human brains developed to better understand neurophysiology. The initial causes of the increased brain size could be used to supplement modern treatments in newborns with neurological impairments. Since their brains are still growing after birth, it is important to understand why the human brain evolved in that way as opposed to apes and chimpanzees. Johansons work, and future discoveries, have very promising applications.

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Works Cited

BBC. "Mother of Man - 3.2 Million Years Ago." BBC - Homepage. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. <http:// www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/mother_of_man1.shtml www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/mother_of_man1.shtml>. IN SEARCH OF HUMAN ORIGINS PART ONE. Prod. Paula S. Apsell. Perf. Donald Johanson. Nova, 1994. Transcript. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/ 2106hum1.html>. Oakley, Kenneth F., and J. S. Weiner. "Piltdown Man." Clark University. Oct. 1955. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. <http://www.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_gen_hist_surveys/ piltman_oaklywiener.html>.

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