Assignment #3
Introduction to Biological Anthropology
ANTH 130-01, Spring 2016
64 points
You and your group will complete the following. Only one copy of your work needs to be submitted online for the group to the appropriate location (in the
“Assignments” folder).
Please include group number and names of all group members who worked on the assignment at the top of your document. Upload your document in the dropbox…do not type directly into the textbox.
Go to the following website. http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-
evolution-timeline-interactive
This is an interactive timeline of human evolution.
At the top, it shows climate changes over the past 8 million years. (Recent time is on the left; 8 million years ago to the right.) When you place your mouse in this section, purple bars appear towards the top. Click on these for more detailed information.
In the middle, various hominin species are shown with red bars reflecting the length of time they existed as well as when they appeared and when they disappeared from the fossil record. You can click on any of these species for more information. (Note: The timeline uses “
Paranthropus” as the genus name for the robust australopithecines.)
At the bottom, major milestones are marked. You can click on these for
more information.
After examining the timeline, select the “magnifier” key from below the graph. This will highlight and magnify a portion of the timeline. You
can slide the magnifier right and left. Within the highlighted/magnified portion, colored circles appear that you can click on to learn more about particular fossils. There is a “color key” available in the magnifier box that will show what each color indicates. For example, blue circles are for information about particular fossils, while pink circles are about changes in tools and food.
Spend some time exploring the timeline with and without the magnifier.