Erectine Adaptations

Groups: Form a group of 2-3 people of your own choosing. Make sure at least one person has good notes from the last week!

Goals:

• • To review critical information about chimpanzees, australopiths, modern humans (anatomically modern Homo sapiens) and the erectines

  • To highlight the major differences in adaptation between erectines and earlier hominins, and the ways in which they are more like modern humans than earlier hominins

  • To consider the ways erectines are unique, neither like modern humans nor earlier hominins

Procedure

• 1. You will be given a worksheet. Make sure your own name is at the top.

  2. The worksheet has been pre-filled with information about niche dimensions for chimpanzees, australopiths, and modern humans. Answer the questions for erectines, as fully as you can.

  3. Spend ten minutes discussing the following questions, writing your answers on the back of the worksheet:

     1. 1. what is the most important difference between erectines and australopiths?

        2. In what ways are erectines most like modern humans?

        3. What aspects of the erectine adaptation are unique to them (not shared with earlier hominins or modern humans)?

  4. We will have a full class discussion. You should be prepared to talk about your group's discussion.

Take-home Messages

• • Erectines were, in most ways, much more like modern humans than like earlier hominins.

  • Erectines were not modern humans, however. They were unique in their adaptation.

  • In erectines and other late hominins, behavior is highly variable, because we have evolved to be flexible, not rigid.

Reflection

Take five minutes to reflect on this activity. Did this activity help you to logically contrast the adaptations of the different groups of species? What do you think is the most important trait that defines the erectines?