catastrophe hobbit 2 digss1 tanzania – 1 site 1: tanzania, africa paleoanthropologist andrew hill...

Catastrophe Hobbit 2 Dig SS1

Tanzania – 1

Site 1: Tanzania, Africa Paleoanthropologist Andrew Hill

and another scientist were tossing elephant dung at each other in Laetoli, a hominid site in Tanzania.

As Hill dived out of the way, he stumbled on…

…an ancient trail of hominid footprints.

Catastrophe Hobbit 2 Dig

Tanzania – 2

SS3

Tanzania – 3

SS2 Catastrophe Hobbit 2 Dig

Scientists from Mary Leakey’s team discovered these hominid fossil footprints in 1976.

The footprints are preserved in powdery ash from the eruption of a volcano 20 km away. Soft rain cemented the ash layer to rock without destroying the prints. Later, they were covered by other ash deposits.

Three early humans made the prints, one walking in the footprints of another. They were all going the same way – maybe in a group?

The footprints are the earliest evidence of upright walking. Only humans can do this.

Computer simulations suggest the hominids were walking slowly.

Hominid 1

Hominid 2

Length of footprint, in cm

21.5 18.5

Width of footprint, in cm 10 8.8

Length of pace, in cm 47.2 28.7

Possible height of hominid, in m

1.34 –1.56 1.15–1.34

How do these measurements compare to your own footprint and pace lengths?

The feet do not have the mobile big toe of apes. Instead they have an arch, like modern humans.


Tanzania – 4

SS5

Tanzania – 5


Scientists used potassium-argon dating to find out that the footprint rock layers are 3.6 million years old. So the hominids must have made the prints at about the same time.

This reconstruction shows what the hominids might have looked like.

Nearby footprints show that twenty other animal species lived in Laetoli, including hyenas, wild cats, baboons, giraffes, rhinos, buffalo, hares and birds.

Scientists also found prints of rain drops.

Scientist Mary Leakey studying a footprint.


Ethiopia – 1

Site 2: Ethiopia, Africa

Paleoanthropologist Professor Donald Johanson and his colleague Tom Gray were mapping a dig area at their expedition site.

Feeling ‘lucky’, Johanson walked into another area. By chance, he noticed something lying on the ground partway up a slope.

This ‘something’ turned out to be an exposed bit of a hominid arm bone.


Ethiopia – 2

SS8

Ethiopia – 3

SS7


Paleoanthropologists found these bones in Ethiopia. They put them together to make part of a skeleton.

They nicknamed the skeleton Lucy, after a Beatles song they had been listening to in their camp.

Scientists measured the bones carefully. They did computer simulations to see how Lucy might have walked. She probably walked like modern humans, but maybe with a slight bending of the knees.

Lucy’s teeth are smaller than those of the great apes, but bigger than those of modern humans.

Her brain is smaller than modern human brains, and her face is a different shape.

The bones are from an extinct hominid called Australopithecus afarensis.


Ethiopia – 4

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Ethiopia – 5

SS9


Lucy was found in a layer of sedimentary rock. Erosion had exposed the layer.

Scientists used potassium-argon dating to date the rocks around the fossilised bones:

This reconstruction shows what Lucy may have looked like.

3.2 million year old volcanic ash lies just above Lucy’s layer.

3.8 million year old volcanic ash lies just below Lucy’s layer.

So Lucy lived between 3.2 and 3.8 million years ago.

desert soil

Human-like jaw and skull fragments exposed by erosion

eroded sandstone

volcanic deposit with K/Ar date of 3.2 million years ago

additional human-like bones still covered by rock and soil

volcanic deposit with K/Ar date of 3.8 million years ago

ancient lake bed

bedrock

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/A.afarensis.jp


Georgia – 1

No one was looking for a past that went back so far in time…

Had the scientists found the first Europeans at Dmanisi?

Site 3: Georgia, Eurasia


Georgia – 2

SS13

Georgia – 3


In 1936, archaeologists started excavating a medieval house.

By 1991, the trenches were very deep. Scientists were amazed to find ancient prehistoric remains underneath the house.

They put a roof over the house to stop the weather damaging the exposed layers.

Directly above the bedrock is Stratum A. The lower part of stratum A was made from volcanic silt. Above the volcanic silt are layers of fine sand and carbonates, such as chalk or limestone. Most of the animal remains and all the hominid remains were found in Stratum A.

Above stratum A is Stratum B. This was made from volcanic silts and sands. There is dark grey ash in the middle of the stratum, and grey ash at the bottom. Most of the stone tools were found in Stratum B.

Above the bedrock are two main layers.

The bedrock at the bottom is basalt. It is 1.8 million years old. It shows little evidence of surface erosion. So it was probably quickly buried by volcanic ash, and then by other types of sediment.

the Dmanisi dig site


Georgia – 4

SS15

Georgia – 5

SS14


A hominid skull from Dmanisi.

A stone tool from Dmanisi.


China – 1

Peking Man meets a gruesome end to become a fossil at this site.

New evidence shows this nightmare scene happened a lot longer ago than was first thought…

Hyenas attack the face first.

Site 4: China, eastern Asia


China – 2

SS18

China – 3


A reconstruction of a Peking Man skull.

The dark areas are fossil fragments. The light areas have been worked out and modelled by scientists.

New dating analysis suggests the "Peking Man" fossils are about 750 thousand years old. The dating is based on the radioactive decay of unstable forms of certain elements.

Local quarry men helped scientists discover the Peking Man site in 1921.

The first people to excavate the cave found human fossils from 40 cavemen. They were of an early human species called Homo erectus.

Scientists also found: 10 000 pieces of stoneware.

Fossils from 200 animal species.

Cinder layers suggesting that the cavemen used fire.

There are 15 sites altogether.

This site was originally a limestone cave. The roof had collapsed spreading a layer of rubble across the deposits.


China – 4

SS19

Layer

Thick-ness in m

Rock type Finds

1–2 4 Breccia (bits of rock cemented together) and travertine (a chalk-like sedimentary rock)

Fossils and stoneware

3 3 Breccia and limestone blocks from cave roof collapse

A Peking Man skull, fossils and stoneware

4 6 Ash and limestone blocks

Burned bone and stick, fossils and stoneware

5 1 Ragsone (thin pieces of sedimentary rock)


6 5 Breccia, limestone blocks and hyena dung


7 2 Sand Fossils and stoneware

LayerThick-ness in m

Rock type Finds

8–9 6 Breccia and ash Most of the Peking Man fossils were found in this layer

10 2 Laterite (a type of rock formed on the surface in hot and wet areas. It forms by weathering of the original rock)


11 2 Breccia The first Peking Man skull, fossils and stoneware

12 2 Red sand Fossils

13 2 Silt and hyena dung


Layers below this have been shown by test-pit drilling not to contain fossils or stoneware. They have never been excavated.

The layers of the Peking Man cave deposits


Tanzania – 6

SS21

Ethiopia – 6


What to do in Tanzania

1 Watch the video clip Tanzania 1.

2 Study the pictures and notes on SS 2–5.

3 Play the footprints games at Tanzania 2. Freestyle, Case study 1 and Case study 2 are best.

4 Make your own footprints:

What to do in Ethiopia

1 Watch the video clips Ethiopia 1 and Ethiopia 2.


3 Play the ‘Making fossils’ game at Ethiopia 3.

4 Work with the other pairs in your group to model the erosion in the gully where Lucy was found:

5 Fill in your research notes for Tanzania in as much detail as possible.

Rake the damp sand in the trays until their surfaces are smooth.

Barefoot, walk over the sand to make

2 or 3 footprints.

Walk barefoot over the sand in the other tray, this time carrying a heavy bag on your left hip. How are the footprints different? How do your footprints compare to the Laetoli footprints?

Wash and dry your feet.

5 Fill in your research notes for Ethiopia in as much detail as possible.

Put one of the small tubs into a tray.

Carefully remove the tape and use it to stick the flap down onto the bottom of the tray.

Observe the layers of ‘rock’

Fill a beaker with water and pour water in a small stream onto the top end of the tub (the one furthest from the opening).

Observe how a gully forms, and how the lower layers of rocks are exposed.

Discuss how this model helps to explain how Lucy’s fossilised bones were exposed.

Tip the contents of the tray (including the tub) into one of the buckets and mop up any spills.


Georgia – 6

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China – 5

SS22


What to do in Georgia

1 Watch the video clip Georgia.

2 Study the pictures and notes on SS12–15.

3 Make a model of the rock layers at Dmanisi:

What to do in China


2 Fill in your research notes for China in as much detail as possible.

3 Use data from the table on SS 19 to draw a scale diagram of the layers of rock in the caves.

4 Fill in your research notes for Georgia in as much detail as possible.

Read the descriptions of the strata exposed by the digs at Dmanisi on SS 13.

Sketch out what you think the layers looked like.Use the materials to make your model in a plastic container. Mix each material with a little plaster and water before adding it to the carton.

Leave to set for 20 minutes.

Take the layers of sedimentary rock out of the container (you may need to cut the container off).

Rub your model with sand paper. Draw a labelled diagram of your model to show what the layers look like. Add notes to say what the environment might have been like at the time each layer was laid down.

Label each layer with the rock type and finds.

Label the oldest rocks and those formed most recently (younger sedimentary rock layers are deposited on top of older rocks).

Write a story about how the environment might have changed over the years as the rocks were formed.


QTV research notes

SS24

Timescales

Rocks and their ages

Types of evidence

What the evidence tells us about early humans

Idea for an exciting ‘hook’ for 7-11 year olds

Researcher_________________________

Site _______________________________


QTV research notes

SS24

Timescales

Rocks and their ages

Types of evidence

What the evidence tells us about early humans

Idea for an exciting ‘hook’ for 7-11 year olds

Researcher_________________________

Site _______________________________

Picture Slide Credit

Mary Leakey on site at SS 4 SPL – John ReaderLaetoli, Tanzania

Hominids reconstruction SS 5 Wapondaponda – wikimedia.org

Prof. Donald Johanson SS 6 wikimedia.org

Fossil hominid skeleton known SS 7 SPL – John Readeras Lucy

Homo georgicus family SS 11 SPL – Mauricio Anton

Dmanisi excavation site SS 12 Wikipedia

Dmanisi dig site SS 13 Quatrostein – wikimedia.org

Dmanisi hominid skull SS 14 Gerbil - wikimedia.org

Dmanisi stone tool SS 15 Wikipedia

Peking Man site SS 17 Mutt - wikimedia.org

Picture credits

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catastrophe hobbit 2 digss1 tanzania – 1 site 1: tanzania, africa paleoanthropologist andrew hill...

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