The Oligocene epoch, which means epoch of few recent forms in Greek, lasted about 11 million years which was considered a short time span compared to the other epochs. This epoch was present from 33.9 million years ago to 23 million years ago and was part of the Tertiary period. During this epoch, the climate began to cool down allowing for glaciers and ice ages to be present on Earth. Changes in vegetation arose as a result of climate change where most forests became cooler. Furthermore, the change in climate permitted grasslands to expand, however, when the temperature started to cool down, tropical forests began to shrink and were greatly diminished which was evolutionary advantageous for the human species. However, many primates could not …show more content…
Changing seasons was to the advantages of mammals who were warm blooded over reptiles who couldn’t control their metabolic temperatures. Thus, many reptiles, such as lizards and crocodiles, did not evolve the way mammals did since they weren’t able to flourish as much as rodents and hoofed animals. Due to this climate change, it was crucial that animals evolve in order to develop the certain traits, characteristics, and skills to be able to survive and adapt to this new environment. When the forests began to cool, mammals evolved to possess the traits of being a scavenger and being short legged. As a result of the insect group expanding, it provided a more plentiful amount of food to the small sized mammals, which further increased their population. In account of the growth of the polar ice cap and it attaining more ocean water, sea levels dropped and connected certain areas of Asia and Europe together which had once been separate, which allowed species to travel from one area to the other since they were now connected and can explain how one species migrated from one continent to the other. However, many herbivores could not adapt to this
"The Quaternary Period: Ice, Megafauna and Hominids." Fossils Facts and Finds.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
The species A. afarensis is one of the better known australopithecines, with regards to the number of samples attributed to the species. From speculations about their close relatives, the gorilla and chimpanzee, A. afarensis’ probable social structure can be presumed. The species was named by Johanson and Taieb in 1973. This discovery of a skeleton lead to a heated debate over the validity of the species. The species eventually was accepted by most researchers as a new species of australopithecine and a likely candidate for a human ancestor.
...oling climate and slowly evolved into Homo erectus, and then Homo erectus was affected by sexual selection, the split of their population, and their new necessary diet. They, in turn, slowly evolved into modern Homo sapiens. Natural selection, sexual selection, and genetic drifts all affected these species, and what took them to evolve into us, modern humans.
The Ordovician Period is the second period of the Paleozoic Era and began 485.4 million years ago and ended 443.4 million years ago (when the Silurian Period began). Four continents were present and separated by three main oceans. Laurentia was composed of present-day North America, part of Scotland, and Greenland and was near the equator. Siberia-Kazakhstan was east of Laurentia, slightly north of the equator. The Iapetus Ocean separated these two masses on the south from the continent of Baltica. Avalonia (England, New England, and parts of Canada) was to the west of Baltica. England, Baltica, and Kazakhstan were separated from Gondwana by the Paleotethys Sea. At this time, Africa and South America were rotated almost 180° from their current location. The Panthalassic Ocean covered the Northern Hemisphere almost completely.
One way that the environment impacts the animals is that the animals such as bears adapt and store their energy in the winter. This is also known as hibernating. “Animals in the mountains have also adapted to save energy during the harsh winter months.” (Cassandra Maier, Adaptations of plants and animals to mountains) When animals hibernate, they are less active during the winter, and they just sleep for most of the day. Other animals such as the goat and deer do not hibernate during the winter,
When and why did Homo Sapiens begin to grow into a thriving population that have produced both cognitive and technological advances? No one knows for certain and because of this question countless amounts of people have decided to become anthropologists. Anthropology is defined as, “the study of human beings and their ancestors through time and space and in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture(Merriam-Webster). Despite all of the time and effort that anthropologists have put into discovering the correct response, the answer to this question is constantly changing because population, cognitivity and technology are constantly changing too. One way to determine how these factors affect Homo Sapiens is by studying past societies. The development of technology expanded rapidly in the Upper Paleolithic era. The technological and cognitive advances made by the growing Upper Paleolithic people changed their lives for the better and allowed them to adapt to their environment in innumerable ways.
The first group of primates was the Ardipithecus group. They were the earliest humans closely related to other primates. The Ardipithecus group evolved in Africa and took the first step upright on two feet. Sahelanthropus tchadensis was the first human species to ever walk the earth. They were the building block of more complex species to come. There were many species that started the human race such as the Orrorin tugenensis. This species was nicknamed the Millenium Man and live 5.8-6.2 million years a...
Paleolithic age presents the era when key human adaptations evolved in response to a variety of environmental changes experienced at the time. This period of human evolution coincided with change within the surrounding of man. Such included cooling, drying and unpredictable climatic patterns over the time. This increased amount of variability in environmental conditions raised the level of uncertainty and instability in their respective terms of survival, necessitated the man to adopt new habits to increase adaptability to the new and changing surroundings. The evolved structures and behaviors led to specialization to enable coping with changing and unpredictable conditions.
The Paleolithic Age, Greek for "Old Stone", is the era of the emergence of modern man. During this age, man was a hunter-gatherer species. Due to the plentiful sources of animals and plants, man could simply follow the herds and their migratory patterns. With no proprietary knowledge, each nomadic band was egalitarian as there was no distinction for a social ladder.
For over 4.5 billion-years Earth has experienced many periods’ of climate change. Paleontologists have learned many things about these radical environmental changes by studying fossils and tree rings of plants, rocks, and animals existing over past periods’. These studies revealed many things such as erratic weather patterns, drastic temperature fluctuations, decrease of polar caps, varied sea levels, airborne diseases, and animal extinctions. (Dalrymple)
Thousands of species have become extinct over the last four decades as a result of changes in land use and as a result of global warming. Whether or not the millions of species can adapt and evolve to climate changes is debatable. As this brief overview will report, the human species is not adapting well to the changes. It must be remembered that increases in the levels of carbon dioxide are certainly responsible for the risk many species face, but so is the way land is used, e.g., rain forest destruction. There is a feedback loop wherein plant life and the climate are interdependent. Each affects the other. When forests are cut down, temperatures in that area will rise. Rising temperatures cause other plant life requiring cooler temperatures To die off.
This article examined the effect of climate and the stress it causes for the koalas. The location of the study was in South Western Queensland, Australia. It highlighted the issues of chronic stress and how it can reduce resistance to disease. It helped in the understanding of the physiological responses of koala populations exposed to environmental changes. The results provided new insights into the effect of droughts and heat waves and the amount of stress these climate issues pose on the koala. As well as it helped to integrate the importance of a physiological dimension when studying species, and the response different species have in regards to habitat loss, and different environmental threats including those involving climate change. This article helps me to incorporate an understanding of the impact of climate change on koalas, and the physiological stress level they endure. The article helps to give me a more comprehensive knowledge of the koala and the importance of its habitat as well as the impact of contributing external factors such as climate change.
The increase in brain size may be related to changes in hominine behavior (See figure 3). The third major trend in hominine development is the gradual decrease in the size of the face and teeth. According to the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia ’98, the fossil evidence for direct ancestors of modern humans is divided into the category Australopithecus and Homo, and begins about 5 million years ago (See figure 1). Between 7 and 20 million years ago, primitive apelike animals were widely distributed on the African and, later, on the Eurasian continents (See figure 2). Although many fossil bones and teeth have been found, the way of life of these creatures, and their evolutionary relationships to the living apes and humans, remain matters of active discussion among scientists.
The Jurassic Period of our earth’s history was one of great change. It began with a major extinction even, bounced back, and was yet again the victim of an extinction event. The Jurassic was a flourishing time of new species adapting, changing, and modernizing to suit the ever-changing world they
It is known that in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat with the last one 7,000 years ago. This was when the modern climate era started which lead to the beginning of human civilization all