Swedish Museum of Natural History - ‘Life, Earth, Time and Space’ Seminar Series

Seminars in Natural History

John W.K. Harris

Rutgers University

What chimpanzee and capuchin studies tell us about the behavior of the earliest hominids

This presentation highlights collaboration between primatologists and paleoanthropologists in providing new behavioral insights into our earliest hominid ancestors 6 million to 1 million years ago.

In particular, modern day chimpanzee (ape) and capuchin (monkey) studies provide evidence for the use of stone and wooden tools to access and process a variety of foods above and below the ground in a wooded and forested setting. The ecological setting and variety of foods of these non-human primates provide important models to help reconstruct the paleoenvironmental context (habitat setting) as well as the foraging and dietary patterns of behaviors of the earliest hominids.

Case studies from hominid and archeological sites in East Africa are discussed:

To contribute to understanding the function of the Early Stone Age Oldowan and Acheulian tools.

To understand what Pre-Oldowan pounding percussive technology from 5 to 3 million years ago might have been like.

To broader behavioral implications to ranging patterns (transport of raw materials, stone hammers, anvils), selection for specific fruiting trees or tree clusters (mental mapping), returning to locations on the landscape related to survival value, particularly to diet (daily caloric rate), social implications to sharing and learning situations by modeling modern day monkey (capuchin) and chimp studies to reconstruct early hominid behaviors.

Finally, new unpublished discoveries of early hominid footprint tracks at 1.5 million years ago are described. This new evidence shows by the early Pleistocene, early hominids had evolved a relatively modern human foot anatomy compared to chimpanzees. This also compliments other lines of fossil hominid and archaeological traces for their movements over ancient landscapes to show the emergence of very different foraging and ranging patterns of behavior in more diverse habitats.

Tuesday, 21st October, 2008, at 16.00, in Stora hörsalen, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Frescativägen 40, Stockholm

The LET’S seminar series at the Swedish Museum of Natural History is devoted to issues of wide interest for natural history. Topics may range from cosmology to conservation biology, with an emphasis on recent scientific advances and cross-discipline interactions. Our aim is to present lectures that will communicate the excitement of modern science to a varied but scientifically informed audience of scientists, students and laymen.

More about LET’S · Program

NRM home

LET’S organizer:
Stefan Bengtson [stefan.bengtson@nrm.se]
Tel 08 5195 4220 (int. +46-8 5195 4220)

Web page by Stefan Bengtson

http://www.nrm.se/pz/lets/lets_harris.html.en

Latest update: 2008-10-14

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