Reflection paper#4

From reading the article Early Human Phylogeny I learned about Hominid Species which are referred to as humans and/or our immediate ancestors by archaeologists and paleontologists. The word “hominid” refers to a limb of the zoological (related or pertaining to animals) family, Hominidae. Hominidae include all species initiated after the human/African ape ancestral divided. That includes all species of Australopithecus (bipedal hominids) and Homo. While those species differed in many ways, hominids shared a matching set of characteristics which defined them as a group. The most conspicuous of these traits is bipedal locomotion, or walking upright. I can’t moderately say I see eye to eye with it all and reckon the fact that they did exist, but I did find the readings to be very captivating and well put together. One specific section in the readings that captured my attention was the Australopithecus africanus: The Taung Baby. Raymond Dart discovered the first early hominid species in Africa. His discovery led almost everyone to believe that human origins and earlier life development started off in Africa. Raymond Dart named this newly discovered species Australopithecus africanus, or "Southern Ape of Africa." It was actually a small skull the size of a new born infant. It looked really amazing and neat. Reading the story of Lucy changed my thought of early Humans just a little because I realized it all made sense when I did my own individual research. I didn’t realize how much she looked like a human till I found out that she was bipedal. The article described how Lucy's bones were common with evidence clearly pointing to her being bipedal. They knew Lucy was feminine because of her size and bone structure. The male hominids were larger than the females which made it easier to distinguish them. They don’t know how she died the only injury they found on her bones were a single carnivore tooth pierce mark on the top of her left pubic bone. They say it was a peri-mortem injury, which is an injury that usually occurs after death. I thought the story of Lucy was very interesting. At first I didn’t want to read it but as I continued on into the story I found myself doing some research on it later on and even bringing it up into my everyday conversations at work. Overall the article was efficient and effectual to my learning.