Who's Who Among Early Hominins

Susman, Randall. "'Who's Who Among the Early Hominins?'" Odyssey: Adventures in Science Oct. 2009: 22-25. Print.

I read an article named "Who's Who Among Early Hominins?" it was quite interesting. It told me about twelve different species of early Hominins. Early Hominins means early men. All of these species of animals are part human and part ape. Also some are tree dwellers bipeds, and knuckle walkers. An example of one of these species is Homo Floresiensis. They used tools and they are not that old, they are only 94,000 years old, also they have larger brains. Another type is Paranthropus, they are close to men. They are around 2.5 million years old. The species that we are in is Homo. Homo erectus are about 1.8 million years old and they have bigger brains. So as you can see, human origins are a very long topic with some very long names such as, Orrorin Tugononsis, Ardipthecus, Kenyapithecus Platyops, and Homo Georgicus

As the author says, "To name the various groups of Hominins scientists traditionally use Latin, Greek, and Arabic origin from the language spoke where a fossil is found" I found that interesting because I was always curious why the names were so long.

Why We Study Human Origins

Why We Study Human Origins
by Randall Susman
Calliope: Exploring World History

There has been years of arguments about this topic. It is "What is human origin". Well, this topic can stir up many arguments. That is because for many people they think that god created humans and, they don't want to be related to apes. Before I tell you why we study human origins I have to tell you what it is. First of all, the study of human origins is a long term for evolution. It is how you go from one living thing that adapts to it's surroundings and changes to another living thing. An example of this is, going from apes to humans. Here is a picture of it that sums it up quite well.

 

Now I will tell you why we study it. This might be confusing to you because scientists know that this strikes up many different arguments but they still learn about it. This topic can also offend people by being related to apes. However we study it because we want to know what really happened. Also we want to know how and why we adapted to our surroundings. Another reason is that, we want to know if we will change again and not stay humans, and if we do is it for the better or for the worse.

According to the author of a textbook, "Huxley believed that anatomically  African apes and humans were similar, more similar in fact than apes were to monkeys.". What is interesting about this is that on the inside we are more like apes than monkeys are, but on the outside monkeys do look more similar. 

Stonhenge Mystery

Who built Stonehenge and why? That is a question that has been tossed around for so many years...
No one really knows how they moved those really heavy stones, or why they put it there, and for what purpose.There are so many theories on this, but because I don't want to bore you I will only tell you three.

The first theory that I will explain to you is that the archeologists think it is an ancient burial ground. However they think it is not just for everyone because, it would be to many bodies. Another supporting detail to their topic is that the archeologists  were only thinking about it in one way, but then another archeologist brought an archeologist there not knowing he would make a break through. The man was from somewhere else, and in his culture stones were a sign of the dead.

Another theory is how they moved the megaliths. They think that it is with little stone balls. They think that the people laid out long rectangular wooden pieces with a rectangular gap going all the way through it. After every little bit of the gap in the would the archaeologist would put in a small stone ball.  On top they would make a wooden platform to put the stone on. To get the stone up on it they think the people used levers. Once the stone is on the platform you push and pull it. It moves because the balls were acting as many little wheels.

A third theory there is, is that Stonehenge was an observatory. It followed the line of the sun on the longest day of the year and the shortest. Stonehenge might have been a place to celebrate on both of those days. Both of the days are very special.

What is Stonehenge? We might never know.

Human Ancestor May Put Twist in Origin Story

There was a discovery of two million years old bones, and maybe skin. Archeologists think they found fossilized skin , but they can not be sure. What makes these bones more special is that they are Australopithecus Sediba. That is a type of humans before us. They have smaller brains than us, but bigger ones than chimpanzees. These people are a mix between humans and apes. They probably had a better grip than us because they had a longer thumb. The Sediba's were able to use and make tools. They were around four feet tall which surprised me, I thought they would be smaller and not so close to our size. These discoveries were history changing.

This is one of they things that they found.

 

I found this picture and passage from National Geographic 

Gladiator School Found Buried in Austria

I read an article about an ancient gladiator school that was in ancient Rome. What might of surprised me the most was that it was around twice the size of the average Walmart. The gladiator school they found was the first one. This school looks quite modern, to me it looks like a school that you could almost use nowadays. Here is a picture of it

Even though this did not make a massive change in our view of the past, it does give them evidence about gladiators. The school now is like a cemetery because it has some of the people's remains. They could tell that it was a gladiator school because they saw the chariots.

I got the information and picture from National Geographic