Anthropology and films

Here you have some films that we selected, enjoy it!

L’Odyssée de l’espèce (A Species Odyssey)

A French documentary directed by Jacques Malaterre in 2003, about the origins of Mankind from the moment when the first primate stood up on their hind legs until it becomes a modern Man.

La guerre du feu (Quest for Fire)

A Jean-Jacques Annaud film, French, from 1981.

The film takes place in prehistoric time when three prehistoric tribesmen search for a new fire source.

Inherit the Wind

Inherit the wind is a film that was directed in 1960 by Stanley Kramer and is based on a real-life case in1925, when two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.

2001: A Space Odyssey

A film from 1968, directed by the famous Stanley Kubrick.

In this film humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.

*Our blog header image is from this film!!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

A film directed by Rupert Wyatt in 2011.

A biotechnology company is testing some drugs with chimpanzees to find a cure for brain illnesses such as Alzheimer, however, their experiments failed and this compound gives rise to a super-intelligent chimp.

Planet of the Apes

Here you have an American science fiction film from 1968 directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.
An astronaut crew crash on a mysterious planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species while humans are the oppressed.

The finding of a skull in Dmasini suggests that three early human species were one.

Some paleoanthropologists from the University of Zurich found a very complete hominid skull in Dmasini, Georgia. This is the fifth skull they found in the same excavation.

This skull shows different characteristics, it has a long face and the smallest brain within all the group, and it is not very similar comparing with the other four skulls.

This traits are very important because in fossils found in Africa athropologist used this characteristicts to difference between species. As Ponce de León said “Had the braincase and the face of the Dmanisi sample been found as separate fossils, they very probably would have been attributed to two different species.» But in this case, the fossils have been found in the same place, and after doing some statistical analyses Zollikofer summarizes the results «Firstly, the Dmanisi individuals all belong to a population of a single early Homo species. Secondly, the five Dmanisi individuals are conspicuously different from each other, but not more different than any five modern human individuals, or five chimpanzee individuals from a given population».

This variability on the characteristics of the skulls suggests that Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis and Homo erectus, the species that were existing worldwide in that era, may represent a single specie.

Unique Skull Find Rebuts Theories On Species Diversity in Early Humans

Related articles

• Did the human family tree just get simpler? (nbcnews.com)
• Skull suggests three early human species were one (nature.com)
• Beautiful Skull Spurs Debate on Human History (news.nationalgeographic.com)

Anthropologists Confirm Link Between Cranial Anatomy and Two-Legged Walking

Anthropology researchers from the University of Texas have confirmed a direct link between the bipedal walking and the position of the foramen magnum.

When Raymond Dart discovered the first known two-walking human ancestor, Australopithecus africanus , in 1925, physical anthropologists started to discuss whether the position of the foramen magnum could be a direct link to bipedal fossils. Nowadays the discussion continues.

In humans, the foramen magnum is centrally positioned under the braincase and in the case of the chimpanzees and most mammals, is located back of the skull. The reason is that in bipedal postures the head is just on top of an upright spine. However, the four-legged postures show the position of the spine behind the head.

The researchers also obtained the position of the foramen magnum in 71 species from three mammalian groups: primates, marsupials and rodents. According to the findings, the position of the foramen magnum in the base of the skull is not just found in humans, but also in other bipedal mammals, such as kangaroos.

Scientists want to know whether these mammals evolved bipedal locomotion and the position of the foramen magnum independently, or by convergent evolution.

Gabrielle Russo, postdoctoral research fellow at Northeast Ohio Medical University, thinks that the position of the foramen magnum is an important feature for the study of our evolution, the human evolution.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130926111903.htm

Nine Australian mysteries that have perplexed the experts

Genomes link aboriginal Australians to Indians

The finding of the ancestor of the dingo, the different tool-making techniques and similarities between the aboriginal Australians genome and Indians suggest that these last ones migrated to Australia 4000 years ago.

This discovery discards the idea the idea of the isolation of Australians from the rest of the world until eighteenth century; as it was thought.

Scientists want to compare more examples of genome to find more signs of genetic flow but aboriginal people refuse to do it.

http://www.nature.com/news/genomes-link-aboriginal-australians-to-indians-1.12219

Welcome!

Hi, we are a couple of  biology students from the University of the Basque Country and we made this blog in order to give you the latest news and curiosities about physical anthropology.