The Advancement In Technology Used In Paleoanthropology

Anthropology is the study of osteology, the study of bones, culture, and biology, past and present. Paleoanthropologists study fossils of ancient humans to try and understand the biological and cultural evolution of humans. This field tries to understand how humans evolved, working with experts such as archeologists, those who study past cultures through excavation sites, and geomorphologists, those who study the landscape of the earth, and paleoethnobotanist, the study of prehistoric diets, how the land was use, and the types of occupations humans had. By studying research done in the fields of paleontology, biological anthropology, and cultural anthropology, with the aid of archeologists, paleoanthropologists draw conclusions as to how ancient humans behaved and the extent of evolution. Essentially, Paleoanthropologists work to try and discover our ‘family tree’ or ancestry.

Currently, it has been discovered that humans are most related to monkeys and apes, placing them into the family Hominidae together. Within this family, it has been broken down into subfamilies; Hominiae being chimpanzees, gorillas, and humans, while orangutans are placed into their own family, the Ponginae. Although, humans and our direct human ancestors are stated to be representatives of the hominini tribe, otherwise known as hominins. But, while all hominins are hominines, not all hominines are hominins, which are modern humans and those in our most direct lineage. Hominins include the traits; bipedal locomotion, which is the ability to walk on two legs and not four, foramen magnum, the hole where the spinal cord meets the skull, smaller canine teeth, and a reduced Canine/Premolar-3 shearing complex, which is essentially the rubbing of teeth, resulting in them either sharpening or flattening. All of these characteristics connect to paleoanthropology as they were found through fossils at excavation sites paleoanthropologists and archeologists excavated.

Archeologists aid paleoanthropologists through their similar technique of finding evidence to support ideas of how ancient civilizations and humans lived and evolved. Although, archeology is the study of past cultures, trying to develop an understanding of how people lived, whereas paleoanthropology focuses on how people evolved. Archeologists and paleoanthropologists further and find evidence for their research by examining and knowing where to excavate. They survey, sample, and test areas and regions such as preliminary surface surveys and test pits, regional surveys, aerial surveys, and using geographical information systems. Preliminary surface surveys are conducted by doing a ‘walk-about’, collecting any scattered artifacts or surface collections. Test pits are essentially small excavation sites that are used to gain an idea of what the area or region may contain. While regional surveys are the gathering of information throughout a large area and aerial surveys are a series of photo surveys from the air. Lastly, geographical information systems is the use of technology to map out and digitalize variables, such as plants and rocks.

These digitized features help GIS workers to quickly recognize patterns which in turn aid archeologists and paleoanthropologists if the area is worth excavation. Once an excavation site is found, Geomorphologists, who study the changes in landscapes in order to try and reconstruct prehistoric landscapes, work with archeologists and paleoanthropologists to determine where important environmental changes may be. Geomorphologists understand that the earth's landscape is constantly undergoing changes, one example being a rivers course being changed. When a river shifts and changes its course, it leaves behind alluvial soil, which attracts people to that area for settlement due to its rich soil. By studying where these types of changes are, geomorphologists help archeologists and paleoanthropologists to areas where ancient civilizations most likely chose to settle.

In addition to these environmental changes, it is stated that both archeologists and paleoanthropologists need to be aware of where streambeds are located in relation to habitation sites needing to take enough sediment samples to try and gain an understanding as to how human interaction with the environment affected the sediments. By doing so, Paleoanthropologists gain an understanding of human behavior by analyzing what may have been done in the environment. Through archaeological techniques, geology, anatomy, and other scientific methods, paleoanthropologists use fossils to develop possible explanations as to how previous, ancient humans behaved and lived. These fossils are essentially dead remains, or rather, such as bone and teeth, that over time begin to turn into stone resulting in fossilization. A more well-known form of fossilization would be trace fossils, which tend to be things such as skin and feathers that do not fossilize in the same form as bone and teeth, but rather, leave imprints.

Paleoanthropologists use these imprints to draw conclusions as to how these ancient humans look or how they lived and at what point in time they lived in. Although, in order to date fossils, both Paleoanthropologists and Archeologists use techniques such as stratigraphy, seriation, potassium-argon dating, thermoluminescence dating, and tree-ring dating. Stratigraphy is the examination of layers of sedimentary rock in relation with geological events, essentially using incidents in history that changed the landscape in order to place a time period in which the fossil was found, much like a geomorphologist. Seriation, although not usually used in paleoanthropology, is changes over time, this is essentially when evidence from different time periods are found at the same site. Potassium-argon dating is more useful in paleoanthropology as it is the measuring of decay of an isotope of potassium into argon, this is more often used for fossils as it is useful for dating sediments and gives a more concrete date. Optical stimulated luminescence is another method of dating that is useful in paleoanthropology as it is used for dating geological sediments that fossils are found in, resulting in a better estimate of the time period.

Lastly, Tree-Ring dating is useful specifically in regions where excavation sites are dry, in which paleoanthropologists would count the number of rings in a tree, each representing a year, in order to understand the time period of the area. Although, Potassium-argon dating is one of the only forms of absolute dating, while the rest are relative dating. Essentially, archeologists and paleoanthropologists help each other find excavation sites, determine dates for fossils and artifacts, and with the help of archeologists, geomorphologists, and paleoethnobotanist, paleoanthropologists are able to do fieldwork at sites and try to most accurately depict ancient humans. Although, paleoanthropology is the use of fossils as evidence and clues as to how ancient civilizations looked and lived, being one of the most concrete forms of evidence, the understanding of the evolutionary aspect of these humans is always incomplete, this is due to the rarity of fossils.

Today, Paleoanthropologists are at an advantage compared to previous paleoanthropologists, with the aid of new technology. Through advancements in science and technology, DNA evidence was able to be recovered from fossils, resulting in the expandment of our ancestry. Some successes in this new advancement in technology would be the discovery of a new group of humans; the Denisovans, as well as the Neanderthal Genome Project which mapped the complete set of the Neanderthals genome, providing paleoanthropologists with a better understanding of the evolution of humans.