Teaching
Biological Anthropology
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Unit 1
Hominins
Hominins, of which only one species—Homo sapiens—currently exists, are members of the family Hominidae. In this unit, students will learn about extinct hominin species and gain a general understanding of what anthropologists have been able to discern about our ancestors and other hominin species.
Sapiens articles
Were Neanderthals More Than Cousins to Homo Sapiens?
These members of the genus Homo have long occupied two different branches on the family tree. But now that researchers think these groups interbred, scholars are giving serious consideration to whether we are the same species after all.
Unraveling the Mystery of Human Bipedality
Paleoanthropologist Carol Ward explains how walking upright marked a milestone in hominin history.
Keywords
View All in Biology
![Two people swim in an outdoor pool of shimmering blue water beneath a crisp blue sky. In the background is a row of short structures with outdoor seating and enclosed rooms.]()
![A person ladles stew out of a large pot into a plastic container.]()
![A person standing outside the frame holds a large knife to peel a cassava fruit to prepare a beverage.]()
![A woman pushing a stroller on the sidewalk walks briskly past a large billboard advertising a model who sports a fashionable handbag.]()
![A vibrant, abstract scene features blurred blue and orange lights glowing outward from a central area, with silhouetted figures in the foreground.]()
![On a quiet street at night, a small, glowing rectangular device rests on the sill of a stall window shuttered with a corrugated metal cover.]()
Cold-Water Swimming Brings New Life to Aging Bodies
A researcher dips into life at a community pool in Cambridge, England, to find out why so many people over 60 are finding joy and pleasure in a cold-water swim.
Feeding Community When Government Aid Runs Dry
As Argentina’s economic crisis worsens, an anthropologist discusses the biological consequences of inadequate food—and why the country’s community kitchens need support.
How Women Shaped Human Evolution Through Food Processing
An anthropologist highlights the revolutionary role of food processing and dietary diversity—practices often led by women—that were just as crucial to humans surviving and thriving as hunting.
To Raise Children, We Must First Raise Parents
An anthropologist compares her early motherhood in London with child care experiences in a hunter-gatherer community of Central Africa.
Best of SAPIENS 2024
Anthropologists from around the globe brought dazzling insights and deeply reported concerns to the digital pages of SAPIENS magazine.
Phantom Vibrations of a Lost Smartphone
An anthropologist who studies human-computer interactions explores how and why losing one’s smartphone feels so unsettling.
View All in Evolution
![Herds of black-and-white striped zebras and wildebeest gallop across plains and shallow water.]()
![A pair blue-gloved hands cup an ancient cranium that has become brownish yellow with age.]()
![Beside a large rock, a team digs at an archaeological site scattered with blue and green buckets and sandbags. Some team members wear red hats.]()
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![At the base of a tree with a thick trunk, a shirtless man holds a bunch of smoldering vegetation that gives off a large cloud of smoke.]()
![A person wearing a bright-pink jacket, brown slacks, tennis shoes, and a tan, brown, and black hat crouches on a patch of brown dirt with a small instrument in one hand and a bag in the other, collecting a sample from an archaeological site.]()
Do Africa’s Mass Animal Migrations Extend Into Deep Time?
Isotopes in fossil teeth suggest ancient animals traveled less than once thought—making researchers rethink past human societies and future conservation.
90 Years Since Its Discovery, a Stone Age Human Still Holds Lessons
A paleoanthropologist reflects on England’s oldest human cranium—and what its changing interpretations say about science.
In Human Origins Research, Communities Are the Missing Link
A paleoanthropologist reflects on relationships between researchers and communities living around sites relevant to human evolution.
Five Questions for Agustín Fuentes
In this live discussion with Agustín Fuentes about his new book, Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary, the Princeton University professor shares his groundbreaking examination of biological sex beyond the binary of male and female.
How Societies Morph With the Seasons
An evolutionary anthropologist details seasonal changes among foraging communities—and distills how the fixed political structures of industrialized societies are an outlier in human history.
Ancient Tools in East Asia Reveal Middle Paleolithic Innovation
An archaeologist explains his team’s insights into how Quina scrapers in southwest China overturn long-standing assumptions about the region’s humans more than 50,000 years ago.
View All in Hominins
![A pair blue-gloved hands cup an ancient cranium that has become brownish yellow with age.]()
![Three small animals with tufts of white fur around their ears and gray, tan, and black fur on their bodies huddle together looking toward the camera.]()
![A mountain looms beyond a green field of palm trees.]()
![An ape-like mannequin, with protruding facial features and a body covered in fur, stands in a museum exhibition under dramatic lighting. Next to it, a text panel starts, “The human story begins.”]()
![A bearded man in a vest and red scarf holds up his two hands in loose blue gloves, with a small tooth in each hand.]()
![Two side-by-side graphics depict skulls, one facing forward and the other in profile. Both images are outlined in blue and have sections shaded in yellow. The profile image has three red lines spanning across it in two V shapes.]()
90 Years Since Its Discovery, a Stone Age Human Still Holds Lessons
A paleoanthropologist reflects on England’s oldest human cranium—and what its changing interpretations say about science.
Were Twins the Norm in Our Primate Past?
New research uncovers how the last common primate ancestors typically birthed twins until evolutionary pressures began to favor singletons—likely driven by the advantages of birthing larger, brainier offspring.
The Vanishing Traces of Our Earliest Ancestors in Indonesia
A paleontologist journeys through Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago in search of Homo erectus remains, but uncovers how environmental devastation has erased much of the region’s history.
Lessons From Lucy
Fifty years ago, the remains of an Australopithecus afarensis ancestor, named “Lucy” by archaeologists, rewrote the story of human evolution.
Unraveling a “Ghost” Neanderthal Lineage
Remains in France found by archaeologists and geneticists suggest at least two lineages—not just one—of late Neanderthals in Europe.
Learning From Snapshots of Lost Fossils
Not all fossil discoveries happen in the field. In museum archives, researchers found photos of remains from Paleolithic children who had belonged to a group of early Homo sapiens in Eurasia.
Professor Talking Points
- Some features that distinguish hominins from other primates include: upright posture, bipedal movement, larger and smarter brains, specialized tool use, and communication through language (in some cases).
- As great apes, humans are part of the family Hominidae and part of the tribe Hominini, which includes modern humans, extinct human species, and our immediate ancestors. (NOTE: Students should be made aware that “tribe” is a taxonomic term that refers to a classification level of groups between subfamily and genus, not a social grouping of humans.)
- Archaeological and biological anthropological research continue to identify different species of hominins and uncover new insights on evolutionary processes that tell us more about modern humans and the lives of our ancestors.
Academic Articles
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Pontzer, Herman. 2012. “Overview of Hominin Evolution.” Nature Education Knowledge 3 (10): 8.
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Zollikofer, Christoph Peter Eduard, and Marcia Silvia Ponce De León. 2013. “Pandora’s Growing Box: Inferring the Evolution and Development of Hominin Brains From Endocasts.” Evolutionary Anthropology 22 (1): 20–33.
Student Discussion Questions
- What does the discovery of Homo luzonensis and the hypothesis about its behavior tell us about hominin life and movement at the time of that species’s existence?
- Make a rough timeline of the appearance of the defining traits of hominins (using http://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics and http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior). What evidence supports the order you have constructed?
- What is the significance of studying hominin brains? What can we learn from new findings about our ancestors and ourselves?
- What do Homo sapiens have in common with other hominins? What sets us apart as a species? Why might we know more about what makes us different than about what we share?
Activities
- Find inspiration in the Smithsonian Institution’s lesson plans.
Additional Resources
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Article Series: SAPIENS’ Neanderthal Series and Interactive Graphic
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Video: American Museum of Natural History’s “Seven Million Years of Human Evolution”
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Website: Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins
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Website: NOVA’s Who’s Who in Human Evolution
Unit By
Eshe Lewis (2020)
Teaching
Biological Anthropology
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Unit 2
Nonhuman Primate Diversity
