is it a hominin?
For this paper, you will be writing from the perspective of a paleoanthropologist who has just discovered a fossil (or fossil framents). This paper is your (the paleontologist’s) first report to the scientific community on the (imaginary) fossil,how you found it,how you dated it, and your initial analysis of it.
The fossil that you find (in reality you will imagine/make up this fossil) should be carefully determined so that you are able to analyze it in your paper. You will need to determine if it is or is not a hominin, and then determine what species it should be classified as. You are encouraged to limit your fossil discovery
to one to three bones (or bone fragments) in order to emphasize detailed descriptions of your fossil. Draw upon the lectures, your lab notebook, textbook, and at least one scientific article on a specific early hominin species to help you think about what your fossil might look like. When paraphrasing information and using ideas from these sources please cite and reference them using APA format. Direct quotes are highly discouraged. Some databases that might be helpful for researching your fossil through the Meriam Library website include: Anthropology Plus, AnthroSource, Academic Search,
Science Direct, and JSTOR. Use the species name (e.g.
Australopithecus afarensis) as your subject or keyword search term. The format of the paper is slightly formal–after all you are a scientist writing a scientific paper! It may bedivided into sections with titles: Introduction, Geological Context, Fossil
Description, Analysis, and Conclusion. In addition to describing the fossil, you should also provide some background as to where and/or how it was found, the estimated age of the fossil(describing the methods used to date it) and some information about the environment the individual lived in, your analysis (detailing both primitive and derived traits of your fossil), and its classification
(ultimately you should identify which early hominin species it belongs to by comparing it in detail with other species that you have researched
).
