Evolution Lab
As time passes, people change over time. Life right now isn’t the way it was 21 centuries ago. And it’s not just us humans that’s changed; It’s all living things. This change over time or ‘development’ is called evolution. Evolution is the change of (heritable) traits in different organisms over time. If you’re thinking apes becoming humans you’re already wrong. There’s even evidence of evolution like fossils, DNA samples, similarities in bone structure, and even vestigial organs. The purpose of this lab is to see how evolution works and whether it is a reliable theory.
Hypothesis: If there are 11 skulls that all have different structures 4 of them will be bipedal.
Independent variable: Is all the measurements of each skull
Dependent …show more content…
variable: How many of the skulls will be bipedal
Materials:
Caliper
Skulls
Protractor
Ruler calculator Pencil
Paper (for measurements)
Procedures:
Pick up a skull and turn it upside down. Look for a circle(the opisthion) between where the head and teeth are.
Using the ruler, measure from the circle (the opisthion) to the end of the head (opisthocranion). Record your measurement
Once again use the ruler to measure from the circle (opisthion) but this time to the back of the teeth and record the measurements.
Use the protractor to measure from the head to the ear and record the measurements.
Take the caliper and measure the height, length, width and record the measurements.
Data table and calculations:
Observation:
Australopithecus: Two skulls have their full jaw, All have ear sockets, All have a head crease
Sahelanthropus: Cracked, Doesn’t have a full jaw, and small
Homo: Decrease in size, None of the skulls have a full jaw (just the front teeth), Three are cracked, Their nose bone sticks out, One skull missing a lot of teeth, Three of them have big eyebrow bones.
Ardipithecus: Small head, Doesn’t have full teeth, Zygomatic bone sticks out.
Graph:
Analysis and results: During this experiment i discovered that the skulls that were ‘homo’ were bipedal.
Those skulls had the most similar traits to humans and were bipedal (walked on two feet). The rest of the skulls were quadrupedal. I predict that because of the ardipithecus and australopithecus environment and the way they lived is what made them look a lot like humans. Even though all of them are now extinct we were able to conclude how they looked and the way they lived because of their skulls.
Conclusion: While conducting this experiment I have come to the conclusion that my hypothesis was rejected. My hypothesis stated that 4 of the skulls would be bipedal. It turned out that five of them were bipedal. All of the the skulls in the ‘homo’ section were bipedal. The reason why many people think humans evolved from apes is because our structure is similar but as you learned that is not the case. As time passed humans have evolved in many ways. Based solely on the skulls from the ‘homo’ section, as you went ahead to the next one the heads became a little bit smaller. Also the zygomatic (cheek) bone shrunk. We humans are species that have evolved in many different ways over a long period of
time.
Hypothesis: If there are 11 skulls that all have different structures 4 of them will be bipedal.
Independent variable: Is all the measurements of each skull
Dependent …show more content…
variable: How many of the skulls will be bipedal
Materials:
Caliper
Skulls
Protractor
Ruler calculator Pencil
Paper (for measurements)
Procedures:
Pick up a skull and turn it upside down. Look for a circle(the opisthion) between where the head and teeth are.
Using the ruler, measure from the circle (the opisthion) to the end of the head (opisthocranion). Record your measurement
Once again use the ruler to measure from the circle (opisthion) but this time to the back of the teeth and record the measurements.
Use the protractor to measure from the head to the ear and record the measurements.
Take the caliper and measure the height, length, width and record the measurements.
Data table and calculations:
Observation:
Australopithecus: Two skulls have their full jaw, All have ear sockets, All have a head crease
Sahelanthropus: Cracked, Doesn’t have a full jaw, and small
Homo: Decrease in size, None of the skulls have a full jaw (just the front teeth), Three are cracked, Their nose bone sticks out, One skull missing a lot of teeth, Three of them have big eyebrow bones.
Ardipithecus: Small head, Doesn’t have full teeth, Zygomatic bone sticks out.
Graph:
Analysis and results: During this experiment i discovered that the skulls that were ‘homo’ were bipedal.
Those skulls had the most similar traits to humans and were bipedal (walked on two feet). The rest of the skulls were quadrupedal. I predict that because of the ardipithecus and australopithecus environment and the way they lived is what made them look a lot like humans. Even though all of them are now extinct we were able to conclude how they looked and the way they lived because of their skulls.
Conclusion: While conducting this experiment I have come to the conclusion that my hypothesis was rejected. My hypothesis stated that 4 of the skulls would be bipedal. It turned out that five of them were bipedal. All of the the skulls in the ‘homo’ section were bipedal. The reason why many people think humans evolved from apes is because our structure is similar but as you learned that is not the case. As time passed humans have evolved in many ways. Based solely on the skulls from the ‘homo’ section, as you went ahead to the next one the heads became a little bit smaller. Also the zygomatic (cheek) bone shrunk. We humans are species that have evolved in many different ways over a long period of
time.