While the fossils discovered up to this point have provided a small window into the story of humanity’s past, they have also simultaneously raised numerous questions. Questions related to phylogenetic relationships and points of divergence are challenges for paleoanthropologists, who have only fragmentary fossil evidence to build hypotheses around. Nevertheless, the discoveries that have been made represent important landmarks in anthropologists’ understanding, providing clues that will lead to the next steps in the human journey.
Mini-Fieldwork Activity
Pedestrian Survey
Conduct a pedestrian survey to try to locate fossils near where you live (trilobites in New York, ammonites in Texas, shark teeth near riverbeds, arrowheads). Think about where you would most likely find a fossil and why. Try to extract one without destroying the environment around it, which provides important context. Try to figure out what kind of fossil it is by doing some Internet research. Why do you think that this fossil was preserved? What information would make the search for fossils easier?
The content of this course has been taken from the free Anthropology textbook by Openstax