User:Abyssal/Prehistory of Africa

The Prehistory of Africa Portal In general... Olduvai Gorge, where some of the earliest hominins are believed to have evolved. Africa has the longest record of human habitation in the world. The first hominins emerged 6–7 million years ago, and among the earliest anatomically modern human skulls found so far were discovered at Omo Kibish,Jebel Irhoud, and Florisbad. European archaeology, as well as that of North Africa, is generally divided into the Stone Age (comprising the Lower Paleolithic, the Middle Paleolithic, the Upper Paleolithic, the Mesolithic, and the Neolithic), the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. For Africa south of the Sahara, African archaeology is classified in a slightly different way, with the Paleolithic generally divided into the Early Stone Age, the Middle Stone Age, and the Later Stone Age. After these three stages come the Pastoral Neolithic, the Iron Age and then later historical periods. Africa's prehistory has been largely ignored, with the exception of research into early human evolution. However, it is overseen by the PanAfrican Archaeological Association, whose members consist of professional archaeologists from all over Africa. (Full article...) Selected article on prehistoric Africa Artist's rendering of a bolide impact. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was the mass extinction of three-quarters of Earth's plant and animal species during a geologically brief interval about 66 million years (Ma) ago. A wide range of species perished in the K–Pg extinction, most notably the non-avian dinosaurs. However, other groups that sustained losses or vanished include mammals, pterosaurs, birds, lizards, insects, and plants. In the oceans, the K–Pg extinction devastated the giant marine lizards, plesiosaurs, fishes, ammonites and plankton. It marked the end of the Cretaceous period and with it, the entire Mesozoic Era, opening the Cenozoic Era which continues today. In the geologic record, the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K–Pg boundary, which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks. The boundary clay shows high levels of the metal iridium, which is rare in the Earth's crust but abundant in asteroids. It is now generally believed that the K–Pg extinction was triggered by a massive comet/asteroid impact and its catastrophic effects on the global environment, including a lingering impact winter that halted photosynthesis in plants and plankton. However, some scientists maintain the extinction was caused or exacerbated by other factors, such as volcanic eruptions, climate change, and/or sea level change. Whatever the cause, many of the surviving animal groups diversified during the ensuing Paleogene period. Mammals in particular radiated into new forms such as horses, whales, bats, and primates. (see more...) Selected article on the prehistory of Africa in human science, culture and economics Jaw fragment of Ambondro mahabo. The history of paleontology traces the history of the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the fossil record left behind by living organisms. Since it is concerned with understanding living organisms of the past paleontology can be considered to be a field of biology, but its historical development has been closely tied to geology and the effort to understand the history of the Earth itself. In ancient times Xenophanes (570-480 BC), Herodotus (484-425 BC), Eratosthenes (276-194 BC), and Strabo (64 BC-24 AD), wrote about fossils of marine organisms indicating that land was once under water. During the Middle Ages, fossils were discussed by the Persian naturalist, Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in Europe), in The Book of Healing (1027), which proposed a theory of petrifying fluids that Albert of Saxony would elaborate on in the 14th century. The Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) would propose a theory of climate change based on evidence from petrified bamboo. In early modern Europe, the systematic study of fossils emerged as an integral part of the changes in natural philosophy that occurred during the Age of Reason. The nature of fossils and their relationship to life in the past became better understood during the 17th and 18th centuries, and at the end of the 18th century the work of Georges Cuvier ended a long running debate about the reality of extinction and led to the emergence of paleontology, in association with comparative anatomy, as a scientific discipline. The expanding knowledge of the fossil record also played an increasing role in the development of geology, particularly stratigraphy. In 1822 the word "paleontology" was invented by the editor of a French scientific journal to refer to the study of ancient living organisms through fossils, and the first half of the 19th century saw geological and paleontological activity become increasingly well organized with the growth of geologic societies and museums and an increasing number of professional geologists and fossil specialists. This contributed to a rapid increase in knowledge about the history of life on Earth, and progress towards definition of the geologic time scale largely based on fossil evidence. As knowledge of life's history continued to improve, it became increasingly obvious that there had been some kind of successive order to the development of life. This would encourage early evolutionary theories on the transmutation of species. After Charles Darwin published Origin of Species in 1859, much of the focus of paleontology shifted to understanding evolutionary paths, including human evolution, and evolutionary theory. The last half of the 19th century saw a tremendous expansion in paleontological activity, especially in North America. The trend continued in the 20th century with additional regions of the Earth being opened to systematic fossil collection, as demonstrated by a series of important discoveries in China near the end of the 20th century. Many transitional fossils have been discovered, and there is now considered to be abundant evidence of how all classes of vertebrates are related, much of it in the form of transitional fossils. The last few decades of the 20th century saw a renewed interest in mass extinctions and their role in the evolution of life on Earth. There was also a renewed interest in the Cambrian explosion that saw the development of the body plans of most animal phyla. The discovery of fossils of the Ediacaran biota and developments in paleobiology extended knowledge about the history of life back far before the Cambrian. (see more...) Need help? Do you have a question about Abyssal/Prehistory of Africa that you can't find the answer to? Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk. Selected image The original 2.1 million year old skull of an Australopithecus africanus specimen nicknamed "Mrs. Ples". The specimen was discovered in the Sterkfontein cave, hominid fossil in South Africa and is catalogued by the Transvaal Museum as STS 5. Photo credit: José Braga and Didier Descouens Did you know? ...that the enigmatic Ediacaran biota (fossil pictured) have been classified into every major group of lifeforms, including their own kingdom? ... that highlights from 19th century ichnology include the discovery of protomammal tracks in England, dinosaur footprints in Massachusetts, and the mysterious hand-shaped Chirotherium tracks (pictured)? ... that Ocepeia (pictured), a 60-million-year-old afrotherian mammal, is named after a Moroccan mining company? ...that unlike most plesiosaurs, Leptocleidus once lived in shallow lagoon environments and likely visited brackish and fresh water systems such as the mouths of rivers? ... that the Late Cretaceous crocodile relative Simosuchus (restoration pictured) ate plants and had a pug-nosed snout? Things you can do Desired articles, sorted by how frequently linked to: Kufra Basin Douala Basin Todi Shear Zone Somali Coastal Basin Rio del Rey Basin Broodkop Shear Zone Western Meseta Shear Zone Foreland Karoo Basin Chuan Shear Zones Atbara rift Orange River Basin Tanzania Coastal Basin Sangha aulacogen Reggane Basin Lamu Embayment Gabon Basin Geology of Africa Geology of Tristan da Cunha Geology of the Canary Islands Geology of Melilla Frank Skeels Sileshi Semaw Nomtsas Formation Amuq point Kaoko Belt Dahhak ibn Jandal Baharîje Formation Madumabisa Mudstone Acacia elatior El-Amrah Urusis Formation Pietermaritzburg Formation Dwyka Formation Bernard Ngeneo Zaris Formation Werner Kaiser (Egyptologist) Dwyka Shale Vryheid Formation Loita Hills As Duma Allia Bay Levalloiso-Mousterian Dabis Formation Somali Basin Pentoxylales Deir Tasa Peter Nzube Subcategories Category Prehistory of Africa not found Related content Prehistory of North America Prehistory of South America Prehistory of Antarctica Prehistory of Asia Prehistory of Europe Prehistory of Oceania Africa Archaeology Earth sciences Paleontology Extinct and Endangered Species Paleozoic Mesozoic Cenozoic Dinosaurs Associated Wikimedia The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject: Commons Free media repository Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals Wikidata Free knowledge base Wikinews Free-content news Wikiquote Collection of quotations Wikisource Free-content library Wikiversity Free learning tools Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus Africa Prehistory Category:Portals with titles not starting with a proper noun Africa