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Anthropology
Introduction
Anthropology has created an in-depth understanding of the human language, culture, biology, and various aspects of society. According to the definition brought forward by New fossil ape discovered in India (n.d), Anthropology is studying human primates such as chimpanzee and early hominids. This study aims to understand the cultural composition, habits, and behaviors of the social and primates. Anthropology can also be defined as the study of people spread out through the world, basing on the evolutionary history, actions, adaptation to the environment, and communication with other societies. It creates an emphasis on the biological composition of people and how they interact with each other. There are three significant kinds of anthropology studies, which include sociocultural, natural and archeological studies. The present essay will offer a detailed analysis of news items based on its location, culture and period and include archeological importance.
News Item Analysis https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200908200524.htm
In the presented Anthropology News, there is multiple archaeological information that is available on the site. Such information includes mapping of 1.6 billion people, scientists to identify gene family keys to unlocking vertebrate evolution, among others. The news that the essay would base its analysis on, as provided by the above site, is New Fossil Ape Discovered in India.
Location of the New Fossil Ape
The stated news relates to archeological findings that date back to 8th September 2020 and located at Ramnagar through research done at Arizona State University. Based on the archeological news summary, a 13- million-year-old fossil was discovered in Northern India during archeological research. The fossil discovered was believed to belong to an ancestor of the modern-day gibbons (New fossil ape discovered in India, n.d). The discovery of the fossil is of great historical importance since it offers elaborate evidence on today’s gibbons’ ancestry and how they migrated to Asia from their homeland, Africa. Worth noting, the discovery was made by archeologists such as Gilbert Christopher and Hunter College, who carried out an intensive research that led to the discovery of the fossils.
Culture and Period
The fossil discovered to represent gibbons’ culture and elaborate and how they migrated from Africa to the present area of residence, Southeast Asia. The 13- million-year fossil ape fills the gap that initially existed in the records of primate fossils. In describing the fossil, it had lower molars and belonged to the species called ramnagerensis. Based on the discovery time, the fossil represents the only ape species discovered at the famous fossil sites, almost after a century (New fossil ape discovered in India, n.d). It thus indicates the more astounding milestone in the archeological process, since such discovery required intensive research and application of technology, just as explained by Gilbert and his team members. The finding further reflected the differences and similarities between the dental autonomy of the 13-million year tooth gibbon.
The cultural practices of the gibbons are reflected in the archeological evidence earlier obtained by the archeologists. Such evidence also points out that gibbons practiced hunting and gathering, primarily through a keen study of the tooth structure that was discovered.
The tooth structure study showed that flesh was the primary source of food consumption obtained from hunting and gathering. Through the fossil analysis, there is cultural harmony in today’s gibbon and the ancestors of Orangutans, which both existed in the Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia.
Why the discovery is essential to Archeology
The discovery is vital in archeology because it forms part history fossil record missing for more than five million years. In another instance, the fossil offers and compelling information about the gibbons’ ancestors and their cultural practices, which initially had been nonexistence for multiples years. The fossil’s structural composition indicated a unique discovery that helped in revealing the stages of the evolutionary history (New fossil ape discovered in India, n.d). Thus, through the 13 million years old fossil, clear evidence of the gibbon community’s evolutionary history. Migration was a common cultural practice of the past communities during the evolutionary period.
It could occur due to multiples factors, including a search for food and proper environment for habitation, escape from enemies, looking for better pastures, and escape from natural phenomena like flood, drought, or even tornadoes. In the present context, the fossil offers sufficient evidence of the apes’ migration from one region to another, based on the factors mentioned earlier. Such apes include the Orangutan ancestors that moved from Africa’s cradle land to Asia (New fossil ape discovered in India, n.d). The duration indicated in the CT scan and comparative sample analysis also stated a time frame of 5 million years. The fossil was missing from the overall fossil record about the gibbon community and their general cultural practices and migration during the evolutionary edge. Worth noting, the expansion of the study on the fossil also revealed the distribution of the fossil location in East Africa, especially in the Kapi region, where the early fossil apes were generally located before the migration.
Such a location is crucial for archeologists since it offers empirical evidence based on cultural composition to support their findings further. This may be quite vital in establishing the gibbon community’s exact organizational structure for further archeological studies. Another interesting fact about the fossil is based on its biogeographic composition. In light of this argument, it was found out by the School of Human Evolution and Social Change that orangutans and the gibbons’ ancestors both lived in the same sport for the past 13 million years in India (New fossil ape discovered in India, n.d). This creates an aspect of similarity in migration, as brought forward by a profound analysis of the fossil obtained.
With the National Science Foundation grant, the study aims to offer further more in-depth insight into the political and social organization of the gibbons to achieve more and in-depth information. As earlier mentioned, the lower jaw’s structural composition that consisted of molars and premolars revealed the social life of the gibbons’ ancestors. This is based on the consumption trend to ascertain that the community conducted hunting and ate flash from the animals they hunted for multiple years ago. The New Middle Miocene information reveals the aspect of historical fossil record gap that was filled by the fossil discovery. Besides, it is related to the political and cultural organization of the gibbon community. Thus through a critical analysis of the fossil, we see its immense contribution and importance to the archeology.
Furthermore, through the 13 million-year-old fossil status, an aspect of the culture, historic archeology appears vividly, with the structural analysis to offer migration. In a further research of the fossil discovery, the element of diffusion theory can also be presented in the present context, to explain the environmental and social factors that might have attributed the migration of gibbons from East Africa to South East Asia (New fossil ape discovered in India, n.d). The archeologists thus applied the concept of the linear approach and harmonious to establish a relationship between the cultural and technological evolution that impacted on their study. The use of past analysis also offers more extraordinary advancement in their respective jurisdiction of research.
Since such analysis encompasses the theoretical assumption that requires the establishment of empirical research. New fossil apes discovered in India (n.d) view the fossil as a more astounding milestone in the archeological research for a fossil that aids in establishing relevant phenomenon with the environment. In the future plan, the archeologists will establish a viable understating of human origins, based on the pre-existing nature of the early form of human life (New fossil ape discovered in India, n.d). This will be achieved through the soviet archeology, which will employ a communistic model to grasp the social aspect of a particular group or community to highlight their contributions and a cultural and political structure.
Conclusion
As earlier stated, anthropology can be defined as the study of how people spread out through the world based on evolutionary history, behaviors, and adaptation to the environment. The New Fossil Ape Discovered in India news is ubiquitous and the discovery was made in September 2020. The exact location of the discovery was Ramnagar through research done at Arizona State University. The fossil indicated the cultural practices of the gibbons through archeological evidence obtained by the archeologists. Such evidence also points out that gibbons practiced hunting and gathering. The discovery was necessary for archeology because it offers compelling information about the gibbons’ ancestors and their cultural practices, which initially had been nonexistence for multiples years. Besides, the structural composition of the lower jaw that consisted of molars and premolars revealed the social life of the gibbons’ ancestors, among other importance, as well described above.
Work Cited
New fossil ape discovered in India: 13-million-year-old gibbon ancestor fills significant gaps in the primate fossil record. (n.d.). Science Daily. Retrieved 19th September 2020, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200908200524.htm