The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Photo Courtesy of Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Washington, DC - I visited the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on Saturday, March 12, 2011.  The exhibit combines traditional presentation styles with modern multi-media tools to present a reoccurring theme: What makes us human?  The theme is segmented into strategic components designed to help museum attendees to explore the evolution of human origin over a period of six million years.  Each component of the exhibit provides a little more detail to explain how extreme climate changes contributed (and continue to contribute) to the evolution of mankind, making us all descendants of the same family tree.  Then, the exhibits begin to teach how human evolution affects the global environment. 

 

 

I entered the building from the Constitution Avenue entrance on the museum’s ground level.  The exhibit is located on the first floor (not to be confused with the ground floor).  Some exhibits are interactive.  Unfortunately, most of my photos did not develop very well.  Most are too dark or reflect glass encasements, but I’ll share what I can.  Any photos that are not attributed are my own.

 In addition to its emphasis on how climate change affects human physiology and diversification (including the impact of migration), the exhibit tracks human evolution by periods of landmark development, including but not limited to, the development of tools, agriculture, communication, and sophisticated behavior, such as gathering at the hearth and burying the dead. 

What makes us human?

I entered the exhibit where cast models of the skulls of four human species were on display.  Contributing to the overall theme- What makes us human?- Each skull replica is accompanied by a brief summary, which includes the name of the species, the region in which the original skull was found, the time period in which the species existed, and identification of skull features that distinguish the skull as human.  The exhibit emphasizes the following information:

In all four species, the males have canine teeth smaller than those of other apes, a distinguishing characteristic of humans.  Also all four species walked upright.  The skulls represent four major groups of early humans and illustrate the diversity in the human family tree.

The species on display include:

·         Paranthropes Boisei; Koobie Fora, Kenya; about 1.7 million years old

·         Sahelanthropus Tchadensis; Africa; about 7-6 million years old

o   Took the first steps to walking upright

·         Australopithicus Afrikanos; Sterfontein, South Africa; about 2.5 million years old

o   Walked upright on a regular basis, but also still climbed trees

·         Homo Heidelbergensis; Kawbe (Broken Hill) Zambia; about 300,000-125,000 years old

o   Belonged to the same group as modern humans.  Like Homo Sapiens, it had a large brain and built shelters and hearths

How do we know we are primates?

An adjacent wall explains how we know humans are primates:

Besides similar anatomy and behavior, there is DNA evidence.  It confirms that humans are primates and that modern humans and chimpanzees diverge from a common ancestor between eight and six million years ago.  There is only about 12% genetic difference between modern humans and chimpanzees throughout much of their genetic code.

The wall includes an exhibit of our primate heritage, identifying humans as great apes- one of the major groups of the primate family tree- while emphasizing that we did not evolve directly from any primates living today. I cannot remember if this exhibit or the movie I watched next indicated that modern humans (Homo Sapiens) lack tails like all modern apes.

We are all one species.

I approached a small open amphitheatre that creatively displayed a large digital screen in an artificial giant boulder mound.

Here, I watched a movie short that explained how at some point during the six million year evolution of man, the human species reduced to approximately 10,000 adults. 

The brief movie indicates that by 17,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens were the sole surviving species of all the human species that ever evolved, while earlier species became extinct. 

The documentary also points out that despite diversification of human species due to environmental differences we often refer to today as racial identification, 99.9% of all human DNA is identical.  “We all are on species.”

Homo Sapien Wall Display

An adjacent wall display accompanies the amphitheatre.  This display expounds on the history of Homo Sapien evolution.  It explains how Homo Sapiens originally evolved in East Africa, and from there, spread around the globe.  Information from the movie short is repeated on the wall, but skull replicas of diverse Homo Sapien species are on display to show how physical and cultural differences emerged as Homo Sapien populations adapted to different environments.

The wall display emphasizes, “...but from one species to another, our DNA differs by only 0.1%.  We are remarkably alike.”

Due to archaic traits such as wide cheek bones, scientists believe Homo Sapiens may have interbred with Neanderthals who at some point lived in Europe at the same time.

As climates fluctuated and environments changed, early humans evolved.  New traits and abilities increased their chances of survival.

Interactive Human Evolution Display

One computer animated, interactive display approximates how humans may evolve over time (millions of years from now) under different environmental conditions.

Visitors are permitted to use a touch screen to select environmental variables such as the following:

·         increased/decreased population size;

·         pollution vs. sunlight;

·         all land under water;

·         humans sit around while machines do all the work;

·         new ice age; or

·         foul smelling environment.

Then, the computer approximates how the human species may evolve millions of years from now under each environmental condition.

Impact of human evolution on the environment

Another display emphasizes the impact of human evolution and human population on the environment:

Producing our own food rather than tracking it down daily ahs freed us to enrich our lives in many ways ̶ to become artists, inventors, scientists, politicians and more.  We have altered the world in many ways that benefit us greatly.  But this transformation has unintended consequences for other species as well as ourselves, creating new survival challenges.  By 1995, at least 83% of earth’s land surface has been directly affected by humans.

In 2004, the international Union Conservation of nature reported that amphibian, bird and mammal extinction rates were at least 48 times greater than natural extinction rates ̶ possibly 1,024 times higher.   Due to dams by 2005,nearly six times as much water was held in storage as flowed freely in rivers.

By 1959, the human population on earth had increased to 3 billion.  By 1999, the earth population was 6 billion.  The exhibit appears to attempt to inspire visitors to:

1.    take individual responsibility to do the math required to calculate the current human population growth rate;

2.    measure the potential effects of the current human population growth rate on earth and its natural resources; and

3.     develop measures to save the earth and its natural resources.

Global Warming

Another exhibit explains how scientists have discovered that the earth’s temperature and carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the atmosphere have fluctuated in sequence with human evolution.  Scientists measure CO₂ levels by drilling cores in Antarctica and other ice sheets to measure CO₂ levels in trapped air bubbles.  Higher levels of CO₂ are associated with a warmer planet that causes glaciers on land to melt, water to flow to the sea, and sea levels to rise.

This exhibit reports that CO₂ levels today are the highest since the evolution of our species:  “the projected increase over the next century is more than twice that of any time in the past 6 million years and suggests a long-term sea level rise of 6.4 m (21 ft.).”

Ecosystems

Another exhibit provides a definition for ecosystems and tells us that we are ecosystems because our bodies support communities of microbes.

Early Humans

This component of the exhibit evolves from displaying skull replicas of early human species to presenting “lifelike reconstructions of early humans created by paleoartist, John Gurche, using the latest forensics techniques, fossil discoveries, and 20 years of experience.” 

Photo Courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

The lifelike reconstructions include, but are not limited to the Homo Erectus and the Homo Neanderthalensis species.

·                     Homo Erectus Female

o   The longest living member of the human family tree.

o   Survived more than nine times longer than our own species has been around.

 ·                     Bronze statue of a Homo Erectus female carrying a dead antelope

                 

•   Homo Neanderthalensis

o   Had large noses that warmed and humidified cold, dry air and helped them to survive cold climates

o   May have been the first species to speak and bury their dead.

o   Communicated with symbols by altering objects and sometimes even their own appearance

Interactive Early Human Exhibit: What would you look like as an early human?

This component of the exhibit is an interactive exhibit that permits visitors to see what they would look like as early humans. 

The exhibit transformed my photo image into that of a Homo Neanderthalensis, which lived between 200,000 and 28,000 years ago in what is now Europe and Asia.

They had large noses to help them survive in cold climates by warming and humidifying cold, dry air.

They were much like us; they wore loose fitting clothing, buried their dead, used simple symbols, and may have used spoken language.

The exhibit transformed my photo image into that of a Homo Floresiensis, which became extinct only 17,000 years ago.   

Homo Floresienses lived only 95,000 to 17,000 years ago on an island in what is now Southeast Asia.  They were very small…with a brain only about a third the size of modern humans. They made tools, controlled fire, hunted a variety of animals, and their small size helped them to survive on an island with limited resources.

Shanider Cave, Iraq  

This display is a life-like replica of a cave found by scientists who recovered tools, tree boughs, soil containing flower pollen, a human jaw bone tool believed to have been used to scrape animal hide, and a skeleton found in a pit.

Researchers believe that these findings are evidence that 65,000 years ago in the Near East, a group of Neanderthals, close relatives of modern humans, buried their dead.

According to the exhibit, “no other primates and no earlier human species had practiced this human behavior.”    

Homo Sapiens    

200,000 years ago, our species (Homo Sapiens from Africa) coexisted with Neanderthals who had migrated to Europe before ultimately outliving the Neanderthal species.  According to the exhibit, “Only 12,000 years later, our species made the transition to producing food and changing our surroundings so successfully, we’ve inadvertently created a turning point in the history of life on earth.”    

Creating a world of symbols    

350,000 years ago, man communicated with color- ocher and manganese identified groups.

100,000 years ago, man was creating jewelry/self-expression.

By 77,000 years ago, man was recording information.

By 40,000 years ago man was creating paintings and figurines.

Scientists are not sure when humans started talking because spoken language does not fossilize and there are few clues about when our ancestors began to use complex language to communicate.  However, artifacts dating back 350,000 years ago involved complex behavior that probably required language.  

Another exhibit states that Homo Sapiens created symbolic objects that combined animal and human features between 60,000 and 30,000 years ago, such as “The Lion Man.”  “The Lion Man” is about 35,000 years old and was found in the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany.  Homo Sapiens also created instruments for music, such as “The Mammoth Ivory Flute” from Germany.  The ancient flute was found in the Geissenklösterle cave and is also believed to be 35,000 years old.

“The Mammoth Ivory Flute”

Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Human Social Life

This display serves as a timeline that charts the development of human social life:

·          About 2.6 to 1.8 million years ago, humans began to share resources.

·         About 800,000 years ago, humans began gathering at the hearth.

·         About 500,000 to 160,000 years ago, human children had more time to grow up.

·         About 130,000 years ago, humans began building social networks.

Human Physiology  

This display serves as a timeline that charts human physical development:

·         About 6.2 million years ago, human brain sized increased slowly.

·         About 2 million to 800,000 years ago, human brain and body size increased.

·         About 800,000 to 200,000 years ago, human brain size increases rapidly.

·         Climate and environmental changes shaped the course of human evolution.

·         Neanderthals lived in cold climates.

·         Homo Erectus lived in hot climates.

Human Technology    

This display serves as a timeline that charts the development of human technology:

·         Dawn of technology by 2.6 million years ago

·         Cooking by 790,000 years ago

·         Explosion of technology by 1000,000 years ago

Chimpanzees make tools too    

This exhibit displays various tools used by chimpanzees:

·         Chimpanzee spear

·         Anti-dipping tool

·         Hammer stones with oil palm nuts

Humans Walk Upright      

This display serves as a timeline that charts the development of mankind’s ability to walk upright:

·         Becoming bipedal 6 million years ago

·         Becoming mostly bipedal by 4 million years ago; and

·         Fully bipedal by 1.9 million years ago.

What does it mean to be human?    

This was my final mini exhibit.  This exhibit serves as a timeline that ultimately charts the development of the human characteristics that distinguishes the human species from all other primates.

·         Walking upright on short legs by 6 million years ago

·         Making tools and eating meat from large animals by 2.6 million years ago

·         Longer legs and traveling to new regions by 1.8 million years ago

·         Gathering at the hearth 800,000 years ago

·         Rapid increase in brain size by 500,000 years ago

·         Communicating with symbols by 250,000 years ago

·         Longer childhood & adolescence by 160,000 years ago

·         Plant and animal domestication by 10,500 years ago

·         More humans in cities than rural areas by 2007.