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sample:
Ativan/lorazepam
epocrates.com
CIV
Benzodiazepine, Anxiolytic, Sedative-Hypnotic
D; unsafe for use in pregnancy
oral – 2-6 mg/day with largest dose at bedtime
drowsiness, light headedness, initial sedation, lethargy, apathy
Management of anxiety disorders or short-term relief of anxiety due to depression. Management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Acute alcohol withdrawal.

PHRD 531 – PATIENT CASE 1 (Spring 2024)
Due January 24 by 11:59 PM
Submit Answers on Blackboard Ultra Via Link
A 44-year-old female, TW, with a history of poorly controlled diabetes was admitted today with symptoms of increased urinary frequency/urgency and a fever. Upon initial examination, she complained of flank pain. Vital signs during the initial examination were unremarkable, except for a fever of 102.1◦F. When collecting a urine sample, the urine was noted to have a strong smell.

Test

Result

Reference range

Hgb

13 g/dL

12-15 g/dL

Hct

39%

36-47%

LDH

53 U/L

50-150 U/L

Labs performed at the time of admission:
Urinalysis:

Module 1 – Case
DATA, INFORMATION, AND ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE
Assignment Overview
Every company has, to a greater or lesser extent, an information subsystem—that is, a means by which it gathers data, interprets it, and makes it available to employees through a distribution system. Whether we are talking about marketing information, cost projections, accounting results, or internal quality reports, every company depends on information to inform knowledge to support its planning, decision- making, and control.
So how does knowledge fit into the picture? The emergence of the field called knowledge management has highlighted some key propositions in the last 10 years or so. All organizations are storehouses of knowledge that operate in information-rich environments made up of people and things both inside and outside the organization itself. Organizations organize, interpret, and evaluate this information to solve organizational problems.
Networked information technology enables the processing and utilizing information to advance knowledge. People’s brains are the key knowledge resource of any organization. Codified knowledge stored in books, audio, videotapes, and computer systems can be an important knowledge resource as well.
There are organizational processes and strategies for IT management and management in general. Therefore, these IT processes and strategies, in particular, can significantly enhance the ability of organizations to use their knowledge resources for problem solving.
Several of these themes will come up again in later modules in this course. But by way of introduction to the subject, examine some views of how information sharing works. Listen to each of the lectures below and then take the quiz (which does not count in the grading). This will be followed by a case where you see the power of information sharing enabled by networked computer systems.
These lectures and quiz will help you with the case:
Listen
10/28/24, 3:30 PM Case – ITM301 Principles of Information Systems in Business and Organizations (2024OCT14FT-1)
https://tlc.trident.edu/d2l/le/content/219490/viewContent/5509434/View 1/3

Case 1 Review Quiz: This quiz will not count toward your grade but allows you to assess your knowledge.
Case Assignment
10/28/24, 3:30 PM Case – ITM301 Principles of Information Systems in Business and Organizations (2024OCT14FT-1)
https://tlc.trident.edu/d2l/le/content/219490/viewContent/5509434/View 2/3

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Crowd Funding
What does one do to obtain funding for a new invention, movie, or company? Do you go to the bank? Do you go to venture capitalists? Do you go to angel investors? Crowd Funding is an alternative to these traditional sources of funding. Kickstarter.com is one of the largest of these crowdfunding websites. Here a person posts about the project with a description, maybe a video, and the funding needed. Backers then pledge money to the project. If the funding goal is not reached, then the project is stopped with return of any pending obligations of support.
Kickstarter started in 2009, and since that time has been focused on helping creative types find funding sources. Since 2009 it has received almost 2 billion dollars in pledges from 10 billion backers for over 260,000 projects such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, technology, and food-related projects. So this is a great opportunity for aspiring new artists, inventors, etc., to obtain funding. This is happening on Kickstarter with 1000’s of dollars pledged each day, where the creator of the projects keeps 100 percent ownership of the project in which investors decide they want to invest.
Go to Kickstarter.com and look at the various project categories. Select a category and a project of interest to you. Provide a description for one of your selected projects, including the offerings and number of backers. Discuss the pledges, the amounts of the pledges, and the numbers of people for different pledge amounts. What does the pledge amount tell you about the motivation of the customers?
Explain why crowdfunding may be advantageous to new entrepreneurs. How does Kickstarter seek to build a community for the entrepreneurs?
What information must an entrepreneur provide to get funding? How does Kickstarter manage the collection and transfer of pledges? Would you use this site yourself or recommend it to others?
Assignment Expectations
You are to produce an analysis of Kickstarter. In doing this analysis you will answer the questions asked. Use a table to show the Kickstarter offerings and the number of backers. Then discuss these pledges and why this crowdfunding is of advantage to entrepreneurs. Using several products compare the type of information the entrepreneur needs to get funding and discuss if you would invest or recommend to others. In 3 or 4 pages, provide your discussion and analysis—we encourage the use of spreadsheets and tables to justify your response.
10/28/24, 3:30 PM Case – ITM301 Principles of Information Systems in Business and Organizations (2024OCT14FT-1)
https://tlc.trident.edu/d2l/le/content/219490/viewContent/5509434/View 3/3

Module 1 – SLP
DATA, INFORMATION, AND ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE
Make Sure You Have Excel
Excel is free to you as a Trident student. If you do not yet have it on your computer, follow these instructions:
Install Office 365 from Trident Webmail
Go to your student email account and log in.
1. In the upper left corner of the page, click on the “waffle”:
2. Then select Office 365:
3. Click the dropdown in the upper right-hand corner that says Install Office and select Office 365 apps:
Listen
10/28/24, 3:32 PM SLP – ITM301 Principles of Information Systems in Business and Organizations (2024OCT14FT-1)
https://tlc.trident.edu/d2l/le/content/219490/viewContent/5509436/View 1/3

4. Follow the instructions from there.
Data, Information, and Organizational Knowledge
In this module, you will be introduced to Excel and some of its basic functions. Here are some lectures to help you with this SLP
ITM301 from LinkedIn Learning – Module 1: Formatting Tips to Build Compelling Spreadsheets.
Please note that the link above will open in a new window and may require activation of a LinkedIn account on the first attempt. Trident students may use their student email address to access this free subscription to LinkedIn Learning as a part of this course.
SLP 1 Review Quiz: This quiz will not count toward your grade but allows you to assess your knowledge.
Enter the information in the spreadsheet below.
A B C D E F G
1 ITM 389
2 Fall 2020
3 Test1 Test2 Test3 FINAL
4 STUDENT NAMES
STUDENT ID
#1 #2 #3 PART. AVERAGE
5 Tilly, Susan 999-25- 5683
84 65 89 90
6 Shulz, Ben 999-52- 6938
93 71 97 70
10/28/24, 3:32 PM SLP – ITM301 Principles of Information Systems in Business and Organizations (2024OCT14FT-1)
https://tlc.trident.edu/d2l/le/content/219490/viewContent/5509436/View 2/3

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7 Raymond, Dorthy 998-71- 2838
62 83 58 90
8 Smith, Betty 997-74- 4447
95 94 80 90
Adjust the size of the columns as needed.
Calculate the final average in G – average the 3 test grades and multiply them by .90 (90%) add in the 10% of the participation grade. =c5*.3+d5*.3+e5*.3+f5*.1
Now calculate the average for columns C, D, and E.
After completing the Excel exercises, please upload the Excel file with your results to SLP 1 Dropbox.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your assignments will be graded following these expectations:
The assignment file must be developed in Excel and saved as .xls file.
Precision: The questions asked are answered.
Clarity: Your answers are clear and show your good understanding of the topic.
10/28/24, 3:32 PM SLP – ITM301 Principles of Information Systems in Business and Organizations (2024OCT14FT-1)
https://tlc.trident.edu/d2l/le/content/219490/viewContent/5509436/View 3/3

In a 5–7 page written assessment, assess the effect of the patient, family, or population problem you’ve previously defined on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. Plan to spend approximately 2 direct practicum hours exploring these aspects of the problem with the patient, family, or group you’ve chosen to work with and, if desired, consulting with subject matter and industry experts. Document the time spent (your practicum hours) with these individuals or group in the Capella Academic Portal Volunteer Experience Form. Report on your experiences during your first two practicum hours.
Collapse All
Introduction
Organizational data, such as readmission rates, hospital-acquired infections, falls, medication errors, staff satisfaction, serious safety events, and patient experience can be used to prioritize time, resources, and finances. Health care organizations and government agencies use benchmark data to compare the quality of organizational services and report the status of patient safety. Professional nurses are key to comprehensive data collection, reporting, and monitoring of metrics to improve quality and patient safety.
Preparation
In this assessment, you’ll assess the effect of the health problem you’ve defined on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. Plan to spend at least 2 direct practicum hours working with the same patient, family, or group. During this time, you may also choose to consult with subject matter and industry experts.
To prepare for the assessment:
· Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide to ensure that you understand the work you will be asked to complete and how it will be assessed.
· Conduct research of the scholarly and professional literature to inform your assessment and meet scholarly expectations for supporting evidence.
· Review the  Practicum Focus Sheet: Assessment 2 [PDF]  Download Practicum Focus Sheet: Assessment 2 [PDF], which provides guidance for conducting this portion of your practicum.
Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center’s  Writing Support  page.
Instructions
Complete this assessment in two parts.
Part 1
Assess the effect of the patient, family, or population problem you defined in the previous assessment on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. Plan to spend at least 2 practicum hours exploring these aspects of the problem with the patient, family, or group. During this time, you may also consult with subject matter and industry experts of your choice. Document the time spent (your practicum hours) with these individuals or group in the Capella Academic Portal Volunteer Experience Form. Use the  Practicum Focus Sheet: Assessment 2 [PDF]  Download Practicum Focus Sheet: Assessment 2 [PDF]provided for this assessment to guide your work and interpersonal interactions.
Part 2
Report on your experiences during your first 2 practicum hours, including how you presented your ideas about the health problem to the patient, family, or group.
· Whom did you meet with?
· What did you learn from them?
· Comment on the evidence-based practice (EBP) documents or websites you reviewed.
· What did you learn from that review?
· Share the process and experience of exploring the influence of leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, and policy on the problem.
· What barriers, if any, did you encounter when presenting the problem to the patient, family, or group?
· Did the patient, family, or group agree with you about the presence of the problem and its significance and relevance?
· What leadership, communication, collaboration, or change management skills did you employ during your interactions to overcome these barriers or change the patient’s, family’s, or group’s thinking about the problem (for example, creating a sense of urgency based on data or policy requirements)?
· What changes, if any, did you make to your definition of the problem, based on your discussions?
· What might you have done differently?
Requirements
The assessment requirements, outlined below, correspond to the scoring guide criteria, so be sure to address each main point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. In addition, note the additional requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.
· Explain how the patient, family, or population problem impacts the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
· Cite evidence that supports the stated impact.
· Note whether the supporting evidence is consistent with what you see in your nursing practice.
· Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or organizational or governmental policies can affect the problem’s impact on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
· Describe research that has tested the effectiveness of these standards and/or policies in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
· Explain how these standards and/or policies will guide your actions in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
· Describe the effects of local, state, and federal policies or legislation on your nursing scope of practice, within the context of care quality, patient safety, and cost to the system and individual.
· Propose strategies to improve the quality of care, enhance patient safety, and reduce costs to the system and individual.
· Discuss research on the effectiveness of these strategies in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
· Identify relevant and available sources of benchmark data on care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
· Document the time spent (your practicum hours) with these individuals or group in the Capella Academic Portal Volunteer Experience Form.
· Use paraphrasing and summarization to represent ideas from external sources.
· Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.
Additional Requirements
· Format: Format your paper using APA style.  APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX]  is provided to help you in writing and formatting your paper. Be sure to include:
· A title page and reference page. An abstract is not required.
· Appropriate section headings.
· Length: Your paper should be approximately 5–7 pages in length, not including the reference page.
· Supporting evidence: Cite at least 5 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your central ideas. Resources should be no more than five years old. Provide in-text citations and references in APA format.
· Proofreading: Proofread your paper, before you submit it, to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on its substance.
Capella Academic Portal
Update the total number of hours on the NURS-FPX4900 Volunteer Experience Form in  Capella Academic Portal .
The BSN Capstone Course (NURS-FPX4900 ) requires the completion and documentation of nine (9) practicum hours. All hours must be recorded in the Capella Academic Portal. Please review the  BSN Practicum Campus page  for more information and instructions on how to log your hours.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
· Competency 3: Transform processes to improve quality, enhance patient safety, and reduce the cost of care.
· Explain how a patient, family, or population problem impacts the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
· Propose strategies to improve the quality of care, enhance patient safety, and reduce costs to the system and individual and document the practicum hours spent with these individuals or group in the Capella Academic Portal Volunteer Experience Form.
· Competency 5: Analyze the impact of health policy on quality and cost of care.
· Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or organizational or governmental policies can affect a patient, family, or population problem’s impact on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
· Competency 8: Integrate professional standards and values into practice.
· Use paraphrasing and summarization to represent ideas from external sources.
· Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.

 Review the appropriate guidelines for your selected company:
For this week’s discussion, respond to the following:
Start with a brief overview of your business: company name and what you are selling (a maximum of 3 sentences).
How does your business work? Describe the day-to-day flow of activities necessary to deliver your product or service to customers. Wherever applicable, identify costs. Be sure to address the following, as applicable to your chosen business in the response, using headings:
Facilities.
Describe the facility, including its location.
Specify whether it is rented or owned; include any associated costs.
Estimate the cost of utilities, such as water/sewer, gas, electricity, and trash removal.

Production Process/Description of business operations.
Describe the production process (how you will produce the product) or describe how your business will operate if this is a retail or service company.
Identify the equipment, furniture, vehicles, etc. you will use and associated costs.
Explain your approach to quality control.
Explain your approach to inventory, as applicable.

Personnel Needs
Specify the number of employees you plan to have, including managers.
Identify their roles, wages, and/or salary.

Healthpolicydiscussion3.docx

Module 3 Discussion
 
  ACA and Health-Care Outcomes & Costs
What components of the ACA do you think will have a positive effect on improving health care outcomes and decreasing costs? 

Submission Instructions:
· Your initial post should be at least 500 words, formatted and cited in current APA style with support from at least 2 academic sources. 
· Due Wednesday oct 30 at 11:59pm

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HADiscussion3.docx

Module 3 Discussion
  
  Skin, Eye, & Ear Disorders
For this Discussion, you will take on the role of a clinician who is building a health history for one of the following cases. Your instructor will assign you your case number.

Case 1

Chief Complaint (CC) 

A 57-year-old man presents to the office with a complaint of left ear drainage since this morning.

Subjective

Patient stated he was having pulsating pain on left ear for about 3 days. After the ear drainage the pain has gotten a little better.

 VS

(T) 99.8°F; (RR) 14; (HR) 72; (BP) 138/90

 General

well-developed, healthy male

 HEENT

EAR: (R) external ear normal, canal without erythema or exudate, little bit of cerumen noted, TM- pearly grey, intact with light reflex and bony landmarks present; (L) external ear normal, canal with white exudate and crusting, no visualization of tympanic membrane or bony landmarks, no light reflex EYE: bilateral anicteric conjunctiva, (PERRLA), EOM intact. NOSE: nares are patent with no tissue edema. THROAT: no lesions noted, oropharynx moderately erythematous with no postnasal drip.

 Skin

No rashes

Neck/Throat

no neck swelling or tenderness with palpation; neck is supple; no JVD; thyroid is not enlarged; trachea midline

Answer the following questions for your specific case study assigned:
1. What other subjective data would you obtain specific to your case?
2. What other objective findings would you look for?
3. What diagnostic exams do you want to order?
4. Name 3 differential diagnoses based on this patient’s presenting symptoms.
5. Give rationales for each differential diagnosis.
· Your initial post  should be at least 500 words, formatted and cited in the current  APA style with support from at least  3 academic sources.
Due Wednesday Oct 30 at 11:59pm

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ECON101WEEK4.docx

250-300 WORDS ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING QUESTION, MINIMAL CITATIONS PLEASE.
An important law in economics is the “Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility”.  Discuss what this law is and provide  an example of diminishing marginal utility you’ve encountered recently.

ANCESTRAL HUMANS: UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN
FAMILY TREE
Chapter 6

New Human Ancestral Species
Discovery of Australopithecus sediba in 2010, and soon after, Homo naledi in South Africa.
◦ Details remain ambiguous, but these finds represent new branches in our family tree.
The odds of finding new species are very small, given the scarcity of fossils.
◦ But paleoanthropology (the study the fossilized remains of ancient hominids to shed light on their biological and behavioral evolution) is very active right now.
◦ Advancements in genomic science and technology, including the use of DNA evidence recovered from fossils in the lab, have had a major influence on this field.
Excavating Australopithecus sediba (Photo: Brent Stirton/Getty Images Reportage)

At the heart of anthropology’s interest in our human ancestors is a
key question: when, where, and how did our human ancestors
emerge, and under what conditions did modern humans evolve?
◦ Who are our earliest ancestors?
◦ What does walking on two legs and having big brains mean for us?
◦ Who were the first humans and where did they live?
◦ How do we know if the first humans were cultural beings, and what role did
culture play in their evolution?

Who Are Our Earliest Possible Ancestors?
◦ Two key issues
◦ What is our evolutionary relationship to other apes?
◦ How does that relationship affect how we view and name certain fossils found from 6
to 1 mya?
◦ All great apes and humans are placed together in Hominidae: a family of
primates that includes humans and their ancestors

Family Hominidae
◦ Hominidae has two subfamilies:
◦ Ponginae: Asian-derived subfamily; includes
Orangutan
◦ Homininae: African subfamily; includes humans,
chimpanzees, and gorillas
◦ Hominini: the tribe to which humans and our
direct human ancestors belong (hominins)
◦ All hominins are hominines
◦ But only some hominines are hominins (modern
humans and our direct lineage)

Hominins
Hominins share in common several unique
traits
◦ Modifications in the lower body, upper arms,
and backbone that make them capable of
bipedal locomotion
◦ Smaller canine teeth than other Hominidae
◦ A forward-placed foramen magnum to
support bipedalism
◦ A reduced Canine/Premolar-3 shearing
complex
General characteristics of hominins (Photo: Brent Stirton/Getty Images
Reportage)

Hominin Fossil Evidence
◦ Fossil evidence of ancestral hominins comes from Africa during the end of Miocene
◦ Numerous identifiable hominins emerged during the Pliocene and the Pleistocene
◦ Evolutionary relationships between these and earlier Miocene hominoids remains
unclear
◦ They are Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo

There are three (undisputed) Hominin Genera:
◦ Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo
◦ And possibly three more, including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Orrorin tugenensis, and Ardipithecus.
Derived vs. Primitive Traits
◦ When we talk about similarities and differences between species and in terms of evolution
we talk about primitive/ancestral and derived traits
◦ Ancestral traits appear in older species of the same lineage but are retained through time
◦ Derived traits are more humanlike traits that have changed over time

Genus Australopithecus
Most researchers hypothesize that the human lineage
emerged from the australopithecines:
◦ Between 1.2-1.4m tall, fairly high degree of sexual
dimorphism, with males larger than females, and were
gracile
◦ Relatively large brains and a gripping hand
◦ May have processed food as early as 3.3 mya
◦ Arm length suggests a partially arboreal existence,
although they also had bipedal stature
Australopithecus anamensis skull (Photo: ©
Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu)

Genus Paranthropus
A cluster of hominin fossils dating to 2.7 and 1 mya
differ from australopithecines
◦ Larger brains, broad, “dish-shaped” faces, small foreheads,
flared cheekbones, pronounced sagittal crest, megadontia
◦ They ranged from 4.3 – 4.7 feet in height; all three species
were bipedal.
◦ Probably lived in open woodland or savannah landscapes
and were almost certainly tool users
Paranthropus aethiopicus (top/left) and Paranthropus
boisei (bottom/right) (Photos: Smithsonian
Institute; Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikipedia)

Genus Homo
◦ Emerged from one australopithecine lineage about 3 to 2 mya
◦ Most hominin fossils younger than about 1.8 mya are
considered Homo
◦ Disagreement persists about how many species they actually
represent, or even if some early cases are members of Homo or
Australopithecus.
◦ Large cranial capacity, competent bipeds
◦ Made and used stone tools, called Olduwan tools
Homo naledi skull (Photo: John Hawks)

The “Missing Link”?
◦ Is one of these early species the “missing
link?” NO.
◦ Deciding which one is impossible: the fossil
record is incomplete
◦ Evolutionary theory rejects a “link”
◦ What we do have are many “missing links”
◦ Paleoanthropologists look for evolutionary
relationships between existing hominins
◦ Paleoanthropologists are still working
through who our most direct ancestor is

What Did Walking On Two Legs And Having Big Brains Mean For The Early Hominins?
◦ Bipedalism: one of the determining traits
of hominins
◦ Directly linked with our emergence and
separation from the apes
◦ Increased brain size: also significant
◦ Enabled us to acquire a degree of social
complexity and tool use not seen in other apes

Bipedalism
Bipedalism a consequence of multiple, independent selections:
◦ It aids carrying objects
◦ It benefits hunting
◦ It allows upright reaching
◦ It aids vigilance and visual surveillance
◦ It aids long-distance walking and running
◦ It aids heat regulation

Increased Cranial Capacity
◦ Increased cranial capacity:
◦ greater brain power → increased metabolic costs for the body
◦ Increased meat consumption helped meet the added energy cost
◦ Abundance and the relative ease of gathering roots, tubers, nuts, and fatty fruits as
sources of high quality nutrition made them staple elements of Homo diets

Biocultural Evolution and Early Humans
◦ Hypothesis: bipedalism and increasing brain
power, with associated changes in diet, tool
use, and social relations, contributed to
evolutionary changes
◦ Led to the later forms of Homo
◦ If true, this hypothesis points to something
powerful and new:
◦ The interaction of biology and culture through
evolution to meet selective challenges

Who Were The First Humans And Where Did They Live?
◦ During the Pleistocene epoch our lineage began to
spread out of Africa
◦ Homo erectus appeared about 1.8 mya
◦ Had human-like body proportions and height
◦ Lived on the ground as obligatory bipeds
◦ Cared for their young and the weak
◦ Made and used stone tools, controlled fire, may have had
some kind of proto-language
Homo erectus, female. Reconstruction based on ER
3733 by John Gurche

Homo erectus
◦ Looks a bit like us….but thicker bones, a more robust skeleton, and a differently shaped cranium ◦ Some fossils also have a sagittal keel
◦ Found throughout Africa, Europe, India, Indonesia, and China
◦ The taxonomic ordering of Homo erectus is unresolved; debate continues ◦ Human-like proportions and height
◦ Obligatory bipeds
◦ Cared for the old and weak
◦ Made and used stone tools
◦ Controlled fire
◦ Possible a simple proto-language

Archaic Humans
◦ 500,000-300,000 years ago: changes in morphology and material culture suggest
emergence of one or more new variety of Homo
◦ Known for making more refined and specialized tools
◦ Individuals with these traits are referred to as archaic humans

Archaic Humans
◦ Anthropologists classify archaic
humans in one of two ways:
◦ All archaic Homo sapiens
◦ Separated into two different
species: Homo heidelbergensis and
Homo neanderthalensis
◦ The oldest archaic human
specimens are found in Africa
◦ Geographic spread includes the
Middle East, Mediterranean,
East Asia, Siberia, and Eastern
and Western Europe
Bodo cranium (Photo: © Bone Clones,
www.boneclones.com)

The Neanderthals and Denisovans
◦ Much attention has been directed to
fossils of Homo neanderthalensis
◦ Date from about 300,000 to 30,000 years
ago
◦ Stockier than modern humans, but
similar height and weight
◦ Discovery of a coeval archaic human
dating to 41,000 years in Denisova
cave adds new evidence and interest

Interrelationship of Three Species
◦ Strong fossil evidence
suggests Neanderthals,
Denisovans, and modern
humans overlapped for
10,000 years or more
◦ The relationships among
these varieties of Homo has
grown more complicated and
intriguing with technological
innovations in ancient
human genomics

Anatomically-Modern Humans
◦ 200,000 and 25,000 years ago, archaic features in
the fossil record change
◦ Changes in morphology
◦ Dramatic changes in types/complexity of tools and
other aspects of material culture and behavior
◦ Language as we know it probably appeared with
anatomically modern humans
◦ 35,000-12,000 years ago, there may have been at
least two species of humans

Where did we originate?
Where anatomically-modern humans actually originated
has led to the development of three explanatory models:
◦ The Recent African Origin model: proposes that modern
humans arose as a new species in Africa between 200,000
and 180,000 years ago, during the late Pleistocene
◦ The Multiregional Evolution model: proposes that modern
humans are only the most recent version of a single species,
Homo sapiens, that had been in Africa, Asia, and Europe for
nearly 2 million years.
◦ The Multiple Dispersals model (MD): argues that modern
humans left Africa in multiple waves, and edges out the
others given the current fossil and DNA evidence. In this
model the initial movement out of Africa occurs
approximately 1.8 mya.

How Do We Know If The First Humans Were Cultural Beings, And What Role Did Culture Play In
Their Evolution?
◦ Cultural capacity of hominids emerged over a
long time and interacted with biology to meet
selective demands through biocultural
evolution
◦ Humans approached environmental
challenges with more than their hands and
teeth during the Paleolithic

Changes During the Paleolithic
Beginning with Homo erectus, we know culture played a greater role in their lives
than earlier hominins because:
◦ Diets changed: Increased brain and body size meant higher metabolic rates, requiring more
and higher-quality food.
◦ Tools changed: Early Homo used Olduwan tools, allowing processing of animals and
plants. About 1.6-1.4 mya, Acheulean tools, with better edges and different styles, appear in
the fossil record
◦ Used fire: enables consumption of a wider variety of foods and a higher energy return on
foods eaten and marks the beginning of cooking
◦ Cooperative behaviors increased: increases survivability

The Material Culture and Behavior of Archaic Humans
Evidence for archaic human material culture
and behavior:
◦ More complex tools appear
◦ Evidence of organized group hunts
◦ Regular use of controlled fire
◦ Evidence of shelters of wood and possibly hide
◦ 200,000 years ago, the Levallois toolmaking
technique appears

The Significance of Culture
◦ Cannot say with certainty when it
appeared
◦ Human activity is based on social
interdependence and intensive cooperation,
which depends on communication
◦ Cultural meanings allow for group memory,
establishing patterned ways of doing things,
and metaphysical thought
◦ By 50,000 years ago, anatomically modern
humans created images that some
scholars interpret as art