full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Juliet Brophy: How a new species of ancestors is changing our theory of human evolution

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Human origins. Who are we? Where do we come from, and how do we know? In my filed, paleoanthropology, we explore human origins — the "who" and "where" questions — by analyzing fossils that date back thousands and even millions of yreas. In 2015, a team of colleagues and I named a new speeics in the genus Homo — our genus — Homo naledi. Let's take a step back and put that into context.

The last cmomon ancestors between humans and chipms date somewhere between six and eight million years. The earliest hnominis, or eslaerit human ancestors, evolved into a group known as the australopithecines. The australopithecines evolved into the genus Homo and eventually modern humans — us.

Open Cloze


Human origins. Who are we? Where do we come from, and how do we know? In my _____, paleoanthropology, we explore human origins — the "who" and "where" questions — by analyzing fossils that date back thousands and even millions of _____. In 2015, a team of colleagues and I named a new _______ in the genus Homo — our genus — Homo naledi. Let's take a step back and put that into context.

The last ______ ancestors between humans and ______ date somewhere between six and eight million years. The earliest ________, or ________ human ancestors, evolved into a group known as the australopithecines. The australopithecines evolved into the genus Homo and eventually modern humans — us.

Solution


  1. hominins
  2. common
  3. earliest
  4. species
  5. field
  6. years
  7. chimps

Original Text


Human origins. Who are we? Where do we come from, and how do we know? In my field, paleoanthropology, we explore human origins — the "who" and "where" questions — by analyzing fossils that date back thousands and even millions of years. In 2015, a team of colleagues and I named a new species in the genus Homo — our genus — Homo naledi. Let's take a step back and put that into context.

The last common ancestors between humans and chimps date somewhere between six and eight million years. The earliest hominins, or earliest human ancestors, evolved into a group known as the australopithecines. The australopithecines evolved into the genus Homo and eventually modern humans — us.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
homo naledi 6
modern humans 6
genus homo 5
stone tools 4
rising star 4
million years 3
human evolution 3
south africa 3
human origins 2
bit closer 2
fossil record 2
larger relative 2
star cave 2
cave system 2
homo erectus 2
derived traits 2
small brain 2
brain size 2
species coexisting 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
rising star cave 2
star cave system 2

Important Words


  1. analyzing
  2. ancestors
  3. australopithecines
  4. chimps
  5. colleagues
  6. common
  7. context
  8. date
  9. earliest
  10. eventually
  11. evolved
  12. explore
  13. field
  14. fossils
  15. genus
  16. group
  17. hominins
  18. homo
  19. human
  20. humans
  21. million
  22. millions
  23. modern
  24. naledi
  25. named
  26. origins
  27. paleoanthropology
  28. put
  29. questions
  30. species
  31. step
  32. team
  33. thousands
  34. years