Expeditions to the roots of humans

Dear visitor,

before you proceed to the e-learning object Expeditions to the roots of humans we will provide you with some general advices on handling the object. For the moment, there is unfortunately just a German language version available. In the following you will find a brief description of the object and general advices for working with it. Please read it carefully before you join the Expeditions for the first time. This info is also provided in German on page 2 and 3 of the Expeditions. The link on the right then leads you to the object.

Introduction

in the depth of tropical canyons, in the endless wilderness of African savannas, in the impenetrable Southeast Asian jungles or in the bizarre limestone caves of South China - this is where the remains of fossil humans have been found. You have not been there yet? Now you have the chance to explore all these fascinating sites by mouse.

Behind the e-learning object Expeditions to the roots of humans hides a world map with a time bar, with which you may explore spatial and temporal dimensions of human evolution. Discover roughly a hundred different hominid sites and the hominid remains found there. Learn from hominid descriptions more about anatomy and distribution of human ancestors. For the moment those descriptions are only available in German language.

At first glance the world map may seem somehow distorted. This is due the fact that we used an isoplanal instead of an isogonal projection. We decided to do so in order to give you a better impression of the immense vastness, which our ancestors traversed on their migrations.

As attentive user you will also notice that time does not go by in similar steps on the time bar. In its lower part each segment corresponds to one million years, in the medium part to 100,000 years and in the upper part to 10,000 years. This scaling increases accuracy and provides you with improved access to the numerous younger sites.

In order to gain access to the complete time bar you have to solve special tasks. By these special tasks you are introduced to decisive steps in human evolution. This is not easy - but certainly no problem for you. If you solved a task, you may unlock another part of the time bar by password. For the moment just one task is available, i.e. task no. 9 on Neanderthals. Until we installed the English version, it is only available in German. The database part is nevertheless ready for access and works basically language free. To unlock the complete time bar, please enter password "12" on request.

Working with the object

The world map provides premium access to the hidden information. On the right side of the world map window you find a time bar. You can move the ruler up and down with the mouse. Corresponding to the selected time segment, site dots appear on the world map.

If you click on one of the sites, a site description pops up, on which you will find information on the age of the site and the hominid discoveries. In order to facilitate access to the sites, we provided you with a zoom tool which you may operate with the up- and down-keys on your keyboard. If you click on a scientific name on one of the site pop ups you may obtain information on the hominid species found at the site (only in German!).

If you did not enter the master password to unlock the time bar completely, you will not be able to move the time ruler over a certain point before passing one of the special tasks (only in German!). By elaborating special tasks you may collect passwords allowing you to unlock further segments of the time bar.

The help function is also only available in German for the moment.

And now, fasten your seat belt and join the Expeditions ...

geändert am 27. Oktober 2007  E-Mail: Webmasterc.hertler@bio.uni-frankfurt.de