savannah hypothesis

(noun)

The theory that hominins were forced out of the trees they lived in and onto the expanding savannah; as they did so, they began walking upright on two feet.

Related Terms

Examples of savannah hypothesis in the following topics:

  • The Evolution of Humans

    • The savannah hypothesis states that hominins were forced out of the trees they lived in and onto the expanding savannah; as they did so, they began walking upright on two feet.
    • This idea was expanded in the aridity hypothesis, which posited that the savannah was expanding due to increasingly arid conditions resulting in hominin adaptation.
    • The turnover pulse hypothesis states that extinctions due to environmental conditions hurt specialist species more than generalist ones.
    • The Red Queen hypothesis states that species must constantly evolve in order to compete with co-evolving animals around them.
    • The social brain hypothesis states that improving cognitive capabilities would allow hominins to influence local groups and control resources.

  • Sherman's March

    • Sherman's armies reached the outskirts of Savannah on December 10 but found 10,000 Confederate troops entrenched in good positions.
    • Now that Sherman had connected to the navy fleet he was able to obtain the supplies and siege artillery he required to invade Savannah.
    • After capturing Savannah, Sherman telegraphed to President Lincoln, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."
    • On December 26, the president replied in a letter: "Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift—the capture of Savannah."
    • This map shows the Savannah Campaign (Sherman's March to the Sea) during the American Civil War.

  • Georgia

    • The original charter specified the colony as the area between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, up to their headwaters on the Ocmulgee River, and then extending westward "sea to sea."
    • In practice, settlement in the colony was limited to the vicinity near the Savannah River.
    • In Savannah, the Oglethorpe Plan provided for a utopia: “an agrarian model of sustenance while sustaining egalitarian values holding all men as equal.”
    • An early drawing of Savannah, Georgia, from sometime in the early 1700s.

  • Student Learning Outcomes

    • Conduct and interpret hypothesis tests for two population means, population standard deviations known.
    • Conduct and interpret hypothesis tests for two population means, population standard deviations unknown.

  • The Null and the Alternative

    • The alternative hypothesis and the null hypothesis are the two rival hypotheses that are compared by a statistical hypothesis test.
    • In statistical hypothesis testing, the alternative hypothesis and the null hypothesis are the two rival hypotheses which are compared by a statistical hypothesis test.
    • In the hypothesis testing approach of Jerzy Neyman and Egon Pearson, a null hypothesis is contrasted with an alternative hypothesis, and these are decided between on the basis of data, with certain error rates.
    • The concept of an alternative hypothesis forms a major component in modern statistical hypothesis testing; however, it was not part of Ronald Fisher's formulation of statistical hypothesis testing.
    • Modern statistical hypothesis testing accommodates this type of test, since the alternative hypothesis can be just the negation of the null hypothesis.

  • Georgia and South Carolina

    • On December 29, 1778, a British expeditionary corps of 3,500 men from New York under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell captured Savannah, Georgia.
    • In October 1779, French and Revolutionary forces attempted to retake Savannah.
    • With Savannah secured, British Commander-in-Chief Henry Clinton launched a new assault on Charleston, South Carolina, which he had failed to capture in 1776.

  • Does the Difference Prove the Point?

    • Rejecting the null hypothesis does not necessarily prove the alternative hypothesis.
    • The critical region of a hypothesis test is the set of all outcomes which cause the null hypothesis to be rejected in favor of the alternative hypothesis.
    • Alternatively, if the testing procedure forces us to reject the null hypothesis ($H_0$), we can accept the alternative hypothesis ($H_1$) and we conclude that the research hypothesis is supported by the data.
    • Rejection of the null hypothesis is a conclusion.
    • We might accept the alternative hypothesis (and the research hypothesis).

  • Student Learning Outcomes

    • Conduct and interpret hypothesis tests for a single population mean, population standard deviation known.
    • Conduct and interpret hypothesis tests for a single population mean, population standard deviation unknown.

  • Student Learning Outcomes

  • Misconceptions

    • State why the probability value is not the probability the null hypothesis is false
    • Explain why a non-significant outcome does not mean the null hypothesis is probably true
    • Misconception: The probability value is the probability that the null hypothesis is false.
    • It is the probability of the data given the null hypothesis.
    • It is not the probability that the null hypothesis is false.