Evolution And Human Cognitive Evolution

These findings insist on the idea that our ancestors evolved to be scavengers and gatherers because it was the only way to find nutrients. Early humans were required to search for food. Conditions required them to evolve in a way that the body stores energy, so when resources became scarce, they stayed healthy and could contribute to their community efficiently. Obtaining the ability to store energy in order for humans stay healthy was an extremely important factor. After our ancestors migrated out of East Africa, they evolved to wonder and scavenge for food. Now, humans are able to live comfortably in a single location. Compared to our ancestors constantly moving looking for food and shelter. (Jurmain et al. 350-351).

“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought” but when were these first intelligent thoughts thought? Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. But intelligence has evolved from the past. The innovation of fire furthered to the light bulb, as the hut became the skyscraper. This topic is worthy to investigate because modern humans have advanced so greatly, but how exactly had our genius evolved and where did our intelligence start. How are the intelligence of early humans different from that of modern humans, and what inferences can be made from this data?

Animal meat has all necessary nutrients, especially protein that is necessary for the human body to grow and function properly. Besides, it plays a vital role in brain development. As suggested by Smil (2013), “Killing animals and eating meat have been significant components of human evolution…have inevitably contributed to the evolution of human intelligence…” (p.1). According to the findings of the University of Colorado (2012), anthropologists have excavated a toddler’s “skull fragment” in Tanzania that is the abnormally tiny size of skull, due to a protein deficiency in the diet and led to youth mortality; this condition was very rare in 1.8 million years ago. This indicates that animal meat is a paramount in the human body, without the essential amino acids that exists in animal meats; human evolution cannot happen (p.1).

According to Darwin (Date), there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental and perceived emotional faculties. In theory, every organism is engrained with complex, useful, and non-arbitrary bits of information that is essential to its survival. Organisms know when it is time to migrate, when it is best to hunt, and when mating should occur. According to Name (Date), these faculties are actually nonrandom parts of our development they must have come from either divine design or natural selection. The notion of whether or not divine design or natural selection is the result of an organisms faculties has sparked significant debate since Darwin first proposed his theory of natural selection

Much of the human ability to make and use tools and other objects stem from the large size and complexity of the human brain. Most modern humans have a braincase volume of between 79.3 and 91.5 cubic inches. In the course of human evolution the size of the brain has more than tripled. The increase in brain size may be related to changes in hominine behavior. Over time stone tools, and other artifacts became increasingly numerous and sophisticated. It is likely that the increase in human brain size took place as part of a complex interrelationship that included the elaboration of tool use and tool making, as well as other learned skills, which permitted our ancestors to be increasingly able to live in a variety of environments.

The human brain is a feat of evolution: it has allowed humans to have complex thoughts, conscience, build tools, create fires, and much more. Humans did not acquire this simply by chance. Evolution throughout our ancestral past has shaped and moulded the human mind to its state. The earliest of ancestors, including apes, had very small brains, but as evolution progressed, so too did the human brain. The rapid progression of human intelligence has been attributed to environmental changes causing humans to change with their surroundings for survival. This lead to the expansion of specific areas of the brain, vastly differing maturation of humans compared to our

Our most useful tool we discovered was cooking. Cooking allowed us to eat many more things than we could originally. It removed the harmful bacteria and substances from food making them edible. The ability to cook is also the only tool humans have that other omnivores do not. This is often cited as evidence that humans entered a new ecological niche, “the cognitive niche,” as many anthropologists have labeled it. Pollan says it is this “term seems calculated to smudge the line between biology and culture” since cooking helped develop many cultures. It is this tool that altered the way our bodies digest food. With cooking we no longer needed to consume raw meat and other foods became safe to eat.

One of the main reasons why we are so interested in the other primates is that by looking at them we can obtain some ideas of what our ancestor must have been like a few millions years ago. Even though, we are not descended from any modern-type monkey or ape, our lineage does appear to have gone through stages in which we were a medium-sized, reasonably intelligent creature with good binocular vision, hands that were good at manipulation and the ability to climb trees. An evolutionary trend in primates involves the development of offspring both before and after birth and their integration into complex social systems. Another trend in primate evolution has been toward a more elaborate brain. In addition to brain size and gestation periods,

One of the most astonishing things on earth is the human body. They consist of many organs that work together to maintain the person alive. The humans body composition is complex, but what was the origin? How did we become who we are today? These are the questions that intrigued me, and allowed me to understand how the human body evolved over the years. By the examination of our ancestors, and our body we will understand how we look today.

In chapter 3, John D. Speth discusses the role of meat and protein in hominin evolution. How and when meat was obtained is considered as well as meat’s impact on hominin development. Speth discusses when and where evolutionary factors, such as bipedalism, began and the possibility of it being where game was scarce; pointing out that meat eating came later in the evolutionary time scale. Therefore, meat eating cannot account for human’s two legs (bipedalism) but can account for the evolutionary increase in brain size. The author also discusses the hunting-scavenging debate to further question how the early hominins obtained the meat they did. Speth points out that they were likely scavengers not hunters this early in history. Speth states repeatedly

In his book, Catching Fire: How Cooking made us Human, Wrangham’s argument asserts that cooking our food is what allowed us to develop and eventually evolve into our current human

If one were to describe what he or she thought of when thinking of the earliest humans, thousands of years ago, chances are that the cliché image of a big-game hunter or cave man, running across a savanna, chasing down wooly methods and saber tooth tigers would come to mind. And while this hyperbolized scenario may hold some truth to it, a large component of human history is negated from it. The first known interaction between humans and the sea dates back to nearly 160,000 years ago. Archeologists have discovered remnants of shellfish littering the floors of caves that were occupied by the earliest known humans. Shellfish were gathered by early humans and were essential in provided essential omega-3 fatty acids for necessary brain development

Human evolution is the gradual process in which people, or Homo sapiens, originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence, particularly in the form of fossils and secondary remains, show that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all people evolved over a period of approximately six million years. Humans are primates. Both genetic and physical similarities show that humans and the great apes (large apes) of Africa, chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called “pygmy chimpanzees”) and gorillas share a common ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. The volume of fossils found in Africa suggests that most evolution occurred there and is likely the place of origin for early humans. This brings to fruition the “out of Africa” theory, also called the “single-origin hypothesis.”

Humans have existed on Earth for approximately 3.4 million years. The oldest known human ancestor is "Lucy," an Australopithecus. Over this extensive period of time, humans have evolved significantly. Homo Sapiens have grown from 3 to almost 6 feet (average), lost most of the body hair, became leaner and adapted to walking. Humans have come a long way, from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens, from living in trees to living in cities. Slowly, through hundreds of thousands of years, we mutated over and over again, natural selection ensuring that no destructive mutations continue. From the slow evolution, four distinctive species emerged and died out, each giving way to its ' descendant: Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalesis, and Homo sapiens Sapiens.

Human evolution according to research started over 6 million years ago. The outcome of the evolution process is the current human beings. Scientific studies have revealed over the years a remarkable affinity between the chimpanzees/Apes and human beings. Even though this reality is not a definitive prove that human beings evolved from apes, it does show that the human beings are in one way or another related to other primates. Scientists suppose that the humans and the primates shared a common ancestor. The subject of what makes humans what they are and their origin has been the exclusive purpose leading to many scientific studies globally (Coolidge & Wynn, 2011). Studies believe that Africa was the origin of evolution millions of years ago. Fossil remains have been discovered in different parts of Africa as well as other regions of the world. Different hominins have been discovered around the world in the last 1 million years. Thus, the different discoveries have led to comparisons between the various species of hominins to clarify on their similarities as well as differences. This essay seeks to explain whether they were distinctively different species or regional versions of the same species.