The Evolution Of Humans And Humans

What evidence shows the changing from the early hominids to the modern humans? Throughout the human evolution body parts like legs and harms have changed for the better. By the early hominids being biped, meaning they are able to stand and even walk on two feet, it helped them to be able to do more things like getting around more and help with their tool making and hunting. A lot of the fossils discovered were found in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, which contained many different lakes and small rivers. For many years researchers have been finding new species. These species have been named Australopithicus, robust australopithecines , Orrorin tugenensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, neanderthal, and Homo sapiens. These early

We share almost 99 percent of our genetic material with chimpanzees. Yet we have several traits that are very different. Two legged walking, or bipedalism seems to be one of the earliest of the major hominine characteristics to have evolved. To

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.

The chapter 1 called "Up To The Starting Line" gives a brief report on the topic of evolution of the first human ancestors. The earliest stages of human evolution took place in Africa with abundant of fossil evidence to prove. We all originated in Africa around 7 million years age. Our closet common ancestor living are called the surviving species of the great apes that are chimpanzee, bonobo, and gorilla. But the most closets animal to humans are chimpanzee. The homo erectus was significantly close to us in modern human body size but lacks half of the brain. Homo erectus were more than an ape but still more different than a human. Neanderthals so called cavemen, had brain slightly larger than normal human being. But the Neanderthals

Over the course of human history, the human genome has not only grown but diversified. From the beginning of time, the human race has been through three forms (change) that have changed the course of history. The earliest hominid race on the planet was Homo Erectus or upright man. The earliest fossil evidence of this primate is 1.9 million years ago. The Homo Erectus ranged from height anywhere from 4 ft. 9 in. to 6 ft. 1 in. And in weight from 88 to 150 pounds. The Homo Erectus was the first species to live life on the ground with body adaptations such as longer legs and shorter arms indicating the loss of tree-climbing adaptations. This was also the first species to traverse beyond Africa. Along with this spreading of the species, it is associated

The Australopithecus genus of human like apes walked the earth about 1.9 million years ago however variations of Australopithecus have been estimated to be around as early as 4.5 million years ago. The Australopithecus genus is a set of early upright walking ape species, these early ancestors generally looked more apelike than human as fur still covered most of their bodies and their slanted flat faces and forward jaws still resembled apes more than recent humans. Features more common to later genus homo have been found present on the various Australopithecus species; namely features such as its smaller teeth, longer legs, less hand like feet, adapted pelvis, stronger reliance on bipedalism and slightly increased relative brain size all distinguished

As a member of the species Austalopithecus afarensis, the emergence of the species known as Homo sapiens was intriguing yet for the most part obscure. Nevertheless, our observations of their morphology have revealed that we share stunning evolutionary connections. Features including bipedalism, cranial size and shape, dental structure, and vocal capabilities, when cross examined between Homo sapiens and Australopithecus afarensis suggest in fact Homo sapiens are a product of our evolutionary history. Therefore, we can determine which of our current characteristics will be of evolutionary significance in the future.

Just to make it fair for all readers , the Australopithecus is the genus of Pliocene and Pleistocene hominids. A major characteristic of a hominid is bipedal locomotion or walking upright on two legs. Several types of Australopithecines have been found but all lived Africa mostly east Africa about four million years ago. The Australopithecus is the first definite hominid but they all slightly differ in their features. All species of the Australopithecus can be split into either a gracile or robust australopithecine. The gracile group consists of species with smaller dentition and lighter facial features and includes the

Understanding the human genome and human genetic variation has helped scientists with determining the origins of the human species, as well as helping to understand human movement and settlement. By understanding this, scientists have been able to track and understand the development of certain peoples and the traits they share. Scientists have applied such knowledge to the origins of modern day Europeans.

In the next 5 – 6 million years after the Sahelanthropus tchadensis which was 2 million years ago, the homo erectus and homo ergaster surfaced in Africa, Asia and Europe. They were one of the first of the homo species to craft many things in order for their survival such as hand- sized stone spears, creating fire, and developing hunting skills for food and survival. The change in their body structure shows how close homo sapiens are to homo erectus as they had similar leg and arm bones to us. Just their structure shows they also had bipedal movement like us and also stood upright. Their brains were slightly smaller and narrower than ours and are known to have a lower mental ability.

Lastly, we come to Homo erectus which date back from 1.8 million years to about 200,000 years ago. Homo erectus has been found in Africa and Asia which makes it the first wide ranging species of its kind (Human Evolution). Despite the look of Homo erectus’s skull it was very similar body structure to that of a humans. Homo erectus is also thought to be the first hominid to use fire and have a true sence of culture (Human Evolution). Though it was probably dramatically different than what we see

Two points made about human evolution are that as the ice sheet retreated, Europe was the first repopulated by prehistoric humans from southwest Europe and in a second event about 14,000 years ago, populations from the southeast spread into Europe, displacing the first group of humans.

Humans, formally known as Homo sapiens, are some of the most fascinating creatures to inhabit this planet. We as human animals possess many traits unique to our species, but one of the most remarkable traits is our upright posture and inherent inclination to walk on two legs. We share this rare trait with few organisms, who even so only express limited bipedal behaviors. Human ancestors first initiated the transition to bipedalism approximately 6 million years ago through the upright steps of the Sahelanthropus. However, Homo erectus was the first human ancestor to express full bipedality, which occurred only 1.9 million years ago. Some of the preceding forms of locomotion used by human ancestors included quadrupedalism or pronograde posture, suspensory locomotion, and knuckle-walking (Watson, 2008). These forms of motion were used not only by human ancestors such as the Australopithecus afarensis, but can also be observed in modern times in some of our close relatives, apes and chimpanzees. This transition to bipedalism was facilitated by structural changes comprised of an angled thigh bone, a more sturdy and broad pelvis, a wider patella, an S-shaped spine, and long femurs. The compilation of all of these adaptations allowed hominids to not only support their entire body weight while standing upright, but efficiently take long strides, therefore allowing them to travel greater distances. Though much is known about the implications for the transition to bipedality, the

Initial ideas of human origins are reflected in the ancient mythologies. Later on, religious versions of human origins appeared. One of the most popular religious theory is creationism. According to it God had created men and everything else in the world. There are two types of creationism, young earth creationism and old earth creationism . Ancient philosophy first proposed ideas of the natural origins of men. Most of its ideas were speculative. It was the product of the ancient philosophers` imagination, but not a result of researching of objective data. Next Charles Darwin offered the Theory of Evolution. Until now this theory is the one of the best substantiated theories in the history of science, supported by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including paleontology, geology, genetics and developmental biology. His theory explains how unguided, natural mechanism could structure all the processes in the world, while operating in accordance to the laws of nature . Despite the wealth of evidence from the fossil record, genetics and other fields of science, some people denounce the theory, invoking a higher being as a designer to explain the complex world of living things, especially humans. School boards debate whether the theory of evolution should be taught alongside other ideas, such as creationism. Mainstream scientists see no controversy. Today a lot of people have deep religious beliefs and also accept evolution . There is also a theory of

The CARTA lectures on human evolution included lectures from Joshua Akey from the University of Washington, Kay Prüfer from the Mark Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and Tony Capra from Vanderbilt University. Each of the speakers talked in some detail about the interbreeding of Neandertals, Denisovans, and modern humans. However, each speaker talked about a different aspect of the breeding. Akey spoke about Neandertal and Denisovan DNA in modern humans and their effects. Prüfer discussed the interbreeding of Neandertals and Denisovans and how it affects the relationship of Neanderthals and Denisovans to modern humans. Lastly, Capra spoke on the phenotypic effects of Neandertal DNA in modern humans.