Evolutionary Relatives, The Apes, By Jared Diamond

According to Diamond, Human ancestors moved to Eurasia around 1 to 2 million years ago and after human fossils began to resemble modern Homo sapiens and archaeologists called that period the Great Leap Forward. According to “Human Evolution and the Great Leap Forward - By Advocate De Waal Lubbe,” Scientists have estimated that humans branched off from their common ancestor, with chimpanzees, about 5-7 million years ago. Several species and subspecies of Homo evolved and are now extinct. These include Homo erectus, which inhabited Asia, and Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, which inhabited Europe. Archaic Homo sapiens evolved between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago.

In the National Geographic documentary film, Among the Wild Chimpanzees, Jane Goodall pursues her desire to understand and investigate the foreign chimpanzees as it was a study of three generations on chimpanzees which was the longest study of any wild animal group in the world. Jane Goodall grew up in Bournemouth, England and since she was a young child, she was always fascinated with animals which enlightened her passion in investigating these chimpanzees even though many said, “You’ll never get near the chimpanzees.” Regardless of this, Jane Goodall’s approach to studying the chimpanzee's became revolutionary as it allowed future generations to further investigate chimpanzees. When the anthropologist Louis Leakey sent Jane on a mission

This chapter beings explaining the evolution of mankind. Prior to 11,000 BCE, all humans were equal. Due to our evolutionary past, we branched off from apes to humans and spread around the world. Nearly 4 million years ago, humans began their mark on earth in Africa. Jared Diamond compares human development on all seven continents about 13,000 years ago. Although many early humans were found primarily in Eurasia and Africa, over time they expanded and gained new territory. The early humans created tools as they evolved, and many became hunter and gatherers. Then, human history made a Great Leap Forward around 40,000 BCE. The Great Leap Forward was when the earliest humans created new technology and exciting innovations that did not exist previously

There has been a great deal of heated debate for the last few decades about where modern Homo sapiens originated. From the battle grounds, two main theories emerged. One theory, labeled “Out-of-Africa” or “population replacement” explains that all modern Homo sapiens evolved from a common Homo erectus ancestor in Africa 100,000 years ago. The species began to spread and replace all other archaic human-like populations around 35,000 to 89,000 years ago. The rivaling opinion, entitled the “regional continuity” theory or “multiregional evolution” model refutes this theory and states modern humans evolved from various species of Homo erectus who interbred with others that lived in

timeline of modern humans, Homo sapiens, and how long they have been in existence. According to mainstream science, popular belief holds that the history of our species is confirmed to be confined to the past 12,000 years. This figure is a culmination based on what we know about evolution and what we have been able to gather through fossil analyzation and dating of artifacts as well as human remains. Although the subject of human antiquity, also referred to as human origins, does not prompt a great deal of debate there may actually be the need for some. A reexamination of the notion that humans have only existed a mere 12,000 years should be considered as there may be evidence to support a much greater antiquity of modern human life. Alternative researchers have offered up evidence of “forbidden archeology” that contradicts the mainstream beliefs of human origins, however these discoveries seem to have been swept under the scientific rug.

One well know organization that is out there trying to fight for the rights of Great Apes is, the Great Ape Project (GAP), located São Paulo - SP - Brazil. GAP is an international movement that aims to defend the rights of non-human great primates, which are the closest relatives in the animal kingdom. They believe that the abuse of great apes in laboratories, circus, entertainment shows, and zoo can be considered as a kind of slavery. When great apes are unable to be release to the forest because of mistreatment, this is when the mission turns to provide the best quality of life and state of welfare for the animal in captivity. They state that in the sanctuaries, chimpanzees are treated for physical and psychological traumas and stress caused

Throughout time man has evolved. Common belief is that Homo sapiens evolved from primates and then, by following the Darwinistic theory of evolution, Neanderthals, when in fact they all evolved alongside each other, sharing common ancestors rather than directly coming from one another. This then lead to similarities in the DNA as well to the high probability that there was interbreeding between the species; phylogenic tree mappings of the mitochondrial DNA of numerous different modern humans from around the world as well as the mtDNA of an assortment of Homo neanderthalensis were able to show the similarities of the two species along with the human descent from their origins in Africa to other areas of the world.

There is much speculation as to where humans today came from, until recently much was up for debate when considering where one came from. The film, The Human Family Tree, directed by Chad Cohen, produced by the National Geographic Channel in 2009 attempts to answer the question: Where did we (as humans) come from? The film’s answer to this question comes from the Genographic Project which aims to uncover the origins of humans as a modern species. “The Human Family Tree” argues that modern humans originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago. The film uses the evidence provided by the Genographic Project to support their claim.

Where did we come from? This question has plagued us as a species since our conception and it has been the pinnacle of humanity to discover what we are and how we came to be. Through the use of modern science and our understanding of evolution, we are closer to determining how our species evolved than we have ever been before. Our closest hominid relative, the Neanderthal, is one such link to our past that we study to understand how we came to be. In studying this species, it brings about questions that have puzzle scientist in recent years. These are questions that delve deeper into the differences and similarities between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Many modern humans migrated out of Africa around 125,000 to 60,000 years ago leaving behind what are now modern Africans in the continent. Those who migrated out of Africa dispersed over time, colonizing much of Europe and Asia. This theory is known as the Out of Africa Theory (Stringer, 2000).

The genetic study shows that primates diverged from other animals around 85 million years ago. Way back in the late cretaceous period and the earliest fossils show up in the paleocene around 55,000,000 years ago. Within the Hominoidea family, the Hominidae family seperated from the Hylobatidae family around 15 to 20 million years ago. African

To this day scientists have discovered four members from this group of primates that were believed to be the earliest primates to begin walking upright. The next group up the tree is Australopithecus group of four members. These were the earliest group of primates that began walking upright more so for longer periods, but still spent time in trees. This is the group that Lucy belonged to, which occupied Africa from about 4 million to 2 million years ago. The next group up the tree is Paranthropus, which had three members. This is the group that the newly discovered LD 350-1 fossil belongs to. This group was characterized by large teeth to eat a wide variety of food. This group is believed to have walked the earth between 1-3 million years ago. The last group at the top of the tree is the homo. This group appeared on earth at about 2.8 million years ago. This is our group. Homo sapiens is the scientific classification for modern humans (“Human Family Tree”). It should be noted that like other animals there were probably many more members of each group. However, paleoanthropologists can only guess the amount and how they fit to us, at least until more fossils are

Homo sapiens were evolved in Africa, now worldwide and have been dated about 200,000 years ago to present. Home sapiens adapations to tropical environments (Institute of Human Origins 2008). Homo sapiens are bipedalism because they can walk on ground level. Homo sapiens spend large part of their day gathering plants and hunting or scavenging animals, and control over fire (Smithsonian Institution 2016). Homo sapiens interact with each other and with their surroundings in new and different ways. “Cultural behaviours they made specialized tools, exchanged resources over wide areas; and they created art, music, personal adornment, rituals, and a complex symbolic world” (Smithsonian Institution 2016).

According to physical evidence, and theories, scholars have concluded upon a whole hypothesis. Based on their knowledge and belief, modern humans diverged from Homo sapiens between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago specifically in Africa, that between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago members of Homo sapiens left Africa, and that these

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 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.”