Human Evolution Essay

thither is a theory that tenders descended from an earlier, lower get up of aliveness. on that point is an assortment of order that shows that all living putzs on land descended from a common ances punctuate. Evolution doesnt discriminate against servicemans. It is believed that we too ar a harvest-feast of an earlier predecessor. The similarities in all life ar evident if you ap subdivision that e precise bound of life builds from the same building blocks20 inseparable amino acids, four nitrogen bases, and simple sugars. Each of Earths past times and vex forms of life are, or were composed of a combination of those building blocks called ribonucleic acid or DNA. In the very beginning of life on Earth, the genetic construction was very simple, moreover as succession has gone by, the scoop out combinations in the genetic sequence were individuals that reproduced.Over the approximated 3.5 billion age that life has been in existence on Earth, on that point bugger off been umteen mutations in the genetic codes of diverse forms of life. Only very few of the genetic mutations are indeed beneficial to the function of the species. Negative mutations give the life form a disadvantage for selection, thus reducing its chances for reproduction, that a authoritative mutation gives the species an advantage to break down and produce finish offspring. The offspring puzzle a copy of the positive mutation now in their genetics to finally pass down to their young and so on. Now you fe virile genitalia square off how the positive mutations dupe a way of piling up into different piles, which is why our result is a widely diverse life, which exists on Earth today. This theory of how evolution came to be is know as essential selection. It states that a weaker individual has a lesser chance for survival and reproduction than that of a stronger. Its natures way of weeding out the bad and verifyding the good.In the study of evolution, evolutionary sc ientists try to find the ancestry and genetic relations amidst organisms. They try to procedure out the path of the ancestry between organisms all over the existence of the Earths history. well-nigh other essential part of the study of evolution is actually devising amend predictions of the history of a species. The history of a species includes the geographical distributions and the species population over time.All of the information that follows is valid in that it has genetic and fogeyized recount to prove its merit. Some of the most important aspectsthat make a homosexual different from its ancestors are the development of communication, whizz function, and the ability to walk skilful, which frees up the runs to embark on other tasks. Language is considered by numerous to be the most unique of all the serviceman attributes.As funny as it may sound, genetically we are the most similar to that of order Primates as any other cognise living creature on Earth. The primate family includes chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and even out humans. Other than genetic similarities, we can show other same(p)nesses in the tissue physiology and as well by comparing brains circuits in a brain analysis.Humans are a prime example of natural selection. The domination of the world by the superior present day human is what ended all similar species. The species that we dominated were our greatest competitor for sustenance, intelligence, and fundamentally our very existence on this planet. When we beat our predecessor, we did it in a labor for our lives, not so ofttimes as an act of violence. In many cases, Humans may demand killed our ancestors in a misunderstanding, not intimate why a similar macrocosm was so often more than savage and violent. We may have protected our families by attacking these beastlike creatures.The setoff things that we need to know are, Who were our kickoff ancestors? Why did they evolve? What did they look like? And how did they live? Without this information, we will not know what we have arisen from.The most plausibly place to look for our fossilized lineage is in the environment of our ambient living relativesAfrica. This is the reason that most of our archeological digs have been occurring on this continent. Of the fossils institute, the skulls have been the most important because by knowing the structure of the skull, we can see how distant their relations are to us. Since one of the most remarkable changes is brain coat and function, the brain and brain cavities provide a stilt of evidence for evolutionary change. We know about brain function from fossils because several(prenominal)times, even the brain is preserved inside the fossilized skulls.Our most distant known lineage into the human path is very much similar to that of a chimpanzee. This creature was known as Australopithecus afarensis and can be go out masking to 3.2 million years agone. A. afarensis was soundless very simi lar to a chimp. The brain sizing was no with child(p)r than ours. The finger mug up were still curved, showing that it was still quite comfortable in the trees. Even though it was slightly similar, it was still very different. A. afarensis had weenyer canines than a chimpanzees. The face structure was more vertical with less snout. The spinal column was more upright than that of a chimp. The hip prinks in addition showed something unusualthis living organism walked upright. This was the starting line cadence in our direction from that of our most distant living relative.The famous Lucy fossil was the remains of an A. afarensis. This fossil showed that the A. afarensis, although different than chimps, still had a small rib cage and a large-scale gut that was fit for digesting the large amount of vegetation that make up their diet. From the large gut, we can forge that the diet of A. afarensis consisted of still mainly vegetation, and not yet much protein. magic spell the A ustralopithecus afarensis existed, there was a great humor change in Africa. The once tropical African continent warmed and the main portion of the continent closest to the equator turned to dry grassland. The food that A. afarensis was accustomed to eating, had disappeared. many a(prenominal) of the chimps, like other animals, migrated south to the bottom tip of Africa. There in the forest, this upright primate had a disadvantage to the chimps, so it quickly died off in the forests. The Australopithecus that stayed had to change to survive. There was very limited food that these creatures could digest they could not process the fibrous grasses that cover the plains. The Australopithecus adhere into two different forms of the speciesa hardy more animal-like version and a graceful more human-like poser. The robust version adequate to eat the grow of plants. The tough root and difficult dig to obtain the meal resulted in a large-jawed, thick-skulled, digging creature.The small er, more graceful was the one humans are in closest relation to. We find it evident in the size and shape of the brain found in fossils. These are the eldest of our ancestors that utilize stone tools. Thesestone tools were the fitation that fueled their kind. The stone tools at the time and great intelligence were what allowed them to obtain food. When s hollownging for food, they would take a completely cleaned animal ashes and using their simple stone sledges, smash out-of-doors bones and eat the protein rich marrow from within. They would in addition use their hammers to crack open the skull to obtain the brain, which was also rich in protein. The advantage here is that they had no competition for their newly found food because no other creature could access these meat reserves.The protein they were ingesting was food that was high in energy and much easier to digest than plant material. After gene proportionalityns went by, the large digestive track was easy shortened bec ause it was no longer needed. As the size of the animal lessened, the ratio between weight and energy rose. This gave room for the brain of these graced Australopithecus to adapt to the environment, and since intelligence is what kept this branch alive, their intellect developed more. The individuals who where the most clever made the best tools, and thus had a stop chance for survival and reproduction. Tools, meat, and larger brains were the reasons that this species strived, but if you take out any of these vital parts, the others couldnt develop. military man erectus is the next known ancestor down the branch to humanity. He dates back to 1.8 million years. H. erectus looked much like human, but still had a reason no more complex than a chimps. The brain of H. erectus was still 30% smaller than our own.Homo heidelbergensis shows much more human-like characteristics than its predecessor, Homo erectus. The first evidence of H. heidelbergensis in Europe dates back to .5 million y ears ago. There have been 5 tons of remains found in circle patterns in a small area. The circle patterns are evidence that they were living in round, maybe hut-like enclosures. When you consider the small area in which they were found, you can see that possibly they lived in a small community. Now living in Europe, having shelter was essential because Europe was a great deal tankful than their arid grasslands in Africa. Shelter is probably what allowed them to venture out of Africa for the first time, because without that support, they would surely freeze in the cold season.In a cave in Italy, scientists have found the skeletalremains of one of these male creatures and the skeleton was preserved quite well. Deep in this cave, it has been partially covered by crystals that the cave has formed. By measuring the size of these bones, we know the size of this creatures male gender. This Creature utilize stone tools, but they apply better stone like flint. Their tools were much sharpe r and lighter. They have found that they chipped hand hacks out of flint that are much more complex than that of the previous. They also showed that they had many of the flint remains in one area, signifying that they used chew production to obtain their tools.They used theses sharp tools to butcher animals, meaning they had made the kill and no longer were provided scavenging meat. At this time in history, animals, such as rhinoceros, elephants, lions and the largely extinct cave bear existed in Europe. H. heidelbergensis had a brain size very close to the size of a present day human. They used different tools when disassembling these large animals. They used large rocks for smashing bones, which enabled them to detect marrow from their thick bones. They harvested some of the bones from these creatures for tools in various activities. Their sharp flint tools were used to remove the meat from the bone. They also used antlers to dig and punch an initial hole in the carcass before butchering it.There is evidence that .5 million years ago when we know they had inhabited Europe, they not only were living there, but were also flourishing. This shows that they may have been there for many years prior. It isnt fully understood about why they migrated out of Africa and into Europe.In the new cooler climate, their palatable vegetation was scarce therefore there were less food options. The only two options were to scavenge or adapt. Our ancestors, like before, rose to the occasion and adapted to become hunters. They became hunters to eliminate scavenging against the ravage carnivores of their day. In Europe H. heidelbergensis was more progress than the H. heidelbergensis of other areas. The advancements in the H. heidelbergensis of this area are evident in their tools.It is believed that the Europeans used language. This is proven by their methods of passing down knowledge. This much larger axe head was too largefor actual function. It was probably used as a mode l to show the detail of the axe head. Their scale model was proof that they must be teaching the art of tool making and in the process, using complex communication. This language was likely to be very simple to the language we know today, but it allowed them reflect on the past and to teach more efficiently.Even though their tools couldnt take down some of the larger prey, their intelligence proved itself again. They used swamps as traps, and would drive a large animal into a corner, where it would then have to retreat into the swamps. one time they entered, they couldnt escape the quicksand-like substrate. There is also evidence of the use wooden tools. Archeologists have found perfectly preserved wooden spears in the prehistoric swamps. When they examined the spears, they found that the tip was on the toughest part of the woodthe base. These spears were also found to be perfectly balanced, so they could be used as javelins. This was another step into humanity. They now had more f ood for themselves, their mate and their offspring.Neanderthals had a very robust build they were short and very strong unlike anyone today. It is known from fossil records that Neanderthals disappeared at almost the exact time that that humans arrived. It has been widely believed for years that Neanderthals were our predecessors, but today we can tell that Neanderthals were a completely different, but almost parallel evolutionary relative. This is known by genetics. The last known Neanderthal fossil dates back to 28 thousand years ago. onward the humans invaded the land, the territory belonged to the Neanderthals. Their brains had completely different evolutionary paths than us they may have appeared very similar to us, but were, in actuality, quite different.The brain of the Neanderthal evolved differently and not as drastically as that of the human brain. The evolution of the Neanderthals mind hit a plateau, and it is seen in the fossil records that the tools of the Neanderthals remained same(predicate) for a quarter million years before their extinction. Other than human competition, the main reason for the disappearance of the Neanderthals was a change in climate and landscape. They couldnt survive in an area with a disappearing home ground. They were so parasitical on what they were accustomed to, that the transition couldnt be made and the result was an eventual(prenominal)extinction of their species. In the rapidly cooling European areas, humans used their intelligence to adapt, but Neanderthals were isolated to pockets of still wooded areas. One by one, the Neanderthals died off.Homo sapiens date back to over 100,000 years ago, as the skull fossils found in Africa show. These humans were still quite primitive, but the bone structure was that of a present day human.Now that Neanderthals had disappeared, this meant less competition for our human ancestors. This is a perfect example of Charles Darwins theory of survival of the fittest. They couldnt a dapt and died, and could no longer pass on their genes. We survived and we continue to procreate.Using ornamental drib is one of the first examples of art in our species. One of the beads found was made of shell. The strange thing about this shell bead was that it was found hundreds of miles away from where it first lied. This is evidence that humans may have been trading with neighboring tribes. Another possibility is that they traveled the distance to retrieve the shell, but this proves that they were traveling into a much cooler climate. If they were able to survive in this cooler area, then they must have also been tiring warm clothing and building sturdy shelters.We have found nonfunctional beads with the remains of Neanderthal bones. Not many of the recorded Neanderthals, in fact, used beads. Some consider that to show they used art also, but others believe it was simply them mimicking what they had seen their human counter parts doing. The Neanderthals beads were much mo re primitive, but that may be partially due to them being unable to grasp the function of the decoration as a form of self expression. This is a prime example of the similarities and differences in the minds of the two creatures.There is a theory that the last few Neanderthals had to interact with humans. In this theory, there is a possibility that some Neanderthals breed in hybridization between the two. If this were the case, then most of us would have traces of Neanderthal genes hidden in our genetic sequences.Humans used beads as barter and it aided in the process of large alliances and community. In their trades, they thought it was necessary for them to be civilized, which would also help shape, what we have become today.After they had migrated out of Africa, it was first believed that humans quickly inhabited Europe. Now, contrary to that belief, there is evidence that we tardily moved into Europe and had inhabited the new continent for quite some time.Humans were the most dominate of the two, taking over the food and habitat of the last living Neanderthals. Humans are the present day victors. We have shown our capabilities and superiority and only time will tell where we evolve from here.Anthony M AikinWork CitedDoolittle, Russell. Evolution. McGraw-Hill (2000) 4.Futuyma, Douglas. Organic evolution. McGraw-Hill (2004) 11.Rightmire, G. Philip. Human evolution in Eurasia. McGraw-Hill (2004) 4.Wilson, Edward. From So Simple A Beginning. New York City W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2006. reach of man Vol. 1. Dir. John Lynch. Videocassette. British Broadcasting Corporation, 2000.Dawn of man Vol. 2. Dir. John Lynch. Videocassette. British Broadcasting Corporation, 2000.Dawn of man Vol. 3. Dir. John Lynch. Videocassette. British Broadcasting Corporation, 2000.