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 …show more content…
They were from Europe and had modern skeleton. The Americas were the first to colonized by the Clovis people. While archaeologist claim that they were Clovis people to first settle but somehow Diamond doesn 't believe it because he need more proof or fossil evidence. Only reason that this explanation fail to express why Eurasia became advance earlier than Africa when they had a head start.
. In the chapter called "A Natural Experiment of History" the Moriori and Maori both descended from the Polynesian people. The question that Diamond is trying to answer is what made the two group so different from each other because they came from the same people. The Moriori were hunter gathers of a small isolated population that were equipped with only simply technology and weapons. They were inexperienced at war. Also lacked strong leadership in order to take care of their group. But the Maori invader (from New Zealand 's North Island) came from large population of famers. The farmers in Maori constantly engaged in wars, more advanced in technology and weapon. Maori operated under a strong leadership. There is no hesitation that when the two group came in contact Maori would had destroyed the Moriori. On the other hand since the Maori and Moriori descended from the same race cannot defend why one group was more advance over the other. It was the environmental and geographical factors that caused Maori to advance more. For example, Chatham is very small and remote
Homo erectus was first found in Africa and the fossilized remains dated 1.8 and 1.0 million years old. The Homo erectus traits are very similar toward the modern human traits. Homo erectus brain size was smaller than the Homo sapiens. Homo erectus had a brain size of approximately 650 cc and Homo sapiens had a brain size of approximately 1251
Describe the major developments of early human and social evolution. Throughout, discuss tool manufacturing, language development, agriculture, social behavior, and population growth.
In this chapter Jared Diamond describes how two societies the Maori and the Moriori were almost whipped out by the environment and in some cases each other. These two societies had some of the same ancestors but the Maori were way more developed than the Moriori. In the chapter Diamond explains how they were separated but developed in opposite directions. Diamond then goes on to explaining how the islands these societies lived on were different from each either. The next main point of this chapter was how population and politics were worked out on these islands. It is shown how many people lived on each island from populations as little as 5 people per square mile to 1,100 people per square mile. Diamonds last topic explains how both of these societies needed to advance their tools in order to survive the conditions they lived in.
For the Polynesian people, Maori is able to develop a more complex economy and culture system than Moriori, because of the availability of new environment allows them to farm. With farming they can have surplus, which allowed them to establish their community to develop denser population, support army to specialize in fighting. Further more, with a larger group, they develop strong leadership and political organization.
In chapter 1 of The Descent of Man, Darwin explicates the similarity of man not only to “higher” mammals but many other species. It’s clear to Darwin that the bodily structure of humans follows under the same principles of other mammals. Bones can be compared congruently to the bones in Monkeys and other creatures. Darwin continues to explain the similarities in anatomy by indicating the liability for mammals to contract the same diseases such as cholera, herpes, syphilis, and etc. This proves the similarity in blood and tissue of mammals and other species. A perfect example of the close evolutionary relationship is the embryonic development of species, which shows that all mammals arise from the same fundamental method, which closely resembles
4. The Maori evolved differently because of population and leadership differences. The Maori conquered the
In the Article “Redrawing Humanity’s Family Tree” by John Noble Wilford, describes how two different skulls challenge the theories of human origins and migrations. The Central African skull, that dates back to nearly 7 million years ago, was assigned to a whole new genus and species because of its apelike and evolved hominid species. The 1.75-million-year-old Georgian skull shows evidence that the first hominids may have been intercontinental travelers who set motion the migrations that occupied the whole planet. Finally a third skull was found that is the same age and shares a resemblance but, the size of the skull suggests that the brain was smaller than expected for H. erectus.
NOVA scienceNOW : 41 - First Primates is a video that mainly talks about Primates who are ancient ancestors of human beings. Primates came out on the Earth 55million years ago when dinosaurs extinct due to collision between an immense comet and the Earth. Plesiadapiform, which is a possibly the first ancestor of primates and human beings, firstly evolved with a mouse-size organism during 10 million years. It existed during the 10 million year with diverse evidences that can show its validity of first ancester of primates. Nails of plesiadapiforms is a critical evidence that they are early ancestors of primates. Secondary proof is a tube-like structure which is found in the middle ear. It happens to be a tube for a huge vessel that goes to the
Human evolution is “the process by which human beings developed on Earth from now-extinct primates” (Human Evolution, 2017). It is thought that human evolution began with a species of ape called Australopithecus, or one referred to as Neanderthals. These species most closely resemble the beginning of humans because they were a type of ape that walked up-right. As time progressed our primates began to adapt to the environment, and slowly changed into who we are today; Homo sapiens. Charles Darwin— an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist—was known for developing the theory of evolution. He explained that evolution was a “decent with modification” (On the Origin of Species, 1859). This meant that we all originated from a different species. However, we do not look exactly alike because we adapted to the environment we were exposed to. Although we all originated form a certain species, after undergoing serval mutations throughout generations to ensure
Diamond notes the Maori and the Moriori, both descendents of the polynesian people. Having said that, both societies had differed immensely. Comparing the two, “The Moriori were a small, isolated population...with only the simplest technology and weapons, entirely inexperienced at war, and lacking strong leadership or organization. The Maori invaders... came from a dense population...engaged in ferocious wars, equipped with more-advanced technology...operating under strong leadership.”( Diamond 54) As they had collided, it made sense that the Mori had murdered all the Moriori, but due to what? Diamond views geography as the main cause for their differences and the outcome of both societies. This is important as we could apply this to be the solution to our question. Seeing as the geography of ( continue this part later). However, we could also refer back to when Francisco Pizarro and his men had captured the incas then killed their king, Atahuallpa. This had been one of the largest collisions ever to be recorded by eyewitness accounts, slaughtering millions of incas. As Diamond describes it on page 80 “ Immediate reasons for Pizarro's success included military technology based on guns, steel weapons, and horses; infectious diseases endemic in Eurasia; European maritime technology; the centralized political organization of European states; and
The next species to appear were the Homo erectus which might have descended from Homo habilis. They were the first human whose fossils were found outside of Africa. They also had larger brain than the species before them. Homo sapiens sapiens came after the Homo Neanderthalensis; they are the only human species around. This could have been due to the result of increase brain sizes that allows more cognitive abilities that help them adapt to different environment changes and hence survive. Global evidence have been found of art, music, and culture and advanced tool making. In Mithen’s 3 phase of mind proposes that the shape of the Neanderthals’ frontal lobe was similar to the one of the modern Homo sapiens and this indicated that they were able to cope with complex cognitive functioning. Evidence for this could be explained using the phonological approach by Frank Gall (1758-1828).
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.”
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
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.