Hominid Evolution
The evolution of hominids has been and still is a heated topic of debate. Many scientists
debate over which species can be classified as “human”. The root "hominid" refers to members
of the family of humans, Hominidae, which consists of all species on our side of the last
common ancestor of humans and living apes. The time split between humans and living apes
used to be thought of fifteen to twenty millions of years ago, but now the time period has shifted
to around five million years ago.
Ardipithecus ramidus is said to have live around 4.4 million years ago. The original
fossils from this species were placed with the Australopithecus genus; however, a new genus was
designated to this group by Tim
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Australopithecus robustus is a hominid species that was first discovered by Dr. Robert
Broom in 1938. Dr. Broom had a habit of collecting fossils from a lime quarry worker. He came
across a skull with a molar still in it on June 8, 1938. He began working on a monograph of the
australopithecines, and it was published in 1946. This book had such a contribution to the
understanding of australopithecines that it was given a U.S. National Academy of Sciences
award. The A. robustus remains generally are from three sites: Swartkrans, Dreimulen, and
Kromdraai and can safely be dated to 2.0 to 1.0 million years ago. The massive face is flat or
dished, with no forehead and large brow ridges. It has relatively small front teeth, but massive
grinding teeth in a large lower jaw. Its diet would have been mostly coarse, tough food that
needed a lot of chewing. Bones excavated with A. robustus skeletons indicate that they may
have been used as digging tools. This is a significant change in behavior and once again shows
evolution to the modern day human.
It was a great discovery when Zing, the Australopithecus boisei was found by Mary
Leakey in Olduvai in 1959. A. boisei was very important in clearing up a controversy that
occured in the 1960s over the idea of the "Single Species Hypothesis". The single species
hypothesis states that each individual environment can only support one species, and that in
hominids, "monkey-see monkey-do" holds
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
Ant it also had little spices from it head to the tip of its tail.
Australopithecus Boisei: Similar to the A. Aethiopicus in terms of the upper shape with the vertical line of bone
Hominids are ancestors of humans who are primates. Primates are known to have grasping feet and hands, fingernails instead of claws, fingerprints, forward facing eyes, and are known to be smarter than other animals. Out of all the primates, chimpanzees are the closest to humans. Ninety-nine percent of human genetics match chimpanzee genetics. Ever since humans started to evolve, they started to develop distinct features that are different from these primates, which was called divergent evolution. For example, humans are bipedal, while most primates are quadrupeds. As time went on, they evolved to the present-time humans the world has today. But what happens next? Because you can’t accurately predict the far future, people like scientists can only predict how humans are going to change and
A hominid is a group of Humans that also contains common ancestors. An example of Hominids would be Homo erectus a relative of modern humans.
The evolutionary of human living has taken place over millions of years of geological time. It has evolved millions of generations, and billions of individuals. The human evolution is not understandable completely yet. Evolutionary change within a population can take place at different time and different rates, which yield different consequences. This process still taking place in the natural selection and human evolution. One species may be merged to the new species or developed to the next stage of the same species. Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis, and Neanderthals were the close ancestors of modern human, which developed from Australopithecus afarensis.
Evolution is the process of change of living organisms over a long period of time due to difference of environment or circumstances that was not prevalent before. These evolutionary mutations occur due to things such as a change of environment where what may have been shallow water has gradually gotten deeper and thus the organisms that inhabited that land had to change in order to remain living in that area without risk. This also relates to things such as storms that may alter the habitat of the previous land where what something may have eaten has changed and the organism was altered to match that environment. This then has an affect on the history of human evolution, humans and apes relate to a similar origin and were very similar many years ago and this is known as primate phylogeny. This Extended research task will go in depth with the origins of man and the relation between man and apes through primate
The lower jaw was big and a chin was developed. It had small incisors on the upper and lower jaws for nipping the vegetation.
Three recent fossil findings believed to be hominin ancestors have been selected for description and any controversy surrounding their discovery will be discussed. The three fossils are: Homo floresiensis, Homo rudolfensis and Kenyanthropus
Masters of the Planet is organized historically, and traces the diverse and complicated history of hominids over the past 8 million years. The book begins with the ancient origins of the hominid lineage, it outlines the rise of bipedal apes beginning with Australopithecus (including “Lucy”), the harsh life on the savannah, the multiple emergence from Africa, the spread of early "Homo" throughout the Old World continents, the misunderstood Neanderthals (our distant cousins) and finally the arrival of modern Homo sapiens.
During the early 19th century, scientists, archeologist and other scholars, speculated, studied and disagreed about the development of humans and our origins. Some experts theorized that humans are monogenism and developed into various varieties of species. Others argue that we
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.
Hominids with a brain absolutely and relatively larger than that of the australopithecines appeared about 2.3 million years ago. These hominids are classified in our own genus: Homo. The earliest species to appear was the Homo Habilis. It was the first of our ancestors to show a significant increase in brain size and also the first to be found associated with stone tools. These characteristics resulted in this species’ placement into the human genus, Homo.
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.