Introduction
Over millions of years there have been major changes in the evolution of humans. Human evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence shows that the physical and behavioural traits shared by all people originated from apelike ancestors and evolved over a period of approximately six million years. (Smithsonian Institution, 2015) These major changes include skull shape, brain size and muzzle size. This research essay will outline and evaluate these major changes of the evolution of humans and also describe and explain how modern day humans have evolved to what they are today.
Skull shape
The skull shape of species through a period of millions of years have evolved
these changes is a gradual reduction in the size of the face and jaws. In early
The big picture of human evolution, humans are constantly evolving since they first appeared in eastern Africa about four to one million years ago. They weren’t as sophisticated as humans that are today, but they managed to make around in places, with all they had. They started to walk upright with two legs and developed hands, to perform basic work by using tools like stone, they were called the Australopithecus, then about 2.5 million years ago humans had evolved, they were called, Homo Erectus. This group began to use sophisticated tools, because of their improved large brain. Moreover, they began to use language to make contact with find hunt for food. And which they
Evolution has been a topic for many years in the field of science. According to the Theory of Evolution, humans have been once apes and are still categorized as descendants of the ape family. This evolution was caused by variations and mutations in `order to fit into the environment and to survive. However, in the story “Devolution” by Edmond Hamilton, there is a completely different and opposite view of how humans have changed after millions of years. Whether humans were once a higher form of life and have been degrading into lesser beings or have derived from a more advanced type of being is a large discussion to take into consideration. Clifford D. Simak and Edmond Hamilton emphasize how changes evolution have caused an increase or decrease effect on human beings.
The author of Human Evolution describes it as the changes from Miocene ape to modern person, over several million years. He states that this makes up the subject matter of human evolution. These changes involve skeletal modifications accompanying bipedalism and, later, manual dexterity and brain expansion.
Human beings are still very much evolving. According to recent studies, genetic changes in women over the years have decreased the age at which they birthed their first child. In one study the age decreased as much as four years from age 26 down to age 22 (Allen 2011). Another concurrent study looked at women’s physical appearance in correlation with the number of children they had. The resulting data revealed that, “stout, slightly plump” women had more children. Researchers found that these characteristics are passed on from mothers to their offspring and so forth (Harrell 2009). Therefore, as these traits are passed from generation to generation, the population grows and these characteristics become more prominent in the population. All of these findings confirm that the evolution of human beings is still very much an ongoing process.
In an attempt to find a correct phylogenetic tree, our group has found that Phylogenetic tree C shows a significant lineage. After researching, Phylogenetic Tree C seems to be an accurate depiction of hominid evolution. It shows a clear line of lineage that begins with the common ancestor A. Afarensis. To explain how the hominids connected in the lineage, our group decided to compare the skulls’ cranium width and length of braincase. We concluded that over millions of years, the width of the cranium of the hominids have increased, along with the length of braincases. Our explanation matched up with tree C respectively. The order of the width of craniums recorded are: A. Afarensis (80 mm), A. Boisei (80 mm), A. Africanus (85 mm), H. Habilis (98 mm), H. Erectus (108 mm), H. Heidelbergensis (122 mm), H. Neanderthalensis (128 mm), and H. Sapien
It is a well known fact that humans evolved from apes of Africa and what sets us apart from them is the size of the brain. But further analysis proved that it was not just the brain size but a series of adaptive selection processes over thousands of years that set us apart. The lingering question that existed for a long time was how do apes exist till date if humans have evolved from them? Dr. Ward explains that humans did not evolve from apes, but the apes and humans have a common prehistoric ancestor, the Great African Ape that is extinct now. After a single evolution chain starting from the Great Ape, a series of adaptive gene selections took place that forked the single evolution chain into two: the apes species and the hominin species. Hominins are the first ancestors to the homo species of which humans or homo sapiens are the latest evolution stage. Ward (2003) further suggests that studying the evolution process helps us understand human behavior and physical features today and also predict human behavior and physical characteristics in the future.
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.
Human Ancestors, including the First apes, have a very small brain, but with the evolution of conduct, so did the human brain. The rapid development of human intelligence has been attributed to human-induced changes in the surrounding environment changes and the living environment. This led to the expansion of specific regions of the brain, greatly different human mature compared to our ancestors, genetic changes, which are just some of the changes have occurred in humans。
Many might ask “When is the last time humans evolved?”. Throughout history Humans have showed changes in the way they live socially but, before humans even had the modern social ways even before humans actually used a written language we have been making improvements. That is how we got to the point we are at now, we have evolved greatly. Many theories has it that humans came from primates and made graduated changes into the humans we are today. This theory was proven based on fossils found through history by various scientist. The human species is indeed still evolving physically and socially, we have been continuously changing our physical appearance, genetics, and social ways to show the shift from primates to modern day humans proving
Charles Darwin stated that the evolution of man would take not thousands of years but millions of years. In the case of the human species (Homo sapien) evolutionary theory posits that this has been the case. Human evolution begins with the primate lineage which also includes new and old world monkeys, and apes (Phelan, 2015). It is important to note that researchers have determined that the chimpanzee is the humans closest living relative. While, humans and chimpanzees have similar genetic and anatomical structure which signifies a close evolution relationship, it is also important to note the anatomical differences that distinguish Homo sapiens. Unlike chimpanzees, humans evolved toward bipedalism, grew larger brains and eventually became bigger in size (Phelan, 2015). As Darwin suggested human evolution has branched down for millions of years and thus has many significant events that result in the human beings that we are today.
The most recent human evolution theories speculate that human gene mutations occurred 50,000 and a million years ago. These mutations were important because they increased the size of the brain and cranial capacity.
“Modern Evolution” refers to any changes to humans within the past 200 000 years in this paper.
After living on the Earth for approximately 3.0 to 3.9 million years, it seems that the Australopithecus afarensis have a new species emerging into the world – Homo sapiens. They have developed far more improving traits that has changed the evolution of species forever. The three main different characteristics the Homo sapiens have compared to other apes are that they walk with an upright posture, their head size are much larger in size, and the way their teeth are formed are completely different. This comes to show that Homo sapiens have morphed into a predominant species by their use of locomotion, their modern dental system, and their large brain size making them the most unique and dexterous species amongst any other species that have yet
This article explores the hypothesis which explains how human can adapt and change to the environment around them. The hominin fossil record documents a history of evolution events which defined what it means to be a human, which includes the origins of bipedalism; the emergences of our genes, Homo; the first use of stone tools; increases in brain size; and the emergence of Homo sapiens, tools, and culture. The geological record suggests that some of the evolutionary events coincides with substantial changes in African and Eurasian climate, raising the intriguing possibility that human evolution and behavioral development may have been affected or controlled by the environmental characteristics of the areas