The Importance Of Human Evolution

Evolution is a change in the characteristic of living organism through time. Modern synthesis, one of the greatest intellectual achievements of biology, could explain how mutations and natural selection could produced large-scale evolutionary change. There are 4 mechanisms for evolution to occur; mutation, gene flow, genetic drift and natural selection.
Although, there are a number of misconceptions about evolution; it does not explain the origins of life, it is not progressive, natural selection is not about the survival of the fittest individuals in a population, humans are not currently evolving, it does not make organism better designed nor does it gives organism what they need to survive. This essay will describe further, 3 common misconceptions

of some sort to the general human gene pool, enough to be considered a different

In its basic form, the theory of evolution has been confirmed so completely that most modern biologists consider evolution simply a fact (Mayr 1982). It states that environmental factors such as climate, disease, competition from other organisms, and availability of certain types of food will lead to the preferential survival and reproduction of

According to Dr. James Krupa of The University of Kentucky “evolution is the foundation upon which all biology rests.” In biology, evolution is the genetic change in characteristics over generations and is dependent on the process of natural selection. ‘The theory of evolution is based on the idea that all species are related and gradually change over time’ (Genome Campus, 2017). Genetic variation is vital to evolution as it affects the physical characteristics or phenotypes of morphology. Natural Selection is affected by environmental factors that act upon a population and result in the mutation of organism through offspring. These mutations enable individuals to adapt to their environments in order to survive, find food, avoid predators and

Darwin once hypothesized that humans evolved from an ape like ancestor and that those ancestors most likely originated in Africa since the majority of the great apes lived there. Unfortunately, Darwin’s hypothesis was ignored for reasons such as people (e.g. Europeans) not liking of having African ancestors—not to mention the lack of evidence did not help in supporting such hypothesis. Thus, finding the missing link between apes and humans was of great important—it still is. Thankfully, through extensive research many scientists have been able to determine a clade called Hominin [7]. This clade contains humans as well as their most closely related relatives.

One of the most astonishing things on earth is the human body. They consist of many organs that work together to maintain the person alive. The humans body composition is complex, but what was the origin? How did we become who we are today? These are the questions that intrigued me, and allowed me to understand how the human body evolved over the years. By the examination of our ancestors, and our body we will understand how we look today.

The formal “Theory of Evolution” thought to have come about by Charles Darwin, is built on the premise that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor; meaning the birds and the bananas, the fishes and the flowers are all related (“Darwin’s Theory of Evolution”). In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism's genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival. This process is formally known as "natural selection." These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different

Natural selection is considered to be the primary mechanism by which Evolution happens. Darwin posited that because any species can exceed the resources necessary to sustain life, a struggle for existence develops. In this struggle, “individuals with heritable traits that increase survival and reproductive success will pass on those traits to their offspring while those that do not will tend to be eliminated.” It is interesting to note that Darwin’s thoughts on natural selection were heavily influenced by Edward Blyth. Blyth, however, viewed natural selection as a conservative process whose goal was to keep organisms essentially unchanged.

The species Homo sapiens (human) is compared and contrasted to Pan troglodytes (chimpanzees) by the author. He rapidly clarifies, that several broad areas of research, which suggest that chimps are the closest living relatives to humans. Recently, data has ben obtained from DNA hybridization which suggests that humans, chimpanzees, and gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) are all very closely genetically related. Human DNA and chimpanzee DNA only differs by 1.6%. Gorillas differ another 2.3% from both chimps and humans. Also do gorillas carry a strong implication that the chimps and humans branched off from the rest of the primates at the same time through a common ancestor.

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.

New calculations to establish when the gorilla, chimpanzee and human lineages diverged are now possible. By combining data on DNA-sequence differences between species with estimates of DNA-mutation rates operative millions of years ago, Scally and colleagues calculate the human-chimpanzee and (human+chimpanzee)-gorilla branch points to be 3.7 million and 5.95 million years ago, respectively. These dates conflict with some fossil evidence, but more complex calculations that allow for mutation rates that change with time--a reasonable possibility owing to changes in the average length of generations and other parameters--may resolve this problem.

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

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution centres on the idea that species compete to survive, and favorable characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next. Darwin said that evolution took place by a process of natural selection or survival of the fittest. This meant that the animals and plants best suited to their surroundings survived and were able to pass on their genes to their offspring. The ones that weren't best suited died off and didn't get the chance to reproduce.

The central purpose of this essay is to critically discuss the importance of understanding human evolution and the history of psychology for the modern psychologist. For the human evolution, the essay will be addressing on how we and other species descended from our ancestors and how the different environment has helped to us to become more adaptable. Regarding the history of psychology, the essay will be discussing on how psychology branched off from the philosophy approach to become its own science. The essay will then go on discussing how the understanding of both human evolution and history of psychology would be used by modern psychologist.

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.