The Theories Of Hominin Evolution By Richard Potts ( 1999 )

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

This evolution had also gifted these hairless primates with opposable thumbs on the hands at the ends of their appendages, which could be used as a truly unrivaled tool, to grasp and shape the world around them. Immediately, the primates fashioned clubs with which to brutally and mercilessly attack and kill one another; a tragic misuse of what they had been gifted. With more time, these beings continued onward to form families, tribes, and armies. Ceaseless consumption, breeding, and fighting led to the culmination of their evolution, Humanity. These beings, far more refined than any other, possessed not only sentience, but feelings and intelligence.

Much of the human ability to make and use tools and other objects stem from the large size and complexity of the human brain. Most modern humans have a braincase volume of between 79.3 and 91.5 cubic inches. In the course of human evolution the size of the brain has more than tripled. The increase in brain size may be related to changes in hominine behavior. Over time stone tools, and other artifacts became increasingly numerous and sophisticated. It is likely that the increase in human brain size took place as part of a complex interrelationship that included the elaboration of tool use and tool making, as well as other learned skills, which permitted our ancestors to be increasingly able to live in a variety of environments.

As humans evolve, they will change. Through the years, humans will both change mentally and physically. Through research and reasoning, people can only predict what might be the next human evolution. Much of what is predicted is based on the world that humans live in today. Some day, humans might be even be able to change their own genetics as science and technology advances.

Hominids are dependent on tools to survive their environments and in a similar way primates use tools to amplify their survival through the use of tools (Barham and Mitchell, 2008). Thus there is a direct correlation between environments and tool usage, furthermore there is an important commonality as extent primates such as apes inhabit the same environments and face the same circumstances as that in which early hominids existed in (Barham and Mitchell, 2008). These are only a limited selection of the numerous benefits to using extent primates as analogues to assist in understanding the developments of early hominids. As important as these advantages are it is essential to mention and examine the disadvantages of this analytical technique. 3.

There is a circumstance that has beset the understanding of evolution over time that there is no general theory involving primate evolution. Most of the theories are just mere speculation. Over the years, primates like gorillas, chimpanzees, and baboons all happened to have their turn in evolution. It was previously presumed that the taxon of interest happened to have the exact similar physiology and ecology as the analog taxon (Rafferty, 2010).The majority of the first primate species theories have been utilized because they solely share one fundamental characteristic with the hominines with the chimpanzees as the phylogenetic cousins. This paper addresses the different ecological conditions that handled the evolution of primates. It

This chapter beings explaining the evolution of mankind. Prior to 11,000 BCE, all humans were equal. Due to our evolutionary past, we branched off from apes to humans and spread around the world. Nearly 4 million years ago, humans began their mark on earth in Africa. Jared Diamond compares human development on all seven continents about 13,000 years ago. Although many early humans were found primarily in Eurasia and Africa, over time they expanded and gained new territory. The early humans created tools as they evolved, and many became hunter and gatherers. Then, human history made a Great Leap Forward around 40,000 BCE. The Great Leap Forward was when the earliest humans created new technology and exciting innovations that did not exist previously

Why haven’t primates evolved like humans? This question that some may be asking. Humans and primates walked along each other for thousands of years, but then humans began using tools while the others were still picking fruit and eating it. Why did humans and not primates evolve? This paper will answer this question.

Paul Shepard’s “Getting a Genome”, “How We Once Lived”, and “How the Mind Once Lived” in Coming Home to the Pleistocene discusses humankind’s evolutionary history and how we lived before history. “Getting a Genome” explains the key evolutionary developments of pre-humans, which included bipedality, sexual dimorphism, and speech. In relation to nature, this chapter argues that early humans did not slaughter large mammal species and push them into extinction (32). Hunting large mammals into extinction would be both a waste of time and energy, which was valuable to early humans. “How We Once Lived” describes human development and how it would have occurred in the past. The chapter also discusses the ambiguity of our genetic requirements and how

But why was bipedalism so critical to human evolution? It is the earliest human feature to have evolved in hominins. Darwin felt that it was to free up the hands for making of tools and weapons. However, the first stone tools don’t appear until approximately 2.5mya, many years after the first evidence of bipedalism in hominids. A more logical explanation may be that bipedalism was selected simply because it is superior to walking quadrupedally. The Efficient Walker theory argues that bipedalism enabled hominids to travel further to locate food and fertile territory which coincided with the disappearance of Miocene forests and emergence of savannas in Africa.

Humans are the most unique species on Earth. We have gained the ability to things never accomplished before on Earth. We can control our environment, domesticate other species, and more importantly, form complex connections and societies with one another. However, it is widely debated about how we evolved from simple ape-like foragers to the meat-eating, community-building species we are today. In this paper, we will be looking at three authors: Richard Wrangham, Pat Shipman, and Frans de Wall. Each of which approach this question from different directions.

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.”

The theories of human evolution may always cause a heated dispute. Each theory presents its own evidence proving

Long before living in the Anthropocene when humans become the Earth system’s stewards, back when we just discovered fire, we used it to our advantage in hunting and digesting more protein-rich food. This shift in diet enhanced our physical and mental capabilities: human’s brain size nearly tripled up, rendering the ratio between our brain and body size the greatest among mammals. The increased mental capability was one of the component needed for the development of spoken language. Since spoken language cannot be preserved through the course of time, archeological evidences are almost non-existent and most of the answers are still hiding in the dark. As there is hardly any direct trace of human language’s emergence, many hypotheses have been proposed to connect the few dots we have now.

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.