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Overview
Overview
Evolution is a scientific topic which is still being studied to this day. Biological evolution is the fundamental change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over the course of several generations. Human evolution, thus, more specifically evaluates the changes in heritable characteristics of the human population over the course of many generations. When imagining this vast timeline of human evolution, it is common to envision a textbook image of our apelike ancestors six million years ago. However, it is undoubtedly more complicated than this.
Human evolution is a lengthy process by which human beings developed from apelike ancestors. Humans are Homo sapiens, which is an upright-walking species that lives on the ground and first evolved in Africa about 315,000 years ago. There is an abundance of fossil evidence to indicate that we were preceded for millions of years by other hominins. Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, and other species of Homo. Fossils are the primary resource for detailing a path back to human evolution. The nature of specific fossil specimens and species can be accurately described, as can the location where they were found and the period when they lived; but questions of how species lived and why they might have either died out or evolved into other species can only be addressed by formulating scenarios, albeit scientifically informed ones. Stone tools are a major part of human evolution, by about 3.3 million years ago, some hominins were making and using simple stone artifacts in eastern Africa. The human hand is readily explained by a substantial history of producing and using increasingly complex tool kits and other artifacts. Human hands are easily distinguishable from those of great apes, and they underpin our refined manipulatory abilities. The thumb is one of the most complex adaptations of the human hand. Chimpanzees and other apes who are close ancestors have remarkable precision grip. Because more complete fossil heads and hands are available, it is easier to model increased brain size in parallel with the rich record of artifacts from the paleolithic period. The relationships among Australopithecus, K. platyops, Paranthropus, and the direct ancestors of Homo are unknown. Our ancestry becomes no clearer as the candidates are narrowed to Homo species exclusively. Fossil remains, genetic traits of modern people around the world, and archaeological and anatomical indicators of cognitive, linguistic, and technological capabilities are used by theorists to support their models of recent human evolution but no single theory provides a definitive resolution of how Homo sapiens came to be.
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"Human Evolution" is in the Public Domain
"Paleolithic hand-axes" is in the Public Domain, CC0
According to the National Museum of Natural History, scientific studies have found that one of the most defining human traits, bipedalism, which is our ability to walk on two legs, evolved over 4 million years ago. Not to mention, our complex brains, which have facilitated our knowledge surrounding such concepts as tools, symbolic expression, and cultural diversity, have developed within the past 100,000 years or so. This signifies the vast timeline which exists surrounding human evolution, and our oversimplified image of this evolution. As will be discussed throughout this website, human lineage generally evolved in a particular order. While the human lineage can be broken down into very specific categories, these are the fundamental transitions which have been known to take place in human evolution.
"Hominid settlement" is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology is the scientific study of human evolution. Paleoanthropology is an academic creation that combines the Ancient Greek paleo, which refers to prehistoric periods with “anthropology,” is a combination of Greek words which mean “study of man” The field involves an understanding of the similarities and differences between humans and other species in their genes, body form, physiology, and behavior. Studying hominid fossil evidence which can include footprints, artifacts such as tools, and incorporating knowledge of the current primitive species to help develop an understanding of the origin of human beings. A major piece that is studied in this field is the search for the “missing link” between apes and humans. The most popular sites for paleoanthropologist in the field are Africa and Asia which yield the oldest and most promising evidence.
Ardipithecus
Ardipithecus
Ardipithecus alters perspectives on how our earliest hominid ancestors and our closest living relatives evolved. Charles Darwin famously suggested that Africa was humanity’s most probable birth continent, but warned that without fossils, it was “…useless to speculate on this subject.” Nevertheless, Darwin and his less cautious contemporaries and intellectual descendants used humans and modern apes to triangulate ancestral anatomy and behaviors, which promulgated the erroneous metaphor of a hominid “missing link.” After thousands of years of fossils that are available apes or chimpanzees can be viewed as a “living missing link.” The fossils of the Ardipithecus are an important part of linking the two together, Ardipithecus was bipedal meaning that it used only two legs to walk. Evidence comes from the foramen magnum, the hole in the skull through which the spinal cord enters. In Ardipithecus, this opening is similar to ours in being located centrally under the skull instead of at the rear of it. A rear-facing foramen magnum indicates a stooped posture, whereas a downward-facing hole positions the skull atop the spinal column.
It is essential to keep in mind that human evolution was messy. Still, to this day, scientists are uncovering new pieces of evidence pointing to more articulated findings regarding our evolution. For instance, archaeologists have recently discovered the body of a 13-year-old girl who lived about 90,000 years ago. DNA analyses have displayed that her father was considered a Denisovan, while her mother was actually a Neanderthal. While this website will cover the different stages of human evolution in more detail, this specific findings helps to convey the idea that the biological study of human evolution is still going.
References
Bingham, P. M. (2000). Human evolution and human history: A complete theory. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 9(6), 248-257.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:6<248::AID-EVAN1003>3.0.CO;2-X
DNA and Mutations. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/mutations_01
Introduction to Human Evolution. (2019, January 16). Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution
Fisher, R. A. (1930). The genetical theory of natural selection. The Clarendon Press: Рипол Классик.
The Smithsonian Institution's human Origins Program. (2020, October). Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human- evolution
Tuttle, R. H. (2020, February 3). Human evolution. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/science/human-evolution
White, T., Lovejoy, C., Asfaw, B., Carlson, J., & Suwa, G. (2015, April 21). Neither chimpanzee nor human, Ardipithecus reveals the surprising ancestry of both. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://www.pnas.org/content/112/16/4877
Britannica, E. (2018, November 15). Australopithecus. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australopithecus
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