FROM THE EVOLUTION 2011 ISSUE

How We Won the Hominid Wars, and All the Others Died Out
The unique adaptability of Homo sapiens is what allowed us to survive when so many other species died out, paleoanthropologist Rick Potts
contends.
By Jill Neimark | Thursday, February 23, 2012
RELATED TAGS: HUMAN EVOLUTION, PREHISTORIC CULTURE, EVOLUTION OF INTELLIGENCE
This article is a small sample from DISCOVER's special issue on evolution.
photography by Stephen Voss
How did our species come to rule the planet? Rick Potts argues that environmental instability and disruption were decisive factors in the success of Homo sapiens: Alone
among our primate tribe, we were able to cope with constant change and turn it to our advantage. Potts is director of the Smithsonian Institutions Human Origins Program,
curator of anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and curator of the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, which opened at that
museum last year. He also leads excavations in the East African Rift Valley and codirects projects in China that compare early human behavior and environments in eastern
Africa with those in eastern Asia. Here Potts explains the reasoning behind his controversial idea.
Why did our close relativesfrom Neanderthals to their recently discovered cousins, the Denisovans, to the hobbit people of Indonesiadie out
while we became a global success?
That is the million-dollar question. My view is that great variability in our ancestral environment was the big challenge of human evolution. The key was the ability to
respond to those changes. We are probably the most adaptable mammal that has ever evolved on earth. Just look at all the places we can live and the way we seek out novel
places to explore, such as space.
The classic view of human evolution doesnt emphasize adaptability. It focuses more on the idea that we were inevitable: that famous march from ape to human. Its a ladder
of progress with simple organisms at the bottom and humans at the top. This idea of inevitability runs deep in our societal assumptions, probably because its comfortinga
picture of a single, forward trajectory, ending in modern humans as the crown of creation.
But recently discovered fossils show an incredible diversity in the human family tree. That seems like the opposite of a ladder.
Right. The tremendous fossil discoveries of late have given us a lot more knowledge about the diversity of human experiments, and diversity is the theme that needs to be
underlined. Yet in spite of the great variety in earlier human species, we are the only one that remains of a diverse family tree. That might seem to indicate something special
about us, but in fact even we barely made it. Between 90,000 and 70,000 years ago, our own species almost bit the dust. Several genetic studies show a bottleneck back
then, a time when the total number of Homo sapiens was tiny. So we, too, were an endangered species.
How did you come to see adaptability as the key to our ultimate evolutionary success?
I first got interested in this idea during my excavations in southern Kenya, where the changes in different layers of sediment, indicating different habitats at different times,
were really obvious. Every layer suggested a change in vegetation as well as moisture, the kinds of other animals that were around, and the survival challenges faced by our
ancient predecessors. I wondered if our lineage thrived precisely because our ancestors could adjust to those changes. I called this hypothesis variability selectionthe idea
that change itself was a selective pressure. Repeated, dramatic shifts in the environment challenged many species and may have actually selected for the features that have
come to typify Homo sapiens, especially our ability to alter our immediate surroundings.
In the classic view, it was thought that we emerged on the savanna as conditions dried and cooled. We imagined our earliest ancestors in a backdrop of dry and grassy plains
that basically forced the emergence of walking upright, tool use, and a larger brain, ultimately leading to language and culture and global success.
Now, its certainly true that there has been marked global cooling and drying over the last 70 million years. But during the period of human evolution [since the appearance
of our first direct ancestors in Africa], there were actually very pronounced fluctuations between warm and cool, between moist and arid. One way you can tell is by looking
at different oxygen isotopes in the fossilized skeletons of ocean microorganisms. A heavier isotope is present during cooler periods, and a lighter one in warmer periods. I
plotted out the variability in million-year intervals and found that about 6 million years ago, that variability went off the charts and kept increasing. That struck me as really
strange, because thats the time when the human story begins. African environments showed especially strong shifts between arid and moist climates during the past 4
million years.
Our ancestors had to survive all these settings. I started to think, What if all that variability is not noise in the overall cooling and drying trend, but a very important test of
the capacity of a creature to survive? This idea helps explain how we started out as a small, apelike, herbivorous species 6 million years ago in tropical Africa, and after a
history of origin and extinction of species, whats left today is us: a single species all over the planet with an astonishing array of abilities to adjust.
What are the cardinal features of adaptability that set us apart?
You can go back more than 3 million years to Australopithecus afarensis [the famous Lucy species], which over time maintained the ability to walk on two legs and to
climb in trees. Thats a primal adaptable feature near the root of our evolutionary tree, and it allowed this species to make its way between areas of woodland and open
savannas to find food.
Stone tools, which first emerged 2.6 million years ago, are another feature of our adaptability. When it comes to acquiring and processing food, a hammerstone is better
than a big molar, and a knapped flint is sharper than a pointed canine. All manner of foods opened up to the genus Homo with stone tools.
The emergence of a large brain, with complex connectivity among neurons, suggests that the brain itself is an organ of adaptability. It allows us to take in information about
the environment, organize, form social alliances, and raise the probability of survival in difficult times. You can see in the archaeological record that our early ancestors
transported food from the place it was found to another place where members of the social group would meet. We modified the shapes of stones, we carried food, made fire
and protective shelters, and we eventually began to cultivate crops and manipulate the environment in order to grow them. All of these small ways of altering the immediate
surroundings strike me as reasonable adaptations to the instability of habitats.
If you are right, what killed off the Neanderthals? They had big brains too. They had stone tools, and they buried their dead, which means they had
culture. They were also hardier and better adapted to cold than we are. So what did they lack?
Thats a question were exploring now. Its important not to underestimate the Neanderthals. They endured for a long time in the comings and goings of ice ages.
http://discovermagazine.com/2011/evolution/23-how-we-won-the-hominid-wars May 19, 2014, 12:24:17 PM
Whenever glacial habitats invaded Europe and Asia, it appears that the Neanderthals moved south, into Iberia and the Italian peninsula, to take advantage of the warmer
places. Overall, their bodies show evidence of cold adaptation. Yet during one cold period, when the Neanderthals retreated, populations of Homo sapiens began to infiltrate
the cold regions. How could they do this, especially since these populations were dispersing from tropical Africa? The difference is that these early populations of our species
had developed the ability to invent new tools, like sewing needles that were useful in producing warm, body-hugging clothing. Preserved beads and stones suggest that they,
but not the Neanderthals, maintained social networks over vast areas. My guess is that in Africa, Homo sapiens evolved better ways of adjusting to the arid-moist
fluctuationsthe key to adaptabilitythan the Neanderthals did to the cold-warm fluctuations in their part of the world. There are a lot of scientists interested in testing
these ideas with new fossil and archaeological evidence.
In the end, despite the adaptable features they inherited, the Neanderthals ended up as more habitat specialists than we did. Their options were more limited. As a result,
our species ended up all over the world while theirs vanished.
Actually, my answer to Are we it? is to turn the assumption on its head. Considering that we are the only survivor of a diverse family treethat is, an evolutionary tree
characterized by lots of extinctionthe notion that our twig is the final blossom of evolution is incredibly outdated. Its incorrect no matter how ingrained it is in our
thinking. Our amazing adaptability has allowed us to shape the environment to our own needs. This transformation has taken place in a remarkable period of climate
stability, over the past 8,000 years or so. One deeply ironic result is that we have now narrowed our own options at a time when climate fluctuation appears to be increasing.
Of an estimated 15,000 species of mammals and birds, fewer than 14 account for 90 percent of what we eat. Of more than 10,000 edible plants, three cropswheat, rice,
and cornprovide half the worlds calories. And through greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels, were pulling on the strings of the earths unstable climate.
By narrowing our options at a time of increasing instability, could we be inadvertently engineering our demise?
I see two possible scenarios for the future. We could change our current course and try to work carefully with the natural dynamics of the planet and the uncertainties of the
environment, especially when it comes to our own inadvertent effects. Or we could continue shaping the earth in our own image, so to speak. We could theoretically,
through engineering, create a membrane around the earth that controls temperature and rainfall, for instance. These two courses represent two very different views of the
earth and our place on it. Whether the next chapter of the human story will be the last chapter may depend on the balance we strike between those two courses.
http://discovermagazine.com/2011/evolution/23-how-we-won-the-hominid-wars May 19, 2014, 12:24:17 PM
My Photo
Saturday, May 20, 2006
How Did Humans Evolve?
Youve no doubt noticed the opening music that Ive added. Its the
Sunrise piece by Richard Strauss, of the work, Thus Sprach
Zarathustra. Its more popularly known as the theme to the movie,
2001: A Space Odyssey, and its from that usage that I take my
inspiration. The opening scenes of the movie are subtitled, The
Evolution of Man, and show a group of ape-like creatures learning
how to use tools, and thus, become human. This aspect of
evolutionary theory- the treatment of humans by evolution- is one of
the central interests of the theory, because lets face it- we humans
are continuously preoccupied with ourselves. Youve also seen this in
the logo for the podcast- a variation of the classic, March of
Progress imagery that shows hominids walking in a line at side
profile, beginning with an ape-like creature and ending with a modern
human.
So I thought that this week I would talk about the evolution of
humans. I think weve tackled enough relevant topics so far to begin
investigating the subject. The molecular evidence showed very clearly
that chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, and so, logically, we
must share an ancestor in common at some point in the past. This
common ancestor, or concestor, wasnt necessarily identical to
modern chimpanzees- remember, all populations are in a state of
evolutionary flux, its just that some are required by their
environments to evolve faster than others. So although the human-
chimpanzee concestor wasnt a chimpanzee, wed probably recognize
it as being more chimpanzee than human if it were alive today.
So, humans and chimpanzees are both descended from an ape-like
concestor. When did the lines split into human-only and chimpanzee-
only lines? The answer may not be as cut and dry as you might think.
The best theories based on the fossil evidence indicate that our
concestor lived between 5 to 7 million years ago, at which point
evolutionary forces caused one population to evolve human-like
characteristics while the other line evolved more chimpanzee-like
characteristics. However, new evidence has just been made available
that shows by examining the human and chimpanzee genomes that
human and chimpanzee ancestors diverged and then converged,
before diverging for a final time less than 5 million years ago. Genetic
analysis suggests that humans and chimpanzees evolved into
separate species which then interbred, forming a hybrid species
which then bred back into one of the parent populations. Its not clear
whether this human-chimpanzee hybrid returned to the human or the
chimpanzee population, but the molecular evidence is clear that the
hybridization did happen- the X chromosome has a particularly recent
connection to the chimpanzee genome. This means that human-
chimpanzee hybrid males would have been infertile, but the females
were not, and thus returned back to the parental population, mixing
chimpanzee and human genes each time. This new study by the
Broad Institute in Massachusetts is scheduled to be published in
Nature later this year, but the results have been made available on
the Internet, so Im sharing the scientific cutting edge with all of you.
But regardless of the human-chimpanzee hybrids, eventually the two
lines did split for good. And gradually, our ancestors changed from
being something that was willing to mate with a chimpanzee, into
something that would rather hunt them for food, train them for
entertainment, or sequence their DNA. What was the first step? The
first step, as it seems, is literally a step. A bipedal step, to be precise-
the first thing to distinguish our ancestors from chimpanzee ancestors
is the ability to walk upright. But being able to walk upright doesnt
earn the scientific, phylogenetic designation of human- we designate
all human species by the genus Homo as in our binomial, Homo
sapiens. But these first human ancestors werent human enough to
be considered part of our genus, and instead are called,
Australopithecus. One species of this genus in particular is thought
to have been ancestral to humans- Australopithecus afarensis, one
specimen of which has been nicknamed, Lucy. Like most of the
Australopithecines, Lucy lived in Africa.
Lucy, and the rest of her species, resembled chimpanzees in a lot of
ways, but one difference is obvious- she walked upright, like a
human. And not just sometimes, the bone structure of her pelvis
indicates that she was upright most of the time.
The next big change in human evolution was the expansion of the
brain. This was different than a lot of scientists had expected- they
had assumed that a larger brain would have been the first change in
the human-chimpanzee divergence, followed by other human traits
such as bipedalism and tool use. This turned out not to be the case-
walking upright evolved first. But the expanding brain followed soon
after, and in fact its how we classify human species- that is, species
that belong to the genus Homo. The first human, or at least the first
recognizable human species to which were willing to give the
designation, is the Handyman, Homo habilis. The Handyman lived
between 1.5 and 2.5 million years ago, and he gets his name because
rudimentary tools have been found with fossils of this species. These
tools werent anything spectacular- just flakes of stone used as
rudimentary knives, for the cutting of meat off dead animals. Its
unlikely that the Handyman was a hunter- more likely, he would have
taken meat from already dead animals like a scavenger.
After Homo habilis, we find the next major step in human evolution.
Homo erectus, or the Upright Man arose in Africa about 1.5 to 1.8
million years ago. Homo erectus had a larger brain than Homo
habilis, and its anatomy was more similar to modern humans. But the
most interesting thing about Homo erectus was its incredible success-
it was the first human species to engage in actual hunting, and this
had the effect of expanding its territory. Because its diet became
more reliant on animals than plants, Homo erectus began to migrate-
and thus spread out of Africa, and colonized southeast Asia, even
going up farther north into Eurasia. There is also evidence that Homo
erectus was able to control fire. There is some controversy about
whether Homo erectus evolved into a separate species once it
Evolution 101
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This blog provides a written transcript
of the Evolution 101 podcast, released
weekly. Evolution 101 attempts to
explain evolutionary concepts in
layman's terms to promote greater
scientific and evolutionary
understanding.
About Me
Name: Zachary Moore
Location: Dallas, Texas,
United States
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http://evolution-101.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-did-humans-evolve.html May 19, 2014, 12:25:50 PM
migrated out of Africa and into Asia, but even if this happened, the
two species are so similar to make it almost impossible to tell today.
Homo erectus is the last major evolutionary transition before we get
to modern humans, Homo sapiens. But how did this transition take
place? There are a couple hypotheses- the Out of Africa hypothesis
suggests that Homo sapiens evolved from the Homo erectus
population back in Africa, and migrated out again, following the path
that Homo erectus had taken earlier. The multiregional hypothesis
suggests that Homo sapiens evolved in different geographical
locations independently from different Homo erectus populations.
This would suggest that European Homo sapiens evolved from a
European population of Homo erectus, and the same is true of
Asians, Africans, and Indonesians. This latter hypothesis is looking
weaker and weaker as the genetic evidence piles up- any given
human isnt that significantly different from another, whatever the
geographical origin. Richard Dawkins has come out in support of an
Out of Africa again and again hypothesis, which suggests that
Homo sapiens migrated out of and back into Africa several times
before finally spreading out over all the continents. This hypothesis is
backed up by genetic evidence tracing the genetic similarity of
various genes among different human populations, and it looks the
most promising. One of the major differences setting Homo sapiens
aside from the other homonids is our use of language. This
development is likely what allowed modern human society to expand
and become as complex as it is now.
But what about the Neandethals? I havent forgotten them. Homo
neandethalensis doesnt figure in human ancestry- they arent direct
ancestors. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA found in Neandethal fossils
has confirmed this. What is most likely is that Neanderthals evolved
from European populations of Homo erectus, and were either hunted
or out-competed by the our ancestors, the Homo sapiens that had
migrated into Europe from Africa. So you can think of them as our
evolutionary cousins, if you like.
So thats the basics of human evolution. The transitions arent really
as simple as Ive made them seem, and there are several subspecies
that are transitional between the major species, but by and large,
this is what you should know. After diverging with the other great
apes, bipedalism evolved in the Australopithecines, but they werent
human quite yet. Once a large enough brain evolved, rudimentary
tools began to be used, as seen in Homo habilis, the Handyman.
These then became migratory hunter/gatherers, as seen in Homo
erectus. Modern humans evolved the use of language, and migrated
out of Africa and all over the world, to where we are today.
posted by Zachary Moore at 4:20 PM
41 Comments:
Hi, random person again. I dont know very much concerning the evolution
science, Im a high school student, but I was wondering what does this
imply that all populations are in state of evolutionary flux? It wouldnt seem
man would be evolving at this point, considering his environment stable. Do
you have any certain examples of how modern man is evolving at this point
in time?
My second question is you said that man and chimps evolved from apesI
just wonder how and why you make the distinction that chimps came from
apes than the other way around. Does the ground prove to this point or are
you simply implying, that from the looks of it, that a chimp is better suited
to this environment than say---an ape, and by that you inference that it
MUST have came from the ape? I was just wondering how you make
distinction, which comes from what.
By isefra, at 7:21 AM
****evolving physically**** I meant for my 1st question.
By isefra, at 12:11 PM
Kathryn-
Yes, actually- recent research has shown that modern man is continuing to
evolve, particularly genes which are involved in brain development. This
makes sense, because our brains are our most critical survival organs in
modern society.
Technically, humans and chimpanzees are both "apes." So, it's not the fact
that chimpanzees evolved "from apes," but that both humans and
chimpanzees evolved from an ancestor which was also an ape.
Hope that helps!
By Zachary Moore, at 5:48 AM
And so... I would imagine you'd say that we'd know that we're apes by
fossil evidences and the evidences for similarity by common anscestry...
Well, thanks for your response.
By isefra, at 3:09 PM
*ancestry* sorry sp.
By isefra, at 3:57 PM
The Neanderthal man was proven to be 100% human. And stop using al
your big words to say we came for a single celled orginism. evolutin is the
basis for comunism and socalism. show me a proven missing link ok.
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By Anesha, at 10:27 PM
So what is the exact answer for the question:
From whom did humans evolve?
By vidyasagar, at 1:40 AM
If we came from apes then why are there still apes that aren't evolving to
humans?
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Hi,
I'm trying to understand how these different species bred together
producing offspring that could reproduce themselves.
Maybe I misunderstood my biology teachers, but I thought that when
different species bred, they were able to produce offspring, but these
offspring were infertile.[i.e., the mule]
Also, do we know if the Neanderthals and our ancestors ever mated? Which
of our ancestors was their contemporary?
Thanks,
Maria
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By Adi, at 7:10 PM
Quote
"if we came from apes then why are there still apes that aren't evolving to
humans?
By Blogger Sanja, at 10:14 PM"
Evolution does not work that way. As long as apes can fit in an ecological
niche(such as being tree dwelling creatures), they will continue to do so.
Darwinian evolution says that evolution is not a goal, it is a process formed
by creatures interacting with an environment.
By Arviman, at 5:46 PM
Evolution happens all the time, small steps at a time. Our life spans do not
allow us to witness large leaps in evolution, that is why skeletons of other
hominids help us to better understand where we come from. They were
similar enough to be hominids, but different enough to be different species.
The Neanderthal is way too different from us to fit our classification.
Examples of small evolutionary steps that we can prove scientifically include
immunization to certain bacteria or viruses, some develop the resistance
while others do not and perish. The offspring tend to acquire the immunity
of the parents, particularly the mother, in his/her relationship to
environment. In other words, if an European woman moves to a remote 3rd
world country where some strain of virus is common, but which is non-
existent in her country of origin, when she has a baby, she cannot transmit
immunity to this strain because she doesn't have it, while the native women
can. That baby simply lacks an evolutionary advantage. This is a very
simplistic example because as I said earlier, our life spans do not allow for
major evolutionary leaps, just for small ones that are observable, such as
some genetic mutations that are perceived within say 3 or so generations.
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By Nicole, at 8:27 AM
Just stumbled across this while looking for other info. Very well written, I
see it was posted in 2006. I was wondering how your opinions have
changed since science has proven that we or should I say Europeans have
been found to in fact have DNA of neanderthals?
By Donna Wildfire Eberhard, at 4:48 PM
We're thinking of adding a primitive human anatomy section (Itahlu,
Neanderthal, Erectus etc.) to our site. Do you thinkin it is keeping with the
site or would it be irrelevent?
www.AnatomyHQ.org
By InVivoInSitu, at 4:35 AM
Hi my question is
In Bible it says the first humans are Adam and Eva and Adam and Eva were
clever but according to your informations the first hominids are not clever. I
AM CONFUSED?????
http://evolution-101.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-did-humans-evolve.html May 19, 2014, 12:25:50 PM
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By Dylan, at 8:49 AM
It's not sensible or accurate to use "man" in place of human, as it either
encodes androcentric thinking (we will picture a male body as a standard
human body, biasing our perceptions and limiting our thought processes
and curiosity) or implies that somehow the only subject being discussed is
the male human, which is inaccurate.
By Dylan, at 8:52 AM
Suppose you have a group of breeding dogs and you bred the dogs to look
and act like foxes. You will never get foxes from this breeding group. In
fact, you will never get anything but dogs from the breeding group. How
then do you expect to get amphibians from fish?
By Joel Fry, at 6:41 PM
Suppose you have a group of breeding dogs and you bred the dogs to look
and act like foxes. You will never get foxes from this breeding group. In
fact, you will never get anything but dogs from the breeding group. How
then do you expect to get amphibians from fish?
By Joel Fry, at 6:41 PM
Suppose you have a group of breeding dogs and you bred the dogs to look
and act like foxes. You will never get foxes from this breeding group. In
fact, you will never get anything but dogs from the breeding group. How
then do you expect to get amphibians from fish?
By Joel Fry, at 6:42 PM
Hi Joel-- New types of animals form through a process called speciation.
Here is how it works.
When you breed dogs to look different or act differently, like in your
example, you are basically changing the genetic code of that group of dogs.
We each have DNA that stays the same throughout our lifetimes, but the
genetic code of a population of animals can change over time because
animals with certain genetic sequences do not get to mate and pass on the
sequences.
Usually the genetic changes are not enough to produce a new species. But
to use your dog example, let's say over hundreds or thousands of years we
breed some dogs to be very tiny and some dogs to be very large.
The tiny dogs and large dogs have very different genetic codes, but they are
still both dogs and if I want to, I would be able to breed them together and
create a litter of puppies. But over time, its possible that the changes to
each dog's genetic code would be so major that they couldn't have puppies
together anymore, or if they did have puppies, the puppies would be sterile.
If I made the dogs' genetic codes different enough, I could make two
populations of dogs that couldn't interbreed at all. These would be two
different species.
You can see this happening right now with dogs and wolves. Dogs and
wolves are still the same species, but if we never breed wolves into the dog
population, over thousands or tens of thousands of years, wolves and dogs
might not be able to reproduce together. They would have officially become
two different species. This is just one way that speciation can occur, there
are many more.
Evolution takes a long time. But two species can form from one in just
hundreds of years in some cases.You can learn more about the details of
speciation at
http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/historyoflife/speciationmode.html
.
By Dylan, at 12:20 PM
http://femalefriends.co.uk/archives/733
Article why people have long faces and oval faces - the evolutional reason.
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http://evolution-101.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-did-humans-evolve.html May 19, 2014, 12:25:50 PM
Human Evolution
Dr. C. George Boeree
The basics of evolution are quite simple. First, all animals tend to over-reproduce, some having literally thousands of offspring in a lifetime. Yet populations of animals tend to remain quite stable over the generations.
Obviously, some of these offspring aren't making it!
Second, There is quite a bit of variation within any species. Much of the variety is genetically based and passed on from one generation to another. Included in that variety are traits that help some individuals to survive and
reproduce, and other traits that hinder them.
Put the two ideas together, and you have natural selection: Nature encourages the propagation of the positive traits and discourages the negative ones. As long as variety continues to be created by sexual recombination and
mutation, and the resources for life remain limited, evolution will continue.
Like any other creature, human beings evolved from earlier forms, and there are plenty of fossils of intermediate types to show the progression. More than five million years ago there lived the common ancestor to humans
and apes -- a dog-sized primate (already distinct from the ancestors of monkeys) who wandered the African grasslands but never strayed too far from the safety of the trees. This is an important point: We are not "descended
from apes!" We and apes were descended from common ancestors. Chimps and gorillas and orangs and humans all underwent millions of years of change to become who we are today.
Approximately three million years ago, a branch of these primates evolved into Australopithecus (see image at left). Australopithecus was between 4 and 5 feet tall, clearly walked
on two legs, was a tool user (chipped stones), and apparently hunted. Australopithecus had a brain about 400 to 500 cc, about the same as chimps and gorillas. The most significant
find of Australopithecus remains became well known as "Lucy."
Around two million years ago some Australopithecus evolved into A. (for Australopithecus) boisei and A. robustus. Not ancestral to us, they were quite powerful and had large jaws
and a ridge along the top of the skull to which were attached powerful jaw muscles. For all their strength, they became extinct long ago.
Also about two million years ago, another branch of Australopithecus became our ancestor, Homo habilis, which means "handy man." An early tool user, H. (for Homo) habilis
stood about 5 feet tall, weighed about 100 lbs, and had a brain from 500 to 800 cc..
About one million years ago came a closer ancestor of ours, H. erectus (image to the right), the first fire user and the first to leave
Africa. Erectus had a larger brain -- about 900 to 1200 cc. They may be more familiar as "Java man," "Peking man," and so on, named
after where their remains were discovered.
About 300,000 years ago -- H. sapiens enters the scene, back in Africa, with a 1200 cc brain. Archaic H. sapiens probably had speech,
tools, and buried their dead.
150,000 to 30,000 years ago came H. neanderthalensis, as some prefer. A cousin of ours, not an ancestor, they were about 5 ft 6 in tall, with heavy bones and large brows. They
had a brain that was actually a bit larger than ours - 1350 cc. Their remains are found primarily in the Near East and Europe.
At about the same time as the Neanderthal came Homo sapiens - us - with a brain about 1250 cc. We seem to have invented art in the form of cave paintings and female statuettes.
We probably began in Africa, but spread rather quickly into the Near East and Europe. It is possible that we were in part responsible for the demise of the Neanderthals. By 60,000
years ago, we were well in place in all of Asia, and by 30,000 years ago, we had even entered Australia and the Americas.
Many people mistakingly believe that the different "races" of the world are like different sub-species. They are not. Although we sometimes look quite different from each other, the actual genetic differences are extremely
small. Besides which, except in unusual situations where there has been dramatic population movement of separated genetic "pools" - such as the migration of Europeans and the forced migration of Africans to the Americas -
there are no lines that differentiate one "race" from another. They slowly blend into each other over distances. "Pure" races are myths, and the idea of race itself isn't that useful.
(For more on race, click here!)
Ultimately, all human beings are related to each other, very literally. And we are probably related to every other animal, plant, and micro-organism on this planet as well! Get used to it.
So what's so great about the genus Homo? How did we manage to survive with our little teeth and useless fingernails, and not even much fur to protect us from the sun and the cold?
First, being upright may have been a plus. It allows one to see over tall grass and to keep one's head above water when wading in rivers and lakes. It allows for a somewhat faster land speed than our primate relations
(although much slower than four-legged creatures who liked to dine on our ancestors). And being upright leaves our hands free to carry things such as food and tools and to throw rocks at enemies.
Which leads right into our second plus: We have great hands that let us hold and manipulate things well. It would have been difficult to start making tools without that opposable thumb!
Third, we were excellent vocalizers, with great vocal cords, mouth, tongue and lip movement, and awesome breath control. Lots of potential for communication!
And last, but not least, we had a large brain to begin with. Being relatively weak, we were able to think fast on our feet, and those that could think faster lived longest and left the most descendents - and so the brain continued
to develop. In addition, there was plenty of room for language to develop as a special adaptation of all that vocalization.
There are other things about us that are curious. For example, why are we so relatively hairless with such plentiful layers of fat under our skin? One theory is that at least some of our ancestors spent an inordinate amount of
time in the water, and we were on our way to evolving in the general direction of other water dwellers. There are many other traits that support the idea, such as our downward-pointing nostrils, the amount of fat on our
newborns, the way we can hold our breath (something that also helps with vocalization), and even the curious habit of weeping!
It is also likely that we began using fur and plant coverings -- clothing -- relatively early. Ancestors with less hair may have had a small but significant advantage in such a case, since they may have had fewer problems with
disease-carrying insects living between skin and clothes, and would be able to cool off and dry off more easily depending on conditions.
Another oddity about human beings is our rather strong sexuality. In this regard, we are similar to one our nearest relatives, the bonobo chimps, who are even "sexier" than we are! They apparently use highly promiscuous
sexual contact, even between close relatives, to support social bonds in the group. In human beings, the strong sexual interest that women have (as opposed to the females in many other species) may have developed as a way
of keeping the father of a woman's babies around as a helper.
What's next for Homo sapiens? It seems unlikely that we will be doing too much dramatic evolving, because we are no longer hidden away in isolated ecological niches where mutations have a chance to make their play for
survival. Instead, we should move into a phase where we become increasing homogeneous (pardon the pun) as all our different lines of descent begin to intermingle as they have never done before. Only a few features that
strongly contribute to success in life - like intelligence - are likely to continue to evolve.
With the completion of the human genome project and the development of various genetic interventions, we may make considerable progress towards eliminating the genetic sources of all kinds of problems. Our
descendents will, with any luck, be much healthier than we are. We may even be able to deal with some of the genetic bases for psychological problems such as those underlying anxiety disorders, depression, and
schizophrenia.
Don't misunderstand: There will be plenty of room for individual variation based on the complexity of our non-pathological genetics, as well as the enormous contribution that culture and upbringing and individual learning
make to our personalities!
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/humanevol.html May 19, 2014, 12:26:25 PM
modern woman's skull
Copyright 2002, 2004, 2009 C. George Boeree
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/humanevol.html May 19, 2014, 12:26:25 PM