Evolution of Human Uniqueness

Humans are Apes

We have share an ancestor with other apes

1.

Anatomical Differences:

Foot:
o Apes
use
s foot to grasp branches prehensile organ requires mobility
small heel
ankle adapted for climbing
flexible mid foot
o Humans
serves as a firm platform for pushing backwards against the ground
+ arched helping walking long distances
large hell
ankle adapted for walking

 stiff midfoot for propulsion

2. Big toe:
o Apes
directed sideways
grasping big toe
o Humans
large and points forward providing thrust
adducted big toe in line with other digits
3. Hands:
o Apes
Thumbs are quite short
Digits are curved
Precision grip (intermediate and distal phalanges ("fingertips") and
the thumb press against each other)
o Humans
Longer thumbs
Fine grip
Straight digits
Precision grip
4. Brain Structure:
o Apes
Chimps brain is much smaller
Reduced frontal lobe
No Brocas or Wernickes area
Brodmanns area 10 calls
may originate but no speech
Planumtemporale calls are
received but not processed as
language
o Humans
Bigger brains
Full frontal lobe
Brocas and Wernickes area
(for language)
5. Face:
o Ape vs Human
Triangular shaped nasal cavity
vs. rectangular shaped
Elongated and straight palate
vs. short and curved
Longer tongue
Bigger epiglottis
Longer larynx
Shorter pharynax
Longer trachea

We are phenotypically very different although there only is a difference of only

1.2% in our genetics
o Shared protein-coding genes
o Human Specific genes
ARHGAP11B gene: brain growth, stimulates creation of the folds and
fissures on the brain we have more than chimps

 FoxP2: 2 mutations separate the human and chimpanzee variants of

the gene people
who have a defect
in this gene have
speech problems
Mouse with
the human
FoxP2
version: more
complex
striatum,
more complex vocalization, learn some tasks easier
Ancient DNA showed that Neanderthals and humans have the
same variant of the gene
o HCNS1: hands and limbs
Candidate for contributions to
human bipedalism and tool
making
Little genetic changes with large
effects, might lead to the
evolution of some human
specific adaptations

Human Life History

Two life histories:
1. Fast life history (e.g. mice)
2. Slow life history (e.g. elephants)
Life histories contain different trade-offs
o Clutch size x offspring quality
o Length of reproductive span x adult body size
o Current x later reproduction
o Reproduction x survivorship

Life History Theory: our life cycle must adjust

to the fact that we have a time constraint
Death is an external factor that cannot be avoided selection for extended
lifespan
o Humans are at the slow end we have the longest life span of all
terrestrial mammals
o our age of first reproduction occurs later than in other Apes
o women stop bearing children half way through it (Menopause) other
female apes stop reproducing and die

o our children depend on others for subsistence for longer than other apes
and mammals in general
o our gestation length is as long as in other apes, which conforms with apes
slow life history
o we have the largest newborn size/mother weight ratio of all primates
and primates have large babies our babies are proportionally more
expensive
o fattest new born babies of all mammals
o expensive babies: our babies are born with around 30% of the brain
ready brain doubles its size in the first year of life brain at this age
consumes 65% of the
caloric intake 60 85%
of babies basal metabolic
rate goes to brain
maintenance
o growth delay: the brain
is still growing fast for 2
years, slows down rates of
growth but is still growing
for the first 5 7 years of
age
o during the first 2 years of life the calorie consumption of the brain varies
from 200 to 500 calories/day
o survivorship: infant mortality rates are much lower in our species than in
other apes confirms that we adopted the extreme of the slow life
history strategy
o slow life characteristics (even slower than other apes):
o long gestations
o large and fat babies
o high caloric demanding babies
o long term dependent children
o low daily investment in infants (cheaper lactation)
o low mortality rates
o high investment in quality
o pre-industrial/pre-agriculture societies have fertility rates much higher
than in other apes
o high fertility is due to our shorter IBI (shorter lactation period)
o in general, we wean our children earlier than other mammals at smaller
body sizes than the expected weaning weight/mother weight ratio
o maximising reproductive output through increased fertility rates is an
important adaptation for humans
we adapted in a way to invest both quality and in quantity, comparatively with
other apes can be explained by the evolution of our life history strategy,
together with the evolution of our social strategy
o our post-reproductive span (30 years) is longer than our reproductive span
(25 years)
menopause is possibly an important adaptation linked to our unique life history
strategy of maximising both quality and quantity of produced babies
grandmother hypothesis(adaptation to increase fertility (quantity))
o mothers had to reduce IBI
o continue investing in quality

o the inclusion of childhood allowed other members of the family to take

care of the children
o grandmother had important role in increasing mothers fertility
selection for healthier grandmothers who are able to feed the grandchildren
while mother invest in the next reproduction
o e.g. whale grandmother

Life History Theory has also been used to explain the evolution of humans large
brain
Kaplans Model: time invested in growth is also time invested in learning for
both sexes learning to obtain high quality food is exception to provide
females and offspring: takes up to maturity or even longer to master it
In 90% of mammal species fathers are not present mothers do all the
investment
a man produces more than twice as much as they consumption total amount
of calories produced and consumed by humans is much greater than by chimps
male provisioning allows to increase both quality and quantity of monogamous
couples
cooperative breeders: we depend on social help for reproducing

Human Behaviour
the triple C: cognition, cooperation and culture
1. cognition:
o language other animals use sounds for communication
o e.g. meerkats have different callings for different threats
o we use language to convey information but also to negotiate relationships
o we have theory of mind the capacity to put ourselves in the
shoes of somebody else
o Koko the gorilla: apparently has a theory of mind too
2. Cooperation:
o Not many animals cooperate, but the social ones do affiliative
cooperation
o Humans hyper cooperation: cooperation with unknown people
o We are able to coordinate large cooperative actions: war
3. Culture:
o Many animals have culture
o How they pass culture to the next generation, different from group to
group
o In humans: accumulate steps cumulative culture
o Collective knowledge and not only individual knowledge is fundamental
for our survival
o We are the only species that can ask the question about our uniqueness

Hill, K., Barton, M. and Hurtado M. "The emergence of human uniqueness:

characters underlying behavioural modernity." Evolutionary Anthropology
18.5 (2009): 187-200

Humans share the same biological heritage, although the reliance of

Homo sapiens on culture and cooperation is described as a spectacular
evolutionary anomaly.
Homo sapiens accounts for about eight times as much biomass as do all
other terrestrial wild vertebrates
Key traits in the emergence of human uniqueness: large brains, long adult
life spans, protracted juvenile dependence, an obligate post reproductive
period, prosocial emotions that promote extensive cooperation with
nonkin, complex communication, and a reliance of social learning that
produces cumulative cultural adaptation and social norms that regulate all
aspects of life.
These derived traits span physiological adaptations, behaviours, cognitive
abilities, and evolved emotions not seen in our closest primate relatives.
For example, chimpanzees raised in human families do not acquire the
same abilities as humans do. In contrast, human children do acquire some
chimpanzees culture.
Also, human females have high fertility in early adulthood
There are two fundamental characteristics account for human uniqueness:
the first one is extensive reliance on social learning, the other one is
extraordinary cooperation between nonkin the formation of increasingly
complex alliance networks.
Tool use, food extraction techniques and variety of other social behaviours
are described as an animal culture by a number of biologists.
Only human social learning is cumulative
Humans engage in imitation: learning by watching it done, chimpanzees,
despite the fact that they dont have cumulative culture, they too learn by
watching. However, chimpanzees are trying to get the desired result,
rather than imitation, copying the precise means.
Humans engage in teaching, but none of the apes have been observed to
do so.
Language and social norms are evolving informational systems not
observed in other primates.
It has long been argued that language is what makes us unique; however
it appears to be a cognitive offshoot of social learning.
No form of cooperation is truly altruistic in the genetic sense.
Hominins are bipedal and cover larger geographical range than other apes
this would favour social learning capacity.
Bipedal hominins hands were freed from locomotory constraints they
could carry tools.
Hominins began to depend on high-quality, widely dispersed resources
that were very difficult to obtain.
Cooperative breeding (a critical trait in human evolution) a patter in
which individuals other than genetic parents engage in behaviours that
increase juvenile survival and/or the fertility and survival of reproductive
adults.
All archaeological assemblages, high-latitude colonization, isotopic studies
and tapeworm genetics suggest that hominins were highly dependent on
meat for a very long period of time.
Hunter-gatherer children are born helpless a long period of brain growth,
slow body growth that is associated with almost total dependency until
they reach full adult body size.
Even the adolescent growth spurt must be subsidized by helpers.

Apes often view behavioural models as potential competitors rather than

helpers, while humans imitate while presuming that the model intends to
help them rather than to compete.
For example, children imitate newly introduced behaviours despite already
having learned other solutions to the problem, whereas chimpanzees do
not.
Ethnic signalling, indicating social norms and intergroup competition or
segregation is a ubiquitous feature of modern Homo sapiens

O'Bleness, M., Searles, V. B., Varki, A., Gagneux, P., & Sikela, J. M. (2012).
Evolution of genetic and genomic features unique to the human lineage.
Nature Reviews Genetics, 13(12), 853-866.

A major goal of studies that identify human-lineage-specific (HLS) genomic

changes is to correlate genotype with phenotype, however, this task, also
remains most formidable.
Direct human experimentation is not possible, so scientists rely on
naturally occurring variation and disease to understand HLS implications.
The ability to identify genomic changes that are unique to humans
depends on the HLS.
In the genome sequence of Homo sap., there are two ancient hominin
lineages Neanderthals and Denisovans.
HLS change can be polymorphic in only the human population.
Except from bonobos, all other great ape species harbour far more
sequence diversity than humans.
Small-scale changes: they encompass all differences smaller than those
identified by the large scale tests.
There is a substantial overlap in the phenotypes implicated taste and
olfaction, immunity, signal transduction, lipid metabolism, chaperone
activity, motor activity and structural support.
A number of studies established that there are far more genomic
differences between human and other primate than was originally thought
It is difficult to estimate exactly what fraction of the genome contains
these sequences.
The human genome is the most complete and accurate mammalian
genome, however it still contains many sequence gaps in complex
genomic regions.
Half of the unique gene differences and associated traits relate to brain
morphology and/or cognition.
Other areas with substantial number of HLS changes are disease
resistance and immunity, metabolism, physiological and anatomical
differences, and changes in human reproduction and parturition (giving
birth).
Gene structure can also be altered through changes in the number of
protein domains in a gene.
Pseudogenization not all gene alterations generate functional variants,
and indeed such structural changes often produce non-functional genes.
Apes have two APOC1 genes, while humans have only the positive APOC1
protein.
Pseudogenization is also a common trend seen in HLS multigene families.

Many gene structural changes occur as the result of misalignments during

replication.
We can anticipate that using genome-based data to help decipher what
has made the human species unique will become an increasingly powerful
tool for understanding our evolutionary origins (our anthropogeny) and
the human condition.

Evolution and Human Behavior, Boyd & Silk

Behaviour and natural selection
Social scientists often oppose applying evolutionary theory to explain human
behaviour
Learned from environment versus genetic determinism Nature nurture
debate
Every trait results from the interaction between genes and the environment:
o Plastic: traits that vary in response to the environment
o Canalized: traits that are the same in different environments
Differences in behaviour in humans are not the result of differences in genes
between individuals
Natural selection determines which problems a brain of a particular species
can solve
Understanding the psychology of any species- we must know what kinds of
problems its members need to solve in nature
Main adaptation difference between humans and other primate is brain size
o Natural selection hasnt only increases human brain size- it has changed
the way we think
Our brains were shaped when we were still living in hunter-gatherer societies,
conditions that we evolved to be called environment of evolutionary
adaptiveness (EEA).
Foraging groups- still lies certain problems- food sharing and reciprocal altruismcostly to interact with individuals who dont reciprocate
There is no consensus about the way early humans really lived: live modern
hunter-gatherers or completely different?
Evolved mechanisms in the brain shape the evolution of human cultures and
societies, making some outcomes more likely and other ones less likely
human cultures share some characteristics
Some mechanisms we share with ancestors, e.g. inbreeding avoidance:
Offspring of genetically related parents have lower fitness than the
offspring of unrelated parents
Incest leads to a higher chance of acquiring deleterious alleles at
each locust
Inbreeding leads to substantial reduction in fitness therefore natural
selection should favour behavioural adaptations that reduce the
chance of inbreeding
Domestic arrangements vary amongst cultures- polyandry, polygyny,
monogamy
Many marriage arrangements- only one that does not occur is
marriage between siblings (Westermarck)- not attracted to those you
grew up with

96% of our genome is shared with chimps and bonobos

Our physiology and morphology are only slightly modified
Better adaptations to conditions -> humans live in all parts of the world -> no
other primate does
Fallowing makes humans runaway ecological success:
o Cognition: complex cognition, causal reasoning, theory of mind and
reasoning tasks
o Culture: adaptive knowledge, tools and social institutions
o Corporation: specialization, exchange and division of labour

Evolution and human culture

Central Inuit -> adaptation to temp of -25C in winter -> cleverly designed
clothes and snow houses
An individual could not adopt to new environment alone
In evolutionary sense, culture is information acquired by individuals through
some form of social learning
Culture is common among other animals but cumulative cultural evolution is
rare
It can be argued that humans and other primates share many cultural qualities,
including the ability to use tools to obtain food. Chimpanzees use sharp or
heavy objects such as rocks to obtain food, and this behaviour is learnt through
social facilitation
Social facilitation: The situation that occurs when the performance of a behavior
by older individuals increases the probability that younger individuals will
acquire that behavior on their own. Social facilitation does not mean that young
individuals copy the behavior of older individuals. For example, the feeding
behavior of older individuals may bring younger individuals in contact with the
foods that adults are eating and, therefore, increase the chance that they
acquire a preference for those foods.
A form of learning in which animals observe the behavior of other individuals
and thereby learn to perform a new behavior.
Emulation or imitation
Another factor of culture which further separates us from our chimpanzee
cousins is our susceptibility to social norms, and the presence of social norms all
together. Even if behaviour is advantageous to the individual, a social norm may
be so prevalent that those pursuing the activity would be silenced due to human
aversion to uncooperative teammates. Humans reinforce cultural norms
through ritual events and processes so as to avoid those who refuse to
cooperate, as this is disadvantageous when it comes to survival through
reciprocal altruism. This third party punishment can enforce certain behaviours
regardless as to whether they are maladaptive.
Language

Language is present in animals in similar ways to how its present in humans

o Orca pods have unique signals which they used to communicate to
those they hunt with
o Koko the gorilla is a subject who was successfully taught sign
language, and she can communicate basic sentences and emotions
to her carers

o Meerkats also have specific signals for different predators.

The lingual ability demonstrated by humans is far more advanced. We have

features such as:
o

External language (symbolic forms of language communication

such as writing)

Features within language (ways to differentiate between

contextual meanings in speech and writing, such as grammar,
syntax, and tenses)

Cognitive ability (ability to think hypothetically and pose unique

and unrealistic questions. Animals are limited to direct statement
of fact when communicating with their group)

Cooperative Breeding

In animals, once the females exit their reproductive phase, they die as they
have no genetic purpose.

In humans, post-reproductive females aid the reproductive females in caring for

their young. This mechanism allows for the quality of offspring to be maintained
while a high quantity of offspring is also achieved.

Our young have a high percentage body fat and are also very helpless from
birth, so more care is required to allow them to survive.