Lyell- The idea that our planet’s history stretches back over a period of time so long that it’s difficult for the human mind to imagine. Lamarck- First person to try to explain evolution using natural processes. Malthus- Principles of population. The human population will grow beyond the space and food needed to sustain the number of people. Wallace- They both thought the same exact thing about evolution 8a.
Summary of “Why Evolution is true” By: Jerry A. Coyne What is evolution; chapter I explains Darwin’s theory of evolution, which applies to all species, new species are descended from earlier forms. This means that organisms with similar characteristics are likely to have shared a common ancestor sometime in the past. The more traits shared by organisms, the closer their evolutionary relationship. This principle of “common descent” explains why anthropologists are interested in studying nonhuman animals, particularly primates (the mammalian order that includes monkeys, apes, and humans), with whom humans share the closest common ancestor. Some of our important human characteristics, such as a spinal cord encased in a bony vertebral column, and the concentration of nerve cells in a brain, are part of our vertebrate heritage, established in a common ancestor over 600 million years ago.
First he explains that Apes in Africa broke into several populations: Gorillas, Chimps, and then us Humans. The first human ancestor to spread beyond Africa was the Homo erectus. It was found with fossils discovered in the Java Islands in Southeast Asia (known as the Java man). Half a million years ago Homo erectus skeletons became enlarged, rounder, and less angular. Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens and had dramatically smaller brains than us.
The Procoptodon fossils found in South Australia shows that Australia used to have megafauna. The extinctions of the Procoptodons contribute to our knowledge on the evolution of species as we can use technology to see the ultimate cause of the extinction. The arrival of humans around 48,000 years ago, the increased aridity around 18,000 years ago and the change in climate around 15,000 years ago are some of the hypothesis surrounding the extinctions, which shows us the change in the environment over the time. Aboriginal people still recount stories of a large, aggressive kangaroo that would attack people. The fossil Procoptodon were easily hunted due to their large size, and over time via natural selection, the species have developed smaller and more agile in the Kangaroo
Replacement Model vs. Multiregional Model Approximately 195,000 to 300,000 years ago anatomically modern humans evolved from premoderns, we know this to be true but what happened to the premoderns? We know out of Africa anatomically modern humans left Africa to graze and hunt other places. But what happened to those people who they came in contact with? Why did one species push another to edge of extinction? Paleoanthropologists as well as anthropologist have their own individual view of the evolution of the anatomically modern human being.
“Hunting the First Hominid” Pat Shipman Hunting the First Hominid, Pat Shipman is focused on finding the first hominid. Anthropologists are in hopes of finding the earliest ancestors to identify why humans are the way they are. He wants to answer such questions as to how people became and evolved. Shipman had many main ideas; fossils discovered in different parts of world helping us to slightly distinguish between hominids and apes, features that differentiate apes from humans, although it may be slightly difficult, as well as the two trophies of the bipedal hominid, Aripithecus ramidus kadabba and Orrorin. The article was a difficult read with a target audience of anthropologist or people interested in the topic.
In his book “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, the author Jared Diamond tried to explain why history evolved differently for peoples from various geographical areas. Diamond believes that environmental factors, like plant and animal domestication, gave some civilizations benefits over others. In Chapter 1, Diamond discusses human evolution and migrations across the planet. He mentions that the history of humanity started approximately 7 million years ago, when a population of African apes diverged into three separate populations, one of which evolved into modern humans. For the first 5 or 6 million years after this separation, humans were confined to Africa.
First, the food lead to many improvements in health and taste. The food improved the way of life and more people ate the food because of its taste. Some countries in the Old World, like the Irish with their potatoes, went crazy with the new foods and added the foods to their staple crops. You could tell how much new food they were getting because some of the food would look like it didn’t belong in Europe. Since they were getting so much new food, they started cultivating in the New World with plant that’s were hard to grow in the Old World.
Introduction Have you ever wondered where we come from? Anthropologists have made many discoveries in the past few decades that have increased our knowledge as to who our ancestors are and how humans evolved. “Lucy” who was discovered in 1974. Anthropologists have discovered fossil remains of an ancestor older than Lucy; a female named Ardipithecus, or Ardi for short, who possesses human and ape-like qualities. Ardi proved that bipedalism, or walking upright on two feet, existed half a million years before previously thought * Thesis: The main features of Ardi that helped shed light on these discoveries were from close examinations of Ardi’s skull, pelvis and limbs, and her teeth.
Examples of this “tinkering” can be seen in the Homo sapiens or humans. It is said that the evolution of the modern human being has taken place over 6 million years. Because there is fossil evidence that shows physical similarities that links a common ancestor to many primates, humans are considered primates. When looking for tinkering in human evolution, characteristics that stand out are, bipedalism, encephalization, and the various vestigiality in the human body. Figure 1: Phylogenetic tree of the modern Homo sapiens originating from around 6 million years ago from the Sahelanthnopus tohadensis.