The Evolution Of Man Essay Research Paper free essay sample

The Evolution Of Man Essay, Research Paper The Evolution of Man Ben Bader Worlds have existed on the Earth for about 3.4 million old ages. At least, that? s from when the oldest human ascendants have been found. The oldest known homo is the dodo # 8220 ; Lucy, # 8221 ; an Australopithecus, discovered by Donald Johnson and M. Taieb. Australopithecines looked more like Primatess than contemporary Homo Sapiens ; they walked semi-upright, they had low, inclining brows, stick outing jaws, about no facial looks, thick organic structure hair, and were about three pess tall. Over three and a half million old ages, worlds have evolved greatly. We have grown from 3 to about 6 pess, lost most of our organic structure hair, become slender and adapted to walking, and adult encephalons over three times every bit big as the first Australopithecines. Besides all this, worlds ( Homo Sapiens ) have developed an advanced stuff civilization. Now, alternatively of life in trees and delving nutrient from the land with sticks, we live in huge metropoliss of 1000000s and purcha se our nutrient from the local food market shop with money ( another recent development ) . We will write a custom essay sample on The Evolution Of Man Essay Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Worlds have come a long manner, from Australopithecus to Homo Sapiens. But we are besides like the Primatess in many ways, excessively. We have the same basic organic structure construction. Their custodies are basically merely like ours, except that they wear? Ts have apposable pollexs. Their pess are similar to ours, merely with longer toes for gripping. And our faces are really similar as good. However, we still have come a long manner from populating in trees to populating in metropoliss. Slowly, through 100s of 1000s of old ages, we mutated clip and clip once more, natural choice guaranting that no harmful mutants continued. From the slow procedure of development, four distinct species emerged and died out, each giving manner to its? replacement: Homosexual Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo sapiens Neanderthalesis, and eventually, Homo sapiens Sapiens. We? ve come a long manner over our brief ( 3.4 million old ages ) being on Earth. The first major measure taking to Homo sapiens Sapiens was walking unsloped, or going bipedal. The Australopithecines were the first to make this, albeit instead clumsily. Their pace was, judging by their bone construction, was unsteady at best, and they likely chiefly were four-footed ( walking on all 4s ) . They besides retained the ability to mount trees. The oldest Australopithecus dodo is Lucy, an Australopithecus Afarensis. Over 40 % of her skeleton was found integral, doing Lucy one of the most complete Australopithecus finds every bit good as the oldest. The Australopithecines had a encephalon about the size of an orange ( 400-550cc ) , outstanding zygomatic bones, and to a great extent enameled grinders. They were about three pess tall, and had little, developing pollexs. Their toes were besides slightly shorter than other Primatess. Australopithecines, while decidedly possessing some human features, were still much closer to the Pan troglodytess and gorillas that we evolved from, so it is safe to presume that they lived similar lives to other Primatess. They likely, judging from agreements of dodos at sites, lived in one topographic point in little groups. It is assumed that, like gorillas, one male dominated a group of Australopithecines. We assume this because of their sexual dimorphism. Sexual dimorphism is a noticeable difference in the sizes of males and females in a species. It is normally the males who are larger ; in the instance of Australopithecines, the males were larger. We know they lived in groups because fossil groups of Australopithecines are frequently found with more than 5 persons in the same topographic point. One site had 13 dead in the same topographic point. While Australopithecines are most likely direct ascendants of contemporary worlds, they were still comparatively stupid. Their tools, if any, were limited to sticks and stones found on the land. Australopithecines were vegetarians ; even if they knew that animate beings were comestible, they still had no dependable agencies of killing animate beings for nutrient. That came with the development of Homo Habilis. About 2 million old ages ago, extremely evolved Australopithecines made the cardinal realisation that so can act upon their environment ; they made the first tools, began working resources, and made the displacement to Homo Habilis at the same clip. Homo Habilis is the earliest known member of the Homo genus, and has been found merely in Africa. Besides a encephalon size 50 % larger than Australopithecus, Homo Habilis was taller, had an about hairless face, and flatter anterior nariss. They were taller than Australopithecines, and were going omnivorous. Homo Habilis had, among other things, discovered that meat was comestible. They began scavenging dead meat, and added it to their normal vegetarian diets. We know this because of their dentitions. Homo Habilis had grown big incisors, merely right for rupturing balls of meat. They besides had grown wisdom teeth, or a 3rd grinder. They are besides required for masticating meat. The most of import development in Homo Habilis, nevertheless, is linguistic communication. With their larger intellectual cerebral mantle, the had unbelievable ( for the clip ) abilities in logical thinking, thought, and memory. They besides hunted, which was a group activity necessitating preciseness, truth, planning, and silence. Therefore, alternatively of the oinks and screams of their ascendants, Homo Habilis likely developed manus signals and facial looks which conveyed intending for usage in runing parties ; this was the first symbolic communicating. These signals became more complex, and manus signals were developed to stand for abstract constructs ( good, evil, etc ) . Then, the manus signals became organized and combined with sounds to make a rough signifier of linguistic communication. This, along with the tool civilization that had come approximately, created the foundations of an advanced c ivilization. Homosexual Habilis were wholly two-footed, and had lost the tree-climbing ability with the manus and pes development. They had a greatly reduced forehead ridge, and the beginnings of a mentum. Homo Habilis was 3.7 to 4.2 pess tall on norm. Homo Habilis had, as told above, made the first tools. They were crude tools, and the most complex tool made was the chopper, the predecessor to the axe. Homo Habilis dominated Africa until approximately 1.6 million old ages ago, when Homo Erectus emerged, doing their eventual extinction. Homo Erectus was the following measure in human development, and had a much larger encephalon ( 1060 milliliter ) than Homo Habilis. The name # 8220 ; Homo Erectus # 8221 ; means # 8220 ; Man who Walks Upright, # 8221 ; which means practically nil as all members of the Homo genus walked unsloped. There were really few physical alterations from Homo Habilis to Homo Erectus besides the larger encephalon ; the most noticeable alterations were a lighter, more delicate jaw and smaller dentition. The brow-ridge was besides somewhat larger than Homosexual Habilis? . There was still about no mentum, and the brow still sloped back, merely non every bit much. Homo Erectus had developed tool-making to an art, come offing off little flakes alternatively of big flakes to acquire more control of the tools they were doing ; they besides wholly chipped off the surface of the rock they were working, doing tools impossible to do with the tool-making manners of Homo Habilis. The standardised manus axe was invented by the Homo Erectus every bit good. Homo Erectus? greatest achievement, nevertheless, was go forthing Africa. They were the first to traverse over into Asia and Europe, distributing worlds throughout most of the universe. The first Homo Erectus dodo found outside of Africa were on the island Java from 1891 to 1894. Because of this, Homo Erectus was originally called the # 8220 ; Java Man. # 8221 ; Because they were found on a island, we can surmise that there was an ice age traveling on when Homo Erectus began migrating. Homo Erectus did non do canoes and the merely other manner, besides swimming for stat mis, was traversing land Bridgess exposed merely during ice ages. As the early worlds moved off from the intense sunlight and heat of the equator, they began accommodating to the lesser grades of Sun by a fluctuation of the melanin in their tegument ; therefore the worlds of eastern Asia have a xanthous tegument and Europeans tend towards white tegument. Homo Ere ctus lived until about 100, 000 old ages ago, when Homosexual sapiens Neanderthalesis took their topographic point. Homosexual sapiens Neanderthalesis, normally knows merely as Neandertal mans, lived about wholly during the most recent Ice Age. Homo sapiens Sapiens are non straight descended from Neanderthals ; Neandertal mans evolved from Homo Erectus in Europe 10s of 1000s of old ages before Homosexual sapiens Sapiens evolved in Africa. The physical differences between Homo sapiens Neanderthalesis and Homo Erectus are great. While non much taller, Neandertal mans were built really otherwise: they were really wide and compact, with broad hips and a bow-legged stance. They had really big encephalons ; they were larger, on norm, than those of modern worlds. Most of this development, nevertheless, was in the rear of the encephalon, which handled memory. Neandertal mans likely could retrieve merely about everything that had of all time happened to them, but did non hold the believing power of modern worlds. Homosexual sapiens Neanderthalesis besides had a low, inclining brow with a really dominant fo rehead ridge, and no mentum, looking more like Homo Habilis than Homo Erectus. The tools of the Neanderthals, though, were far superior to anything made before. Alternatively of utilizing standard choppers and manus axes made of rock, Neanderthals used a technique called flint raping to make four distinguishable types of tools: points for hunting, burins ( chisels ) for cutting channels, bore bits for doing holes in soft stuffs, and drills for doing holes in harder stuffs. The vesture worn by Neanderthals was besides different from Homo Erectus. Because of the ferocious cold, Neanderthals wore midst, heavy animate being teguments in the long winter months to maintain out the cold, whereas before merely light vesture was worn. The society of Homo sapiens Neanderthalesis was really advanced, and was the first society where the old and ill were cared for alternatively of left to decease. This evinces the importance of mental abilities in the Neanderthal society. Boorish civilization wa s a patriarchate, dominated by the work forces. The work forces hunted animate beings while the adult females were subservient and collected roots, berries and all manners of workss for nutrient and medical specialty. Work force were besides the lone 1s allowed to take part in the sanctum ceremonials, led by male priests. It was a rigorous caste system, each individual holding a function in the group for their full lives. It was unlike anything seen before. It was likely this rigorous, stiff society that was the ruin of Homo sapiens Neanderthalesis. They died all of a sudden, merely a few thousand old ages after the first contact with Homo sapiens Sapiens. Cipher knows why, but competition between the two and the dilution of lineages through hybridization are the two most favorite theories. But for whatever grounds, Homo sapiens Neanderthalesis became nonextant 35,000 old ages ago. The decease of Homo sapiens Neanderthalesis left Homo sapiens Archaic ( Cro-Magnons ) the dominant human species. Cro-magnons were non significantly different from contemporary worlds ; Cro-Magnon is more of a social name than a species unto itself. Homosexual sapiens Archaic was really different from Homosexual sapiens Neanderthalesis. They were tall and slender with about no organic structure hair. They had a high brow, a rounded skull and no forehead ridge. Another new add-on was a protruding mentum. In other words, if a Cro-Magnon were to walk down the street, you wouldn? T be able to state him apart from the other people. Cro-magnons were really advanced ; they had a complete vocal linguistic communication, ( Homo sapiens Neanderthalesis had an inferior voice box ) , and they had the most advanced tools in the universe. Most of their tools were made of bone, and their apparels were made of leather sewn together with bone acerate leafs. There were besides bone fishing maulerss, a nd the first boats were made by the Cro-magnons as good. In Homosexual sapiens Archaic society, the old and lame were still cared for, and it was still a patriarchate ( perchance this was acquired from the Neanderthals via cultural diffusion ) , but it was non a stiff caste system. It was a flexible, advanced system where both work forces and adult females did the hunting and assemblage. Cro-magnons besides were the first to cultivate and sit Equus caballuss. Homosexual sapiens Archaic were superior to Homo sapiens Neanderthalesis for a assortment of grounds: they were better minds, they were faster, had more precise motions, and had greater technological capacity. Cro-magnons were merely better equipped to manage the universe. And the remainder, they say, is history. Modern worlds do non all expression likewise, as you already know. Since they are spread out over such a huge part, and throughout so many climes, worlds have had to accommodate. They have had, to a little grade, evolve. Development occurs in little, about unperceivable stairss. There are little mutants from one coevals to the following. Anyone possessing a helpful mutant is more likely to reproduce, transporting on the good trait. Likewise, those with negative effects tend to decease out. Returning to the clime illustration: people populating closer to the equator have dark tegument to forestall terrible combustion and possible tegument malignant neoplastic disease, while people populating closer to the poles have whiter tegument because the high sums of melanin are no longer needed for that peculiar clime. These physical differences, though, are merely that: physical. The underlying bodily maps and intelligence that define worlds remain the same. Some people call those with differe nt tegument colour different races. This is non true. Worlds are a race. Naming person with aslant eyes or dark tegument a different race is like naming a long-haired cat a different species than tomcat. It is untrue and dissentious, which is harmful to the human race. This is one of the few disadvantages to intelligence ; animals without intelligence aren? t smart plenty to comprehend that others of their species are different from them if they have a different form on their pelt. They don? T, so they can? t, do judgements based on visual aspects. They don? t divide themselves any more than male from female. We, nevertheless, can do those judgements. And we frequently do, much to our hurt. Our over-analytical heads notice otherwise elusive differences and overstate them, about ever presuming themselves to be the superior 1s. If we are to be successful in the hereafter, spliting worlds into separate races must be stopped. In malice of all this dissentious thought, worlds remain the most successful species on the planet. We have achieved a grade of intelligence unmatched by anything else ; we have conquered nature, learned efficient usage of natural resources, and have spread from Africa to every portion of the Earth. We have evolved from monkeys populating in trees into believing existences with the ability to change their environments to about any manner we choose. And, we? ve developed an advanced civilization. We live in tremendous communities of people, we have extremely specialized divisions of labour, and we have an intricate codification of behaviour. This is alone. No other animals on Earth have this. But with this promotion comes duty. We have the power to make what we want to the Earth. We can continue it or destruct it. Again, this is alone to worlds. So far, we? re making a good occupation of continuing the Earth. But contemporary worlds, Homo sapiens Sapiens, are still germinating. Merely because this is where we are, doesn? t mean this is where we halt. As the millenary base on balls, our civilization and physical characteristics will go on to better and progress. Soon we won? t even be confined to this planet any longer, and so we will genuinely hold conquered it. And our duty for it will increase proportionally. Someday, a new species of worlds will take the topographic point of Homosexual sapiens Sapiens, and we will travel the manner of our ascendants. But until so, our occupation is to do the most of our being here, and to do certain we stick around long plenty for the following species to get. So far, things are looking reasonably good. This paper recieved an # 8220 ; A+ # 8221 ; , and is decidedly NOT refuse. My professer even used it in a instructor # 8217 ; s instructional seminar, so it # 8217 ; s decidedly a good resource. Just so you know = )