What Is Human Evolution?

For many years there has been a debate over where modern humans originated from. The first theory, out of Africa, discusses modern humans evolving in Africa. They migrated out to Eurasia and as the time went on their species evolved independently and developed into distinct species. All other human populations were eventually replaced with no interbreeding involved in the process and Homo sapiens had successfully dominated the rest of the world. On the other hand, the second theory, regional continuity, says that our earliest hominid ancestors had departed Africa and spread into other parts of the world later evolving into modern human beings. In this paper I will discuss the Regional continuity theory and elaborating on the Out of Africa theory. Evidence based on fossils, artifacts, and other crucial components will be discussed. Based on the evidence found I will come to a conclusion as to which theory I think best fits the origins of humans.

This article shows how Paleoanthropologist David Lordkipanidze and his group of archeologist discovered a 1.8 million-year-old skull fossil that could lead to knowing more about the earliest known ancestors of humans that ventured outside of Africa. Lordkipanidze’s excavation in the Georgia site known as Dmanisi. With this archeology find, it has been concluded that all early fossil humans belong to the same species known as Homo erectus. The article explains that the Dmanisi hominins had brains less than half the size of a modern human’s, and are key to understand the evolution and expansion these ancestors experienced from Africa to Eurasia. Genetic studies indicate that their expansion began from Africa about 1.9 million years ago. The article also mentions that with these new findings there can be a better ground from where to start to understand these ancestors as how they lived and socialized. Lordkipanidze does mention that the Dmanisi “were very primitive, we think there were social groups that connected with each other and learned from each other”.

The Article Ancestors was published in August 2001 it was published by Archaeological Institute of America and was intended for anthropologists. This article informs readers that two new fossils where found in Kenya, which gives us evidence that we did not evolve from a single ancestor. This gives us new insight not only on how species evolve but more importantly where we came from. The author put pictures in the article to show the fossils and a map to show where they were found. The pictures give readers visual evidence on how the species are related to us and that we evolved from more than one species. The author also goes into detail about the skull and skeleton parts that where found. Stating where they were found, how old they are, and

The early African Homo Erectus fossils, which are sometimes called Homo egaster, are the oldest known early humans. They are similar to modern humans but taller, stronger, and had a pronounced ridge over their brow Many of their fossil remains have been found in places such as Africa and Asia, which can be dated to be about 1.6 million years old. From fossil findings researchers have revealed that these early humans have possessed modern-human-like body proportions. They have also found that these features are considered adaptations to live on the ground. Fossil remains have also revealed between Homo erectus and that of the Great Apes. One other link to Homo erectus is to that of a major innovation in stone technology. Throughout research and remnants of the Homo erectus scientist were able to discover evidence of the role of culture throughout this group of humans. Throughout our further findings we will look at variations and how it once effected Homo erectus, and the modern human of today. Great discoveries have been made, and with our technological advancement we can better our findings and interpretations of the characteristics and evolution of Homo erectus, so that we can have a better understanding of our evolution.

Hominin is a group of modern humans, extinct human species and all of our immediate ancestors, such as members of Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Ardipithecus. Of those members, Australopithecus is one of the extinct genuses of hominins. Based on paleontological and archaeological findings, the Australopithecus genus evolved in Eastern African around 4 million years ago. During this time period, different australopithecine species emerged, including A. afarensis, A. africanus, A. anamensis and A. garhi – to name a few.

The origins of anatomically and behaviorally modern humans is a prominent debate amongst paleoanthropologists. Ultimately, the two main ideas hypothesizing the origins of modern H. Sapiens are the Multiregional Hypothesis and the Out-of-Africa Hypothesis. The former states that all modern humans evolved from the H. Erectus that had once

Modern humans, who belong to a specie named Homo sapiens, continue to be until today the only living species in our genus. But 20,000 years ago there were other species of the genus Homo that are now referred as “hominins”. The discovering of Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist who is a professor of human evolution studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, describe an unusual collection of hominins

It is agreed that the hominid lineage originated in Africa and then dispersed from the continent, but there is still debate as to when this event occurred. There have been several fossil findings in parts of Asia that have been analysed and used to date when the hominid lineage left Africa and travelled into the Asian continent. Some of the most important discoveries have been made in several different locations in Indonesia and China. It is believed that the first hominids to migrate from Africa belonged to Homo ergaster/erectus. “Paleoanthropologists are spilt on the taxonomic status of H. ergaster and H. erectus. Some researchers consider these two forms to be regional variants of a single species (H. erectus), whereas others consider

There are a number of common original characters that differentiate contemporary humans from other living hominoids such as bipedal locomotion, slower development, a larger brain, several features of dental morphology, and cultural adaptation. Also, some of the most important evidence of human ancestry, such as the genus Ardipithecus which includes two species: Ar. kadabba and Ar. ramidus, comes from the northern boundary of the Rift Valley, in the middle Awash region of Ethiopia. This territory is where many important events in the history of human origin evolved and a number of astonishing revelations of hominin ancestors have been made.

Is the evolution theory a fact or a myth? This is the question I pondered for quite some time as I contemplated on the idea of the origin of human species. Were we created by a higher power or are we descendants of ape like ancestors? Hundreds of articles and substantial proof have helped shape my belief that evolution in fact, does exist.

Charles Darwin stated that the evolution of man would take not thousands of years but millions of years. In the case of the human species (Homo sapien) evolutionary theory posits that this has been the case. Human evolution begins with the primate lineage which also includes new and old world monkeys, and apes (Phelan, 2015). It is important to note that researchers have determined that the chimpanzee is the humans closest living relative. While, humans and chimpanzees have similar genetic and anatomical structure which signifies a close evolution relationship, it is also important to note the anatomical differences that distinguish Homo sapiens. Unlike chimpanzees, humans evolved toward bipedalism, grew larger brains and eventually became bigger in size (Phelan, 2015). As Darwin suggested human evolution has branched down for millions of years and thus has many significant events that result in the human beings that we are today.

“Descent with modification”, was what Darwin called the process of living species descending from ancestral species. One example of this theory, Darwin gave was the diversity ancestor from which bears descended. Darwin also proposed the process of natural selection, according to Simon, Dickey, Reece, & Hogan. (2015), individuals with heritable traits best suited to the local environment are more likely to survive and leave the greatest number of healthy offspring. So traits that enhance survival and reproductive success will be represented in greater numbers in the next generation. Natural selection was named due to the environment selecting only certain heritable traits from those already existing. Natural selection serves to edit those changes that have already occurred, the product of natural selection is adoption, the accumulation of variations in a population over time (Simon, Dickey, Reece, & Hogan, 2015). Natural selection is also

During ancient archaic times, several species existed in the Old World including Homo sapiens in Africa and the Middle East, Homo erectus inhabited Asia, and Homo neanderthalensis flourished throughout Europe. These species however, all lacked a cognitive flexibility which would destroy the blinding walls that blocked any connection between their multiple intelligences. All of science agrees that Homo erectus originated in Africa and expanded to Eurasia one million years ago. However, around 30,000 years ago, taxonomic diversity suddenly disappears and humans evolved into their modern form, signified by their fluent speech,

The modern form that humans take on today has an origin, but that origin still does not have a definitive answer. Many scholars continue to deliberate over the origin of the modern human form through two largely known origin theories. The two theories that are widely discussed include, Out of Africa and multiregional evolution theory. Commonly, the way these theories are differentiated is through geography, time-scale, and process (Stringer 67). These different elements of distinguishing origin theories has led to many misinterpretations and controversies of the major theories. There have been fairly recent clarifications on each theory, which helped to properly progress evidence for both in the right direction. However, there is not a firm conclusion to which theory is full proof in determining the origins of Homo sapiens. This paper will discuss the Out of Africa and multiregional theories in relation to modern human origin, along with providing evidence for both to determine if one theory is more valid than the other.

This slight change in chimps was discovered during current time by scientists around the world. This provided a proof that humans evolved from chimpanzees. While these small changes were occurring, chimpanzees were also slightly changing in looks and body stature. Chimpanzees slightly were then described from being called chimpanzees to "ape man" by scientists. All of these finding were discovered using fossils that scientists found in certain deserts and mountains in mainly Africa and also other parts of the world. But something happened to the between the evolution of chimpanzees and humans. This event changed the face of not only earth but also set a new beginning of the evolution of humans.