Human Evolution

Human evolution , the process by which
human being s developed on Earth from now-extinct primates . Viewed zoologically, we humans are Homo sapiens , a culture-bearing, upright-walking species that lives on the ground and very likely first evolved in Africa about 315,000 years ago. We are now the only living members of what many zoologists refer to as the human tribe, Hominini, but there is abundant fossil evidence to indicate that we were preceded for millions of years by other hominins, such as Australopithecus , and that our species also lived for a time contemporaneously with at least one other member of our genus , Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthal s). In addition, we and our predecessors have always shared the Earth with other apelike primates, from the modern-day gorilla to the long-extinct Dryopithecus . That we and the extinct hominins are somehow related and that we and the apes, both living and extinct, are also somehow related is accepted by anthropologists and biologists everywhere. Yet the exact nature of our evolutionary relationships has been the subject of debate and investigation since the great British naturalist Charles Darwin published his monumental books On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871). Darwin never claimed, as some of his Victorian contemporaries insisted he had, that “man was descended from the apes ,” and modern scientists would view such a statement as a useless simplification—just as they would dismiss any popular notions that a certain extinct species is the “missing link” between man and the apes. There is theoretically, however, a common ancestor that existed millions of years ago. This ancestral species does not constitute a “missing link” along a lineage but rather a node for divergence into separate lineages. This ancient primate has not been identified and may never be known with certainty, because fossil relationships are unclear even within the human lineage, which is more recent. In fact, the human “family tree” may be better described as a “family bush,” within which it is impossible to connect a full chronological series of species, leading to Homo sapiens , that experts can agree upon
human evolution.

             The primary resource for detailing the path of human evolution will always be
fossil specimens. Certainly, the trove of fossils from Africa and Eurasia indicates that, unlike today, more than one species of our family has lived at the same time for most of human history. The nature of specific fossil specimens and species can be accurately described, as can the location where they were found and the period of time when they lived; but questions of how species lived and why they might have either died out or evolved into other species can only be addressed by formulating scenarios, albeit scientifically informed ones. These scenarios are based on contextual information gleaned from localities where the fossils were collected. In devising such scenarios and filling in the human family bush, researchers must consult a large and
diverse array of fossils, and they must also employ refined excavation methods and records, geochemical dating techniques, and data from other specialized fields such as
genetics, ecology and paleoecology, and ethology (animal behaviour)—in short, all the tools of the multidisciplinary science of
paleoanthropology .

Possible pathways in the evolution of the human lineage.

This article is a discussion of the broad career of the human tribe from its probable beginnings millions of years ago in the Miocene Epoch to the development of tool-based and symbolically structured modern human culture only tens of thousands of years ago, during the geologically recent Pleistocene Epoch . Particular attention is paid to the fossil evidence for this history and to the principal models of evolution that have gained the most credence in the scientific community. See the article evolution for a full explanation of evolutionary theory, including its main proponents both before and after Darwin, its arousal of both resistance and acceptance in society, and the scientific tools used to investigate the theory and prove its validity.
Background And Beginnings In The Miocene
It is generally agreed that the taproot of the human family shrub is to be found among apelike species of the Middle Miocene Epoch (16.4 to 11.2 million years ago [mya]) or Late Miocene Epoch (11.2 to 5.3 mya).
Genetic data based on molecular clock estimates support a Late Miocene ancestry. Various Eurasian and African Miocene primates have been advocated as possible ancestors to the early hominins, which came on the scene during the Pliocene Epoch (5.3 to 2.6 mya). Though there is no
consensus among experts, the primates suggested include Kenyapithecus ,
Griphopithecus , Dryopithecus,
Graecopithecus ( Ouranopithecus ),
Samburupithecus , Sahelanthropus , and
Orrorin . Kenyapithecus inhabited
Kenya and Griphopithecus lived in central Europe and Turkey from about 16 to 14 mya. Dryopithecus is best known from western and central Europe, where it lived from 13 to possibly 8 mya. Graecopithecus lived in northern and southern Greece about 9 mya, at roughly the same time as Samburupithecus in northern Kenya. Sahelanthropus inhabited Chad between 7 and 6 million years ago.
Orrorin was from central Kenya 6 mya. Among these, the most likely ancestor of great apes and humans may be either Kenyapithecus or
Griphopithecus .

       Among evolutionary models that stress the Eurasian species, some consider
Graecopithecus to be ancestral only to the human lineage, containing
Australopithecus , Paranthropus , and
Homo, whereas others entertain the possibility that Graecopithecus is close to the great-ape ancestry of Pan ( chimpanzees and bonobos ) and Gorilla as well. In the former model,
Dryopithecus is ancestral to Pan and
Gorilla. On the other hand, others would have Dryopithecus ancestral to Pan and Australopithecus on the way to Homo , with Graecopithecus ancestral to Gorilla . This morphology-based model mirrors results of some molecular studies, which show chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans to be more closely related to one another than any of them is to gorillas; orangutans are more distantly related.

     In a phylogenetic model that emphasizes African Miocene species, Samburupithecus is ancestral to Australopithecus , Paranthropus , and Orrorin , and Orrorin begets
Australopithecus afarensis , which is ancestral to Homo.

    The Miocene Epoch was characterized by major global climatic changes that led to more seasonal conditions with increasingly colder winters north of the Equator. By the Late Miocene, in many regions inhabited by apelike primates, evergreen broad-leaved forests were replaced by open woodlands, shrublands, grasslands, and mosaic habitats, sometimes with denser-canopied forests bordering lakes, rivers, and streams. Such diverse environments stimulated novel adaptations involving locomotion in many types of animals, including primates. In addition, there were a larger variety and greater numbers of antelope, pigs, monkeys, giraffes, elephants, and other animals for adventurous hominins to scavenge and perhaps kill. But large cats, dogs, and hyenas also flourished in the new environments; they not only would provide meat for scavenging hominins but also would compete with and probably prey upon them. In any case, our ancestors were not strictly or even heavily carnivorous. Instead, a diet that relied on tough, abrasive vegetation, including seeds, stems, nuts, fruits, leaves, and tubers, is suggested by primate remains bearing large premolar and molar teeth with thick enamel.
Behaviour and morphology associated with locomotion also responded to the shift from arboreal to terrestrial life. The development of bipedalism enabled hominins to establish new
niche s in forests, closed woodlands, open woodlands, and even more open areas over a span of at least 4.5 million years. Indeed, obligate terrestrial bipedalism (that is, the ability and necessity of walking only on the lower limbs) is the defining trait required for classification in the human tribe, Hominini.

Striding Through The Pliocene
The anatomy of bipedalism

      Bipedalism is not unique to humans, though our particular form of it is. Whereas most other mammalian bipeds hop or waddle, we stride. Homo sapiens is the only mammal that is adapted exclusively to bipedal striding. Unlike most other mammalian orders, the
primates have hind-limb -dominated locomotion. Accordingly, human bipedalism is a natural development from the basic arboreal primate body plan, in which the hind limbs are used to move about and sitting upright is common during feeding and rest.
The initial changes toward an upright
posture were probably related more to standing, reaching, and squatting than to extended periods of walking and running. Human beings stand with fully extended hip and knee joints, such that the thighbones are aligned with their respective leg bones to form continuous vertical columns. To walk, one simply tilts forward slightly and then keeps up with the displaced centre of mass, which is located within the pelvis. The large muscle masses of the human lower limbs power our locomotion and enable a person to rise from squatting and sitting postures. Body mass is transferred through the pelvis, thighs, and legs to the heels, balls of the feet, and toes. Remarkably little muscular effort is expended to stand in place. Indeed, our large buttock, anterior thigh, and calf muscles are virtually unused when we stand still. Instead of muscular contraction, the human bipedal stance depends more on the way in which joints are constructed and on strategically located ligaments that hold the joints in position. Fortunately for paleoanthropologists, some bones show dramatic signs of how a given hominin carried itself, and the
adaptation to obligate terrestrial bipedalism led to notable anatomic differences between hominins and great apes. These differences are readily identified in fossils, particularly those of the pelvis and lower limbs. Although we are bipedal, our pelvis is oriented like that of quadrupedal primates. The early bipedal hominins assumed erect trunk posture by bending the spine upward, particularly in the lower back (lumbar region). In order to transfer full upper-body mass to the lower limbs and to reposition muscles so that one could walk without assistance from the upper limbs and without wobbling from side to side, changes were required in the pelvis—particularly in the ilia (the large, blade-shaped bones on either side), the ischia (protuberances on which body rests when sitting), and the sacrum (a wedge-shaped bone formed by the fusing of vertebrae). Hominin hip bones have short ilia with large areas that articulate with a short, broad sacrum. Conversely, great-ape hip bones have long ilia with small sacral articular areas, and sacra of the great apes are long and narrow. The human pelvis is unique among primates in having the ilia curved forward so that the inner surfaces face one another instead of being aligned sideways, as in apes and other quadrupeds. Curved ilia situate some of the gluteal muscles on the side of the hip joint, where they steady the pelvis as the foot swings forward during a step. This special mechanism allows us to walk smoothly, with only slight oscillations of the pelvis and without gross side-to-side motions of the upper body. Humans have short ischia (and long lower limbs), facilitating speedy actions of the hamstring muscles, which extend the thigh at the hip joint, while great apes have long ischia (and short hind limbs), which give them powerful hip extension for climbing up trees. Characteristically, a human thighbone is long and has a very large, globular head and a short, round neck; at the knee a prominent lateral ridge buttresses the groove in which the kneecap lies. The femurs are farther apart at the hips than at the knees and slant toward the midline to keep the knees close together. This angle allows anthropologists to diagnose bipedalism even if the fossil is only the knee end of a femur. The femurs of quadrupedal great apes, on the other hand, do not converge toward the knees, and the femoral shafts lack telltale angling.

     Human feet are distinct from those of apes and monkeys. This is not surprising, since in humans the feet must support and propel the entire body on their own instead of sharing the load with the forelimbs. In humans the heel is very robust, and the great toe is permanently aligned with the four diminutive lateral toes. Unlike other primate feet, which have a mobile midfoot, the human foot possesses (if not requires) a stable arch to give it strength. Accordingly, human footprints are unique and are readily distinguished from those of other animals.

    The anatomy of bipedalism.The fossil evidence.Theories of bipedalism
Hominin habitatsTools, hands, and heads in the Pliocene and Pleistocene Refinements in hand structure Increasing brain size Refinements in tool design .Reduction in tooth size. The emergence of Homo sapiens
Language, culture, and lifeways in the Pleistocene. Speech and symbolic intelligence.
Many of the techniques of evolutionary genetics can be applied to the evolution of humans. Charles Darwin…heredity: Human evolution
Many of the techniques of evolutionary genetics can be applied to the evolution of humans. Charles Darwin…
Homo sapiens: Evolution
Before about 1980 it was widely thought that distinctively hominin fossils could be identified from 14…
anthropology: Physical anthropology
The course that human evolution has taken and the processes that have brought it about are of equal concern.…
hand tool: Geological and archaeological aspects
At first, humans were casual tool users, employing convenient sticks or stones to achieve a purpose and…
humour: Patterns of association
…conditions at a stage of evolution when the struggle for existence was more deadly than at present—and…  Human evolution close