How did humans evolve?

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The evolution of Homo sapiens as a distinct species from earlier ape ancestors is one of the central topics within evolutionary biology. The study of human evolution uses many scientific disciplines, including physical anthropology, primatology, archaeology, and genetics.

The exact lineage that traces humans back to their ancestors is still unclear, and the classification of humans and their relatives has changed considerably through time. Genetic evidence suggests that the human lineage split from the lineage that would lead to chimpanzees around 8 million years ago. The genus Australopithecus, which first appeared around 4 million years ago, is now thought to be the ancestor of the genus Homo, to which we belong. Australopithecus was an evolutionary milestone for humans, because they are the earliest known apes to begin walking upright. Walking upright lead to many advantages, including the further development of the brain. Australopithecus gave rise to the Homo genus.

Homo habilis lived about 2 million years ago and is called the "handy man" because he is currently the earliest known hominid to manufacture primitive stone tools. There is still some debate on whether habilis should be considered a separate species. He may have instead been a late Australopithecine or an early erectus. Homo erectus evolved an even more complex brain that was similar to humans, so complex that it is believed he developed speech. He also made weapons, discovered fire and used it to cook his food. Homo heidelbergensis may or may not be the direct common ancestor of both Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. Anatomically and behaviorally modern humans are believed to have first appeared between 50,000-100,000 years ago.

The mental and social capacities of humans have evolved too. From the beginning, the ancestors of humans were social animals. An individual ape was never strong enough nor fast enough to fend for itself or be safe from predators, so they had to rely on living in cooperative groups to protect from the dangers of a hostile world. Many of the social characteristics of humans, including compassion, cooperation, curiosity, inventiveness and competitiveness existed well before Homo sapiens emerged and some ape species of today also have them. As we became smarter, we came up with social structures that were more organized and more complex, assigning leaders to groups and establishing primitive government systems to ensure the well-being of all members. Early Homo sapiens were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in small social groups. The invention of agriculture gave rise to modern, structured communities.

Human evolution is not one continuous series, as illustrations you may have seen would have you believe. Rather, human evolution is more like a branching tree containing many different ape species that have appeared and long since died out. We are still trying to figure out exactly how humans are related to these species.

Evidence for human evolution is found not only from the transitional fossils we uncover but our genetic and anatomical similarities with our ape relatives. We share between 95-99% of our genome with chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. Fossils of several different hominid species have been found, and upon being closely examined and dated, show relatedness to humans at varying degrees. Paleontologists have always been hard at work piecing together the puzzle and connecting the dots fossil by fossil, in order to reconstruct the evolutionary history of humans as accurately as possible. There have been great strides in the study of human evolution, and while many questions remain, they continue to be answered as more research is done.

There are some questions regarding humans that the theory of evolution itself may not be able to answer, especially moral and existential questions. The role of science is to explain how we came to be, not why we exist or what our purpose is. The answers to these questions lie in philosophy and religion, not science. Nevertheless, there is evidence beyond reasonable doubt that humans are descended from earlier prehistoric apes, and that we are closely related to other apes of today, and the gaps in the human lineage continue to be filled as more research is done and more fossils are uncovered.





We didn't God made us

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First answer by ID1202178677. Last edit by Cadiomals. Contributor trust: 13 [recommend contributorrecommended]. Question popularity: 5 [recommend question].