The History of Human Evolution

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The History of Human Evolution

By definition, human evolution is the development, both biological and cultural, of humans. Human ideologies of how the evolution of man came to be is determined by cultural beliefs that have been adopted by societies going back as far as the Upper Paleolithic era, some 40,000 years ago. Through the study of paleoanthropology, we have come to determine that a human is any member belonging to the species of Homo Sapiens. Paleoanthropologists, while studying the evolution of humans, identify and explain evolutionary changes that occur throughout time that aid in the development of the human species. It will be through the examination of human physical traits, human origins from pre-humans to modern humans, and major discoveries that we will be able to understand the history of human evolution.

The Hominidae, or hominids are a group of upright walking primates with relatively large brains. The only existing representative of this family is the Homo sapiens. We can declare that all humans are part of the hominid family, yet not all hominids can be considered humans. However all humans are primates; although humans have developed very distinct traits from its genetically similar primate, the chimpanzees, such as bipedalism, meaning walking on two legs. “Bipedalism seems to be one of the earliest of the major hominine characteristics to have evolved.”(Microsoft Encarta) Bipedalism enabled humans to develop specific physical traits to accommodate their upright posture, such as a specialized pelvis, hip and leg muscles, and an S-shaped vertebral column. These traits, specific to humans, can be detected in fossil records therefore making bipedalism the defining factor in the physica...

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...o could even have lived side by side”.(Lawson)

This discovery just proves how human evolution can be understood more in depth with continuous fossil findings and how we can never truly be sure how human evolution began because it would be impossible to be 100% positive that all fossil records have been analyzed. The Kenyanthropus discovery may prove that two lineages of human evolution may exist but that does not necessarily mean that others do not.

WORK CITED

Gallagher, Richard B., Michael Murphy, and Luke O’Neill. "What Are We? Where Did We Come From? Where Are We Going?" Science 14 Jan. 1994: 181-183

"Human Evolution." Microsoft Encarta. 1996 ed. [CD-ROM]

Lawson, Willow, “A New Face Joins the Family.” ABCNEWS 2001.

Leaky, Meave G., “New hominin genus from eastern Africa shows diverse middle Pliocene lineages.” Nature 2001:433-440

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