Evolution of Man

Evolution of Man
Technical report writing CA-2
Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology

Arpan Baul
Roll no. – 31042723012
BCA - 1st year
Contents
 Abstract
 keywords
 Introduction
 Technical report
 Conclusion
 References
Abstract
The greatest mysteries of science, a subject which intrigues us all is how
exactly the human species evolved. Evolution is the sequential process
of change over periods of time which shape and establish the formation
of modern man. Evolution is a term derived from the Latin word
'unrolling' and applied to the doctrine that all living organisms have
arisen through the modification of other earlier organisms. Human
evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people originated
from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence show that the physical and
behavioural traits shared by all people originated from apelike ancestors
and evolved over a period of approximately 6 million years. It is
generally believed that we were separated from apes approximately 6-8
million years ago. The increase in the earth's temperature may have
meant long dry seasons, at which time a lot of the vegetation by which it
is thought their diet mainly consisted of, would have dried up. The
herbivorous animals living on the plains would have also struggled to
find food and the majority would have died out. In the late Pliocene era
one line of the Australopithecines began to develop a larger brain, this
could be due to increase in protein from the change to a more meaty diet.
Fossils of these hominids are sufficiently human-like; they are classed in
our own genus, Homo the best known specimens of this line are the
Homo habilis stone tools began to appear, giving us the first direct
archaeological evidence of behaviour. Australopithecus boisei is the
greatest in size of all the australopithecines. It was the largest of the
australopithecines and it had developed larger teeth and jawbones. The
Advanced Australopithecus is distinguished from the other
australopithecines due to its advanced features such as greater intellect.
Many scientists feel that this australopithecine should be regarded as the
'true man.' They also call Advanced Australopithecus "Homo habilis."
nevertheless; Homo erectus is now classified as the first true man. Homo
erectus contained a more primitive brain, which had a cranial capacity to
half the size of Homo sapiens. Over decades of evolution Homo sapiens
have evolved into homo sapien sapiens i.e. modern human being.
Keywords
 Evolution:
The process by which different kinds of living organism are
believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of
the earth.
 Homo sapien:
The primate species to which modern humans belong;
humans regarded as a species.
 Hominids:
The group consisting of all modern and extinct Great Apes.
 Genus:
A principal taxonomic category that ranks above species
and below family, and is denoted by a capitalized Latin
name.
 Speciation:
The formation of new and distinct species in the course
evolution.
Introduction
Studies in evolutionary biology have led to the popular belief
that human beings arose from ancestral primates. This
association was hotly debated among scientists in Darwin's day.
But today there is no significant scientific doubt about the close
evolutionary relationships among all primates, including
humans.
Many of the most important advances in palaeontology over the
past century relate to the evolutionary history of humans. Not
one but many connecting links—intermediate between and
among various branches of the human family tree—have been
found as fossils. These linking fossils occur in geological
deposits of intermediate age. They document the time and rate at
which primate and human evolution occurred.
Scientists have unearthed thousands of fossil specimens
representing members of the human family. A great number of
these cannot be assigned to the modem human species, Homo
sapiens. Most of these specimens have been well dated, often by
means of radiometric techniques. They reveal a well-branched
tree, parts of which trace a general evolutionary sequence
leading from ape-like forms to modem humans.
Palaeontologists have discovered numerous species of extinct
apes in rock strata that are older than four million years, but
never a member of the human family at that great
age. Australopithecus, whose earliest known fossils are about
four million years old, is a genus with some features closer to
apes and some closer to modem humans. In brain
size, Australopithecus was barely more advanced than apes. A
number of features, including long arms, short legs, intermediate
toe structure, and features of the upper limb, indicate that the
members of this species spent part of the time in trees. But they
also walked upright on the ground, like humans. Bipedal tracks
of Australopithecus have been discovered, beautifully preserved
with those of other extinct animals, in hardened volcanic ash.
Most of our Australopithecus ancestors died out close to two-
and-a-half million years ago,
While other Australopithecus species, which were on side
branches of the human tree, survived alongside more advanced
hominids for another million years.
Distinctive bones of the oldest species of the human
genus, Homo, date back to rock strata about 2.4 million years
old. Physical anthropologists agree that Homo evolved from one
of the species of Australopithecus. By two million years ago,
early members of Homo had an average brain size one-and-a-
half times larger than that of Australopithecus, though still
substantially smaller than that of modem humans. The shapes of
the pelvic and leg bones suggest that these early Homo were not
part-time climbers like Australopithecus but walked and ran on
long legs, as modem humans do.
Just as Australopithecus showed a complex of ape-like, human-
like, and intermediate features, so was early Homo intermediate
between Australopithecus and modem humans in some features,
and dose to modem humans in other respects. The earliest stone
tools are of virtually the same age as the earliest fossils
of Homo. Early Homo, with its larger brain
than Australopithecus, was a maker of stone tools.
Early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia probably
between 2 million and 1.8 million years ago. They entered
Europe somewhat later, between 1.5 million and 1 million years.
Species of modern humans populated many parts of the world
much later. For instance, people first came to Australia probably
within the past 60,000 years and to the Americas within the past
30,000 years or so. The beginnings of agriculture and the rise of
the first civilizations occurred within the past 12,000 year.
In the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin says little about human
evolution, other than to assert firmly that we humans did evolve
and are part of the interrelated natural world along with all other
organisms. However this should not conceal Darwin's great
interest in the topic, a matter to which he turned in his Descent
of Man (published 12 years after the Origin), where he made
very clear the natural processes leading to Homo sapiens,
dwelling at length on the special role of the secondary
mechanism of sexual selection. In the Descent, Darwin makes it
very clear that he thinks human thinking and actions, especially
in the moral realm, have an evolutionary origin just as much as
our physical nature.
Technical report
Miocene Origins of the Hominin Lineage
In order to understand the evolution of any species, we must first
establish its ancestral state: what sort of animal did it evolve from? For
our lineage, this requires that we try and reconstruct the Last Common
Ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. The Human-Chimpanzee Last
Common Ancestor is the species from which the hominin lineage and
the chimpanzee & bonobo lineage diverged. Hominins are species on
our branch of the hominoid tree after the split with the chimpanzee &
bonobo line, including all of the extinct species and evolutionary side
branches.
There was a great diversity of ape species in the Miocene, with dozens
of species known from the fossil record across Africa, Europe, and Asia.
These species varied in their anatomy and ecology. They would have
had an ape-sized brain and body, with relatively long arms and fingers
and a grasping foot that allowed it to forage in the trees. The canine teeth
were probably large and sharp, as seen in several Miocene hominoids.
Moreover, the canines were probably sexually dimorphic, with males
having much larger canines than females, as seen among the living great
apes and Miocene fossils. Like living apes it would have walked
quadrupedally (on all fours) when on the ground, and its diet would have
consisted almost entirely of plant foods, primarily fruit and leaves.
Early Hominins
Changes from an ape-like anatomy are discernible in hominoid
fossils from the late Miocene in Africa. Some hominoid species
from this period exhibit traits that are typical of humans but are
not seen in the other living apes, leading paleoanthropologists to
infer that these fossils represent early members of the hominin
lineage. The first human-like traits to appear in the hominin
fossil record are bipedal walking and smaller, blunt canines.
Prominent primitive hominins
1. PROPLIOPITHECUS
2. AEGYPTOPITHECUS
3. DRYOPITHECUS
4. RAMAPITHECUS
5. AUSTRALOPITHECUS
6. HOMO HABILIS
7. HOMO ERECTUS
8. NEANDERTHAL MAN
9. CRO-MAGNON MAN
The modern man, Homo sapiens evolved sequentially from the

Miocene hominins, over the course of time and due to natural
selection, all other species of hyper cognitive hominins got
extinct except modern man. Fossil and DNA evidence suggest
our own species, H. sapiens, evolved in Africa 200 kya
(Relethford, 2008; Rightmire, 2009), probably from H.
heidelbergensis. The increased behavioral sophistication of H.
sapiens, as indicated by our large brains (1,400cc) and
archaeological evidence of a broader tool set and clever hunting
techniques, allowed our species to flourish and grow on the
African continent. By 100kya, our species spilled into Eurasia,
eventually expanding across the entire globe into Australia and
the Americas (DiGiorgio et al. 2009). Along the way our species
displaced other hominins they encountered, including
Neanderthals in Europe and similar forms in Asia. Studies of
ancient DNA extracted from Neanderthal fossils suggest our
species may have occasionally interbred with them (Green et al.,
2010). Our increasing global impact continues today, as cultural
innovations such as agriculture and urbanization shape the
landscape and species around us.
Fig: Stages of Evolution of Man
Fig: Human migration

Conclusion
The evolution of our species from an ape-like Miocene ancestor
was a complex process. Our lineage is full of side branches and
evolutionary dead ends, with species like the robust
Australopithecus that persisted for over a million years before
fading away. Some human traits, like bipedalism, evolved very
early, while others, like large brains, did not evolve until
relatively recently. Still other traits, like molar size, evolved in
one direction only to be pushed back later by changing
ecological pressures. Rather than a powerful ship charting a
straight course toward some pre-determined destination, the
evolution of our lineage — indeed, of any species' lineage —
fits the image of a lifeboat tossed about by the shifting seas of
environmental change, genetic luck, and geological chance. One
wonders where the next six million years might take us.
References
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/
overview-of-hominin-evolution-89010983/

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Evolution of Man

Technical report writing CA-2

Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology

The modern man, Homo sapiens evolved sequentially from the

Fig: Human migration

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