Human (
Homo Sapiens Versus Neaderthals) evolution is the evolutionary process leading to the appearance of anatomically modern humans. The topic typically focuses on the evolutionary history of the primates—in particular the genus Homo, and the emergence of
Homo sapiens as a distinct species of the hominids (or "great apes")—rather than studying the earlier history that led to the primates. The study of human evolution involves many scientific disciplines, including physical anthropology, primatology, archaeology, paleontology, ethology, linguistics, evolutionary psychology, embryology and genetics.
Genetic studies show that primates diverged from other mammals about 85 million years ago, in the
Late Cretaceous period, and the earliest fossils appear in the Paleocene, around 55 million years ago.
Within the Hominoidea (apes) superfamily, the Hominidae family diverged from the Hylobatidae (gibbon) family some 15–20 million years ago; African great apes (subfamily Homininae) diverged from orangutans (Ponginae) about 14 million years ago; the Hominini tribe (humans, Australopithecines and other extinct biped genera, and chimpanzees) parted from the Gorillini tribe (gorillas) about
8 million years ago; and, in turn, the subtribes Hominina (humans and biped ancestors) and Panina (chimps) separated about 7.5 million years ago.
The basic
adaptation of the hominin line is bipedalism. The earliest bipedal hominin is considered to be either Sahelanthropus or Orrorin; alternatively, either Sahelanthropus or Orrorin may instead be the last shared ancestor between chimps and humans.
Ardipithecus, a full biped, arose somewhat later, and the early bipeds eventually evolved into the australopithecines, and later into the genus Homo.
The earliest documented representative of the genus Homo is
Homo habilis, which evolved around 2.8 million years ago, and is arguably the earliest species for which there is positive evidence of the use of stone tools.
The brains of these early hominins were about the same size as that of a chimpanzee, although it has been suggested that this was the time in which the human
SRGAP2 gene doubled, producing a more rapid wiring of the frontal cortex. During the next million years a process of rapid encephalization occurred, and with the arrival of
Homo erectus and
Homo ergaster in the fossil record, cranial capacity had doubled to 850 cm3. (Such an increase in human brain size is equivalent to each generation having 125,
000 more neurons than their parents.) It is believed that Homo erectus and Homo ergaster were the first to use fire and complex tools, and were the first of the hominin line to leave
Africa, spreading throughout Africa,
Asia, and
Europe between 1.3 to 1.8 million years ago.
According to the recent African origin of modern humans theory, modern humans evolved in Africa possibly from
Homo heidelbergensis,
Homo rhodesiensis or
Homo antecessor and migrated out of the continent some 50,000 to
100,000 years ago, gradually replacing local populations of Homo erectus, Denisova hominins,
Homo floresiensis and
Homo neanderthalensis.
Archaic Homo sapiens, the forerunner of anatomically modern humans, evolved between 400,000 and
250,000 years ago. Recent
DNA evidence suggests that several haplotypes of
Neanderthal origin are present among all non-African populations, and
Neanderthals and other hominins, such as Denisovans, may have contributed up to 6% of their genome to present-day humans, suggestive of a limited inter-breeding between these species.
Anatomically modern humans evolved from archaic Homo sapiens in the
Middle Paleolithic, about
200,000 years ago. The transition to behavioral modernity with the development of symbolic culture, language, and specialized lithic technology happened around 50,000 years ago according to many anthropologists although some suggest a gradual change in behavior over a longer time span.
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- published: 28 Oct 2015
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