ENGINEERING OF LIVING ORGANISMS

In early 1800s, England was already moving away from the traditional way of thinking about life,
which was then called “Natural Theology”. In this belief system, the living world was created by a
kindly but hand-off God. And there were four aspects of creation: one, there was divine creator. But
simply believing in god didn’t prevent you from asking how life works. Two, there were species that
didn’t change ever. This idea was known as the fixity of species. But keep in mind, the French had
already worked out that species do change over time and go extinct. They just hadn’t figured out
how. The third aspect of natural theology was a short creation. In which the world was only about
6000 years old. But the geologist had pushed the age of the earth to the millions of years. And the
fourth idea was still contentious in 1800 a perfect design for each species.

Today, Natural theology is associated with philosopher William Paley, perhaps he wrote a
book in 1802 called natural theology. This book influenced the young scholar named Charles Darwin.
But he wants to understand how. Darwin read the geological theory of Charles Lyell and think about
gradual change over long ages. And also, he read the principle of population by Thomas Robert
Malthus. In that Malthus argued that the population increases geometrically but food only increase
arithmetically, the logical result must be famine. From this Darwin got the clue, a relationship
between the environment and the reproduction of populations. Darwin reasoned that “Living being
compete over the resources, and only the most fit for a given region survive”. It is as if nature select
them. Hence his choice of the term “Natural selection” for the primary mechanism of evolution.
Comparing to the natural theology: there is no creator involved, species aren’t fixed. The process
takes aeons and designs are like useful traits emerge over time.

Let go more specific about human beings, the story of Humanity’s evolution began about 7
million years ago, when the human linage broke away from that of chimpanzees. Over time an
ensemble cast of over 20 early humans’ species or hominins came to the fore. Most became extinct
while others might have been ancestors to today’s humans. Each species exhibited varying degree of
human like physical and behavioural traits such as large brains, small teeth, bipedality and tool use.

These Hominis fell into 3 major groups. Early hominins, Australopithecines and Homo genus.
Humanity’s earliest relatives lived between seven and 4.4 million years ago in Africa. Having most
recent shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees, they had many ape-like traits such as small
cranial capacity. However, fossils shows that some ancient hominins were also beginning to show
human like characteristics such as small canines that were likely used for eating and not for hunting
and fighting.

The next phase of hominin evolution involved primates called Australopithecines. They lived
between 4.4 and 1.4 million years ago across the African continent. Like their ancient brethren,
Australopithecines had some ape like traits. However, changes in the skull, spine and legs indicate a
notable shift towards a very human like trait.

The third and current phase of human evolution involves member of the genus homo. The
earliest homo sapiens likely date to more than 2 million years ago making them a contemporary of
some Australopithecines but unlike earlier hominins who exhibited a mosaic of ape and human like
traits. Homo species were becoming distinctly more human. Their cranial capacity was growing
larger than any other hominins. They developed sophisticated stone tool technology and they
become the first to control the fire. These physical and behavioural adaptations along with the
advancement in technology allowed some homo species to be the first to migrate out of Africa and
explore the rest of the world. While a cast of over 20 hominin species have walked this earth only
one remains. Homo sapiens shaped by millions of years of evolution embarked on a journey of
exploration and industry, its ancestors could have only dreamed.

-----end-----

Evolution of living organisms in the world:

Prokaryote(2125 million years ago)  Cyanobacteria(1925 million years ago)  Eukaryote(1500

million year ago)  Choanoflagellate(800 million years ago)  Platyhelminthes(Flatworms)(550
million years ago)  Pikaia(Starfish and Urchins)(450 million years ago)  Haikouichthys(525 million
years ago)  Agnatha(525 million years ago)  Placodermi(460 million years ago)  Cephalasis(430
million years ago)  Ceolacanth(420 million years ago)  Panderichthys(415 million years ago) 
Tiktaalik(375 million years ago)  Acanthostega(365 million years ago)  Ichthyostega(360 million
years ago)  Hynerpeton(360 million years ago)  Tulerpeton(358 million years ago) 
Westlothiana(338 million years ago)  Hylonomus(Repitails and Birds)(300 million years ago) 
Phthinosuchus(256 million years ago)  Cynognathus(223 million years ago)  Repenomamus(220
million years ago)  Plesiadapis(85 million years ago)  Carpolestes(65 million years ago) 
Aegyptopithecus(30 million years ago)  Proconsul(250 million years ago)  Sivapithecus(16
million years ago)  Ouranopithecus(Apes)(14 million years ago)  Orrorin(6 million years ago) 
Ardipithecus(5 million years ago)  Australopithecus(Chimpanzees)(4 million years ago)  Homo
erectus(4 million years ago)  Neanderthal(0 million years ago)  Homo sapiens(Human)(0 million
years ago).