4.5.

Human evolution
Who are we and where have we come from?
According to theory of evolution ,there
has been a line of evolution for millions of
years that has given rise to:

a) Old world monkeys

b) New world monkeys
c) Great apes and different species of
humans
•Humans belong to order primates,
Homosapiens have a very close relationship to
apes.
 We have two features in particular that
distinguish us from other primates. These are:
• a very large brain, and
• Bipedalism – the ability to truly walk on just
two legs.
The evolutionary tree of humans and the great apes
 •The evolutionary tree
•Branching points in the evolutionary tree
represent ancestors
•At these points it is assumed that an ancestral
type became divided into at least two
populations which subsequently evolved along
different lines.

•For e.g , Humans and Chimpanzees both evolved

from a common ancestor that lived about 6
million years ago
•This showed that chimpanzees are the closest
relative to Human.
 Humans include:
 Present human (Homosapiens)
 Other humans before us (e.g. H.habilis, Homo erectus)&
 ‘Pre-humans’(e.g. Australopithecus afarensis).
 Hominin: any member of the genus Homo. This includes
modern humans (Homosapiens), H .neanderthals and Homo
erectus, Homo habilis.

 Hominid: a group of species that includes all the species

belonging to the genus Homo along with other species such
as Ardipethecus ramidus and Australopithecus afarensis
A timeline for the fossils of human family.
 What is significant about Lucy and Ardi?

Both Lucy and Ardi are important fossils in explaining the

evolution of modern humans and chimpanzees from a
common ancestor.
Lucy was discovered by Donald Johansson and Tom
Gray in 1974 at Hadar in Ethiopia.
Lucy is a fossil dated at about3.2 million years. She was
an adult female of about 25 years and belonged to the
species Australopithecus afarensis
Her skeleton was about 40% completed, an
unusually high proportion for a fossil skeleton.
•Her pelvis, femur (the upper leg bone) and
tibia show that she was bipedal (could walk
upright on two legs).

•so her discovery was able to settle a debate

amongst biologists at the time– which came
first, large brain or bipedalism? Clearly
bipedalism came before big brains.
There is also evidence that Lucy was also partly
arboreal (tree-dwelling).
At the time she was discovered, Lucy
represented one of the oldest fossil hominins
Lucy had a brain about the same size as that of
a chimpanzee.
 A B

Figure 4.42 A – The original Lucy fossil; B – The Lucy

display including reconstructed parts
The Ardi fossil (together with many other
similar fossils) was first discovered in 1992, in
the Afar dessert in Ethiopia,
Ardi was 1.2 million years older than Lucy,
was also female and belonged to the species
Ardipithecus ramidus.
One significant feature about Ardi was that she
was also bipedal.
At 4.4 million years old, Ardi is the nearest
fossil to the 'common ancestor’ of humans and
chimpanzees
•This finding finally proved that the common
ancestor of humans and chimpanzees could
not have resembled a chimpanzee, as
chimpanzees are not truly bipedal. However,
there was signs of being adapted for both
bipedal walking and arboreal life
How has brain size changed during human
evolution?

•From 6–2 million years ago Brain size increases

slowly
During this time period, the early humans began
to walk upright and make simple tools. Brain size
increased, but only slightly.
•From 2 million–800,000 years ago Brain and
body size increase
During this time period, the early humans spread
around the globe, encountering many new
environments in different continents. These
challenges, along with an increase in body size,
led to an increase in brain size.

·
•From 800,000–200,000 years ago Brain size
increases rapidly

The human brain size evolved most rapidly

during a time of dramatic climate change. Larger,
more complex brains enabled early humans of
this time to interact with each other and with
their surroundings in new and different ways.

As the environment became more unpredictable,

bigger brains helped our ancestors to survive.
oDuring the course of human evolution, the brain has
got bigger.
o from comparing fossils that the cranial capacity has
increased with each new hominid species that evolved
othe brain has increased in size as a proportion of
body mass.
oWhereas species of Australopithecus have a brain
that is between 0.7% and 1.0% of their body mass.
o modern humans have a brain that is between 1.8%
and 2.3% of their body mass.
o The brain of Homo sapiens uses 25% of the resting
energy requirement, compared with 8% in the great
apes.
•A larger brain allows humans to
• Run faster and in a more upright posture
• Plan in advance to avoid attack
• Develop and use tools and weapons

These abilities clearly depend on other physical

adaptations such as longer legs
more nimble fingers and a straighter spine,
but, without the larger brain to co-ordinate the
activities; the physical changes would not confer
the same advantage
Figure 4.33 Brain size in different hominids
  Are we still evolving?
oHomo sapiens (modern humans) first appeared
in Africa and have since migrated to all other
parts of the world
oAs humans moved from Africa into different
areas of the world, they encountered different
environments.
o Different selection pressures in the different
environments resulted in the different human
populations evolving along different lines.
.
For example, as humans encountered colder
climates, body features that gave a survival
advantage by helping to conserve heat were
selected for.

These included:
•a shorter, squatter body shape; this reduces the
surface-area-to volume ratio and so reduces the
rate of heat loss by radiation
• an increased layer of adipose tissue under the skin
to act as insulation
• increased hairiness; this reduces heat loss by
convection
Humans have been evolving into different ‘races’ for
thousands of years.
There are three main races with several subdivisions.
This is based on a recent genetic analysis of the different
races.
A. African (Negroid)- Africans and Melanesians of the
South Pacific
B. Eurasian (Caucasoid)- people with variable skin
colour ranging from white to dark brown.
Three subdivisions exist:
i. Nordic – people from Scandinavia and Baltic countries,
Germany, France, Britain
Examples of Eurasian
examples of African feature
II. Mediterranean –people from Southern France, Spain,
Italy, Wales, Egypt, Jews, Arabs, Afghanistan, Pakistan,
India

III. Alpine –includes people from countries from the

Mediterranean to Asia
C. East Asian (Mongoloid)-
 currently most numerous populations and split into
three groups:
i. Eastern Siberians, Eskimos and the Northern
American Indians
ii. Japanese, Koreans and Chinese
iii. Indonesians and Malays
Example of East Asian feature
physical and genetic differences were emerging
between the different races.
However, the mechanism that usually drive
formation of new species have been intervened our
large brain in two major ways.
Increasing the ability to modify our
environment rather than having to evolve to adapt
to it.
Increasing between the races because of
increased global travel.