Brief History of Mankind

 HUMAN EVOLUTION 

Human evolution is the long process of change that led to humans descended from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence indicates that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all humans evolved from apelike ancestors over a six-million-year period.

Bipedalism, or the ability to walk on two legs, was one of the first defining human traits to evolve over 4 million years ago. Other important human characteristics, such as a large and complex brain, the ability to make and use tools, and the ability to communicate, emerged later. Many advanced traits, such as complex symbolic expression, art, and intricate cultural diversity, have emerged primarily in the last 100,000 years.

Human beings are primates. Physical and genetic similarities indicate that the modern human species, Homo sapiens, has a common ancestor.

PALEOANTHROPOLPGY

The scientific study of human evolution is known as paleoanthropology. Paleoanthropology is an anthropology subfield that studies human culture, society, and biology. Understanding the similarities and differences between humans and other species in their genes, body form, physiology, and behavior is central to the field. Paleoanthropologists look for the origins of human physical characteristics and behavior. They want to know how evolution has shaped people's potentials, tendencies, and limitations. Paleoanthropology is an exciting scientific field for many people because it investigates the origins of our species' universal and defining traits over millions of years. However, some people are troubled by the concept of human evolution because it appears to contradict religious.

The Evolution Process:

Evolution is a natural process that involves a series of natural changes that cause species (populations of different organisms) to emerge, adapt to their surroundings, and become extinct. Biological evolution is the process by which all species or organisms evolved. The term species refers to a group of sexually reproducing animals, including humans, whose adult members regularly interbreed, resulting in fertile offspring – that is, offspring capable of reproducing themselves. Each species is assigned a two-part scientific name by scientists. Modern humans are classified as Homo sapiens in this system.

When the genetic material — the chemical molecule, DNA — that is inherited from the parents changes, so does the proportion of different genes in a population. Genes are DNA segments that contain the chemical code for producing proteins. Mutation is a process by which information contained in DNA can change. The way specific genes are expressed, or how they affect the body or behavior of an organism, can also change. Genes influence how an organism's body and behavior develop throughout its life, which is why genetically inherited characteristics can influence the likelihood of an organism's survival and reproduction.

Individuals are not changed by evolution. Instead, it alters a population's inherited means of growth and development (a group of individuals of the same species living in a particular habitat). Parents pass adaptive genetic changes to their children, and these changes eventually become common throughout a population. As a result, the offspring inherit those genetic characteristics that improve their chances of survival and ability to bear children, which may be sufficient until the environment changes. Genetic change can change a species' overall way of life, such as what it eats, how it grows, and where it can live, over time. As new genetic variations in early ancestor populations favored new abilities to adapt to environmental change, human evolution occurred.