-
-
-------------------- 2512 - ANTHROPOLOGY - who‘s your daddy?
-
- Who’s your daddy?
-
- That depends. How far back do you want to go?
-
- I am quite certain your daddy was not around 4,600,000,000 years ago. That is when the Sun was first forming.
-
- You had to at least wait a billion years until the Earth first formed 4,500,000,000 years ago. But, then it was too hot and too volatile for life to form. 150,000,000 years later a planet sized asteroid smashed into Earth and splashed the Moon into orbit. 4,350,000,000 years ago that collision re-melted the Earth and reset everything. Be glad you missed that event.
-
- We do not know what happened in between ,but , 550,000,000 years later life was thriving. Of course it was primitive biology, but, biology none the less. 3,800,000,000 years ago chemistry had somehow evolved into biology.
-
- Geologists know this because photosynthesis organisms integrate carbon into solid matter. And, they find this evidence in the rocks. Nature puts carbon into the atmosphere. Life concentrates carbon and puts it into carbon-rich rocks. Photosynthesis was occurring. Other evidence is the oxygen released by photosynthesis created rust in iron.
-
- 400,000,000 years later the earliest fossils of cells were found. That is 3,400,000,000 years ago.
-
- 2,100,000,000 years ago multicultural life existed.
-
- 550,000,000 years ago the Cambrian era of life flourished on Earth.
-
- 250,000,000 years ago the Permian mass extinction occurred.
-
- 65,000,000 years ago the dinosaurs went extinct.
-
- 2,000,000 years ago the Homo- species evolved. In fact, going back a little further to Homo- ancestors we have evidence of tools that existed 2,600,000 years ago.
-
- Before your Daddy started evolving 89% of Earth-life time had elapsed. We all started in the last 4%.
-
- Going back 3,500,000,000 years ago bacteria and archaea were separate species but still had 60 genes in common. That is how plants and animals started, but, it took a long time from one celled organisms to get to the oldest fossils of Homo Erectus that existed 1,850,000 years ago.
-
- Theory has it that your Daddy came out of Africa 2,500,000 years ago. Some primitive stone tools have been found on an island 240 miles off the coast of Yemen that are 2,600,000 years old.
-
- Another theory based on discoveries in Georgia , Russia, indicate that Homo-Erectus may have migrated to Asia and then back to Africa where the first Homo-Sapiens evolved. Homo-Sapiens happened some 1,200,000 years ago.
-
- Homo- Erectus also evolved into Homo-Neanderthals, and Homo-Floresienes. This last species is newly discovered living on the Indonesian island of Flores. Evidence of fossils on these islands is a strong indication that Homo-Erectus learned how to cross open waters.
-
- So your Daddy could be African, could by Asian, could be Neanderthal . DNA evidence suggest some cross-species mating occurred in Europe. We are learning more every day. Microbiology ( genetics ) and geochemistry are providing new evidence.
-
- Science is not like religion. Science seeks evidence to be proven wrong. That is how we learn. Science changes when new evidence tells it to. There is no scientific authority. Truth simply means that predictions work.
-
- And, there are no absolute truths because new evidence can quickly change them. Ask questions, that is how you learn. You can be wrong, you can fail, that is how you learn. No one has all the answers.
-
- A new species? They live among us.
-
- It is the diversity of evolution that has survived. We do not come from a single lineage. Recent discoveries show a multitude of species have come and gone, all close relatives. The bones tell us. Will our species survive? Time will tell.
-
- Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!
-
- You have all seen the pictures. The walking figures with the chimpanzee . A sequence of evolution to the right becoming a caveman, then, a modern human. That is how most people perceive the theory of evolution for mankind.
-
- However, evidence is evolving too. And, the picture science is getting is much different.
-
- The most likely scenario is that over the last 8,000,000 years dozens of species and paths of our evolution took place. At the earliest of times the ancient apes had features of upright walking.
-
- “Ardi” is a nearly complete skeleton discovered in Ethiopia. She is 4,400,000 years old. And , she is more related to hominins than she is to chimpanzees. She still retains a combination of human like and ape like characteristics.
-
- A single foot skeleton was recently found in Burtele, Ethiopia, that was another up-right walking species. It was a biped different than Ardi. This foot is dated to be 3,400,000 years old.
-
- “ Lucy” is a famous find in Africa. She was 3,200,000 years old. She was about one meter tall, had long arms, a small head and walked on two legs.
-
- Findings dated over the last 250,000 years include: All existed over overlapping times.
-
------------------------ Homo Erectus
-
----------------------- Homo Florsiensis - Hobbits found on the Indonesian island of Flores.
-
----------------------- Homo Neanderthals
-
----------------------- Homo Sapiens, that’s us.
-
- The Neanderthals went extinct 28,000 years ago. According to DNA evidence their extinction did not happen before inter-marrying occurred with Homo-Sapiens.
-
- The Hobbit like Floresiensis went extinct 17,000 years ago.
-
- Before these lineages we have “ Hominins” which are primates that are more closely related to us than to chimps.
-
- During the epoch between 23,000,000 years ago and 5,000,000 years ago there were hundreds of different species of apes. Some learned how to walk up-right, then forgot, then remembered again. They adapted to whatever the environment required.
-
- There was a extinct ape “ Bambolii” that lived in Italy 9,000,000 to 7,000,000 years ago that had features associated with hominins. Features like teeth, hips were hominins but feet, fingers, and arms were apelike, fit for climbing trees.
-
- Some of the early chimpanzees had bigger brains than early hominins.
-
- To find a common ancestor to chimps and hominins you probably have to go back 6,000,000 to 10,000,000 years. But, there were multiple branches between here and there. Things got very convoluted. Very messy.
-
- At least a dozen different hominin species existed and went extinct along the way. Homo-erectus species lasted the longest from 2,000,000 years ago to 25,000 years ago. All the other paths of evolution went extinct except the last being Homo-Sapiens.
-
- Our evolution oscillated from living in trees to walking upright on the ground. It oscillated from using knuckles and palms to walk with all four to walking as bipeds.
-
- Evolution would move backwards and forwards for survival in the current environment. It was never linear. There were multiple parallel lineages in the laboratory of survival of the fittest.
-
- November 30, 2019 2512 1558 1559
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
--- Some reviews are at: -------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
-- email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
--- to: ------ jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ -- www.facebook.com -- www.twitter.com
--------------------- Saturday, November 30, 2019 --------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment