[11] UCSP - Human and Biocultural Evolution

• Evolution - process of gradual change that takes place over many generations, during which species of animals, plants, or insects slowly change some of their physical characteristics
• 2 Types of Evolution

  • Biological Evolution
  • Cultural Evolution
• Biological Evolution - changes, adjustments, and variations in the genetics and hereditary characteristics of biological populations from one generation to the next; examining changes in structure of human bodies
• Natural Selection - mechanism of evolution; organisms more adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and pass on the genes that aided their success, causing species to change and diverge over time
• Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace - credited with coming up of theory of evolution by natural selection, co-published in 1858
• Charles Darwin published origin of species in 1859
• Cultural Evolution - also known as socio-cultural evolution; how human societies progress form a simpler to a more sophisticated form; sociocultural phenomena arise from human adaptation to various environmental conditions, including shifting climate patterns and population growth
• Australopithecus Afarensis - the first hominid to walk upright
• Afarensis belongs to the genus Australopithecus
• Australopithecus Afarensis - a group of small-bodied and small-brained early hominin species that were capable of upright walking but not well adapted for travelling long distances on the ground
• Homo Habilis - known as handy man, thought to represent the first maker stone tools; species of the genus Homo which lives from 2.33 to 1.4 m year ago during the Gelasian Pleistocene period; has a larger brain and reduced the size of molars and premolars compared to the Australopithecus
• Homo Erectus - first hominid species distributed in the "old world"; seen in parts of Africa and Asia and was discovered in Eugene Dubois; have the capacity to control fire, surviving cold weather
• Early African Homo erectus fossils are the oldest known early humans to have possessed modern human-like body proportions with relatively elongated legs and shorter arms compared to the size of the torso
• Homo Neanderthalensis - closest extinct human relative; bodies were shorter and stockier than ours; another adaptation to living in cold environments; their brains are just as large or larger, proportional to their brawnier bodies
• Homo Sapiens - means wise human in Latin; our species; modern human beings; have a domed skull, chin, small eyebrows, and a rather puny skeleton; is thought to have evolved sometime between 160,000 and 90,000 years ago in Africa before migrating first to the Middle East and Europe and later to Asia, Australia, and the Americas