THE ROLE OF DATING IN HUMAN EVOLUTION STUDIES Significance of the temporal framework of human origins has been felt always. As a number of new discoveries of hominid remains and occupation sites came to light in the years since WWII, fresh fossil data and contextual information started pouring in. Without an accurate chronological background, it is as such impossible to locate the fossils in space and time, to examine local lineages for signs of supposed evolutionary trends, to document the geographic spread of any species and the coexistence of distinct types of hominid, or actual replacement of one population by another, and many such details. Accurate age data of the fossils as well as of the sites played an important role in piecing together the records. In this regard, the role of dating to determine the age of fossils and archaeological artefacts in the human evolution studies is enormous. During most of the last century, age attributes of Euro...
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AFRICA, THE CRADLE OF MANKIND
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Historical Aspects of Human Evolution Studies In the previous post (In search for the missing link) we saw how following Darwin's idea of common ancestor and the role of fossils in providing evidence of evolution the scientific community embarked upon in search of the missing link. This led to the discovery of fossil humans in many parts of Asia and Europe, but the missing link remained elusive. In this post we shall learn how the discovery of fossil humans brought Africa to the limelight, as the cradle of mankind. Africa, the Cradle of Mankind A fossil discovery in 1921 marks the recovery of the first in a very long line of non-modern humans from the African continent . A skull (Rhodesian Man) was recovered during the course of mining op erations at a place called Broken Hill in Northern Rhodesia (now Kabwe, Zambia). During 1921–1925, further fossil human remains were found; extinct fauna and Middle Stone Age lithics also wer...
IN SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK
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HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION STUDIES Thoughts about how we, the humans, came into being prevailed in the scientific community since long. Even the philosophers in ancient times wondered about the origin of life. In Rig Veda (1500 – 1000 BCE) there is a mention of a Hindu sage and philosopher, Lokya Brihaspati, who opined that consciousness (life) emerged from inanimate objects (Sharma, 2013). Anaximander of Miletus, a Greek philosopher who lived in the 500s BCE speculated that humans must have descended from some other type of creature. In the 18th century Linnaeus and others had classified man as a primate, but without drawing evolutionary conclusions. Creationists’ ideas that life and the universe are creations of God are not included here. A number of publications were instrumental in shaping early ideas of human evolution. Lamarck was the first to discuss human evolution in his book Philosophie zoologique (1...
WHY TO KNOW ABOUT HUMAN EVOLUTION?
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WHY DO WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HUMAN EVOLUTION? Who does not want to know about how we evolved, where we came from, how are we related to other living beings in the world, and many such things? Evolution explains all these for us. But there are cynics among us who do not believe in the scientific explanation of evolution, or ignore it by saying, “why bother to know about evolution? It does not affect our daily life! Etc.," Before proceeding further, it is imperative that we address these cynics and reiterate why it is beneficial for us to know about evolution as a whole, and human evolution in particular. From an early age we start wondering where we come from. The amazing array of fossils that have been found in Africa, Asia, and Europe tell us about our evolutionary lineage from Australopithecus to early Homo sapiens and also the different species that branched off in between. The fossil record reveals the ...