THE SAGA OF OUR EVOLUTION: HOW WE CAME INTO BEING

 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...

  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...