Question

This is project Evolutionary history of modern man

Answer 1

Human evolution is the evolutionary process that led to the emergence of anatomically modern humans, beginning with the evolutionary history of primates in particular genus homo and leading to the emergence of homo sapiens as a distinct species of the hominid family, the great Apes.

Our evolutionary history is written into our genome?. The human genome looks the way it does because of all the genetic changes that have affected our ancestors. The exact origin of modern humans has long been a topic of debate.

KEY FACT Modern humans originated in Africa within the past 200,000 years and evolved from their most likely recent common ancestor, Homo erectus.

Modern humans (Homo sapiens), the species? that we are, means ‘wise man’ in Latin. Our species is the only surviving species of the genus Homo but where we came from has been a topic of much debate. Modern humans originated in Africa within the past 200,000 years and evolved from their most likely recent common ancestor, Homo erectus, which means ‘upright man’ in Latin. Homo erectus is an extinct species of human that lived between 1.9 million and 135,000 years ago.

Historically, two key models have been put forward to explain the evolution? of Homo sapiens. These are the ‘out of Africa’ model and the ‘multi-regional’ model. The ‘out of Africa’ model is currently the most widely accepted model. It proposes that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa before migrating across the world.

On the other hand, the ‘multi-regional’ model proposes that the evolution of Homo sapiens took place in a number of places over a long period of time. The intermingling of the various populations eventually led to the single Homo sapiens species we see today.

“Current genomic evidence supports a single ‘out-of Africa’ migration of modern humans.

This is still very much an area of active research, however, current genomic evidence supports a single ‘out-of Africa’ migration of modern humans rather than the ‘multi-regional’ model. Although, studies of the genomes? of the extinct hominids Neanderthals and Denisovans suggest that there was some mixing of genomes (1-3 per cent) with humans in Europe and Asia.  This interbreeding between two previously separated populations is called ‘admixture’ and results in a mixing of genes? between the populations.

Answer 2

Answer:

The  evolutionary  history  of  modern  man:

• Approximately  7  crore years ago,  the  dinosaurs disappeared  completely.
• At that  time,  monkey like  animals appeared  from  more  or less similar to  the  modern lemurs.
• Tail  of  these  monkey like  animals disappeared  about  4  crore  years ago.  
• Due  to enlargement  of  brain  and  improvement  in  their  hands,  ape like organisms were evolved and then later they  evolved  into  gibbon  and  orangutan.

• From gibbon  and  orangutan, gorilla  and  chimpanzee  evolved  about  2.5  crore  years ago.

• About  2  crore years ago first  human like  animals evolved  who  had  erect  posture  and able  to  use  their  hands.
• Ramapithecus ape  recorded  as  first  human like  animal. Afterwards,  this ape  grown  up in  size  and  became  more intelligent.
• About  20  lakh  years ago  skilled  human  developed  and  about  15  lakh  years ago evolved  human  with  erect  posture  and  walking.
• Neanderthal  man  was considered  as the  first  wise-man.
• About  50  thousand  years ago  the  Cro-Magnon  man  evolved  and  afterwards,  this evolution  had  been  faster than  the  earlier.