Human evolution Human evolution *Nakedness: Humans are the only primate species in which hair does not cover almost the entire body. Environments known to give rise to naked mammals are tropical (in some larger-sized mammals such as elephants and some rhinoceros species), aquatic ( whales, dolphins, walrus, dugongs, and manatees), semi-aquatic ( hippopotamus, babirusas), or subterranean ( naked mole rat). ...more on Wikipedia about "Aquatic ape hypothesis"
Archaeogenetics, a term coined by Colin Renfrew, refers to the application of the techniques of molecular genetics to the study of the human past. This can involve: ...more on Wikipedia about "Archaeogenetics"
Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through social intervention. The goals have variously been to create more intelligent people, save society resources, lessen human suffering and reduce health problems. Proposed means of achieving these goals most commonly include birth control, selective breeding, and genetic engineering. Critics argue eugenics is a pseudoscience, that it has a potential for "objectifying" human characteristics, and that historically it has been a means whereby social thinking culminated in coercive state-sponsored discrimination and human rights violations, even genocide. ...more on Wikipedia about "Eugenics"
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature is an 1863 book by Thomas Henry Huxley and the first to discuss human evolution, coming five years after Charles Darwin announced his general theory, and four years after the publication of Darwin's Origin. ...more on Wikipedia about "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature"
Future human evolution may continue gradually as it has done in the past. However, two major factors that have emerged recently (in evolutionary timescales) combine to make the future evolution of humans significantly different to the past evolution of humans. These are the use of medical technology and the individual lifestyle choices that people living in a significant proportion of the world are able to make. blah ...more on Wikipedia about "Future evolution of humans"
The grandmother hypothesis is meant to explain why menopause, rare in mammal species, arose in human evolution, and how late life infertility could actually confer an evolutionary advantage. The hypothesis suggests that this is because of risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth and the relative importance of parental investment to the human species. Grandmotherly investment may also be important in the few other animals which experience menopause, such as whales. Kristen Hawkes originated the hypothesis, and C.G. Williams was the first to posit that menopause may be protective. ...more on Wikipedia about "Grandmother hypothesis"
The nature and origins of hominid intelligence is a much-studied and much-debated topic, of natural interest to humans as the most successful and intelligent hominid species. There is no universally accepted definition of intelligence, one definition is "the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn" (cf. article on intelligence). ...more on Wikipedia about "Hominid intelligence" The view on www.shortopedia.com.
Human evolution is the process of change and development, or evolution, by which human beings emerged as a distinct species. It is the subject of a broad scientific inquiry that seeks to understand and describe how this change and development occurred. The study of human evolution encompasses many scientific disciplines, most notably physical anthropology and genetics. The term 'human', in the context of human evolution, refers to the genus Homo, but studies of human evolution usually include other hominids, such as the australopithecines. ...more on Wikipedia about "Human evolution"
The hunting hypothesis is the hypothesis that human evolution was primarily influenced by the activity of hunting, and that the activity of hunting distinguished human ancestors from other primates. It is contrasted to the gathering hypothesis. ...more on Wikipedia about "Hunting hypothesis"
The Hybrid-origin hypothesis of human origins argues that all of the genetic variation between the contemporary human races is attributable to genetic inheritance from two widely divergent hominid species, or subspecies, that were geographically dispersed throughout Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, prior to the evolution of modern Homo sapiens sapiens (according to hybrid-origin theory, approximately 35,000 years ago). ...more on Wikipedia about "Hybrid-origin"
Professor John Philippe (Phil) Rushton Ph.D , D.Sc (born December 3, 1943) is a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, best known for his controversial work on racial differences. ...more on Wikipedia about "J. Philippe Rushton"
The killer ape theory or killer ape hypothesis is the theory that war and interpersonal aggression was the driving force behind human evolution. It was originated by Raymond Dart; it was later notably developed by Robert Ardrey in his book African Genesis. ...more on Wikipedia about "Killer ape theory"
The Lower Paleolithic site of Laetoli in Tanzania is famous for its human footprints, preserved in volcanic ash (Site G). The site is located 45 km south of Olduvai. ...more on Wikipedia about "Laetoli"
Mitochondrial Eve is the name given by researchers to the woman who is the most recent common matrilineal ancestor of all living humans. We know about Eve because of mitochondria organelles that are only passed from mother to offspring. Each mitochondrion contains Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and the comparison of DNA sequences from mtDNA reveals a phylogeny. Based on the molecular clock technique of correlating elapsed time with observed genetic drift, Eve is believed to have lived in a population of humans about 150,000 years ago in Africa. ...more on Wikipedia about "Mitochondrial Eve" Fast http://www.shortopedia.com Human_evolution
The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of any set of organisms is the most recent individual which is an ancestor of all of them. The term is most frequently used of humans. ...more on Wikipedia about "Most recent common ancestor"
The multiregional origin hypothesis of human species holds that some, or all, of the genetic variation between the contemporary human races is attributable to genetic inheritance from either Homo sapiens subspecies, or even other hominid species, that were dispersed geographically throughout Asia, and possibly Europe and Australasia, prior to the evolution of modern Homo sapiens sapiens (conventionally dated to at least 70,000, possibly 150,000, years ago). ...more on Wikipedia about "Multiregional hypothesis"
About 2.4 million years ago an ape was born with a genetic defect: the MYH16 gene was disabled by a mutation. Consequently the jaw muscles of this defective creature did not develop properly, the temporalis and masseter muscles. However the ape, whether male or female, somehow survived and bred. Because of the lack of musculature which covered the skull of the descendents of this ape's descendents it is thought that it became possible that these early humans could develop larger brains, becoming, through other mutations, modern humans. This gene is jokingly referred to as the rft mutation, room-for-thought. ...more on Wikipedia about "MYH16 gene"
Neanderthals apparently co-existed with anatomically modern humans beginning some 100,000 years ago. However, about 45,000 years ago, at about the time that stoneworking techniques similar to those of Cro-Magnon people appeared in Europe, Neanderthals began to be displaced. Despite this, populations of Neanderthals held on for thousands of years in regional pockets such as modern-day Croatia and the Iberian and Crimean peninsulas. Cro-Magnon are considered by most authorities to have been behaviorally modern Homo sapiens; they were certainly anatomically modern. ...more on Wikipedia about "Neandertal interaction with Cro-Magnons"
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. Olduvai is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and is about 30 miles long. The gorge is named after the Maasai word for the wild sisal plant, Sansevieria ehrenbergiana, commonly called Oldupai. ...more on Wikipedia about "Olduvai Gorge"
The Omo remains are a collection of hominid bones, discovered in around the Omo river, Ethiopia by the International Paleontological Research Expedition. The bones, which include two partial skulls, four jaws, a legbone, around two hundred teeth and several other parts, were found between 1967 and 1974. ...more on Wikipedia about "Omo Remains"
A population bottleneck (or genetic bottleneck) is an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing, and the population is reduced by 50% or more, often by several orders of magnitude. A graph of this change resembles the neck of a bottle, from wide to narrow; hence the name. ...more on Wikipedia about "Population bottleneck"
I wish I had a www.shortopedia.com. Human_evolution
A posthuman is a hypothetical future being whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer human by our current standards. "Posthuman" does not denote just anything that happens to come after the human era, nor does it have anything to do with the " posthumous". In particular, it does not imply that there are no humans anymore. ...more on Wikipedia about "Posthuman (Human evolution)"
Root Race is a term first used by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in her book The Secret Doctrine. The word designates the large time periods in her cosmology and symbolizes stages in human evolution. The large time periods of the root races can be compared to the geological time periods or to the Yugas in Hindu Mythology. ...more on Wikipedia about "Root Race"
It was commonly believed that early hominids left the jungle to live on the open plains of Africa. Called the Savannah Theory, it was strongly promoted by professor Raymond Dart, after he gained recognition for discovering the Taung skull in 1925. The Taung skull was the first admitted link between man and ape, and Prof. Dart based his theory on the modern location of the discovered fossils. However, a report in 2000 by Marc Verhaegen claims that a savanna evolution is extremely improbable. Based on biological and physiological data, he tries to disprove the savanna theory and suggests that our evolution would more likely occur in a humid and wet setting (the Aquatic ape hypothesis) than the dry heat of the grasslands. ...more on Wikipedia about "Savanna Theory"
In paleoanthropology, the single-origin hypothesis (or Out-of-Africa model) is one of two accounts of the origin of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens. (The other theory is the multiregional hypothesis, which includes the Hybrid-origin theory) ...more on Wikipedia about "Single-origin hypothesis"
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