Primate
Primate
Primate
Human Evolution
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D.S.G. POLLOCK: ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS
NOTES
8 million years, ago major tectonic events created the African rift valley
which separated the habitats of the ancestors of the African apes, the gorillas
and the chimpanzees (Panidae), from our own ancestors (Hominidae). To the
west of the rift, there was an uprising of mountains and a verdant tropical habi-
tat was created. To the east, the broad savannas of East Africa were created.
At the same time, the Himalayan mountains rose higher and the western rim
of the Tibetan plateau created a barrier which disturbed the circulation of air
and gave rise to the monsoon climate. This lead to the drying of East Africa.
We can postulate that humans shared a common ancestor with the chim-
panzees as recently as 8 million years ago. However, there is very little fossil
evidence to support this notion, and virtually nothing is know directly of the
ancestry of gorillas and chimpanzees. Their habitat, which is the forest, is not
conductive to the fossilisation of their remains. (It has been said that, were it
not for the living species, we would be forced to conclude, from the evidence of
fossils, that the African apes dwindled and became extinct in the late Miocene
period ending 6 million years ago). However, we share 98 percent of our genetic
makeup with the chimpanzees; and this fact alone points unequivocally to a
recent common ancestor.
Genetic research has also shown that humans and chimpanzees are closer to
each other than either is to the gorilla. Indeed, it has been proposed that there
are really three species of chimpanzee—Pan pansiscus, which is the pygmy or
Bonobo chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, the chimpanzee of the circus, and Homo
sapiens, ourselves.
The extent to which the chimpanzees and gorillas have adapted to their
modified environments cannot be determined in the absence of a fossil record.
However it is reasonable to suppose that some of their behaviour, such as
knuckle walking, which both species share, and some of their physiognomy,
represents recent adaptations. Their ancestors may have showed a more effi-
cient bipedalism. Our own ancestors evolved in environments which were more
stressful that those of the forest apes and which must have placed a premium
upon rapid mobility. The Hominidae were forced to range over large areas of
savanna to gather their food; and they also needed an enhanced mobility in
order to escape from their predators.
Animals which live in stressful environments and which suffer high rates
of mortality tend to adopt reproductive strategies which generate large num-
bers of offspring. By this means, they increase the chances of the survival of
their species. Animals in less stressful environments tend to have lower rates
of fertility. They tend to nurture their offspring and to establish territorial
rights over their habitat. It is notable that the potential fertility of human
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D.S.G. POLLOCK: POPULATION DYNAMICS
beings is much greater than that of the African apes; and this supports the
supposition that the environment which created them was a more stressful one
than that of the apes. Human beings living is stable and well-protected so-
cial environments need to limit their fertility to levels considerably below its
biologically-determined potential. The consequence of failing to do so is the
distress of overpopulation.
The early Hominidae, who developed in locations which are found through-
out the length of East Africa, formed a complex group, and paleontologists
continue to debate the classification of its members. The name given to this
group is the Australopithecenes or southern apes. Their origins are thought to
stretch back in time by 5 million years at least.
Between 3.3 and 2.4 million years ago, the whole earth cooled and areas of
African became drier. The climatic change was the consequence of an ice age.
It led to a second adaptation of the Hominidiae who branched in two direc-
tions. On the one branch, there were the robust australopithecenes. They had
a strong physique and massive jaws which could have to coped with a narrowly
specialised vegetarian diet of roots and tubers. Many of the specimens are char-
acterised by a prominent sagittal crest running along the top of the skull which
served as an attachment for powerful jaw muscles. An example is provided by
the specimen of Australopithecus Boisei, or Zinjanthropus, discovered in 1956
by Louis Leaky which, at the time, was named the Nutcracker man.
On the other branch, which contains our own ancestry, the recourse was
to develop a larger brain and to depend upon a wide-ranging and opportunistic
diet. This diet comprised meat obtained partly by scavenging the remains of
the prey of other carnivores and partly, no doubt, by preying directly on other
animals. The large-brained Hominidae, who have been named Homo Habilis,
must have lived alongside the robust Australopithecenes, and may have preyed
upon them. Homo Habilis was no doubt responsible, in one way or another,
for the demise of the robust Australopithecenes who survived until one million
years ago.
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D.S.G. POLLOCK: POPULATION DYNAMICS
discovered by the team of Richard Leaky, the son of Louis Leakey and the bitter
rival of Don Johanson, the discoverer of Lucy. Homo Erectus, it seems, was
the first of the Hominidae to emerge from Africa. Specimens have been found
across the breadth of Southern Asia including finds from China and Indone-
sia. Various names have been applied to Homo Erectus including Java man
and Pithecanthopus. Both of these names relate to the discoveries in the late
nineteenth century of the Belgian anthropologist Eugene Dubois who was an
employee, in Java, of the Dutch East-India company.
The name Pithecanthropus, which means ape-man, has fallen into disuse
since it is now commonly regarded as misleading and inappropriate. In partic-
ular, it seems to disparage the intelligence of Homo Erectus. The only way to
assess the intelligence of these ancestors is in terms of their artifacts and other
traces of their activities. In many cases, the remains of Homo Erectus have
been discovered in association with stone tools; and, in the case of the Chinese
specimens from the cave site of Zhoukoudian, there is clear evidence of the use
of fire.
Modern Humans are thought to have originated in Africa and to have
emerged from there to colonise the rest of the world some time between 150,000
and 100,000 years ago. A few paleontologists persist in thinking that the tran-
sition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens took place on a broad front and that
it occurred simultaneously in several places. This is the essence of the multi-
regional hypotheses which maintains that mankind has remained as a single
genetic entity since the advent of Homo erectus. However, the consensus of
opinion in now in favour of the notion that all modern humans are descendants
of an original African population of archaic Homo sapiens. This is the so called
out-of-Africa hypothesis.
The out-of-Africa hypothesis receives strong support from the evidence of
molecular genetics. Most genetic studies focus on the DNA of the chromosomes
in the nucleus of the cell. However, there is another class of extra-nuclear
genetic material which is to be found in structures know as the mitochondria.
The mitochondria, which are involved in the metabolic processes of the cell,
are inherited exclusively from the mother and not from both parents equally,
as is the case with the nuclear DNA. This exta-nuclear DNA has a rapid and
regular rate of mutation. By assessing the extent of generic differences in
their mitochondrial DNA, we can asses how recently two individuals might
have shared a common ancestor. It appears that all moderns humans share
a common ancestor who lived between 150,000 and 100,000 years ago. The
putative ancestor has acquired the name of the Mitochondrial Eve.
One of the implications of these dates is that modern humans cannot be the
lineal descendants of the other branch of Homo sapiens know as the Neanderthal
men. These people had a presence which lasted from 230,000 year ago to 32,000
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D.S.G. POLLOCK: ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS
years ago. Their morphology was well established long before the emergence of
modern humans; and they survived in Europe in a relatively unchanged form
until they were displaced and became extinct.
The seemingly wide variety of the living races of mankind represents minor
adaptations which have occurred within a short time span. The assertion that
we are all the same people under the skin seems to be confirmed by recent
discoveries in both archaeology and genetics.
References
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Diaspora: The History of Diversity and Evolution, Addison-Wesley Pub-
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[3] Dart, R., (1925), Australopithecus Africanus, The Ape-Man of South
Africa, Nature, 221, 230–233.
[4] Day, M., H. (1977), Guide to Fossil Man, (Third Edition), Cassell and Co.,
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[5] Diamond, J. (1991), The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, Random
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[6] Gamble, C., (1993), Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization,
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[7] Johanson, D.C. and M.A. Edy (1981), Lucy: The Begginnings of Mankind,
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[8] Johanson, Donald and James Shreeve, (1989), Lucy’s Child: The Discovery
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[9] Leakey, R. E. and R. Lewin (1992), Origins Reconsidered: In Search of
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[10] Leakey, R. E. and R. Lewin, (1978), People of the Lake, Penguin Books,
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[11] Leakey, R. E, (1994), The Origin of Humankind. Weidenfeld and Nichol-
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[12] Reader, J., (1981), Missing Links, William Collins and Son, London.
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[14] Wills, C., (1993), The Runaway Brain, Harper Collins, London.