Tracing the tangled tracks of humankind's evolutionary journey

swatkats

Skilled
The path from ape to modern human is not a linear one. Hannah Devlin looks at what we know – and what might be next for our species

Let’s go back to the beginning. When did we and our ape cousins part ways?
Scientists are still working on an exact date – or even a date to within a million years. Like many of the big questions in human evolution, the answer itself has evolved over the past few decades as new discoveries, techniques and technology have provided fresh insights.

Genetics has proved one of the most powerful tools for time-stamping the split with our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. When our complete genomes were compared in 2005, the two species were found to share 98% of their DNA. The differences hold important clues to how long our lineages have been diverging. By estimating the rate at which new genetic mutations are acquired over generations, scientists can use the genetic differences as a “molecular clock”to give a rough idea of when the split occurred. Most calculations suggest it was between four to eight million years ago.


source: https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...led-tracks-of-humankinds-evolutionary-journey


Quick guide

Evolutionary timeline
55m years ago

First primates evolve.

15m years ago
Hominidae (great apes) split off from the ancestors of the gibbon.

8m years ago
Chimp and human lineages diverge from that of gorillas.

4.4m years ago
Ardipithecus appears: an early "proto-human" with grasping feet.

4m years ago
Australopithecines appeared, with brains about the size of a chimpanzee’s.

2.3m years ago
Homo habilis first appeared in Africa.

1.85m years ago
First "modern" hand emerges.

1.6m years ago
Hand axes are a major technological innovation.

800,000 years ago
Evidence of use of fire and cooking.

700,000 years ago
Modern humans and Neanderthals split.

400,000 years ago
Neanderthals begin to spread across Europe and Asia.

300,000 years ago
Evidence of early Homo sapiens in Morocco.

200,000 years ago
Homo sapiens found in Israel.

60,000 years ago
Modern human migration from Africa that led to modern-day non-African populations.
 
This is really nice topic and I like it. But I need to be honest and say that not so many people are interested in this topic. Mainstream is looking for the future and to trans-humanism, where we are going to be humans with implemented technological gadgets
 
If you liked that, also check out a brief history of nearly everything by bill bryson. Its a fun ride through all our scientific progress.
thanks for the suggestion :) I ordered brave new world yesterday. plan is to read one book per month and my fav is sci-fi fiction.
 
All this is good and interesting till one day, we discover someone even more ancient than last known ones and screws up the entire timeline. Happens often.
 
Evolution is slow, too damn slow - on scale compared to average lifetime of most animals. (not on cosmic level of course)
I fail to imagine, how actually it all happened !!
Like some fish someday decided, they would start living on the land. How DNA mutation happened to change their body to support life on the surface ?
Or like how or why Giraffe has that long neck, or we lost our tail.
All these from some 'accidental' gene mutation ?
(Natural selection I understand. Nature allowed to keep only the useful mutations. Still.... mind f***)
 
As a science based thinker, When i go n dig about Evolution of Human in to the Abrahamic religions -- It's Adam and Eve.

Adam was kicked out of heaven and his enemy is Satan.

End of the day, don't know what to believe.
 
All this is good and interesting till one day, we discover someone even more ancient than last known ones and screws up the entire timeline. Happens often.
nah, it doesn't screw up the timelines that much for scientists. they just find out new fossils and carbon date them and find out they were 70million years older than last oldest known fossil. but 70million years is small when compared to timeline of cosmos. so scientists merely update the scientific journals.[DOUBLEPOST=1546399945][/DOUBLEPOST]
As a science based thinker, When i go n dig about Evolution of Human in to the Abrahamic religions -- It's Adam and Eve.

Adam was kicked out of heaven and his enemy is Satan.

End of the day, don't know what to believe.
humans came from a common chimp ancestor.
 
Wondering if any politicians are going to have something to say about this :p
Yes bjp will claim their ancestors should be thanked as it is because of them we no more have to deal with tails. They will put this issue in US on next Trump visit.
Then the world will know that human evolution actually took shape in Gujarat. And that all cromagnans, homo sapiens etc were belonged to Congress:p.... Scientists will be stunned!
 
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