For example, Professor Steve Jones from University College London, says that the driving forces of evolution no longer play an important role in our lives. Among the people who lived a million years ago, in the truest sense of the word, the fittest survived, and the hostile environment had a direct impact on the human appearance. In today's world with central heating and plenty of food, mutations are much less likely.
However, there is a possibility that our bodies will develop further. Man can continue to adapt to the changes taking place on our planet, which is becoming more polluted and dependent on technology.
According to the theory, animals evolve faster in an isolated environment, while humans living in the 21st century are not isolated at all. However, this issue is also controversial. With new advances in science and technology, people have been able to exchange information instantly, but at the same time, they have become more isolated than ever before.
Color of the skin
Yale University professor Steven Stearns says that globalization, immigration, cultural diffusion and the availability of transportation contribute to the gradual homogenization of the population, which will lead to the averaging of facial features. Recessive traits in humans, such as freckles or blue eyes, will become very rare.
In 2002, a study by epidemiologists Mark Grant and Diana Lauderdale found that only 1 in 6 non-Hispanic white Americans had blue eyes, compared to 100 years ago, more than half of the US white population was blue-eyed. The average American's skin and hair color is predicted to darken, leaving very few blondes and people with very dark or very fair skin.
In some parts of the planet (for example, in the USA), genetic mixing is more active, in others - less. In some places, unique physical traits, adapted to the environment, have a strong evolutionary advantage, so people will not be able to say goodbye to them so easily. Immigration in some regions is much slower, so, according to Stearns, the complete homogenization of the human race may never happen. However, in general, the Earth is becoming more and more like a big melting pot, and the scientist said that in a few centuries we will all become like Brazilians.
It is possible that in the future people may acquire the ability to consciously change the color of their skin through the artificial introduction of chromatophores into the body. (pigment-containing cells present in amphibians, fish, reptiles). Maybe there is another method, but in any case it will give some advantages. First, interracial prejudice will finally come to naught. Secondly, by being able to change, it will be possible to stand out in modern society.
Growth
A trend towards an increase in growth has been reliably established. Primitive people are believed to have had an average height of 160 cm, and over the past centuries, human growth has been constantly increasing. A particularly noticeable leap has occurred in recent decades, when human height has increased by an average of 10 cm. This trend may continue in the future, as it largely depends on the diet, and food is becoming more nutritious and affordable. Of course, at the moment in some regions of the planet, due to poor nutrition with a low content of minerals, vitamins and proteins, this trend is not observed, but in most countries of the world people continue to grow. For example, every fifth inhabitant of Italy is taller than 180 centimeters, while after the Second World War there were only 6% of such people in the country.
the beauty
Researchers have previously found that more attractive women have more children. than less attractive ones, and most of the children born by them are girls. Their daughters grow up into attractive mature women, and the pattern repeats itself. Scientists from the University of Helsinki concluded that the trend towards an increase in the number of beautiful women is increasing with each new generation. However, the trend does not apply to men.
Nevertheless, the man of the future is likely to be more beautiful than he is now. His body structure and facial features will reflect what most are looking for in partners today. He will have finer features, an athletic build and a good figure.
Another idea, proposed by evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics, seems to be inspired by ideas from classic science fiction. According to his hypothesis, the human race over time will be divided into two subspecies: the lowest, consisting of short men, similar to underdeveloped goblins, and the highest class - tall, slender, attractive and intelligent superhumans, spoiled by technology. According to Curry's forecasts, this will not happen soon - in 100 thousand years.
big heads
If a person continues his development, turning into a more complex and intelligent being, his brain will become larger and larger.
With technological progress, we will depend more and more on the intellect and the brain and less and less on our other organs.
However, paleontologist Peter Ward of the University of Washington in Seattle disagrees with this theory. “If you have ever experienced or witnessed childbirth, then you know that with our anatomical structure, we are on the very edge - our large brains are already causing extreme problems during childbirth, and if they were getting bigger and bigger, then this would cause more maternal mortality during childbirth, and evolution will not follow this path.”
Obesity
The results of a recent study by scientists from Columbia and Oxford Universities predict that by 2030 half of the US population will be obese. That is, there will be 65 million more adults with problem weight in the country.
If you think that Europeans will be slim and elegant, then you are wrong. Obesity rates have more than doubled in most European Union member states over the past two decades, according to a report published by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. As a result, on average, more than 15% of adult Europeans and one in seven children suffer from obesity, and the trends are disappointing.
Will the people of the future become obese and lazy creatures, like the characters from the cartoon "Wally"? All in our hands. There are other points of view on this matter. The fact is that modern diets are high in fat and cheap "empty calories". Currently, there is enough negative attitude towards the problem of obesity, which will make people in the future better adapted and picky eaters. With the popularization of the concept of proper nutrition, as well as with new technologies "", everything will fall into place.
When humanity finally understands healthy food, it is likely that heart disease and diabetes, which are currently one of the leading causes of death in developed countries, will disappear.
hairline
Homo sapiens is often jokingly called a naked ape. But, like all mammals, humans grow hair, of course, much less than our cousins and hominin ancestors. Even Darwin in The Descent of Man stated that the hair on our bodies is a vestige. Due to the ubiquity of heating and affordable clothing, the former purpose of body hair has become obsolete. But the evolutionary fate of hair is not easy to predict accurately, because it can act as one of the indicators in sexual selection. If the presence of body hair continues to be attractive to the opposite sex, then the gene responsible for it will remain in the population. But it is likely that people in the future will have much less hair than they do today.
Impact of technology
Computer technologies, which have become part of our daily lives, will undoubtedly affect the development of the human body. The constant use of keyboards and touch screens can cause our hands and fingers to become thinner, longer and more dexterous, and the number of nerve endings in them will increase dramatically.
As the need to use technical interfaces more frequently increases, priorities will change. With further technological progress, interfaces (naturally, not without surgical intervention) can migrate to the human body. Why shouldn't a person of the future have a keyboard in their palm and learn how to press the conditional OK button with a nod of the head, and answer an incoming call by connecting the index and thumb? Probably, in this new world, the human body will be stuffed with hundreds of tiny sensors that transmit data to external devices. An augmented reality display can be built into the retina of the human eye, and the user will control the interface using tongue movements along the front incisors.
Wisdom teeth and other rudiments
Vestigial organs such as wisdom teeth that are surgically removed can also disappear over time as they no longer serve their purpose. Our ancestors had larger jaws with more teeth. As their brains began to grow and their diets began to change and food became less rigid and easily digestible, their jaws began to shrink. It has recently been estimated that already about 25% of people today are born without the rudiments of wisdom teeth, which may be the result of natural selection. This percentage will only increase in the future. It is possible that the jaws and teeth will continue to shrink and even disappear.
bad memory
and low intelligence
The theory that people of the future will have higher intellectual abilities is also questionable. A study by Columbia University experts shows that our dependence on an Internet search engine greatly damages our memory. The Internet replaces the ability of our brain to remember information that we can easily find on the Web at any time. The brain began to use the Internet as a backup memory. “People are less likely to make an effort to remember something when they know they can always find this information later,” the authors of the study say.
Neuroscientist and Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel also points out in his article that the Internet makes people dumber. The main problem is that too active use of the Internet does not allow you to focus on one thing. To master complex concepts, you need to pay serious attention to new information and diligently try to associate it with knowledge that is already in memory. Surfing the Web does not provide this opportunity: the user is constantly distracted and interrupted, because of which his brain is not able to establish strong neural connections.
physical weakness
As noted above, evolution follows the path of eliminating signs that are no longer needed. And one of them can be physical strength. Comfortable transportation of the future, exoskeletons and other machines and tools of our ingenuity will save humanity from the need for walking and any physical activity. Studies show that we have already become much weaker compared to our distant ancestors. Over time, the development of technology can lead to changes in limbs. The muscles will begin to contract. The legs will become shorter and the feet smaller.
Depression
According to a recent study, the population of the United States has fallen into a vicious cycle of constant stress and depression. Three out of ten Americans say they are depressed. These symptoms are most common among people between the ages of 45 and 65. 43% report regular outbursts of irritability and anger, 39% report nervousness and anxiety. Even dentists are faced with more patients with jaw pain and worn teeth than thirty years ago. Because of which? Due to the fact that from tension people tightly clench their jaws and literally grind their teeth in their sleep.
Stress, as experiments on laboratory rats show, is a clear sign that the animal is becoming increasingly unsuitable for the world in which it lives. And as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace astutely observed more than 150 years ago, when the habitat is no longer comfortable for a living creature, the species dies out.
Weak immunity
People of the future may have weakened immune systems and become more susceptible to pathogens. New medical technologies and antibiotics have greatly improved overall health and life expectancy, but have also made our immune systems more lazy. We are becoming more and more dependent on drugs, and over time our bodies may stop "thinking" for themselves and instead rely entirely on drugs to perform basic bodily functions. Thus, people from the future may actually become slaves to medical technology.
selective hearing
Humanity already has the ability to direct their attention to the specific things they hear. This feature is known as the "cocktail effect". At a noisy party amidst many conversations, you may well focus on one particular speaker who has caught your attention for some reason. The human ear has no physical mechanism for this; everything happens in the brain. But over time, this ability can become more important and useful. With the development of media and the Internet, our world is becoming crowded with various sources of information. The man of the future will have to learn to more effectively determine what is useful for him and what is just noise. As a result, people will be less prone to stress, which, of course, will benefit health, and, accordingly, will take root in the genes.
strange faces
Artist Nikolai Lamm and Dr. Alan Kwan presented their speculative vision of what the future will look like. Researchers base their predictions on how the human body will be affected by the environment - that is, climate and technological advances. One of the biggest changes, in their opinion, will affect the forehead, which has been getting wider since the 14th century. The researchers also said that our ability to control our own genome will affect evolution. Genetic engineering will become the norm, and the appearance of the face will be more determined by human preferences. The eyes will get bigger. Attempts to colonize other planets will cause the skin to become darker in order to reduce exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation outside the Earth's ozone layer. Kwan also expects people to have thicker eyelids and pronounced brow ridges due to low gravity conditions.
post-gender society
With the development of reproductive technologies, reproduction in the traditional way may go into oblivion. Cloning, parthenogenesis and the creation of artificial wombs can significantly expand the potential for human reproduction, and this, in turn, will finally erase the boundaries between a man and a woman. The people of the future will not be attached to a particular gender, enjoying the best aspects of life in both. It is likely that humanity will be completely mixed up, forming a single androgynous mass. Moreover, in the new post-gender society, not only will there be no physical sexes or their supposed signs, gender identity itself will be eliminated and the line between the role models of behavior of a man and a woman will be erased.
flexible skeleton
Many creatures, such as fish and sharks, have a lot of cartilage in their skeleton. Human beings could follow the same evolutionary path to have more flexible bones. Even if not thanks to evolution, but with the help of genetic engineering, this feature would give a lot of advantages and protect a person from injury. A more flexible skeleton would obviously be extremely useful in the process of childbearing, not to mention its potential for future ballet dancers.
Wings
According to Guardian columnist Dean Burnett, he once spoke to a colleague who doesn't believe in evolution. When he asked why, the main argument was that people do not have wings. According to the opponent, "evolution is the survival of the fittest", and what could be more convenient for adapting to any environment than wings. Even if Burnett's theory in this regard is based on immature observations and a limited understanding of how evolution works, it also has its right to exist.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
AT Science, an international group of geneticists is reconstructing the evolution of man, which took place not in the Stone Age, but literally in the last centuries.
The evolution of the British even affected the freckles
Studies that compare the DNA of many people make it possible to trace evolutionary changes, but until recently, this could not be done at very high resolution. Usually, evolution is visible over tens of millennia, because changing a certain section of DNA is a slow process. New methods for comparing whole genomes make it possible to study evolution over short time intervals and show that natural selection has changed the face of man even in the last 500 years.
So the researchers turned to the UK10K (10,000 British DNA) database and took 3,195 genomes from it to find out how evolution has changed the British in two to three thousand years (over a lifetime of about 100 generations). We analyzed 4.5 million point mutations that occur in modern residents of the UK with a frequency of more than 5%.
Comparing the speed at which gene variants propagated, experts have found a number of cases of rapid changes under the influence of natural selection.
How do geneticists determine that they are dealing with selection? The fact is that the genome is constantly changing - gene frequencies vary under the influence of random processes and the rate of these changes is known. But if geneticists see that the frequency of some variant changes 10 or 100 times faster, this is clearly not an accident.
One such example is the evolution of the gene responsible for the synthesis of lactase. Lactase is an enzyme that is involved in the absorption of milk sugar, without which we would not be able to drink milk. The evolution of this enzyme is one of the best studied examples of evolutionary change in humans. Young children have a lot of lactase, and they absorb milk without any problems. In adult mammals, the lactase gene is turned off and the synthesis of the enzyme stops - an adult does not need milk, so an attempt to drink milk leads to diarrhea and other gastrointestinal troubles. But in some human populations - those where dairy farming was practiced - a mutation is often found that allows the absorption of milk at any age. Since goats and cows are relatively recent companions of humans, it is not surprising that the adult variant of the lactase gene has proliferated rapidly in humans in recent millennia. The study showed that this is exactly the case for the inhabitants of Britain.
In addition, the researchers found a spread of alleles associated with lighter pigmentation. No, we are not talking about the skin - apparently, fair skin already became widespread in Europe 2 thousand years ago - but about the color of hair and eyes, and even about the alleles responsible for the appearance of freckles.
Above, we talked about traits, each of which is encoded by one specific gene. But most human properties are regulated not by one or two, but by dozens or even hundreds of genes distributed throughout the genome. For example, scientists have identified about 700 genes that affect our height. It is known that genetic variants associated with tall stature are more common among northern Europeans than among southern Europeans. New techniques have made it possible to observe such multigene evolution, when a trait changes as a result of the evolution of many genes, changes in each of which are hardly noticeable - but in total they give a significant effect. The study showed that over the past two to three thousand years, natural selection has led to the spread among the British of gene variants associated with higher growth. What processes are involved? Maybe women liked tall Brits more and therefore left more children? The study does not give such an answer, but only states the fact. Similarly, scientists have found a spread of alleles associated with increased head circumference and weight in infants, delayed puberty in women, and several others.
So, geneticists have shown that contrary to popular belief, human evolution has not stopped and natural selection continues to work. At least it has worked for the last thousand years.
Alexander SokolovThe phylogenetic tree of Homo sapiens has only been constructed in general terms. The main stages of human evolution are characterized in the table:
| Anthropoids | hominids | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dryopithecus | Australopithecus (Australopithecine) | skillful man | Ancient people (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus) | Ancient people (Neanderthal) | New people (Cro-Magnon, human) |
| Age, years | |||||
| 18 million | 5 million | 2-3 million | 2 million - 200 thousand | 250-35 thousand | 50-40 thousand |
| Appearance | |||||
| Small animals with a rounded skull, binocular vision, a well-developed brain; can be upright | Weight up to 50 kg, height up to 150 cm, hands free, upright posture | The phalanges of the fingers are flattened, the first toe is not laid aside | Height is about 160 cm, massive skeleton, body position is half-bent | Height 155-165 cm, stocky people, walked somewhat bent over | Height is about 180 cm, the physical type of a modern person |
| Brain volume, cm 3 | |||||
| — | 550-650 | 750 | 700-1200 | Before 1400 | Around 1400 |
| Scull | |||||
| The skull is close in structure to the skull of great apes | Massive jaws, small incisors and fangs | human type teeth | The bones of the skull are massive, the forehead is sloping, the superciliary ridges are pronounced | Sloping forehead and occiput, large supraorbital ridge, chin protrusion poorly developed | The brain skull predominates over the facial one, there is no continuous supraorbital ridge, the chin protrusion is well developed |
| Tools | |||||
| Manipulation with surrounding objects | Systematic use of natural objects | Making primitive tools | Making well-crafted stone tools | Making various stone tools | Manufacture of complex tools and mechanisms |
| Lifestyle | |||||
| herd lifestyle | Herd lifestyle, hunting, gathering | Cooperative hunting and group protection | Public lifestyle, keeping fire, primitive speech | Collective activity, caring for others, developed speech | Real speech, abstract thinking, development of agriculture and industry, technology, science, art |
According to modern paleontological data, the ancestors of man are ancient primitive insectivorous mammals that gave rise to parapithecus.
Parapithecus appeared about 35 million years ago. These were tree monkeys, from which modern gibbons, orangutans and driopithecus descended.
Dryopithecus originated about 18 million years ago. They were semi-arboreal, semi-terrestrial apes that gave rise to modern gorillas, chimpanzees, and australopithecines.
australopithecines appeared about 5 million years ago in the treeless steppes of Africa. These were highly developed monkeys that moved on two hind limbs in a half-upright position. Their height was 120-150 cm, body weight - 20-50 kg, brain volume - about 600 cm 3. With the freed forelimbs, they could take sticks, stones, and other objects and use them for hunting and protection from enemies. The manufacture of tools by Australopithecus has not been established. They lived in groups, ate both plant and animal food. Australopithecus may have given rise to Homo habilis. This issue remains debatable.
skillful man formed 2-3 million years ago. Morphologically, it differed little from the Australopithecus, but it was at this stage that the ape turned into a man, since the Handyman made the first primitive tools. Since that moment, the conditions for the existence of human ancestors have changed, as a result of which individuals with traits that promote upright posture, the ability to work, improve the upper limbs and cognitive activity of the brain have received advantages in survival. A skilled man is considered the ancestor of the archanthropes.
Ancient people (archanthropes)
These include, in particular, Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus, belonging to the same species - Homo erectus. Remains Pithecanthropus were discovered in 1891 on the island of Java; remains Sinanthropus- in 1927 in a cave near Beijing. Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus were more similar to Australopithecus than to modern humans. They had a height of up to 160 cm, brain volume - 700-1200 cm 3 . They lived 2 million - 200 thousand years ago, mainly in caves and led a herd life. The tools they made were more varied and perfect than those of the Handyman. It is believed that they had the beginnings of speech. They used fire, which made food easier to digest, protected from predators and cold, and contributed to the expansion of their range.
Ancient people (paleoanthropes)
They include Neanderthals. For the first time their remains were found in the valley of the river. Neanderthal in Germany in 1856. Neanderthals were widely settled in Europe, Africa and Asia during the Ice Age 250-35 thousand years ago. The volume of their brain reached 1400 cm 3 . They still have superciliary ridges, a relatively low forehead, a massive lower jaw with a rudiment of a chin protrusion. They lived in caves in groups of 50-100 people, knew how to make and maintain fire, ate plant and animal food, made various stone, bone and wooden tools (knives, scrapers, axes, sticks, etc.). They had a division of labor: men hunted, made tools, women processed animal carcasses, collected edible plants.
Modern humans (neoanthropes)
Neanderthals were replaced by people of a modern physical type - cro-magnons- the first representatives of the species Homo sapiens. They appeared about 50-40 thousand years ago. For some time, paleoanthropes and neoanthropes coexisted, but then the Neanderthals were supplanted by the Cro-Magnons. Cro-Magnons possessed all the physical features of living people: tall (up to 180 cm), large brain volume (about 1400 cm 3), high forehead, smoothed brow ridges, developed chin protrusion. The latter indicates a developed articulate speech. The Cro-Magnons built dwellings, made clothes from skins sewn with bone needles, made products from horn, bone, flint and decorated them with carvings. Cro-Magnons learned to grind, drill, knew pottery. They lived in tribal communities, tamed animals, and were engaged in agriculture. They had the beginnings of religion and culture.
Similarities and differences between humans and animals. Ch. Darwin was the first to put the problem of the origin of man on a scientific basis. In The Descent of Man (1871), he argued that man has an animal origin and a common ancestor with the living great apes.
This is confirmed by the commonality of the structure of the skeleton, limbs, all major systems, intrauterine development of the embryo, the presence of mammary glands, diaphragms, general diseases and about 90 rudiments and atavisms (fold in the corner of the eyes, sparse delicate hair all over the body, polymammary, coccygeal bone, external ponytail and etc.).
As a biological species, a person belongs to the type of chordates, a subtype of vertebrates, a class of mammals, a detachment of primates, a genus - Homo, a species - Sapiens - a reasonable person.
Along with similarities, a person has a number of features that distinguish him from animals. Upright posture, the structure of the skull, a large volume of the brain, articulate speech, abstract thinking, the ability to make and use tools - all this is a consequence of different directions of evolution and, in particular, labor activity. Man lives in society, obeys social laws; the basis of his life is work in a team. He develops sciences and art, He has a second signal system. These qualities have developed under the influence of social factors. Their significance in the development of mankind (anthropogenesis) was revealed by F. Engels in his work “The Role of Labor in the Process of the Transformation of Apes into Man” (1896). He proved that labor was the main guiding factor in human evolution. “With the advent of labor, the biological patterns of human development are replaced by social ones. Man, influencing nature in the process of labor, transformed it. At the same time, he changed himself, his position in nature changed.
Stages of human evolution. The initial step in the transformation of ape-like creatures into humans was bipedalism. It arose in connection with climate change, the sparseness of forests and the transition of these creatures to a terrestrial way of life. Freed from the function of support and movement, the hands turned into an organ that uses tools. These advantages in individual creatures were fixed by natural selection. In the future, these creatures began to consciously manufacture tools and, having undergone significant changes, the hand became both an organ and a product of labor.
The development of labor activity contributed to the rapprochement of members of society. In the process of joint work, they exchanged gestures and sounds. Changed the structure and functions of the larynx. At a certain stage of development, articulate speech appeared.
The more complex tools and labor processes, the use of fire, meat food, the emergence of articulate speech contributed to the further development of the cerebral cortex and thinking.
All these qualities allowed ancient people to improve tools, settle in new, more severe places, build dwellings, make clothes, utensils, use fire, breed animals, grow plants. Labor became more diverse, there was a division of labor, people entered into new social relations. Trade, science, art, politics, religion arose; tribes formed nations and states. The human brain became capable of perceiving the experience of the material and spiritual culture of previous generations, and a “social program” arose. As mankind developed, it expanded and became more complex, and especially increased in the age of the scientific and technological revolution.
From generation to generation, in the process of training and education, the historical experience of mankind (its “social program”) was passed on. Human life was no longer governed by natural selection. A person has formed a social, suprabiological sphere.
The common ancestors of humans and modern, great apes are considered parapithecus. One of their branches gave gibbons and orangutans, and the other - driopithecus - extinct arboreal apes. One branch of the Dryopithecus led to chimpanzees and gorillas, and the other to modern man. Therefore, man and modern apes have common ancestors, but they are different branches of the family tree.
The evolution of human ancestors is presented in the table.
Human ancestors (fossil forms) | Where and when did you live | progressivetraits in appearance | Progressive lifestyle features | Tools |
Initial forms - australopithecines (australo - southern, pithec - monkey) | South and East Africa, South Asia, 9-2 million years ago | Height 120-140 cm, skull volume 500-600 cm 3 | They walked on two legs, lived among the rocks in open places, ate meat food | Stones, sticks, animal bones were used as tools. |
The oldest people - Pithecanthropes (monkey-man) | Africa, Mediterranean, about. Java, about 10,000 years ago | Height 150 cm, brain volume 900-1000 cm 3 , low forehead, with superciliary ridge; jaws without chin protrusion | Lived in primitive herds in caves, without dwellings, used fire | They made primitive stone tools, used sticks |
Sinanthropus (Chinese person) | China and others, 900 - 400 thousand years ago | Height 150-160 cm, brain volume 850-1220 cm 3 , low forehead, with superciliary ridge, lower jaw without chin protrusion | They lived in herds, built primitive shelters, used fire, dressed in skins | They made tools from stone and bones. |
Ancient people - Neanderthals | Europe, Africa, Central Asia, 200-400 thousand years ago | Height 155-165 cm, brain volume 1400 cm 3, few convolutions, low forehead, with a superciliary ridge; chin protrusion is poorly developed | They lived in groups of 100 people in caves, used fire for cooking, dressed in skins. In communication, they used gestures and primitive speech. There was a division of labor | Manufactured a variety of tools from stone and wood |
Modern people - Cro-Magnons | Everywhere, 40-30 thousand years ago | Height up to 180 cm, brain volume 1600 cm 3 , high forehead, no ridge, lower jaw | They lived in a tribal society, built dwellings, decorated them with drawings. Made clothes | Manufactured a variety of tools from stone and wood |
Races of man.
In the early stages of evolution, the path of human development was the same. Later, the ancient ancestors of modern people settled in small groups in different parts of the globe, where environmental conditions were heterogeneous. So the main races arose: Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid. Each of them has its own morphological features, skin color, eye shape, shape of the nose, lips, hair, etc. But all these are external, secondary signs. The features that make up the human essence, such as consciousness, labor activity, speech, the ability to cognize and subdue nature, are the same for all races.
The sign separating great apes from humans is considered to be brain mass, equal 750 g. It is with such a mass of the brain that a child masters speech. The speech of ancient people was very primitive, but it constitutes a qualitative difference between the higher nervous activity of man and the higher nervous activity of animals. At the beginning of our century, English geneticists discovered a gene whose action is directly related to articulate speech. Its mutation leads people to articulation disorders. Interestingly, this gene differs by only two single nucleotide substitutions from the same gene in chimpanzees. Thus, speech appeared, and the word denoting actions, labor operations, objects, and then generalized concepts, became the most important means of communication between people.
Speech contributed to more effective interaction between members of the primitive herd in labor processes, the transfer of accumulated experience from generation to generation, i.e. learning. In the struggle for existence, those primitive herds of ancient people gained an advantage, who began to take care of the elderly and support individuals who were physically weak, but had experience and stood out for their mental abilities. Previously useless old people, eaten by their fellow tribesmen when there was a shortage of food, became valuable members of society as carriers of knowledge. Speech contributed to the development of the thinking process, the improvement of labor processes, and the evolution of social relations.
In the process of becoming a person, there are three stages (Table 23.1):
- 1) ancient people
- 2) ancient people",
- 3) modern people.
Ancient people. It is believed that the most ancient people arose about 1 million years ago. Several forms of ancient people are known: Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man and a number of others (Fig. 23.3). Outwardly, they already looked like a modern person, although they were distinguished by powerful supraorbital ridges, the absence of a chin protrusion, and a low and sloping forehead. The mass of the brain reached 800-1000 g. The brain had a more primitive structure than that of the later forms. The earliest people successfully hunted buffaloes, rhinos, deer, birds. With the help of hewn stones, they butchered the carcasses of dead animals. They lived mainly in caves and knew how to use fire. At the same time, there were quite a few forms of ancient people who stood at different stages of development and evolved in different directions (including gigantism).
The most promising direction of evolution was a further increase in the volume of the brain, the development of a social way of life, the improvement of tools, and the wider use of fire (not only for heating and scaring away predators, but also for cooking). All other forms, including giants, quickly disappeared.
Ancient people (Neanderthals). To ancient people include a new group of people who appeared about 200 thousand years ago. They occupy an intermediate position between the most ancient people and the first modern people. Neanderthals were a very heterogeneous group. The study of numerous skeletons showed that in the evolution of Neanderthals, with all the diversity of the structure, two lines can be distinguished.
Rice. 23.3. One of the forms of the most ancient people is the Pithecanthropus, referred to the species Straight Man (Homo erectus)
One line went in the direction of powerful physical development. They were creatures with a low sloping forehead, a low occiput, a continuous supraorbital ridge, an underdeveloped chin protrusion, and large teeth. With a relatively small stature (155-165 cm), they had extremely powerfully developed muscles. The mass of the brain reached 1500. It is believed that Neanderthals used rudimentary articulate speech.
Another group of Neanderthals, apparently descended from the oldest forms independently of the first, was characterized by more subtle features - smaller brow ridges, a high forehead, thinner jaws and a more developed chin. In general physical development, they were noticeably inferior to the first group. But in return, they have significantly increased the volume of the frontal lobes of the brain. This group of Neanderthals fought for existence not by strengthening physical development, but through the development of intra-group ties during hunting, while protecting themselves from enemies, from adverse natural conditions, i.e. through the unification of the forces of individuals. This evolutionary path led to the appearance of Homo sapiens 40-50 thousand years ago - Homo sapiens.
For some time, Neanderthals and the first modern humans coexisted, and then, about 28 thousand years ago, the Neanderthals were finally supplanted by the first modern humans - Cro-Magnons.
The first modern people. The Cro-Magnons were tall - up to 180 cm, with a high forehead, the volume of the cranium reached 1600 cm 3. A continuous supraorbital ridge was absent (Fig. 23.4).
Rice. 23.4. Cro-Magnon - a representative of the species Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens)
To date, at least four genes associated with brain size in humans and other primates have been well studied. Mutations in these genes in humans lead to the development of a serious disease - microcephaly (from lat. micro- small and Greek. ancephalon- brain), accompanied by a decrease in brain volume by more than 70%. Comparative genetic analysis of the genomes of humans and great apes showed significant changes in the group of these genes over the course of evolution, they were especially stormy during the divergence of humans and monkeys.
Computational comparison of genomes made it possible to identify more than two hundred more regulatory genes that cause the inclusion and deactivation of the above-described genes located next to them.
Thus, although the number of genes that determine brain development is small, changes in them can significantly change the human brain by affecting the activity of many interacting genes.
Cro-Magnons were articulate, as evidenced by a well-developed chin protrusion. A well-developed brain, the social nature of labor led to a sharp decrease in a person’s dependence on the external environment, to the establishment of control over certain aspects of the habitat, to the emergence of abstract thinking and attempts to reflect the reality around them in artistic images - rock paintings, bone figures, etc. .
Human evolution got out of the leading control of biological factors and acquired a social character. The main stages of the formation of a person are shown in the diagram (Fig. 23.5).
Rice. 23.5. The main stages of human development
The role of labor in the origin of man. Such features of a person as a highly developed central nervous system and speech as a means of communication between people, the separation of functions of the upper and lower extremities, an unspecialized hand capable of producing hundreds of various and subtle movements, the creation of a society instead of a herd, were the result of human labor activity. This qualitative peculiarity of human evolution was pointed out by F. Engels in his work “The Role of Labor in the Process of the Transformation of Apes into Humans”. Such traditional ideas have been confirmed in molecular genetic studies of the human genome. One of the regulatory regions of the human genetic material has undergone the greatest changes in comparison with great apes. It turned out that the human version of the genes allows you to control the activity of genes in the wrist and thumb, but the ancestral form of regulatory genes cannot do this. This fact indicates the morphological changes in the human hand, which allowed people to maintain the accuracy and dexterity necessary for the production and use of thin and complex tools.
Table 23.1
The main stages of human evolution
|
Fossil human |
Where and when did you live |
Appearance |
Lifestyle |
|
|
australopithecines |
South and East Africa, South Asia, 5-3 million years ago |
up to 50 kg, height 120-140 cm, skull volume 500-600 cm 3 |
They walked on two legs, lived among the rocks in open places, ate meat food. herding |
Enjoyed animals |
|
Africa, South Asia, 3-2 million years ago |
Weight up to 50 kg, height up to 150 cm, skull volume 700 cm 3 |
Cooperative hunting and group protection |
Making primitive tools |
|
|
Ancient people (Pithecanthropes, Sinanthropes) |
Africa, Mediterranean, about. Java, Central Asia, 2 million 200 thousand years ago |
Height is about 160 cm, brain volume is 900-1,000 cm 3, forehead is low, jaws are massive |
They lived in primitive herds in caves, supported the fire, dressed in skins, had the beginnings of speech |
Manufactured well-crafted stone tools |
The ending
|
Fossil human |
Where and when did you live |
Appearance |
Lifestyle |
|
|
Ancient people (Neanderthals) |
Africa, Central Asia, about 250-50 thousand years ago |
155-165 cm, brain volume up to 1400 cm 3 , low forehead, with superciliary ridge, chin protrusion poorly developed |
They lived in groups, used fire for cooking, dressed in skins. In communication, they used gestures and primitive speech. There was a division of labor |
Manufactured a variety of tools from stone and wood |
|
First modern humans (Cro-Magnons) |
Everywhere, 50-40 thousand years ago |
Height up to 180 cm, brain volume 1,600 cm 3 , high forehead, without a ridge, lower jaw with a chin protrusion |
They lived in a tribal society, built dwellings, decorated them with drawings. They made clothes from skins, used speech when communicating, tamed animals, cultivated plants. Moved from biological evolution to social |
Manufactured complex tools and mechanisms |
