Human evolution
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"THE history of the tale of terror is as old as the history of man. Myths were created in the early days of the race to account for sunrise and sunset, storm-winds and thunder, the origin of the earth and of mankind. The tales men told in the face of these mysteries were naturally inspired by awe and fear."--The Tale of Terror (1921) by Edith Birkhead |
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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. This process involved the gradual development of traits such as human bipedalism and language, as well as interbreeding with other hominins, which indicate that human evolution was not linear but a web.
The study of human evolution involves several scientific disciplines, including physical anthropology, primatology, archaeology, paleontology, neurobiology, ethology, linguistics, evolutionary psychology, embryology and genetics. Genetic studies show that primates diverged from other mammals in the Late Cretaceous period, and the earliest fossils appear in the Paleocene.
Within the Hominoidea (apes) superfamily, the Hominidae family diverged from the Hylobatidae (gibbon) family some 15–20 million years ago; African great apes (subfamily Homininae) diverged from orangutans (Ponginae); the Hominini tribe (humans, Australopithecines and other extinct biped genera, and chimpanzee) parted from the Gorillini tribe (gorillas) between 8–9 million years ago; and, in turn, the subtribes Hominina (humans and biped ancestors) and Panina (chimps) separated 4–7 million years ago.
See also
- Archaeogenetics
- Sociocultural evolution
- Dual inheritance theory
- Dysgenics
- Evolutionary anthropology
- Evolutionary neuroscience
- Evolutionary psychology
- History of Earth
- Hominid intelligence
- Human behavioral ecology
- Human vestigiality
- Hunting hypothesis
- Killer ape theory
- Mitochondrial Eve ("African Eve" theory)
- Most recent common ancestor
- Multi-regional origin
- Physical anthropology
- Single origin hypothesis
- Timeline of human evolution
- Y-chromosomal Adam
