The Evolution of Modern Humans - 2725 Words

While time travel still remains elusive to us, scientists have been able to discover things about our past as a species that were practically inconceivable over 150 years ago when Charles Darwin released his book entitled The Origin of Species. They have especially uncovered many pieces to our still incomplete puzzle over the past 20 years so that we now have a nearly complete idea of how our species Homo sapiens came to be. This story of our history includes dozens of species’ and hundreds of fossils and bones, yet fairly few complete or even partial skeletons. Hominids have gone through many changes to get from one of our earliest species’ Ardipithecus ramidus to Homo sapiens which scientists have been able to discover†¦show more content†¦The lower part, where it meets the ankle, is fairly wide and thick so it acted as a â€Å"shock absorber† whilst walking. Members of the Australopithecus anamensis species also had long forearms and wrist bone featu res which suggest tree climbing. They were thickly-built with long narrow jaws. Their side rows of teeth were in parallel lines and were heavily enameled which entails that they ate hard, abrasive foods such as nuts, but researchers also believe that they also ate fruits. These hominids were possibly the size of modern female chimpanzees and there is evidence of sexual dimorphism. (Leakey et al, 1995; White et al, 2006) Discovered in 1974, Australopithecus afarensis is one of the most famous early hominids and they are the direct descendants of Australopithecus anamensis. Australopithecus afarensis as a species was not named until 1978, after many fossil discoveries of the same type were found at sites in Hadar, Ethiopia and Laetoli, Tanzania. Some of the fossils categorized as a part of this species were found as early as in the 1930’s. They were around for more than 900,000 years which makes them the longest lived species and there are over 300 sets of remains of Australopi thecus afarensis. One of the most famous hominid skeletons is 3.2 million year old â€Å"Lucy† (AL 288-1), discovered by Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb in Hadar, Ethiopia in 1974. She was nicknamed the night she was discoveredShow MoreRelatedThe Evolution Of Modern Humans952 Words   |  4 PagesWhen we think about the evolution of modern humans we think about two basic theories. The first theory is the â€Å"Multiregional Variation theory which is the different human populations or cultures had independent origins and are evolved in isolation from one another. The second theory is the â€Å"Out of Africa â€Å"theory. This theory is basically when humans evolved in Africa between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. After these humans evolved they left Africa after evolving. Both of these theories both supportRead MoreEvolution Of The Modern Day Human Essay1845 Words   |  8 PagesThe modern day human has not existed for very long, in fact its one of the recent species to populate the Earth. 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