The Evolution of Man

THE EVOLUTION OF MAN

The evolution of man is an area of study that will never fully be understood, however, evidence has been accumulated to allow us to paste together an idea of what happened in the beginning of time. It allows us to gather an idea of how man progressed to exist in the state in which we see him now. We can see that the evolution of man was directly influenced by his environment. Man’s development directly effected the physical changes that we see. It is apparent through observation that the environmental changes also induced some of the physical changes that man went through. These environmental changes and development slowly refined man’s behavior, as well as his way of life. We also can see how man develops along with the changes in sophistication of the tools he used. We can see that the progression of the tools goes directly with the progression of the evolution of man. As the technology slowly became more advanced, we see how the effect that it has on early man’s development and how those advances made effected the actions and behavior of man. It is those changes in behavior and lifestyle which lead to man’s evolution.

Lucy was found in Hadar Ethiopia and is the name given to a fossil skeleton of a hominid who lived over 3.2 million years ago. Lucy stands as the most complete skeleton known of an early human. She is known to be part of the bipedal primate know as Australopithecus afarensis. Lucy was expected to be twenty five years old and roughly four feet tall. What we know about Australopithecus afarensis is that they walked upright and were able to climb trees. Australopithecus afarensis, like Lucy, had small skulls, small brain cases, projecting faces, large chewing teeth and looked ape-like. Although she did walk upright on two legs, her legs were very short, adapted to climbing, indicating that she may have taken shelter in the trees at night. The proportion of her hands in comparison to her short legs would have us believe that she walked in a different fashion than the way we do today. She would have had to swing her arms around, making her motions similar to those of an ape.

Five million years after Lucy, Australopithecus africanus appears. This creature also walked upright but lived in mostly open country and obtained food mainly by gathering and scavenging. Australopithecus africanus’ face did not project as far as his ancestors, had smaller incisor teeth and a slightly larger brain compared to body size

Turkana boy came about one million years after Lucy. He is tall and his neck is very close to the body, his skeleton reveals a more complex being, whereas Lucy had a little frame and looks more animal-like.

Paranthropus robustus is also known as near man. This early man lived in wooded to open environments, had a vegetarian diet, simple vocal communication, and had a massive jaw and teeth build. Moving these massive jaws also required huge muscles supported by strong bony crests atop the skull. These characteristics were directly related to their diet and means of food. Living in a dry open country, these human relatives depended on the tough abrasive plan foods offered by the hot environment. As the environment changes from one that is wooded and forested, to one that is more open, similar to country environment, it lays down the basis for all human evolution. With the open environment, these creatures no longer climbed trees, but began walking, much in the fashion that we do today, over large areas of land. They moved from one place to the other in search of whatever they could dig up from the ground. However, it was supplemented by scavenged meat from carcasses, as well as small animals. We can notice that the physical appearance of these early human relatives is somewhat distinct from our own appearance. Their bodies were significantly darker and almost fully covered with hair. These characteristics are ones which were a simple result of the environment of the time. These human ancestors had no means to cloth themselves; therefore, they appear to have dark skin because of the extreme exposure to the sun that they faced. The fact that they spent all of their lives exposed to the sun and other environmental factors also serves as the reasoning for their heavy body hair. Their body hair served the same purpose as our clothes do for us. It was a way of insulating their bodies against such things as wind.

The next man was on Homo habilis, which was the earliest member of human lineage to have made stone tools. Fossils found date Homo habilis to have lived about 2 to 1.5 million years ago. They are included in our genus Homo because of the evidence found that links them to stone making. Their tools were small and quite crude but with a few blows from a hammer-stone, the toolmaker would knock sharp flakes from