Darwin is mostly remembered for his general theories. But specific fields which he touched, geology, botany and zoology, were greatly changed by his work. Anthropology is the same, as Ian Tattersall, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and who also did his undergraduate degree at Christ’s College, recently wrote: Bipedalism, or walking upright, is one of the main human evolutionary adaptations. Advantages to be found in bipedalism include the freedom of the hands for labor and less physically taxing movement. Walking upright better allows for long distance travel and hunting, for a wider field of vision, a reduction of the amount of skin exposed to the sun, and overall thrives in a savannah environment. Bipedalism resulted in skeletal changes to the legs, knee and ankle joints, spinal vertebrae, toes, and arms. Most significantly, the pelvis became shorter and rounded, with a smaller birth canal, making birth more difficult for humans than other primates. In turn, this resulted in shorter gestation (as babies need to be born before their heads become too large), and more helpless infants who are not fully developed before birth. The two objects on the right are pigments used between 320,000 and 500,000 years ago in East Africa. All other objects are stone tools used during the same time period in the same area. On the earth, homo sapiens are the most important species on our earth which is the result of over 7 million years of evolution. The traces of the evolution of humans have been obtained through the records of fossils and through the studies of physiological, morphological, and embryological. Panderichthys is a 90–130cm (35–50in) long fish from the Late Devonian period (380 Mya). It has a large tetrapod-like head. Panderichthys exhibits features transitional between lobe-finned fishes and early tetrapods.

Man: ancient skull from China could be new human species Dragon Man: ancient skull from China could be new human species

Despite considering himself a geologist, Darwin was very sceptical that the fossil record would provide conclusive evidence to support his theory. The incompleteness of the fossil record as he saw it received two whole chapters of discussion in The Origin. In addition, in the 1860s a great hunt was underway for ancient human remains, mostly being paid for by rich individuals who would offer big rewards for new finds. As such, counterfeit fossils and tools were common and there are a number of well known hoaxes which fooled some quite qualified scientists. Finally, Thomas Huxley, who was a trained comparative anatomist, had dismissed the Neanderthal finds as just a wild, modern human.It is described in a number of subspecies. [37] Early humans were social and initially scavenged, before becoming active hunters. The need to communicate and hunt prey efficiently in a new, fluctuating environment (where the locations of resources need to be memorized and told) may have driven the expansion of the brain from 2 to 0.8 Ma. Figure 3 - A comparison of the skulls of Homo sapiens (Human) (left) vs. Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal) (right). Figure 1 - Evolutionary scheme, showing that great apes and humans all evolved from a common ancestor. Dawkins, R. (2005), The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN 978-0-618-61916-0

Evolutionman

There was also a scientific barrier. Darwin had access to almost no fossil evidence that might indicate how, when or even where humans evolved. Comparison of skull features among early humans.A comparison of Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis and Homo naledi skull features. Neanderthals

Meet the ancient relatives

A member of the Australopithecus afarensis left human-like footprints on volcanic ash in Laetoli, northern Tanzania, providing strong evidence of full-time bipedalism. Australopithecus afarensis lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago, and is considered one of the earliest hominins—those species that developed and comprised the lineage of Homo and Homo 's closest relatives after the split from the line of the chimpanzees. Larger brain size, also called encephalization, began in early humans with Homo habilis and continued through the Neanderthal line (capacity of 1,200 – 1,900 cm3). The ability of the human brain to continue to grow after birth meant that social learning and language were possible. It is possible that a focus on eating meat, and cooking, allowed for brain growth. Modern humans have a brain volume of 1250 cm3. Harmand, S., Lewis, J. E., Feibel, C. S., Lepre, C. J., Prat, S., Lenoble, A., et al. 2015. 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 521:310–5. doi: 10.1038/nature14464 Benazzi, S., Douka, K., Fornai, C., Bauer, C. C., Kullmer, O., Svoboda, J., et al. 2011. Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behaviour. Nature 479:525–8. doi: 10.1038/nature10617

Timeline of human evolution - Wikipedia

The fossils of anthropoids of the Miocene period show considerable diversity with some possessing pre-human features. They may have evolved into the human line and others leading towards the great apes. Dryopithecus, an anthropoid fossil, is regarded to stand close to the point of divergence. Ollivier, M., Tresset, A., Frantz, L. A. F., Brehard, S., Balasescu, A., Mashkour, M., et al. 2018. Dogs accompanied humans during the Neolithic expansion into Europe. Biol. Lett. 14:20180286. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0286Further information: Homo sapiens, Neanderthal, Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans, Recent human evolution, and Human genetic variation Date Homo is the genus (group of species) that includes modern humans, like us, and our most closely related extinct ancestors. Organisms that belong to the same species produce viable offspring. The famous paleoanthropologist named Louis Leakey, along with his team, discovered Homo habilis (meaning handy man) in 1964. Homo habilis was the most ancient species of Homo ever found [ 2]. Homo habilis appeared in Tanzania (East Africa) over 2.8 million years ago, and 1.5 million years ago became exinct. They were estimated to be about 1.40 meter tall and were terrestrial. They were different from Australopithecus because of the form of the skull. The shape was not piriform (pear-shaped), but spheroid (round), like the head of a modern human. Homo habilis made stone tools, a sign of creativity [ 3]. Starting in Africa with our early hominin relatives (who are more closely related to us than to chimpanzees), visitors will travel forward in time to meet our ancient human relatives as they spread into Europe and Asia. The journey ends with modern humans as the only surviving human species in the world today. Even as they acquired the more modern anatomy seen in living humans, the ways our ancestors lived, and the tools they created, changed as well.

The origin of our species | Natural History Museum

Museum scientists are at the forefront of research on the migration, characteristics and capabilities of these early human relatives, and the origin and cultural development of our species, Homo sapiens.Danuvius guggenmosi is the first-discovered Late Miocene great ape with preserved long bones, and greatly elucidates the anatomical structure and locomotion of contemporary apes. [30] It had adaptations for both hanging in trees ( suspensory behavior) and walking on two legs ( bipedalism)—whereas, among present-day hominids, humans are better adapted for the latter and the others for the former. Danuvius thus had a method of locomotion unlike any previously known ape called "extended limb clambering", walking directly along tree branches as well as using arms for suspending itself. The last common ancestor between humans and other apes possibly had a similar method of locomotion. The increased amount of oxygen causes many eukaryotes, including most animals, to become obligate aerobes. Callaway, E. 2018. Israeli fossils are the oldest modern humans ever found outside of Africa. Nature 554:15–6. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-01261-5 Neanderthals and Denisovans emerge from the northern Homo heidelbergensis lineage around 500-450 ka while Sapients emerge from the southern lineage around 350-300 ka. [49]