Then and Now

Life, is it the same as it was millions of years ago? No, this is because of what is known as evolution. The world is forever changing. There seems to be something new discovered all the time. This maybe because the scientist have not had time to explorer everywhere and everything. However, there could also be another explanation to this, evolution. Evolution is a scientific theory that helps to explain the presences of new varieties of living things, both now, in the present as well as in the history of the earth. The theory of evolution is based on the differences and similarities that occur within living things over a period of time and among habitats. It takes in consideration the biological processes that occur of genetic drift, natural selection, gene mutations, and changes in the habitats that occur. This theory explains why in the past there may have been many different varieties of a species, but now there are far less of them.

A species changes over time. It can grow bigger, smaller, develops new traits, or many other things can change in it. The evolution of a horse is an example of this. Over 50 million years ago, the horse was an animal that was about the size of today’s dog. The earlier horses were better suited for a tropical area than the plains of out west. However, because of evolution they adapted this maybe because of other animals that were predators or because of the lack of resources that were available. Horses even had multiple toes similar to what humans have that they used to walk on. However, not only were animals evolving, the earth was as well. There were new land formations and new vegetation that different animals had to learn to live in. The evolution of the horse allowed it to start changing in several ways. One of the main ones was the need it had for being able to run from predators that allowed it to start placing most of it weight upon the three middle toes. In doing this, the outer toes were no longer needed and eventually what was once the toes became the hoof of today. This is just one example of what evolution is it is a species developing traits that are needed over time to survive. Due to what is known as speciation, where it is the strongest that reproduce, the members of the species that have the most useful traits survive while the ones that has either the less desired or the less productive traits do not.
Human evolution has be a subject that has been studied and researched for many years. People are interested in where man came from and what humanity use to be like. There are a large number of different things that could show where man came from. However, when most think of evolution they just think of what the differences are in how man looked over time. Yes, this can be seen in the different developments of the human fossils that are found. These fossils allow scientists to look at the changes of the body size, brain size, and occasionally the diet. However, unlike in the case of the horses, just looking at the size of the physical body does not tell everything. With humans there is much more to learning the changes of evolution.
Though the physical traits of man have changed, some of the most noticeable things that man has developed have been the way that they did things, or how they did them. This would be in how some the first men are thought to have lived as nomads that roamed the land. This was due to them having to look and hunt for food. Though at some point man stopped roaming and began to farm the land. The evidence that has been found to show this has been tools that were used changing. Some evidence has also been found that they started to develop a type of art even. The art objects found have also progressed as evolution continued. This was in the details of the objects as well as the medium that was used to create it. As man evolved so did the items that were created to help with the existence of life.
The beginning of man though is the same as the apes of today, they are both primates. Through the study of genetics, it has been learned that humankind is related to more of the species on the earth than ever before. Also in using genetics, scientists can track the movement of Homo sapiens and the history of their beginnings. Between the genetics and carbon dating of things, humanity’s history is being revealed. It has been learned that humanity is related to most every species that lives upon earth.
The mystery of early man has always made people want to know more. Did we evolve from apes? Were there many different species of types of men that did not survive? Are today’s man a descendent of what most have heard of as the Neanderthals? There are not answers for most of the questions that could be asked for this subject. However, there has been descendants to the Homo group found that can give some insight to these questions. The Homo sapiens of today appeared in the fossil records around 250,000 years ago in the regions of Africa. The direct descendants are believed most likely to be the Homo rhodesiensis. It is also thought that some of the Homo sapiens left Africa around 100,000 years ago and went toward northern Europe and did inter-populate with the Neanderthals.
Many things have been learned of the history of humankind by studying the fossils of yesterday years. The most impressive could be though the evolution of not just the earth and the creatures upon it, but the evolution of man. If man was wandering around millions of years ago just trying to survive similar to what the apes of today do, what might the world look like in another 5 million years? Could the apes evolve to what humanity is today?

Works Cited

"Evolution." National Center for Science Education. 2012. 6 Jun. 2014. <http://ncse.com/evolution>.

"What does it mean to be human?." Smithsonian: National Museum of Natural History. 8 Jun. 2014. 8 Jun. 2014. <http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior>. | | |