Evolutionary Microbiology Chapter 12. Human Apex of All Life? Jong-Soon Choi Chungnam National Univ. GRAST University of Science and Technology Korea Basic Science Institute 247
Human vs. Human Being Human - a person as distinguished from an animal or an alien. Human Being a man, woman or child of the species Homo sapiens, distinguished from other animals. What is human being superior to other animals? - mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright stance Man vs Woman man was originally gender neutral, meaning person. man started to refer to male human ; woman was referred to as wif or wifmann, meaning female human, wif changed to wife GENDER EQUITY 248
Humans as a species Human as taxonomy Homo sapiens sapiens, extinct species of humans: Neanderthals, Denisovans, Hominid Human nature a virtue associated with basic ethics of altruism derived from the human condition: love, kindness, social intelligence Human condition defined as the characteristics, key events, and situations to compose the essentials of human existence: religion, philosophy, history, art & literature, sociology, psychology and human biology (Source: Wikipedia) 249
Human Chronicle 13.5 BYA Matter and Energy from Big Bang 4.5 BYA Earth planet formed 3.8 BYA Primitive life occurred 6 MYA Ancestor of human & monkey 2.5 MYA 2 MYA 500 KYA 300 KYA 200 KYA 70 KYA 12 KYA 5 KYA 500 YA 200 YA Genus Homo in Africa Various human sp. Evolved Neanderthals in Europe and ME Catch Fire Homo sapiens in East Africa <Cognition Revolution> in Human <Agricultural Revolution> Language w/letter, written history Scientific Renaissance <Industrial Revolution> 250
Cognition Revolution in Human History First Human Drawing? Chauvet-Pont d Arc drawings, Southern France, 30 KYA Egyptian pyramids 4.6 KYA Pyramids at Giza showing three largest pyramid of Menkaure, Khafre, Khufu 251
A. africanus Homo Homo is the genus consisting the species of Homo sapiens (modern humans) as well as several extinct species. Evolutionary tree chart describing The subfamily Homininae and the Tribe Homini Homo was 2.8 MYA as its earliest species Homo habilis emerging from the genus Australopithecus which was split from the lineage of the genus Pan, the chimpanzees. 252
Human Evolution Comparison of modern & extinct humans (Source: Wikipedia) A model of the evolution of the genus Homo over the last 2 MYA - Out of Africa : 1.2 MYA - Neanderthals : 300 KYA - Modern sapiens : 250 KYA Species H. habilis H. erectus H. antecessor H. heidelbergensis H. neanderthalensis H. floresiensis Denisova homini Tempral range 2.1-1.5 MYA 1.9-0.07 MYA 1.2-0.8 MYA 600-350 KYA 350-40 KYA 100-12 KYA Habitat Africa Africa Eurasia Spain Europe Africa China Europe West Asia Indonesia Adult Height 150 cm 180 cm 175 cm 180 cm 170 cm 100 cm 40 KYA Russia? H. sapiens 200 KYA Worldwide 150~190 cm 253
Rise of Homo sapiens 15 만년전 (Africa) 5 만년전 (Europe) 1.2 만년전 (S. America) 7 만년전 (South Asia) 1.5 만년전 (N. America) 6 만년전 (Australia) 3.5 만년전 (Far East) World map of early human migrations according to mitochondrial population genetics KYA 254
Occupation of Earth by Homo sapiens Map showing human population density across the globe. The Earth as seen at night from space in October 2000, showing the extent of human occupation of the planet. 255
Traits of Homo sapiens Bipedalism : adaptation of terrestrial locomotion by two rear limbs, leaving frontal limbs (hands) free : bipedalism raises the head to allow a greater field of vision Encephalization : the amount of brain mass related to an animal s total body mass : volumes of brain in 60 kg-other mammal (200 cm3), hominid 2.5MYA (600 cm2), modern human (1300 cm2) Sexual dimorphism : the condition where the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics beyond the differences in their sexual organs themselves 256
Scrambled Neanderthal Genome into H. sapiens Between 2% and 4% of the genome of Europeans and Asians is believed to be a legacy of interbreeding between ancient Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Massacre by smarter H. sapiens? 257
Cooking Up Bigger Brains Cooking food helped early humans grow bigger brains We would need to eat raw food for 9 hours without rest in order to get the same energy kick. Cooking meat changes shorter intestines, bigger brains and diverse food (wheat, rice, potato, etc) 258
Future HUMANS Four Ways We May or May NOT 1. Human evolution is dead 2. Humans will continue to evolve 3. Humans to achieve electronic immortality 4. New era of evolution awaits on off-world colonies? 259