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The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the evolutionary lineage of the modern human species, Homo sapiens, throughout the history of life, beginning some 4 billion years ago down to recent evolution within H. sapiens during and since the Last Glacial Period.
[44] [5] [6] [7] In fact, genomic research has shown that hybridization between substantially diverged lineages is the rule, not the exception, in human evolution. [4] Furthermore, it is argued that hybridization was an essential creative force in the emergence of modern humans.
Professor of biology Jerry Coyne sums up biological evolution succinctly: [3]. Life on Earth evolved gradually beginning with one primitive species – perhaps a self-replicating molecule – that lived more than 3.5 billion years ago; it then branched out over time, throwing off many new and diverse species; and the mechanism for most (but not all) of evolutionary change is natural selection.
This is a counter to the claims by theorists like Noam Chomsky, who argued against language as a human specific adaptation. [17] Adaptation and adaptive theory has been argued even separate from its utility in the study of language. Gould and Lewontin engage with what they saw as flaws in adaptive theory using the analogy of the spandrels of ...
Neutral theory of molecular evolution – Theory of evolution by changes at the molecular level; Nearly neutral theory of molecular evolution – Variant of one theory of evolution; Neutral network (evolution) – Set of genes all related by point mutations that have equivalent function or fitness
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. [1] [2] It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. [3]
Multiregional evolution holds that the human species first arose around two million years ago and subsequent human evolution has been within a single, continuous human species. This species encompasses all archaic human forms such as Homo erectus , Denisovans , and Neanderthals as well as modern forms, and evolved worldwide to the diverse ...
Human evolutionary genetics studies how one human genome differs from another human genome, the evolutionary past that gave rise to the human genome, and its current effects. Differences between genomes have anthropological, medical, historical and forensic implications and applications. Genetic data can provide important insights into human ...