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Earlier studies of haplogroups in Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA have largely supported a recent African origin, while genomic studies and evidence of genomic lineages do not [1] support recent out of Africa replacement instead suggest multiregional evolution as coherent model, with both haplogroup and genomic data.
The above sentence cant be added. I think its pov, but the question is above. 76.16.176.166 ( talk) 13:29, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
Good, although small tweaks to the English are needed, and we need to work out what to call the competing models, and the text should not sound as if it is promoting the ME view.
I have explained before that I totally understand that no species has an "origin" (and obviously if we trace any species back in time, the defining characteristics of the species we started with disappear – it makes no sense to talk about a species over large periods of time). Nevertheless, it is common to use the incorrect term "origin", and your text is intended for the end of the lead, just after it has mentioned "recent African origin of modern humans (RAO)". Therefore, it is confusing to suddenly drop "origin" and say "recent out of Africa replacement".
Although I have not read the papers you cited, my feeling is that the ME hypothesis will triumph over RAO. However, we still need to mention ME in a neutral way. Another issue regards including references that are actually links to another Wikipedia article. I'm not sure how best to handle that. In conclusion, here is some suggested text (although I'm not entirely happy with it):
I put "[1]" and "[2]" above; these need to be replaced with references, and a careful check that the words above are supported by the references is needed. Also, the lead is supposed to be a summary of important points in the article, so we need to check the article. Other comments would be welcome. Johnuniq ( talk) 01:38, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
ups it is already tagged POV 76.16.176.166 ( talk) 13:35, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
Is THIS why the entire article has been tagged for NPOV? (And after reading the discussion above, I'm still unclear as to what "this" is). I don't see any of the essentials here. There is no clear statement on this page about why the ENTIRE article has been tagged. In fact, there is no actual statement here by the tagger detailing and explaining their actions. IMHO, that tag should be removed, and a more limited NPOV tag should be applied to the section where there may (or may not) be an issue.
As it stands, it just looks like another act of creationist vandalism.-- Digthepast ( talk) 05:05, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
Fences, the discussion above concerns a small part of the article. Important though it may be to some, it does not warrant tagging the entire article for NPOV. There is no edit summary in the page history, and the IP address associated with this edit appears, from the associated talk page, to have issues with correct editing. (In fact, you yourself appear to have pointed this out on several occasions). I have to assume that they simply did not understand how to tag a section, and ended up tagging the entire article.
Here's the info on the specific edit...
13:27, 25 June 2009 76.16.176.166 (talk) (62,231 bytes) (undo)
This is what the editor has to say on the page itself: "POV|no data on currentdi autosomal genomic research contradicting RAR, problem with adding single sentence pointing to this subject|date=June 2009"
Accordingly, as the "POV issue" here appears to be the editor's inability to make edits, and as there has been no discussion of the substantive issue that started this in the month+ since the tag was put up, I will assume that the issue is resolved.
I will remove the tag. If anyone here has a problem with that, we can certainly discuss it further, hopefully on this page.-- Digthepast ( talk) 02:32, 1 August 2009 (UTC)
the term is multiregional evolution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.16.183.158 ( talk) 00:14, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
What is your sense ? 76.16.183.158 ( talk) 09:23, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
For anyone interested, the above has been copied by 76.16.183.158 from my talk page to here.
I reverted this edit which involved:
Re (1): We have had this conversation before and you have never acknowledged the issue. I don't particularly mind about this point, but the fact is that words are sometimes used somewhat incorrectly, and we all know that "origin" ain't right. However, a little Google will confirm that despite its inaccuracy, "origin" is very commonly used in this context, so I would like to see the opinion of some other editors before accepting your view about changing it.
Re (2) and (3): I think some work is needed on the English.
Re (4): I haven't recently read the deleted section, but judging by its title, it might be a good idea to delete or refactor it. However, given the history of contentious editing, I think it would desirable to first give a better reason than "deleting chapter" for why it should be removed. Ideally, you would create a new section on this talk page proposing that the section be removed, with a brief reason. Wait 24 hours. Delete the section if no objections. Johnuniq ( talk) 12:31, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
I have a variety of problems with this page. The picture referenced in the comment above is a good example. I am from Germany and was told that the "Neandertaler" actually is a subtype of homo erectus as well as homo erectus heidelbergensis. So there are a lot of branches of homo erectus, but homo sapiens comes from a genetic singularity. The genetics data hints at all of mankind being descendants of a single interrelated group, with an Eve as kind of "mother of mankind" (mitochondrial dna has very few mutations for all humans tested so far). The current theory is that there was some kind of extincton event and only a specific group of those half-naked almost sentient primates survived due to luck or some unique advantageous mutation. Another theory is of course the theory of distant origin or genetic manipulation by ancient astronauts. Please do not deride these theories but keep an open mind: I There is still the "missing link" missing; II Group of ancestors is small enough for a decent-sized spaceship; III There is a school of evolutionists who claim that life in general and intelligent life in particular had to develop as it did: Humans are rather weak but intelligence compensates physical deficiencies, they have to be warm-blooded mammals with thumbs and so forth, so all intelligent life would develop on earth-like planets and to human-like sentients; IV Humans without any means to measure time fall in to a regular activity-cycle of 25 hours (NOT 24h!) V A wide variety of unexplained artifacts (Nazca, columns of pure iron, radioactive hotspot in the Himalayans, Easter Island culture, bible Ezechiel 1, apocryphal book of Enoch, etc.) The problem with the extinction event theory is of course that only man was suffering from this event, the extinction associated with the ice ages came after the widespread advent of homo sapiens and homo erectus remains are found later than that... And "homo flores..." was a group of homo erectus suffering from some genetic defect on an isolated island, so it is probably the result of interbreeding. To make it short: The entire article needs a major overhaul! If anybody has the time and expertise, please verify the diverse claims and write an article of quality with reference to all theories. Thank you! [[[Special:Contributions/79.196.209.50|79.196.209.50]] ( talk) 23:43, 23 August 2009 (UTC)]
1
The two dominant view among scientists are, recent African origin of modern humans, and the multiregional evolution. The Recent African origin of modern humans (RAO) view that H. sapiens speciated somewhere around 200 thousands years ago in Africa and spread across the globe, replacing other humans. The multiregional evolution (ME), view humans as having evolved as a single, widespread population, from beginning of Pleistocene around 2.5 million years ago. For RAO multiple speciation originated numbers of human species replacing each other, for ME the gene flow between regional populations evolved into H. sapiens living today.
The text above do not contain wording objectionable from each RAO and ME standpoint.(if has then what?) Who oppose and why ? Xook1kai Choa6aur ( talk) 18:43, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
4 http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/origins/migration.htm JPotter ( talk) 04:22, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
There are two theories about the origin of modern humans: 1) they arose in one place — Africa and 2) pre-modern humans migrated from Africa to become modern humans in other parts of the world. Most evidence points to the first theory because fossils of modern-like humans are found in Africa, stone tools and other artifacts support African origin DNA studies suggest a founding population in Africa
— Donald Johanson, http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html
For the moment, the majority of anatomical, archaeological and genetic evidence gives credence to the view that fully modern humans are a relatively recent evolutionary phenomenon. The current best explanation for the beginning of modern humans is the Out of Africa Model that postulates a single, African origin for Homo sapiens.
— Donald Johanson, http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html
Now, those are two quotes, from a respected physical anthro, who confirms the that majority view is a recent African migration. This website is the number one Google search for "out of africa vs multiregional". There are dozens of other websites, journals, and colleges that affirm this view is the mainstream view. You'll need to provide evidence that anthropologists have recently been convinced by newer evidence. Also, you are now reverting large swaths of cited text in contravention of the consensus here on the talk page. You'll need to stop doing that or else be subject to vandalism provisions as per Wikipedia policy. JPotter ( talk) 19:16, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
Previously hidden comment by IP 76
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the article DOI: 10.1126/science.1172257 do not pretend to interpert the gentic data in remote ~200-100ka past below the fragments qouting dates:
Africa within the past 5,000-3,000 years
with west-central Afroasiatic Chadic speaking populations in the global analysis at K < 11 (Fig. 3), supporting linguistic and archeological data suggesting bi-directional migration of Nilo-Saharans from source populations in Sudan within the past ~10,500 - 3,000 ya
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Proposition #2 mark/describe RAO as refuted hipothesis, statistically strongly rejected (place RAO in history of science as other refuted stuff) :
Although less clear cut than the original conclusions, the out-of-africa model is still the most strongly favored, with little or no support for the multiregional model Richard Lewin, 2005, 5th Edition Human Evolution
JPotter (
talk) 19:24, 14 September 2009 (UTC)
“ | If the source population is placed in Africa, then the serial founder model explains three patterns observed in data: a decrease in heterozygosity, increase in LD, and decrease in the slope of the ancestral allele frequency spectrum with increasing distance from Africa. Our use of an instantaneous divergence model suggests that the patterns observed in the data—and the success of the serial founder model—are due to an increase in genetic drift and a corresponding increase in elapsed coalescence time with increasing distance from Africa. Unlike the serial founder model, an archaic persistence model, in which a migration wave of modern humans into preexisting archaic populations has the effect of increasing the diversity of the ancestors for populations at a greater distance from Africa, does not produce increasing drift with increasing distance from Africa, and does not explain observed patterns. [my bolding] | ” |
“ | The genealogical relationships at any one locus in the genome do not necessarily correspond to the phylogeny of the species as a whole. As we trace back the lineages of two genomic segments, sampled from two separate biological species, they may coalesce in a common ancestor at any time before those species became completely reproductively isolated. In the simplest case of a single, well-mixed ancestral population coalescence times are exponentially distributed, with a mean number of generations equal to twice the effective population size, 2 Ne. This distribution is highly variable, so that there is a 1% chance of coalescence more recently than 0.02 Ne generations before speciation, and a 1% chance of coalescence earlier than 9.2 Ne generations. Thus, if we have three species that diverged at closely similar times, it is quite likely that genealogies of individual genomic segments will not correspond to the overall phylogeny. [my bolding] | ” |
At what point in human history are remains found described as 'men' or 'women' rather than 'female of the species X'/'male of the species Y'? Jackiespeel ( talk) 13:50, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
In some of the newspaper articles Ardi was referred to as a woman. While this may be a tabloidism, I wondered how the distinctions would be made with other hominids - would one say a Neanderthal man and a Homo heidelbergensis woman or a male N, female Hh? Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:24, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
I am currently defending the use of Smithsonian non-free images of fossils as comparative tools at Talk:List of human evolution fossils and could use some more opinions. thanks Nowimnthing ( talk) 16:37, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
Who would believe this? If humans are "evolved" from animals, shouldn't all present-day animals be humans? Seriously, Scientology is ACTUALLY more believable than this theory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.132.204.176 ( talk) 02:40, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
Can I just point out that there is no conclusive proof for the Theory of Evolution? For one thing, people still haven't found a mechanism that will show that the Theory can work with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (Change from a disordered lifeform to an ordered lifeform.)
Also, if it has been proven (Maybe I live in a backwater civilization? =P) could there at least be a section on the page about the proof? Because, if someone scientifically 'proved' it (Fat chance. Science can't prove anything - it's the forming of rules of behaviour for specific situation.) I would seriously like to see the information. Otherwise, it has as much salt in it as a religion-on-faith-alone, which means Wikipedia is POV.
No offense! Please answer. Amatsu-Mikabushi ( talk) 23:30, 18 October 2009 (UTC) 22:59, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
This page is concerning Human Evolution, not the theory of evolution. Evolution is taking place and is measurable quantity, for example rates of recombination, rates of SNP evolution, etc are measurable between generations. The appearance of new mtDNA mutations outside of 3 'hot spots'(with observed events within different isolates of the same individuals) mutations appear about once every 4000 years. The rate of Y chromosomal evolution has been measured. So in terms of evolution as an ongoing process, evolution = change, and change is occurring.
The second issue is theory of creation or neobiogenesis. Since I run a molecular anthropology group I have been asked how life was created. My answer is that I don't know and don't really care. Within evolution everything is convergent on something older, and this process continues back to the putative first cellular species. Problem is that the convergence masks what happens before, ergo we cannot see. With convergences in humans, for example human mtDNA converge about 200,000 years ago, we can't see any evolution of mtDNA prior to this without using a different tool (for example sequencing Neandertal DNA, or chimp or gorilla DNA). This creates blind spots that can be filled in with information from X-chromomal or autosomal studies. However all of these reference points blend together at the same virtual point, the LCA of all life. Of course this is not precisely correct, within the first lifes history there was duplication of genes, etc but at some point all of these become extremely fuzzy representatives of the first biopolymers that coexisted within a consolidated form of life.
Human evolution is not interested in these early issues, these revolve around Neobiogensis theories and models, and the early evolution of life. Human evolution concerns primarily evolution from Old-World monkeys to Modern Apes, with a focus on the later, and even more focus on hominids. I cannot tell you how life was created. What I can say with certainty is that: Given: -over 500 individual representations of Neandertals -1/3rd of the Neandertal genome sequenced -6 full length sequences of mitogenomes of Neandertals -Several different species of late hominids that were not human. -The alignment of DNA evolution models and physical evolution models for Humans and Neandertals, for humans and Chimpanzees for Humans & Chimpanzess versus Gorilla that Human Evolution is unrefutable for anyone who has examined the current data.
Wikipedia has a policy of posting on Talk-pages that aspect which is designed to improve the Main page, this is part of the talk page guidelines. Questions of Evolution are better suited for pages on the Theory of Evolution and Neobiogenesis.
Questions pertinent to this talk page might include the following:
Why is the discussion of when Orangutan/Homo and Gibbon/Homo split so outdated? The more recent literature places the Orangutan/Homo split at 13 to 17 kya, and the Gibbon/Homo split at 16/22 kya. Why are not these "recent split times" referenced.
There is a hand-waving discussion of the Miocene large-bodied hominoids however the placement of these hominids as protohuman is questionable at best. The most similar large-bodied hominid to great apes is Pierolapithecus from 13 kya and White and other are claiming that the Gorilla/Homo split is in excess of 10 mya, with human chimpanzee split between 7 and 10 Ma, it seems that the new information of White is more pertinent to these discussions that alot decades old material on the page. PB666 yap 21:20, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
The issue of thermodynamics can be answered quite easily. The sun is approximately 95 million miles from earth, and there are heat sources within earth. As a consequence there is a gradient of energy that extend from sources of energy into the emptiness of space. Imagine if the earth continued to absorb the suns light and not emit radient energy itself, the temperature would climb to billions of degrees, eventually the earth would itself explode in a supernova, as uncommon nuclear reactions begin to occur at earths core. Instead energy adsorbed at the surface is converted to radient energy. Even a plant that can intercept that energy 1 micrometer before it strikes the earth is favored thermodynamic energy, the energy in light cannot anticipate what better randomize energy (Hv -- chrophyll --> Radient heat, reflected light, chemical energy). It may be true that the rock completely randomizes the energy faster, however the light cannot anticipate the better recipient. The event that trigger lights fate begins 95 million miles away, in the very energetic Sun's corona, from that perspective any randomization of energy is better than the energy remaining in the corona indefinitely. In additon, it is not a foregone conclusion that it will move to a lower state, that light could travel to an intercept an exploding super-Nova, therefore thermodynamics is probabilistic, not deterministic. A plant that can intercept energy prior to that energy reaching the earth is free to utilized that energy, in doing so it modulates the amount of energy striking the earth and created a steep temperature gradient at the surface. In compliance with the second law, plants with unlimited nutrient and water resources compete in the tropics to intercept light. Light drives the competition, and the competition drives life to stockpile chemical energy in the form of cellulose in tree roots and trunks, water transportation structures,etc. This further drives downstream complexity because other species then take advantage of the accumulated chemical energy to convert that energy to its final form, radiant energy that escapes earths atmosphere. Species like the Brazil nut tree grow higher and become sources of other forms of diversity because they are more efficient at intercepting light. In places where these sources of energy are less abundant, there is less force driving life and the number of versions of life are fewer, so that by the time one reaches the South Pole, there is so little energy residing that the only species that can survive are those that transport energy from elsewhere (for example the Emperor penguins). Evolution appears to be more rapid at the tropics, and while species form more rapidly in the arctic, they also tend to go extinct more rapidly. This is pertinent to the evolution of humans and great apes, as there have been a number of speciation events within the hominid lineages. An example of how tropics and arctic affects human evolution is for example certain peoples living in the tropics are almost entirely vegetarian (other food sources limited to insects, eggs, small amounts of fish) and other groups that have a large carnivore component, whereas in the arctic food sources for humans are almost entirely animal, many sources are the consequence of transport systems (oceanic) and breeding strategies. For example, Evolution has shaped the metabolism of Inuit peoples so that they can live healthy lives with large percentages of fat calories (particularly omega-3 rich sources), however they more adversely affected by carbohydrate calories, this appears to be a factor in the survival of the Inuit versus the Greenlandic Norse.
You might want to ask the question, what about before chlorophyll evolved. The answer is very simple, its not human evolution. What happens in heated clays of the early earth or with thermophilus aquaticus, methanoccus, methophilic bacteria is not an issue for this page. Furthermore to set the perspective strait, in Wikipedia we present answers to questions that have been published from reliable sources, and the reliable sources that involved the paleontology, archaeogenetics, molecular evolution, paleobiology, paleoecology on the topic of human evolution are numberous and well known. What this means is that we need 2 things, a reliable source of information (hopefully primary and secondary peer-reviewed material) and some tacit connection with the topic (human evolution as it can be separated from the evolution of other species), IOW the further a species evolution is from human evolution, the less appropriate it is to be posted on the main page. PB666 yap 22:02, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
Systematics of early and middle Miocene Old World monkeys - E.R. Millera, , , B.R. Benefitb, , M.L. McCrossinb, , J.M. Plavcanc, , M.G. Leakeyd, , A.N. El-Barkookye, , M.A. Hamdane, , M.K. Abdel Gawade, , S.M. Hassane, and E.L. Simonsf, Journal of Human Evolution. PB666 yap 23:13, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
This article contains two sections Human evolution#Evolution of contemporary humans and Human evolution#Genetics, which are two short and which have too short paragraphs. I added some material today to the former but the article still looks unbalanced. The genetics section really just looks like mostly fluff so I wonder about combining the two? (see WP:STYLE and WP:1A#Achieving flow for further information.) Regards to all. Trilobitealive ( talk) 17:45, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
I was hoping to find some insightful and up-to-date information about how humans evolved (i.e. what adaptations led to bipedality, brain, speech, consciousness, etc) but this is lacking in this article - other than a short reference to tool use and brain development. If you visit 'horse evolution' or 'whale evolution' you immediatly get information about why we think horses or whales evolved they way they did (i.e. hoof adaptation to grassland and teeth adaptation due to change in diet). What does the latest research say about why we walk upright? The latest I have read suggests bipedality arose from adapting to walking on flexible branches. Is this supported? In my opinion, this article needs to focus more on why and how we evolved. -- Kreid 2 ( talk) 03:58, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
There is no undeniable proof that evolution happened. Until it can be reproduced, it cannot be declared fact. Many noted evolutionists have disavowed the theory of evolution, and many so-called 'great discoveries' were proven to be hoaxes. Don't respond to this if you are going to say that it has been proven - I know for a fact that it has not and I will continue this until I get a section on 'controversy.' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.46.103 ( talk) 05:01, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
I have logic. How can one animal turn into many? How could that animal have come to exist? What existed before the animal? Look at the complexity of the human brain, and tell me how that could have just come into being? I could spend hours writing thousands of different questions, and I will not believe it until every single question is answered without room for doubt. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.8.169 ( talk) 13:44, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm not saying that they are not citing sources. I am saying that there ought to be a controversy section. Other issues I've read on here always includes a section on controversy, why not this? Evolution is a highly controversial theory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.7.167 ( talk) 23:06, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
No controversy? I read a news article that said that most Americans do not believe in evolution. Explain to me how gases have turned into the complexity of the human body. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.5.232 ( talk) 13:27, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
objections to evolution is a very lopsided argument stating evidence for evolution, rather than both evidence for and evidence against evolution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.5.232 ( talk) 13:41, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
Folks, we should have a permanent banner on the top of any Wikipedia page that states: "I have logic" is never an excuse for not having an education. In the meantime, DNFTT. This discussion is over. Slrubenstein | Talk 19:40, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
And while I may 'not got logic' like the guy above, he's right in his first sentence. I understand if Wikipedia is just quoting guys, but it should at least point out the fallacies everytime a scientist says "Intelligent Design" is not scientific (and thus dismissing the argument) or "Evolution actually does explain that" (and not following up) or Richard Dawkin's " He's a creationist of the old school." Amatsu-Mikabushi ( talk) 03:04, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
I noticed that the conversion between 400 Calories and 20 Watts has a minor issue. "Calories" or "kilocalories" are a unit of energy and watts are a unit of power (energy/time). According to Wikipedia's Conversion of units page, 1 international calorie (calIT) = 4.1868 Joules, and 1 Cal = 1000 calIT. Here is the math I came up with to verify the proper units. Average Human Energy intake per day = 2000 Cal/day, brain calories/day = 2000 Cal/day * 1/5 unit energy used by brain/unit energy total = 400 Cal/day. 400 Cal/day * 1000 cal/Cal = 400,000 cal/day * 4.1868 Joules/cal = 1674720 J/day * 1/24 day/hr * 1/60 hr/min * 1/60 min/sec = 19.3833... J/s ~ 20 W. So, 400 Cal/day ~ 20 W. I guess this is a really long winded way of saying that 400 Calories Per Day ~ 20 Watts (about 5 cal/s or 17 Cal/hr), not 400 Calories = 20 Watts. Tysior ( talk) 17:14, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
"However, many of Darwin's early supporters (such as Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Lyell) did not agree that the origin of the mental capacities and the moral sensibilities of humans could be explained by natural selection" Perhaps we need a page on the Darwin-Wallace controversy (that our mental capacities and ethical and aesthetic sensibilities cannot be explained on the basis of natural selection and the struggle for existence). Has this controversy ever been properly resolved? What are the main theories as to how, in the words of Wallace, "an organ (the human brain) developed so far beyond the needs of its possessor?" African gaucho ( talk) 08:29, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
The picture we have for the lead, while expectedly simplistic, is also out of date. The picture represents the human ancestor as knuckle walking, similar to a chimpanzee, when even the oldest hominid fossils are bipedal, with no indication of knuckle walking. It is today generally believed that the Human-Chimpanzee last common ancestor was bipedal and not a knuckle walker, and that knuckle walking was later developed independently on the chimpanzee branch of evolution. Unfortunately I don't have a replacement to suggest, I just thought I would bring attention to this issue.
74.107.142.232 (
talk) 02:42, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
One of the diagrams has H. mauritanicus, but we don't have an article or a redirect for it... that should exist... 70.29.208.247 ( talk) 06:55, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
The May 7th edition of Science is dedicated to the Neandertal Genome and the significant difference that contributed to our evolution. Exciting times! Regards GetAgrippa ( talk) 01:57, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
I don't think the Toba Eruption is mentioned here, can we put it in somewhere?
67.85.177.204 ( talk) 23:11, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
I note the article seems to have little or nothing to say about the significance of fire use and how it enables especially efficient food digestion
Without that efficient food digestion, would humans have the energy to run their large complex brains?
And how did they acquire the ability to cook food without having such brains in the first place?
No other animal has acquired the ability, not even chimpanzees, despite having the human example to learn from
Laurel Bush (
talk) 09:58, 4 June 2010 (UTC)
Cheers
Lots of animals eat raw meat
Perhaps more than one prehistoric primate species acquired the ability to cook food at about the same time, but competition between them was then so close that only one could survive, and modern primates, apart from humans, have only just evolved to the point were they might be able to acquire the ability
Perhaps we are close to witnessing the acquisition of use of fire by another species
A more fanciful idea is that only one prehistoric primate acquired a taste for a particular mind-expanding herb or fungus
Has Kanzi used fire to cook food?
Has anyone tried supplying him with pieces of flint and dry vegetative matter?
I imagine fire was first made somewhere that suitable flint was readily available
Laurel Bush (
talk) 12:16, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
Seems that given matches and marshmallows,
Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick
Laurel Bush (
talk) 16:16, 14 June 2010 (UTC)
How come this article is titled Human evolution but the all the other articles on Wikipedia about the evolution of animals (e.g. Evolution of birds, Evolution of mammals, Evolution of dinosaurs]], Evolution of the horse, etc.) star with the phrase “Evolution of…” What separates the Humans from this commonality? It isn’t a big deal, but I suggest we change the title of the article to Evolution of Humans just to keep the commonality and simplicity between articles. Suggestions? Andrew Colvin • Talk 05:21, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
I'm afraid the reason is much more mundane: human is a noun, AS WELL AS an adjective, so it's much more natural this way. :-) -- 79.113.224.217 ( talk) 21:26, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
"All modern human DNA is between 1% and 4% Neanderthal. (To appreciate how big of a percentage this is, consider that humans and chimps only differ in 1.5% of their DNA.)"
That's wrong!
Extracted from John Hawks' blog:
Your great-grandmother on average gave you 1/8 of her genes, making up on average 12.5% of your genome.
You are more than 99.9% similar to your grandmother, on average, yet she contributed only 12.5% of your genome.
In other words, these percentages are different things -- the fraction of your total ancestry you can trace to her, versus the fraction of base pairs you actually have identical to hers. Your genome is much more identical to hers than can be explained solely by your descent from her -- this is because you share other ancestors in common with her, and because mutations don't happen very often.
Or, think about it the opposite way. Suppose that the 12.5 percent of your genome you inherited from your great-grandmother meant that you were only 12.5 percent genetically similar to her. Where did you get the rest of your genes from? A turnip? No, you got them from other people, all of whom are roughly 99.9 percent like your great-grandmother. You're 12.5 percent more like your great-grandmother than you are like randomly chosen people in the population.
"This 1-4% DNA from Neanderthals results in larger cerebral cortex and a range of abilities associated with higher intelligence. Interestingly, this 1-4% bit of DNA is only present in non-african humans."
Wrong again. Could you cite at least ONE study claiming that this shared percentage results in larger cerebral cortex and higher intelligence? The answer is you CAN'T because there isn't one. These genes do not result in anything, simply because they're neutral genes (i.e. they have no known function):
So, it is completely ridiculous to pretend that these neutral genes have anything to do with higher intelligence respect to Africans. There are no serious studies supporting the idea that non-Africans (or neanderthals) are more intelligent than Africans, so I find this to be pretty ignorant and racist. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.17.55.124 ( talk) 13:30, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
I am a scientist who specializes in the fields of anthropology and paleoanthropology, I would like to introduce to you the peer reviewed scientific evidence supporting a separate independent evolution of the modern Chinese people from an archaic species of Homo Erectus, specifically the separate species known as Homo Pekinensis. Below I have provided the results of scientific DNA studies that provide strong irrefutable support for an independent origin of the Chinese from Homo Pekinensis. These scientific studies have all been published in peer reviewed scientific journals and are well received by the scientific community. Please take some time to read them and feel free to ask me any questions regarding human evolution.
1.)
Genetics Society of America's
Genetics Journal, "
Testing for Archaic Hominin Admixture on the X Chromosome: Model Likelihoods for the Modern Human RRM2P4 Region From Summaries of Genealogical Topology Under the Structured Coalescent" by Murray P. Cox, Fernando L. Mendez, Tatiana M. Karafet, Maya Metni Pilkington, Sarah B. Kingan, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Beverly I. Strassmann and Michael F. Hammer.
2.)
Oxford University's
Oxford Journals,
Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome by Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder and Michael F. Hammer
3.) Oxford University's Oxford Journals Global Patterns of Human DNA Sequence Variation in a 10-kb Region on Chromosome 1 by Ning Yu, Z. Zhao, Y.-X. Fu, N. Sambuughin, M. Ramsay, T. Jenkins, E. Leskinen, L. Patthy, L. B. Jorde, T. Kuromori and W.-H. Li
4.) BMC Biology Journal of Biology " Y chromosome evidence of earliest modern human settlement in East Asia and multiple origins of Tibetan and Japanese populations" by Shi H, Zhong H, Peng Y, Dong YL, Qi XB, Zhang F, Liu LF, Tan SJ, Ma RZ, Xiao CJ, Wells RS, Jin L, Su B.
It is tempting to simply dismiss the new peer reviewed scientific evidence that contradicts the previously accepted "out of Africa" theory of human evolution where, supposedly, all humans were descended from the same group of Homo Sapien ancestors and which subsequently gives "strong support" in favor of an independent East Asian origin of a separate archaic branch or separate species of humans, the modern day Chinese people. But unfortunately, the reality of human evolution during the past 4 billions of life on our planet Earth is not as clear cut as the "out of Africa" theory attempts to address it. The "out of Africa" theory tries to say that "ALL" humans are descended from the same group of anatomically modern " Cro Magnon" or Homo Sapien Sapiens and while some of the older previous studies did initially seem to support that theory, those studies were not all inclusive and did not test many aspects of human genetics and evolution. But within the last few years, new genetic evidence has been discovered as a result of numerous scientific studies that have been conducted which lend a strong support for the theory that the modern Chinese people, or conservatively, a subpopulation of the Chinese gene pool are descended NOT from anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens like other humans on Earth, but rather that they are the product of a separate evolutionary lineage going back at least 1.8 million - 2 million years ago to Homo Erectus in East Asia. And that the modern Chinese people today are not necessarily classified as " Homo Sapien," but more accurately they could be classified as a highly evolved anatomically modern form of Homo Pekinensis. You must remember that regardless of whether we are talking about Homo Neanderthalensis or Homo Erectus that we are talking about human beings. And even though they are a classified as a separate species of human beings, nothing can take away their "humanity," for if one of them were dressed up in a modern day suit, they would still be recognized as "humans."
Please watch the evidence on these links:
1.)
Scientific evidence from the Chinese Academy of Sciences
2.)
All Non Africans Living Today Are Part Neanderthal
3.)
New evidence that Neanderthals interbred with Humans
Adding further support to the Multi-regional theory of human evolution are the recent DNA discoveries that anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens interbred with Homo Neanderthalensis or the Neanderthal man, in direct contradiction to the thesis of the "out of Africa" theory which specifically states that Homo Sapien did not interbred with Homo Neanderthalensis and that the Neanderthal simply "went extinct." Which has now been shown in peer reviewed scientific studies to be untrue, and that the Homo Sapien and Homo Neanderthalensis did indeed interbreed with each other. These studies are additionally supported by previous archaeological finds that show skeletons of humans who show hybrid morphological and anatomical traits of both species of humans, both Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis.
Please read the following evidence:
1.)
NewScientist Neanderthal genome reveals interbreeding with humans
2.)
Archaic admixture in the human genome, Neanderthal genes in modern humans
3.)
Signs of Neanderthals Mating With Humans
4.)
Discovery News "Neanderthals, Humans Interbred, DNA Proves"
5.)
USA Today Neanderthals and humans interbred, fossils indicate
6.)
BBC "Neanderthals 'mated with modern humans'"
7.)
Official report Neanderthal/Homo Sapien interbred
8.)
Cosmos Humans and Neanderthals interbred, according to our anatomy
9.)
Neanderthals live on in DNA of humans
Thank you! --
71.68.251.209
talk
1.)
Genetics Society of America's
Genetics Journal, "
Testing for Archaic Hominin Admixture on the X Chromosome: Model Likelihoods for the Modern Human RRM2P4 Region From Summaries of Genealogical Topology Under the Structured Coalescent" by Murray P. Cox, Fernando L. Mendez, Tatiana M. Karafet, Maya Metni Pilkington, Sarah B. Kingan, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Beverly I. Strassmann and Michael F. Hammer.
2.)
Oxford University's
Oxford Journals,
Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome by Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder and Michael F. Hammer
--
71.68.251.209
talk
3.) Oxford University's Oxford Journals Global Patterns of Human DNA Sequence Variation in a 10-kb Region on Chromosome 1 by Ning Yu, Z. Zhao, Y.-X. Fu, N. Sambuughin, M. Ramsay, T. Jenkins, E. Leskinen, L. Patthy, L. B. Jorde, T. Kuromori and W.-H. Li
4.) BMC Biology Journal of Biology " Y chromosome evidence of earliest modern human settlement in East Asia and multiple origins of Tibetan and Japanese populations" by Shi H, Zhong H, Peng Y, Dong YL, Qi XB, Zhang F, Liu LF, Tan SJ, Ma RZ, Xiao CJ, Wells RS, Jin L, Su B.
Specifically, the "out of Africa" theory states that Homo Sapiens did not interbreed with Homo Neanderthalensis or Homo Erectus, but that "out of Africa" view is now being shown to be PARTIALLY INCORRECT, and that there have been both interbreeding, which supports the Multi-Regional Theory, as well as some subpopulations of China that have not interbred with anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens even up until the present day. Whereas some other individuals from China show genes from Homo Sapiens due to the interbreeding between their Homo Erectus ancestors and African Homo Sapiens immigrants who may have migrated to China sometime within the past 100,000 years.
There is a tremendous amount of peer reviewed fossil and genetic evidence supporting the thesis that the Chinese are indeed decended from the Homo Erectus species of Homo Pekinensis, distinct from the European Homo Heidelbergensis, better known as Peking Man. You must realize the demographics of China, and that humans have been entering and leaving the area for hundreds of thousands of years, some interbreeding must have taken place, but it does NOT rule out the fact that the Chinese can trace their evolutionary lineage back to an ancestral Homo Pekinensis. All of the archaic East Asian Homo Pekinensis and Homo Erectus fossils studied have shown a continuity of unique morphological and anatomical traits, such as small frontal sinuses, reduced posterior teeth, shovel-shaped incisors, and high frequencies of metopic sutures, which are virtually absent in modern day European, Middle Eastern, and African populations but widely present in the modern population of the Han Chinese.
New evidence also shows that Homo Erectus or the Chinese species of Homo Pekinensis lived 200,000 earlier than previously thought.
National Geographic Society Peking Man (Homo Pekinensis) Lived in China 200,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought -- 71.68.251.209 talk
It is obvious to any reader that your aggressive and hostile behavior is present in your previous statements, self-explanatory to anyone reading this discussion. I refused to be dragged down to a low uncivilized level of trivial human "tribal warfare." My position has been clearly stated and supported by the peer reviewed scientific journals I provided, and if you are not happy about some new evidence contradicting your beliefs on the "out of Africa" model than I implore you to provide some scientific evidence rather than engaging in unproductive arguments of which I will have absolutely no part. The "out of Africa" model, while partially true for most humans, does not hold up to scrutiny when we are talking about interbreeding with Neanderthals and the Chinese Homo Pekinensis! The evidence is here for everyone to see and become educated with up to date information!
"Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance." -Professor Albert Einstein -- 71.68.251.209 talk
From my understanding of the articles (and YouTube videos) provided by 71.68.251.209, the Multi-regional hypothesis certainly has something going for it. Who's to say that modern humans and archaics could not have interbred? One can wonder why certain Anthropologists coined the term " Archaic Homo sapiens" to include Homo heidelbergensis, Homo rhodesiensis, and Neanderthals into one species. However, who's to say that the Chinese evolved "independently" from African Homo sapiens? The apparent admixture in the modern Chinese genome seems so small compared to their relations with non-Chinese, in terms of mtDNA and Y-Chromosomal DNA.
Please watch the following YouTube videos which I believe prove, directly or indirectly, the African origin of modern Chinese:
Now for the admixture of Neanderthal genes into the modern genome, which is about 1%-4% in non-African populations, I believe gives credence to the RAO hypothesis, albeit indirectly. Had non-Africans evolved from neanderthalensis, or even Asian erectus for that matter, wouldn't we expect to find a uniqueness greater than 1 or 4 percent in non-Africans today? All that the articles provided by 71.68.251.209 prove is that modern and archaic populations could apparently interbreed. Whether these prehistoric human populations were subspecies of the species Homo sapiens is a question that has yet to be met with a consensus. Regardless, Homo sapiens sapiens have ultimate origins in Africa, as does Homo erectus, but I cannot say the two are descended from a single family, as the Multi-regional hypothesis wishes to prove in the case of modern Chinese. Erectus may just have been an evolutionary dead end, and are now extinct. Some individuals within our species may carry an erectus pseudogene, but positive selection may have "felt" that the genotype was of some significance to the potential Sapiens-Erectus hybrid. Natural selection, however, may have favored the overwhelmingly modern traits over the archaic ones, and thus the archaics died out over time.
This is all just speculation, but I believe it can help in understanding the extinction of Homo erectus and why it took place, and why we obviously outlived the species. - Ano-User ( talk) 13:31, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
In reply to the above links you provided, I have not only watched them multiple times but I have also extensively studied the scientific papers published by Dr. Jin Li et al. as well as the numerous other mitochondrial studies. You must realize that Dr. Jin Li et al. studied autosomal snps collected from a relatively small sample of test subjects in China that utilized 160K snps in only 1700 individuals out of all total population size that is somewhere between 1.5 - 2 billion people in China. And for Dr. Jin Li et al. to make this radical conclusion based on his studies of only 1,700 individuals and claim that this somehow "proves" the Chinese descended from African Homo Sapiens is a big leap of faith that is not supported by the genetic studies of Dr. Daniel Garrigan et al. and Dr. Murray P. Cox et al. who provide irrefutable evidence showing that modern day Chinese have archaic Homo Erectus Pekinensis genes in their DNA, different from all other modern humans who are descended from anatomically modern African "Cro Magnon" Homo Sapiens. These peer reviewed scientific papers provide additional support to the enormous amount of fossil studies that have been conducted showing that there is an evolutionary continuity between archaic Homo Erectus Pekinensis and the anatomically modern Chinese, whether they can be classified either as Homo Sapiens Sapiens or more accurately a more highly evolved form of anatomically modern Homo Pekinensis. Numerous Archaeological fossil studies and as well as the relatively recent genetic studies have shown that many modern Chinese people retain both the genes and their consequential phenotypic morphological traits, such as flattened faces, small frontal sinuses, reduced posterior teeth, shovel-shaped incisors, and high frequencies of metopic sutures, which are virtually absent in modern day European, Middle Eastern, and African populations but widely present in the modern population of the Han Chinese. This presents fossil evidence strongly suggesting a direct evolutionary lineage of the modern Chinese people from their ancestors of the species Homo Erectus Pekinensis.
Please watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJnuMx8KD84&feature=related
1.)
Genetics Society of America's
Genetics Journal, "
Testing for Archaic Hominin Admixture on the X Chromosome: Model Likelihoods for the Modern Human RRM2P4 Region From Summaries of Genealogical Topology Under the Structured Coalescent" by Murray P. Cox, Fernando L. Mendez, Tatiana M. Karafet, Maya Metni Pilkington, Sarah B. Kingan, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Beverly I. Strassmann and Michael F. Hammer.
A
2.)
Oxford University's
Oxford Journals,
Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome by Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder and Michael F. Hammer
3.) Oxford University's Oxford Journals Global Patterns of Human DNA Sequence Variation in a 10-kb Region on Chromosome 1 by Ning Yu, Z. Zhao, Y.-X. Fu, N. Sambuughin, M. Ramsay, T. Jenkins, E. Leskinen, L. Patthy, L. B. Jorde, T. Kuromori and W.-H. Li
4.) BMC Biology Journal of Biology " Y chromosome evidence of earliest modern human settlement in East Asia and multiple origins of Tibetan and Japanese populations" by Shi H, Zhong H, Peng Y, Dong YL, Qi XB, Zhang F, Liu LF, Tan SJ, Ma RZ, Xiao CJ, Wells RS, Jin L, Su B.
Also, numerous scientific studies have shown that modern non-Africans, meaning all humans who either migrated out of Africa or evolved independently have Neanderthal genes in their DNA showing that the original "out of Africa" model of human replacement is partially incorrect. The original "out of Africa" theory proposed that the archaic humans (aka. neanderthals & Homo Pekinensis) were wiped out extinct for some "as yet unknown reason," but possibly resource competition & warfare, by the anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens who supposedly "replaced" them and subsequently populated the world. While it may comforting to say that "all humans are the same" because we are supposedly from the "same ancestors," it does not hold up scientific scrutiny with numerous peer reviewed studies showing conclusively that most non-Africans (aka. Europeans, some South Asian and Middle Easterners) are actually descendants of both anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens who had interbred and produced viable hybrid children with the separate human species of Homo Neanderthalensis. The influx of around 70 different Neanderthal genes caused the evolution of some of the genetic and phenotypic differences we see now in modern humans around the world. I must also mention that in the case of Chinese people having "neanderthal genes," we can interpret the studies in two different ways:
1.) The modern Chinese people have "neanderthal genes" simply because both Homo Erectus Pekinensis and Homo Heidelbergensis, the ancestor of the Neanderthals, possessed a distinct evolutionary common ancestor. And that these common genes were inherited independently by both species of archaic humans and passed down to modern Chinese by Homo Pekinensis and respectively into Homo Heidelbergensis's neanderthal descendants.
2.) That the ancestral species of Homo Erectus Pekinensis interbred directly with some members of Homo Neanderthalensis and produced viable hybrid Homo Pekinensis/Homo Neanderthalensis children. -- 71.68.251.209 talk
Before you engage again in uninformed criticism, please take some time to read about the BMC Biology Journal of Biology, Genetics Society of America and Oxford University's Oxford Journals so you can understand that they are both reliable and verifiable peer reviewed academic sources that are also prestigious institutions of higher knowledge.
1.)
Genetics Society of America's
Genetics Journal, "
Testing for Archaic Hominin Admixture on the X Chromosome: Model Likelihoods for the Modern Human RRM2P4 Region From Summaries of Genealogical Topology Under the Structured Coalescent" by Murray P. Cox, Fernando L. Mendez, Tatiana M. Karafet, Maya Metni Pilkington, Sarah B. Kingan, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Beverly I. Strassmann and Michael F. Hammer.
2.)
Oxford University's
Oxford Journals,
Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome by Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder and Michael F. Hammer
3.) Oxford University's Oxford Journals Global Patterns of Human DNA Sequence Variation in a 10-kb Region on Chromosome 1 by Ning Yu, Z. Zhao, Y.-X. Fu, N. Sambuughin, M. Ramsay, T. Jenkins, E. Leskinen, L. Patthy, L. B. Jorde, T. Kuromori and W.-H. Li
4.) BMC Biology Journal of Biology " Y chromosome evidence of earliest modern human settlement in East Asia and multiple origins of Tibetan and Japanese populations" by Shi H, Zhong H, Peng Y, Dong YL, Qi XB, Zhang F, Liu LF, Tan SJ, Ma RZ, Xiao CJ, Wells RS, Jin L, Su B.
The previous "out of Africa" model is only partial correct, while evidence shows there was indeed an out of Africa migration of Homo Sapiens, it does NOT mean that all humans are descended from this small population of Homo Sapiens. In Europe, the archaic humans, Homo Neanderthalensis, existed independently and interbred with these African Homo Sapiens resulting in the 1%-4% genetic admixture of all non-Africans. And in the case of the Chinese, numerous scientific studies have been published showing both genetic and fossil evidence that the modern Chinese people possess a different nucleotide encoding in their DNA, which in simplest terms means the Chinese have genes and other DNA fragments which they inherited from their Homo Erectus Pekinensis ancestor. Additionally, fossil evidence unearthed at the Zhoukoudian archaeological site have shown Homo Pekinensis fossils to have a continuity of anatomical and morphological traits with many modern Chinese people. All of the archaic East Asian Homo Pekinensis and Homo Erectus fossils studied have shown a continuity of unique morphological and anatomical traits, such as flattened faces, small frontal sinuses, reduced posterior teeth, shovel-shaped incisors, and high frequencies of metopic sutures, which are virtually absent in modern day European, Middle Eastern, and African populations but widely present in the modern population of the Han Chinese. -- 71.68.251.209 talk
This is a proposal to add new information about the separate evolution of Han Chinese people from their prehistoric ancestors Homo Erectus Pekinensis and the archaeological fossil evidence that supports a multiregional evolution for a portion of the Han Chinese people. The following paper presents evidence suggesting that the Han Chinese are not descended from the small group of Homo Sapiens Sapiens who had migrated out of Africa sometime within the last 60,000 - 100,000 years ago but instead have maintained an evolutionary continuity, being directly descended from Homo Erectus Pekinensis. Please read the following scientific paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/26m138v171861478/fulltext.pdf
This is a proposal to add new information about the separate evolution of Han Chinese people from their prehistoric ancestors Homo Erectus Pekinensis and the archaeological fossil evidence that supports a multiregional evolution for a portion of the Han Chinese people. The following paper presents evidence suggesting that the Han Chinese are not descended from the small group of Homo Sapiens Sapiens who had migrated out of Africa sometime within the last 60,000 - 100,000 years ago but instead have maintained an evolutionary continuity, being directly descended from Homo Erectus Pekinensis. Please read the following scientific paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/26m138v171861478/fulltext.pdf
Please, no more. Other than the person soapboxing on this topic, everyone agrees that it is unsuitable for Wikipedia. Given the protracted discussions (see the archives), there is no benefit from discussing the matter further, even to add more refutations. Such discussions invite replies from the proponent or trolls, when what is now required is the firm removal of all off-topic comments. I propose that this section be archived in a few days. Johnuniq ( talk) 02:26, 7 November 2010 (UTC)
The proposed article improvement by the above user is NOT about being "politically or socially correct" it seems to be based on the genetic evidence showing that the Han Chinese may in fact be a separate species of humans decended directly from Peking Man. It does seem to have scientific grounding even if many people would find it "offensive" that the Han Chinese evolved separately from the rest of humanity. Just because it's not politically correct doesn't mean it's not true! Wikipedia is NOT about making people happy, it's about creating an encyclopedia with accurate and the latest information in science, we should give the evidence for a separate Han Chinese evolution more recognition in light of the irrefutable genetic evidence presented in scientific papers! 71.68.255.76 ( talk) 05:16, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
I have archived this talk page ( here) because it is overrun with soapboxing from at least 71.49.197.242, 66.116.112.6, 63.164.47.229, 71.68.251.54, 68.222.236.154 (the last two IPs are blocked for one year). I suggest that further attempts to introduce similar material ( example diff) be reverted per the talk page guidelines which require that this page be used only for genuine attempts to discuss improvements to the article. This page is not the place to promote alternative views. Johnuniq ( talk) 10:36, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
This section has growing like Topsy, with many names having made no direct contribution to evolutionary anthropology or palaeontology. So I'm going to toss out a few for which the connection is too slender. Readers have a right to expect some common sense here. In any event, the section is one which does not usually appear on our science pages. People who make a real contribution are usually obvious from the content of the article. Macdonald-ross ( talk) 14:58, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
I think this article should at least mention the ideas that are most frequently addressed by popular science (e.g. documentaries) on this article's topic. For example: did the invention of cooking play a driving role, or the rise of language, how do we know there wasn't an aquatic phase, and did persistence hunting play any role? Some of these may even have been entirely disproved or baseless, but they're still being advanced in the popular literature on this topic, and so worthy of brief mention if only to state the expert consensus about each. Can anyone recommend review articles from which to source more material on the accepted causes of the differences between humans and other chimpanzees? Cesiumfrog ( talk) 09:06, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Archive 3 | Archive 4 | Archive 5 | Archive 6 |
Earlier studies of haplogroups in Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA have largely supported a recent African origin, while genomic studies and evidence of genomic lineages do not [1] support recent out of Africa replacement instead suggest multiregional evolution as coherent model, with both haplogroup and genomic data.
The above sentence cant be added. I think its pov, but the question is above. 76.16.176.166 ( talk) 13:29, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
Good, although small tweaks to the English are needed, and we need to work out what to call the competing models, and the text should not sound as if it is promoting the ME view.
I have explained before that I totally understand that no species has an "origin" (and obviously if we trace any species back in time, the defining characteristics of the species we started with disappear – it makes no sense to talk about a species over large periods of time). Nevertheless, it is common to use the incorrect term "origin", and your text is intended for the end of the lead, just after it has mentioned "recent African origin of modern humans (RAO)". Therefore, it is confusing to suddenly drop "origin" and say "recent out of Africa replacement".
Although I have not read the papers you cited, my feeling is that the ME hypothesis will triumph over RAO. However, we still need to mention ME in a neutral way. Another issue regards including references that are actually links to another Wikipedia article. I'm not sure how best to handle that. In conclusion, here is some suggested text (although I'm not entirely happy with it):
I put "[1]" and "[2]" above; these need to be replaced with references, and a careful check that the words above are supported by the references is needed. Also, the lead is supposed to be a summary of important points in the article, so we need to check the article. Other comments would be welcome. Johnuniq ( talk) 01:38, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
ups it is already tagged POV 76.16.176.166 ( talk) 13:35, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
Is THIS why the entire article has been tagged for NPOV? (And after reading the discussion above, I'm still unclear as to what "this" is). I don't see any of the essentials here. There is no clear statement on this page about why the ENTIRE article has been tagged. In fact, there is no actual statement here by the tagger detailing and explaining their actions. IMHO, that tag should be removed, and a more limited NPOV tag should be applied to the section where there may (or may not) be an issue.
As it stands, it just looks like another act of creationist vandalism.-- Digthepast ( talk) 05:05, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
Fences, the discussion above concerns a small part of the article. Important though it may be to some, it does not warrant tagging the entire article for NPOV. There is no edit summary in the page history, and the IP address associated with this edit appears, from the associated talk page, to have issues with correct editing. (In fact, you yourself appear to have pointed this out on several occasions). I have to assume that they simply did not understand how to tag a section, and ended up tagging the entire article.
Here's the info on the specific edit...
13:27, 25 June 2009 76.16.176.166 (talk) (62,231 bytes) (undo)
This is what the editor has to say on the page itself: "POV|no data on currentdi autosomal genomic research contradicting RAR, problem with adding single sentence pointing to this subject|date=June 2009"
Accordingly, as the "POV issue" here appears to be the editor's inability to make edits, and as there has been no discussion of the substantive issue that started this in the month+ since the tag was put up, I will assume that the issue is resolved.
I will remove the tag. If anyone here has a problem with that, we can certainly discuss it further, hopefully on this page.-- Digthepast ( talk) 02:32, 1 August 2009 (UTC)
the term is multiregional evolution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.16.183.158 ( talk) 00:14, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
What is your sense ? 76.16.183.158 ( talk) 09:23, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
For anyone interested, the above has been copied by 76.16.183.158 from my talk page to here.
I reverted this edit which involved:
Re (1): We have had this conversation before and you have never acknowledged the issue. I don't particularly mind about this point, but the fact is that words are sometimes used somewhat incorrectly, and we all know that "origin" ain't right. However, a little Google will confirm that despite its inaccuracy, "origin" is very commonly used in this context, so I would like to see the opinion of some other editors before accepting your view about changing it.
Re (2) and (3): I think some work is needed on the English.
Re (4): I haven't recently read the deleted section, but judging by its title, it might be a good idea to delete or refactor it. However, given the history of contentious editing, I think it would desirable to first give a better reason than "deleting chapter" for why it should be removed. Ideally, you would create a new section on this talk page proposing that the section be removed, with a brief reason. Wait 24 hours. Delete the section if no objections. Johnuniq ( talk) 12:31, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
I have a variety of problems with this page. The picture referenced in the comment above is a good example. I am from Germany and was told that the "Neandertaler" actually is a subtype of homo erectus as well as homo erectus heidelbergensis. So there are a lot of branches of homo erectus, but homo sapiens comes from a genetic singularity. The genetics data hints at all of mankind being descendants of a single interrelated group, with an Eve as kind of "mother of mankind" (mitochondrial dna has very few mutations for all humans tested so far). The current theory is that there was some kind of extincton event and only a specific group of those half-naked almost sentient primates survived due to luck or some unique advantageous mutation. Another theory is of course the theory of distant origin or genetic manipulation by ancient astronauts. Please do not deride these theories but keep an open mind: I There is still the "missing link" missing; II Group of ancestors is small enough for a decent-sized spaceship; III There is a school of evolutionists who claim that life in general and intelligent life in particular had to develop as it did: Humans are rather weak but intelligence compensates physical deficiencies, they have to be warm-blooded mammals with thumbs and so forth, so all intelligent life would develop on earth-like planets and to human-like sentients; IV Humans without any means to measure time fall in to a regular activity-cycle of 25 hours (NOT 24h!) V A wide variety of unexplained artifacts (Nazca, columns of pure iron, radioactive hotspot in the Himalayans, Easter Island culture, bible Ezechiel 1, apocryphal book of Enoch, etc.) The problem with the extinction event theory is of course that only man was suffering from this event, the extinction associated with the ice ages came after the widespread advent of homo sapiens and homo erectus remains are found later than that... And "homo flores..." was a group of homo erectus suffering from some genetic defect on an isolated island, so it is probably the result of interbreeding. To make it short: The entire article needs a major overhaul! If anybody has the time and expertise, please verify the diverse claims and write an article of quality with reference to all theories. Thank you! [[[Special:Contributions/79.196.209.50|79.196.209.50]] ( talk) 23:43, 23 August 2009 (UTC)]
1
The two dominant view among scientists are, recent African origin of modern humans, and the multiregional evolution. The Recent African origin of modern humans (RAO) view that H. sapiens speciated somewhere around 200 thousands years ago in Africa and spread across the globe, replacing other humans. The multiregional evolution (ME), view humans as having evolved as a single, widespread population, from beginning of Pleistocene around 2.5 million years ago. For RAO multiple speciation originated numbers of human species replacing each other, for ME the gene flow between regional populations evolved into H. sapiens living today.
The text above do not contain wording objectionable from each RAO and ME standpoint.(if has then what?) Who oppose and why ? Xook1kai Choa6aur ( talk) 18:43, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
4 http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/origins/migration.htm JPotter ( talk) 04:22, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
There are two theories about the origin of modern humans: 1) they arose in one place — Africa and 2) pre-modern humans migrated from Africa to become modern humans in other parts of the world. Most evidence points to the first theory because fossils of modern-like humans are found in Africa, stone tools and other artifacts support African origin DNA studies suggest a founding population in Africa
— Donald Johanson, http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html
For the moment, the majority of anatomical, archaeological and genetic evidence gives credence to the view that fully modern humans are a relatively recent evolutionary phenomenon. The current best explanation for the beginning of modern humans is the Out of Africa Model that postulates a single, African origin for Homo sapiens.
— Donald Johanson, http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html
Now, those are two quotes, from a respected physical anthro, who confirms the that majority view is a recent African migration. This website is the number one Google search for "out of africa vs multiregional". There are dozens of other websites, journals, and colleges that affirm this view is the mainstream view. You'll need to provide evidence that anthropologists have recently been convinced by newer evidence. Also, you are now reverting large swaths of cited text in contravention of the consensus here on the talk page. You'll need to stop doing that or else be subject to vandalism provisions as per Wikipedia policy. JPotter ( talk) 19:16, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
Previously hidden comment by IP 76
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the article DOI: 10.1126/science.1172257 do not pretend to interpert the gentic data in remote ~200-100ka past below the fragments qouting dates:
Africa within the past 5,000-3,000 years
with west-central Afroasiatic Chadic speaking populations in the global analysis at K < 11 (Fig. 3), supporting linguistic and archeological data suggesting bi-directional migration of Nilo-Saharans from source populations in Sudan within the past ~10,500 - 3,000 ya
|
Proposition #2 mark/describe RAO as refuted hipothesis, statistically strongly rejected (place RAO in history of science as other refuted stuff) :
Although less clear cut than the original conclusions, the out-of-africa model is still the most strongly favored, with little or no support for the multiregional model Richard Lewin, 2005, 5th Edition Human Evolution
JPotter (
talk) 19:24, 14 September 2009 (UTC)
“ | If the source population is placed in Africa, then the serial founder model explains three patterns observed in data: a decrease in heterozygosity, increase in LD, and decrease in the slope of the ancestral allele frequency spectrum with increasing distance from Africa. Our use of an instantaneous divergence model suggests that the patterns observed in the data—and the success of the serial founder model—are due to an increase in genetic drift and a corresponding increase in elapsed coalescence time with increasing distance from Africa. Unlike the serial founder model, an archaic persistence model, in which a migration wave of modern humans into preexisting archaic populations has the effect of increasing the diversity of the ancestors for populations at a greater distance from Africa, does not produce increasing drift with increasing distance from Africa, and does not explain observed patterns. [my bolding] | ” |
“ | The genealogical relationships at any one locus in the genome do not necessarily correspond to the phylogeny of the species as a whole. As we trace back the lineages of two genomic segments, sampled from two separate biological species, they may coalesce in a common ancestor at any time before those species became completely reproductively isolated. In the simplest case of a single, well-mixed ancestral population coalescence times are exponentially distributed, with a mean number of generations equal to twice the effective population size, 2 Ne. This distribution is highly variable, so that there is a 1% chance of coalescence more recently than 0.02 Ne generations before speciation, and a 1% chance of coalescence earlier than 9.2 Ne generations. Thus, if we have three species that diverged at closely similar times, it is quite likely that genealogies of individual genomic segments will not correspond to the overall phylogeny. [my bolding] | ” |
At what point in human history are remains found described as 'men' or 'women' rather than 'female of the species X'/'male of the species Y'? Jackiespeel ( talk) 13:50, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
In some of the newspaper articles Ardi was referred to as a woman. While this may be a tabloidism, I wondered how the distinctions would be made with other hominids - would one say a Neanderthal man and a Homo heidelbergensis woman or a male N, female Hh? Jackiespeel ( talk) 17:24, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
I am currently defending the use of Smithsonian non-free images of fossils as comparative tools at Talk:List of human evolution fossils and could use some more opinions. thanks Nowimnthing ( talk) 16:37, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
Who would believe this? If humans are "evolved" from animals, shouldn't all present-day animals be humans? Seriously, Scientology is ACTUALLY more believable than this theory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.132.204.176 ( talk) 02:40, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
Can I just point out that there is no conclusive proof for the Theory of Evolution? For one thing, people still haven't found a mechanism that will show that the Theory can work with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (Change from a disordered lifeform to an ordered lifeform.)
Also, if it has been proven (Maybe I live in a backwater civilization? =P) could there at least be a section on the page about the proof? Because, if someone scientifically 'proved' it (Fat chance. Science can't prove anything - it's the forming of rules of behaviour for specific situation.) I would seriously like to see the information. Otherwise, it has as much salt in it as a religion-on-faith-alone, which means Wikipedia is POV.
No offense! Please answer. Amatsu-Mikabushi ( talk) 23:30, 18 October 2009 (UTC) 22:59, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
This page is concerning Human Evolution, not the theory of evolution. Evolution is taking place and is measurable quantity, for example rates of recombination, rates of SNP evolution, etc are measurable between generations. The appearance of new mtDNA mutations outside of 3 'hot spots'(with observed events within different isolates of the same individuals) mutations appear about once every 4000 years. The rate of Y chromosomal evolution has been measured. So in terms of evolution as an ongoing process, evolution = change, and change is occurring.
The second issue is theory of creation or neobiogenesis. Since I run a molecular anthropology group I have been asked how life was created. My answer is that I don't know and don't really care. Within evolution everything is convergent on something older, and this process continues back to the putative first cellular species. Problem is that the convergence masks what happens before, ergo we cannot see. With convergences in humans, for example human mtDNA converge about 200,000 years ago, we can't see any evolution of mtDNA prior to this without using a different tool (for example sequencing Neandertal DNA, or chimp or gorilla DNA). This creates blind spots that can be filled in with information from X-chromomal or autosomal studies. However all of these reference points blend together at the same virtual point, the LCA of all life. Of course this is not precisely correct, within the first lifes history there was duplication of genes, etc but at some point all of these become extremely fuzzy representatives of the first biopolymers that coexisted within a consolidated form of life.
Human evolution is not interested in these early issues, these revolve around Neobiogensis theories and models, and the early evolution of life. Human evolution concerns primarily evolution from Old-World monkeys to Modern Apes, with a focus on the later, and even more focus on hominids. I cannot tell you how life was created. What I can say with certainty is that: Given: -over 500 individual representations of Neandertals -1/3rd of the Neandertal genome sequenced -6 full length sequences of mitogenomes of Neandertals -Several different species of late hominids that were not human. -The alignment of DNA evolution models and physical evolution models for Humans and Neandertals, for humans and Chimpanzees for Humans & Chimpanzess versus Gorilla that Human Evolution is unrefutable for anyone who has examined the current data.
Wikipedia has a policy of posting on Talk-pages that aspect which is designed to improve the Main page, this is part of the talk page guidelines. Questions of Evolution are better suited for pages on the Theory of Evolution and Neobiogenesis.
Questions pertinent to this talk page might include the following:
Why is the discussion of when Orangutan/Homo and Gibbon/Homo split so outdated? The more recent literature places the Orangutan/Homo split at 13 to 17 kya, and the Gibbon/Homo split at 16/22 kya. Why are not these "recent split times" referenced.
There is a hand-waving discussion of the Miocene large-bodied hominoids however the placement of these hominids as protohuman is questionable at best. The most similar large-bodied hominid to great apes is Pierolapithecus from 13 kya and White and other are claiming that the Gorilla/Homo split is in excess of 10 mya, with human chimpanzee split between 7 and 10 Ma, it seems that the new information of White is more pertinent to these discussions that alot decades old material on the page. PB666 yap 21:20, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
The issue of thermodynamics can be answered quite easily. The sun is approximately 95 million miles from earth, and there are heat sources within earth. As a consequence there is a gradient of energy that extend from sources of energy into the emptiness of space. Imagine if the earth continued to absorb the suns light and not emit radient energy itself, the temperature would climb to billions of degrees, eventually the earth would itself explode in a supernova, as uncommon nuclear reactions begin to occur at earths core. Instead energy adsorbed at the surface is converted to radient energy. Even a plant that can intercept that energy 1 micrometer before it strikes the earth is favored thermodynamic energy, the energy in light cannot anticipate what better randomize energy (Hv -- chrophyll --> Radient heat, reflected light, chemical energy). It may be true that the rock completely randomizes the energy faster, however the light cannot anticipate the better recipient. The event that trigger lights fate begins 95 million miles away, in the very energetic Sun's corona, from that perspective any randomization of energy is better than the energy remaining in the corona indefinitely. In additon, it is not a foregone conclusion that it will move to a lower state, that light could travel to an intercept an exploding super-Nova, therefore thermodynamics is probabilistic, not deterministic. A plant that can intercept energy prior to that energy reaching the earth is free to utilized that energy, in doing so it modulates the amount of energy striking the earth and created a steep temperature gradient at the surface. In compliance with the second law, plants with unlimited nutrient and water resources compete in the tropics to intercept light. Light drives the competition, and the competition drives life to stockpile chemical energy in the form of cellulose in tree roots and trunks, water transportation structures,etc. This further drives downstream complexity because other species then take advantage of the accumulated chemical energy to convert that energy to its final form, radiant energy that escapes earths atmosphere. Species like the Brazil nut tree grow higher and become sources of other forms of diversity because they are more efficient at intercepting light. In places where these sources of energy are less abundant, there is less force driving life and the number of versions of life are fewer, so that by the time one reaches the South Pole, there is so little energy residing that the only species that can survive are those that transport energy from elsewhere (for example the Emperor penguins). Evolution appears to be more rapid at the tropics, and while species form more rapidly in the arctic, they also tend to go extinct more rapidly. This is pertinent to the evolution of humans and great apes, as there have been a number of speciation events within the hominid lineages. An example of how tropics and arctic affects human evolution is for example certain peoples living in the tropics are almost entirely vegetarian (other food sources limited to insects, eggs, small amounts of fish) and other groups that have a large carnivore component, whereas in the arctic food sources for humans are almost entirely animal, many sources are the consequence of transport systems (oceanic) and breeding strategies. For example, Evolution has shaped the metabolism of Inuit peoples so that they can live healthy lives with large percentages of fat calories (particularly omega-3 rich sources), however they more adversely affected by carbohydrate calories, this appears to be a factor in the survival of the Inuit versus the Greenlandic Norse.
You might want to ask the question, what about before chlorophyll evolved. The answer is very simple, its not human evolution. What happens in heated clays of the early earth or with thermophilus aquaticus, methanoccus, methophilic bacteria is not an issue for this page. Furthermore to set the perspective strait, in Wikipedia we present answers to questions that have been published from reliable sources, and the reliable sources that involved the paleontology, archaeogenetics, molecular evolution, paleobiology, paleoecology on the topic of human evolution are numberous and well known. What this means is that we need 2 things, a reliable source of information (hopefully primary and secondary peer-reviewed material) and some tacit connection with the topic (human evolution as it can be separated from the evolution of other species), IOW the further a species evolution is from human evolution, the less appropriate it is to be posted on the main page. PB666 yap 22:02, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
Systematics of early and middle Miocene Old World monkeys - E.R. Millera, , , B.R. Benefitb, , M.L. McCrossinb, , J.M. Plavcanc, , M.G. Leakeyd, , A.N. El-Barkookye, , M.A. Hamdane, , M.K. Abdel Gawade, , S.M. Hassane, and E.L. Simonsf, Journal of Human Evolution. PB666 yap 23:13, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
This article contains two sections Human evolution#Evolution of contemporary humans and Human evolution#Genetics, which are two short and which have too short paragraphs. I added some material today to the former but the article still looks unbalanced. The genetics section really just looks like mostly fluff so I wonder about combining the two? (see WP:STYLE and WP:1A#Achieving flow for further information.) Regards to all. Trilobitealive ( talk) 17:45, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
I was hoping to find some insightful and up-to-date information about how humans evolved (i.e. what adaptations led to bipedality, brain, speech, consciousness, etc) but this is lacking in this article - other than a short reference to tool use and brain development. If you visit 'horse evolution' or 'whale evolution' you immediatly get information about why we think horses or whales evolved they way they did (i.e. hoof adaptation to grassland and teeth adaptation due to change in diet). What does the latest research say about why we walk upright? The latest I have read suggests bipedality arose from adapting to walking on flexible branches. Is this supported? In my opinion, this article needs to focus more on why and how we evolved. -- Kreid 2 ( talk) 03:58, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
There is no undeniable proof that evolution happened. Until it can be reproduced, it cannot be declared fact. Many noted evolutionists have disavowed the theory of evolution, and many so-called 'great discoveries' were proven to be hoaxes. Don't respond to this if you are going to say that it has been proven - I know for a fact that it has not and I will continue this until I get a section on 'controversy.' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.46.103 ( talk) 05:01, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
I have logic. How can one animal turn into many? How could that animal have come to exist? What existed before the animal? Look at the complexity of the human brain, and tell me how that could have just come into being? I could spend hours writing thousands of different questions, and I will not believe it until every single question is answered without room for doubt. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.8.169 ( talk) 13:44, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm not saying that they are not citing sources. I am saying that there ought to be a controversy section. Other issues I've read on here always includes a section on controversy, why not this? Evolution is a highly controversial theory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.7.167 ( talk) 23:06, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
No controversy? I read a news article that said that most Americans do not believe in evolution. Explain to me how gases have turned into the complexity of the human body. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.5.232 ( talk) 13:27, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
objections to evolution is a very lopsided argument stating evidence for evolution, rather than both evidence for and evidence against evolution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.5.232 ( talk) 13:41, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
Folks, we should have a permanent banner on the top of any Wikipedia page that states: "I have logic" is never an excuse for not having an education. In the meantime, DNFTT. This discussion is over. Slrubenstein | Talk 19:40, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
And while I may 'not got logic' like the guy above, he's right in his first sentence. I understand if Wikipedia is just quoting guys, but it should at least point out the fallacies everytime a scientist says "Intelligent Design" is not scientific (and thus dismissing the argument) or "Evolution actually does explain that" (and not following up) or Richard Dawkin's " He's a creationist of the old school." Amatsu-Mikabushi ( talk) 03:04, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
I noticed that the conversion between 400 Calories and 20 Watts has a minor issue. "Calories" or "kilocalories" are a unit of energy and watts are a unit of power (energy/time). According to Wikipedia's Conversion of units page, 1 international calorie (calIT) = 4.1868 Joules, and 1 Cal = 1000 calIT. Here is the math I came up with to verify the proper units. Average Human Energy intake per day = 2000 Cal/day, brain calories/day = 2000 Cal/day * 1/5 unit energy used by brain/unit energy total = 400 Cal/day. 400 Cal/day * 1000 cal/Cal = 400,000 cal/day * 4.1868 Joules/cal = 1674720 J/day * 1/24 day/hr * 1/60 hr/min * 1/60 min/sec = 19.3833... J/s ~ 20 W. So, 400 Cal/day ~ 20 W. I guess this is a really long winded way of saying that 400 Calories Per Day ~ 20 Watts (about 5 cal/s or 17 Cal/hr), not 400 Calories = 20 Watts. Tysior ( talk) 17:14, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
"However, many of Darwin's early supporters (such as Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Lyell) did not agree that the origin of the mental capacities and the moral sensibilities of humans could be explained by natural selection" Perhaps we need a page on the Darwin-Wallace controversy (that our mental capacities and ethical and aesthetic sensibilities cannot be explained on the basis of natural selection and the struggle for existence). Has this controversy ever been properly resolved? What are the main theories as to how, in the words of Wallace, "an organ (the human brain) developed so far beyond the needs of its possessor?" African gaucho ( talk) 08:29, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
The picture we have for the lead, while expectedly simplistic, is also out of date. The picture represents the human ancestor as knuckle walking, similar to a chimpanzee, when even the oldest hominid fossils are bipedal, with no indication of knuckle walking. It is today generally believed that the Human-Chimpanzee last common ancestor was bipedal and not a knuckle walker, and that knuckle walking was later developed independently on the chimpanzee branch of evolution. Unfortunately I don't have a replacement to suggest, I just thought I would bring attention to this issue.
74.107.142.232 (
talk) 02:42, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
One of the diagrams has H. mauritanicus, but we don't have an article or a redirect for it... that should exist... 70.29.208.247 ( talk) 06:55, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
The May 7th edition of Science is dedicated to the Neandertal Genome and the significant difference that contributed to our evolution. Exciting times! Regards GetAgrippa ( talk) 01:57, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
I don't think the Toba Eruption is mentioned here, can we put it in somewhere?
67.85.177.204 ( talk) 23:11, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
I note the article seems to have little or nothing to say about the significance of fire use and how it enables especially efficient food digestion
Without that efficient food digestion, would humans have the energy to run their large complex brains?
And how did they acquire the ability to cook food without having such brains in the first place?
No other animal has acquired the ability, not even chimpanzees, despite having the human example to learn from
Laurel Bush (
talk) 09:58, 4 June 2010 (UTC)
Cheers
Lots of animals eat raw meat
Perhaps more than one prehistoric primate species acquired the ability to cook food at about the same time, but competition between them was then so close that only one could survive, and modern primates, apart from humans, have only just evolved to the point were they might be able to acquire the ability
Perhaps we are close to witnessing the acquisition of use of fire by another species
A more fanciful idea is that only one prehistoric primate acquired a taste for a particular mind-expanding herb or fungus
Has Kanzi used fire to cook food?
Has anyone tried supplying him with pieces of flint and dry vegetative matter?
I imagine fire was first made somewhere that suitable flint was readily available
Laurel Bush (
talk) 12:16, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
Seems that given matches and marshmallows,
Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick
Laurel Bush (
talk) 16:16, 14 June 2010 (UTC)
How come this article is titled Human evolution but the all the other articles on Wikipedia about the evolution of animals (e.g. Evolution of birds, Evolution of mammals, Evolution of dinosaurs]], Evolution of the horse, etc.) star with the phrase “Evolution of…” What separates the Humans from this commonality? It isn’t a big deal, but I suggest we change the title of the article to Evolution of Humans just to keep the commonality and simplicity between articles. Suggestions? Andrew Colvin • Talk 05:21, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
I'm afraid the reason is much more mundane: human is a noun, AS WELL AS an adjective, so it's much more natural this way. :-) -- 79.113.224.217 ( talk) 21:26, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
"All modern human DNA is between 1% and 4% Neanderthal. (To appreciate how big of a percentage this is, consider that humans and chimps only differ in 1.5% of their DNA.)"
That's wrong!
Extracted from John Hawks' blog:
Your great-grandmother on average gave you 1/8 of her genes, making up on average 12.5% of your genome.
You are more than 99.9% similar to your grandmother, on average, yet she contributed only 12.5% of your genome.
In other words, these percentages are different things -- the fraction of your total ancestry you can trace to her, versus the fraction of base pairs you actually have identical to hers. Your genome is much more identical to hers than can be explained solely by your descent from her -- this is because you share other ancestors in common with her, and because mutations don't happen very often.
Or, think about it the opposite way. Suppose that the 12.5 percent of your genome you inherited from your great-grandmother meant that you were only 12.5 percent genetically similar to her. Where did you get the rest of your genes from? A turnip? No, you got them from other people, all of whom are roughly 99.9 percent like your great-grandmother. You're 12.5 percent more like your great-grandmother than you are like randomly chosen people in the population.
"This 1-4% DNA from Neanderthals results in larger cerebral cortex and a range of abilities associated with higher intelligence. Interestingly, this 1-4% bit of DNA is only present in non-african humans."
Wrong again. Could you cite at least ONE study claiming that this shared percentage results in larger cerebral cortex and higher intelligence? The answer is you CAN'T because there isn't one. These genes do not result in anything, simply because they're neutral genes (i.e. they have no known function):
So, it is completely ridiculous to pretend that these neutral genes have anything to do with higher intelligence respect to Africans. There are no serious studies supporting the idea that non-Africans (or neanderthals) are more intelligent than Africans, so I find this to be pretty ignorant and racist. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.17.55.124 ( talk) 13:30, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
I am a scientist who specializes in the fields of anthropology and paleoanthropology, I would like to introduce to you the peer reviewed scientific evidence supporting a separate independent evolution of the modern Chinese people from an archaic species of Homo Erectus, specifically the separate species known as Homo Pekinensis. Below I have provided the results of scientific DNA studies that provide strong irrefutable support for an independent origin of the Chinese from Homo Pekinensis. These scientific studies have all been published in peer reviewed scientific journals and are well received by the scientific community. Please take some time to read them and feel free to ask me any questions regarding human evolution.
1.)
Genetics Society of America's
Genetics Journal, "
Testing for Archaic Hominin Admixture on the X Chromosome: Model Likelihoods for the Modern Human RRM2P4 Region From Summaries of Genealogical Topology Under the Structured Coalescent" by Murray P. Cox, Fernando L. Mendez, Tatiana M. Karafet, Maya Metni Pilkington, Sarah B. Kingan, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Beverly I. Strassmann and Michael F. Hammer.
2.)
Oxford University's
Oxford Journals,
Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome by Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder and Michael F. Hammer
3.) Oxford University's Oxford Journals Global Patterns of Human DNA Sequence Variation in a 10-kb Region on Chromosome 1 by Ning Yu, Z. Zhao, Y.-X. Fu, N. Sambuughin, M. Ramsay, T. Jenkins, E. Leskinen, L. Patthy, L. B. Jorde, T. Kuromori and W.-H. Li
4.) BMC Biology Journal of Biology " Y chromosome evidence of earliest modern human settlement in East Asia and multiple origins of Tibetan and Japanese populations" by Shi H, Zhong H, Peng Y, Dong YL, Qi XB, Zhang F, Liu LF, Tan SJ, Ma RZ, Xiao CJ, Wells RS, Jin L, Su B.
It is tempting to simply dismiss the new peer reviewed scientific evidence that contradicts the previously accepted "out of Africa" theory of human evolution where, supposedly, all humans were descended from the same group of Homo Sapien ancestors and which subsequently gives "strong support" in favor of an independent East Asian origin of a separate archaic branch or separate species of humans, the modern day Chinese people. But unfortunately, the reality of human evolution during the past 4 billions of life on our planet Earth is not as clear cut as the "out of Africa" theory attempts to address it. The "out of Africa" theory tries to say that "ALL" humans are descended from the same group of anatomically modern " Cro Magnon" or Homo Sapien Sapiens and while some of the older previous studies did initially seem to support that theory, those studies were not all inclusive and did not test many aspects of human genetics and evolution. But within the last few years, new genetic evidence has been discovered as a result of numerous scientific studies that have been conducted which lend a strong support for the theory that the modern Chinese people, or conservatively, a subpopulation of the Chinese gene pool are descended NOT from anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens like other humans on Earth, but rather that they are the product of a separate evolutionary lineage going back at least 1.8 million - 2 million years ago to Homo Erectus in East Asia. And that the modern Chinese people today are not necessarily classified as " Homo Sapien," but more accurately they could be classified as a highly evolved anatomically modern form of Homo Pekinensis. You must remember that regardless of whether we are talking about Homo Neanderthalensis or Homo Erectus that we are talking about human beings. And even though they are a classified as a separate species of human beings, nothing can take away their "humanity," for if one of them were dressed up in a modern day suit, they would still be recognized as "humans."
Please watch the evidence on these links:
1.)
Scientific evidence from the Chinese Academy of Sciences
2.)
All Non Africans Living Today Are Part Neanderthal
3.)
New evidence that Neanderthals interbred with Humans
Adding further support to the Multi-regional theory of human evolution are the recent DNA discoveries that anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens interbred with Homo Neanderthalensis or the Neanderthal man, in direct contradiction to the thesis of the "out of Africa" theory which specifically states that Homo Sapien did not interbred with Homo Neanderthalensis and that the Neanderthal simply "went extinct." Which has now been shown in peer reviewed scientific studies to be untrue, and that the Homo Sapien and Homo Neanderthalensis did indeed interbreed with each other. These studies are additionally supported by previous archaeological finds that show skeletons of humans who show hybrid morphological and anatomical traits of both species of humans, both Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis.
Please read the following evidence:
1.)
NewScientist Neanderthal genome reveals interbreeding with humans
2.)
Archaic admixture in the human genome, Neanderthal genes in modern humans
3.)
Signs of Neanderthals Mating With Humans
4.)
Discovery News "Neanderthals, Humans Interbred, DNA Proves"
5.)
USA Today Neanderthals and humans interbred, fossils indicate
6.)
BBC "Neanderthals 'mated with modern humans'"
7.)
Official report Neanderthal/Homo Sapien interbred
8.)
Cosmos Humans and Neanderthals interbred, according to our anatomy
9.)
Neanderthals live on in DNA of humans
Thank you! --
71.68.251.209
talk
1.)
Genetics Society of America's
Genetics Journal, "
Testing for Archaic Hominin Admixture on the X Chromosome: Model Likelihoods for the Modern Human RRM2P4 Region From Summaries of Genealogical Topology Under the Structured Coalescent" by Murray P. Cox, Fernando L. Mendez, Tatiana M. Karafet, Maya Metni Pilkington, Sarah B. Kingan, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Beverly I. Strassmann and Michael F. Hammer.
2.)
Oxford University's
Oxford Journals,
Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome by Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder and Michael F. Hammer
--
71.68.251.209
talk
3.) Oxford University's Oxford Journals Global Patterns of Human DNA Sequence Variation in a 10-kb Region on Chromosome 1 by Ning Yu, Z. Zhao, Y.-X. Fu, N. Sambuughin, M. Ramsay, T. Jenkins, E. Leskinen, L. Patthy, L. B. Jorde, T. Kuromori and W.-H. Li
4.) BMC Biology Journal of Biology " Y chromosome evidence of earliest modern human settlement in East Asia and multiple origins of Tibetan and Japanese populations" by Shi H, Zhong H, Peng Y, Dong YL, Qi XB, Zhang F, Liu LF, Tan SJ, Ma RZ, Xiao CJ, Wells RS, Jin L, Su B.
Specifically, the "out of Africa" theory states that Homo Sapiens did not interbreed with Homo Neanderthalensis or Homo Erectus, but that "out of Africa" view is now being shown to be PARTIALLY INCORRECT, and that there have been both interbreeding, which supports the Multi-Regional Theory, as well as some subpopulations of China that have not interbred with anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens even up until the present day. Whereas some other individuals from China show genes from Homo Sapiens due to the interbreeding between their Homo Erectus ancestors and African Homo Sapiens immigrants who may have migrated to China sometime within the past 100,000 years.
There is a tremendous amount of peer reviewed fossil and genetic evidence supporting the thesis that the Chinese are indeed decended from the Homo Erectus species of Homo Pekinensis, distinct from the European Homo Heidelbergensis, better known as Peking Man. You must realize the demographics of China, and that humans have been entering and leaving the area for hundreds of thousands of years, some interbreeding must have taken place, but it does NOT rule out the fact that the Chinese can trace their evolutionary lineage back to an ancestral Homo Pekinensis. All of the archaic East Asian Homo Pekinensis and Homo Erectus fossils studied have shown a continuity of unique morphological and anatomical traits, such as small frontal sinuses, reduced posterior teeth, shovel-shaped incisors, and high frequencies of metopic sutures, which are virtually absent in modern day European, Middle Eastern, and African populations but widely present in the modern population of the Han Chinese.
New evidence also shows that Homo Erectus or the Chinese species of Homo Pekinensis lived 200,000 earlier than previously thought.
National Geographic Society Peking Man (Homo Pekinensis) Lived in China 200,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought -- 71.68.251.209 talk
It is obvious to any reader that your aggressive and hostile behavior is present in your previous statements, self-explanatory to anyone reading this discussion. I refused to be dragged down to a low uncivilized level of trivial human "tribal warfare." My position has been clearly stated and supported by the peer reviewed scientific journals I provided, and if you are not happy about some new evidence contradicting your beliefs on the "out of Africa" model than I implore you to provide some scientific evidence rather than engaging in unproductive arguments of which I will have absolutely no part. The "out of Africa" model, while partially true for most humans, does not hold up to scrutiny when we are talking about interbreeding with Neanderthals and the Chinese Homo Pekinensis! The evidence is here for everyone to see and become educated with up to date information!
"Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance." -Professor Albert Einstein -- 71.68.251.209 talk
From my understanding of the articles (and YouTube videos) provided by 71.68.251.209, the Multi-regional hypothesis certainly has something going for it. Who's to say that modern humans and archaics could not have interbred? One can wonder why certain Anthropologists coined the term " Archaic Homo sapiens" to include Homo heidelbergensis, Homo rhodesiensis, and Neanderthals into one species. However, who's to say that the Chinese evolved "independently" from African Homo sapiens? The apparent admixture in the modern Chinese genome seems so small compared to their relations with non-Chinese, in terms of mtDNA and Y-Chromosomal DNA.
Please watch the following YouTube videos which I believe prove, directly or indirectly, the African origin of modern Chinese:
Now for the admixture of Neanderthal genes into the modern genome, which is about 1%-4% in non-African populations, I believe gives credence to the RAO hypothesis, albeit indirectly. Had non-Africans evolved from neanderthalensis, or even Asian erectus for that matter, wouldn't we expect to find a uniqueness greater than 1 or 4 percent in non-Africans today? All that the articles provided by 71.68.251.209 prove is that modern and archaic populations could apparently interbreed. Whether these prehistoric human populations were subspecies of the species Homo sapiens is a question that has yet to be met with a consensus. Regardless, Homo sapiens sapiens have ultimate origins in Africa, as does Homo erectus, but I cannot say the two are descended from a single family, as the Multi-regional hypothesis wishes to prove in the case of modern Chinese. Erectus may just have been an evolutionary dead end, and are now extinct. Some individuals within our species may carry an erectus pseudogene, but positive selection may have "felt" that the genotype was of some significance to the potential Sapiens-Erectus hybrid. Natural selection, however, may have favored the overwhelmingly modern traits over the archaic ones, and thus the archaics died out over time.
This is all just speculation, but I believe it can help in understanding the extinction of Homo erectus and why it took place, and why we obviously outlived the species. - Ano-User ( talk) 13:31, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
In reply to the above links you provided, I have not only watched them multiple times but I have also extensively studied the scientific papers published by Dr. Jin Li et al. as well as the numerous other mitochondrial studies. You must realize that Dr. Jin Li et al. studied autosomal snps collected from a relatively small sample of test subjects in China that utilized 160K snps in only 1700 individuals out of all total population size that is somewhere between 1.5 - 2 billion people in China. And for Dr. Jin Li et al. to make this radical conclusion based on his studies of only 1,700 individuals and claim that this somehow "proves" the Chinese descended from African Homo Sapiens is a big leap of faith that is not supported by the genetic studies of Dr. Daniel Garrigan et al. and Dr. Murray P. Cox et al. who provide irrefutable evidence showing that modern day Chinese have archaic Homo Erectus Pekinensis genes in their DNA, different from all other modern humans who are descended from anatomically modern African "Cro Magnon" Homo Sapiens. These peer reviewed scientific papers provide additional support to the enormous amount of fossil studies that have been conducted showing that there is an evolutionary continuity between archaic Homo Erectus Pekinensis and the anatomically modern Chinese, whether they can be classified either as Homo Sapiens Sapiens or more accurately a more highly evolved form of anatomically modern Homo Pekinensis. Numerous Archaeological fossil studies and as well as the relatively recent genetic studies have shown that many modern Chinese people retain both the genes and their consequential phenotypic morphological traits, such as flattened faces, small frontal sinuses, reduced posterior teeth, shovel-shaped incisors, and high frequencies of metopic sutures, which are virtually absent in modern day European, Middle Eastern, and African populations but widely present in the modern population of the Han Chinese. This presents fossil evidence strongly suggesting a direct evolutionary lineage of the modern Chinese people from their ancestors of the species Homo Erectus Pekinensis.
Please watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJnuMx8KD84&feature=related
1.)
Genetics Society of America's
Genetics Journal, "
Testing for Archaic Hominin Admixture on the X Chromosome: Model Likelihoods for the Modern Human RRM2P4 Region From Summaries of Genealogical Topology Under the Structured Coalescent" by Murray P. Cox, Fernando L. Mendez, Tatiana M. Karafet, Maya Metni Pilkington, Sarah B. Kingan, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Beverly I. Strassmann and Michael F. Hammer.
A
2.)
Oxford University's
Oxford Journals,
Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome by Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder and Michael F. Hammer
3.) Oxford University's Oxford Journals Global Patterns of Human DNA Sequence Variation in a 10-kb Region on Chromosome 1 by Ning Yu, Z. Zhao, Y.-X. Fu, N. Sambuughin, M. Ramsay, T. Jenkins, E. Leskinen, L. Patthy, L. B. Jorde, T. Kuromori and W.-H. Li
4.) BMC Biology Journal of Biology " Y chromosome evidence of earliest modern human settlement in East Asia and multiple origins of Tibetan and Japanese populations" by Shi H, Zhong H, Peng Y, Dong YL, Qi XB, Zhang F, Liu LF, Tan SJ, Ma RZ, Xiao CJ, Wells RS, Jin L, Su B.
Also, numerous scientific studies have shown that modern non-Africans, meaning all humans who either migrated out of Africa or evolved independently have Neanderthal genes in their DNA showing that the original "out of Africa" model of human replacement is partially incorrect. The original "out of Africa" theory proposed that the archaic humans (aka. neanderthals & Homo Pekinensis) were wiped out extinct for some "as yet unknown reason," but possibly resource competition & warfare, by the anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens who supposedly "replaced" them and subsequently populated the world. While it may comforting to say that "all humans are the same" because we are supposedly from the "same ancestors," it does not hold up scientific scrutiny with numerous peer reviewed studies showing conclusively that most non-Africans (aka. Europeans, some South Asian and Middle Easterners) are actually descendants of both anatomically modern African Homo Sapiens who had interbred and produced viable hybrid children with the separate human species of Homo Neanderthalensis. The influx of around 70 different Neanderthal genes caused the evolution of some of the genetic and phenotypic differences we see now in modern humans around the world. I must also mention that in the case of Chinese people having "neanderthal genes," we can interpret the studies in two different ways:
1.) The modern Chinese people have "neanderthal genes" simply because both Homo Erectus Pekinensis and Homo Heidelbergensis, the ancestor of the Neanderthals, possessed a distinct evolutionary common ancestor. And that these common genes were inherited independently by both species of archaic humans and passed down to modern Chinese by Homo Pekinensis and respectively into Homo Heidelbergensis's neanderthal descendants.
2.) That the ancestral species of Homo Erectus Pekinensis interbred directly with some members of Homo Neanderthalensis and produced viable hybrid Homo Pekinensis/Homo Neanderthalensis children. -- 71.68.251.209 talk
Before you engage again in uninformed criticism, please take some time to read about the BMC Biology Journal of Biology, Genetics Society of America and Oxford University's Oxford Journals so you can understand that they are both reliable and verifiable peer reviewed academic sources that are also prestigious institutions of higher knowledge.
1.)
Genetics Society of America's
Genetics Journal, "
Testing for Archaic Hominin Admixture on the X Chromosome: Model Likelihoods for the Modern Human RRM2P4 Region From Summaries of Genealogical Topology Under the Structured Coalescent" by Murray P. Cox, Fernando L. Mendez, Tatiana M. Karafet, Maya Metni Pilkington, Sarah B. Kingan, Giovanni Destro-Bisol, Beverly I. Strassmann and Michael F. Hammer.
2.)
Oxford University's
Oxford Journals,
Evidence for Archaic Asian Ancestry on the Human X Chromosome by Daniel Garrigan, Zahra Mobasher, Tesa Severson, Jason A. Wilder and Michael F. Hammer
3.) Oxford University's Oxford Journals Global Patterns of Human DNA Sequence Variation in a 10-kb Region on Chromosome 1 by Ning Yu, Z. Zhao, Y.-X. Fu, N. Sambuughin, M. Ramsay, T. Jenkins, E. Leskinen, L. Patthy, L. B. Jorde, T. Kuromori and W.-H. Li
4.) BMC Biology Journal of Biology " Y chromosome evidence of earliest modern human settlement in East Asia and multiple origins of Tibetan and Japanese populations" by Shi H, Zhong H, Peng Y, Dong YL, Qi XB, Zhang F, Liu LF, Tan SJ, Ma RZ, Xiao CJ, Wells RS, Jin L, Su B.
The previous "out of Africa" model is only partial correct, while evidence shows there was indeed an out of Africa migration of Homo Sapiens, it does NOT mean that all humans are descended from this small population of Homo Sapiens. In Europe, the archaic humans, Homo Neanderthalensis, existed independently and interbred with these African Homo Sapiens resulting in the 1%-4% genetic admixture of all non-Africans. And in the case of the Chinese, numerous scientific studies have been published showing both genetic and fossil evidence that the modern Chinese people possess a different nucleotide encoding in their DNA, which in simplest terms means the Chinese have genes and other DNA fragments which they inherited from their Homo Erectus Pekinensis ancestor. Additionally, fossil evidence unearthed at the Zhoukoudian archaeological site have shown Homo Pekinensis fossils to have a continuity of anatomical and morphological traits with many modern Chinese people. All of the archaic East Asian Homo Pekinensis and Homo Erectus fossils studied have shown a continuity of unique morphological and anatomical traits, such as flattened faces, small frontal sinuses, reduced posterior teeth, shovel-shaped incisors, and high frequencies of metopic sutures, which are virtually absent in modern day European, Middle Eastern, and African populations but widely present in the modern population of the Han Chinese. -- 71.68.251.209 talk
This is a proposal to add new information about the separate evolution of Han Chinese people from their prehistoric ancestors Homo Erectus Pekinensis and the archaeological fossil evidence that supports a multiregional evolution for a portion of the Han Chinese people. The following paper presents evidence suggesting that the Han Chinese are not descended from the small group of Homo Sapiens Sapiens who had migrated out of Africa sometime within the last 60,000 - 100,000 years ago but instead have maintained an evolutionary continuity, being directly descended from Homo Erectus Pekinensis. Please read the following scientific paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/26m138v171861478/fulltext.pdf
This is a proposal to add new information about the separate evolution of Han Chinese people from their prehistoric ancestors Homo Erectus Pekinensis and the archaeological fossil evidence that supports a multiregional evolution for a portion of the Han Chinese people. The following paper presents evidence suggesting that the Han Chinese are not descended from the small group of Homo Sapiens Sapiens who had migrated out of Africa sometime within the last 60,000 - 100,000 years ago but instead have maintained an evolutionary continuity, being directly descended from Homo Erectus Pekinensis. Please read the following scientific paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/26m138v171861478/fulltext.pdf
Please, no more. Other than the person soapboxing on this topic, everyone agrees that it is unsuitable for Wikipedia. Given the protracted discussions (see the archives), there is no benefit from discussing the matter further, even to add more refutations. Such discussions invite replies from the proponent or trolls, when what is now required is the firm removal of all off-topic comments. I propose that this section be archived in a few days. Johnuniq ( talk) 02:26, 7 November 2010 (UTC)
The proposed article improvement by the above user is NOT about being "politically or socially correct" it seems to be based on the genetic evidence showing that the Han Chinese may in fact be a separate species of humans decended directly from Peking Man. It does seem to have scientific grounding even if many people would find it "offensive" that the Han Chinese evolved separately from the rest of humanity. Just because it's not politically correct doesn't mean it's not true! Wikipedia is NOT about making people happy, it's about creating an encyclopedia with accurate and the latest information in science, we should give the evidence for a separate Han Chinese evolution more recognition in light of the irrefutable genetic evidence presented in scientific papers! 71.68.255.76 ( talk) 05:16, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
I have archived this talk page ( here) because it is overrun with soapboxing from at least 71.49.197.242, 66.116.112.6, 63.164.47.229, 71.68.251.54, 68.222.236.154 (the last two IPs are blocked for one year). I suggest that further attempts to introduce similar material ( example diff) be reverted per the talk page guidelines which require that this page be used only for genuine attempts to discuss improvements to the article. This page is not the place to promote alternative views. Johnuniq ( talk) 10:36, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
This section has growing like Topsy, with many names having made no direct contribution to evolutionary anthropology or palaeontology. So I'm going to toss out a few for which the connection is too slender. Readers have a right to expect some common sense here. In any event, the section is one which does not usually appear on our science pages. People who make a real contribution are usually obvious from the content of the article. Macdonald-ross ( talk) 14:58, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
I think this article should at least mention the ideas that are most frequently addressed by popular science (e.g. documentaries) on this article's topic. For example: did the invention of cooking play a driving role, or the rise of language, how do we know there wasn't an aquatic phase, and did persistence hunting play any role? Some of these may even have been entirely disproved or baseless, but they're still being advanced in the popular literature on this topic, and so worthy of brief mention if only to state the expert consensus about each. Can anyone recommend review articles from which to source more material on the accepted causes of the differences between humans and other chimpanzees? Cesiumfrog ( talk) 09:06, 29 December 2010 (UTC)