Homo sapiens structure. Homo sapiens is a species that combines biological and social essence.
Remark 1
Homo sapiens (lat. Homo sapiens) is a systematic name used in taxonomy (also known as binomial nomenclature) for anatomically modern people, that is, the only surviving human species. This name was introduced in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus (who himself is also a type specimen).
Speciation
Extinct species of the genus Homo are classified as "archaic humans". This genus includes at least a single species of Homo erectus and possibly a number of other species (which are variously considered to be also subspecies of either H. sapiens or H. erectus. H. sapiens idaltu is a proposed extinct subspecies of H. sapiens.
The age of speciation of H. sapiens from ancestral H. erectus (or intermediate species such as Homo heidelbergensis) is thought to be between about 300,000-200,000 years ago. However, it is assumed that intermingling with archaic human species continued over a period of time until a period of about 30,000 years ago - the extinction point of any surviving archaic species. human species, which appear to have been consumed by the expansion of Homo sapiens starting about 50,000 years ago.
Genus Homo
Definition 1
Homo is the genus that covers existing species Homo sapiens (modern humans), as well as several extinct species classified as its ancestors or closely related to modern humans.
The genus Homo is 2 to 3 million years old and is descended from the genus Australopithecus, which itself had previously split from the line of Pan, the chimpanzee. Taxonomically, Homo is the only genus assigned to the subtribes Hominina, which, with the subtropics Australopithecina and Panina, constitute the tribe Hominini. All species of the genus Homo, together with the species of Australopithecus that arose after the split from Pan, are called hominins. Species of the genus Homo:
- Homo habilis (Handy man) 2.6-2.5 (million years ago) Range: Africa
- Homo rudolfensis (Rudolf Man) 2-1.78 (million years ago) Range: Kenya
- Homo erectus (Human erectus) 2-0.03 (million years ago) Range: Africa, Eurasia (Java, China, Caucasus)
- Homo georgicus (Georgian Man) 1.8 (million years ago) Range: Georgia
- Homo ergaster (Man working) 1.8-1.4 (million years ago) Range: South and East Africa
- Homo antecessor (Man-predecessor) 1.2-0.8 (million years ago) Range: Spain
- Homo cepranensis (Man from Ceprano) 0.9-0.8 (million years ago) Range: Italy
- Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg man) 0.8-0.345 (million years ago) Range: Europe, Africa, China
- Homo rhodesiensis (Rhodesian man) 0.3-0.12 (million years ago) Range: Zambia
- Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal) 0.35-0.040 (million years ago) Range: Europe, Western Asia
- Homo sapiens sapiens (Homo sapiens) 0.2-B.C. V. Range: all over
- Homo sapiens idaltu (Old Homo sapiens) 0.16-0.15 (million years ago) Range: Ethiopia
- Homo floresiensis (Floresian man) 0.10-0.012 (million years ago) Range: Indonesia
Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens are among the most important species of the genus Homo.
Homo erectus - appeared about two million years ago in East Africa(where it was named Homo ergaster), and in several early migrations it spread throughout Africa and Eurasia. Probably the first hominin lived in a hunter-gatherer society and controlled the fire.
The adaptive and successful Homo erectus species persisted for almost 2 million years before suddenly becoming extinct around 70,000 years ago (0.07 million years), possibly victims of the ultrafast Toba catastrophe.
Homo sapiens sapiens - anatomically comparable to modern humans, appeared about 200,000 years ago (0.2 million years ago) in East Africa Modern humans migrated out of Africa as early as 60,000 years ago. During the Upper Paleolithic, they spread throughout Africa, Eurasia, Oceania, and America, and they encountered archaic people along the way during these migrations. Homo sapiens sapiens is the only surviving species and subspecies of the genus Homo.
Origin of Homo sapiens
Remark 2
Traditionally in paleoanthropology, there are two competing views on the origin of H. sapiens: a recent African origin and a multiregional origin.
Recent genetic studies have also resulted in an intermediate position, characterized mainly by recent African ancestry with the addition of limited admixture (introgression) from archaic humans.
The recent African origin of modern humans is the main model that describes the origin and early distribution of anatomically modern humans. The theory is called the (recent) Out-of-Africa model, and also the Academically Recent Single Origin Hypothesis (RSOH), instead of the Recent African Origin Hypothesis and Model (RAO). The hypothesis that humans have a single origin (monogenesis) was published in The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin (1871). This concept was speculative until the 1980s, when it was confirmed by the study of modern mitochondrial DNA, combined with evidence based on the physical anthropology of archaic specimens. According to genetic and fossil evidence, archaic Homo sapiens evolved to anatomically modern humans in Africa approximately 200,000 years ago, at the time when members of one branch of the species left Africa 60,000 years ago and eventually replaced earlier human populations such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus. A very recent (2017) study of fossils found in Jebel Irud (Morocco) suggests that Homo sapiens may have evolved as early as 315,000 years ago. Some other evidence also suggests that Homo sapiens may have migrated out of Africa as early as 270,000 years ago.
Remark 3
The recent single origin of modern humans in East Africa was a near-consensual position held in the scientific community until 2010. However, in 2010 significant archaic human admixture with modern humans was found.
The multi-regional origin model proposed by Milford H. Wolpoff in 1988 provides a different explanation for the pattern of human evolution. The multi-regional origin suggests that the evolution of mankind dates back to the Pleistocene 2.5 million years and has been one continuous human species up to the present.
Why are people called people? For an adult, this question may seem somewhat "childish". However, it is often quite difficult for parents to answer it to a child. Let's find out how a reasonable person (homo sapiens) appeared and what is meant by this concept.
What is meant by the term "person"?
What is the meaning of the word "man"? According to encyclopedic data, a person is a living being endowed with reason, free will, the gift of thinking and speech. Based on the definition, only people have the ability to meaningfully create tools and use them in the course of organizing social labor. In addition, a person is subject to transmit his own thoughts to other individuals using a set of speech symbols.
The emergence of Homo sapiens
The first information about Homo sapiens dates back to the Stone Age (Paleolithic). It was during this period, according to scientists, that people learned to organize themselves into small groups in order to jointly search for food, protect themselves from wild animals, and raise offspring. The first economic activity of people was hunting and gathering. All kinds of sticks and stone axes were used as tools. Communication between people of the Stone Age took place through gestures.
At first, representatives of homo sapiens were guided in the organization of herd life solely by survival instincts. In this regard, the first people were more like animals. The physical and mental formation of Homo sapiens ended in the late Paleolithic period, when the first rudiments of oral speech, the distribution of roles began to occur in groups, and the tools of labor became more advanced.
Characteristic features of Homo sapiens
Why are people called people? Representatives of the species "reasonable man" differ from their primitive predecessors in the presence of abstract thinking, the ability to express their intentions in verbal form.
To understand why people are called people, let's start from the definition. Homo sapiens has learned to improve the tools of labor. At present, more than 100 items of a separate purpose have been found, which were used in the organization of life in groups by people of the Late Paleolithic era. Homo sapiens knew how to build dwellings. Although at first they were quite primitive.
Gradually, herd life was replaced by tribal communities. Primitive people began to identify their relatives, to distinguish between representatives of the species that belong to hostile groups.
The organization of a primitive society with the distribution of roles, as well as the ability to analyze the situation, led to the elimination of complete dependence on environmental factors. Gathering was replaced by the cultivation of plant foods. Hunting was gradually replaced by cattle breeding. Thanks to such opportunistic activity, the indicators of the average life expectancy of Homo sapiens have increased significantly.
Speech awareness
Answering the question why people are called people, it is worth considering the speech aspect separately. Man is the only species on Earth that can form complex combinations of sounds, memorize them and identify messages from other individuals.
The rudiments of the above abilities are also noted in some representatives of the animal world. For example, some birds that are familiar with human speech can quite accurately reproduce individual phrases, but do not understand their meaning. In fact, these are just imitative possibilities.
To realize the meaning of words, to create meaningful combinations of sounds, requires a special signaling system that only humans have. Biologists have repeatedly tried to teach individual creatures, in particular primates and dolphins, the system of symbols used for human communication. However, such experiments gave little results.
Finally
Perhaps it was precisely the ability of prehistoric man to organize life in groups, communicate, create tools, distribute social roles allowed modern people to take a dominant place on the planet among all living beings. Thus, it is assumed that the presence of culture allows us to be called people.
Human life appeared on Earth approximately 3.2 million years ago. Until now, mankind does not know for certain how human life originated. There are a number of theories that provide their own options for the origin of man.
The most famous of these theories are religious, biological and cosmic. There is also an archaeological periodization of the life of ancient people, which is based on what material in different time tools were made.
The Paleolithic era - the appearance of the first man
The appearance of man is associated with the Paleolithic era - the Stone Age (from the Greek "paleos" - ancient, "lithos" - stone). The first people lived in small herds, their economic activity was gathering and hunting. The only tool of labor was a stone axe. Language was replaced by gestures, a person was guided solely by his own instincts of self-preservation and in many ways was similar to an animal.
In the era of the Late Paleolithic, mental and physical formation was completed modern man, lat. Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens.
Features of Homo sapiens: anatomy, speech, tools
Homo sapiens differs from his predecessors in the ability to think abstractly and express his thoughts in an articulate speech form. Homo sapiens learned to build the first, albeit rather primitive dwellings.
Primitive man had a number of anatomical differences from Homo sapiens. The brain part of the skull was much smaller than the front. Since Homo sapiens was more mentally developed, his skull structure changes completely: front part decreases, a flat forehead appears, a chin protrusion appears. The hands of a reasonable person are significantly shortened: after all, he no longer needs to be engaged in gathering, he is being replaced by agriculture.
Homo sapiens significantly improves the tools of labor, there are already more than 100 types of them. The primitive herd is already being replaced by a formed tribal community: Homo sapiens clearly defines its relatives among many people. Thanks to the ability to analyze, he begins to fill the surrounding objects and phenomena with spiritual meaning - this is how the first religious beliefs are born.
Homo sapiens is no longer so dependent on nature: hunting is being replaced by cattle breeding, he can also grow vegetables and fruits on his own, without resorting to gathering. Due to the fact that a person was able to adapt to environment and fight with natural disasters, his average life is increased by about 5 years.
Later, with the improvement of the tools of labor, a reasonable person will create a class society, which speaks, first of all, of material superiority and the ability to create personal property. Homo sapiens is inherent in the belief in the spirits of deceased ancestors, who allegedly help and patronize him.
Looking at the evolutionary development of humanity, the soul is filled with admiration for its willpower and ability to deal with various obstacles in its path. Thanks to this, a person was able not only to get out of the cave, but also independently build modern skyscrapers, realize himself in science and art, completely subjugating nature.
Homo sapiens, a species to which modern man belongs. It developed from Homo erectus about 200-400 thousand years ago. the bones became less massive, the back of the head became more rounded. The subsequent development of "Ch.r." it is not clear, because This species is divided into two branches. One leads to the Neanderthal (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), the other - to the modern. to humans (Homo sapiens). The development of the latter took approx. 125 thousand years. Anatomical and genetic evidence supports the assumption that it appeared in Africa, but possibly in parallel in the Far East. On Bl. East people settled approx. 50 thousand years ago. In Europe, they appeared a little later - approx. 35 thousand years ago. The very first European inhabitants of modern type is often called Cro-Magnon. It is not known what role was played in this process on Bl. East and Europe Neanderthals. It is very likely that they were not our direct ancestors. But it is possible that they mixed with the "Ch.R.", which came to Europe from Africa through Bl. East.
With the development of "Ch.r." it means that the tools of labor have improved, the number has sharply increased. population, there was an association of people. activities in places of residence and the emergence of lawsuits. A period called the Upper Paleolithic began. The Upper Paleolithic man must have developed speech. As we grow. there was a settlement of new territories, which, apparently, began shortly after the appearance of "Ch.r." People migrated from Indonesia to New Guinea and Australia at least c. 40 thousand years ago; there, in conditions of isolation from other representatives of the genus, developed character traits australoids. The timing of the first human settlement in the New World is debatable. It probably happened at St. 15 thousand years ago. Archeol. evidence of earlier settlement is practically absent, but the genetic, linguistic and anatomical features of the modern. American Indians indicate that the first resettlement in the North. America happened between 40 and 30 thousand years ago.
General information
Homo sapiens (lat. Homo sapiens; there are also transliterated variants of Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens) is a species of the genus Homo from the family of hominids in the order of primates. Presumably, as a species of Homo sapiens appeared in the Pleistocene about 200,000 years ago. At the end of the Upper Paleolithic, about 40 thousand years ago, it remains the only representative of the hominin family, its range already covers almost the entire Earth. From modern humanoids, in addition to a number of anatomical features, it differs in a significant degree of development of material and non-material culture (including the manufacture and use of tools), the ability to articulate speech and developed abstract thinking. Man as a biological species is the subject of study of physical anthropology.
Neoanthropes (ancient Greek νέος - new and ἄνθρωπος - man) - a generalized name for people modern look, fossils and now living.
The main anthropological features of humans, which distinguish them from paleoanthropes and archanthropes, are a voluminous brain skull with a high vault, a vertically rising forehead, the absence of a supraorbital ridge, and a well-developed chin protrusion.
Fossil humans had a somewhat more massive skeleton than modern humans. Ancient people created a rich Late Paleolithic culture (various tools made of stone, bone and horn, dwellings, sewn clothes, polychrome painting on cave walls, sculpture, engraving on bone and horn). The oldest known neoanthrope bone remains are dated by radiocarbon dating at 39 thousand years, but it is most likely that neoanthropes arose 70-60 thousand years ago.
Systematic position and classification
Together with a number of extinct species, Homo sapiens forms the genus Homo. Homo sapiens differs from the closest species - Neanderthals - in a number of structural features of the skeleton (high forehead, reduction of the superciliary arches, the presence of the mastoid process of the temporal bone, the absence of the occipital protrusion - the "bone chignon", the concave base of the skull, the presence of a chin protrusion on the mandibular bone, "kynodont" molars, flattened rib cage, as a rule, relatively longer limbs) and the proportions of the brain regions ("beak-shaped" frontal lobes in Neanderthals, widely rounded in Homo sapiens). At present time is running work on deciphering the Neanderthal genome, which allows us to deepen our understanding of the nature of the differences between these two species.
In the second half of the 20th century, a number of researchers suggested that Neanderthals be considered a subspecies of H. sapiens - H. sapiens neanderthalensis. The basis for this was the study of the physical appearance, lifestyle, intellectual abilities and culture of Neanderthals. In addition, Neanderthals were often considered as the immediate ancestors of modern man. However, a comparison of the mitochondrial DNA of humans and Neanderthals suggests that the divergence of their evolutionary lines occurred about 500,000 years ago. This dating is inconsistent with the Neanderthal origin of modern humans, since the evolutionary lineage of modern humans separated later than 200,000 years ago. Currently, most paleanthropologists tend to consider the Neanderthals separate view in the genus Homo - H. neanderthalensis.
In 2005, remains were described that are about 195,000 years old (Pleistocene). The anatomical differences between the specimens prompted researchers to identify a new subspecies of Homo sapiens idaltu ("Elder").
The oldest Homo sapiens bone from which DNA has been isolated is about 45,000 years old. According to the study, the same number of Neanderthal genes were found in the DNA of an ancient Siberian as in modern humans (2.5%)
Human Origins
Comparison of DNA sequences shows that the closest living relatives of humans are two species of chimpanzee (common and bonobo). The phylogenetic line with which the origin of modern man (Homo sapiens) is connected separated from other hominids 6-7 million years ago (in the Miocene). Other representatives of this line (mainly Australopithecus and a number of species of the genus Homo) have not survived to this day.
The closest relatively well established ancestor of Homo sapiens was Homo erectus. Homo heidelbergensis, a direct descendant of Homo erectus and an ancestor of the Neanderthals, does not appear to have been an ancestor of modern humans, but rather a lateral evolutionary lineage. Most modern theories attribute the origin of Homo sapiens to Africa, while Homo heidelbergensis originated in Europe.
The emergence of man was associated with a number of significant anatomical and physiological modifications, including:
- 1. Structural transformations of the brain
- 2. Enlargement of the brain cavity
- 3. Development of bipedal locomotion (bipedalism)
- 4. Development of the grasping hand
- 5. Omission of the larynx of the hyoid bone
- 6. Reducing the size of fangs
- 7. The appearance of the menstrual cycle
- 8. Reduction of most of the hairline.
Comparison of mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms and fossil dating suggest that Homo sapiens appeared c. 200,000 years ago (this is the approximate time when "Mitochondrial Eve" lived - a woman who was the last common ancestor of all living people on the maternal side; the common ancestor of all living people on the paternal side - "Y-chromosomal Adam" - lived several Later).
In 2009, a group of scientists led by Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania published the results of a comprehensive study of the genetic diversity of the peoples of Africa in the journal Science. They found that the most ancient branch, which has experienced the least amount of mixing, as previously expected, is the genetic cluster to which the Bushmen and other Khoisan-speaking peoples belong. Most likely, they are the branch that is closest to the common ancestors of all modern humanity.
About 74,000 years ago, a small population (about 2,000 people) that survived the consequences of a very powerful volcanic eruption (~20-30 years of winter), presumably the Toba volcano in Indonesia, became the ancestor of modern people in Africa. It can be assumed that 60,000-40,000 years ago people migrated to Asia, and from there to Europe (40,000 years), Australia and America (35,000-15,000 years).
At the same time, the evolution of specific human abilities, such as developed consciousness, intellectual abilities and language, is problematic to study, since their changes cannot be directly tracked by the remains of hominids and traces of their life activity, to study the evolution of these abilities, scientists integrate data from various sciences, including physical and cultural anthropology, zoopsychology, ethology, neurophysiology, genetics.
Questions about how exactly these abilities evolved (speech, religion, art), and what their role was in the emergence of a complex social organization and culture of Homo sapiens, remain the subject of scientific discussions to this day.
Appearance
The head is big. On the upper limbs there are five long flexible fingers, one of which is somewhat spaced from the rest, and on the lower limbs there are five short fingers that help balance when walking. In addition to walking, humans are also capable of running, but unlike most primates, the ability to brachiate is poorly developed.
Dimensions and body weight
The average body weight of a man is 70-80 kg, women - 50-65 kg, although there are also larger people. The average height of men is about 175 cm, women - about 165 cm. The average height of a person has changed over time.
Over the past 150 years, there has been an acceleration of the physiological development of a person - acceleration (an increase in average height, the duration of the reproductive period).
The dimensions of the human body can change with various diseases. With increased production of growth hormone (pituitary tumors), gigantism develops. For example, the maximum reliably recorded human height is 272 cm / 199 kg (Robert Wadlow). Conversely, low production of growth hormone in childhood can lead to dwarfism, such as the smallest living person - Gul Mohamed (57 cm with a weight of 17 kg) or Chandra Bahadur Danga (54.6 cm).
by the most easy man was the Mexican Lucia Zarate, her weight at the age of 17 was only 2130 g with a height of 63 cm, and the heaviest was Manuel Uribe, whose weight reached 597 kg.
hairline
The human body is usually covered with little hair, except for the areas of the head, and in sexually mature individuals - the groin, armpits and, especially in men, the arms and legs. Hair growth on the neck, face (beard and mustache), chest and sometimes on the back is typical for men.
Like other hominids, the hairline does not have an undercoat, that is, it is not fur. With old age, a person's hair turns gray.
Skin pigmentation
Human skin is able to change pigmentation: under the action of sunlight it darkens, a tan appears. This feature is most noticeable in Caucasoid and Mongoloid races. In addition, vitamin D is synthesized in the human skin under the influence of sunlight.
sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is expressed by the rudimentary development of the mammary glands in men compared to women and the wider pelvis in women, broader shoulders and greater physical force in men. In addition, adult men tend to have a stronger facial and body hair.
human physiology
- Normal body temperature perishes.
- The maximum temperature of solid objects with which people can contact for a long time is about 50 degrees Celsius (at more high temperature burn occurs).
- The highest recorded indoor air temperature at which a person can spend two minutes without harm to the body is 160 degrees Celsius (experiments of British physicists Blagden and Chantry).
- Jacques Mayol. A sports record in free diving without restrictions was set by Herbert Nietzsch, diving to 214 meters.
- July 27, 1993 Javier Sotomayor
- August 30, 1991 Mike Powell
- August 16, 2009 Usain Bolt
- November 14, 1995 Patrick de Gaillardon
Life cycle
Lifespan
Human life expectancy depends on a number of factors and in developed countries averages 79 years.
The maximum officially recorded life expectancy is 122 years and 164 days, at that age the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment died in 1997. The age of older centenarians is disputed.
reproduction
In comparison with other animals, human reproductive function and sexual life have a number of features. Sexual maturity occurs at 11-16 years of age.
Unlike most mammals, whose reproductive ability is limited by periods of estrus, women have a menstrual cycle lasting about 28 days, which makes them capable of pregnancy throughout the year. Pregnancy can occur at a certain period monthly cycle(ovulation), but no external signs the woman is not ready for it. Women, even during pregnancy, can have sex, which is uncharacteristic for mammals, but is found among primates. However, reproductive function is limited by age: women lose their ability to reproduce at an average of 40-50 years (with the onset of menopause).
A normal pregnancy lasts 40 weeks (9 months).
A woman, as a rule, gives birth to only one child at a time (two or more children - twins - occur approximately once in 80 births). A newborn child weighs 3-4 kg, his vision is not focused, and he is not able to move independently. As a rule, both parents participate in the care of offspring in the first years of the child: the cubs of no animal require as much attention and care as a human child requires.
Aging
Human aging - like the aging of other organisms, is a biological process of gradual degradation of parts and systems of the human body and the consequences of this process. While the physiology of the aging process is similar to that of other mammals, some aspects of this process, such as the loss mental capacity are of greater importance to humans. Besides, great importance acquire psychological, social and economic aspects aging.
Lifestyle
bipedalism
Humans are not the only modern mammals that walk on two limbs. Kangaroos, which are primitive mammals, use only their hind legs to move. The anatomy of humans and kangaroos has systematically changed to maintain upright posture - the back muscles of the neck are somewhat weakened, the spine is rebuilt, the hips are enlarged, and the heel is substantially shaped. Some primates and semi-primates are also capable of walking upright, but only for a short time, as their anatomy does little to help this. So, on two limbs, some lemurs and sifakas jump sideways. Bears, meerkats, and some rodents periodically use “upright standing” in social actions, but they practically do not walk in such a position.
Nutrition
To maintain the normal course of physiological processes of life, a person needs to eat, that is, to absorb food. People are omnivorous - they eat fruits and root crops, meat of vertebrates and many marine animals, eggs of birds and reptiles, and dairy products. The variety of food of animal origin is limited mainly to a particular culture. A significant part of food is subjected to heat treatment. There is also a wide variety of drinks.
Newborn babies, like the babies of other mammals, feed on mother's milk.
