Did Charles Darwin at the end of his life renounce his theory of human evolution? Did ancient people find dinosaurs? Is it true that Russia is the cradle of mankind, and who is the Yeti - is it not one of our ancestors who got lost in the centuries? Although paleoanthropology - the science of human evolution - is experiencing a rapid flowering, the origin of man is still surrounded by many myths. These are anti-evolutionary theories, and legends generated by mass culture, and pseudo-scientific ideas that exist among educated and well-read people. Do you want to know how it was "really"? Alexander Sokolov, editor-in-chief of the portal ANTROPOGENESIS.RU, has collected a whole collection of such myths and checked how well they are.
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Man did not come from a monkey; Humans and apes share a common ancestor!
"Yes Yes! Oh, you learn materiel! Not from a monkey, but from a common ancestor with a monkey!” For greater effect, the phrase may be accompanied by a meaningful gesture. Now less knowledgeable debaters should tremble: a savvy fighter for science demonstrates to opponents a deep insight into the subject. However, before repeating the mantra about the “common ancestor”, it is worth considering: who was this “common ancestor”? A shrew? An animal-toothed reptile? A brush-finned fish?
Of course, in humans and modern great apes there was a common ancestor - a creature that gave rise to both us and them (in science, the abbreviation LCA is used - Last Common Ancestor - the last common ancestor). And, of course, he was none other than an ape, moreover, a humanoid ape. Only not modern - not a chimpanzee or a gorilla, of course - but an ancient, fossil one; but the meaning does not change. The evolutionary paths of humans and chimpanzees diverged no more than 7 million years ago - both paleontology and genetics speak about this. In 2007, Nakalipithecus was described - a common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees and gorillas, 10 million years old, and this creature was 100% ape. Little of. The ancestor of all anthropoids - rukvapithecus (25 million years), and the common ancestor of anthropoid and marmosets - saadania (29 million years), and the common ancestor of all monkeys in general - archicebus (55 million years) were apes. Now, if we move even further into the past, to the root of the order of primates, then exemplary monkeys end and “almost monkeys”, “not quite monkeys”, creatures remotely resembling monkeys begin ... (For more details, see myth No. 23 about the origin of monkeys.)
So the appearance of a person was preceded by a long string of cute, but quite monkey muzzles.
Summary
Thus, the phrase about a common ancestor is nothing more than a rhetorical device, an attempt to sweeten the pill for those who are jarred at the thought of four-legged hairy ancestors. Great-great-grandfather-monkey - it's a shame; monkey second cousin - tolerable. Well, if such a politically correct wording reconciles someone with reality, I'm all for it. But we, dear readers, will calmly face the facts.
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Level A tasks
Choose one correct answer from the four given.
A1. The belonging of a person to the class Mammals is evidenced by
4) hairline and live birth.
A2. The person is assigned to the group
2) primates.
A3. vestige of a man
1) appendix
A4. Ancestral home of man
4) East Africa
A5. Anatomical feature of a person associated with upright posture,
2) springy foot.
A6. Human evolution is characterized
3) the unity of action of biological and social factors.
A7. The common ancestor of great apes and humans is
3) driopithecus
A8. Refers to modern man
3) Cro-Magnon.
A9. Refers to the ancient people
1) synanthropus.
A10. The biological factor of human evolution is
2) isolation,
3) hereditary variability,
4) natural selection.
A11. The human ancestor is
4) none of the listed monkeys.
A12. Man is different from all other animals
3) the presence of a second signaling system.
Level B assignments
Choose three correct answers from the six given.
IN 1. Arboreal adaptations in ancestral primates and modern great apes
2) all limbs have five fingers,
4) strong development of the motor parts of the brain,
6) strong development of the shoulder girdle.
IN 2. Human Distinctive Features (Compared to Great Apes)
1) chin protrusion on the lower jaw,
2) a foot with a strongly developed big toe, having arches,
4) relatively strong development of the brain skull.
IN 3. Evidence from comparative embryology proving the animal origin of man
3) a two-chambered heart in a two-week-old embryo,
4) continuous hairline in the fetus,
5) development from a zygote.
Match the contents of the first and second columns.
AT 4. Establish a correspondence between the characteristics of a person and the systematic group for which they are characteristic.
AT 5. Establish a correspondence between the signs and the group to which they belong. 
AT 6. Match the factors historical development person and the group to which they belong. 
AT 7. Establish a correspondence between the signs and the races for which they are characteristic. 
Install correct sequence biological processes, phenomena, practical actions.
AT 8. Establish the sequence of stages of the appearance and evolution of man, starting with the most ancient. 
AT 9. Determine the systematic position of man as a biological species by arranging the taxa in the required sequence, starting with the species. 
Already the discovery of the Javanese Pithecanthropus convincingly proved that the idea of the origin of man from animals, that is, from anthropoid apes, is correct. After all, on its bone remains, in addition to purely human features, some signs of an anthropoid ape were also noticed. Later finds of the remains of the rest of the predecessors of people only confirmed this.
And although now there is no doubt that the development of man proceeded from the lower apes to the anthropoids, and from them to the most primitive types of man, it must nevertheless be emphasized that when describing the human genealogy, it is necessary to completely exclude all ideas and assumptions regarding that modern great apes were human ancestors. They are only parallel branches that have developed quite independently alongside the human branch. But both groups apparently had a common ancestor.
WHERE TO LOOK FOR AN ANIMAL HUMAN ANCESTOR
The ancestor of man should be sought only among the ancient monkeys. The history of their development is long and complex. We will focus only on those evolutionary lines that are important for the emergence of man.
Already at the beginning of the Tertiary period, approximately 60–50 million years ago, semi-monkeys developed from insectivorous mammals, which subsequently very quickly divided into two evolutionary branches. One of them led to New World broad-nosed monkeys (Platyrrhina), the second to Old World narrow-nosed monkeys (Catarrhina), to great apes and humans. The first branch does not matter to us. Therefore, we will deal with the second branch. There are many schemes, shorter and more detailed, which strive from different points of view and through various explanations of individual paleontological discoveries to graphically depict the family ties between the individual links of one or another scheme. We will partly adhere to the scheme that was proposed by M. S. Plisetsky in 1949.
The remains of the most ancient form of some animal, like a monkey, have been found in the ancient Tertiary Eocene layers of Burma. We are talking about a fragment of the lower jaw of a primate, which was described under the name of the Mogaung Amphipithecus (Amphipithecus mogaungensi).
More important, however, are the finds made near the city of El-Fayoum, 20 kilometers south of Cairo (Egypt). Of these, the most interesting is the Fraas parapithecus monkey (Parapithecus fraasi), from which there is a branch leading to the narrow-nosed monkeys of the Old World. The lower jaw of a parapithecus was found in the early Oligocene layers. His contemporary was Haeckel's propliopithecus (Propliopithecus haeckeli), also known from the lower jaw found in the same place. Compared with its predecessors, Propliopithecus represents a certain step forward and seems to be the predecessor of the Miocene genus Pliopithecus, known from Germany and other European countries. Pliopithecus, apparently, was the ancestor of modern gibbons, and propliopithecus was also a phylogenetically very important genus of dryopithecus (Dryopithecus), which lived in the second half of the Tertiary period - in the Miocene and Pliocene. Dryopithecus were very common: their remains, mainly teeth and jaws, are known from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Spain, Egypt, India and China.
Dryopithecus are a large group of fossil great apes, the main distinguishing feature of which was that, unlike all previous forms of apes, they have the same basic structure of the lower molars. On the chewing surface there are five tubercles, of which two are located on the buccal half of it, and three on the lingual. To a certain extent, this scheme can be used to explain the development of the dental system of modern great apes and humans. Whether Dryopithecus is really the ancestor of modern great apes and the oldest human types cannot be absolutely certain; however, it is clear that Dryopithecus was their ancestor in a broader sense, that is, from a form similar to Dryopithecus, the modern great apes and the first human types developed.
Dryopithecus were not, however, the only fossil apes known. Others are also known, for example, Sivapithecus from the Miocene of India, Udabnopithecus from eastern Georgia. But from the point of view of evolution, they are not as important as driopithecus. Despite this, two recent finds have been made which, although they cannot be considered the direct ancestors of man, indicate that the process of the emergence of man was more complicated than previously thought. These are, first of all, the remains of a great ape, which was called proconsul (Proconsul); its remnants were in 1933 and 1948. found in the Miocene of Central Africa, in Kenya (Lake Victoria region). Then Oreopithecus (Oreopithecus), previously known from the remains of teeth; a whole skeleton of Oreopithecus was found in August 1959 at a depth of about 200 meters in Miocene brown coal in Tuscany (Italy). It is possible that it was among the proconsuls that one could look for the ancestors of the Driopithecus.
Although more than twenty different species of fossil great apes are now known, it still seems most plausible that it is from dryopithecus (or similar or close types) that the branch leaves, which, in the end, leads to the root of the origin of man. One way or another, none of the modern great apes is the ancestor of man.
We now know for sure that once, a very long time ago, in one of the early epochs of the Tertiary period, many millions of years ago, the common ancestors of humans and modern great apes lived. Similarly, we know that the further development of both branches to man and to the great apes took place in different ways and in different living environments. One branch remained as it was, that is, gave rise to later and modern apes, and remained forever in the animal kingdom. The types belonging to the second branch quickly left the animal kingdom and, in the end, turned into modern man, into a creature that works and thinks. But while this was going on, a huge number of years passed, during which many changes accumulated.
HUMANITY OF THE MONKEY
Man is qualitatively different from animals. This is an indisputable fact. Man is a more advanced stage in the development of the organic world, already far gone from the primitive beginning of the humanization of the ancient ape.
How can you trace the path of its development? From the point of view of morphology, this is, first of all, the straightening of the figure, an increase in the medulla and its differentiation, a decrease in the facial region, the development of independence of movements and individual fingers. Simultaneously with changes in the form and structure of the body, the unification of human ancestors into primitive society took place, instinctive communication was replaced by meaningful, thinking, finally, from the objective became abstract. The very complex process that made all these changes possible is called humanization or hominization.
Thus, man did not happen unexpectedly. Much earlier than he appeared on earth, some humanoid creatures lived. Some of them over a very long time, under the influence of favorable living conditions, imperceptibly turned into the most primitive human beings, who then, in the course of further development, eventually turned into real people.
It is now reliably known that one of the decisive and most significant factors in the development of all life on our Earth are changes natural environment. The external environment has a particularly strong effect on non-specialized organisms, evolutionarily young, plastic, which respond well to all impulses and are still relatively easy to adapt. At first it is a very inconspicuous device, hardly observable. Later, however, the changes become more noticeable and profound, more clearly found in the structure of the body. This general law of development was fully extended to the ancient anthropoid apes - the ancestors of man.
In the middle of the early time of the Tertiary period, apparently at the end of the Miocene or at the beginning of the Pliocene, some great apes, such as Dryopithecus, divided into two groups. The great apes belonging to the first group remained to live in the impenetrable jungle, in the forests, where they live to this day. The great apes belonging to the second group tried to live at first on the outskirts of the forests, later even in the steppes with a small number of trees. The change in the living environment for the second group of driopithecus was not accidental. During the early Tertiary period, there was a cooling period that was a distant precursor to the onset of the Quaternary Ice Age. As a result of this cooling, the areas occupied by the jungle could apparently be reduced. The forests receded to the south, and some driopithecus left with them, while others tried to live closer to the edges, and later in the steppes that arose in place of the forests.
A change in living conditions, that is, the appearance of grassy steppes instead of impenetrable forests with small forests, groves or lone trees, caused a change in the way of life of these great apes. Their ancestors, like those who continued to remain in the impenetrable forests, collected forest fruits, young shoots and various roots, tubers and bulbs, sometimes adding to them insects, worms, bird eggs, and small mammals. They lived mainly in trees, where they built shelters for themselves, seeking refuge from predatory animals.
The steppe and forest-steppe apes had to change their way of life, the way of movement and the nature of their food, if they wanted to save their lives. They did this primarily because they successfully changed their mode of locomotion from climbing and walking on four legs to bipedal walking. In addition, they have changed their way of eating. New living conditions, which they wanted to master, were, in comparison with the living conditions in impenetrable forests, much more unfavorable. But that didn't stop them. Rather, on the contrary, the influence of new conditions brought to life such traits that finally led to the emergence of man. What were these features? Friedrich Engels answered this question.
One of the main changes was that dryopithecus, who moved to life in the steppe, had to wean themselves from climbing and learn to move on the ground, where it was more convenient for them to move on two legs. There was differentiation of the limbs. Although in the great apes, in comparison with the lower animals, there was already a distant differentiation of the fore and hind limbs, nevertheless, the forelimbs continued to serve them for movement or climbing. And when walking on the ground, they moved on their hind limbs only easily, stepping unsteadily on them. The steppe apes used this method of movement more and more, gradually improving it.
As a result of a change in the mode of movement, the figure of the great ape became more and more straightened, which also caused certain changes in the structure of the body. Too long arms began to shorten, shoulders began to expand. Rather short legs began to lengthen. The flat foot began to gradually turn into an elastic arched support and the shocks that occur during walking decreased, the shape and position of the calcaneus changed. The thumb thickened and adjoined the rest of the fingers. The new mode of locomotion, i.e. bipedal walking, also required a transformation of the musculature and strong calf muscles developed.
The straightened gait also contributed to the lowering of the body's center of gravity. The spine became more elastic. The vertical position of the body also changed the position of the internal organs, so the structure of the pelvis supporting them changed, it expanded, decreased, and acquired a cup-shaped shape. With a straightened gait, the shape of the head would inevitably change. The previously bowed head of the great ape was held in a more erect position and gradually turned into a characteristic of the first human beings. The facial part of the head lost its animal expression, the volume of the brain increased. The occipital foramen moved to the middle of the bottom of the skull. The large mouth with powerful fangs was shrinking because it was losing its significance as an organ for tearing food and protection.
The hand has also changed, which, thanks to a specially developed thumb and lamellar movements, is now a completely exceptional and amazing organ. The big advantage was the freeing of hands when walking. When this happened, it was possible to defend oneself from enemies with a stick or a club with one's hands, to kill animals, to dig out larvae, edible tubers, bulbs and roots from the ground. When the hands were free, it was not difficult to break one stone with another and choose a chip with a sharp end or a sharp edge, the most suitable for a particular purpose. It was already an artificially made tool, although still very simple and primitive. From here it was not far to the processing of stone or to the sharpening of the end of the club. This was already a rudimentary form of labor, which, with the development of brain activity, finally led man to domination over nature.
Changes in diet also played an important role. The lack of plant foods, which are abundant in tropical forests, the steppe great apes had to compensate for meat food. They had to get it by hunting. But the steppe great apes were not physically as strong as their relatives who remained in the forests. Therefore, they had to unite and learn to hunt together. At the same time, they had weapons in their hands in the form of various clubs, stones, fragments of long bones, sharp horns, that is, everything that fell into their hands, whether it was a natural object or very simply processed. They did not fight over prey, as happens in herds of animals, but divided it among the members of the primitive human herd.
Behavior that was previously purely sensual, with the development of the brain and under the influence of labor, turned into a more conscious, subordinate to the will. Mental abilities developed, which, naturally, was reflected in the rise of their material culture.
All these changes must have taken place when great apes, such as some dryopithecines, developed into the ancestors of the most primitive human forms.
Such humanization (hominization) of monkeys did not happen suddenly or within a short period of time; it lasted hundreds of thousands of years and proceeded in many generations. But in common history of human development, it represents the most basic stage of such a predecessor of people, who was still in the animal kingdom and was subject to general laws biological evolution.
SOUTH AFRICAN AUSTRALOPITECS
As we have already said, in the Tertiary period, primarily in the Miocene, many non-specialized great apes were distributed over the vast expanses of Europe, Asia and Africa. They stood at the culminating point of development, and it was among them that some forms appeared that later embarked on the path of humanization. Of course, it would be interesting to know whether any initial initial forms are known along this path of the emergence of man. We can say that they are known. This is a group of South African Australopithecus (Australopithecinae). Although they are not, apparently, the real ancestors of the most ancient and most primitive human forms (Pithecanthropes and related forms), they can still serve as their good prototype, example.
In 1924 Raymond Dart, a professor of anatomy at the University of Johannesburg, came across the skull of a baby monkey found in a lime quarry near Taungsa (Bechuanaland). After cleaning from the rock, it was found that the skull is small, consists of a brain cavity filled with rock, an almost completely preserved facial part, upper and lower jaws and teeth, as well as the right half of the skull. From the state of the dental system, it could be said that this was a cub at the age of approximately six years. Although Dart at first glance determined that this was the skull of some young great ape, he was surprised that along with ape signs there are many human ones. By the position of the large occipital foramen (Foramen occipitale), he saw that the skull was characterized by the same static as the human; this indicates a straightened figure, and not the usual one for a great ape. Judging by certain signs of the brain cavity, Dart believes that the increased mental activity of this great ape made it possible for her to live in a different environment than that which her relatives live to this day. The ecological conditions of the area where the find was made showed that Australopithecus were no longer purely forest dwellers, but lived among the rocks that rose on flat treeless spaces covered with grass, shrubs and occasionally trees. This type of anthropoid ape has already ceased to be a forest dweller, as its ancestors were and as all the apes living today have remained to this day. He turned into some kind of steppe ape, whose representatives in greater or lesser numbers lived on rocky cliffs, found refuge from danger in caves in cracks. New living conditions also led to a change in the way these monkeys feed: in most cases, they switched to meat food. Animal bones, which were found in large numbers along with the remains of these steppe apes, indicate that their main prey was, first of all, baboons and antelopes.
When Dart established all this, he naturally began to consider his discovery very important. Therefore, already in February 1925, he published a preliminary message in which he called the ape that belonged to the skull African Australopithecus (Australopithecus africanus)
Dart already then proclaimed that this new fossil great ape is much closer to man than any other, and that this is a new stage of development between great apes and man.
Experts showed no interest in the discovery of Dart. They were skeptical of his view that Australopithecus is a transitional link between the great ape and man, the glorified missing link ("Missing link") - a term so popular since Haeckel's time. Many were inclined to believe that the Taungs skull was nothing more than the remains of some kind of chimpanzee or gorilla.
Nevertheless, there were two scientists who, from the very beginning, paid great attention to Dart's discovery. These were the English physician and outstanding paleontologist Robert Broom, who became famous for solving the problem of the origin of mammals from reptiles (later he was an employee of the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria), as well as the anthropologist Aleš Grdlichka, a Czech by origin, director of the anthropological department of the National Museum in Washington.
Already after the first examination of the Australopithecus skull, Broom immediately realized its great importance for understanding the ancient phase of human history. Therefore, he began to intensively search for new bone remains. In August 1936, he really succeeded in the quarries near the village. Sterkfontein in the Transvaal to find an almost complete skull, which, as he first assumed, belonged to an adult specimen and therefore was then called the Transvaal Australopithecus (Australopithecus transvaalensis). But later Broome was convinced that the skull belongs to another genus of monkeys, which he called the plesianthropus (Plesianthropus), leaving him the same species designation (Transvaalensis).
Two years later (in June 1938) Brum managed to find not far from there, near the village. Kromdraai is another skull remnant which he described as belonging to a new genus of Australopithecus and gave it the name Paranthropus robustus. In 1947, Broome again began to work in Sterkfontein. The discovery of the facial section of the skull of a young plesianthropus, six perfectly preserved teeth, a child's skull with several milk teeth - all these were only the forerunners of a remarkable discovery made by him on April 18 of the same year. On this day, Broome (along with his assistant John Talbot Robinson) found a perfectly preserved female skull of an adult plesianthrope, which was missing only the lower jaw and teeth in the upper jaw.
The found skull, which the specialists of the Transvaal Museum jokingly called among themselves “Lady Ples” (the name spread very quickly throughout the scientific world), made a revolution in the views of scientists on South African finds. Although "Lady Ples" with her massive, powerful, slightly elongated jaws and with her flat nose was, of course, not a beauty, she nevertheless attracted the attention of countless specialists, who were beginning to be convinced that South Africa, with its initial forms of human development begins to take the lead in the world.
Meanwhile, Broom persisted in his search, which again culminated in outstanding discoveries. So, for example, he discovered an almost complete male jaw of a plesianthrope. The fang of this jaw was much larger than a human, but at the same time it was as worn out as the rest of the teeth; such erasing of the fangs has not been found before in any male great ape. Broom made a noteworthy discovery on August 1, 1948, when he found several vertebrae and an almost complete pelvis. This further supported the earlier view that the South African Australopithecus walked in an upright position, on two legs. The shape of the pelvis is a mixture of human and monkey types of structure.
At Swartkrans, about two kilometers from Sterkfontein, Broom found the teeth and lower jaw of a new paranthropus, which he called the large-toothed paranthropus (Paranthropus crassidens) because its teeth were somewhat larger than those of the massive Paranthropus robustus. Excavations in these places were successfully continued by his assistant Robinson. Among other things, he found here two Paranthropus skulls, distinguished by longitudinal bone ridges about two centimeters high, even more powerful than, for example, the ridges on the skulls of male gorillas. He also found a jaw that is so similar to a human that Robinson called the creature to which it belonged the Cape telanthropus (Telanthropus capensis), which means that this creature has already achieved the goal of becoming a man, since the Greek word "telos" means purpose, and "anthropos", as you know, denotes a person.
At the same time, another interesting discovery. An employee of Dart I. Kitching found in September 1947 near Makapansgat (the central part of the Transvaal) the posterior part of the skull, which has a large number of human signs. Since coals were found nearby, Professor Dart named the creature that owns the skull fragment Australopithecus Prometheus. Thus, he wanted to say that this creature had already used fire. But other scientists did not agree with this point of view.
The bone remains of South African Australopithecus are among the most outstanding paleontological finds of recent times and belong to more than 30 individuals of the same age - cubs, juveniles and adults. Detailed studies of the remains by Dart, Broom, Robinson, and Le Gros Clark showed that Australopithecus should be placed in the most highly developed group of mammals, that is, in the family of hominids (Hominidae), to which we, modern humans, also belong. In this family, they form a special subfamily of Australopithecus anthropoids (Australopithecinai).
What did the South African Australopithecus look like and what is their significance in the light of the doctrine of development? This is a very interesting question, and we will try to answer it at least briefly.
The skull of Australopithecus corresponds in size to that of a monkey and is very reminiscent of the skull of a chimpanzee: the jaws are slightly elongated in a muzzle-like manner, and the face is greatly shortened. The position of the foramen magnum at the base of the skull is almost the same as in humans. This is one of the proofs that Australopithecus walked quite straight and that their hands already had a human shape. The straightness of the figure is confirmed by the shape of the found pelvic bones, as well as the articular cup, which includes the femoral head and which in its shape and location resembles a human one, the volume of the Australopithecus cranium was relatively small. The first Australopithecus found by Dart, that is, the African (Australopithecus africanus), which died at a young age, has a volume of only about 550 cm3; it is suggested that in an adult specimen it would reach about 650 cm3, which is less than half the average volume of a human brain, but close to the size of the brain of the largest gorilla. The volume of the cranial cavity of the plesianthropus (Plesianthropus) is about 560 cm3, in the massive paranthropus (Paranthropus robustus) it is approximately 650 cm3, and in the giant species of large-toothed paranthropus (Paranthropus crassidens) it is almost 900 cm3 in females and 1000 in males.
The fact that the brain of Australopithecus (with the exception, of course, of the gigantic species mentioned) is only slightly larger than the brain of modern great apes, clearly proves that at the stage of development in which Australopithecus stood, there was first a straightening of the figure and a change in the shape of the limbs and teeth, in while the volume of the cranial cavity has not changed much.
Australopithecus, including Plesianthropus, Paranthropus, and Telanthropus, are now known to be much closer to humans than modern great apes. Among the fossils, the large-toothed paranthropus occupies a very special position. Its incisors and fangs are literally human in shape and size, while the small and large molars are larger than human ones. On some turtles, the same bony ridge extends along the middle of the cranial vault as in male gorillas. Some mandibles showed obvious signs of a chin protrusion. The eruption of permanent teeth is the same as in humans. Even the shape of the ischium and the pelvis as a whole has a resemblance to a person. Such features prove that the large-toothed Paranthropus exhibits a highly specialized type of structure and, apparently, is a representative of the lateral extinct branch of Australopithecus.
Also, the Cape telanthrope occupies an exceptional position among Australopithecus, as evidenced by its lower jaw, which in some ways resembles that of the predecessor of modern man, the Heidelberg Protanthropus, and in others, the lower jaw of the Paranthropus. Telanthropus occupies some middle position between protanthropus and paranthropus, and it is closer to the type of large-toothed paranthropus. Many believe that the telanthropus is some kind of extreme variant of the paranthropus, while others see the telanthropus as a type that is between Australopithecus and the predecessors of man.
E. R. Robinson, who found the telanthropus, expressed the opinion that he did not belong to Australopithecus at all and that he should be attributed to the subfamily of real people (Elhommjsae) Soviet anthropologist M. S. Plisetsky suggests that based on the similarity of the lower jaws of the telanthropus and the Heidelberg it would be advisable to attribute the telanthropus to the predecessors of man. Regardless of which opinion is correct, it remains valid that in both cases the telanthropus is considered to be some kind of "human form", albeit a very primitive one.
Australopithecus approaches man not only in skeletal features, they are also similar in some features of the way of life, discovered only recently. So, for example, Dart found among the broken bones and skulls of animals also the broken skulls of Australopithecus themselves. In total, he discovered six skulls; four had through holes in front, the other two - in the region of the left temporal bone. Dart suggests that a premeditated murder took place here. From this one could conclude that we are talking about cannibalism. If this were indeed the case, then it could rather be considered a manifestation of human deeds, since monkeys do not kill each other for the purpose of devouring.
Another human feature was established in October 1954, when E. K. Brain found 129 worked stones at Makapansgat. Of these, C. Love van Riet considered 17 stones to be real, although very primitive. Since a year later, in close proximity to the tools, A. R. Hudzis found a fragment of the jaw of some Australopithecus, it began to seem that the creators of these stone tools should generally belong to Australopithecus. The ability to make tools is a typical human trait. Therefore, it is assumed that if these are really tools, then at least some Australopithecus could be definitely assigned to the subfamily Euhomininae (Euhomininae), that is, real people.
The evolutionary significance of Australopithecus is undoubtedly very great. According to their anatomical features, they meet all the theoretical requirements that apply to human animal ancestors. This extends also to certain manifestations of their way of life and habits. Only one circumstance prevents us from calling them the direct ancestors of modern people, or, more precisely, their predecessors, that is, Pithecanthropes and related forms. The fact is that the finds of Australopithecus are too late geological dating. South African researchers are willing to talk about the older age of Australopithecus, claiming that they belong to the Tertiary period. If Australopithecus really lived at that time, we could without any doubt attribute them to the human family tree. However, apparently, all the finds belong to the early part of the Quaternary period, that is, to the Pleistocene - early or middle, that is, to the time when Pithecanthropes, Sinanthropes, Protanthropes and other predecessors of modern man lived. Therefore, Australopithecus cannot be considered their ancestors. Rather, they seem to be some kind of old obsolete forms, very little different from the actual forms of ancient ancestors. Apparently, Koenigswald was right in arguing that once upon a time a group of people in the broadest sense of the word, that is, the family of hominids (Hominidae), separated from the great apes, although at first it did not differ externally or fundamentally from the group, which led to modern great apes and within which a branch appeared later, represented, apparently, by the South African Australopithecus. Their development went more or less in parallel with the group of other great apes, but Australopithecus differed from the latter, first of all, in a more upright gait and reduction of fangs. Once, at a very early stage, a new branch separated from this branch of Australopithecus, which, through independent development, manifested in the reduction of the dental system and an increase in the volume of the cranial cavity, led to man. Australopithecus lived approximately 900-300 thousand years ago. Finding them means that the cradle of mankind is, apparently, Africa. The African continent was the birthplace of mankind, and from there people began to spread around the world.
Common ancestors of humans and great apes
Among the first small mammals - insectivores - in the Mesozoic era, a group of such animals stood out that did not have sharp teeth and claws, wings, or hooves. They lived both on the ground and on trees, eating fruits and insects. From this group originated branches that led to semi-monkeys, monkeys and man.
The most ancient higher apes, from which the ancestors of man originate, are considered parapithecus. These ancient, unspecialized apes diverged into two branches: one led to modern gibbons and orangutans, the other to dryopithecus, extinct arboreal apes. Dryopithecus has undergone divergence in three directions: one branch led to the chimpanzee, another to the gorilla, and the third to man. Man and apes are closely related. But these are different branches of a common pedigree trunk.
Scientists suggest that the ancestral home of mankind was somewhere in the territory, including the northeastern part of Africa, South Asia, southeastern Europe, from where people settled throughout the Earth.
What were the initial forms from which the most ancient people originated? To date, such forms have not been found, but a well-studied group of South African monkeys - Australopithecus ("Australus" - southern) gives an idea of them. This group lived on Earth at the same time as the most ancient people, therefore it cannot be considered the direct ancestors of people.
Australopithecus lived among the rocks on flat treeless spaces, were bipedal, walked slightly bending over, knew meat food; their skull had a volume of approximately 650 cm 3.
In the early 60s of our century, the English scientist Louis Leakey in the Oldowai Gorge on the territory of modern Tanzania (East Africa) found fragments of skulls, bones of the hand, foot, lower leg, and collarbone. The fossil creatures to which they belonged were somewhat closer to humans than Australopithecus in the structure of the foot and hand, but their brain volume did not exceed 650 cm3. Pebbles of a pointed shape and stones that left the impression of artificially processed were also found there. According to most Soviet anthropologists, these creatures should also be considered Australopithecus. Morphologically, they differed little from the great apes. The difference consisted in the appearance of the first flashes of consciousness associated with the use of natural objects as tools, which prepared the transition to their manufacture.
It is assumed that the ancestors of the most ancient people were a species of bipedal apes close to African Australopithecus, which, on the basis of hereditary variability, in the process of natural selection, developed the ability to often and variously use sticks and stones as tools.
In the process of becoming a person, three stages or phases should be distinguished: 1) the most ancient people, 2) ancient people and 3) the first modern people.
The oldest people
The transition from fossil anthropoid apes to man took place through a series of intermediate creatures that combined the features of monkeys and humans - ape people. It is believed that they appeared at the beginning of the Anthropogen, that is, about a million years ago.
Pithecanthropus means "monkey-man" in translation. His remains were first discovered by the Dutch doctor Dubois in 1891 on about. Java. Pithecanthropus walked on two legs, leaning slightly forward and possibly leaning on a club. Had a height of about 170 cm, his cranium was the same length and width as that of modern man, but lower and consisted of thick bones. The volume of the brain reached 900 see 3: The forehead is very sloping, above the eyes there is a solid bony roller. The jaws strongly protruded forward, there was no chin protrusion.
Pithecanthropes created the first tools from stone, which they found in the same layers as the bones. These are primitive scrapers, drills. There is no doubt that the Pithecanthropes used sticks and branches as tools. Ancient people thought, invented,
The emergence of labor proved to be a powerful impetus to the development of the brain. Darwin attached exceptional importance to the high mental development of our ancestors, even the most ancient ones. The development of the mind has made big step forward with the emergence of speech. According to F. Engels, the rudiments of speech arose among the most ancient people in the form of inarticulate sounds that had the meaning of various signals.
Interesting finds Sinanthropus- "Chinese man", who lived somewhat later than Pithecanthropus. His remains were found in 1927-1937. near Beijing.
Outwardly, Sinanthropus in many ways resembled Pithecanthropus: a low forehead, with a developed superciliary ridge, a massive lower jaw, large teeth, and no chin protrusion.
However, the synanthropes were more developed creatures. Their brain volume ranged from 850 to 1220 cm 3; the left lobe of the brain, where the motor centers of the right side of the body are located, was somewhat larger than the right lobe. Consequently, the right hand of Sinanthropes was more developed than the left. Sinanthropes mined and knew how to maintain fire, dressed, apparently, in skins. The excavations revealed a thick layer of ash, charred branches, tubular bones and skulls of large animals, tools made of stones, bones, and horns.
In 1907, near the city of Heidelberg in Germany (on the modern territory of the Federal Republic of Germany), a very massive lower jaw was found, without a chin protrusion, but with teeth like a person's. The owner of this jaw was named Heidelberg man. Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus are considered two species of the first subgenus - ape-men (genus of people): Pithecanthropus erectus and Beijing Sinanthropus. They are representatives of the first initial stage of the transformation of a monkey into a man; in the words of F. Engels, these are "formed" people. From them descended representatives of the second stage of humanization - Neanderthals. The Heidelberg man, on the other hand, is considered by some researchers to be among the most ancient people, while others are considered ancient.
Ancient people
Entire skeletons of adults and children have been found in the lowest layers of cave deposits in Europe, Asia and Africa. Neanderthals(named after the place of discovery in 1856 - the valley of the Neander River in Germany on the modern territory of Germany). In the USSR, the remains of Neanderthals were found in the south of Uzbekistan and in the Crimea. The first Neanderthal settlements date back to 400-550 thousand years ago.
Neanderthals were shorter than us, stocky (men average 155-158 cm), walked a little bent over. They also had a low, sloping forehead; strongly developed brow ridges hung at its base, the lower jaw without a chin protrusion or with its weak development. The volume of the brain approached the human brain - about 1400 cm 3, but there were fewer convolutions of the brain. The curvature of the spine in the lumbar region was less than that of a modern person. They lived in the difficult conditions of the onset of glaciers, in caves, where they constantly maintained fire. They ate vegetable and meat food. Neanderthals owned stone and bone tools. Apparently, they also had wooden tools.
Judging by the structure of the skull and facial bones, scientists believe that when communicating with each other, Neanderthals used gestures, inarticulate sounds, and rudimentary articulate speech. They lived in groups of 50-100 people together. The men hunted the animals; women and children gathered edible roots and fruits; older, more experienced, made tools. Neanderthals dressed in skins and used fire. Neanderthals are considered species belonging to the second subgenus - ancient people (kind of people). They are the ancestors of the first modern people - the Cro-Magnons.
The first modern humans
A large number of finds of skeletons, skulls and tools of the first modern people are known - Cro-Magnons(the name of the town of Cro-Magnon in the south of France), who lived 100-150 thousand years ago. The remains of the Cro-Magnons were also found in Russia (south of Voronezh, on the right bank of the Don). Cro-Magnons were up to 180 cm, with a high straight forehead and cranial volume up to 1600 cm 3; a continuous supraorbital ridge was absent. A developed chin protrusion indicated a good development of articulate speech. The Cro-Magnons lived in dugouts, caves with painted walls. Tools made of horn, bone, flint are very diverse and decorated with carvings. Hunting episodes, sacred dances, people and deities were depicted on the walls of dwellings. The drawings are made with ocher and other mineral paints or scratched. Cro-Magnons dressed in clothes made of skins sewn with bone and flint needles. The technique of making tools and household items is much more perfect than that of the Neanderthals. The man knew how to grind, drill, knew pottery. He tamed animals and took the first steps in agriculture. The Cro-Magnons lived in a tribal society.
Cro-Magnons and modern humans form the species Homo sapiens - reasonable man, relating to the third subgenus - new people (kind of people).
So, having risen from the animal world, our ancestors, as a result of a complex and lengthy process of becoming a person, turned into people of a modern look. Social factors and laws have become leading and determining factors. This is the qualitative originality of human evolution in comparison with the evolution of animals.
Hereditary variability and natural selection among people still take place, but on the basis of developing knowledge and social reorganization, a person learns to control biological laws, prevent harmful manifestations and enhance useful ones.
Taxon- classification unit in the taxonomy of plant and animal organisms.
The main evidence of the origin of man from animals is the presence in his body of rudiments and atavisms.
Rudiments- these are organs that have lost their significance and function in the process of historical development (evolution) and remained in the form of underdeveloped formations in the body. They are laid down during the development of the embryo, but do not develop. Examples of rudiments in humans can be: coccygeal vertebrae (remains of the skeleton of the tail), appendix (process of the caecum), body hair; ear muscles (some people can move their ears); third eyelid.
atavisms- this is a manifestation, in individual organisms, of signs that existed in individual ancestors, but were lost in the course of evolution. In humans, this is the development of the tail and hair on the whole body.
The historical past of people
The first people on earth. The name of the ape-man - Pithecanthropus was given to one of the earliest finds made in the 19th century in Java. For a long time, this find was considered a transitional link from apes to humans, the first representatives of the hominin family. These views were promoted morphological features: a combination of modern-looking bones of the lower limb with a primitive skull and intermediate brain mass. However, the Pithecanthropes of Java are a fairly late group of hominids. From the 20s of the twentieth century to the present in the southern and East Africa an important discovery was made: the remains of two-legged Plio-Pleistocene primates (from 6 to 1 million years) were found. They marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of paleontology - the reconstruction of these stages of hominin evolution on the basis of direct paleontological data, and not on the basis of various indirect comparative anatomical and embryological data.
The era of the bipedal apes australopithecines. The first Australopithecus of East Africa, the Zinjanthropus, was discovered by the spouses L. and M. Lika. The most striking distinguishing feature of Australopithecus is upright walking. This is evidenced by the structure of the pelvis. Bipedal locomotion is one of the oldest acquisitions of man.
The first representatives of the human race in East Africa. Along with the massive Australopithecus, other creatures lived in East Africa 2 million years ago. It first became known when next year after the discovery of Zinjanthropus, the remains of a miniature hominid were discovered, the brain volume of which was no less (and even more) than that of Australopithecus. It was later revealed that he was a contemporary of the Zinjanthropus. Major discoveries made in the lowest layer dating back 2–1.7 million years. Its maximum thickness is 40 meters. The climate, when this layer was laid, was more humid and its inhabitants were zinjantrop and prezinjantrop. The latter did not last long. In addition, stones with traces of artificial processing were also found in this layer. Most often it was a pebble ranging in size from a walnut to 7–10 cm, with a few chips of the working edge. Initially, it was assumed that Zinjantrops were able to do this, but after new discoveries it became obvious: either the tools were made by a more advanced prezinjantrop, or both inhabitants were capable of such initial stone processing. The emergence of a clamp with a full opposition of the thumb must have been preceded by a period of predominance of a forceful grip, when the object was raked in a handful and clamped in the hand. Moreover, it was the nail phalanx of the thumb that experienced especially strong pressure.
Background of anthropogenesis.The common ancestors of great apes and humans were gregarious narrow-nosed monkeys that lived on trees in tropical forests. The transition of this group to a terrestrial way of life, caused by a cooling of the climate and the displacement of forests by steppes, led to upright walking. The straightened position of the body and the transfer of the center of gravity caused the replacement of the arched spinal column with an S-shaped one, which gave it flexibility. A vaulted springy foot was formed, the pelvis expanded, the chest became wider and shorter, the jaw apparatus was lighter, and most importantly, the forelimbs were freed from the need to support the body, their movements became freer and more varied, their functions became more complicated. The transition from the use of objects to the manufacture of tools is the boundary between ape and man. The evolution of the hand followed the path of natural selection of mutations useful for labor activity. Along with upright walking, the most important prerequisite for anthropogenesis was the herd way of life, which, with the development of labor activity and the exchange of signals, led to the development of articulate speech. Concrete ideas about the surrounding objects and phenomena were generalized into abstract concepts, mental and speech abilities developed. Higher nervous activity was formed, and articulate speech developed.
Stages of human development. There are three stages in human evolution: ancient people, ancient people and modern (new) people. Many populations of Homo sapiens did not replace each other sequentially, but lived simultaneously, fighting for existence and destroying the weaker ones.
| human ancestors | Progressive features in appearance | Lifestyle | Tools |
| Parapithecus (discovered in Egypt in 1911) | They walked on two legs. Low forehead brow ridges, hairline | Considered as the oldest ape | Tools in the form of a club; hewn stones |
| Dryopithecus (bone remains found in Western Europe, South Asia and East Africa. Antiquity from 12 to 40 million years) | According to most scientists, driopithecus are considered as a common ancestral group for modern great apes and humans. | ||
| Australopithecus (bone remains of 2.6-3.5 million years old found in South and East Africa) | They had a small body (length 120-130 cm), weight 30-40 kg, brain volume - 500-600 cm 2, moved on two legs. | They consumed vegetable and meat food, lived in open areas (such as savannahs). Australopithecus is also considered as a stage of human evolution, immediately preceding the emergence of the most ancient people (archanthropes). | Sticks, stones, animal bones were used as tools. |
| Pithecanthropus (ancient man, remains discovered - Africa, Mediterranean, Java island; 1 million years ago) | Height 150 cm; brain volume 900–1,000 cm2, forehead low, with superciliary ridge; jaws without chin protrusion | public lifestyle; lived in caves, used fire. | Primitive stone tools, sticks |
| Sinanthropus (China and others, 400 thousand years ago) | Height 150–160 cm; brain volume 850–1,220 cm 3 , low forehead, with superciliary ridge, no chin protrusion | They lived in herds, built primitive dwellings, used fire, dressed in skins | Tools of stone and bone |
| Neanderthal ( ancient man); Europe, Africa, Asia; about 150 thousand years ago | Height 155-165 cm; brain volume 1 400 cm 3; few convolutions; the forehead is low, with a superciliary ridge; chin protrusion is poorly developed | The social way of life, the construction of hearths and dwellings, the use of fire for cooking, dressed in skins. They used gestures and primitive speech to communicate. There was a division of labor. First burials. | Tools of labor made of wood and stone (knife, scraper, polyhedral points, etc.) |
| Cro-Magnon - the first modern man (everywhere; 50-60 thousand years ago) | Height up to 180 cm; brain volume - 1 600 cm 2; high forehead; convolutions are developed; lower jaw with chin protrusion | Ancestral community. They looked like a reasonable person. Settlement construction. The emergence of rites The emergence of art, pottery, agriculture. Developed. Developed speech. Domestication of animals, domestication of plants. They had rock art. | A variety of tools made of bone, stone, wood |
Modern people. The emergence of people of the modern physical type occurred relatively recently (about 50 thousand years ago), who were called Cro-Magnons. Increased brain volume (1 600 cm 3), well-developed articulate speech; the construction of dwellings, the first rudiments of art (rock painting), clothing, jewelry, bone and stone tools, the first tamed animals - all indicate that a real person finally separated himself from his animal-like ancestors. Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons and modern humans form one species - Homo sapiens. Many years passed before people moved from the appropriating economy (hunting, gathering) to the producing economy. They learned how to grow plants and tame some animals. In the evolution of the Cro-Magnons great importance had social factors, immeasurably increased the role of education, the transfer of experience.
Races of man
All modern humanity belongs to the same species - Homo sapiens. The unity of mankind follows from the common origin, the similarity of the structure, the unlimited interbreeding of representatives of different races and the fertility of offspring from mixed marriages. Inside view - Homo sapiens- five large races are distinguished: Negroid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Australoid, American. Each of them is divided into small races. Differences between races are reduced to the features of skin color, hair, eyes, the shape of the nose, lips, etc. these differences arose in the process of adapting human populations to local natural conditions. It is believed that the black skin absorbed ultraviolet rays. Narrow eyes protected from sharp solar exposure in open spaces; a wide nose cooled the inhaled air faster by evaporation from the mucous membranes, on the contrary, a narrow nose warmed the cold inhaled air better, etc.
But man, thanks to labor, quickly got out of the influence of natural selection, and these differences quickly lost their adaptive significance.
Human races began to form, it is believed, about 30-40 thousand years ago, in the process of human settlement of the Earth, and then many racial traits had an adaptive value and were fixed by natural selection in a certain geographical environment. All races of man are characterized by common species features of Homo sapiens, and all races are absolutely equivalent in biological and mental relations and are at the same level of evolutionary development.
There is no sharp border between the main races, and there are a number of smooth transitions - small races, whose representatives have smoothed out or mixed the features of the main masses. It is assumed that in the future the differences between races will completely disappear and humanity will be racially homogeneous, but with many morphological variants.
The races of man should not be confused with the concepts nation, people, language group . Different groups can be part of one nation, and the same races can be part of different nations.