`Origins Reconsidered` - Anthropology

Human evolution had been one of the most intriguing s that I had been interested in and when I took this subject , I could tell that I would be enjoying it . The chapter on Origins Reconsidered ' has actually challenged the way I thought about human evolution . I thought that man evolved from one species to another . Hominids referred to the family of humans that have existed in the last ten million years . The hominids are identified in terms of their structural resemblance to modern man as opposed to the apes . It is believed

that man evolved from the apes but it took several million of years before the apes evolved physically to resemble modern humans . The hominid fossil Homo erectus discovered by Leakey and her team had changed the way we think about hominid evolution . Evolution of man was traced as starting from Homo habilis , to Homo erectus and then to Homo sapiens , but the Homo erectus fossil discovered recently showed that Homo habilis and Homo erectus might have co-existed in the same evolutionary period and therefore are sister species rather than descendants from the other . Moreover , the distinct sexual dimorphism of the Homo erectus fossil showed that the Homo erectus may actually be not as close to Homo sapiens . Pronounced sexual dimorphism is considered as primitive traits due to the ability of the male to be more sexually active and have multiple partners . Thus it would seem that Homo sapiens ' ancestors may not be the Homo erectus but some other specie which to date have not been found . A fossil hunter is a trained paleontologist who looks for fossils in areas where it is believed to have been inhabited by the earliest species . If given the chance I would like to be a fossil hunter , it is actually a very interesting and consuming profession , and since I am fascinated with the subject , then I would be really good at it , I hope

Reference

Leakey , Richard , and Roger Lewin . Origins Reconsidered : In Search of What Makes Us Human . New York : Doubleday , 1992...