• Question: how do you think mankind evolved

    Asked by birchy123 to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 12 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Robert Thompson

      Robert Thompson answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      I think Darwin has this pretty much wrapped up, Charles Darwin a scientist from the 17th Century came up with the theory of Evolution, (he’s also one of the main characters in the new film “Pirates and aventure with scientists”

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/jul/14/pirates-animation-hugh-grant

      Charles Darwin said that all animals evolved so that the species was best equipped to survive in the environment they lived in. I can’t explain much more as I’m a physicist and this isn’t really my area.

    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      Oh, tough question. Is there a biologist in the house?????

      Evolution shows us how one species can change over time so that particular features, like wings, or a long beak, that make it easiest to survive in a particular place are kept. Humans developed from ape-like creatures somewhere in Africa and then moved from there to the rest of the world after the last ice age.

      I can’t really add much to that, without moving very far from what I know.

    • Photo: Martin Zaltz Austwick

      Martin Zaltz Austwick answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      I don’t really know much about this. But tool use seems to be pretty important in the recent history of human beings. Using tools lets us do more than our bodies allow; to break the shells of hard nuts to eat them, to kill animals and make clothes, to lift heavy loads, move great distances and finally communicate across the world! All of this using items around us and making them into objects that do what we want to do.

    • Photo: Marcus Gallagher-Jones

      Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      Thats an interesting question for sure, an it really depends on what you mean by mankind. If you take it literally, how did the species known as homo sapiens evolve then it stems from the slow accumulation of beneficial changes to are genetic code, defined as mutations (think of the X-men) over millennia.

      Maybe about 1.2 million years ago an ape species began to stand on it’s hind feet freeing up the hands to perform all kinds of wonderful things like tool development. What most people really think sets us apart is the highly developed nature of our brain that allows for abstract reasoning, a fancy term for having an imagination.

      Of course thats a very biological standpoint. Whilst being clever and building things were important are they what define mankind. Maybe mankind is not the one but the whole. In that case it’s the development of a collective entity, migrating in larger groups and founding settlements that really can be considered the evolution of mankind. And in that sense as we expand out into virtual realms perhaps we’re still evolving. Quite a pause for thought.

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