damonpeter

 =** Introduction: ** =

Have you ever wondered how humans came into being on this Earth? Well, hopefully this presentation will enlighten you to any unresolved questions you may have. These days, there has been much controversy over the theory of evolution. Some people believe that we shouldn’t teach the theory of evolution in schools; some think we shouldn’t teach creationism, and yet others think that they can coincide.

=** Something Older: **=

45 million years ago, there were obviously no humans, but something more ancient than primeapes themselves. Something whose descendants were the first monkeys, and later, humans. Our ancient, ancient ancestors were most likely mouse-like, and were nocturnal and ate insects. After the dinosaurs died out, the first primates started flourishing. Scientists believe that chimps are the closest living relatives of humans. They're not like our grandparents, but more like our older cousins if you want to think of it like that.

=** Our Ancient Family: **=

Now this is a little confusing, but humans may be primates, but they are NOT monkeys. The genetic family that we are in is called Hominids. The main reason we are not classified as monkeys is because they do not have //bipedalism. // (Primarily walking upright on two feet.) Also, we have larger cerebellums, (which means that we can perform precognitive thought patterns and apply critical thinking), flatter faces, and smaller teeth. There have been 18 recorded types of this classification. The oldest documented Hominids are 6-7 million years old!

=** Australopithicines: **=

Many of the earliest Hominids were classified as Australopithecine. (Phonetic spelling: Aw struh low pith uh sees.) These were the first species that scientists saw walking on two legs, and in trees. Oh and did I mention they used stone tools! It may not seem exciting, but this shows early creative development of the hominid brain.

=** Our Closer Relatives: **=

2.4 million years ago, a new branch sprouted on our ancient family tree that is classified as us... Homos. First was Homo Habilius, and then, 1.8 million years ago, there was Homo erectus, and these Hominids ate a wide assortment of things, had large brains, as were as tall as modern humans, (Homo sapiens.)

=** Humans Today: **=

230,000 years ago there were Neanderthals, but you probably already know about them, so I won't waste more of your time. 30,000 years ago, they all disappeared from the face of the Earth, and no one knows how they became extinct. Now the Hominids have been whittled down to just us. Or have they...? Dun Dun Dun.

If you are still a little confused about all of this, you can check out this clip from YouTube, and hopefully it will become slightly more clear.

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Now, I just put alot of information into your heads, and it might be helpful to see some jokes that may click a little better than just plain facts. (They actually are kind of funny ;)

Evolution Cartoons.

Who knows what's in store for the next step in the evolution of man(and woman)kind.For all we know, this could be the next step in human evolution. Don't worry, we won't be that ugly for another millions of years.



I, myself have a different idea of what humans will look like millions of years from now. So, I have taken the liberty of drawing a picture, and put it on this page. I based this drawing on global warming, abilities that would be useful now, and took the patterns of evolutionary progression of humans from the past, and applied it here. (The picture is sideways, but you should be able to rotate it.)



__Bibliography__
Berg, Linda Ruth, Barbara Christopher, and Mark Taylor. __Cells, Heredity, and Classification__. New York, N: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2007. 148-61.    "Evolution: Human." __Pbs.org/wgbh__. 27 Oct. 2008 .