Research Review
Before The Dawn
Recovering The Lost History Of Our Ancestors
By Nicholas Wade
The human gene has, is and will continue to evolve.
“ A steady increase in brain size probably evolved in response to the most critical aspect of the environment”
“ human linage Had the fortune to move down the evolution path that enlarged the brain and made possible the acquisition of language.”
Evolution of change is prompted by pressure to adapt to new environments.
“It is just this kind of environmental stress that has forced evolutionary change since the beginning of life on earth. In response to new conditions, a species must adapt, by drawing on the genetic variation available in the members of the population”.
For a species to put resources into growing extra neurons is not as obvious an investment as it may seem and teeth count a lot in the struggle for survival. Brain cells are greedy consumers of glucose and oxygen. The modern human brain is only 3 percent of the bodies weight but uses 20 percent of the energy required for metabolic maintenance.
“When cost are taken into account, rarity of the human evolutionary phenomenon is last understandable”, writes the Anthropologist Robert Foley.
r.foley(at)human-evol.cam.ac.uk |
Nicholis...” Still does not explain what specific environment forces made a larger brain advantageous in the first place”.
|
melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH) a peptide from the anterior pituitary which influences the formation or deposition of melanin in the body, especially in amphibians and fish. |
Alan Rogers Alan R. Rogers
Professor of Anthropology
University of Utah
Stewart Building
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
|
Phone |
801-581-5529 |
|
Fax |
801-581-6252 |
Alan Rogers University of Utah ..Genetic sweeps..after a must have gene has become universal is starts to accumulate what are known as a silent mutation, one that do not alter the structure of the genes protein and so are not eliminated through the natural selection.
Genes are strings of DNA that embody the information to make proteins, and proteins are the working part of the living cell. But only some of the DNA in a gene contains the code for its protein; the rest is know as non coding DNA. A mutation in the coding of DNA usually interferes with the protein's structure. But mutations in the non coding DNA usually have no effect on the protein structure and called silent
Hermelita Winter; Pan Homo divergence..(Human Genetics 2001 It appears the gene which controls hair growth based on Keratein and the loss of and replacement of hair changed around 200,000 years ago and signaled the appearance of our ancestors similar to our contemporary appearance and may be a signal to also the frontier of brain evolutionary change leading to the formation of a brain capable of human behaviors,language and creative abstraction as recently as 50,000 years ago. The very edge of what we refer to as intelligence and validated by modern history in the last 10,000 years, specifically the last 6 to 8.000 years ago as indicated from a archaeological and anthropological record.
Savethehumans our brains capacity to be creative and deluded by the the ability to abstract and create have accelerated our ecological change faster than our capacity through selection to genetically alter or brains structure or patterns of organization. This impact of such brain seize and organizational structure has created an ecological impact accelerating ecological change and altering our environment. We as a species have created what may have been similar conditions as the environmental changes prompting genetic adaptations leading to our current brains through the selection process. It took thousands of years for this selection process to refine our species to reach this state of our evolution. The ecology of our planet has changed very slowly comparatively in years as compared to the changes which are now taking place as the result of the impact we as humans are creating out of this brain structure which served us so well in the rhythms of change in the past. These slow changes to the ecology and the gradual adaptation of a very insignificant number of our species in it's evolution were a luxury afforded by the fact change was slow as compared to the changes in the past 200,000 years of our history as a species. The genetic evidence suggest this period as the time our brains had evolved to the point of having the size and structure of organization to allow language to appear as part of our capacity to abstract, deduct and create alternative realities through the capacity to speak and organize sounds into words and concepts at a creative level leading to our current state. It appears this condition was the direct result of adaptation genetically through the selection and reproduction state of evolution.
The question is how much time do we have as a species to go through the selection process create changes in our brains organization and structure and alter our behavior of altering our ecology to the point of accelerating unnecessary suffering and extinction? The next question being can we self induce such a genetic change initially bypassing the pattern of change through the selection reproducing process? And a final, two part question is how can we do this and what would such a genetic change in our brains behaviorally look like?,,
Nichols Wade- In Africa, it was not until 500,000 years ago, that brain size relative to body size increased significantly(pg 17). Large brained Homo Sapiens appeared somewhere around 50,000 years ago
Homo sapiens [(hoh-moh say-pee-uhnz)]
The biological classification of modern humans. Homo sapiens is Latin for “the wise human” or “the clever human.” The earliest Homo sapiens was Neanderthal, who developed about 150,000 years ago. Sometimes modern humans are further classified into the subspecies of Homo sapiens Neanderthals (Neanderthals) and Homo sapiens sapiens (Cro-Magnons and present-day humans). (See Linnean classification.)
A way of organizing living things. In biology, plants and animals have traditionally been classified by the structure of their bodies, in a descending hierarchy of categories: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. For example, human beings are classified as belonging to the animal kingdom, the phylum of chordates, the class of mammals, the order of primates, the genus Homo, and the species sapiens. The scheme is based on a system developed by the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus in the eighteenth century.
There is a debate among scientists about whether the traditional classification system should be retained. Some argue that classifying living things by their descent, with all descendants of a single ancestor being grouped together, is more in keeping with the ideas of evolution (see cladistics). Others want to classify organisms by their genetic makeup, using sequences in DNA or RNA. Each of these schemes provides a different way of ordering living things, but there is no “right” way to accomplish this task.
Richard Klien-The Human Career
Klien, Richard. 1989 The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Why shouldn't evolution have intention?As a species I believe we can create evolutionary changes which will produce results favorable for humans and the Earth's ecology as we know it. I also accept and believe there are forces greater than ours as a species at play here and in no way feel we are beyond those forces but can partner with such forces for our advantage. If this means intervening with intention to accelerate the evolutionary process through our intentions then it would be foolish for us to withdraw into acceptance of our destiny of extinction at our own hands or some apocalyptic ending
The human gene has, is and will continue to evolve.
“ A steady increase in brain size probably evolved in response to the most critical aspect of the environment, human linage Had the fortune to move down the evolution path that enlarged the brain and made possible the acquisition of language.” Evolution of change is prompted by pressure to adapt to new environments. “It is just this kind of environmental stress that has forced evolutionary change since the beginning of life on earth. In response to new conditions, a species must adapt, by drawing on the genetic variation available in the members of the population”. For a species to put resources into growing extra neurons is not as obvious an investment as it may seem and teeth count a lot in the struggle for survival. Brain cells are greedy consumers of glucose and oxygen. The modern human brain is only 3 percent of the bodies weight but uses 20 percent of the energy required for metabolic maintenance. “When cost are taken into account, rarity of the human evolutionary phenomenon is last understandable”, writes the Anthropologist Robert Foley.
r.foley(at)human-evol.cam.ac.uk
Nicholis...” Still does not explain what specific environment forces made a larger brain advantageous in the first place”.
“ A steady increase in brain size probably evolved in response to the most critical aspect of the environment”.
Human linage had the fortune to move down the evolution path that enlarged the brain and made possible the acquisition of language.”
Evolution of change is prompted by pressure to adapt to new environments.
“It is just this kind of environmental stress that has forced evolutionary change since the beginning of life on earth. In response to new conditions, a species must adapt, by drawing on the genetic variation available in the members of the population”.
For a species to put resources into growing extra neurons is not as obvious an investment as it may seem and teeth count a lot in the struggle for survival. Brain cells are greedy consumers of glucose and oxygen. The modern human brain is only 3 percent of the bodies weight but uses 20 percent of the energy required for metabolic maintenance.
“When cost are taken into account, rarity of the human evolutionary phenomenon is last understandable”, writes the Anthropologist Robert Foley.
r.foley(at)human-evol.cam.ac.uk |
Nicholis...” Still does not explain what specific environment forces made a larger brain advantageous in the first place”.
|
melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH) a peptide from the anterior pituitary which influences the formation or deposition of melanin in the body, especially in amphibians and fish. |
Alan Rogers Alan R. Rogers
Professor of Anthropology
University of Utah
Stewart Building
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
|
Phone |
801-581-5529 |
|
Fax |
801-581-6252 |
Alan Rogers University of Utah ..Genetic sweeps..after a gene becomes universal it starts to accumulate what are known as a silent mutation, one that do not alter the structure of the genes protein and so are not eliminated through the natural selection.
Genes are strings of DNA that embody the information to make proteins, and proteins are the working part of the living cell. But only some of the DNA in a gene contains the code for its protein; the rest is know as non coding DNA. A mutation in the coding of DNA usually interferes with the protein's structure. But mutations in the non coding DNA usually have no effect on the protein structure and called silent
Hermelita Winter; Pan Homo divergence..(Human Genetics 2001 It appears the gene which controls hair growth based on Keratein and the loss of and replacement of hair changed around 200,000 years ago and signaled the appearance of our ancestors similar to our contemporary appearance and may be a signal to also the frontier of brain evolutionary change leading to the formation of a brain capable of human behaviors,language and creative abstraction as recently as 50,000 years ago. The very edge of what we refer to as intelligence and validated by modern history in the last 10,000 years, specifically the last 6 to 8.000 years ago as indicated from a archaeological and anthropological record.
Savethehumans our brains capacity to be creative and deluded by the the ability to abstract and create have accelerated our ecological change faster than our capacity through selection to genetically alter or brains structure or patterns of organization. This impact of such brain seize and organizational structure has created an ecological impact accelerating ecological change and altering our environment. We as a species have created what may have been similar conditions as the environmental changes prompting genetic adaptations leading to our current brains through the selection process. It took thousands of years for this selection process to refine our species to reach this state of our evolution. The ecology of our planet has changed very slowly comparatively in years as compared to the changes which are now taking place as the result of the impact we as humans are creating out of this brain structure which served us so well in the rhythms of change in the past. These slow changes to the ecology and the gradual adaptation of a very insignificant number of our species in it's evolution were a luxury afforded by the fact change was slow as compared to the changes in the past 200,000 years of our history as a species. The genetic evidence suggest this period as the time our brains had evolved to the point of having the size and structure of organization to allow language to appear as part of our capacity to abstract, deduct and create alternative realities through the capacity to speak and organize sounds into words and concepts at a creative level leading to our current state. It appears this condition was the direct result of adaptation genetically through the selection and reproduction state of evolution.
The question is how much time do we have as a species to go through the selection process create changes in our brains organization and structure and alter our behavior of altering our ecology to the point of accelerating unnecessary suffering and extinction? The next question being can we self induce such a genetic change initially bypassing the pattern of change through the selection reproducing process? And a final, two part question is how can we do this and what would such a genetic change in our brains behaviorally look like?,,
Nichols Wade- In Africa, it was not until 500,000 years ago, that brain size relative to body size increased significantly(pg 17). Large brained Homo Sapiens appeared somewhere around 50,000 years ago
Homo sapiens [(hoh-moh say-pee-uhnz)]
The biological classification of modern humans. Homo sapiens is Latin for “the wise human” or “the clever human.” The earliest Homo sapiens was Neanderthal, who developed about 150,000 years ago. Sometimes modern humans are further classified into the subspecies of Homo sapiens Neanderthals (Neanderthals) and Homo sapiens sapiens (Cro-Magnons and present-day humans). (See Linnean classification.)
A way of organizing living things. In biology, plants and animals have traditionally been classified by the structure of their bodies, in a descending hierarchy of categories: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. For example, human beings are classified as belonging to the animal kingdom, the phylum of chordates, the class of mammals, the order of primates, the genus Homo, and the species sapiens. The scheme is based on a system developed by the Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus in the eighteenth century.
There is a debate among scientists about whether the traditional classification system should be retained. Some argue that classifying living things by their descent, with all descendants of a single ancestor being grouped together, is more in keeping with the ideas of evolution (see cladistics). Others want to classify organisms by their genetic makeup, using sequences in DNA or RNA. Each of these schemes provides a different way of ordering living things, but there is no “right” way to accomplish this task.
Richard Klien-The Human Career
Klien, Richard. 1989 The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Why shouldn't evolution have intention?As a species I believe we can create evolutionary changes which will produce results favorable for humans and the Earth's ecology as we know it. I also accept and believe there are forces greater than ours as a species at play here and in no way feel we are beyond those forces but can partner with such forces for our advantage. If this means intervening with intention to accelerate the evolutionary process through our intentions then it would be foolish for us to withdraw into acceptance of our destiny of extinction at our own hands or some apocalyptic ending
