Early Hominin Evolution

Biological Classification:

Kingdom > Phylum > Class > Order > Family > Genus > Species

“Keep Pot Clean Or Family Gets Sick”

eg: Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Canidae > Canis > lupus

classification is based on phenotypic and genetic traits

Phylogeny/ phylogenetic trees/ dendrogram

arrangement of the relationships between different samples/organisms

Where/when/why did humanity appear?

Where is the origin of mankind?

Charles Darwin (1859): natural selection, theory about evolution

Charles Darwin (1871): descent of man, relation to sex

origins from East and South Africa

humans had a common ancestor 6 mya with chimps

have classes of faster changing genes than other mammals: perception of sound, nerve signal transmission, sperm production, ion transporters

directly comparable DNA 99% identical, ~35mil bp

96% overall identity bc some of it is incomparable (eg different chromosomes structures)

29% genes code for identical amino acid sequences

5mil bp changes in insertion/deletion regions

on average ~1 amino acid change per protein

means that we have a more potentially deleterious mutation than rodents, who have a quick adaptation to changing environment but may end up with lower overall fitness

50 genes present in humans and not chimps

diversity btwn chimps is 10x> between humans

CFTR relation to man+chimp

“Ardi”: a female found in Afar desert in Ethiopia, 1992

lived 4.4 mya

Ardipithecus Ramidus

closest relative to other primates

lived likely predominantly on trees

likely capable of upright walking for short distances

“Lucy”: first group of early humans, mostly bipedal, still climbed trees

Anatomical developments in evolution

straight

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