Science of Evolution and Genetics

This report is focusing on how the Science of Evolution has evolved humans using genetics. Evolution is the process of which many different organisms are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth. Evolution is related to mutation and genetic variation. An organism’s DNA affects how it behaves, how it looks, and its physiology. Because of this change in an organism’s DNA can cause  changes in all aspects of its life. Mutations are the raw material of genetic variation meaning that they are essential to evolution.

Mutations are essential to evolution; they are the crucial material of genetic variation. There are many different scientific points on the theory of evolution and how humans have evolved.

DNA, Chromosome, Genes, Proteins and Alleles are all related and are found in the nucleus. DNA is a substance with genetic information found inside the nucleus of cells. DNA instruct cells to produce particular proteins. Genes are a sequence of nucleotide in DNA or RNA. Genes also code for proteins. DNA is packed into thread-like structures called chromosomes. Alleles are found in chromosomes. Chromosomes are thread-like structures of nucleic acids and proteins found in the nucleus of most living cells. Alleles are a form of a gene arisen by a mutation are found at the same place on a chromosome. If all of these combine in a certain way they can lead to mutations. Amino Acids determines the code for everything living then. Certain combinations of Amino acids can result in a mutation. If we change the DNA sequence it creates a domino effect and changes the person.

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The theory of Evolution is a complex theory which help piece together the puzzle of all living organisms and how they were formed into the species that they are today. Stile explained the Theory of Evolution as this: The theory of Evolution doesn’t explain how life on earth came to be but it does help us understand how life has diversified into the many species we find today and also the species that we find in fossils. Evolution helps us understand how modern species have adapted and changed today.  Evolution can be defined as any change in heritable traits within a population across generations (for example eye colour, or fur colour). Charles Darwin explained the theory of evolution by natural selection as:  The theory of evolution by natural selection, is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in behavioral or heritable physical traits. Changes that allow an organism to better adapt to its environment will help it have more offspring and survive. These theories have helped us piece together how organisms all over the world are related and how they have grown over time. 

For years scientists have come to a mutual agreement that Homo Sapiens emerged from one spot and one populations in East Africa around 300,000 years ago. But according to a recent paper in the journal “ Trends in Ecology and Evolution”, we didn’t develop from one place or one specific population but instead lineage of Homo Sapiens seemingly originated in Africa at the very least 500,000 years ago, evolving from linked groups across the entire continent of Africa, toward contemporary human morphology over tens of thousands of years. According to the authors, this slow and expansive change was influenced by ecological and genetic shifts. This new view of human evolution emerged from an approach to sophisticated research. The scientists who proposed this theory have different specialties and come from institutions around the world. They include archaeologists, anthropologists, biologists, geneticists, geographers, environmental scientists, and zoologists.  The scientists argue that their reasons for this were groundbreaking research that pointed towards Homo Sapiens emerging from other places. These scientists were not afraid to ignore all evidence pointing towards “Homo Sapiens” evolving from East Africa. This viewpoint is one of many towards the thought of how humans have evolved and emerged into this world.

Scientists from BBC have proposed that our entire human species is the product of hybridisation between species. In the past five years, evidence of separate interbreeding between and modern humans (homo sapiens) and their ancestors have increased.

In June 2015, researchers confirmed  that a 40,000-year-old skeleton from Romania had the most Neanderthal DNA of any human analysed to date. The “Oase human”  had inherited 8% of his DNA from the Neanderthals. As well as this, the team found that his Neanderthal ancestor lived only 200 years before his death. The genetic evidence confirmed something that scientists had previously suggested:  that jawbone of this individual had some clear Neanderthal traits. In the last few years, we’ve documented interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, but we never thought we’d be so lucky to find someone so close to that event,” David Reich of Harvard Medical School said.Intriguingly, the Oase individual did not pass on his Neanderthal genes to modern-day Europeans. Clearly, it was passed on by someone else, because their DNA is still present. The Oase individual is just one instance of interbreeding, and more real-life examples will be found as researchers analyse more ancient DNA. This viewpoint is one of many that scientists from around the world are working towards gathering more evidence to support this.

My own viewpoint on human evolution is similar to that of many scientists. I believe that humans are closely related and evolved from the Great Apes. In particular chimpanzees. According to Nova Labs Evolution Lab; Chimpanzees are homo sapiens closest living relatives, splitting off from humanity around 8 million years ago. The splitting has resulted in several obvious changes in compared to us and our fellow relatives. Unlike the chimpanzees, we walk fully upright and have a voice box that allows us to use fluent speech. Our large brains set us apart from primate relatives, enabling things such as written language and cultural diversity. 97% of our genetic code is identical to that of the chimpanzee. My reasoning for this view is that we cannot ignore the vast amount of scientific evidence pointing to that the Great Apes are our closest living relatives. Since we share 97% of our genetic code with chimpanzees, you can see that relative features in the way they move and the way they look. In conclusion I believe what a vast amount of scientists support that we are very closely related to the Great Apes and specifically the Chimpanzees. 

CITATION

Paragraph 4:

https://qz.com/1328806/scientists-developed-a-new-theory-of-human-evolution-because-they-werent-afraid-to-be-wrong/

Paragraph 5:  http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151013-how-interbreeding-shaped-us

Paragraph 6:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/evolution/research#/evo/deeptree