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Essay on Applied Human Relations
By definition, human evolution is the development, both biological and cultural, of humans. Human ideologies of how the evolution of man came to be is determined by cultural beliefs that have been adopting by societies going back as far as the Upper Paleolithic era, some 40,000 years ago. Through the study of paleoanthropology, we have come to determine that a human is any member belonging to the species of Homo Sapiens.
Paleoanthropologists, while studying the evolution of humans, identify and explain evolutionary changes that occur throughout time that aid in the development of the human species. It will be through the examination of human physical traits, human origins from pre-humans to modern humans, and major discoveries that we will be able to understand the history of human evolution.The Hominidae, or hominids are a group of upright walking primates with relatively large brains. The only existing representative of this family is the Homo sapiens. We can declare that all humans are part of the hominid family, yet not all hominids can be considered humans. However all humans are primates; although humans have developed very distinct traits from its genetically similar primate, the chimpanzees, such as bipedalism, meaning walking on two legs.
Bipedalism enabled humans to develop specific physical traits to accommodate their upright posture, such as a specialized pelvis, hip and leg muscles, and an S-shaped vertebral column. These traits, specific to humans, can be detected in fossil records therefore making bipedalism the defining factor in the physical traits of the sub family Homininae.
Our knowledge of human evolution is changing rapidly, as new fossils are discovered and described every year. Thirty years ago, it was generally accepted that humans and the great apes last shared a common ancestor perhaps 16-20 million years ago, and that the separate human branch was occupied by only a few species, each evolving from the one before......
