Written by Ahmet Tuna Balci
People who do research on evolution deal with the origins and ancestors of humans, as well as the evolutionary origins of our scientist—Latin: Homo sapiens—and what kind of evolutionary emergence. It also explores the evolution and origin of species that share common ancestors with humans and are closely related to humans. Human evolution is also the subject of primatology, which was put forward about 150 years ago and protects both past creatures that are or may be related to humans, as well as our apes. Of course, while there are so many different living things and living groups, there are different disciplines from those who work on the origin of human evolution, and these living groups that originate from many areas of study, not just biologically[1].
In the light of the differentiation between humans and their ancestors, which actually started millions of years ago, and in the light of genetic studies and fossil records, it has been determined that the Primate order, of which humans are a member, emerged in the Paleocene period, 65-55 million years ago, during the evolution process. Apart from this community, it has been learned that primates separated into different families over millions of years and started to discover new habitats[6].
Especially in many different continents, even though fossils of these creatures or their families, which became neglected over the years, were found, this issue became very difficult for scientists who could not get a clear idea of time, and after a while, they focused only on the examination of fossils[2]. In general, since the basis of human evolution is hidden in the methods applied during this extensive research, or in all data processing or analytical calculations made in this field, the family trees and degree of kinship of these creatures will never be known clearly.
In fact, all living things that took part in this evolution theoretically are listed according to certain names with a system that can be used in classification later on, and according to these orders, the hereditary information of these living things and the connection they have with humans, thanks to the communication they have, has become more important than just the physical similarity. The first information about life on earth, which existed about 5 billion years ago, was discovered 1 billion years later[7].
The earliest bacteria and archaea emerged first. According to genetic analysis, eukaryotes are genetically closer to archaea. The eocyte hypothesis proposed by James Lake in the 1980s postulates that eukaryotes arose within an archaeal group called prokaryotic eocytes. The construct suggesting a close interaction between Crenarchaea and eukaryotes is the presence of a homologue of the RNA polymerase subunit Rbp-8 in Crenarchea, but not found in Euryarchaeota. In a study published in 2017, a Proteoarchaeota group of archaea (Asgardarchaeota) began to take place in a taxonomically distinct order of eukaryotes, which is also a different classification group[3].
Collared flagellates are the relatives of the animal kingdom, in which humans live, with the highest rate of hereditary and genetic similarity. It is speculated that the ancestors of the animals may have resembled them. Collared flagellates are unicellular. The group's last common ancestor with animals is thought to have lived around 900 million years ago.
The oldest animal fossils are found in the Ediacaran period. The Ediacaran is the period in which the multicellular ancestors of animals emerged, according to the assumptions made as a result of the observations. The creatures of this period are called the Ediacaran biota. It was discovered that the first members of today's animal branches emerged with a very big explosion that took place about 538.8 million years ago. Man is one of the chordates among the animal clades, which includes mostly vertebrates. It is thought that the last common ancestor of the Chordians lived about 560 million years ago.[15] The last common ancestor of all vertebrates lived millions of years ago[5].
The oldest animal fossils are found in the Ediacaran period. The Ediacaran is the period in which the multicellular ancestors of animals emerged, according to the assumptions made as a result of the observations. The creatures of this period are called the Ediacaran biota. A massive event that took place about 538.8 million years ago.
The earliest mammals appeared in the fossil record about 210 million years ago. Seven, where the last common ancestor of modern-day mammals (the platypus, or the last common ancestor of echidna and humans) lived about 180 million years ago. The diversification of fertile mammals (the last common ancestor of a marsupial and human) had about 140 to 130 million years ago. The earliest Ethenian mammals are thought to have been grouped together between 105 and 120 million years ago: Atlantogenata, which includes Afrotheria and Xenarthra, and Boreoeutheria, which includes humans. (Another conjecture classifies Afrotheria as a sister taxon of Boreoeutheria.) According to molecular genetic examples, Boreoeutheria was expanded into two groups, Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria, to which humans included, about 95 to 100 million years ago[4].
Although there are many unknown aspects of human beings, who have been in interaction with so many genetically or hereditarily different sub-living groups since the earliest periods of history, this evolutionary scale was created more easily, especially with the help of taxonomy.
References:
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2023, February 16). Human evolution. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://www.britannica.com/science/human-evolution
Human evolution - understanding evolution. Understanding Evolution - Your one-stop source for information on evolution. (2021, November 17). Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://evolution.berkeley.edu/human-evolution/
Human evolution. Education. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/human-evolution/
Human evolution. Natural History Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/human-evolution.html
Introduction to human evolution. The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. (2022, July 11). Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution
webteam, www-core (S. (2021, July 21). Evolution of modern humans. @yourgenome · Science website. Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://www.yourgenome.org/stories/evolution-of-modern-humans/
YouTube. (2018, September 14). Human origins 101 | national geographic. YouTube. Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehV-MmuvVMU
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