human origins essays

human origins essays For years, the evolution of human beings has been researched and studied. In today's society, there are many different interpretations on creation and how humans came to be what they are today. Through much scientific evidence and studies, there is now physical proof that human beings may have evolved from ape-like creatures. Even with this, there are still disputes in the paleoanthropological field of whether or not this is true. Still, many choose to believe their religious creation stories where a God created humans. Whether it is Johanson's idea on human evolution or Leakey's or even the Roman Catholic's creation story, all are an individual own interpretation and neither wrong nor right. A paleanthropologist by the name of Donald Johanson is one of the many who have a very different view on the origin of humans. In 1974, he discovered forty percent of an individual dating back to 3.5 million years ago. The individual, Australopithecus afarensis or "Lucy" is believed to be the common ancestor of the true Homo and Australopithecus lines. A year later, in 1975, Johanson found the remains of thirteen individuals who may have possibly died in a flood. They were named the "First Family" and were dated to be between 3 and 4 million years old. They were also Australopithecus afarensis. Announcing his conclusions in 1979, Johanson believed that Australopithecus afarensis was the root to both the australopithecine's and Homo lines. He concluded that afarensis evolved into three different directions. One was Australopithecus africanus and the other Australopithecus robustus and boisei. Both became extinct. The last direction it took was Homo habilis (million years ago) who b ecame Homo erectus (1.7 million years ago) and then Homo sapiens (300,000). Ultimately, his theory makes reasonable sense and may in fact be true. However, Richard Leakey did not seem to think so. In 1961, Jonathan Leakey, Richard Leakey's brother ha ...