Answer to Question #129278 in Evolution for Khanyo

Question

Discuss human evolution

Answer 1

Human evolution (or anthropogenesis) is the process that led to the emergence of modern humans, beginning with the evolutionary history of primates and leading to the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes.

All hominoids and hominids originated in Africa. The human lineage (Homo) arose by 2 million years ago, with H. habilis as an early toolmaking species. Bands of H. erectus dispersed into Europe and Asia. Extinct Neandertals and modern humans are close relatives, but have distinct gene pools.

Modern humans, H. sapiens, evolved by 195,000 years ago. By the multiregional model, H. erectus populations in far-flung regions evolved into H. sapiens. The African emergence model has modern humans evolving from H. erectus in Africa, then dispersing into regions already occupied by H. erectus and driving them to extinction. Most data now support the African emergence model. Its

underlying premise is that regional variations among human groups evolved very recently.