The evolutionary history of mankind

1, Earth History and Biological Evolution

Tracing back to the origin of mankind, we must start with the appearance and evolution of life on the earth, and the evolution of life must involve the history of the earth.

According to cosmologists, the age of the universe is about 65.438+0.5 billion to 20 billion years.

According to the big bang theory recognized by modern people, before 150 to 20 billion years ago, the matter in the universe was concentrated in a very small range with extremely high density. Coupled with the action of gravity, the temperature of these substances is getting higher every day. As a result, this dense substance exploded.

BIGBANG makes many substances in the universe spread in all directions.

Basic particles form and nuclei begin to form.

With the continuous expansion of volume, the temperature goes from high to low, and the universe changes from a radiation state to a material state, resulting in hundreds of billions of galaxies, stars, satellites, planets and so on.

A galaxy contains about 1000 billion stars, and the solar system is only one of them, and our earth is only one of the nine planets in the solar system.

The solar system was formed about 5 billion years ago.

The earth was formed about 5 billion to 4.6 billion years ago. In this long time, most of the time there is only inanimate matter on the earth.

At that time, the earth was full of volcanoes and magma.

With the continuous cooling of the earth's surface and the increase of water vapor, water began to appear on the earth and gradually gathered more and more.

About 3.9 billion years ago, primitive oceans appeared on the earth.

A large number of organic substances, such as amino acids and nucleotides, are dissolved in raw seawater, almost all of which are fresh water.

Under the other physical effects of the sun and the earth, some organic substances formed the protein.

In the following hundreds of millions of years, these protein became more and more complex, and finally life began to appear 3.4 or 3.3 billion years ago.

According to the evolution of paleontology and the movement of the earth's crust, geologists divide the history of the earth into five stages, namely Archean, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic.

Archean is the oldest period in the history of geological development, lasting 65.438+0.5 billion years (4-2.5 billion years ago).

The formation of the earth's lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and life all took place in this period.

About 3.9 billion years ago, the earth formed its first permanent crust, and by 3.5 billion years ago, the atmosphere and seawater began to form.

In the early Archean, there was no life on the earth.

About 3.3 billion years ago, the oldest sedimentary rocks on the earth were formed, and the atmosphere already contained some carbon dioxide, and the earliest stromatolites related to biological activities appeared. By 365.438 billion years ago, relatively primitive algae and bacteria began to appear on the earth.

Prokaryotes appeared on the earth 2.9 billion years ago.

Early Proterozoic volcanic activity is still quite frequent, and the biological world is still in a slow and low-level evolution stage, but there is more oxygen in the atmosphere.

/kloc-0.9 billion years ago, the continental crust was constantly thickening, and the surface maintained a very favorable environment for life development.

Cyanobacteria and bacteria continue to develop. By1300 million years ago, the lowest eukaryote green algae appeared.

In the late Proterozoic, caprock deposits continued to thicken, volcanic activity was greatly weakened, and large-scale glaciers appeared.

Since then, a zonal climate environment with obvious characteristics has appeared on the earth, providing natural conditions for the diversity of biological development.

By 600 million years ago, there were zooplankton, arthropods and coelenterates.

The Paleozoic began about 600 million years ago and ended 230 million years ago.

Paleozoic is divided into six periods: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian.

Among marine invertebrates, trilobites, mollusks and echinoderms are the most prosperous animals.

Lower fishes, ancient amphibians and ancient reptiles also appeared in this period.

Ancient plants were mainly algae in the early Paleozoic.

Many places are covered with dense forests.

The Mesozoic started about 230 million years ago and ended 67 million years ago, and was divided into Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.

The Mesozoic era was once called the era of reptiles, and birds, marsupials and placental mammals also began to appear.

Among invertebrates, mollusks are the most abundant in ammonite, so Mesozoic is also called ammonite age.

The gymnosperms Cycas and Ginkgo biloba are the most prosperous plants, so the Mesozoic is also called the naked plant age.

The earliest mammals, dinosaurs and the earliest birds-Archaeopteryx appeared in Mesozoic.

The Cenozoic era began about 67 million years ago and continues to this day.

It can be divided into tertiary and quaternary.

The creatures in this period are close to modern times, and the characteristics of vertebrates are the rise and prosperity of mammals.

Mammals appeared in large numbers, thus differentiating into a primate, and apes evolved from primates.

Tertiary is a period of prosperity for mammals.

Quaternary entered the human age.

Primates also began to appear, and gradually developed the earliest apes from them.

Apes have a flat skull, a small cranial cavity, a thick bone wall, a particularly thick brow ridge and a backward chin.

It has a more complicated brain and intestines, a wider chest and a flat sternum.

The ancient apes (apes) who lived about 65438+400 million years ago are the ancient ancestors of human beings.

2. The cognitive process of human origin: from myth and religion to scientific discussion.

How did the theory that human beings originated from apes come up? 19th century ago, the explanation of human origin went through three stages: legend, hypothesis and theory.

There are basically two kinds of legends about the origin of human beings among all nationalities in the world.

One is the legend of the creation of heaven and earth, including the explanation of the origin of various natural phenomena between the universe and heaven and earth; The other is the legend of the origin of race and civilization, including the origin of mankind and its ancestors, to explain the origin of human civilization.

For example, myths and religions explain the legends of Nu Wa and Prometheus.

Clay makes people.

/kloc-In the middle of 0/9th century, anthropologists and archaeologists provided scientific evidence of the origin and development of human beings through the research and field investigation of primitive human fossils found in various regions of the world, and put forward hypotheses and theories from apes to humans.

Swedish naturalist Linnaeus has rich knowledge of botany.

He published Zoology, established a "two-name naming system", unified the messy plant names in the past, and had a great influence on the progress of plant classification research.

He also classified flowers according to the position of stamen number.

At first, Linnai thought that the "species" of plants were eternal, but in the last edition of his other book "Natural System", the item "species will not change" was deleted because he observed the phenomenon of "species" variation in nature.

Linnaeus also believes that apes belong to primates.

French scholar Jean B Lamarck (1744- 1829) first inferred that human beings originated from apes.

He published Animal Philosophy in 1809, and put forward the scientific hypothesis that "human beings originated from apes" for the first time.

British scholar Darwin (C? Darwin, 1809- 1882) put forward the viewpoint of evolution in the origin of species and the origin and sexual selection of human beings, indicating that human beings developed from "apes".

He believes that the main reason for species formation, adaptability and diversity lies in natural selection.

In order to adapt to the natural environment and compete with each other, organisms constantly mutate, and the variation suitable for survival is gradually strengthened through heredity.

On the contrary, it is eliminated, that is, the principle of "natural selection, survival of the fittest".

British scholar Thomos Henry Huxley (1825- 1895) put forward the anthropoid consanguinity theory for the first time in the book "Man's Position in Nature".

His views were attacked by religious people, calling him an "evil man".

When he walked into the street, someone shouted, "Here comes the monkey." But Huxley always insisted on his own ideas.

1876, friedrich engels (1820-1895) published the article "The Role of Labor in the Transformation from Ape to Man", and put forward the scientific theory that "Labor creates man", pointing out that labor is the fundamental difference between man and animal, which laid the scientific foundation for the origin of human beings.

3. Areas of human origin

Where did humans first originate? There are five sayings in history.

First, the origin theory of western Europe.

Hadri believes that many human remains have been found in Europe. From 1823 to 1925 in 102, no less than 1 16 human remains belonging to Paleolithic and Neolithic Age were found in western Europe.

There are 236 human remains after Paleolithic and before Neolithic.

Their total is 352.

In Asia, only 189 1 found the remains of Homo erectus in Java.

192 1 year until Peking Man was discovered. At that time, the income was not much.

As for Africa, the United States and Australia, there is no new discovery.

Second, the origin theory of North Asia.

Quatrefages published a General History of Mankind in 1889, holding that Eskimos were the earliest people in the north, and put forward the theory that primitive people were forced to move southward by the northern glaciers.

Third, the origin of Central Asia, 1857 Le Di (Joseph? Reddy) and 19 1 1 year Ma Jue (doctor? William d? Mathew) put forward this view.

They believe that the earliest discovery of Central Asian civilization was in the ancient civilized areas such as Garti, Asia Minor and Egypt in the west; There is an ancient civilized area in China in the east.

In prehistoric times, classical times and the Middle Ages, many nationalities emerged from these places.

Northeast China enters North and South America through Alaska, and southeast China enters Australia through Malaysia.

Fourth, the theory of Asian origin.

Osborne believes that human development begins in the wild and then enters caves.

The reasons are as follows: ① In places where natural food is abundant, or where food is easily available, human development is often stagnant or retrogressive; (2) The earliest wisdom and civilization of human beings developed in the wilderness; (3) During the Late Tertiary, Asia was abundant in rain and lush in jungle, which was conducive to the survival of apes and was not conducive to the emergence of human beings.

Paleolithic humans appeared in the plateau with dry climate.

Fifth, the theory of African origin.

The reason for this statement is that since the 20th century, many human fossils of different periods have been found in Africa, such as KNM people -ER. 1470 in Kubifra, Kenya, OH9 people in Oduwe Gorge, Tanzania, and Springbuk in southern Africa.

From the debate on the theory of human origin, we can get the following enlightenment.

We believe that, first of all, the origin of human beings is multi-source, not single source; It's multi-line, not single line.

Secondly, from the discovery and research of anthropoid apes to human fossils, the value of Engels' basic view on the three stages of human production is further demonstrated.

It clears the fog of legend and shows the ancient life and civilization of our ancestors.

Third, we must see that the development of human civilization is unbalanced. From the discovery of human fossil remains and the earliest civilized areas, there is an imbalance between time and civilization development, which is related to the geographical environment of each area.

The central theory of human origin is untenable.

Fourth, the region where human civilization was born was in an isolated and isolated state at the earliest, at several scattered points on the earth.

With the progress of production, from the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age, and then to the era of stone and stone combination, as well as the development of three social divisions of labor and the activities of nomadic animal husbandry, human activities have developed from one region to another, from point to line to civilization.

The exchange of civilizations has promoted the development of civilizations in various regions.

4. Three stages of human origin

Engels pointed out that in the process of human origin and development, there have been three stages of development, namely, apes who can climb trees, people who are forming and fully formed.

These three stages are progressive in turn.

Apes climbing trees refers to the ancient apes who live in trees in groups; A fully formed person refers to a person who can already make tools; The man in the process of formation is a creature in the transition from the ape group climbing trees to the fully formed man.

The difference between them and fully formed people is that they can't make tools yet, so they can only use natural tools such as sticks and stones.

Anthropologists in China divide the development process of fully formed human beings into four periods: early ape-man, late ape-man, early homo sapiens and late homo sapiens.

Early ape-man (about 3.8 million years to 6.5438+0.8 million years ago).

At present, the fossils found include the human fossils of Letoli Formation in the Galushi River basin of Tanzania, dating from 3.77 million to 3.59 million years ago. Hadar fossils in northeastern Ethiopia were identified as 3.5 million years ago; "KNM- Er" in Kubifra, Lake Tekana, Kenya? 1470 ",2.9 million to 2.7 million years ago.

Late ape-man (scientific name Homo erectus, which China used to call "ape-man", about 6.5438+0.8 million years ago).

At present, the fossils found are China Yuanmou ape-man, Lantian ape-man and Peking ape-man. Mosokto and Homo erectus in Indonesia; Atlas ape-man from Algeria and Morocco; Sardinians in Tanzania; Heidelberg, Germany and so on.

Early Homo sapiens (the ancients, about 200,000-300,000 years ago).

The fossils found at present mainly include Neanderthals in Germany, referred to as "Neanderthals"; St. Shabelle, France and must; Krapina people in Yugoslavia; African mountain breakers, Sharna, etc. Maba people in Guangdong, China, Dingcun people in Shanxi, Changyang people in Hubei, Tongzi people, etc.

Late Homo sapiens (new human, about 50,000 to 1 0,000 years ago).

The fossils that have been discovered now mainly include French Kroma farmers; Gaza, Abreu; Italian Maldi; Alfalus from China, Liujiang, Guangxi, Ziyang, Sichuan, Shandingdong, Hetao, Inner Mongolia, Lijiang, Yunnan and Zuozhen, Taiwan Province.

The body shape of late Homo sapiens is basically the same as that of modern people.

5. Racial differences

In the late stage of Homo sapiens, modern races also began to form.

Anthropologists divide human beings in the world into three races according to skin color, hairstyle, eye shape and nose shape: yellow race (or Mongolian race), white race (or Europa race) and black race (or black race).

The formation of human race is the result of long-term natural and historical conditions.

The external differences of races do not affect people's intelligence.

Their brain capacity and bone condition are basically the same, so there is no distinction between superior and inferior races.

Liang Qichao divided people into three categories: yellow, white and black.

Yellow species include a, b and c; White includes three categories: A, B and C; Black people are mainly concentrated in Africa.

This division is relative. The intermarriage between races in modern western countries has produced many hybrids.

In addition to the above three races, there are brown people.