ecce homo

The Origin of Text Deep Background 3 The Origin of Human Beings

So anyway, we take it as assumed that life, having occurred somehow on the face of the Earth, then goes through a process to diversify and specialize. And so, monkeys turn into humans by the same process and here we are, right?

Unfortunately, it isn't quite so simple. The problem, and it's still very much a question that is on the plate of evolutionary biologists, is that human beings showed up in what seems like a very short period of time. We're talking a radical increase in brain size occuring with, in the geological time-frame, astonishing speed. Boom boom boom, you got three times the cerebellum. There is also the issue that, up to not very long ago in human history, most humans had mental capacity far beyond what their personal survival required. One could argue we're headed back to those times, but that's neither here nor there. What happened?

Well, there are a few basic theories. One is that we didn't actually show up all that damn fast. Biologists with a traditional Darwinian bent have juggled around the various contenders for "missing link" status (if you didn't know, the supposed speed with which modern human physiology appears in the fossil record is the origin of that much-abused term), trying to get a consistent picture of human evolution. There has been some success, some of the gaps are filled in, but not so much as to really put the question to bed. Another idea is that evolution actually tends to occur in fast bursts, spurred perhaps by environmental pressures. In this view, human evolution is really the norm rather than the exception. There is some interesting evidence but I wouldn't call it conclusive. But again, not much in evolution is when it's tackling issues of such antiquity.

There's another related theory, that I think is kind of interesting. The idea is that humans are actually basically premature apes. The concept is, for some unknown reason, certain apes gave birth prematurely, and as a result their offsprings still-elastic skulls permitted more unrestricted growth of the brain. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. But there it is. It explains our extreme helplessness at birth (definately counter-survival), our hairlessness and generally unfinished appearance, maybe even our intense social needs (if it happened that way, these first wierdo naked monkey creatures would have been totally reliant on their social cooperation for their initial, tenuous survival until they figured out what the big brains were good for). Well, it's hard to say. Could it happen again? I mean, might we stumble upon a tribe of brand new protohumans being raised by their confused orangoutang parents? Wouldn't it have had to have happened to a bunch of apes at once? I mean, otherwise you'd assume that just one individual would just not be able to provide enough genetic impact to raise a whole race up outta the monkeys. But if this is the case, why? What was the first cause?

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