L9. Human Evolution Flashcards

1
Q

Where are humans in the tree of life

A
  • At broadest level we are part of Eucarya
  • kingdom: animalia
  • phylum: chordata (symetrical, backbone)
  • class: mammalia (mammary glands, fur/hair, live birth)
  • order: primates
  • genus: homo (only remaining)
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2
Q

Lamarck’s contribution

A
  • first to suggest that apes and humans had a shared evolutionary history
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3
Q

Reasons it was hard for Darwin to prove anything

A
  • no DNA evidence
  • no fossil record (until the 1800’s no fossils found of ancient human species, only a few stone tools)
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4
Q

Carl Linnaus

A
  • first to connect humans to apes
  • 1735
  • put us in a the same order
  • no theory of evolution at the time
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5
Q

Origin of the fossil record

A

1820: first homid skull fossil found in Belgium
- started a big hunt for fossils
- Lots of work done in Indonesia, found very primitive “human-like fossil” (homo erectus)
- Northern Kenya: fossil jackpot, lake and river sediments, well preserved fossils

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6
Q

Fossil record

A
  • provides snapshots of the past which, when assembled, illustrate a panorama of evolutionary change over the past 3.5 billion years
  • shows that our lineage split from chimps around 5-13 ma
  • large amount of species in genus homo
  • big branches: different species, some lived in the same area
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7
Q

Human tree (order)

A
  • (4.2 - 2 Ma) Australopithecus: “Lucy”, small brains, made tools, change in diet, lived in Africa
  • (2.4 - 1.5) Homo habilis: “handy-man” brain getting bigger, smaller teeth, made stone tools, lived in Africa
  • (1.9 Ma - 150,000 years) Homo erectus: big brains, tools, hunters, fire, culture?, most successful species to date, lived in Africa, East and west Asia
  • (1.2 Ma - 800,000 years) Home antecessor: unclear, sister species to to H. sapiens, suggests another lineage of human evolution, lived Western and Southern Europe
  • (700,000 - 200,000 years) Homo heidelbergensis: overlapped/evolved, lived in Asia, Europe, northern Africa
  • (200,000 - 50,000 years) Home florensis” “the hobbit”, insular dwarfism, primitive features, lived in Indonesia
  • (400,000 - 40,000 years) Homo neanderthalensis: sister species to us, bred with H. sapiens, survived many ice ages, had many technologies we recognize, lived in Europe and Central Asia
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8
Q

Homo Sapeins

A
  • 300,000 - today
  • only extant species in the Homo genius
  • skull morphology has changed distinctively over time
  • evolved in Africa and left around 185,000 years ago
  • interacted and interbred with other Homo species
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9
Q

Progression of Evolution

A
  • not a straight line
  • evolution associated with physical (larger brains) and technological (use of tools) changes that opened up new niches
  • environment changing (climatic variability and extremes)
  • morphological traits make it hard to know if different species (ex. compare Shaq to Simone Biles), this solved by DNA testing
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10
Q

Ancient aDNA

A
  • sequenced the neaderthal genome
  • theoretical upper limit of 1.5ma
  • can use a tiny sample, then a pcr test lets us amplify and make copies then reassemble ancient genome
  • aDNA can be so intact in that they were able to compare the regions of mitochondrial DNA to construct a phylogeny representing the evolutionary history of their samples. Means potentially we don’t need fossils to get aDNA
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11
Q

Neanderthal Genome Project

A

International effort to sequence the entire genome of H. neanderthalensis from two bones. Took 4 years and had to sort through degraded and contaminated aDNA

Methodologies:
- used computer programs to eliminate bacterial DNA from sequence
- resulting sequences were compared to modern H. sapiens DNA and mapped by comparison to the modern human genome

Discoveries:
- likely started with a very small founder population
- had a gene mutation we believe to be required for complex speech
- produced fertile offspring with humans

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12
Q

The Denisovans

A
  • interbred with Humans and Neanderthals, lots of cross over in DNA
  • particularly pronounced in East Asian populations
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13
Q

Homo sapiens Family Tree

A
  • our most recent ancestor only lived 2000-3500 years ago
  • if you go back far enough everyone ancestry trees converge
  • most common ancestor of all humans probably lived in East Asia
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14
Q

Will space change our DNA?

A
  • space radiation may lead to more mutations
  • Nasa did studies with twins and when astronaut came back 7% permeant difference in their epigenome
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15
Q

Modern Genetic Diversity

A
  • Highest diversity in Africa, lower in Europe, lowest in South America
  • greater proportion of rare alleles in African populations
  • greater proportion of deleterious mutations in Europeans populations
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