February 12 will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the English naturalist Charles Darwin. And in November - 150 years, as the main work of his life "The Origin of Species by Natural Selection" was published.
Order out of chaos
"As a staunch supporter of Darwinism, Pope Carlo, before making Pinocchio, cut a monkey out of a log." (Anecdote) It is difficult to find a scientist whose name is associated with as many anecdotes as with the name of Darwin. Although his theory that all kinds of animals - and even man himself - descended from more primitive ones, is still considered the foundation of biological science.
The foundation of Darwinism is natural selection... Some individuals adapt better to environmental conditions than others, and therefore survive. For example, a butterfly has a new wing color that allows it to hide among the plants. The predator does not notice her - he eats another butterfly, which easily stands out in environment... The first stays alive and gives birth to offspring, which is fixed outward sign in the form of a camouflage color. According to Darwin, nature acts "by typing": the main thing is to create more different individuals, and there the fittest will survive. So, about 25 million years ago, a group of tree monkeys climbed to the ground and began to explore open spaces. Their descendants learned to walk on their hind limbs, use objects for obtaining food, their brains began to grow - and in the end, the world appeared "Homo sapiens".
“The merit of Darwin is that he found the answer to the question: how does evolution acquire a directional character? It is through selection, - explains Alexander Markov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, leading researcher at the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - However, evolution has an amazing, difficult to explain property - a progressive orientation, movement from simple to complex. Indeed, how did mammals and man “grow” from the simplest unicellular organisms? After all common sense and the laws of physics say that "by itself" everything is only destroyed and simplified: an airplane will never be assembled from the wreckage by itself, but back - please. "
In the twentieth century, many things were added to Darwinism. For example, everyone (and Darwin himself) was tormented by the question: if the species of animals were constantly changing, where are the intermediate forms? The answer was given by genetics: mutations are of a spasmodic nature. That is, biological traits can change dramatically and a new species is formed over several generations.
Or degradation?
"Looking at the man, the monkey thought:" There is no limit to my perfection! " (Anecdote) Opponents of Darwinism, as a rule, are dissatisfied with the well-known thesis: "Man descended from a monkey." Darwin himself, pointing to the origin of Homo sapiens from primates, called man "the miracle and glory of the Universe", but this is not enough for us! The main argument is still the same - the complex could not develop from the simple. This means that our ancestors were created as a result of the intelligent design of either the Creator, or, at worst, the inhabitants of other planets. It is noteworthy that there is no particular contradiction between Darwinism and these theories. In other words, the Almighty could use evolution in the creation of living nature, as many now believe.
What about scientific reasoning? Anthropologist Alexander Belov agrees that species change and adapt, but draws a different conclusion from this: there is not evolution, but involution, all living things are degrading and shrinking! “I prove that the changes were going in the opposite direction - initially perfect views transformed into more primitive ones that adapted to new living conditions. Why are the limbs developed in the cross-finned fish, as in terrestrial vertebrates? Yes, because animals from land moved to the ocean, and not vice versa. Why does a pig have five fingers in its embryo, and the muzzle of its embryo looks like the muzzle of a primate? There are a lot of such examples. "
And the American researcher Michael Cremo has been collecting information about archaeological finds hidden from the public for many years. "They do not fit into the scale of human development adopted by Darwinists, therefore they are not written about in textbooks, they are not exhibited in museums," said Michael Cremo in an interview with AiF several years ago.
In general, in Darwin's theory, the point has not yet been put. His beautiful hypothesis makes us look for answers to new questions, including the main one: where did life come from? By the way, to another super popular question - why isn't the monkey turning into a man now? - Sergei Ivnitskiy, senior researcher at the biology department of Moscow State University, humorously replies: “Who would give it to her ?! Well, she will get off the tree and where will she go? Will it go out on the highway? Will capture oil wells? Monkeys have long since moved away from the same branch with man. We have mastered our habitat, they stayed in theirs ”.
"Darwin was a wise man - he gave us the opportunity to somehow explain our idiotic actions." (Anecdote) You can not believe in his teaching, but at least for this you should say thank you.
Chimpanzee
While we are indeed close cousins to modern apes, they have not evolved into humans.
The relationship between us is similar to the kinship relationship between cousins: both brothers descended from the same great-grandfather. We and the great apes also descended from the same ancestor.
Evolution and life
We do not need to look into the distant past to find confirmation of evolution. Evolution is a process that is constantly going on around us. The bacteria that could previously be killed with penicillin have mutated and become resistant to this antibiotic. The color of the moths changed depending on the color of the trees on which they lived.
Species of animals, gradually changing, better adapt to their environment. New species of animals also appear, they exist for millions of years, and then disappear. Evolution takes time and luck to be successful. Traits that help a species survive better - unusual but more efficient teeth, larger brains - can appear in a newborn as a result of random variability. If the traits that have appeared in this way are really useful and allow their carriers to better adapt and survive in conditions in which other representatives of the species cannot survive, then the new individuals will give viable offspring and the trait will be fixed. After many years, all animals of this species will look different.
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Common between man and monkey
Man belongs to the order of primates. More than 100 species belong to this order - monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas. We, primates, have more in common with each other than differences: we have five fingers on our hands and feet, our teeth are adapted for chewing various types of food - from a piece of meat to juicy fruits, at one time we give birth to one or more cubs, which grow for a very long time before becoming independent.
Our closest relatives are great apes - gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees. We are similar not because we descended from them, but because we have common ancestors. The first mammals - the ancestors of dogs, whales, chimpanzees and humans - appeared 216 million years ago. They were small creatures with button-like eyes, nimble, no more than 10 centimeters in size. Scientists think they lived in burrows and nests and fed on insects. They were invisible, but after the extinction of the dinosaurs, it was the mammals that entered the inheritance rights.
Interesting fact: evolution is a process that is constantly going on around us.
The first primates on earth
The first primates appeared about 70 million years ago. Small, like a rat, they moved along the treetops, and soon settled the entire planet. 30 million years ago, monkeys and small flat-nosed monkeys gradually supplanted the primate primates. Later, monkeys and flat-nosed monkeys evolved in different ways, from the latter emerged orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees.
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Different paths of evolution of humans and monkeys
Humans and chimpanzees may share a recent ancestor — an animal that lived millions of years ago and may look a bit like a chimpanzee. But then the paths of man and chimpanzee parted forever. One evolutionary branch gradually led to man, the other to the modern chimpanzee. If it was possible to repeat the evolution at an accelerated pace, like in the movies, then we would see how the animals of one branch become more and more like modern man and in the other, a chimpanzee.
Chimpanzees are our closest relatives. We share 98.4 percent of our genes with them. We can observe some signs of similarity with our own eyes. Chimpanzees are social animals that use tools such as branches to dig tasty ants out of the ground. Food, they share for all members of the herd.
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The reason for our transformation into humans and our " historical homeland"Are the steppes of Africa - the savannah. Several groups of our primitive, ape-like ancestors left the forests and began to live in the grassy expanses of the savannah. During the wet season, the grass becomes succulent, the leaves turn green, and bushes grow. When the rains stop, the leaves dry up and the grass turns into hay. Animals living in the savannah must adapt to such conditions: sometimes there is an abundance of food, and at other times it practically disappears. So creatures who learn to live in bushes and dig nuts and seeds from the ground will be able to survive and not die in these harsh conditions.
Interesting fact: all mammals have a common ancestor that appeared about 216 million years ago.
The emergence of humanoid animals
Over time, important changes took place, they led to the fact that a previously unknown creature became the conqueror of the savannah. It looked very much like a monkey, but walked on two legs. Hands were freed to search for food. The brain has enlarged. It was not yet a man, but this creature was no longer a monkey either. Such hominids - humanoid animals - first appeared about 9 million years ago.
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Thanks to the excavations, we learned their appearance. In Ethiopia, scientists have found an almost completely preserved skeleton of a woman, affectionately named Lucy, less than 130 centimeters tall. Lucy lived and died millions of years ago. She walked straight, probably had a hairline, but was very much like a monkey.
Over time, the species of hominids to which Lucy belonged died out. Scientists think they have lost the battle for habitat in the savannah with the later hominids who succeeded them. These late hominids had more developed brain and used stone tools. They already knew how to hunt a large game, but did not lose the skill in gathering fruits.
Modern man
Modern people, who, according to zoological classification, belong to the species Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens), first appeared about 40,000 years ago. We walk upright, upright, our hands know how to make complex instruments, we have developed a language of sound symbols and use it to communicate with each other. We live in complex social groups... We have developed a whole system of views on people, nature and society, and we pass on knowledge to our children, whom we teach and the rules of behavior.
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We no longer limit the scope of our habitat to savannah, but we live all over the Earth, even in those places where a lonely creature of our species, for example, in the Far North, cannot survive on its own. The ape-like creatures that were our ancestors have long since disappeared. We and modern great apes are not alike, but we are related animals. Together we inhabit planet Earth.
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So, if humans evolved from monkeys ... sorry, from the ancient non-human apes, then why didn't all the other non-human apes turn into humans?
They did not do this for the same reason that not all fish came out on land and became quadrupeds, not all unicellular organisms became multicellular, not all animals became vertebrates, not all archosaurs became birds. For the same reason that not all flowers have become daisies, not all insects are ants, not all mushrooms are white, not all viruses are influenza viruses. Each type of living creature is unique and appears only once. The evolutionary history of each species is determined by many reasons and depends on countless accidents. It is highly improbable that two evolving species (for example, two different types monkeys) fate was exactly the same and they came to the same result (for example, both turned into a man). It’s as incredible as the fact that two writers will write two identical novels, or that on two different continents independently, two identical peoples will arise, speaking the same language.
It seems to me that this question is often asked simply because they think: well, how can it, after all, being a person is more fun than jumping on branches without pants. The question is based on at least two errors. First, it assumes that evolution has some goal to which it stubbornly strives, or at least some "main direction." Some people think that evolution is always directed from the simple to the complex. The movement from simple to complex in biology is called progress. But evolutionary progress is not a general rule; it is characteristic not for all living things, but only for a small part of them. In the course of evolution, many animals and plants do not become more complex, but, on the contrary, simplify - and at the same time they feel great. In addition, in the history of the development of life on earth, it happened much more often that a new species did not replace the old ones, but was added to them. As a result, the total number of species on the planet gradually increased. Many species died out, but even more new ones appeared. So man - added to the primates, to other monkeys, and did not replace them.
Secondly, many people mistakenly believe that man is precisely the goal towards which evolution has always strived. But biologists have not found any support for this assumption. Of course, if we look at our pedigree, we will see something very similar to the movement towards a predetermined goal - from unicellular to the first animals, then to the first chordates, the first fish, the first four-legged, then to the ancient synapsids, animal-toothed dinosaurs, the first mammals. , placental, primates, monkeys, anthropoid and, finally, to humans. But if we look at the pedigree of any other species - for example, a mosquito or a dolphin - we will see exactly the same "purposeful" movement, but not towards a person, but towards a mosquito or a dolphin.
By the way, our genealogies with the mosquito coincide all the way from unicellular to primitive worm-like animals and only then diverge. We have more common ancestors with the dolphin: our pedigree begins to differ from the dolphin only at the level of ancient placental mammals, and our more and more ancient ancestors are at the same time the ancestors of the dolphin. We are pleased to consider ourselves "the pinnacle of evolution," but the mosquito and the dolphin have no less reason to consider themselves the pinnacle of evolution, and not us. Each of the living species is the same pinnacle of evolution as we are. Each has the same long evolutionary history, each boasting many diverse and amazing ancestors.
Have you ever thought about why many species of animals living in distant centuries no longer exist on the planet today, and some bacteria that used to be easily killed by the action of penicillin today do not even react to this antibiotic. It turns out that all life on earth is influenced by evolution - a process in which the non-stop development of living nature occurs, while the genetic composition of living beings is constantly changing and the formation of special adaptations for the survival of a particular species under these conditions. Such adaptations are called adaptations.
Adaptations arise due to mutations that occur periodically in nature. One or more genes can undergo a random mutation, and an individual will be born with a new trait (for example, with an increased size of the brain, changes in the structure of the skeleton). And this may turn out to be very useful and even necessary for survival in the conditions in which this species now lives. This "special" individual can not only better adapt to the conditions, but also give offspring, in which this new trait is fixed, which helps to survive. Thus, after a certain number of generations, this species can be completely modified. If adaptations do not take place in the process of life, and the conditions of life on the planet are constantly changing, at some certain point the species will become unviable and simply disappear.
Let's try to trace from beginning to end the process of human development on earth. How in the process of evolution did we become what we are now and why does the monkey you see in the zoo not turn into a human?
According to the scientific classification, humans belong to the class of mammals. The very first ancestors of this class appeared on earth more than 200 million years ago. Their sizes were small (only 10 cm), but the small creatures were very mobile with button-like eyes. Most likely, they lived in burrows or nests, small insects served as food.
And 70 million years ago, among this class, a detachment of primates began to stand out. Then these were small rat-like individuals moving along the crowns of trees.
Flat-nosed monkeys and monkeys began to actively evolve 30 million years ago. Further, their development took different paths. The first became the progenitors of modern gorillas and orangutans. Scientists consider chimpanzees to be the closest relative of humans. 98.4% of human and chimpanzee genes are identical. This fact speaks of a very close relationship.
All primates, and humans, as you already understand, are also included in this group, have a lot of similar features: our upper and lower limbs have 5 fingers, at birth, one or more babies are born, which for a long time attached to their mother and cannot live independently. The structure of the teeth and the maxillofacial region of the head suggests the ability to chew various types of food. Man, modern gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans have a common distant ancestor, this is our similarity. Modern monkeys, like humans (especially chimpanzees), are social animals that use tools in their activities to help them get food (albeit primitive tools). For example, sticks broken off from tree branches help them catch insects that live underground. The food obtained is always distributed among the members of the entire herd.
It should be understood that all modern species primates and humans have common ancestors. In the process of centuries-old evolution, descendants began to evolve from the progenitor in different directions, acquiring new useful qualities and characteristics, eventually forming new separate species that were no longer able to transform into each other. In other words, today's chimpanzees and gorillas cannot transform into humans. Man could appear only from the anthropoid apes of past centuries, from which all existing branches of primates originated.
The human branch of development appeared in the African savannas. Our ancestors descended from the trees and began to explore the grassy expanses. During the rainy season, savannahs are full of lush vegetation: leaves, grass, bushes grow everywhere. During the dry season, everything dries up. This is such impermanence. The primates needed to adapt to the conditions of both abundance and complete lack of food. In dry times, they learned to extract seeds and nuts, but for this they needed an upper limb. Having freed up their hands to search for food, these primates now began to walk on two limbs, and the size of the brain increased. There were humanoid creatures - hominids. Their appearance dates back to 9 million years ago. During excavations in Ethiopia, a female skeleton was found that resembles a hominid of that period. This valuable find was given the name Lucy, her height was not great and was less than 130 cm.But this species of hominids, to which Lucy belonged, eventually disappeared. They were replaced by more perfect creatures. Their brains were much larger, and they used not just wooden sticks, but stone tools. They were engaged in hunting and gathering. Scientists called this kind of people Homosapiens (Homo sapiens). Presumably, it appeared 40 thousand years ago.
A modern person moves in an upright position, uses complex technical devices in his activities, uses a whole system of sound symbols (speech) in communication, owns written symbols for the transmission of information, accumulates and develops skills, knowledge and abilities that can be transmitted to children, is not limited to the sphere of habitation , can live in conditions with different climates. Human ancestors have long disappeared from the face of the earth.
Today's primate species have much in common, but they will never be able to transform into each other. Although, scientists admit the version that if the human branch dies out, a new species resembling humans may appear from the currently existing species of monkeys. But this is just a theory.
First, the evolutionary theory does not operate with the term "transformation", drawing family ties between man and modern great apes... Evolution is more complicated than simple transformation, it is a long process, in which multiple external factors are also involved. Secondly, for their appearance, selection and consolidation in highly organized organisms, huge time intervals are required. The short life of not even a single individual, but of all mankind will not allow keeping track of evolutionary changes. But man still manages to observe the course of evolution, only on a micro-scale. Mutations of the simplest organisms are known - microbes and those that manage to acquire k, for example. Thirdly, man did not come from those modern ones that exist today. People, along with a hundred species of other monkeys, belong to the great apes. They have many similarities among themselves, and it is based on the fact that once there was a single ancestor. It was a miniature mammal the size of a rat that appeared about 70 million years ago and climbed trees. From it soon (30-40 million years ago) separated, and then completely replaced it, monkeys and flat-nosed monkeys... Perhaps among them there was a common ancestor, which was more likely to resemble a chimpanzee, because it is with him that a person has the greatest coincidence of genes. During the development of the savannah by this ancestor, important changes were fixed, among them: upright posture, as a result of which hands were freed, an increase in the brain. These creatures were no longer monkeys, but they were not yet humans, therefore they were called hominids. The first found remains of them are 9 million years old, since then the species of hominids have replaced, displacing each other. The survivors were those who could better adapt to the conditions, who had a larger brain, who could organize the hunt, and make tools. Modern people belong to the species of Homo sapiens. This species originated about 50,000 years ago and is the only one that has mastered speech. Although the genes of humans and chimpanzees coincide by more than 98%, nevertheless, this is now a parallel branch of development of animals similar to humans. An example would be the heirs of your great-great-grandfathers' siblings. They would be relatives to you because they once came from the same family, but distant, tk. for a long time already crossed the line of second cousins. And if this shift occurs within four generations (that's about 170 years), then imagine what the gap between humans and chimpanzees is, if about 30 million years have passed.
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