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Running head: ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology
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1ANTHROPOLOGY
Introduction- Evolution of human is a lengthy process and this process later led to the
evolution of modern day humans from the ape like ancestors. The scientific evidences have
shown that the behavioural and the physical traits that are shared by the people now, all evolved
from the ape like ancestors from over a period of six million years (Dettwyler 2017).
One of the earliest traits that are defined the human traits is the bipedalism. The ability of
the humans to walk on the two legs started 4 million years ago. Another important characteristic
of the humans is the large and complex brain, the capacity to learn language and the skills to
make and use the tools. However, the earlier ancestors also possessed the characteristics of the
symbolic expression through the art. The earlier ancestors also elaborated on the cultural
diversity that emerged nearly 100 thousand years ago (Foley 2017). Earlier, it was seen that the
bipedal locomotion is an adaptation of the grassland and the mixed woodland ecosystem. Studies
have shown that the bipedalism was selected in comparison to the other forms of locomotion
because the it was easier to see the long distances when travelling through the areas that were
covered with long grasses. This was even helpful even during the times of watching the big cats
and it was also found to be useful for scavenging for food. While an upright posture also helped
in dissipating more body heat and it further helped in absorbing extra amount of heat from the
sun. Also, longer strides helped in translocation to longer distances and it also helped in spending
less amount of energy. Bipedalism obviously proved to be tough to climb trees, however it was
beneficial and provided advantages over the natural selection (Langergraber et al. 2012).
Evolution occurs when there are changes in the genetic material, DNA. This genetic
material is inherited from the parents. Genes are actually the DNA segments that can provide
chemical code and it helps in the production of proteins. However, it is also important to mention
that certain in the native DNA can lead to mutation. Thus, the way the genes are expressed