• Question: I have a question! I was thinking about "Evoloution" (not sure if i spelt that right) Seeing as cavemen lived before us, would that make cavemen our grandparents? Not the grandparents we have today but the ones which go back millions of years ago. It would be pretty awesome if they were though but that makes me wonder! Is there more to evoloution! Will we grow wings? (Obviously further into the future, i wouldn't expect to wake up and find i have wings like a bird) Thanks

    Asked by jess98xx to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hi jess98xx,

      I alway s enoy reading about human evolution as it occurs at the same time as the period of climate I study, so what I am learning about probably affected the species we became!

      Indeed, cavemen are part of our extended family which goes back millions of years. About 7 million years ago we seperated away from the evolutionary development of Apes and monkeys, although they are still are closest living non-human ancestor. About 3 million years ago, a species called Austrolapithicus roamed the plains of Africa probably the first human species to actively walk around, a member of our family, the ‘Homonids’ standing on 2 legs as we do, though probably a lot more hairy! The most famous of this species is called Lucy who was found in Ethiopia, a region seen as being the birth place of our species.

      Other homonids have followed, given the genetic family name (or genus) Homo. 2 million years ago this was Homo Hablis, which scientists have reconstructed as being very ape like on the surface in terms of skin and hair covereage, but it is the growth of the head and brain as well as the stronger walking legs that seperates us from them.

      The most sucessful of our ancestors was Home Erectus, which lived qiote extensively across the Europe, Asia and Africa from about 1.5 million to 200,000 years ago, Homo Erectus probably out competed other forms of Hominid and determined the species we would be become today. The most famous species they out competed is the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis). Eventually 200,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens developed and we, modern day humans were born, evolving out of Homo Erectus.

      Since then we have survived ice ages, turned from being a roaming species into a species that set up villages and used tools through the stone and bronze ages to eventually becoming the species we are today.

      Obviously human evolution is continuing, evolution never stops, it is always seeking to find new developments which make us better. But I don’t think we will grow wings. The reason I think this, is that every stage in evolution is slow, so for humans to grow wings (Lets call them Homo Sapiens Flybe), the species would have to develop very small wings that grew bigger and bigger untill they could lift the Homo Sapiens Flybe into the sky and allow them to fly. This might take thousands of years, and there would not be any real advantage in the short term to allow this modification to develop. That’s how evolution spreads, by allowing a process to occur that gives those that have it an advanatage and so they can reproduce and spread their advantage.

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hi jess,

      I think James P sums it up pretty well here. Cave men are our ancestors. Initially, their intelligence was lower than ours. But the smartest ones were slightly more successful at staying alive and having children, while the less intelligent ones were more likely to be killed. It’s only a slight advantage, but this means that there was a very very gradual increase in intelligence as we developed from our ape-like ancestors through our intermediate cave-man ancestors to modern humans.

      Scientists aren’t sure whether the human species is likely to keep evolving. Some think that, because there is very little selection pressure these days – almost everyone survives and can have kids if they want to, not just the smartest or strongest people. So we might not evolve very much unless there’s some sort of natural disaster that wipes most of us out.

      If we do evolve further, I don’t think we know what changes will happen. It’s unlikely to be wings, they wouldn’t give us much advantage. Humans are really heavy compared to birds, so we’d need huge wings and muscles to lift ourselves into the air. To fuel those wings and muscles, we’d need to eat huge amount of food, so a person with wings would be far more likely to starve if food was running low. So wings wouldn’t be a good adaption. I think that if we do evolve further, it will be our brains that change, perhaps helping us become more intelligent, or more social to help us live cheek-by-jowl in large cities.

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