Fossils: The Evolution Of Modern Humans

The discovery and observations of fossils have led us to a lot of conclusions of where modern humans come from (Larsen 2008). Fossils are very significant because they are pieces from the past that provide us with evidence of organisms that were once alive (Larsen 2008). The three hominins that I’ll be comparing are Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the Australopitheicus afarensis, and the Homo neanderthaleasis. This gives us a wide range to compare from really early on to a more recent hominins that eventually leads to modern humans. Comparing the brain size of this 3 species is very interesting because it allows us to see the evolution of how much growth and adaptation the cranial part and therefore the intelligence level of this species has done …show more content…
Humans have established themselves as the smartest hominid species in the hominid group (becominghuman.org). The size of our brain and our intelligence has made us the top organism on the world and it has guaranteed our long term survival (becominghuman.org). The cranial capacity on average of a modern human is of 1300 cc (becominghuman.org). When comparing them to Neanderthals, modern humans do have a smaller brain size (becominghuman.org). The reason for this is that modern humans are gracile, which means their smaller and lighter built compared to the Neanderthals (becominghuman.org). Their brain is still larger when relating it to their body size than that of the Neanderthals, which confirms they are the hominids with the largest brain relative to body size (becominghuman.org). The sizes of their brain makes homo sapiens very unique because of the abilities they have acquire (becominghuman.org). At the early stages of modern humans, they showed a lot of smarts and cleverness (becominghuman.org). Evidence of symbols, hunting, tool making, clothing, and strategic ways of making a god life are signs of this amazing brain (becominghuman.org). They also were one of the first to be capable of using the spoken language to communicate (becominghuman.org). Many other hominids were capable of doing many of these things but humans are by far the best at it (becominghuman.org). The evolution of the brain through our entire history is a really interesting one. Seeing the growth and development that our brain has done since our first hominid ancestor 7 million years ago to us, a modern human is fascinating. The brain has grown so much in size but also in capacity and organization making us a lot smarter than we were before. It will be interesting to see how modern humans continue to evolve and adapt to even greater and smarter