article ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF HOMO SAPIENS – FROM CRO-MAGNON MAN TO ARCHAIC HOMO
SAPIENS
Václav Vančata
information
year: 2024
issue: 4
fulltext: PDF
online publishing date: 22/4/2025
DOI: 10.14712/25337556.2024.4.4
ISSN (Online): 2533-7556
Toto dílo podléhá licenci Creative Commons Uveďte původ 4.0 Mezinárodní License.
abstract
The aim of this paper is to explain the basic approaches and most important discoveries and methods that have led to changes in the views on the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens. This includes a new concept that distinguishes between archaic forms of Homo sapiens and modern forms of Homo sapiens, i.e., anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals, and Asian Denisovans. The most important role is played by the new and revised discoveries of the earliest representatives of archaic Homo sapiens, and the paleogenetic research that now forms part of palaeoanthropology. The earliest representatives of Homo sapiens appear 1.4 million years ago. Paleoanthropological and paleogenetic data support this data. The earliest forms of archaic Homo sapiens died out 700–800 thousand years ago and were replaced by advanced forms of archaic Homo sapiens, also known as Homo heidelbergensis. Populations of advanced Homo sapiens evolved to some degree independently. Anatomically modern humans emerged from African populations 350,000 years ago, and Neanderthals and the ancestors of Asian Denisovans emerged from European populations. Then, during the Riss glaciation (140–320 thousand years ago), the evolution of anatomically modern humans was completed in Africa and in the Mediterranean region, and at the end of the Riss glaciation, classical Neanderthals emerged, who it seems displaced anatomically modern humans from Eurasia. After the penultimate glaciation, Neanderthals changed, their brains enlarged and their skeletons, including their skulls, became more fragile. There is multiple hybridization between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. A third human group, the Asian Denisovans, are very well documented genetically, but fossil finds are rare and very fragmentary. The Denisovans interbred with both Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, especially with the aboriginal populations of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Thus, new data, methods, and approaches demonstrate that the phylogeny of Homo sapiens was much longer and more complicated than previously thought.
keywords
Homo sapiens, Evolution, Archaic Homo sapiens, Anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans, Human sciences, Education
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