Evolution-interesting Facts

It is very difficult to answer the question why did humans evolve in Africa.

Evolution is a random phenomena. Genetic mutations occur naturally, some

mutations are beneficial and help the survival and further upward evolution

of the species. Some are not. This is the basis of evolution based on

natural selection. Maybe there were some environmental conditions

that existed in Africa that favoured the evolutionary process.

We are looking into the very distant past and we may never really know.

Our universe is about 14 billion years old, starting with the big bang.

Our planet earth is just about 4.5 billion years old. Primitive life forms

evolved from inert, inorganic molecules from a prebiotic soup about 3.5 billions years ago .

It took a long long time, billions of years, for the evolution to reach archaic

humans. Only about some 300,000 years ago, fully modern humans,

Homo Sapiens evolved in Africa! See the time scale, 14 billion year old universe

to 5 billion year old earth to just 300,000 year old human species.

We have been here only for an insignificant period, about 300,000

thousand years. For most of the period, our species was primitive

hunter gathers leading a tribal and nomadic life. The first humans

came out of Africa about 60,000 to 90,000 years ago, and reached

the Indian subcontinent only about 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

We continued to be nomadic hunter gatherers, speaking probably

some primitive language till agriculture began about 10,000 years ago,

as a result of early cultivation of plants and domestication of crops and

animals. Settled life soon followed with implements and techniques

being developed for agriculture. Human civilization as we know it is

just about a few thousand years old !!!

Another interesting point most of us may not be aware of is :

Mitochondrial Eve, the most recent female-line common ancestor

of all living people.

"Y-chromosomal Adam", the most recent male-line common ancestor

of all living people.

All of us the 7 billion homo sapiens alive today in the entire world

are the female-line descendents of one African woman, dubbed

as 'Mitochondrial Eve' by the popular media. Similarly, all of us are

the male-line descendents of one African man dubbed as

"Y-Chromosomal Adam" by popular media. Going back several thousand

generations, we are all cousins, with a common ancestry, these two

being our great great great...... grandmother and grandfather !

These two were not contemporaries, did not live in the same period,

but were thousands of years apart, the grandma preceding the grandpa.

Jayasala42