Nature of Humanity A Personal View Darwin matters

Nature of Humanity A Personal View

Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. Michael Shermer (2006)

Mt-DNA Primate Tree

Our Living Sisters Pan Gorilla http: //www. mnh. si. edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree. html

Australopithecus species Genus now designated Paranthropus http: //www. mnh. si. edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree. html http: //www. wsu. edu: 8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/afarensis-a. html

Homo species http: //www. mnh. si. edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree. html http: //www. wsu. edu: 8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline. html

http: //www. mnh. si. edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree. html http: //www. wsu. edu: 8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/africanus-a. html

Features that distinguish our species from other apes • Bipedal Locomotion

Figure 1 from Richmond, B. G. , D. R. Begun, and D. S. Strait. 2001. Origin of human bipedalism: The knuckle-walking hypothesis revisited. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology. 44: 70 -105.

http: //www. talkorigins. org/faqs/homs/species. html

Features that distinguish our species from other apes • Neoteny – Nakedness – Large Brain Size – Reduced Dentition

The Neotenic Ape

Features that distinguish our species from other apes • Vocal Communication

http: //www. voice. northwestern. edu/VOICEBOX/Larynx. htm

Humans are not proud of their ancestors and never invite them ‘round to dinner. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 42

Paintings of Lascaux http: //www. culture. fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

http: //mexplaza. udg. mx/wm/paint/auth/vinci/joconde/

http: //www. artchive. com/artchive/G/greek/venus_de_milo. jpg. html

Nikos Kasantzakis Zorba the Greek http: //www. ffolio. com/abarchive/film/zorba. html

Agincourt Song http: //battlefieldvacations. com/france/aginco. htm

God Save the Queen God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen! Send her victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the Queen! http: //www. emulateme. com/anthems/unitedkingtexte. htm

Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Premiered May 1, 1786 in Vienna) http: //w 3. rz-berlin. mpg. de/cmp/mozart. html

Sgt. Pepper

Richard Dawkins A meme is … anything that infects itself from brain to brain. Dawkins. 1998. Unweaving the Rainbow.

Written Language http: //www. gutenberg. de/english/erfindun. htm

Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. -Genesis 2: 7 http: //prodigi. bl. uk/gutenbg/background. asp

Rig-Veda http: //phoenicia. org/rigveda. html

Ovid’s Metamorphoses http: //larryavisbrown. homestead. com/files/xeno. ovid 1. htm

Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform >7, 000 years ago http: //www. upenn. edu/museum/Games/cuneiform. html

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam The moving finger writes; and having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. -LXXI http: //www. okonlife. com/pics/index. htm

http: //www. twainquotes. com/

Stephen Jay Gould Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought, a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which if replanted from seed, would almost surely not grow this twig again. http: //www. annonline. com/interviews/961009/biography. html

What a piece of work is man. http: //www. chemicool. com/Shakespeare/

Tycho's Supernova Remnant in X-ray http: //antwrp. gsfc. nasa. gov/apod/ap 960623. html

Footprints at Laetoli http: //www. humanevolution. f 2 s. com/laetolifoot. html

Loren Eiseley If I remember the sunflower forest it is because from its hidden reaches man arose. The green world is his sacred center. In moments of sanity he must still seek refuge there. — Loren Eiseley http: //www. geocities. com/Athens/4189/

E. O. Wilson The human species can change its own nature. What will it choose? Wilson. 1978. On Human Nature.

H. G. Wells A day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars. Wells. 1902. The Discovery of the Future. Nature 65 (326). http: //www. rdg. ac. uk/~lhsjamse/wells. htm

Man is a small thing, but the night is large and full of wonders. -The Laughter of the Gods.

Man thinks and God laughs.