Humans. Best of the bunch?

Well here's the Question. Are humans. Homo Sapien Sapien. Are we really the best of the hominid bunch? Or are we just the ones with the most luck and or brutality?

Well I think we tend to give ourselves too much credit and not enough to our own ancestors and relatives. I mean how do you normally see any pre-human ancestors depicted? Usually slouched over with club and grunting instead of speaking.

Well lets look at the fossils of our ancestors to see if that holds true. Lets go back to an early human ancestor. Australopithecus. It was essentially a chimp that did one thing chimps don't. It stood up right. So from the earliest start of our species we have ancestors standing up straight and taking a look at the fossil record that holds true the entire hominid line.

Now lets take a look at language. For this lets turn to our cousin species the Neanderthal. Well we've done studies on them. One of the bones in the throat that's critical for speech similar to ours is present in the neanderthal. It's a little more high up but but ti's there. That just means Neanderthal had a higher tone voice then we do. Ok. So we got skeletal info confirming that and we also have more recently genetic test done showing that a critical gene for language is not only present in both of us but identical. So yeah Neanderthal spoke!

Oh and while I'm at it lets look at this whole. We're special cuz we walk upright thing. Looking back farther in the fossil record we find a lot more upright apes. Many of which aren't even in our line of decent. So sorry walking up right don't make ya special. Lots of apes have done it we're just the only ones to survive.

Anyway I just thought I'd post this up and get your guy's reactions to it and your opinions. What do you think about this?

Hmm, what you have said is very true. A funny thing though is while Chimps and other apes do not have the ability to speak as we do, many have the ability to learn language, although through non-verbal means. They ahve the capacity, although ahve not deeloped the culture on their own. The case of walking upright is very true...but for many funny reasons, species go extinct. The Neandrathal had a larger brain and was said to ahve more complax rituals and such...but now they are gone. Pehaps they thought too much? I'm taking anthropology and I still have trouble with these concepts. No, we aren't special...just feel happy for dumb luck.

Very interesting topic Lig.

Before I ask, and don't take offense to this please, are you an evolutionist or religious?

If the neanderthal's did have larger brains, more complex ritual, etc. Perhaps we won in the long run because of our ability to adapt? With a more complex tradition it can be hard to deviate from it. If the creationist theory is true, then perhaps we were favored in some way by God? Who knows... I'm an evolutionist AND religious by the way. (I know, weird combination)

Heh, I really donlt know what kind of spirituality I hold, but I am an in support of evolution. Currently its the best theory available.

Well I'm fairly certain the Neanderthal died out due the fact we simply out competed them. Neanderthal numbers where never very large. I'm a believer in the theory that some humans today are distantly related to them. I think what happened is some genes got mixed in with some of ours. After a while of hybrids breeding with pure humans Neanderthal genes would have gotten very diluted as to have almost no visible effect on us and possibly go unnoticed during DNA testing. And as to if I'm and Evolutionist or Religious. Well like Engrish I'm both. I look at evolution as a mechanism for the creation of new life and as such creation in itself. What's the difference between god instantly making a new species and him making one over time using another. Not much of one really. That's my opinion.

As for are we the best? Well... hard to tell. Maybe we are, maybe we're done. I wouldn't know. What I do however, is that if the superiority of a species is measured by its power to affect its living space, we'd be off the chart.

As to Creationism and Evoltionism... well, it's not that strange to have both. One way of believing both is put this way. "God created the first life forms but these life forms evolved into what we are today."

Personally, it's just not something I usually want to get into. I find it too controversial.

But controversy is fun! Besides, part of my argument agaisnt creationism is that if a watch is made by a watchmaker, who made the watchmaker?

the ancesters evoled into the neanderthal genus either a little before or during the ice age. their bones were twice as strong as our own. they had more body fat and smaller ears. the way i see it is that geneitics dont stop after they finish another genus they keep evolving to adapt to their environment. the neanderthals died out because that genus became unuseable

evolution is constant

for example when the ozone layer finally goes children will be born with more pigment in their cells meaning they will have darker skin to coap with the sun. if the world suddenly turned to perpetual darkness our eyes would mutate to handle the lack of light... maybe our iris would become smaller... maybe we wouldnt have iris's at all. if suddenly all plantlife became uneatable out metabolism would change... our teeth would become more canine and our bodies would adapt to live off the nutrients in the meat. the same if all animal life dissappeared. out teeth would be different, our appendix would become larger (helps digest plant matter)

the only question is will people welcome mutation? or will they try to keep homo sapian pure?

Actually I think you are right about the Neandrathals dieing out the way you stated Kaiskune, and evolution does work in that manner. Your analogys of how change occures is correct, however th changes made per generation are usually small and unnoticable for quite a few generations. That said, those who addapt best would live on to reproduce and those unfit would die or be killed. There is enough of us, so probably a sudden change in environment would't kill us...but think of all the otehr poor animals! hehe

Well Kais your ideas of evolution are valid about us and would be right if we wheren't in a civilization. If the Ozone layer goes we're more likely to spend less time in the sun. Not more. If the world goes dark yes we could evolve better eyes and probably hearing too but we're also just as likely build a lot more likes and stay away from the dark zones of the world. Evolution doesn't work on us quite like it used to anymore. I mean we've taken natural selection out of the picture.