Humans

Question 1

What is in the primate group?
When did they appear?

Answer 1

MONKEYS:
- tails
- narrow chests
- live in trees

APES:
- no tail
- broad chest

Appeared 65ma, just after the dinosaurs

Question 2

What is evolution?

Answer 2

The process by which organisms change over the cause of generations
- one ancestor gives rise to many descendants

Question 3

What is the key to evolution?

Answer 3

NATURAL SELECTION:
- members of a species best adapted to their local environments survive, breed and pass on their special characteristics
- this is survival of the fittest, those that fit best with their environment

• this means evolution is therefore continuous with improvements being made all the time
• given enough time a new species will evolve

Question 4

What is a species?

Answer 4

a discrete population of organisms that doesn’t naturally interbreed with other groups
- every individual = different within a species: genetics evolve over time

• members of different species can still interbreed if they are not too genetically distinct - we know Homo Sapiens bred with Neanderthal and other human species

Question 5

What is a cladeogram?

What is a clade?

Answer 5

Graphs showing the relationship between organisms

CLADE = group of organisms that include a single ancestor and all of its decendants

Question 6

What is a hominim?

Answer 6

describes living humans and all other species that diverged from chimpanzees

Question 7

Why, when, how did humans evolve?

Answer 7

• during quaternary, last 2.6 million years
• a time of massively fluctuating climate
• many human species dies out because they weren’t able to adapt quick enough to the changing climate
• Homo sapiens was able to use technology to adapt to the changes - BIG BRAIN
• this was survival of the most adaptable