What speculation has arisen about human origins?

If there are countless unsolved mysteries in the vast universe, then the origin of human beings is the biggest and most difficult to explain.

The legend that Eve and Adam created human beings has been regarded as an ancient story by people. In today's high-tech society, people must rely on scientific and technological means to obtain empirical evidence to verify all hypotheses and reasoning. No one denies that Darwin, an Englishman who was born in the 19th century, was a great man who broke the old and innovated the new. His masterpieces "The Origin of Species" and "The Descent of Man" for the first time implanted into people's traditional thinking that human beings came from certain It is a concept derived from structurally lower forms, and further believes that the characteristics of spiritual civilization such as human intelligence, human social morality and the psychological basis of emotions can be traced back to the stage of lower animals, just like the origin of human body structure. It laid the foundation for classifying human beings into the field of scientific research. This is an unprecedented breakthrough in the historical development of human consciousness.

After the birth of Marxism, Engels used dialectical materialism and historical materialism to synthesize scientific achievements, comprehensively analyze the process from ape to man, and created the theory of "labor creates man". Fundamentally shattered the religious superstition myth that God created man. In the transformation process from ape to human, labor plays a decisive role. Whether it is the division of labor between hands and feet, making tools, or the emergence of language, brain development and thinking, they all appeared in labor. Therefore Engels said: Labor "is the first basic condition of the entire human society...In a sense, it has to be said that labor creates man himself."

1． Did humans evolve from monkeys?

It was the explanations of Darwin and Engels that enabled people to completely break through the shackles of religious ideas and enable people to continue to explore the mystery of human origins in the field of science and technology for more than a hundred years.

Among them, the most accepted inferences about human origins include the following:

First, humans evolved from primates.

In 1960, Sir Alister Hardy, a British professor of anthropology, proposed a new hypothesis. He believed that there was a fossil blank period (fossil data from this period 4 to 8 million years ago). Almost blank) human ancestors lived not on land, but in the sea. In the history of human evolution, there was an aquatic sea ape stage that lasted for millions of years. This stage has left many "traces" in humans to this day - anatomical and physiological characteristics that are not seen in other land primates. None of them exist, but they also exist in aquatic mammals such as seals and dolphins. For example: all primates have thick hair on their bodies, but humans have exposed skin like aquatic animals. Primates have no subcutaneous fat, but humans have thick subcutaneous fat like aquatic animals. The lanugo hair of human fetuses is obviously different from that of other primates, and is close to that of aquatic animals. The physiological phenomenon of human lacrimal glands secreting tears and excreting salt is also a characteristic of aquatic animals and is unique among primates. Hardy pointed out: Geological history shows that 4 to 8 million years ago, large areas in eastern and northern Africa were once submerged by sea water. The sea water separated the group of ancient apes living there, forcing some of them to live in the sea and evolve into sea apes. Millions of years later, the seawater receded, and the sea apes that had adapted to life in the water returned to land. They are the ancestors of humans. The sea ape has gone through many vicissitudes and evolved the ability to stand upright on two legs and control breathing while living in the water, creating conditions for major evolutionary steps such as walking upright, freeing hands, and developing language communication. This makes them "uniquely blessed", surpassing other apes and evolving into the most advanced intelligent animals on earth.

The second is that humans evolved from marine creatures.

Comparing the physiological characteristics of different animals can tell how close they are to each other. This is the research method of comparative physiology. Epiric Danton, a biology professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia, concluded through research that humans are actually more similar to aquatic animals.

Some experts pointed out that human diving physiology is quite good. In the place where ancient apes lived, people found a famous monument: a prehistoric shell mound. Shell mounds are piles of shells, and people must master the technique of breath-hold diving to collect these shellfish. It is clear that these apes have excellent diving skills that are unique among primates. Humans are natural divers, and they can hold their breath for much longer than other land creatures. When humans dive, a diving reaction occurs in the body: muscle contraction, systemic arterial blood flow decreases, breathing pauses, and the heartbeat slows down. This reaction is very similar to the diving reaction of aquatic animals such as seals and pochards. The diving response is not a conditioned reflex, but is controlled by the higher centers of the brain. This kind of control also consciously controls breathing. Precise control and regulation of breathing is the basis for human development of language. Without this ability to control breathing formed during the ape stage, humans would not be able to develop such complex vocal methods.

The third is that human beings have extraterrestrial origins.

Over the years, a series of discoveries have revived people’s enthusiasm for the theory of extraterrestrial origins of life. First of all, people noticed that although there are many types of life on earth, they have a pattern, with similar cell structures, genetic material composed of the same nucleic acids, and living bodies composed of proteins.

This makes people have to ask, if life really evolved from inorganic substances on the earth, why wouldn't there be a variety of life modes? Secondly, some people have noticed that gold and molybdenum play an important role in the physiological activities of life on earth. The content of gold and molybdenum in the earth's crust is very low, only 0.002%. This also makes people wonder why such a rare element is so important to life? Could it be that life on Earth originated from other molybdenum-rich celestial bodies? Thirdly, people are constantly discovering organic matter originating from interstellar space in meteorites falling from the sky, including all the basic elements that constitute life on earth. At the same time, people have also discovered that organic molecular clouds exist in many places in the universe. This has convinced many people that life is by no means solely a monopoly on the earth. Furthermore, some people have also noticed that some infectious diseases on earth, such as influenza, often spread around the world periodically. And its spreading period actually coincides with the return period of some comets. So this gave them reason to wonder, could some infectious vaccines come from comets? If so, then man is a visitor from outside the world.

The origin of human beings is a subject that has attracted the most attention since ancient times, and is listed as one of the three major origin mysteries along with the origin of the universe and the origin of the earth.

So, did humans originate from primates, sea creatures, or extraterrestrial origin? To this day, no scientist has been able to confirm or deny any conclusion with conclusive evidence. This is still one of the biggest problems that puzzles mankind.

2． How old are humans?

In his article "About the Chongqing Negotiations", Mao Zedong mentioned that humans are 500,000 years old. Based on the archeology of the "Peking Man", Chinese historians also believe that humans are 500,000 years old. Foreign historians have inferred based on the fossil data of "Javanese Man" and "East African Man" in Tanzania that the birth of human beings has a history of 3 million and 5 million years. So, how old are humans?

Since 1973, a large number of human fossils have been unearthed in the Hada area of ??Ethiopia that are 3.3 to 2.9 million years old. Scholars believe that some of them "can be regarded as 'human-like' without any problem." "Ancestor"; at the same time, the "Lucy Girl" unearthed in the same place also lived around 3.5 million years ago; in 1974, 13 pieces of human remains were unearthed in Letolier, more than 40 kilometers away from the Olduvai Gorge. Fossils of systems or hominins. One of the mandibles, designated as Homo, was dated to 3.35 million to 3.75 million years ago using the potassium-argon method. In 1965, Bu Patterson discovered a humerus fossil in Kana, southwest of Lake Turkana, Kenya, which he dated to 4 million years ago. This fossil is similar to a modern human humerus. The "functional identification analysis method" is used to determine that its functional characteristics are close to those of humans. From 1932 to 1967, an international scientific expedition team discovered human fossils in 70 locations in Ethiopia's Omo Basin, the oldest of which was 4 million years old. In 1982, scholars from the University of California in the United States discovered a very complete "primitive human fossil" ("Lucy man") in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia, which was also dated to 4 million years ago. In 1984, Kenyan and American experts discovered a 5 million-year-old ancient human jawbone fossil in Kenya. D. Pilbeam, an anthropology expert at Harvard University in the United States who participated in the excavation, said that previous excavations have shown that humans existed in East Africa three to four million years ago. The jawbone unearthed this time has pushed the appearance of humans on the earth back to the future. One million years ago.

Although these bones are not accompanied by stone tools, and some are still being debated, overall, it is determined that they belong to the genus Homo through "fossil morphology" and "functional identification analysis". According to the "pre-wooden tool theory" view, they were transformed into humans through the production of wooden tools. Therefore, the age of human beings is no longer two to three million years old, but at least three million years ago, or even four to five million years ago.

To sum up, although the age of human beings is 500,000 years, 1 million years, 2 to 3 million years, 3 million years, 3 million years and 4 million years (according to the theory of wooden tools) before There are other conclusions, but none of them can be used as a conclusive conclusion. Because, although the theories of 500,000 years, 1 million years, 2 to 3 million years and 3 million years have been denied one by one with the increase of archaeological data, there is still no evidence for the theories of 3 million years ago and 4 million years ago. Not enough, even the "pre-wooden age theory" and "pre-wooden age theory" themselves are under debate. Judging from the current situation, the theory of "3 million years" belongs to the majority, but the oldest stone tools discovered in the world are only 25.6 million years old. Although there is still debate between the "pre-wooden age theory" and the "pre-wooden age theory", with the continuous enrichment of archaeological and anthropological data, the basis for the theory of 3 million years ago and 4 million years ago will surely increase day by day, and the future How that will happen is hard to predict. If we look at the existing data in East Africa, the age of human beings is no longer two to three million years ago, but 3 million years ago, or even longer. As for how much earlier and how much longer it can grow, it is difficult to determine.

3. What are the ancient ancestors of human beings?

The origin of human beings is a difficult problem that puzzles people, and where it originated also makes today's scientists at a loss.

The inference of human origins is mainly based on the discovered human fossils. Most of the ancient human fossils discovered today are in Asia and Africa.

The fossils of Homo erectus were discovered in Indonesia at the end of the 19th century, and the fossils of Peking Man were discovered in Zhoukoudian, Beijing, in the 1920s. These two major discoveries allowed people to push the birth of humans to 1 million years ago. At the same time, people believe that Human beings originated from Asia, and Asians are the old ancestors of human beings. But in the 1960s, based on the newly discovered archaeological data of "East Africans", scientists began to believe that Africa was the earliest birthplace of mankind, and Africans were most likely to be the ancestors of mankind.

In the Olduvai Gorge area of ??present-day Tanzania, many stone tools have been discovered for a long time, and they coexist with animal fossils from very ancient times. As far back as 1911, a German biologist named Katwinkel discovered some animal fossils while collecting insect specimens here, which attracted people's attention. In 1931, the British anthropologist Dr. Leakey and his wife chose the unique location of Olduvai Gorge as an excavation base in order to search for early human fossils. This canyon is part of the East African Rift Valley. It is now more than 20 kilometers long from east to west, more than 900 meters deep, and has steep cliffs on both sides. From top to bottom, it shows very clear ancient strata from more than 2 million years ago to 500,000 years ago. . It was a rift lake in ancient times, and over a long period of time, thick sediments were deposited, which provided excellent conditions for the preservation of human fossils. Sure enough, the Leakeys got their wish here. In the first two years, they found some extinct animal fossils and rough stone tools from the Paleolithic Age, but they never found anyone associated with this culture. It was not until July 17, 1959, that after 30 days of hard work, the Leakeys made a decisive breakthrough and discovered a prehistoric human skull, which was named "East African Man". The discovery of "East Africans" caused a sensation all over the world. Later a series of new discoveries were made. In 1963, Dr. Leakey's eldest son Jonathan Leakey discovered another human skeleton in the same stratum that was earlier than "East African Homo". It lived 1.85 million years ago and was named "Homo habilis". In the early 1970s, Little Leakey believed in his works "On the Origin" and "Lake Dwellers" that "Homo habilis" evolved directly into "Homo erectus" and became the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens and modern humans. Other anthropologists later discovered some new fossils and footprints of "Homo habilis", whose survival age greatly exceeded those discovered by Xiao Liji. For example, Bernard Enginho discovered the fossil of "Homo habilis" that lived 2.9 million years ago on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. It is particularly worth mentioning that in 1975, in the Laetoli region of northern Tanzania, the footprints of "Homo habilis" were discovered by anthropologist Mary Leakey and others. Mary Leakey reported this discovery in the British "National Geographic" magazine and concluded that its age was 2.6 million years ago. Not only that, but abundant fossils belonging to Homo erectus have also been found in East Africa. In 1965, Dr. Leakey discovered the fossil of "Homo erectus" in the second layer of the Pleistocene sedimentary layer of Odowei, and named it "Lekey Man". In 1969, a femur belonging to Homo erectus was unearthed in Tanzania. In 1976, a fairly complete skull of Homo erectus was discovered near the east shore of Lake Tekana in Kenya, dated to 1.5 million years ago. Scholars agree that Homo erectus is the direct ancestor of modern humans.

As early as the second half of the 19th century, Darwin proposed the idea that humans originated in Africa. In his famous book "The Origin of Man and Sexual Selection" he pointed out: "In various regions of the world, existing mammals are closely related to extinct species in the same region. Therefore, apes that are closely related to gorillas and chimpanzees were very closely related in the past. Probably inhabited Africa. Moreover, since these two special species are now closely related to humans, it seems more likely that the early ancestors of humans lived on the African continent and not elsewhere." When Darwin proposed this idea, Few human fossils have been unearthed, and other sciences related to anthropology are not yet developed, so it can only be a speculation and hypothesis. Darwin's view was once denied due to the discovery of "Peking Man" and "Java Man", but now with the unearthing of a series of human fossils in East Africa, most anthropologists have affirmed Darwin's inference. They have three bases. First, only on the African continent have fossils of all stages of human evolution so far been found: from ancient apes to Ramapithecus, Australopithecus and "fully formed humans" - Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens and modern humans. The earliest known fully formed human fossils so far were also found on the African continent; secondly, Africa has a vast territory and varied terrain. There are tropical primeval forests, vast grasslands, towering mountains, secluded rift valleys, and strings of lakes. These can play an important role in promoting the evolution of apes in terms of external conditions. The impact of volcanic activity in East Africa on human evolution is even more striking. Wildfires caused by volcanoes have further expanded the savannah. Volcanoes are likely to be one of mankind's early tools - the source of fire. Volcanic activity blocks rivers and creates sandbars and lakes. Various elements ejected by volcanoes also make the bones of various animals One generation is better than the next; third, molecular biology research also shows that African gorillas and chimpanzees have the closest genetic relationship with humans, which provides a strong scientific basis for Darwin's inference. The mystery of where humans originated is being solved.

4. Why are there four skin colors?

Based on the existing archaeological data, scientists can only infer that Africa is the earliest birthplace of mankind.

Why do modern people have different skin colors? Scientists have conducted endless studies to explore the differences between modern humans and their skin color.

Dr. Brown of the United States extracted mitochondrial genes from the cells of 13 whites, 4 Chinese, and 4 blacks. What surprised Dr. Brown was that the genotypes of people of different skin colors were very similar. His major discovery was that the different skin colors of human beings are only superficial phenomena. This difference is formed by continuous variation in the long process of human development. In short, the skin color of human races is different, but the genetic genes of human beings are similar. The ancestors are the same.

Scientists increasingly believe that yellow people are the ancestors of white and yellow people. American scholars used baboon virus genes as a standard and experimentally found that the genes of modern humans are very similar to Asian monkeys. In other words, modern humans originated in Asia.

Human beings have experienced countless hardships and hardships in the process of development. In the living environment, sudden changes in weather, attacks by wild beasts, and fighting and killing of the same kind have caused the human race to change from extinction to regeneration, from great migration to evolution, and the current distribution of human races is roughly as follows: Asia is mostly yellow, and Americans Odo is Caucasian, while Africans are mostly black. But regardless of skin color, the ancestors of modern humans are still inferred to be of the yellow race. The skull fossils of early Homo sapiens dating back 200,000 years ago have been discovered in Dali County, Shaanxi Province, China. This has led many scientists to believe that both black and white people evolved from Peking Man 500,000 years ago to Dali Man and then evolved into modern humans. of.

Dr. Brown of the United States once pointed out with certainty: "The Dali people in Asia are not only yellow, but also the common ancestors of whites and blacks."

Although we It can be believed that we yellow people are the ancestors of white people and black people, but how did the yellow people evolve into different skin colors during the evolution process, and at what age did they evolve into yellow, black, white, and brown? Still a mystery.