co-challengers

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The origin of humans

The earliest appearance of humans can be traced to Africa. The humans who later emerged in other parts of the world were – directly or indirectly – the result of the migration of some of these early humans. This is evident in the gene pool of modern-day humans. There is much more diversity among genes in Africa than in the rest of the world combined. This is because the humans in the rest of the world emerged from that small group of ancestral migrants who had left Africa while most of the early, diverse humans stayed back in the continent. This video explains it clearly.

This gives us a lot to reflect upon.

First, most of us, especially the ones outside Africa, are much more similar than we think. Our genes share a lot of similarities. Also, because we (humans outside Africa) all descended from a small group of African migrants, we are more closely related than we tend to think.

This is a useful perspective to remember when wars break out between groups or when we feel distant from any particular group of people. It will help us love everyone because we are all very similar, biologically.

Second, it feels incredibly humble that we started in Africa but now have a presence worldwide. It is a reminder to be grateful for our land and not take it for granted. Also, this is a useful perspective that can prevent many wars as most wars start as territorial disputes.

Third, it is also a reminder for us to be kind to all other beings on this planet. After all, we have taken over much of the habitat where our ancestors and all other beings used to co-exist. The least we can do is to be as kind to all plants, animals and other living beings as we can.

The evolutionary arms race

All species have evolved throughout history to protect themselves from danger.

As an example, snakes were initially non-venomous. Some of them developed venom as a trait in response to danger from vertebrates. Their venom was designed to attack a specific part of the brain found in vertebrates.

As an evolutionary response, humans (part of vertebrates) learnt to use objects such as stones and sticks to attack snakes without getting too close to their venom. This evolutionary trait acted as protection from the snake’s trait.

The race didn’t stop there.

Some snakes further evolved to spit venom from a distance to combat the danger of stones and sticks. Specifically, the venom range was such that it could reach the height of a human’s eyes since eyes present an open spot to inflict the poison. This race between snakes and humans is captured brilliantly in this video.

Similarly, all species have walked a tough evolutionary path to get here. Our ancestors have faced immense danger and have evolved in such a way to make us one of the safest among all species.

This gives us yet another reason to feel grateful. Today, we do not need to worry about constant threats from other predators, something that our ancestors worried about constantly. We live in a much safer world, owing to our evolution. We can remind ourselves of this comfort when we get too worried.

We can learn a lot from history and evolution. If you are interested, this channel has some very interesting videos – Link

About the author: Anirudh is a data scientist from India. He loves meeting new people and reading on a variety of topics. His other articles can be found here.

11 Responses

  1. I never knew the relationship between early humans and snakes led to the evolutionary arms race !! Great analysis and write up as always.

  2. Great article, Anirudh.
    It is interesting and new info for me to know that we are all descendants from Africa and how we are all United in that way! Keep writing more on Anthropology !!

  3. At the end, I am also having African genes, that’s why I wonder how I dance well to the beats. Great writing and analysis Ani!

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