Question

What are the skeletal and behavioral traits that define modern Homo sapiens? What are the evolutionary explanations for its presence?

Answer 1

Homo sapiens refer to humans with few traits of extinct human groups of the early times. Homo Latin word for 'human' or 'man' and sapiens is a Latin word ‘wise’ or 'astute'. The first modern home sapiens skeletons are from Africa nearly 200,000 years before, then 100,000 years before in south west Asia and later by 60,000 years before in Old world. Homo sapiens are said have evolved from Homo heidelbergensis in Africa and also co-existed with the Neanderthals and are the only surviving human species.

The skeletal traits that define modern Homo sapiens can be seen in the skulls, there are variations and they are due to the adaptation to the environment they live in. In modern sapiens the skull is short base and has a high braincase, where as in other species the skull is very broad at the top with a fuller braincase. The backside of skull is round with little neck muscles, the face is small and the nose bones are projected and also the forehead is tall. The eye sockets are also square in them. Earlier sapiens had strong and hard limb bones and where robust when compared to modern Homo sapiens. Their distal bones were shorter and this was due to the cold climate they lived in. Various kinds of climatic adaptations, immigrations and few genetic variations have taken place all these years.

They had a simple lifestyle fused with nature but were very artistic and creative and everything are been depicted in the archaeological records. They too had innovative culture, with great ability to think and memorise, their population size and their social learning are also been still found in the modern Homo sapiens.

It is understood that the first modern humans evolved in Africa but when migration started they started to replace the human population by interbreeding with the archaic humans who resulted in hybrid humans. It is understood that African moved via eastern Mediterranean and mixed up with the Neanderthals and hybridized Cro-Magnon and later became modern Europeans. Genetic variations have evolved due to the changes in the environment after the ice-age and this type of evolutions will continue till the point of extinctions.