Question

How Can Hominin Evolution be characterized as " mosaic evolution" Use examples of species from the Earliest Hominins Australopithecines and both early and later homo

Answer 1

Humans did develop a unique and un-controversially different evolutionary profile.

Human evolution is a gradual and cumulative process, best described as mosaic evolution.

Mosaic evolution simply means that within a lineage, different traits evolve independently and at different times; this is the basis of Hublin's accretion model of Neanderthal evolution.

• It is like Within any lineage mosaic evolution at this level will occur, although due to pleiotropic effects there may also be degrees of coevolution, producing a more correlated evolutionary pattern.

Thus, different traits appear and change at different times, and the rates of evolution vary not just between periods but also between elements of the hominin phenotype and extended phenotype.

For more clear, Mosaic evolution is when different domains of evolution change at different times.

• Thus, one part of a lineage's history might see rapid changes in dental patterns, while during another phase it is body size that changes. The pattern of hominin evolution described here fits this higher level form of mosaic evolution.

The transitions described relate to the different elements of human evolutionevolution. This is ranging behaviour and energetics, foraging and diet, reproduction and life history, and cognition and behavioural transmission.

According to Britannica, "The phenomenon of mosaic evolution would seem to indicate that the process of natural selection acts differently upon the various structures and functions of evolving species. Thus, in the case of human development, the evolutionary pressures for upright posture took precedence over the need for a complex brain. Furthermore, the elaboration of the brain was probably linked to the freeing of the forelimbs made possible by bipedal locomotion. Analysis of incidences of mosaic evolution adds greatly to the body of general evolutionary theory."