Reflection # 4 - Claudia Cardenas

Reflection paper#4: Discuss what you have learned from reading the articles Early Human Phylogeny, Hominids, the Story of Lucy and African Eve. How has this affected what you believe?

Reading the articles "Early Human Phylogeny", "Hominids", "The Story of Lucy" and "African Eve" has added loads of information to my bank of knowledge. I started off primitively and inaccurately believing that first came Cro-Magnon then came us the"Homo Sapiens". Little did I know that their has been dozens of evolutions! It began with the genus Australopithecus, then through many species later came the genus Homo. I learned that human behavior depends on enculturation that can only be passed down through communication. Homo Habilis was the first species believed to have the ability of simple speech. Homo Habilis was also the first Homo to create and use tools. Man ate raw meat and foraged the land until Homo Erectus was able to create and manipulate fire. At this point man was becoming more civilized, he could hunt, protect his family, survive the cold and communicate orally. The invention of writing sped up the enculturation and evolution of man.

From the Lucy story, I was shocked to see and learn the similarities between man and ape at this point in evolution. Lucy was found in 1974 in Ethiopia. Her skeleton is almost complete and when put together it is clear to see the striking similarities between her frame and that of a chimpanzee. Lucy is classified as an Ape, Australopithecus Afarensis.Although Lucy resembles a chimp, she also has some strong human characteristics. For instance, her hips and pelvis indicate that she walked upright as humans do. Lucy's story is one filled with evidence proving evolution even further.

More over, I found the "African Eve"to be the most interesting of all. Over all it stated that mans origin was Africa and that Homo Erectus later migrated and populated the other regions of the Earth. Characteristics of race being a mutation to adapt to its particular climate habitat. I think its a simple and believable theory that we all came from Africa.

I grew up in a Catholic family and have never shared there beliefs. The Catholic religion never made any sense to me, but I believe to each its own. If I agreed with the story of Jesus I would have no room to believe in evolution or even science for that matter. God made Adam and Eve, not Peking man and Lucy. Learning about the evolution of man has only given me further reason to dispel the ideas I was told to believe as a child. What I believe now is that the universe, and the world is always in a constant change. Evolution fits into my schema of an ever flux world.