The Evolution of Man

[Matias]

@GrizzlyClaws 

In the genus Homo, I do not know to what extent we can frame one subspecies as descending or ascending from another. When some scientists established the nomenclature "Archaic Homo Sapiens", it was an attempt to treat all the fossil records of that time as variants of the same species (Homo). Otherwise, we would have a dozen names for the findings and the confusion would be magnified. Differentiating Homo Heildelbergensis and Homo Rhodesiensis in the evolutionary paths is an ongoing task, and it is believed that the latter never left Africa (both "subspecies" developed in parallel - this is a theory - your reasoning is perfectly plausible. Africa can be the cradle of everything - beginning, middle and end). I am not very aware of new diagnoses in this field, so I do not know to what extent there is already a reconstruction of directional selection patterns necessary to bring some "subspecies" to the final result of our species. I prefer to follow the current of thought that sees Homo Sapiens Sapiens as a result of the natural connection of these "subspecies", which are the direct result of the environmental forces shaping our formation (ecosystem in which each population is geographically located).

One important point, I think, is cultural adaptations, enabling these human groups to better cope with environmental difficulties. This "soup of subspecies" followed evolutionary paths and / or adaptive paths being condensed to produce our present form (morphologically so diversified) whose result could not be obtained from an experiment with few variants. There are two very important steps to be understood: the first is the transition from Australopithecus to the genus Homo, tthe second is this we are trying to understand. Both are, to a greater or lesser degree, the result of evolutionary innovation the effect of which was the emergence and coexistence of a diversity of forms. The complexity of human thought may have been the catalyst that produced so many variations.

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