Process Of Human Evolution Research Articles

Computer vision enables taxon-specific identification of African carnivore tooth marks on bone

Taphonomic works aim at discovering how paleontological and archaeofaunal assemblages were formed. They also aim at determining how hominin fossils were preserved or destroyed. Hominins and other mammal carnivores have been co-evolving, at least during the past two million years, and their potential interactions determined the evolution of human behavior. In order to understand all this, taxon-specific carnivore agency must be effectively identified in the fossil record. Until now, taphonomists have been able to determine, to some degree, hominin and carnivore inputs in site formation, and their interactions in the modification of part of those assemblages. However, the inability to determine agency more specifically has hampered the development of taphonomic research, whose methods are virtually identical to those used several decades ago (lagged by a high degree of subjectivity). A call for more objective and agent-specific methods would be a major contribution to the advancement of taphonomic research. Here, we present one of these advances. The use of computer vision (CV) on a large data set of images of tooth marks has enabled the objective discrimination of taxon-specific carnivore agency up to 88% of the testing sample. We highlight the significance of this method in an interdisciplinary interplay between traditional taphonomic-paleontological analysis and artificial intelligence-based computer science. The new questions that can be addressed with this will certainly bring important changes to several ideas on important aspects of the human evolutionary process.

Ageing and Death: A Focus on How to Transcend Diseases for Transhumanist Movements

The concept of transhumanism is based on a specific understanding of human limitations that should or could be transcended. Among them, the question of overcoming our own corporeality through the delaying of ageing or death is of major importance for a new understanding of human plasticity and fluidity when shaping ourselves and our environment. As transhumanism advocates for human enhancement through technological means, it considers ageing and death as diseases and criticizes their necessity in the human evolutionary process. In light of this transhumanist question, this article discusses ageing and death as diseases for which there must be technological solutions. It underlines that a philosophical approach is necessary to highlight how correlated and interrelated those subjects are and tries to go beyond humanist dichotomies to make clearer how major notions (health, enhancement, etc.) are intertwined with each other and consequently shape our socio-political subjectivities. Given this context, this article discusses the fact that medicine is traditionally structured on a limit that seems to be more and more plastic to pave the way for new debates, such as human enhancement, morphological freedom, and biocultural capital. It then discusses how transhumanism tries to transcend what is considered human structures by examining death as a fatal degeneration that could be overcome through biological amortality and informational immortality.

The aorta in humans and African great apes, and cardiac output and metabolic levels in human evolution

Humans have a larger energy budget than great apes, allowing the combination of the metabolically expensive traits that define our life history. This budget is ultimately related to the cardiac output, the product of the blood pumped from the ventricle and the number of heart beats per minute, a measure of the blood available for the whole organism physiological activity. To show the relationship between cardiac output and energy expenditure in hominid evolution, we study a surrogate measure of cardiac output, the aortic root diameter, in humans and great apes. When compared to gorillas and chimpanzees, humans present an increased body mass adjusted aortic root diameter. We also use data from the literature to show that over the human lifespan, cardiac output and total energy expenditure follow almost identical trajectories, with a marked increase during the period of brain growth, and a plateau during most of the adult life. The limited variation of adjusted cardiac output with sex, age and physical activity supports the compensation model of energy expenditure in humans. Finally, we present a first study of cardiac output in the skeleton through the study of the aortic impression in the vertebral bodies of the spine. It is absent in great apes, and present in humans and Neanderthals, large-brained hominins with an extended life cycle. An increased adjusted cardiac output, underlying higher total energy expenditure, would have been a key process in human evolution.

Communication for collaborative computation: two major transitions in human evolution.

This paper presents and defends the following theoretical arguments: (1) The uniqueness of the human condition lies in the fact that only humans engage in collaborative computation, where different individuals work together on shared computational challenges. Collaborative computation is the foundation of our cumulative cultures. (2) Collaborative computation requires individuals to engage in instructive communication, where senders do not just send messages to receivers-but also send them instructions that the receivers are obliged to follow in the course of computing the messages. (3) The process of human evolution was driven throughout by the invention and development of tools of instructive communication. (4) In this process, two separate major transitions should be identified. The first was made possible by the toolkit of representational gestures (pointing, eye contact, manual demonstration, pantomime and more) that Merlin Donald called the toolkit of mimesis. Mimesis allows for collaborative computation as long as the information requiring computation is available for direct experiencing by the participants. The second was made possible by language, the tool that allowed its users, for the first time, to engage in collaborative computations of information they did not experience together-through the systematic instruction of the mental computations of imagination. This article is part of the theme issue 'Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions'.

Multiproxy record of climate change during the late quaternary and human adaptive response at the Bailian Cave, Guangxi, South China

ABSTRACT The trajectory of human evolution has been closely related with climate change, especially against the background of glacial and interglacial cycles during the Quaternary, since various climatic conditions impact human evolutionary process differently. In this article, multiple paleoenvironmental and archaeological indices, including stable isotope data and lithic remains, which are derived from the Bailian cave in Guangxi, provide an opportunity to conduct a comparative study in a broader context in South China and its adjacent regions. It is argued that Palaeolithic foragers in southern mainland China rapidly adjusted their subsistence patterns to adapt the deteriorated climate during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The present research provides new evidence on the interaction of climatic oscillation and human adaptive change at the end of the Last Ice Age.

EVOLUTIONARY EMERGENT SELF IN THE POETRY OF BULLEH SHAH

This paper affirms the significance of mystic love as a higher mental faculty in human evolutionary process. Man as evolutionary emergent self is the operational definition of mysticism; a process in which individual self of a person gains Unique Self Enlightenment through operational interaction of higher mental faculties and aspires for Love intelligence in order to get one with the Absolute. Emergent evolution is an anti Darwinian view of Evolution which runs quite contrary to Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Mystic literature in general and Bulleh Shah’s poetry in particular answers many queries of fundamental importance related to man’s existence and evolution in this universe and the nature of relationship between man and man, man and universe and man and God. Bulleh Shah (1680-1757), a mystic poet of Punjabi language, through his poetry offers a study of human existence and his mental and psychological evolution in this universe affirming that love is the cause of man’s creation and the very Eros of his evolution. The present paper explores how does individual love in mystic literature serve as a mode of evolution to get one with the whole (Deity) to attain the level of mystical union by fusing subject self into the object (Divinity) to complete the process of Emergent Evolution of consciousness with the lens of Morgan’s (1927) Emergent Evolution and Gafni’s (2011) Unique Self in Evolutionary Process. Bulleh Shah’s poetry affirms mysticism as a study of spiritual faculties of human beings which demolishes ethno-cultural and dogmatic boundaries and has a natural tendency towards pluralistic aspect of universalism as a counter narrative to ethno-centric global agenda. The basic theoretical assumption of this paper has been taken from my PhD dissertation in which the same theoretical framework has been applied on the poetry of Shah Hussain and John Keats.

Effects of intestinal bacteria on cardiovascular disease

ABSTRACT In the long process of human evolution, the Intestinal Bacteria has become intimately related to human health, producing many metabolites in the intestines that can affect cardiovascular disease. Today, the incidence of cardiovascular disease is rising, its treatment is becoming increasingly important, and new therapeutic targets are needed. Here we describe the effects of trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), lipid metabolism, phenolic compounds, indole sulfate (IS), oleuropein (OL), and hydroxytyrosol (HT) on atherosclerosis, heart failure, hypertension, and other cardiovascular diseases, as well as their mechanism of action. This study provides new ideas, new methods, and new directions for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Three-Dimensional Innate Mobility of the Human Foot on Coronally-Wedged Surfaces Using a Biplane X-Ray Fluoroscopy.

Improving our understanding on how the foot and ankle joints kinematically adapt to coronally wedged surfaces is important for clarifying the pathogenetic mechanism and possible interventions for the treatment and prevention of foot and lower leg injuries. It is also crucial to interpret the basic biomechanics and functions of the human foot that evolved as an adaptation to obligatory bipedal locomotion. Therefore, we investigated the three-dimensional (3D) bone kinematics of human cadaver feet on level (0°, LS), medially wedged (−10°, MWS), and laterally wedged (+10°, LWS) surfaces under axial loading using a biplanar X-ray fluoroscopy system. Five healthy cadaver feet were axially loaded up to 60 kg (588N) and biplanar fluoroscopic images of the foot and ankle were acquired during axial loading. For the 3D visualization and quantification of detailed foot bony movements, a model-based registration method was employed. The results indicated that the human foot was more largely deformed from the natural posture when the foot was placed on the MWS than on the LWS. During the process of human evolution, the human foot may have retained the ability to more flexibly invert as in African apes to better conform to MWS, possibly because this ability was more adaptive even for terrestrial locomotion on uneven terrains. Moreover, the talus and tibia were externally rotated when the foot was placed on the MWS due to the inversion of the calcaneus, and they were internally rotated when the foot was placed on the LWS due to the eversion of the calcaneus, owing to the structurally embedded mobility of the human talocalcaneal joint. Deformation of the foot during axial loading was relatively smaller on the MWS due to restricted eversion of the calcaneus. The present study provided new insights about kinematic adaptation of the human foot to coronally wedged surfaces that is inherently embedded and prescribed in its anatomical structure. Such detailed descriptions may increase our understanding of the pathogenetic mechanism and possible interventions for the treatment and prevention of foot and lower leg injuries, as well as the evolution of the human foot.

Становление методологии сложностно-семиотического мышления в диалоге с квантовой механикой

It is stated that the process of human evolution on planet Earth has entered a permanent crisis mode. The Earth’s civilization is facing a growing set of challenges, threats of uncertainty, even in the very near future. These chal­lenges are associated with the onset of the epoch of the Anthropocene, when human intervention in the bio-geo-sphere leads to its irreversible transforma­tions, which with a high degree of probability may not be compatible with his own existence. On the other hand, on the horizon of the crisis evolution of mankind, a qualitatively new but still ghostly virtual entity appears, called artificial intelligence, which carries a potential threat of its enslavement, turn­ing it into a new pet at best. In this context, a request is rapidly being formed for a new way (or mode) of integratively oriented polyocular thinking, a new conceptual optics that allows us to comprehend the current situation here and now, in order to build a variety of possible scenarios for future human co­evolution, technology and the environment endowed with semiotic agency. Complexity thinking is evolutionary thinking together with complexity, think­ing quantum-relativistic, mediating, procedural-temporal, thinking immersed in a non-equilibrium flow of becoming distinctions, along with the retention of the distinguishable and indistinguishable, as a kind of figure and background, text and context, self-organizing autopoietic system and structurally related en­vironment. Thus, this mode of thinking becomes a recursive semiotically loaded contingent process in which the dialectic of necessity and randomness generates its qualitatively new states. Summing up, we can say that complexity acts as a kind of potentially active background, not fully manifested process, an infinite-dimensional quantum mechanical function, contact-meeting with which brings to life the appearance of a figure, a sign and its observer, referred to by us as a cross-border observer of network complexity.

Sensing soluble uric acid by Naip1-Nlrp3 platform

Uric acid (UA), a product of purine nucleotide degradation able to initiate an immune response, represents a breakpoint in the evolutionary history of humans, when uricase, the enzyme required for UA cleavage, was lost. Despite being inert in human cells, UA in its soluble form (sUA) can increase the level of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in murine macrophages. We, therefore, hypothesized that the recognition of sUA is achieved by the Naip1-Nlrp3 inflammasome platform. Through structural modelling predictions and transcriptome and functional analyses, we found that murine Naip1 expression in human macrophages induces IL-1β expression, fatty acid production and an inflammation-related response upon sUA stimulation, a process reversed by the pharmacological and genetic inhibition of Nlrp3. Moreover, molecular interaction experiments showed that Naip1 directly recognizes sUA. Accordingly, Naip may be the sUA receptor lost through the human evolutionary process, and a better understanding of its recognition may lead to novel anti-hyperuricaemia therapies.

The colour of architecture. Physical-chemical analysis of polychromy on stone in a 16th century gothic Portal at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo

Colour always played a role in the human evolutionary process and has been used as a way of expression. But the time, the lack of maintenance and abandonment, the lack of studies related to the presence of polychromy in architecture and the nineteenth-century idea of eliminating building plasters to expose stone and brick have caused many to ignore and forgotten the presence of colour in historical buildings. In most cases disappear leaving only traces of colours. For this reason the aim of this research is study the polychromy on stone of a 16th century gothic Portal in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. Analyses were performed using non-destructive techniques as Transmission Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy / Energy Dispersive Elemental Analysis X-Ray (SEM/EDX), Gas Chromatography (GC) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). To determinate the colour was used a CIELAB System and Munsell Colour System. In conclusion patinas yellow, ochre, red, green and blue colours; and pigmented successive layers of plaster and lime was found. Remains of these layers of polychromies are also spread throughout many areas of the Cathedral.

Habilidades Básicas del Pensamiento como Preámbulo Epistemológico al Procesamiento Analítico de la Información en la Enseñanza Científica Universitaria

El proceso evolutivo humano, ha aparecido como producto de los cambios que se generaron con el bipedalismo, siendo el más importante el desarrollo de una estructura cerebral compleja, que adicionó a sus adaptaciones, la capacidad de raciocinio. El desarrollo de procesos complejos del pensamiento le brindó la oportunidad de dar nombre y sentido a todo lo que hoy conocemos. Podemos afirmar entonces que, procesos como la observación, comparación, clasificación y ordenamiento se vienen ejecutando sin discriminar o separar cada uno de estos, e incluso, sin tener consciencia en que se están generando. Para reconocidos autores, especialistas en las diferentes disciplinas y en teorías de procesamiento de la información, esta situación se hace notable cuando se observa un progresivo desmejoramiento de las capacidades cognitivas de nuestros jóvenes, lo que hace necesario proponer modelos educativos que enseñen a pensar y a fortalecer el pensamiento. El presente artículo tiene como propósito analizar el contexto epistemológico que cimienta a las habilidades básicas del pensamiento, como un requerimiento sine qua non conducente al fortalecimiento de las destrezas y procesos analíticos que revisten la enseñanza de las ciencias, a nivel universitario. Para ello, se realizó un estado del arte de los constructos referentes a cada una de estas habilidades, desde los metateóricos más reconocidos y las investigaciones recientes para varias áreas disciplinares, lo que permitió argumentar la sentida necesidad de incorporar esta estimulación cognitiva básica y analítica a los currículos universitarios, sobre todos aquellos relacionados con la enseñanza de la ciencia.

The grey zone, distortion and the ownership of causation

I am grateful (once more) for the attention Don Gardner has paid to my work, in particular to arguments pertaining to individuality and its relation to the aspirations of the social sciences. Let me begin with overlaps he sees between us: (a) prevailing images of what anthropology needed to be, historically (in order to be an adequate science) have led to too great an emphasis on developing taxonomies of cultural variation, along with the generalising and essentialising descriptions this entailed; (b) some of social science’s taken-for-granted vocabulary (such as ‘role’ or ‘status’) hampers our understanding of the nature of human agents and the springs of that agency; (c) questions of will and freedom, choice and moral responsibility are subtle and important; engaging with these is a necessary step for strengthening the social sciences, which cannot escape their philosophical roots. Notwithstanding, Gardner would take me to task for my understanding of causation, for not adopting a reasonable view on the hoary issue of ‘free will’ and for not taking account of post-genecentric accounts of human-evolutionary process.

Arqueoturismo: repensando o turismo nas Itacoatiaras do Ingá – PB

As facilidades de acesso a sítios arqueológicos e o interesse natural do ser humano em conhecer mais sobre seus ancestrais remotos abriram caminhos para o fortalecimento das sinergias entre arqueologia e turismo. Tal relação gerou o que se chama de arqueoturismo, que consiste em viagens motivadas pelo desejo de visitar locais onde há vestígios materiais do processo evolutivo humano. Considerando essa possibilidade para o Brasil e percebendo suas dificuldades em fazer funcionar esse segmento, neste trabalho busca-se verificar as atuais condições de visitação turística de um dos seus sítios arqueológicos: as Itacoatiaras do Ingá, na Paraíba. Para isso, usou-se pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, somando a pesquisa de campo – visita in loco e entrevista com o gestor municipal. A análise dos dados possibilitou a conclusão de que os recursos de Ingá são subaproveitados, sendo necessárias diversas medidas para sua melhor integração à atividade turística.

Neutral Theory: From Complex Population History to Natural Selection and Sociocultural Phenomena in Human Populations.

Here, we present a synthetic view on how Kimura's Neutral theory has helped us gaining insight on the different evolutionary forces that shape human evolution. We put this perspective in the frame of recent emerging challenges: the use of whole genome data for reconstructing population histories, natural selection on complex polygenic traits, and integrating cultural processes in human evolution.

Tail reduction process during human embryonic development.

Although the human tail is completely absent at birth, the embryonic tail is formed just as in other tailed amniotes. Since all morphological variations are created from variations in developmental processes, elucidation of the tail reduction process during embryonic development may be necessary to clarify the human evolutionary process. The tail has also been of great interest to the medical community. The congenital anomaly referred to as 'human tail', i.e. the occurrence of a tail-like structure, has been reported and was thought to represent a vestige of the embryonic tail; however, this hypothesis has not been verified. Accordingly, in this study, we aimed to establish a new method to visualize all somites in an embryo. We used sagittal-sectioned embryos from Carnegie Stage (CS) 13 to CS23. All samples were obtained from the Congenital Anomaly Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan. Combining photomicroscopy and three-dimensional reconstruction, we clearly visualized and labeled all somites. We found that the number of somites peaked at CS16 and dramatically decreased by approximately five somites. Tail reduction with a decrease in somites has also been observed in other short-tailed amniotes; thus, this result suggested the possibility that there is a common mechanism for morphogenesis of short tails in amniote species. Additionally, our findings provided important insights into the cause of the congenital anomaly known as 'human tail'.

Bionic design perspectives based on the formation mechanism of dental anti-wear function

Abstract Human teeth are the important masticatory organ and therefore are subjected to friction and wear everyday. Both the loading condition and the environment are relatively complex in the mouth, however, normally human teeth can serve in mouth all their time with excellent wear resistance in most people. Obviously, through the process of human evolution, human teeth have become a natural anti-wear system that far outclasses the best engineering anti-wear systems at present. To understand the excellent anti-wear properties of human teeth, we need to look into what act as the wear resisting elements of human teeth. In this paper, based on the results obtained by the authors and from literatures, the formation mechanism of dental anti-wear function was summarized. Particular attention was paid to the multi-scale anti-wear mechanism caused by the unique hierarchical structure of human teeth, the self-repair mechanism by tooth remineralization, and the cooperating lubrication mechanism of salivary pellicle upon tooth surface and the hydration proteins within the tooth. Based on the formation mechanism of dental anti-wear function, some bionic design perspectives were discussed and future research directions are recommended.

Tail reduction process during human embryonic development

Although the human tail is completely absent at birth, the embryonic tail is formed just as in other tailed amniotes. Since all morphological variations are created from variations in developmental processes, elucidation of the tail reduction process during embryonic development may be necessary to clarify the human evolutionary process. The tail has also been of great interest to the medical community. The congenital anomaly referred to as 'human tail', i.e. the occurrence of a tail-like structure, has been reported and was thought to represent a vestige of the embryonic tail; however, this hypothesis has not been verified. Accordingly, in this study, we aimed to establish a new method to visualize all somites in an embryo. We used sagittal-sectioned embryos from Carnegie Stage (CS) 13 to CS23. All samples were obtained from the Congenital Anomaly Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan. Combining photomicroscopy and three-dimensional reconstruction, we clearly visualized and labeled all somites. We found that the number of somites peaked at CS16 and dramatically decreased by approximately five somites. Tail reduction with a decrease in somites has also been observed in other short-tailed amniotes; thus, this result suggested the possibility that there is a common mechanism for morphogenesis of short tails in amniote species. Additionally, our findings provided important insights into the cause of the congenital anomaly known as 'human tail'.

On the Role of Chemical and Molecular Biology in Inflammation Research

Inflammation is an elaborate reflex response of the body to the action of harmful agents. This reaction manifests itself in the form of functional and structural changes of vascular tissues. The inflammatory response is the result of the human evolutionary process. It has three main stages, which are closely related to each other and evolve simultaneously: tissue dystrophy (alteration); impairment of blood circulation (transudation of fluid and migration of leukocytes) and multiplication of cellular elements (proliferation). These phenomena express both a disturbance of biological activity in body tissues and the defense mechanisms to restore the damaged areas. There are two interrelated processes which are often inseparable from each other in the inflammatory response. First, there is the pathological process itself, the tissue damage in form of dystrophy, necrobiosis or necrosis. Second, there is the physiological mechanism of defense, the process of recovery or the physiological response against the disease, manifested as exudation, phagocytosis and proliferation. Simultaneity of both processes is characteristic to inflammatory processes.

New insigths relating to the beginning of the Neolithic in the eastern Spain: Evaluating empirical data and modelled predictions

In this paper we present recent research concerning the neolithization process in the East of Spain, evaluating the time span between the last hunther-gatherer groups and the first farmers (c. 5950–5150 cal. BC). To do that we have compiled and filtered current information about radiocarbon dates and sites in order to discuss the state of the art relating to the models used to explain the Neolithic spread in the region. In this sense we compare archaeological data with recent results of virtual model (ABM) in accordance with the scenarios and mechanisms proposed. On this basis we evaluate the empirical data relating to the current model for explaining the Neolithic spread at the region, a mixed model that consider the coexistence between demic and cultural diffusion processes. Finally, the evaluation proposed considers the benefit of introducing the theoretical approaches relating to the Evolutionary Theory and Complex Adaptative Sistems in order to better understand this crucial process in human evolution.