Humans are fascinating creatures. The story of human evolution is sort of a movie in itself. From wars, existential crisis, wiping out entire species, calamities, to exploration, rise, conquering the entire planet and what not!
Before we jump into the details of how did our quick evolution and rise to the top of food chain resulted in filling us with fear, anxiety and tons of self doubt, here are some things you need to know.
Almost all the animals we see today have certain species within them. Species are a group of organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of interbreeding.
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| Some Dog species (Credits: The Telegraph) |
But look around, why don't humans have any other species? Is it because humans evolution took a different path compared to all the other animals?
No.
The Scientific Name for humans is Homo Sapiens. We belong to the genus 'Homo'. And we are just one of the species of this genus. As a matter of fact, there was a time (about 2-3 million years ago) when upto 7 different Human species coexisted.
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| Homo Neanderthal |
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| Homo Erectus |
In this blog, I'll refer us Humans as 'Sapiens'.
-The prehistoric Homo Sapien had a particular characteristic different from all other Homo species (Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthals, Homo Rudolfensis), they had a comparatively larger brain. Larger brains come with superior learning abilities and better adaptability. We assume that a large brain, the use of tools and complex social structures are huge advantages. It seems self-evident that these have made humankind the most powerful animal on earth.
-But despite all these advantages, they remained physically weak and marginal creatures. Sapiens could use sharp tools, but dealt with constant fear of predators.
-Till the last 4,00,000 years, humans were somewhere in the middle of the food chain. Suppose at the time you observe a pride of lions take down a giraffe. You wait patiently until they’re done. But it’s still not your turn because first the scavengers - hyenas and jackals would get a piece of what’s left. Only then you and your band would dare to approach and dig into the edible tissues that remained.
-Other animals at the top of the chains, like lions and sharks, evolved into that position very gradually, over millions of years.This enabled the ecosystem to develop checks and balances that prevented lions and sharks from causing too much havoc by excess hunting. For example, as lions evolved to be more deadlier, the deers evolved to run faster.
-In contrast, humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem had no time to adjust. Moreover, humans themselves failed to adjust.
-Most top predators (before humans) were majestic creatures who got their place by millions of years of domination, which filled them with self-confidence. Compared to Humans, having so recently climbed to the top of the food chain, we evolved to be full of fears and anxieties over our position. Which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous.
-Many historical calamities, from deadly wars to ecological catastrophes, have resulted from this almost inorganic jump.
-In today's world, humans are not exclusive to fear and anxiety, even domestic animals face it. But this trend can be traced back to be an indirect consequence of human jump in food chain.
-Today Homo Sapiens have taken over the planet and completely destroyed the Natural Ecosystem. We determine the fate of many species based on our requirements.
-But, are we genetically ready for such power? Sapiens went from being some random ape whose influence on world was no more than that of a Jellyfish, to the World-Dominating species in an extremely short amount of time (Evolutionary). Physically we are here, but genetically, we're still a scared, doubtful and cautious ape roaming around Africa.
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Sources:
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Very elegant thoughts, thank you for writing this blog. It is quite something to be able to discern the paramaters baked into our own bodies having been shaped by our middle of the pack position in the food chain. Natural selection hasn't had the time nor pressures on survival to get this anxiety and fears dealt with due to the evolutionary quick leap to the top.
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