How did mutation influence human evolution?

Question

Mutation played a big role in our development.

What parts did we get from mutation and how did it happen in early humans?

Answer 1

Well, we got me for starters....

Elaborate a bit more... Does this mean from a single cell organism to present or from apes to man or what?

Answer 2

I can only speak for myself, Firstly, I am not a mutant. I am of the species Homo Sapien. If, I have evolved any,  it is from the time my species appeared on earth, and no further back. Homo Sapien did not jump from one species to another, and there is not one shred of evidence in the fossil record which proves that we did. If I have missed something as regards evidence in the fossil record then I hope that one of you mutants will point it out to me. Darwin himself confessed that he was depending on the fossil record to prove his theory which to this day has proved fruitless

Answer 3

Random mutation in the germ line is what is selected, as it provides variation for natural selection. That is beneficial mutation. There is neutral and deleterious mutation also. Naturally. not normally selected for, though deleterious mutation can pass through. For instance; a late onset condition, such as " Lou Gehrig's " condition.

The way your question is worded makes me think you do not quite understand mutation.

Genes are instructions for making proteins and are like recipes. So there is not a one to one mapping that anyone could give you, but conserved process and weak linkage among these process can engender much variation. It is complex and on the web, so, go to genetics and learn a little, before your next question.

Answer 4

Mutations are the vehicle of evolution, well the mutations which allow the species to better adapt.

We can see a predator a lot better on two legs than on all four.

Answer 5

Any differences you see between us and primordial slime came from mutations.    Without mutations, evolution wouldn't be able to happen.  There are other factors, of course, but the mutations are what provide the genetic differences that these other factors work on.

Answer 6

Hmm, I'll use an example that I see in a lot of science-fiction books. Say you have a group of people in the stone age. And there's something really big and hungry chasing after that group of people. Whomever runs faster doesn't get eaten. Now the kids of those fast people will be fast. Some of those new group of people, the second generation of fast people, have to outrun a hungry animal. The kids of those people who didn't get eaten will have the gene to run fast enough to not get eaten, eliminating, after a few generations, the slow people.

All in all, circumstance plays an important role in isolating certain genes in animals, Mother Nature is apparently very picky. In my opinion though, society isn't letting nature sort us out so our race can live longer.

Answer 7

In the final analysis all evolution is based upon the survivability to the age of reproduction & the production of offspring.  Any mutation that enhances the rate of reproduction of that trait will undergo natural selection. Those that reduce birth rate, survivability to reproduction age, or ability to attract the opposite s*x will be selected against.  The human genome is undergoing constant "gene drift" that is commonly viewed as mutation.

Forward facing eyes, being able to digest both meat & plant material, & the ability to walk upright were the major factors contributing to the larger human brain. The homo sapien brain requires up to 30% of our energy intake to support.  The ability to walk upright allowed hominids to carry food back to the safety of trees & to see over obstacles to spot predators. Forward facing eyes, needed by tree dwellers to judge distance, allowed the plant & small insect eating homonids to eventually move from meat scavenger to predator.  Predators must outwit the prey to survive (predators have larger brains than their prey) & are pressed to develop a larger brain to do so.  High quality protien is needed to develop large brains.

The extra ability to communicate the location of better food sources (language) & plan hunts was probably the biggest jump in hominid cognition.  Fire & cooking of food led to better communicaton, protection & sociaization for groups of homonids.  I could ramble on, but you get the picture.

Answer 8

Suggest you read Darwin theory of evolution. That appears to be the heart of his theory.

Answer 9

According to mainstream science, humans are evolved apes who, as a result of random genetic mutations and environmental pressures, happened to acquire the unique power of selfconsciousness. However, the loud publicity and slick propaganda for the ape-ancestry theory cannot alter the fact that the evidence is scanty and contradictory and open to other interpretations.

Anthropologist Richard Leakey has said that ‘If someone went to the trouble of collecting together in one room all the fossil remains so far discovered of our ancestors (and their biological relatives) who lived, say, between five and one million years ago, he would need only a couple of large trestle tables on which to spread them out.’1 Most hominid fossils are fragments of jaws and scraps of skulls but, as palaeontologist Stephen J. Gould once said, ‘they serve as a basis for endless speculation and elaborate storytelling’.2

Beliefs, expectations, and prejudices inevitably play a role in the interpretation of fossils, as do personal rivalries and the desire for fame. More than one palaeoanthropologist has become famous overnight by announcing sensational and extravagant claims after finding some fragmentary remains of a creature he or she believes to be related to man’s origin. But such claims have a habit of being undermined or invalidated by further research and discoveries. The details of our supposed descent from the apes remain obscure and are the subject of heated debate among evolutionists.

A number of blunders in the interpretation of fossils have been made over the years. In 1922 a tooth was discovered in western Nebraska (USA), which was declared by several scientists to combine the characteristics of the chimpanzee, Pithecanthropus (a postulated apeman), and man. He became popularly known as Nebraska man and was regarded by some as a potential human ancestor. Five years later, it was announced that the tooth actually belonged to a pig. Creationist scientist Duane Gish remarks: ‘This is a case in which a scientist made a man out of a pig, and the pig made a monkey out of the scientist!’3

Answer 10

Human evolution is based on mutation its a long long story start by asking smaller questions...