-- Posted by ElephantStone at 6:50 am on Sep. 17, 2008 Ok, well we'll cast aside the creationist theory now so that we dont end up arguing that here. I have a module in my degree that is called "Out of the Distant Past". It explores the origins of Humans. Anyways about 2.5 mya several species of hominids were co-existing at the same time. Now Im wondering...is it really possible that all of these separately evolved? Or could it possibly be that they look different maybe through breeding. I mean for a second lets take a look at our own species of human. Theres little differences in us. You can tell a black man from a white man, and asian man, etc. And we've only been around I think 125,000 years and already theres quite obvious differences in us. Is it possible that, if we didnt have a world where you could go anywhere and communicate anywhere, that with small communities people would begin to look more and more different and maybe in 1 million years there would be skeletal changes, etc. So in fact you would effectively have a different species of human, or maybe even several. Does anyone see what Im getting at? -- Posted by The Samsoniteman at 8:05 am on Sep. 17, 2008 Members of the genus Homo did evolve seperately, they left Africa at different times in different directions which must explain the differences between them. -- Posted by ElephantStone at 5:19 pm on Sep. 17, 2008 Quote: from The Samsoniteman at 4:05 pm on Sep. 17, 2008 Members of the genus Homo did evolve seperately, they left Africa at different times in different directions which must explain the differences between them. thats not proving what you said though. Theres very little information in what you said. I want my thoughts to be proved wrong. -- Posted by The Samsoniteman at 2:13 am on Sep. 19, 2008 Oh I see. Well comparative anatomy has been used to show what the likely genetic connections exist between the discovered Homo remains. Furthermore dating the remains is important to show the movement and evolution of each member of the genus. If you want specifics you'd have to buy a book. -- Posted by marshmellowman at 2:51 pm on Sep. 20, 2008 Species can evolve separately, such as by geographic isolation. A volcano erupts and splits two groups of land animals that are the same species, such that they can no longer have access to each other (well you get the point). From hereon, the conditions in each area are so different that they evolve different to adapt to their environment. Perhaps different food sources so their mouths become elongated and grow sharper and larger teeth. Darwin's finches are an example of evolving differently due to geographic isolation That's not really an example of hominids doing it, but if such a drastic change in conditions occur such that we can no longer interact with each other and that the environment is sufficiently different to cause an adaption then yes, it could occur even with humans. -- Posted by ElephantStone at 8:02 am on Sep. 21, 2008 Quote: from marshmellowman at 10:51 pm on Sep. 20, 2008 Species can evolve separately, such as by geographic isolation. A volcano erupts and splits two groups of land animals that are the same species, such that they can no longer have access to each other (well you get the point). From hereon, the conditions in each area are so different that they evolve different to adapt to their environment. Perhaps different food sources so their mouths become elongated and grow sharper and larger teeth. Darwin's finches are an example of evolving differently due to geographic isolation That's not really an example of hominids doing it, but if such a drastic change in conditions occur such that we can no longer interact with each other and that the environment is sufficiently different to cause an adaption then yes, it could occur even with humans. Well couldnt an example of that in our species be black people and white people? Its those differences I wonder about. How Europeans were seperated from Asians for centuries. And mabe it isnt evolution that changes people, maybe its inter-breeding. -- Posted by medjai at 5:02 pm on Sep. 21, 2008 It's adaptation, interbreeding is a mechanism but if no changes occured during sustained seperations of humans in different climates like it seems you're implying then I don't see how the interbreeding would lead to change as well. We know that Neanderthal is a very potential candidate, in some circles the idea that they broke off of us and migrated to northern Europe and slowly became Neanderthal man as a matter of adaptation and when they were forced to migrate south again by the ice age they discovered us but we were more adapted to that climate and our voice boxes were superior to theirs (they could not produce vowel sounds), so they were limited by language a new climate with extremely superior competition to a hominid that was already perfectly adapted so they died out from starvation and being killed off by us since we had superior technology and language.