PROCESSES AND MECHANISMS OF HUMAN’S EVOLUTION TOWARDS THE INTELLIGENT LIVING
Written by: Oktay Kaynak
Erect position and growth of brain are two fundamental facts in human evolution. For many years, researchers put forward various theses on how these two changes in human evolution have taken place. Theoretical discussions aimed at finding answers for basic questions have highly significant influence in the development of a science. The subject of this article is the causes of erect position and brain grow in human evolution. I will comment, in ecological viewpoint, on how erect position come forward in human evolution and I will try to disclose growth of human brain in a completely new perspective and through an hypothesis based on embryonic development. My aim is to clear the way by my new perspective for the discussions in the world of paleoanthropology on these subjects.
It is widely known that water was permanently existed in the Rift valley that has formed in Africa 8-10 million years ago. The reasons of the conclusion that water permanently existed there are the existence of dried lake bottom sediments now and redundancy of fresh water lakes in the region (Leakey and Lewin, 1998), (Alekseyev, 1993). Carbonated lakes, called “Green Sea” by local population, in gigantic dimensions such as Victoria and Turcana lies nearly throughout the Rift Valley. The main reason of this formation is tectonics separation zones resulted in Rift wreckage. And tectonic separation zones caused the formation of many volcanoes, underground waters came up earth’s surface, lava and volcano ashes fallen upon the existing equatorial forests. These changes resulted in forest fires. The same tectonic movements caused great earthquakes. These forest fires have to be associated with non-existence of equatorial forests to the east of East African wall. Volcanic movements of important dimensions, flood of hot and cold underground waters, earthquakes and forest fires have changed the environment ecologically and nutrition conditions. That our predecessor arboreal primate has survived somehow perhaps in a very specific and small area has to be taken into consideration. The life is processes in which problems such as nutrition, shelter, reproduction and defence against predators are being solved. The life can be maintained through solving these four problems. The life and generation can be maintained only through these four problems that have arisen in new conditions. Otherwise the life and generation cannot be maintained and the species disappear. Our predecessor primate maintained an arboreal life for a time in a small area somewhere that was not affected by the fire and tried to solve nutrition problem with ending of eatable fruit, leaf, branch and peel on trees. It has to be taken into consideration that primates tried to solve the nutrition problem in water after volcano ashes covered and burned the surface of terrestrial area. It may be said that primates easily solved nutrition problem in waters when one give thought to the long-time water existence at Rift Valley. Primates nourished with aquatic plant products walking in the water in erect position and keeping the head over the surface for breathing and spent the nights on semi blasted wood blocks, on a small piece of land or on some other higher places. Most probably the primates at the time met with various aquatic products, crustaceans and the fish. Long tailed Macacs living today along the Ketanbe river to the north of Sumatra province of Borneo Island of Indonesia can fish barehanded and this is the evidence of the suggestion that they tried to solve their nutrition problem in water. This fact was observed by an organization called Nature Conservancy And The Great Ape Trust and has been published. (Steward et al, 2008)
Primates lived for 4-5 million years as semiarborial and semiaquatic living. Yet, the terms semiarborial and semiaquatic does not mean that they were amphibious. It may be deducted from these terms that primates spent the nights on lands or at trees, in daytime erecting on two legs in shallow waters collecting or hunting as much aquatic products as possible. That an aquatic period exists in the evolution process of human is advocated particularly by Professor Wood Jones and Professor Sir Alister Hardy (Hardy, 1960). Marine zoologist Professor Sir Alister Hardy finds similarities between human- whale and dolphin in nakedness and existence of subcutaneous fatty tissues. And aquatic mammals such as sirenia and otariidae resembles human due to their same characteristics. Namely they are either glabrous and their subcutaneous fatty tissues are attached to their dermis when they are being skinned. Same as completely true for human. Subcutaneous fatty tissues of human comes out as attached to the dermis when a human is being skinned.But when land animals skinned subcutaneous fatty tissues continues to be attached to the muscular tissues and they do not come out on skinned dermis. Nevertheless this suggestion is not accepted because a clear knowledge about primates’ aquatic life does not exist. And descriptions about the aquatic life of primates are incorrect because it likened to the life forms of penguins and dolphins. After all, if primates would have solved the nutrition problem through swimming or diving as dolphins or penguins they should have had web formation between their toes. Professor Sir Alister Hardy alleges that the head of primate is hairy and body is naked because primates keeps the head above the surface when swimming. And I, say that our predecessor primate have solved nutrition problem through WALKING in the shallow water but not through SWIMMING and DIVING. My opinion is that the head of primate is hairy due to keeping the head above, the body is hairless due to body is in the water surface when hunting
The evidences of my suggestion are below:
1. Rift Valley is full of both lake sediments and lake bottom sediments (Morris, 2009), (Lewin, 1998).
2- Australopithecus afarensis suffered rheumatoid arthritis ( Johanson, Edey, 1980).
3- The argument that Australopithecus afarensis family of 13 members have suffocated in water ( Johanson, Edey, 1980).
4- Our body is hairless and our head is hairy (due to keeping above the surface) (Morris, 2009)
Darwin stresses in his The Origin of Species that the thesis put forward by a researcher named Mr. Belt that we limed our hair in order to recover our parasites is wrong because, Darwin continues, many four footed living in tropical countries did not react to the same factor as others did. On the other hand, says Darwin, if we suppose that the thesis that we limed our hair in order to adjust our body temperature to the conditions of tropical region, we cannot explain our hairy head in spite of its permanent openness to the sun beam and this a paradox .(Darwin, 2002). Keeping body in the water and head above the surface due to the necessity of breathing can explain the hairless body and hairy head.
5- Most of the Australopithcine fossils have found at old dried lake or river sides together with fossils of shallow and deep water living beings such as Hipopotamus and Diatoms. Additionally, that the fossils of the remnants of equatorial forests in the same aged sediments with the same fossils have been found shows us that our predecessor primate lived in equatorial forests. Nevertheless, these equatorial forests either fired or broiled due to the volcanoes and volcano ashes come into being during the formation of Rift Valley.
6- All living beings produced solutions in order to keep the body temperature between certain degrees. This solutions are generally hair and subcutaneous fatty tissues. It is widely known that the animals moved from land to the sea such as dolphins and whales replaced the hair they lost with subcutaneous fatty tissues in order to balance their body temperature (Mayr, 2008). Our subcutaneous fatty tissues are the consequence of our life spent in the water for 4-5 million years
7- Laetoli foot prints found in Tanzanya are the foot prints of two Austraopithecus walking side by side Leakey, 1988). Johanson argues that these foot prints are of two Australopithecus walking side by side on the ash layer cooled and softened by the rain water which has fallen on ash layer formed after a volcano fenced out ashes. In my opinion, the lava had to be fresh and cooled for the formation of these foot prints. And this can be happen with water. The argument that these foot prints are on a volcanic material that had fallen on the lake recently has to be taken into account. By the way, it must not be forgotten that the support given by the water to the body facilitates walking on two foot.
On the other hand, erecting in water hypothesis told above can be tested:
Let us generate an artificial lake. The dimensions of the lake are sufficient for a chimp colony to easily live in it. The depth of the lake is as deep as forcing the chimp family to erect position, namely, 70-120 centimetres. Shady spots and wood blocks exist on the sides of the lake. Yet, nothing can be found to eat on these wood blocks by chimps. And the material on these shady spots is inorganic and uneatable by the chimps. The lake has to be generated in a tropical area (like Rift Valley) so that chimps can easily live there in winters. The floats put in the lake carries fruits such as banana which are chimps’ favourites. The fruits are put on proper points that can be easily seen by the chimps. Their favourite fruits will force the chimps to erect on their feet and walk towards them. Later, raise frog, crab and fish in the lake and after determining their favourite fish facilitate the meeting between chimps and fishes. If this experiment continues for four or five years we will observe that the chimps are erected in order to be fed by aquatic products, to survive and reproduce. Additionally, we will observe that the chimps solve their nutrition problem keeping their body in the water and their heads above the surface and the beginning of hairlessness on their bodies. (Kaynak, 2007), (Kaynak, 2008)
The opponents of the thesis of Professor Sir Alister Hardy and others agree with his thesis alleged that the thesis cannot be tested. Yet, I insist that this thesis can be tested and I propose an experiment. Today, a discussion continues on whether the cause of a new species is mutational or recombinational changes in the genetic endowment or environmental changes. Mechanism of natural selection operates as such.
When the conditions change in a living space of a species that do not allow for it to survive, the variations in the genetic endowment of the same species that provide adaptation to the new conditions are selected. In other words, individuals among the new born which carries the positive mutational or recombinational genetic changes that make the adaptation of the species possible to the new conditions are being selected. When new born which carries these inheritable genetic changes do not exist the species in question cannot adapt itself to the new conditions and consequently disappear. The adaptation of a certain species to the new conditions needs two factor. First, the existence of mutational or recombinational inheritable genetic changes proper to the new conditions is necessary for the survival of the species. Second, the natural selection mechanism must operate in way that it selects the proper individuals. A species suitable to the new conditions appears in such a mechanism. (Klug and Cummings,2000), (Palmer and Barrett,2010), (Hougland, 1998)
Differantiation and separation of our genetic arrays dated 6 - 6.5 million years back. Barely, it is not easy, naturally, to calculate how many millions years had to pass in erected position before the bone form change have become permanent. Upper body forced to become hominidae after the lover body became hominidae in 4-5 million years. Upper body compelled to become hominidae because only a double carrier skeleton system (same as today’s human) can allow the living being to survive. The centre of gravity of carrier skeleton must be in the soles. The body has to become erect, the rib become cylindirical, the head must be placed over the body like human of today in order to provide the necessary place for the gravity centre.
Upper body started becoming gradually erected to this end. This erected position and the angle of vertebra femur cannot be discerned in Australopithecus fossils because this angle is destroyed during the fossilization process. And we are two footed for 4-5 million years. Here the question comes, although we are walking on our two feet why our brains do not grow? This question is being put because the pelvis structure on Australopithecus fossils is ignored. Yet, the pelvis of Australopithecus is at somewhere within in the range of evolution between the pelvis of contemporary human and pelvis of primate. This is because the upper body does not step precisely on the pelvis. Australopithecus’s all bones, from the toe to the ilium bone of the pelvis, resemble contemporary human except the angle of vertebra’s pressing on pelvis and ilium bone of pelvis (Lewin, 1998). Australopithecus’s upper body, vertebra’s structure, skull and the shape of chin are the very spit and image of primate. In other words, the process of resemblance started with the toe and ended with the chin and skull. This process started with toe. Scientists have taken this resemblance into consideration and intuitionally found relation between erected position and intelligent living. Everything started with erect position and everything started with toe. The position of juvenile in the uterine has changed at a certain phase of gradually erecting process of the body. The embryo Australopithecus turned its head towards diaphragm and its body came close to the birth canal after turning a 180 degrees somersault in uterus. Without this somersault, which I call SALTO INGELLIGENTE, Australopithecus would have kept its head as turned towards the birth canal. After this salto intelligente each prospective mother Australopithecus started to give birth to children of which the volume of skull is larger than her. In other words, the child’s skull volume is larger than the mother. Australopithecus’s growing skull is being observed on the fossils while the other changes cannot be. Because gradual process of body’s erecting, rib’s narrowing and growing cylindrical cannot be discerned (Kaynak,2007), (Kaynak,2008).
Different skulls of Australopithecus led some to conclude that there are different Australopithecus species. However, these are not different species. They are Australopithecus generated through body erection and rib narrowing. The most important result of the salto intelligente is that children started to born as turned to one of the legs of the mother (Trevathan, 1987). Yet, after the completion of the body erection, children started to born as the face turned to back of the mother that is a characteristic of contemporary human. This fact is peculiar to human being. All the other mammals are born as their face turned to the abdomen of the mother. The cause of this important difference is salto intelligente. This weakness that starts with birth forces the children to semi-terrestrial life. The children of primates cling to the hair of their mothers just after birth. The origins of the fact that human child grasps whatever they are hold out as a reflex have to be connected with the fact that the child of the primate cling to the hair of the mother as a reflex. The child of a primate has to cling to the hair of the mother because she has born on a three and otherwise would fall down and die. 400-450-500….750-800 cc skull volumes has been found on the anthropoid fossils. Skull volume starts to correspond to the body erection angle, after body erection process begins and the volume continues to change till the angle of vertebra femur reaches to 180 degrees. One has to pay attention to the fact that the skull volume determines the quantity of brain tissue.
The hands of primate, the predecessor of human, become free with the erect position could produce tools. Consequently, primate is being regarded as intelligent living (Dawkins, 1993). A coordination exist between the front and rear extremities of contemporary chimps. Their hands are free and they use their hands but they are not intelligent livings. According to another thesis, they are intelligent livings because they became social after erecting on two feet and can be face to face and developed speaking (Gould,2005), (Mayr,2008), (Gould,2009), (Engels, 2002). Yet, Darwin stressed that some other livings can be face to face and have various organs which are able to produce necessary voices for speaking but they cannot speak. Because, for Darwin, the skill has to be developed in order to produce speaking. (Darwin,1995)
Human embryo skull develops, takes shape and form in conformity with internal and external vectoral forces that influence on the skull.
These forces may be explained as such:
1- External forces: the gravity, pressure of amnion membrane and of amniotic sac, the pressure of abdomen muscles of the mother, the pressure of diaphragm and innards of the mother,
2- Internal forces: the gravity, the resistance of the intra cranial fluids and brain tissues coming into existence.
Today science suggests that human embryo skull develops, takes shape and form in conformity with these vectoral, internal and external forces. Human e(Teber,1995), (Teber,1996mbryo skull’s development and coming into existence take place as a coil sprung. My opinion is that the impetus and direction of these vectoral forces have changed as the body gradually erecting. Consequently Australopithecus’s skull volume corresponds to different phases of body perpendicularity angle during the process of becoming erected (Kaynak, 1983), (Kaynak, 1988). The growth of skull volume continued till body’s becoming erected position processes have drowned to an end. The changes observed on the skull form of the child taken out during birth by forceps or by vacuum technique. New born rats’ and rabbits’ one sided cervical muscles and /or chewing muscles or either survival and chewing muscles cut out for an experiment. The observations are such: While unoperated half of the skull of these experiment animals developed normally and specific to the species, in the part of the next skull from which the cervical and chewing muscles cut out the metacarpus is not developed, namely, this part of the skull, in a way, developed in a different form. (Teber,1996)
%70 of the adult human body is water, more than %90 of the embryo in the venter is water. The bones can be warped. The bones stretches and they do not be broken. When a pressure exerted in one direction from any angle on the skull of an embryo of four or five months, the skull is expected to be deformed in conformity with the direction of the pressure. Since a deformation are not observed on the skull in the venter it is understood that the embryo is packaged and bundled by the venter. Human nestling cannot keep her head over the body even just after birth. Yet, thanks to this packaging of the venter, the nestling can keep the head exactly over the body. When the nestling is of seven months and turn upside down for preparation to the birth, the body, in turn, in a similar way, is being carried and kept over the head. It is this mechanism that causes the human skull’s becoming round, chin’s becoming small, superciliary arch’s straightening and growth of skull volume. Human embryo is born without synostosis. The only new born with holes called fonticulus is human. That means human bone and tissue development cannot respond to the human embryo skull development and the growth of the skull process is faster than tissue formation. Similarly, human uterine cannot enlarge and consequently birth contractions stars. In other words, the embryo is born without completing its development. This fact can be observed only in the human uterus and human embryo. All the other mammals are born as completed synostosis, without fonticulus, in a development phase which allows surviving in and resisting against the nature. And basically it must be in this way.
Because of the fact that the form of the rib transformed from the conical to cylindrical. Consequently abdomen region has narrowed. Human nestling is being put out without completing its development due to this space insufficiency.
We can conclude, as a result all of these, that human uterine is unique among all mammals and produces a unique living because of its own uniqueness.
Great chin, protuberant superciliary arch accompany to small skull at Australopithecus. In other words either great skull or great chin and protuberant superciliary arc exist. Both of them cannot be seen on Australopithecus. We, at this point, come to the conclusion that gradually diminishing chin, straightening superciliary arch replace with great skull. This result is being produced by the uterine which gradually adapt itself to the body that is becoming erected. Why the chin diminishes and the skull grows simultaneously or in parallel with each other? On the other hand could the skull grow when the chin keeps its greatness? No, the skull would have not be able to grow when the chin continue to be great. Because, this change is generated by uterine. Human uterine is as much strained as not to cause the embryo to be run over but to give it a shape it wants to be. Human uterine pushes the embryo backward through pushing on incisors which we see at the extreme point of the primate skull. The nose and chin area come into existence as the result of this pushing backward. This front mandibular projection makes no vital contribution at human species. These are the results of the packaging of uterine. The evolution process does not develop body organs which it does not use in natural circumstances. The evolution, at the most, keeps caducous organs that are left by the predecessor of a certain species. This front mandibular projection do not exist in any primate. It comes into being through uterine’s push on incisors so that the embryo moves backward.
All the ideas I have put forward here can be tested by an experiment:
We will implant a chimp embryo into a human uterine. We can administer the development of this embryo in human uterine through medicines and medical techniques. One of these techniques is such: take up the cells (specialized for forming the placenta) that are lined up in single file on human zygote of 4-5 days. And the cells, producing the placenta out of the chimps zygote, burgled and thrown away. The cells that will generate the chimp in it are taken up and put into the cells that will produce the placenta that is taken up from the human. When this produced mixed zygote implanted into human uterine the transplant rejection is prevented. Because this placenta will be a human placenta. When the birth realized in these conditions the nestling’s body will be hairy, hands and feet again like chimp but only the head is rounded and the volume of the head is greater. Among other things, the nose and front mandibular projection will come up and the chin will become smaller. The pressure made by human uterus from front will transform the chin shape from U to V shape. Now, the living species we have acquired is Australopithecus. Either the uterus and the embryo in it have been in their evolution process 4-5 million years ago. More and more growth at the skull’s volume has to be expected. Because the available uterine has taken its final shape. We will acquire a skull in an amazing greatness but bigger than chimp’s skull (350 cc) in all conditions. (Kaynak,1983), (Kaynak, 1998), (Kaynak, 2007), (Kaynak, 2008)
Additionally, chimp’s fetus will complete its development in the human uterin as the head above the body for seven months and in the last two months, turning upside down, the body above the head, the way human juvenile does and chimp’s newborn will born as the face not turned to the mother’s abdomen but similar to human juvenile, as the face turned to the ridge of the mother. Most probably it will born as skull bones without synostosis, in other words with fonticulus, like human juvenile.
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