Who Are We/You?

Some of us claim to be Americans while a vast majority of us (globally) claim that we are part of the race of human beings.

Humans are primates. Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern human species, Homo sapiens, has a very close relationship to another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and the great apes (large apes) of Africa -- chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called “pygmy chimpanzees”) and gorillas -- share a common ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.

Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early humans. Scientists do not all agree, however, about how these species are related or which ones simply died out. Many early human species -- certainly the majority of them – left no living descendants. Scientists also debate over how to identify and classify particular species of early humans, and about what factors influenced the evolution and extinction of each species.  SOURCE:  Smithsonian National Museum of  Natural History

So, from the Smithsonian's perspective, we are primates and have a very close relationship to the great apes, chimpanzees, and gorillas...  and, if we are very close to these hairy critters, then why/how did we evolve so much differently?  And, can our evolution be contributed to Darwin's Theories of Evolution?

Our transformation seems not just dramatic but accelerated in its advancement while other primates have not evolved that fast at all over the years.

BUT...  in 2014, Scientific American published a piece about a missing genetic link in human evolution...

Although scientists aren’t sure how, the core seems to sweep up neighboring segments of DNA, duplicating the entire stretch and inserting the new copy into a new location on the chromosome. “Then it picks up again and duplicates some of the sequence around it and moves to another new location,” Eichler said. “It seems to be an extremely unstable genetic element that provides a template for evolutionary change.”

It is this process that appears to create new genes: When new duplications are inserted into the genome, they bring together two previously foreign pieces of DNA, which can lead to new functional components, such as proteins. This chaotic mix-and-match approach is different from the traditional model for the creation of a gene, in which an existing gene is duplicated and the copy is free to develop new functions.

“This mechanism appears to be seminal in our evolution,” said Philip Hastings, a geneticist at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. “It’s possible that we are the way we are largely because of this mechanism that generates dramatic episodes of chromosomal structural change.”

Now we are totally confused as to how our DNA got altered in Africa all those millions of years ago in order to start the evolutionary process that created how human beings look today...  these mysteries are profound, outside of a religious context, because it could imply that some other species messed around with our DNA millions of years ago.  And, while the results were positive, it is still puzzling how our development was initially generated in order for us to be who we are today.