College Students Study Human Origins

Earlier this week in the pouring rain, the Year 13 NCEA Biology classes went to the Auckland Zoo for a lecture on Human Evolution and to take in the opportunity to see the many of the animals on display.

Over the last term, the students have been studying human origins and our kinship with other primates. Presented by the Zoo Educator, the lecture examined the cranial and post-cranial features associated with the peculiar human habit of walking on two legs.

As a unique mode of locomotion amongst primates, we humans have evolved anatomical features which represent a radical departure from the ancestral form. The chimpanzee is our closest ‘cousin’ with whom we share a common ancestor some 8 million years ago. They are a species which we can use to reflect and ponder our own attributes to better understand our place in the animal kingdom.

Students were also able to handle the replica fossil skulls of extinct Hominin (ancestral human species) and were led in a discussion outlining the evolutionary trends over the last 4 million years. The trajectory has been one of increasing brain volume and cultural sophistication, with we Homo sapiens representing the sole surviving species amongst the diverse Hominin family tree.

The weather was definitely inclement, but this did little to dull the enthusiasm of the students who were happy to wander the zoo and look at the many exotic and native species. Each of these species represents the living descendent of a long lineage of species, constantly in flux and respondent to a dynamic environment.