The biological factor of human evolution is ... What are the biological factors of evolution?

Evolutionary teaching is the theoretical basis of biology. It studies the causes and mechanisms of the historical development of all living organisms. The evolution of a person has its own characteristics and factors.

What is anthropology?

According to the evolutionary theory, man as a biological species was formed over a long period of time. The processes of its historical development are studied by the science of anthropology.

The emergence of man has its own characteristics. They consist in the fact that both the social and biological factors of evolution influence the process of formation . The first group includes ability to work, speech, abstract thinking. The biological factor of human evolution is, in particular, the struggle for existence. And also natural selection and hereditary variability.

Basic provisions of evolutionary theory

According to the theory of Charles Darwin, environmental conditions can cause changes in the structure of living organisms. If they are not inherited, their role in the evolution process is insignificant. In some individuals, changes occur in the sex cells. In this case, the attribute is inherited. If it proves useful under certain conditions, then organisms have more chances of survival. They successfully adapt and give fertile offspring.

Struggle for existence

The main biological factor of human evolution is the struggle for existence. Its essence lies in the emergence of competition between organisms. The reason for its appearance is the discrepancy between the ability of different species to food and reproduction. As a result, a species that can best adapt to specific conditions survives.

Despite the fact that the process of the emergence of modern man was subject to general laws, there are a number of differences. Natural selection took place not only in strength, agility and endurance. In addition to these physical signs, the level of mental development played a special role. A greater chance to survive had individuals who learned how to make the most primitive tools of labor and use them, communicate with fellow tribesmen, act together.

Natural selection

In the course of the struggle for existence, natural selection takes place - a biological process, during which the adapted individuals survive and actively multiply. Those who could not adapt, perish.

Thus, the biological factor of human evolution is natural selection. Its peculiarity was that the individuals with strongly pronounced social traits survived. The most viable were people who invented new tools, acquired new skills and socialized. With the passage of time, the importance of natural selection in the process of anthropogenesis decreased. This is due to the fact that the ancient people gradually learned to build, ennoble and heat houses, make clothes, grow plants, tame animals. As a result, the value of natural selection gradually decreased.

Hereditary variability

The biological factor of human evolution is hereditary variability. This property of living organisms is the ability to acquire new signs in the process of their development and transmit them by inheritance. Naturally, evolutionary significance in the process of anthropogenesis had only useful features.

Human beings draw a number of similar biological features to mammalian animals. This is the presence of milk and sweat glands, hair, live birth. The body cavity is divided by a muscular septum with a diaphragm onto the thoracic and abdominal parts. Similar signs are the absence of nuclei in the red blood cells of erythrocytes, the presence of alveoli in the lungs, the general outline of the structure of the skeletal departments, differentiated teeth. Both humans and animals have rudimentary (underdeveloped) organs. These include appendix, third eyelid, rudiments of the second row of teeth and others. Scientists know cases of the birth of people with characteristic features of animals - a developed tail, a solid hairline, an additional number of nipples. This is additional evidence of the origin of man from animals. But in the process of anthropogenesis only the most useful signs were preserved.

Specific only for humans are such biological features:

- upright riding;

- an increase in the cerebral and a decrease in the facial part of the skull;

- vaulted foot with strongly developed thumb;

- a movable brush, contrasting the thumb to the rest;

- an increase in the volume of the brain, the development of its cortex.

The biological evolution of man is closely connected with the social. For example, the ability to breed fire and cook food has reduced the size of the teeth and the length of the intestines.

Biological factors of human evolution are a prerequisite for the formation of social, which together led to the emergence of a reasonable person on Earth.