Describe an historical evolutionary concept and its impact on that Term Paper

Describe an historical evolutionary concept and its impact on that population(ie.Genetic drift or founder effect).Include how th - Term Paper Example However, these lacunae in no way takes away from the fact that evolution was and still is an ongoing, dynamic process. The inability to chart the human evolutionary process in a categorical manner does not mean that the specie human sapiens is not subject to the laws of evolution, in spite of the diverse assumptions and hypotheses to the contrary. The very first such assumption is to do with the fossil records, the findings of which did not occur in a chronologically uniform manner. The earliest fossil record known to science is said to be Aegytopithecus  sp a small animal, the size of a spaniel. This fauna is believed to be an ancestor of the humans, as also the modern apes, although quite distinct from all the other primates. It existed in the latter part of the Oligocene era, around 30 million years ago. Since the animal represented the dawn of apes as well as humans, it was termed the ‘dawn ape’. 10-15 million years passed before the lines leading to the great apes and humans began to diverge. 20 million years ago Dryopithecus  appeared exhibiting ape like features and 5 million years later Ramapithecus entered the evolutionary arena. It is exactly these rather long intervals of time about which we are completely dark about the onward momentum of the evolutionary process that make some people think that scientists have failed to categorically chart the human evolutionary process. ... 2001). The term is Leakey’s own way of recognizing the intimate evolutionary relationship that existed among human beings, chimpanzees and gorillas (Gee, 2001). This he did in spite of the already mentioned gaps in time. There are other assumptions and arguments going around denying the importance or even prevalence of the laws of human evolution. This is a deliberate attempt to establish that humans are not subject to the laws of evolution and most are far fetched in the extreme. One theory going around and gaining ground, particularly in the United States subscribes to the Creationist view of all living beings as depicted in the Genesis of Old Testament. They are more interested in discrediting evolution by the simple expedient of ignoring all discoveries of hominid fossils. As in many a field of human endevour, hoaxes and mistakes can at times occur in science too. Creationists cherry pick such examples in an effort to prove that these hoaxes and mistakes are proof enough t o establish the weakness of science and its theories, particularly the theory of evolution. This is a gross misinterpretation of the very nature of science which advances by learning from its mistakes and drawing confidence from its successes. The scientific method has this built-in, self- correcting mechanism which is a potent asset of science. All scientific hoaxes are soon exposed and rectified and those who do so are not creationists but the scientists themselves. All that the creationists do is to read about such exposes in the newspapers and watch them on TV and claim that it was they who exposed them in the first place. Ironically, the modern Indian savant Osho, whose disciples hail more from the Occident rather than from the nation of his birth, when asked whether there was a