1. “It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth and Reproduction; inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms.
Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object of which we are capable of conceiving, namely the production of higher animals directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
concluding paragraphs, “The Origin of Species”, Darwin, 1st edition, 1859

2. It is sometimes said, “Group selection was vanquished in the 1960s by William Hamilton and his ‘gene’s eye view’ of selection, which is the basis of Richard Dawkins’ notion of the selfish gene.”
“The fundamental unit of selection, and therefore of self-interest, is not the species, nor the group, nor even, strictly, the individual. It is the gene, the unit of heredity.”
(Dawkins, 1976)

3. Ardipithecus ramidus Hominid who walked bipedally 4.4 mya
Discovered in 1992 by Tim White in Aramis, Ethiopia (as yet largely unpublished)
Distinct enough to be a new species?
ape-like dentition
bipedal locomotion
overall hominid-like skeleton
small cheek teeth with thin enamel and large canines
arm bones are hominid-like
foramen magnum indicates bipedalism

4. The Varied Australopithecines
There are two major hominid genera: Australopithecus and Homo
Some taxonomists prefer to split the australopithecines into two genera, with the gracile species in genus Australopithecus and the robust species in genus Paranthropus

6. Australopithecus afarensis
Left: Trail of footprints of A. afarensis made in volcanic ash, discovered by Mary Leakey at Laetoli.
Right: Close-up of footprint at Laetoli

8. Modern Homo Sapiens Regional-Continuity Model (Milford Wolpoff, UMich)
Humans evolved more or less simultaneously across the entire Old World from several ancestral populations.
Rapid-Replacement Model (Chris Stringer, NHM London)
Humans evolved only once--in Africa from H. heidelbergensis ancestors--and then migrated throughout the Old World,
replacing their archaic predecessors. Also called the “Out of Africa” and “Killer Ape” hypothesis.

10. Evolution of Bipedalism
Anatomical changes
Neck (1), chest (2), lower back (3), hips and pelvis (4), thighs (5), knees (6), feet (7)
Theories
Tool use and bipedalism (Darwin/Washburn)
Energy efficiency and bipedalism (Isbell/Young)
Body temperature and bipedalism (Wheeler)
Radiator theory (Falk)
Habitat variability and bipedalism (Potts)
Reproduction and bipedalism (Lovejoy)
Canine reduction and bipedalism (Jolly)
(Click for interactive skeleton)

11. La Cathedrale (The Cathedral) by Rodin - Musee Rodin, Paris
                                                                  
                                                                   
 La Cathedrale   13-1/2" H Bonded White Marble $265 (less Internet discount of $30) = $235 (freight $19)
                                                                   
                                                                         
Rodin was a highly original sculptural genius but he openly acknowledged his indebtedness to the artists who had preceded him; the masters of ancient Greece and The Renaissance; Phidias, Donatello, Michelangelo. He was also intensely interested in Gothic art, the cathedrals of France. After viewing and studying the Magnificent cathedral at Amiens he felt that the basic inspiration came from the voices of nature, from the trees with their strong limbs reaching upward. In the two right hands with fingers arching together he probably thought that he had discovered the source and inspiration for the gothic arch, that arch which with repetition and expansion led to the creation of the superb gothic cathedrals. The hands are obviously those of separate individuals. A spiritual communication between the two is expressed but the fingers and hands remain slightly separated. Could he, through that separation, have been expressing the aloneness of all human beings, the desire for a complete unification which is never realized? E
                      

12. Brain Size
Brain size has increased threefold in the last 3 million years.

13. Social Intelligence OOne cause for greater brain size:
ssocial intelligence:
the ability to process information about the behavior of others and to react adaptively to their behavior.
Aas group size grows, so do complexities
Pprimates live in social groups that are more complex than those of other animals

16. Universal Darwinism?
We know that biological evolution requires replication with variation, plus natural selection for useful traits
But Dawkins suggests that evolution will ALWAYS happen when these preconditions are met
This evolution might not be biological!

17. Breeding ideas?
It may seem silly to think of an idea, or a form of behaviour, breeding…
BUT breeding = creating a new copy
Whenever an idea is spread to another mind, a new copy of the information in that idea is created
… so we can say that whenever someone hears a new idea or learns a new behaviour, that idea has successfully reproduced

18. How do ideas reproduce? Imitation
Animals very bad at this
Humans very good at this
We readily imitate the behaviours of others
Linguistic behaviours
Fashions, hobbies, crazes

19. Mirror neurons infer hidden goals
… activity ‘represent’ observed goal-directed action.
Activity of F5 Mirror Neurons was recorded in a 2x2 factorial design:
Full vision and Hidden condition
Object-directed and mimed action
3 types of actions (Grasping, Holding, Placing)
19 out of 37 recorded F5 Mirror Neurons (50%) were active during:
Object-directed action, visible or hidden
But not in the absence of object
19 out of 37 recorded F5 Mirror Neurons (50%) were active during:
Object-directed action, visible or hidden
Not in the absence of object
“Half of the F5 Mirror Neurons recorded respond selectively to the observation of specific hand actions even when the final part of the action, i.e., the most crucial in triggering the response in full vision, is hidden from the monkey’s vision.”

20. Puzzle of sexual dimorphism (differences in males and
females in appearance or behavior)
Darwin “Sight of a peacock makes me sick.”

21. Paul Gauguin
Where Do We Come From What Are We Where Are We Going 1897

22. Here’s to you, Bishop Wilberforce