With thanks to Head of Biology, Mr Simon Walker

This week our Year 13 NCEA Biology classes visited Auckland Zoo to attend a lecture on Human Evolution and to view the many primate species on display. This field trip sought to reinforce many of the relevant aspects of work relating to the origin of the human species and our kinship with the great apes.

The first session was presented by the Zoo’s Primate Specialist in their lecture theatre, replete with a range of anatomical models on display. A particular emphasis was given to the similarities and differences in cranial and sub-cranial features of primates as a function of diet and mode of locomotion. Phylogenetic studies provide evidence that humans’ closest living relatives are the two species of chimpanzee, both of which have skeletal features which are instructive into how and why the human species evolved our own set of unique features.

Humans (Homo sapiens) are the sole surviving descendent species of hominin from an ancestor we share with chimpanzees some 6 to 8 million years ago, with a comparative analysis providing many valuable insights into the evolution of our bipedal stance and intellectual abilities.

The second session was a hands-on opportunity to handle replica fossils and stone tools. The inter-relationship between biological change and cultural advances is one of feedback, with the ratcheting effect occurring over the last 4 million years having a profound outcome.

The ancestral species (which were described by the Zoo’s Primate Specialist) can be viewed as being transitional in form, from what are described as ape-like characteristics through to those now observed in modern humans.

The human species is unique, a fact made starker when appreciating the role of contingency and chance in our existence. We must recognize that we have inherited a set of adaptations that has made ours the most successful species of primate; and that by our actions (and inaction) we have (and are) rendering great damage upon the natural world. It is a moral imperative to use our evolved capabilities less selfishly in the preservation of all species with whom we are kin. 

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