Science, Technology, and the Evolution of Species: A Comprehensive Overview

Posted on May 7, 2024 in Geology

Science and the Scientific Method

Science is a body of knowledge obtained through the application of the scientific method. It arises when a mythical view abandons reality and focuses on an objective and reflexive vision.

Modern science, or the current conception, dates back to the 16th-17th centuries, initiated by Galileo (1564-1642) and completed by Newton (1642-1727). It is based on the application of the scientific method.

The Scientific Method

1. Problem statement
2. Observation and data collection, or facts relating to experiences
3. Hypothesis approach
4. Experimentation to verify the hypothesis
5. Study of results to corroborate or refute the hypothesis
6. Establishment of a law, if the hypothesis is true

Science, Techniques, and Technologies

Technique is a set of practical procedures for the manufacturing of assets (conscious transformation of matter) or the provision of facilities. It is present in all living activities, even in the instinctive actions of animals as a species feature (e.g., beehives). Only humans can construct something with the imagination that it can be done.

Technology is the result of the relationship between technique, science, and the economic and socio-cultural structure. It uses technical practices to solve specific social problems.

The Origin of the Human Species

The order Primates groups mammals, originating 75 million years ago (during the late Secondary period).

Principal Characteristics

• Highly mobile limbs, prehensile fingers
• Stereoscopic vision
• Digestive system that allowed a varied diet
• Limited number of descendants, highly dependent on the mother after birth

Relationship with the rest of the hominid primates: Related to Old World monkeys (African), all descended from a common ancestor.

Process of Hominization

Transformations produced from the first group of primates that led to the characteristics that distinguish hominids.

Principal Transformations

1. Bipedal posture
2. Elongation of lower extremities, widening of the pelvis, alignment of the thumb with the rest of the fingers, and alignment of the foot
3. Hands with greater mobility and precision
4. Dietary diversification with the remodeling of dentition
5. Increased degree of encephalization

Evolution of Hominids

The ancestors of Australopithecus (Ardipithecus…) – Australopithecus anamensis – Australopithecus afarensis – Paranthropus and Homo ergaster – Homo erectus and Homo ancestor – Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens

Features of the Main Hominid Groups

• Ardipithecus: Between 4.5 and 5 million years ago, in the African Rift Valley rainforests, “bipedal?”
• A. anamensis: Between 4.2 and 3.9 million years ago, in the African Rift Valley zone, bipedal walking
• A. afarensis: Between 3.9 and 3 million years ago, in Africa, bipedal walking
• H. ergaster: Between 1.9 and 1 million years ago, in Africa, Europe, and Asia, in open savannas and medium mountains
• H. Predecessor (Atapuerca Man): No copy in Africa, 1 million years ago, derives from Neanderthals and Sapiens
• H. Neanderthalensis: 200,000-30,000 years ago, Europe
• H. sapiens: 200,000 years ago, coexisted with Neanderthals for 10,000 years

Criterion: Use of frills to separate one group from another in classification

Evolution of Living Beings

Ancient Theories on the Origin of Species

• Fixism or Creationism: Species do not change, remain unchanged since creation, Karl von Linnaeus.
• Catastrophism: Every so often, a cataclysm destroys species and creates new ones, George Cuvier explained fossil diversity. George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, proposed the first theory that living beings transformed or evolved.

Lamarck’s Evolutionary Hypothesis

• Species traits seemed to change gradually with the passage of time. He was the first naturalist to propose a scientific hypothesis to explain the evolution of living beings. He called them transformations (species gradually evolve into others).
• Function creates the organ (adaptation), species developed organs that were used more and atrophied those that were used less.
• Acquired characters are inherited, giving rise to new species.

Theory of Evolution by Darwin and Wallace

In the 19th century, new studies on the evolution of species were made public by Darwin and Wallace, presented at the Linnean Society in London in 1858. One year later, Darwin published his theory of natural selection to explain the mechanism of evolution.

1. High reproductive capacity of living beings provides the restriction of resources for survival, individuals must compete for food and reproduction.
2. Variability in populations
3. Natural selection, when there is a change in the environment, only individuals with advantageous characters for the new environment can fight for survival, the fittest survive
4. Species evolve

Current species are the consequence of progressively and continuously adaptive divergence from ancestral species.

Neo-Darwinism

• Observable variability (phenotype): In a population, individuals differ due to the set of genes of each individual (genotype)
• Mutations and gene recombination from parents are the causes of variability
• Natural selection favors individuals whose phenotypes are better suited to the environment in which they live

Evidence of Evolution

• Morphological: Study of similarities in the organization of different species. There are counterparts (= same structure, different function), divergent evolution, and similar bodies (different structure = function), convergent evolution.
• Paleontology: Study through fossils, some correspond to a life form between two groups of living beings (Archaeopteryx)
• Embryological: Study through the first stages of development of organisms, different types of vertebrate embryos are very similar to each other when they develop
• Biochemical and cellular: Organic compounds are the same in all living beings, the large organic molecules (proteins, carbohydrates…) are more similar the closer the species are evolutionarily