최근의 인류진화가계도 연구

Current Trends on the Study of Human Phylogeny

In recent years, many human fossils are found that will help the human evolution research. The paleoanthropological studies of the fossils test various hypotheses and help make a hypothesis in determining from which modern humans originate and in what way the modern humans have evolved. According to the classical views up until the early 1990s, human evolution starts from Australopithecus and evolves to Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Archaic Homo Sapiens, and finally to Homo Sapiens. In Africa and Georgia, however, the list of such fossils has grown considerably in recent years so as to establish a new theory on human origins and how and when the genus Homo migrates from the continent of Africa. The discovery of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (aka Toumai) that is known to date back 7 million years ago becomes a good clue to find a link to the split between human beings and apes. It is highly regarded as a fossil to find out the origin of mankind. The fossil unearthed at Dmanisi, Georgia is dated to about 1.8 million years old. It tells that the first group of humans left Africa much earlier than 1 million ago that is the commonly accepted period in the academic world. Moreover, the beginning of Homo in the human evolution is explained as the single species hypothesis, but the new fossils discovered in Africa make the multiple species hypothesis be accepted more reasonably. The finding of Homo floresiensis (so called Hobbit) dated from about 38,000 years ago until at least 18,000 years ago rekindled the overall debate on the origin of modern humans. Based on the human fossil remains and the suggested hypotheses of human evolution, this study examines the current trends on the study of human phylogeny. It also explains how the human phylogeny is made and introduces various hypotheses to know the meaning of the human phylogeny.