The idea of the origin of man is a controversial one in which every man as its own theory. Africa is in a profound sense the fount of human evolution and the origin of mankind. Before the 18th century the church as control over the origin of man make the people believed in nothing else than the biblical theory, of the bibilical creation of mankind and of the great deluge, of Noah in the book of Genesis .Any other theory proposed by anyone or anybody will be called a blasphemy and they will have the person executed. And it was said of that of a man named Galileo Galiel a man who opposed the church teach of earth being spherical not flat in shape and was sentenced to life imprisonment. But different theories began when different fossils were found somewhere else other than the Garden of Eden where Noah placed his Ark (because the garden of Eden and where Noah was supposed to be in between where the great deluge had happened) so there was controversies of the biblical theory of the origin of man) which makes the church sponsored the scientist in finding the origin of man scientifically (but biblically) in which makes a man named Baron George Cuvier came in to history.Baron George Cuvier a French paleontologist developed his theory of catastrophic according to his theory fossils shows that animals and plants species are destroyed time to time again and again by the great deluge, in which he pointed out that God creation consisted of marine creature; the second consisted of reptiles; and the third was mammal; all this was destroyed successively. The fourth creation as also destroyed with exception of Noah and those in his Ark. However this theory was disproved when different human skeleton and man-made tools are found in different places. In it was opined that if thoroughly Adam and Eve were the first human on earth then the fossils found and human skeleton ought to have been nowhere else except around the valley of Euphrates where the Garden of Eden was located and where Noah placed his ark. However in 1823 Dean Buckland discovered discover a human skeleton along with man-made tools made of ivory and bones of extinct animals , also in 1833 schmerling discovered two skull with the fossils of an animal near Liege which proved that man had lived in Europe before the deluge. Other discovery was made in 1848 to 1886 made a controversial opinion about the origin of man.Several researchers had already developed similar ideas, included and was Erasmus of England (Charles Darwin’s father).he had postulated that one living form could arise out of another ancestral form instead of being a result of a separate creation. But in the 18th century a man called Charles Darwin in 1859 published “The origin of the species” in which he proposed that all species could be traced back to their ancestors to lowest form of life, and in 1871 he published another “the descent of man” .Darwin speculated that it can be said that African is the birthplace found in Africa. Charles Darwin stated furthermore on his theory that the old monkey 2 teeth like that of human being. He also confirmed it that the living mammal of any area were closely related to the remains of the fossils of extinct species when was discovered there (Africa) that it would be reasonable to suppose that man’s birthplace would be in Africa.In which he was the first to propose that “Africa is the birthplace of man”. Charles Darwin was term a confusionalist he was mocked, however from 1925 Charles Darwin proposition seems true when the discovery of material such as man-made tools, fossil, skeleton e.t.c was discovered and was dated back to millions of years through the use of Radio dating carbon and other scientific methods which can be used to discover the number of year a fossil or skeleton that had lived for a very long time(million years back in some cases).but some questions arises in which comes that man cant suddenly evolve from an apes (Pongid) to upright walking man (Homo-Sapien) it will be an unnoticed stage from generation to generation which will take millions of years before it become a man(Hominid).Which led to the rises of enquire of “missing link”. The term missing link is an evolutionary process in which the man evolves from the apes (pongid) to man (hominid).the hominid refers to the ability of a man or any other creature to stand erect while apes are categories of the mammals or chimpanzees which as the ability to stand erect to as man and can also complex work like that of humans but they don’t possess the “god-like intellect” which will makes them think like that of humans In 1866, a German evolutionist label the missing link “pithecanthropus”(ape-man).In 1891 there was another discovery of skull, molar and femur of upright walking creature. It was halfway between man and gorillas and it was labeled “pithecanthropus” by Eugene Dubois. This also cause and strengthen the belief that Asia and not in Africa can be described as the origin of man as propounded by Charles Darwin . But when a professor Raymond Dart an anatomist who revolutionized the concept of human origin and authenticated Charles Darwin’s prediction that Africa would be the birthplace of man came to the world’s attention in 1924 with his announced discovery of the skull he labeled “Australopithecus Africanus” (south Africa apes) in Africa at Taung ,this discovery is an evidence that confirmed and support Charles Darwin assertion of Africa being the birthplace of man. But the skull was not as that of a true man. He also discovered “Pithecanthropus Erectus” (The Java Man) his theory was viewed as an expression of doubt, if not discounted completely, by other scientific who believed that the origin of man were Asia not Africa and its was labeled that “Homo-Erectus”. Similar discovery of Australopithecus Africanus in 1936 in a Stone Cave at Sterfontein near Johannesbuty. It is poposed “plesianthropustransvaalensis” and other discoveries like “Austrolopithecus”, “Promethus” and “paranthropuscrassidens”.In the 20th century a man named Louis Seymour Leakey Bazett came into history, a man actively and actually confirmed Charles Darwin proposition and did a great ideal and the latest discovery about the evolution of man. Darwin in 1871 had already not pointed at the closeness and relationship of humans with chimpanzees and gorillas and professor Raymond Dart discoveries on “Australopithecus Africanus “ in 1924. But it was Leakey who managed to convince the scientific community and so also the world that the cradle of mankind was in Africa. His first discovery was in lake Victoria in 1931 of Jaw which had feature of Homo-Sapien in which is named Homo-Kanamensis”. Also in 1959 he made a great discovery of a skull and was given the name “Zinjanthropus” which he gave it the nickname “Nut cracker man” because of it big muscular skull, at Olduvai George in northern Tanzania in East Africa (an scientific ancient sites in the world of human evolution) which was dated back through the use of dating carbon million years back. He also found a remain of a skull bigger than Australopithecus Africanus, the hand was close to the foot indicating a habitual upright walking man and he named it “Homo Habilis”. Homo is the genus (group of species) that includes modern humans, like us, and most closely related extinct ancestors. Organisms that belong to the same species produce viable (they can live on themselves) offspring. Homo Habilis is not said to be the ancient species of homo ever found, it was dated back over 1.5 million years, they were different from Australopithecus because of the form of the skull. Homo Habilis, is known for retaining primitive features that link it to Australopithecus and for the first tools makers. However in 1962, Leakey discovered another form of hominid belonging to neither Australopithecus nor Homo Habilis and he named it proto-Homo Erectus, he made another discovery in the same place at Bed II of Gorge and labeled it Homo Erectus and this had proved that three form of evolution had lived in Olduvai Gorge.With the use of the dating method Leakey was able to show that proto Homo Erectus (the half Homo Habilis half Australopithecus) leading to Homo Erectus(the upright walking man) Leading to Homo Habilis (the tools maker) and Homo Habilis leading to Homo Sapiens (the upright walking man with the god-like walking man). He was also able to show that the Olduvai Australopithecines go back to the lower Pleistonocene period about 1.7 million years. He also deducted from the combining of the evidence of Olduvai Gorge and his discovery in Rudolf (the co-existing of Homo Habilis and Australopithecine go back to the lower Pleistocene period about 1.7 Million years ago) that man had already existed in Africa 2.6 million years ago. Stone tools found in Koobifora site east of Rudolf in Africa also pointed that, man had lived in with stone tool and being the earliest stone tools maker in the world. Another question or problem rises for Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey in confirming Africa being the birth place of man after Sir Arthur Keith had said earlier in 1915 that “the gorilla of today is not human ancestors”. This saying by Sir Arthur Keith in 191 disproved the evolution theory (and had automatically disproved Africa being the birth place of man) as propounded by Charles Darwin in 1871 and Louis Leakey evolution discovery .sir Arthur Keith also proved that man (hoiminid) and pongidae(apes)had just once be living together before the separation in the Miocene period. The Miocene period was a time of global drying and cooling, as ice rapidly accumulated at the poles, sea-levels, fell, rainfall decreased and rainforests retreated. Many plant and animal group was said to have died out and other forms, better adapted to a drying world took place. This was a great challenge for Leakey in which he set out to prove that man had evolved Africa in a lineal ape form from apes.Leakey went to the Miocene Beds (the Miocene Beds was dated back 25-45 million years) of Rusinga Island, in Lake Victoria in Kenya. He first discovered a Fossils Ape at a site called Fort in Kenya and labeled it Kenyapithecus Africanus. He later discovered a Fossils Procusul which he revealed that fossils procusul had evolved in ape form existed side by side with Kenyapithecus Africanus that also evolved in the hominid form. In approvement to Charles Darwin propostion and theory of Africa being the origin of man, Leakey works in the East and central Africa he pointed out that the separation of the “pongidae” (apes) from the “hominid” had already taken place in Africa in the Miocene period that the separation would have to be sought in earlier Oligocene periods in the Faryoum region of Egypt. The Oligocene period was said the period that major changes happen, such as the first elephant with trunks, early Horses, and the appearance of many grasses-plants that would produce extensive grasslands in the following perod, the Miocene. Through Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey work he was said to be the active and actually person who confirmed Charles Darwin propostion on Africa being the birthplace of man. Leakey and other Archeaologist and Palaeontologist were able to traced human evolution to the time where man became distinguished from ape and the other primates. Moreso, one of the things the that differentiate man from the apes is the god-like intellect and the ability to make simple tools and also do some kind of things such as stone carving e.t.cIn conclusion, having looked at the Bibilical story and the scientific way of finding the origin of man, it could be said that the bibilical theory was just a myth, a myth without
Written by Samuel Peace Oyeboade
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