E no princípio... Era o macaco!

Abstract

The main purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that, as with any other animal, Homo sapiens is also a natural product of a long process of fixation of several evolutionary novelties. Although the role of specific creatures in this evolutionary history may come to be changed by new fossil discoveries in the Old World, mainly in Africa, science has already a very clear idea of the main changes that were implicated in the process of changing an ape-like creature into us. The essay emphasizes the conservative nature of biological evolution and how natural selection selects among the available options, if any. As a consequence, natural selection is far from producing optimal solutions. The evolutionary post-facto designs are far from being inteligently conceived.