What is the position of man in the system of the living world. Common features of humans and mammals. What distinguishes a person from the organic world

Question 1. Describe the systematic position of man in the animal kingdom.
Man belongs to the phylum Chordates, the subtype Vertebrates, the class Mammals, the subclass Placentals, the order Primates, the suborder Humanoid (anthropoids-Higher apes) primates, the superfamily of the Greater narrow-nosed monkeys, the family Hominid (People), the only genus Homo (Homo) with the only species Homo sapiens.
In addition to the suborder of anthropoids, lemurs and tarsiers are also classified as primates.

Question 2. Indicate the signs of a person as a representative of the class of mammals.
Humans can be classified as Mammals on the following grounds:
seven cervical vertebrae;
hairline, sweat and sebaceous glands of the skin;
well developed lips and muscular cheeks;
diaphragm and alveolar lungs;
auricle and three auditory ossicles of the middle ear;
one aortic arch (left) and non-nuclear erythrocytes;
warm-bloodedness;
mammary glands, care for offspring;
similarities in embryonic development.

Question 3. What features are common to humans and great apes?
Human beings are related to great apes (pongids) by the large size of the body, the absence of a tail and cheek pouches, the good development of mimic muscles, and the similar structure of the skull and skeleton in general. In addition, blood groups and the Rh factor, the similarity of chromosomes (out of 23 chromosomes, 13 are similar to chimpanzees), various diseases, a long gestation period, and a long prepubertal (pre-reproductive) period are common to humans and great apes. They are also united by a high level of development of higher nervous activity, the ability to learn quickly, the ability to use tools, a good memory, and rich emotions. As an example, we can cite experiments on teaching deaf-mutes to great apes, during which gorillas and chimpanzees learned up to 200-300 sign words. The human and chimpanzee genomes are 98.5% identical.

Question 4. List the structural features that are unique to humans.
There are differences between humans and animals.
Man is a social being that produces tools and uses them to influence nature. A person has a highly developed brain, has consciousness, thinking, articulate speech and a number of anatomical features that have arisen in connection with labor activity that is characteristic only of a person. The differences are related to the direction of evolution. Man and great apes are two branches of the order of primates, which in relatively recent times have separated from the common pedigree trunk.
It is typical for a person:
1. Adaptation to upright posture. The spine acquired an S-shaped curvature, the foot has a domed shape. These are the main devices that provide shock absorption and shock absorption of the body when walking, jumping, which is important for protecting the brain. The big toe acts as a support. The pelvis is wider, it takes on the pressure of the organs in an upright position. The chest is flat, laterally compressed, due to the pressure that the internal organs exert on the ribs, due to the horizontal position of the torso when walking. The brain part of the skull has increased and prevails over the front. There are no superciliary ridges. The jaws and chewing muscles are less developed. In the lower part of the body, the gluteal, quadriceps, gastrocnemius, soleus muscles are especially developed. The consequences of upright walking are associated with a limitation in the speed of movement, hypertension, an immobile sacrum, dilated veins in the legs, and osteochondrosis.
2. The presence of a flexible hand - an organ of labor adapted to complex movements. The human hand is specialized as a grasping organ, the thumb is well movable. The human arms are shorter than the legs.
3. Well developed brain. A person has highly developed temporal, frontal and parietal lobes, where the main centers of higher nervous activity are located. The surface of the brain is 1250 cm2. The surface of the cortex in the frontal region is twice that of higher monkeys. Characterized by the appearance of speech, abstract thinking, consciousness.
4. Hairless skin has become a gigantic receptor field capable of bringing additional information to the brain. This was a factor in the intensive development of the brain. The "baldness" of the skin is the last biological prerequisite for the formation of man as a creative social being.

Question 5. What
An increase in the size and complexity of the structure of the brain provided a person with the opportunity to develop many functions, such as highly organized nervous activity, the ability to learn, the presence of a large amount of memory and complex emotions, speech. They also contributed to the emergence of abstract thinking and the ability to work. The centers associated with the sense organs provide the finest analysis of visual and auditory information, which allows us to perceive and understand facial expressions and speech. The motor centers of the brain carry out extremely precise and efficient control of the muscles of the fingers, vocal cords, etc. In many respects, it was the development of the brain that allowed a person to reach the high stage of evolutionary development that he now occupies.

The place of man in the system of the organic world

Man is a social being, the distinguishing feature of which is consciousness, formed on the basis of social and labor activity.

Man appeared on Earth as a result of a long process of development (anthropogenesis).

All living representatives of mankind belong to the same species - Homo sapiens Homo sapiens which belongs to type of chordates,vertebrate subtype, class of mammals, order of primates And hominid family .

The distinguishing features of a person are:

  • a very large (absolutely and relatively) brain with developed areas responsible for articulate speech and thinking;
  • change in the proportions of the limbs - lengthening of the legs compared to the arms;
  • S-shaped spinal column with pronounced cervical and lumbar curves;
  • expanded form of the pelvis;
  • flattened in the anteroposterior direction of the chest;
  • arched foot with a massive and adducted thumb and relative reduction (underdevelopment) of the rest;
  • complete opposition of the thumb to the rest;
  • reduction (underdevelopment) of hairline;
  • strong development of papillary patterns on the skin of the fingertips;
  • increase in childhood.

chordates is a type of deuterostome.

Chordates are characterized by the following features:

  • axial skeleton in the form of a chord lying above the gut, which in higher chordates (vertebrates) is replaced by a spine;
  • dorsal neural tube, lying above the chord (tubular central nervous system), from which the brain and spinal cord develop;
  • paired metameric (segmental) gill slits in the pharyngeal wall, present throughout life (in primary aquatic chordates) or at a certain stage of development (in terrestrial chordates).

mammals, or animals, is a class of animals belonging to the vertebrate subtype of the chordate type. Man, being a representative of mammals, has all the main features characteristic of this class:

  • mammary gland;
  • hairline;
  • skin glands(sebaceous and sweat);
  • four-chambered heart with left aortic arch;
  • seven cervical vertebrae with modified first (atlas) and second (epistrophy) vertebrae;

  • heterodont(different in structure) teeth, among which incisors, canines and molars can be distinguished;
  • three auditory ossicles in the middle ear And developed outer ear;
  • lips, in the thickness of which the muscles are located;
  • saliva containing enzymes;
  • diaphragm separating the thoracic and abdominal cavities;
  • lungs, built from the alveoli;
  • erythrocytes without nuclei;
  • larynx with vocal cords;
  • eyelids with eyelashes.

Primates- This is a detachment of higher placental mammals. Most human primates share a number of common features:

The five-fingered limb is the principle of the structure of the limbs of terrestrial vertebrates, including the general plan of the structure of the limbs of mammals and humans. In the process of evolution, individual details of the structure of the limbs may change, but the general principle remains unchanged.

  • flat nails on fingers and toes;
  • the presence of papillary patterns on the palms and soles;
  • poor development of the organs of smell, good - of the organs of hearing and vision;
  • DNA similarity(Human and chimpanzee have about 90% similar genes);
  • structure of mimic muscles.
  • low fecundity, compensated by developed care for offspring;

Great apes (hominoids, anthropoids)- This superfamily of narrow-nosed monkeys , which includes the gibbon families (gibbons), pongids (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees) and hominids (representatives of the genus Man and the only living species Homo sapiens).

Great apes have a number of common features that make it possible to attribute humans to this superfamily. These are the following signs:

  • large body size;
  • lack of a long tail;
  • similar shape of the auricle;
  • large brain with developed furrows and convolutions;
  • a similar structure of the teeth, especially the chewing surface (“driopithecus pattern”);
  • the structure of internal organs;
  • the presence of an appendix;
  • similar blood types;
  • similarities in the course of diseases, especially infectious ones.

Representatives of the pongid family, especially chimpanzees, show the greatest similarity with humans (the percentage of similar genes in humans and chimpanzees reaches 91).

Rudiments(lat. rudimentum- germ, fundamental principle), or vestigial organs, are relatively simplified and underdeveloped structures that have lost their main significance in the process of historical development (phylogenesis).

In humans, the rudiments include:

  • tail vertebrae;
  • appendix as a digestive organ;
  • muscles of the auricle;
  • body hairline; The appendix is ​​a rudiment only as part of the intestine that has lost its digestive function, although it plays an important role in the body - it is part of the immune system
  • third eyelid.

Rudiments are laid during embryonic development, but do not fully develop. Unlike atavisms, rudiments are found in all individuals of the species.

atavisms(lat. atavus- ancestor) - signs that appear in individual organisms of a given species that existed in distant ancestors, but disappeared in the process of evolution.

In humans, atavisms include:

  • the presence of a tail;
  • abundant hair on the body and face (hypertrichosis);
  • polynipple;
  • strongly developed fangs.

Video lesson 2: Human races, their relationship and origin

Video lesson 3: biosocial nature of man. Sciences of the human body

Lecture: Human Origins. Man as a species, his place in the system of the organic world

Man as a species

Man appeared as a result of a long-term and complex evolutionary process, his appearance is due to the development of the animal world. In the structure, genetics, and biochemistry of a person, signs are combined that are characteristic of all representatives of the living world, with those characteristic only of their own species. Its features make it possible to single it out as a separate biological species Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens.

In biological systematics, the position of a person is defined as follows:

Imperia– Cellular;
Superkingdom– Eukaryotes;
Kingdom- Animals;
Sub-kingdom– Multicellular;
Type– Chordates;
Subtype– Vertebrates;
Class– Mammals;
Subclass– Placental;
Detachment– Primates;
Suborder– Higher primates (Monkeys);
Family– Hominids;
Genus- Human;
View- A reasonable person.

The location of the species in the classification system of wildlife clearly and consistently describes the main features of the organism:

  • The Cellular Empire includes organisms with a cellular structure.
  • To the Superkingdom of Eukaryotes - organisms that have cells with a formalized nucleus;
  • To the Animal Kingdom - heterotrophs with a typical cell structure;
  • The Subkingdom of Multicellular is characterized by the differentiation of cells into tissues;
  • For Type Chordata - an axial skeleton with a spinal cord of a tubular shape, at the embryonic stage there are gills;
  • For the Vertebrate Subtype, a solid axial internal skeleton-spine and the presence of a skull;
  • For the Class of Mammals - the spine, consisting of 5 sections, 7 vertebrae in the cervical region, in the course of individual development - 2 changes of teeth, the presence of a diaphragm, a four-chambered heart, warm-bloodedness, mammary glands and live birth;
  • For the Placental Subclass, the formation of the fetus in the uterus with the placenta;
  • For the Order of Primates - the presence of nails, a grasping limb with five fingers, foot-walking, developed cerebral hemispheres, herd relations, one pair of mammary glands, collarbones, low fertility, care for offspring, developed facial expressions and sound signaling;
  • The suborder of the Higher primates is characterized by the presence of similar blood groups, a high level of development of higher nervous activity, spinal curves, reduction of the caudal vertebrae;
  • Hominid family - the presence of a social lifestyle, bipedalism, the development of the frontal lobes of the brain with a large number of convolutions;
  • Genus Man - the presence of articulate speech, chin protrusion, the ability to abstract thinking, purposeful work.

The most characteristic features of the species, which sharply distinguish it from all other living organisms, are the human ability for abstract thinking and the presence of articulate speech.

The origin of man (anthropogenesis)

Even Aristotle noted that man belongs to the animal kingdom. Also, K. Linnaeus and J.-B. Lamarck expressed the idea that man descended from ape-like ancestors. Accurate and logically verified evidence of the presence of common ancestors in modern anthropoid apes and humans on the basis of physiological, morphological, anatomical, paleontological, and embryological studies was given by Charles Darwin.

Today, a separate science deals with the origin of man - anthropology. She explores the problems of anthropogenesis, referring the generic name Homo not only to the only species that exists today, but also to extinct ones. The genus Homo emerged as a separate taxon more than 2 million years ago in Africa, separating itself from the dead-end branch of development - Australopithecus. At the moment, the remaining species of the genus Homo, of which more than a dozen existed at different times, have become extinct. Among them are Homo erectus (Human erectus), Homo habilis (Skillful man), Homo neandertalensis (Neanderthal man), Homo ergaster (Working man) and others.

Significant milestones in anthropogenesis that contributed to the separation of the Homo genus from other members of the hominid family were: the use of fire, tools and the formation of language.

The most rapid development of our species occurs in the last 50 thousand years.

Currently, scientists are intensively studying the issues of anthropogenesis using modern methods and instruments. It was possible to establish that the development of different species of the genus Homo did not occur sequentially, but dichotomously - at different times different species coexisted.

The exact origin of the species Homo sapiens from a specific ancestor is unknown, various versions are assumed. Discussions continue on the taxonomy of the genus Homo – which of the discovered paleontological evidence are representatives of different species, and which are racial variations of one.

It is believed that the ancestors of people switched to upright walking for the convenience of hunting herbivores in the savannah. Another theory puts forward a version about the initial collection of shells by human ancestors in shallow waters, which caused some evolutionary changes - the absence of wool, the low position of the larynx in relation to the pharynx, the presence of original lubrication in newborns, a large number of sweat and sebaceous glands on the skin and a richly developed subcutaneous layer of fat - signs characteristic of marine mammals.

Today, most scientists consider the following facts to be more reliable:

  • about 2.4 million years ago, in the only line of hominid that existed then, the brain began to increase;
  • Appeared about 1.9 million years ago, the Working Man acquired an even larger brain volume and body size;
  • Human ancestors began to use fire about 1.5 million years ago.
  • our species originated in Africa about 300,000 years ago.

Genetic studies have established that the theory of the origin of man from Africa is the most accurate, since scientists were able to identify the last common ancestor of modern people, "mitochondrial Eve", who lived in Africa about 200 thousand years ago.

human races

The resettlement of people on the planet took place over tens of thousands of years. This time turned out to be sufficient for the action of natural selection and the acquisition by various populations in the absence of contact of various phenotypic traits, which today are called racial.

All races belong to the same species, as they are characterized by minor differences in the genotype and it is possible to interbreed between them to obtain full-fledged fertile offspring.

Various scientists distinguish from 3 to 7 different races. However, studies by geneticists show that each of the characteristics of races is determined by a complex of genes that have mismatched distribution areas. Populations differ not in genotypes, but in the frequency of different alleles.

Outwardly, human populations differ:

  • Caucasoid- protruding face, straight or wavy soft hair, mostly light skin color, light eyes are often found - green blue, men actively grow beards and mustaches;
  • Negroid- dark to black skin color, coarse hair, dark eyes, wide flat nose, thick lips, low face, beard and mustache are underdeveloped;
  • Mongoloid- flattened face, high cheekbones, narrow eyes, often with epicanthus, weak growth of mustaches and beards, narrow lips, small eyelashes;
  • Americanoid- the presence of epicanthus, large facial features, aquiline nose, weakly growing beard and mustache.

Researchers suggest that the formation of races began after the last glaciation (about 12 thousand years ago), since division into races did not yet exist in the early Paleolithic.

Biosocial nature of man

The biosocial nature of a person lies in the complex impact of biological and social factors on him. This necessitates a double adaptation, not only to biological, but also to social factors:

  • compliance of behavior with the norms accepted in a particular particular culture;
  • continuous learning and use of knowledge;
  • adaptation to changing depending on the situation in society and the dominant trends.

General factors influencing behavior, physiology and adaptation to specific conditions are studied by human ecology.

Scientists call anthropogenesis the period from the moment the first ancestral forms of man appeared in East Africa (about 1.7 million years ago) to the present, and they also try to determine the place of man in the result of this study was the creation of a whole group of scientific disciplines: anthropology, social psychology, socionics, which consider man as an object of the animal world, given that he is a completely unique creature of a spiritual nature. In this article, we will answer the question of what is the place of a person in the system of the organic world, taking into account his duality, which consists in combining the features of a physical and subtle character.

Systematic position of Homo sapiens

All living beings living on our planet have a strictly defined position in the classification system of nature. Let's consider what is the place of man in the system of the organic world.

Empire is the dominant systematic category. It is called Life. Then follows such a taxon as a domain (superkingdom). Life includes two kingdoms: Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes. Man enters the domain of Eukaryotes (Nuclear organisms). This is followed by the kingdom Animals, the class Mammals, the infraclass Placentals, the detachment Primates, the family Hominids, the genus Humans, the species Homo sapiens. All living individuals included in the above taxonomic units form a set called humanity.

How to prove the animal origin of man

Studies conducted by taxonomists have confirmed that the place of man in the system of the organic world is the class Mammals, which also includes such taxa of animals as the families of Cats, Canids, Chiroptera, Rodents, Artiodactyls, etc. Despite external differences in structure, all representatives of placental mammals, which includes humans, have common anatomical and physiological features. These include a 4-chambered heart, two circles of blood circulation, warm-bloodedness. The general plan of the structure of the fore and hind limbs, as well as their belts in all animals of this taxon, is similar to the anatomical structure of humans. For example, the upper limb in all mammals consists of the humerus, ulna, and radius bones, as well as the bones of the wrist, metacarpus, and phalanges of the fingers.

Metabolic reactions are quite similar in humans and placental mammals. For example, the breakdown of organic compounds under the action of digestive enzymes, the transfer of oxygen by red blood cells, the formation of uric acid as the end product of the excretory system. Common are the mechanisms of neuro-humoral regulation of life. This confirms the fact that a person in the system of the organic world is closely related to representatives of vertebrate animals belonging to the class Mammals.

Embryological evidence of the animal nature of man

Not only the results of research in the field of anatomy and physiology prove that we have a common origin with the animal world. Serious confirmation of this fact is provided by studies in the field of embryology, which studies the embryonic development of vertebrates, from the superclass Fish to the class Mammals. The biogenetic law, formulated by F. Muller, combined the historical development of each species with the ontogeny of a single individual. All vertebrates, including humans, go through the stages of egg, a single-layer embryo - blastula and a two-layer embryo consisting of ectoderm and endoderm - gastrula in embryogenesis.

In the early stages of development, without exception, chordate embryos have gill slits, a tail, and a similar body shape. This serves as proof that man's place in the system of the organic world is next to animals. Moreover, many scientists believe that all terrestrial vertebrates evolved from common ancestral forms.

Rudiments and atavisms

With the help of such a discipline as comparative anatomy, you will determine the place of a person in the system of the organic world, since a clear connection can be seen in the structure of the body and individual organs in mammals. For example, the appendix is ​​a rudiment confirming that herbivorous forms of animals were common ancestors for us. And although it has lost its importance in human digestion, it continues to play an important role in the breakdown of fiber in artiodactyls and other herbivorous animals. Such a rudiment as the third eyelid, which does not perform any function in the human organ of vision, plays an important role in vertebrates of the class Reptiles, for example, in snakes.

The ear muscles are rudimentary in humans, so the auricle is practically motionless. On the other hand, this group of muscles is especially well developed in the predatory order, which provides them with protection and orientation in the environment.

Atavisms: the appearance of a tail, multiple nipples, abundant development of hair on the face and other parts of the body - indicate a person's place in the system of the organic world, taking into account his animal origin.

Anatomical features associated with upright posture

The phenomenon of the vertical position of the body led to the appearance of certain features in the anatomical structure of the human body. For example, the S-shaped spine, which increases flexibility and softens shocks and shakes when walking and running, the cupped shape of the pelvis, in which the internal organs are located, the special structure of the foot - it has an arch that provides shock absorption and protection of the lower extremities when walking. All of these features are unique to humans and are not found in any animal species. This indicates a special modern place of man in the system of the organic world, separating him from other representatives of the Animal kingdom.

Social Factors of Human Evolution

Bipedalism played an important role in the development of the human individual. The upper limb - the hand - was freed from the functions of movement and began to be used to perform delicate and complex operations: writing, labor, playing musical instruments, etc. The ability to produce and use fire both for protection and for cooking thermally processed food finally separated the representatives of the Homo sapiens species from other animals and marked the exclusive place of man in the system of the organic world.

Development of thinking and speech

The use of artificially created tools and life in primitive communities led to the formation of a qualitatively different signal system, different from the “language of animals”. The complication of interneuronal contacts in the left hemisphere and frontal lobe (Wernicke's and Broca's areas) ensured the activation of areas of understanding and motor skills of speech. The ability for complex mental operations: analysis, synthesis, abstraction - became the result of human evolution - anthropogenesis. He led to the formation of modern Homo sapiens.

Anthropogenesis and the dual nature of man

Being a part of wildlife and subject to its evolutionary development, human society as a whole, like each of its individual individuals, is a reflection of its social relations that have developed as a result of the historical, religious and cultural characteristics of various human populations. Such a scientific discipline as sociobiology, which is, in fact, a compilation of genetics, sociology, biology, psychology, tries to link the postulates of natural selection acting in living nature into a single whole with such purely human phenomena as altruism and culture. They are dominant in human behavioral reactions and cause its fundamental difference from the reflexes and instincts of animals.

Mankind and its social model

Objectively evaluating the role of the biological component in human evolution, as well as taking into account the close connection with wildlife, it must be remembered that all the above facts prove that the biological species of Homo sapiens throughout anthropogenesis was formed in accordance with the laws of the development of human society, which are studied by sociology, social science, psychology. The connection between man and the animal world is clearly traced by such a science as biology. The place of man in the system of the organic world is unique, since it is he who is a dual being.

This is evidenced by all the known spiritual and philosophical theories that arose in ancient Babylon, Greece and the Roman Empire. They were transformed and formed as the ideas of the main religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. The largest centers of world civilizations arose on the basis of socio-economic relations. Thanks to them, a special form of life on Earth, called humanity, appeared and formed.

Man has a very ancient evolutionary lineage. At the very beginning of the animal world are the first living beings, which are thus the starting point of development for man.

According to the structure and arrangement of its organs, a person belongs to the class of mammals. The most significant features inherent in both humans and mammals are the mammary, sebaceous and sweat glands, body hair, specialized teeth (incisors, canines, premolars and molars), a four-chambered heart and the left aortic arch, pulmonary respiration, the presence of a diaphragm, a highly developed brain, intrauterine development of the embryo, feeding the baby with milk.

Both in humans and animals, there are single links of tissue metabolism, growth and individual development are carried out in a similar way, the principle of storage and implementation of the genetic code, which is the same for the entire organic world, etc. The maximum similarity of a person is found with representatives of the family of great apes, or anthropoids: gorilla, chimpanzee, orangutan, gibbon. The commonality of the internal structure of humans and anthropoids is complemented by external similarities: they have a single plan for the structure of the upper and lower extremities, the absence of a tail, very similar auricles, the presence of fingernails, etc.

Domestic biochemist A. N. Belozersky analyzed the results of molecular DNA hybridization to identify the degree of commonality of genetic information in the chromosomes of humans and some monkeys. It turned out that the number of similar nucleotide sequences in DNA in humans and chimpanzees was 91%, in humans and gibbon - 76, in humans and rhesus monkeys - 66%, i.e. the closer animals are systematically to humans, the greater the similarity between them in the molecular structure of DNA.

At one time, Charles Darwin provided convincing evidence of the phylogenetic commonality of emotions and ways of expressing them, devoting a separate essay to them, closely related to The Descent of Man. In The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872, Darwin successfully showed that, in terms of the features of elementary mental activity and the ways of expressing sensations, man is undoubtedly genetically related to monkeys. Another important conclusion is that there are no psychic differences among the human races.

However, man is separated from the animal world fundamental biological differences, such as the vertical position of the body and movement on two legs, a high degree of development of the hands and the ability to perform various, delicate and high-precision operations, a large brain volume, which is 2.5 times the brain of anthropoids and 3.5 times its surface area, and finally speech, which is peculiar only to humans.

It is no coincidence that Charles Darwin once concluded that none of the modern great apes is the direct ancestor of humans. The genealogy of man is a long chain of his predecessors, it goes back into the depths of time for tens of millions of years, and the last link before the first people was the fossil anthropoid ape. Unknown during the life of Darwin, the fossil precursor of man was subsequently discovered, confirming the scientific prediction of the scientist.

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