Somebody asked a question yesterday regarding how our first common ancestor evolved, and whether it was a female or male. Most answers stated that our common anscestor was asexual. How is that? How can an ape evolve into an asexual creature? And then become two different sexes? What was the first human? Female or male?
Help me make sense of this.
2008-10-02T04:00:22Z
I'm asking this here in R&S for our darling atheists who so want to enlighten others with their intelligence. Here's your chance
2008-10-02T04:03:34Z
So, we were amoebas and then we became human? I think there were some stages in between...
2008-10-02T04:05:00Z
So wait a minute. Are you saying that a group of apes evolved into our common ancestor, and then a group of common ancestors simultaneously evolved into humans, both male and female?
2008-10-02T04:11:16Z
Patriot: I am honestly trying to understand. Yet you yourself say that there was no evolution of an 'individual ape', so it must have been a group of such. Right? Or did our most recent common ancestor mate with an already evolved human?
2008-10-02T04:13:01Z
Reverend: Do you feel 'attacked'? I take it an attack to you, is a question that you cannot answer?
2008-10-02T04:17:23Z
Raptor: I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say. The LAST species before human kind, evolved as a group simultaneously, or just one evolved as an asexual human? This is what I'm asking.
Anonymous2008-10-02T04:12:07Z
Favorite Answer
Consider this
Mysteries In Science http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zTXxpXOoe0
The Young Age of the Earth http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1272542059740401469
The Origin of Man by Dr. Duane Gish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3FZDysZKFQ
The Origins of Life http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3181822797567477581
Evolution: Challenge of the Fossil Record - Part 1 of 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NkO6fQvydM
Skull Fossils - As Empty as the Evolutionary Theory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yu5jN897kM
Neanderthals - Smarter Then We Thought http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxL636n3w2o
Dinosaurs: Those Terrible Lizards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVvGByvp13Q
"So, we were amoebas and then we became human? I think there were some stages in between..." 6 minutes ago
"So wait a minute. Are you saying that a group of apes evolved into our common ancestor, and then a group of common ancestors simultaneously evolved into humans, both male and female?" 27 seconds ago
"Patriot: I am honestly trying to understand. Yet you yourself say that there was no evolution of an 'individual ape', so it must have been a group of such. Right? Or did our most recent common ancestor mate with an already evolved human?"
Nobody said anything even remotely like this. You're purposely dodging the information you're being given and twisting it into nonsense. I don't believe you're confused at all. I believe you're trolling. No one is this stupid.
<edit> Fine. I'll spell it out very simply. The "last species" - the homonid group that preceded homo sapien - evolved as a group. It consisted of males and females. When it changed into homo sapiens, it still consisted of males and females. It did not at any point become an asexually reproducing animal that then had to once again change into a duel gender species.
By the way, evolution only takes place at the species level. Individuals do not evolve. Inherited traits are passed on to successive generations, and then selected in or out of the gene pool. The first humans - notice that it's plural - were male and female.
The ORIGINAL ancestor - the simple life form made of amino acids and protien chains that developed the ability to self replicate - was sexless. It was the first ancestor of ALL life, not specifically human life, and it predates all other complex organisms.
Is that easy enough to undestand? Or, are you going to take issue with this, too? If you do, then you really should go to a site like talkorigins.com, and get an elementary breakdown in evolution, rather than continue to antagonize people here.
Are you being intentionally dense here? The "additional details" show a pattern of purposely twisting an answer to make it sound like something completely different.
The earliest life on earth would have reproduced asexually. Sexual reproduction came later. The question "how can an ape evolve into an asexual creature" shows either your complete misunderstanding of what "ancestor" means (hint, your ancestors lived BEFORE you, not after you), or an intentional falsification.
Populations evolve. Individuals don't evolve. You can't say "was the first human male or female" because the process of speciation is gradual and there is no sudden appearance of one individual of a different species. Imagine trying to breed a taller corn plant. Which one do you point to and say "That's the first individual of my taller group."?
Sexual reproduction was well established before there were any mammals. You don't actually believe that each species had to invent reproduction all over again, do you?
Our first responder (above) has the right idea, but of course the "first common ancestor" wasn't really an amoeba, but rather some kind of probably precelluar reproducing DNA strand.
The question manages to confuse that with something about apes, which results in meaningless questions like "How can an ape evolve into an asexual creature?" (which of course no-one claims).
The notion that there was an individual "first ape" who somehow became males and females is simply another retelling of the creationist fairy tale version of evolution, and has no bearing on biological science. ================= "So wait a minute. Are you saying that a group of apes evolved into our common ancestor, and then a group of common ancestors simultaneously evolved into humans, both male and female?"
What exactly are you reading to come to that conclusion? No-one here said anything remotely like that.
I don't think you're making even the slightest honest effort to understand this.
You seem to be imagining a particular moment in time, a long way down the line from the beginning, when one type of ape gave birth to the next type of ape, which was either male of female. When animals evolve it is a gradual process which occurs within a group of animals who in this case would have been both male and female. Weaker or less useful traits gradually recede in the species, and dominant traits remain or develop further, there is no magic moment when one example of the next stage in that species evolution suddenly emerges, ta da, from behind a bush:)