1_MorphogenesisToMan

Morphological Flows and Sustainable Growth : Evolutionary Philosophy - where we came from and where we might be headed - NAVIGATOR-->Part A-Morphological Flows: -Introduction- Creation of Matter {1-Particles--> 2-Atoms --> 3-Molecules --> 4-Proto-Biota}--> Creation of Life { 5-Biomolecular (Genetic) mechanisms --> Tree of Life, Fossil Record and Comparative Anatomy { 6.1-Cells to Reptiles --> 6.2-Reptiles To Man --> 7-Nervous System and Brain } --> Creation of Us {8-Behavioral Evolution --> 9-Social/Cultural Evolution} -- 10-Segue: Common (Cascade) Model for Morphological Flows -->Part B- Application of Flow Oriented Analysis: Sustainable Growth {11-Exponential Population Growth -->12- Exponential Demand Growth --> 13-Social Rifts --> 14-Solutions for Sustainability} --> Fun Stuff {15-Attractor sets and Turn-ons List --> 16-Intellectual Attractor Sets} ----------HOME---------- (c) contact Mike Baharmast - MBScientific

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6.2-http://mbscientific.org/wiki/From_Reptiles_to_Us

ch6.2- Biotic Morphogenesis - Reptiles to Homo Sapiens (a pictorial family album), the tree of life

In the last section we followed our pictorial family tree up to reptiles. We'll pick up the story from there. The stem species of reptiles, the Cotylosaurs appeared during the Pennsylvanian. During Permian era reptiles called Synapsids appeared, and established an evolutionary branch, leading to mammals.

In the transition from reptiles to mammals a major evolutionary morphological change occurred. The mammals became warm blooded. The main morphological change was to the circulatory system, it became efficient, as you can see below:

In the amphibian and reptile circulatory system a mix of oxygenated blood (in red) and deoxygenated blood (blue) feed the body capillaries (purple artery). In the bird and mammal circulatory system, only oxygenated blood feeds the body capillaries. And since oxygen is the main catalyst for metabolism (generation of internal energy), birds and mammals have plenty of it and can maintain a consistent body temperature regardless of the outside temperature. That means that they can be active all of the time and migrate to cold climates. This gave them the evolutionary edge over the reptiles and they flourished.

We will follow the branch of Synapsids, as pictorially shown:

1- Cotylosaurs (Pennsylvanian) - reptile stem species

2- Synapsids (Late Pennsylvanian - Permian)

3-Therapsids (Permian and Triassic)

4- Cynodont (Triassic)

5- Probainognathia (late Triassic, picture related Trithelodontidae)

- Morganucodontidae (low Jurassic, picture related Megazostrodon)

7- Triconodonts (late jurasic-late cretaceous, picture related Gobiconodont)

8) Eutheria ( mid Cretaceous, picture related Xenarthra)

The Eutheria (pacental) mammal branch leads to the many familiar mammals that we see today:

Of those branches, we are going to follow the one that leads to us, as pictorially depicted below:

1- Insectevora (late cretaceous, picture related Scandentia, late Paleocene, mid Eocene)

2- Primatomorpha (Eocene)

3- Plesiadapiformes: (Eocene)

4- Anthropoidea (mid Eocene, picture related Platyrrhini new world monkey)

5- Hominoidea: (apes. Gorilla, Homo, Hylobates, Pan, Pongo,) Range: from the Late Oligocene or Early Miocene; artist's rendering.

6- Sahelanthropus tchadensis(6-7 Million yrs, bipedal)
Note: from 5 onwards, these are all artists' renderings. .

7- Australopithecus (5-4Myrs, bipedal)

8- Homo Habilis (2.5 Myr), Homo Erectus(1.3 Myrs), humorous artist's rendering!?!

9- Neanderthals (recent)

10- Us (well, me actually!)

Chapter Key: Morphological Flows, entities going through functional constructs thereby creating more complex entities with more complex functionalities:
The Tree of Life - synopsis

Between comparing gene and protein sequences, comparative anatomy and studying the fossil record, the tree of life can be assembled (it is an evolving, US government funded, world wide collaborative work available at www.tolweb.org). A synopsis of what we covered pictorially is shown in the table below (follow the yellow brick road, branching in successive rows, till it gets to us - the white cells branch off to other life forms that may or may not be extinct - we don't follow the white branches - for that see tolweb.org):

Single cell primordial family:

Eukaryotes

Archaea

Eubacteria

?viruses, ? nanobes

Cell Colonies Animals (amoebae)

Cell Colonies Plants (green algae)

Fungi

Proteists

Etc.

Bilateria (mollusks, arthropods, vertebrates, etc.)

Cnidaria (jellyfish, anemones, corals)