What species are going to evolve form the Homo Sapiens? What are going to be their characteristics?
81667
Evolution is the gradual change in a group of organisms based on surroundings and circumstances that make one population more favorable. Since we do not know what future events might select for homo sapiens, we cannot predict how they will evolve. For example, if we had a full out nuclear war, perhaps a small group of humans would survive that were very tolerant to radiation. There is no way to know. That being said, humans have somewhat overcome evolution because of our advanced medicine- we can let people live who would otherwise be selected against, like people with debilating diseases.
17522
I would have to disagree with David to some extent. To evolve into a different species we would have changed enough so that different subpopulations of humans could no longer interbreed. Humans display a range of social and technological aptitudes and capacities throughout earth, the majority of which haven't even heard a dialtone let alone participated in any form of advanced travel or communications processes. However, none of these people are incabable of doing so if provided with the appropriate education needed. This suggest that there hasn't been any change in our molecular (genetic) makeup that provides us with these advanced technologies -- which is where the changes are needed to happen for biological evolution to occur. Even if you wanted to argue that social evolution has distinguished industrialized man from our primitive brethern enough to warrant a new species distinction, I would argue that we still haven't met one of the key requirements for doing so, there are no subgroups of humans on earth that are incapable of interbreeding with one another. Until that happens, no we haven't evolved from Homo sapiens sapiens to Homo sapiens futura. \n\nHowever, we will evolve into someting different! This is a certainty -- as long as our species doesn't become extint before that can happen! But don't expect that Homo sapiens will evolve into just one different species. Depending on what our environment(s) dictates, humans could evolve into numerous other species. Through the process of evolution, it is inevitable, but at the same time it is not predictable.
540323
Demographers have come up with estimates ranging between 69 billion and 110 billion humans. This gives us a spread of 41 billion, a pretty formidable margin of error. \n\nA complication, among scientists at least, is that we do not know precisely when our primate ancestors became human. Many researchers have arbitrarily settled on one million years ago, even though our own subset of the genus Homo, H. sapiens sapiens, did not emerge until around 40,000 years ago.\n\nIf the paleolithic crowd (1 million years to 25,000 years ago) strikes you as too crude for admission to the communion of saints, subtract 36 billion or so from the figures above.
560377
I believe that we will keep evolving. Because humans are now on the verge of controlling their DNA, probably we could soon direct our own evolution instead of letting nature do it by natural selection. Also, there is a great possibility that humans may merge with synthetic materials , machines, and artificial intelligence, to create a Homo Roboticus, or cyborg.
287793
Yeah probably the dolphins.  It's been shown they are more intelligent than humans.  Once they evolve to the point of being physically independent on land AND water, I think they'll give us a run for our money.\n\nEver see that Simpsons episode where the dolphins reclaim the land?  I just love that one.  *smile*
9
A tough question as it overlaps science and theology. Since you asked "how the human species evolved?" I'll assume you're interested in the scientific approach to the answer.\nThe current theory holds that Homo sapiens evolved from Hominid ancestors over the course of millions of years through a process called natural selection. Natural selection is the weeding and advancement of species variants over time based on the fit in that species' then current environments. The pressures for "fit" are competitive (with each other, with other tribes, and with other animals) and environmental (weather, terrain, availability of food, etc.). These factors all contributed to the development of our higher brain, which we now use to evolve as a global collective through communication & technology.
391394
Evolution usually means adaptation to new circumstances, such as changes in habitat.\n\nIf mankind manages to colonize moon or mars, it is possible that the lower gravity environment will lead to speciation. \n\nWhenever Pandemias strike, they act as selection criteria.\n\n\nHowever, mankind has left pure natural selection quite a while ago and now also applies conscious selection of traits (aka breeding). Not just to domestic animals, but also to themselves. It is not predictable where anthropogenic changes to the human species will end.
1037736
Of course it is impossible to say no mat5ter what information we have because evolution has a strong random component. But at the very least we would need ot know why humans vanished in order to know what other species will also be eliminated.\n\nI would tend to favour the rodents as the next dominant group since they are omnivorous, adaptable, cosmopolitan and have evolved sociality independently numerous times.  But of course we couldn’t have predicted that the last intelligent species would originate from a small a band of browsing animals restricted to rainforest so really such criteria are only helpful, not necessary.\n\nWill it have opposable thumbs? Probably. It will certainly need some way to achieve fine manipulation of tools and logically the forelimbs will be the way that is done, which means thumbs will be needed. But of course there are numerous other options such as tentacles or trunks that would work just as well or better.\n\nWill it have fire? If it doesn’t its intelligence will be severely limited. Without an external energy source high intelligence really serves no purpose. One possible alternative to fire is of the species develops domestication techniques very early in its evolutionary history and is able to exploit other species as an energy source.\n\nWill it be vertebrate? Most likely. Vertebrates show a much higher degree of cephalisation than any other group so they have a massive headstart. If not a vertebrate then almost certainly a cephalopod.
407277
The sun will blast in 4.9 billion years.  It will began to expand and then it will just explode.  Most life on Earth will end well before that though.  Some bacteria may still thrive, such as archaebacteria.  \n\nAlthough, humans will evolve to become much more complex organisms, that we may even be able to withstand the heat.  It took about 1 million years for humans to appear and evolve to what we are today, so just think about 4.9 billion years!   \n\nWhen the sun explodes though, I believe that humans will move on to an Earth-like planet, such as the ones scientists are trying to find right now.
1153773
Although humans have evolved to have the greatest level of intelligence on earth,  intelligence is not only the preserve of Homo sapiens. Many physical and behavioural characteristics of animals occur among a disparate number of species for example, even though the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger was a marsupial it had the physical and behaviour characteristics of a wolf. This is called parallel evolution. The same can be said for intelligence, for example, cephalopod mollusc's such as squid and octopus (the most intelligent invertebrates) and dolphins and whales have both evolved seperately to become highly intelligent within their realm. \nAs for a species being a 'threat' in the race for the most intelligent \nin the future, this is very unlikely as evolututionary processes work on the order of thousands of generations. It is also unlikely that humans will survive long enough for another species to supercede us as mammals as a species generally only live on the order of 1-1.5 million years (we have passed our due date!) say compared to insects that live between 10-15 million years as a species.\nThe biggest threat from an intelligent species is more likely to be extraterrestrial!?
129358
Humans or human beings define themselves in biological, social, and spiritual terms. Biologically, humans are classified as the species Homo sapiens (Latin for "thinking man"): a bipedal primate of the superfamily Hominoidea, together with the other apes: chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons.
774372
Since this is the Science section:  The most widely held *scientific* theory ... accepted by the overwhelming majority of biologists ... is that humans evolved from an earlier form of primate, and split from the other primates about 6 million years ago.  \n\nThe defining characteristic that led to the development of humans, and further divergence (separation) from the other primates, is an enormous expansion of the cerebral cortex part of the brain, (which may have been largely accelerated by the development of very articulate vocal cords).
227835
The first species of the genus Homo appeared about 2.5 million years ago.  The first Homo sapiens appeared about 160,000 years ago.\n\nDuring the last 1500 years and before the advent of birth control, the average length of a generation has been 30 years.  This is known from accurate genealogical records.  It is calculated by dividing the number of generations into the years elapsed.  I'm sorry I don't have a reference for this.  It is born out by my own genealogical work with numerous lines over 10 generations and the lineage of an acquaintance who was descended from Mohammed (his was 29.5).  Also, I have seen many other genealogical results close to 30 years per generation.\n\nUsing 30 years per generation, Homo appeared 83,000 generations ago and Homo sapiens appeared 5,300 generations ago.
621532
Be sure to check a few sources on this one, as you're starting with some misinformation, and getting some misinformation in response.  (Including ... don't take my word for anything either ... really, look it up, get a lot of reputable sources, and then the picture will become clearer).\n\nFirst, get away from the image that man evolved from what we now call "apes", like modern chimps.   We share a common ancestor, that looked very little like a modern chimp and very little like a modern or even early human.  This ancestor is not what we would now call an "ape."\n\nSecond, there is not a straight line of development from this pre-hominid ancestor to modern humans.  Branches happened many times, many of these branches died out (became extinct).  One of these extinct branches is the neanderthals.\n\n[Along these lines, a rule of thumb: Whenever you see a site or a book with that classic picture of a chimp on the left, with three or for increasingly erect figures marching proudly off to the right, with "Modern Man" marching proudly in front ... run like heck.  This is the *worst* picture you can imagine as it reinforces this wrong idea of man as a linear progression.]\n\nThird, Homo sapiens sapiens is a *subspecies* of Homo sapiens.  The only other subspecies was Homo sapiens idaltu, another now extinct branch.  So it is not quite correct to say that H. sapiens 'evolved into' H. sapiens sapiens.\n\nSummary: Evolution is not a line from one species 'evolving into' another.  Evolution is a tree ... with many branches, many of them (in fact most of them) dying out.\n\nI hope that helps.  Good luck.
190230
Humans did not evolve from apes nor the other way around.  However humans and apes do share a common ancestor.  This ancestor was not human or ape but it was the foundation from which they both evolved on two separate and distinct paths (evolutionary tracts). In fact most people have heard the apes are the closest species related to humans, but the truth is, Chimpanzees are the closet to us, genetically, physically and in mental capabilities. Apes and Humans diverged on separate evolutionary tracks about 8 million years ago while Humans and Chimps only diverged at about 5 million yrs ago.\nThere is a 4% genetic-sequence difference between chimps and Humans, which means that our DNA is 96% identical. But we did not evolve from one another, we just shared a distant, now extinct relative.  Hope this clears things up.
289678
Homo sapiens are animals because:\n1) We are multicellular and comprised of eukaryotic cells.  \nThis differentiates us from monerans and many protists.\n2) We are heterotrophs, which differentiates us from plants.\n3) Our cells lack cell walls, unlike the cells of fungi and plants.\nYou can read about other distingushing characteristics here:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal
1116448
Of course humans are still evolving - how else would you explain Britney Spears?\n\nShe is what most people are trying to evolve FROM.