The evolution of species on this planet is taken for granted by serious working scientists - that all species, including humans, evolved form earlier forms of life is no more open to question than whether the planet revolves around the sun. This does not mean, however, that there aren't some unanswered questions.

Carl Zimmer writes in the September, 2003 issue of Discover magazine about eight questions which continue to elude solutions for evolutionary biologists. He starts, of course, with the origins of our own humanity:

Imagine that you could drop down by an African lake some 7 million years ago and watch the parade of aardvarks, antelopes, and elephants pass by until, sooner or later, you caught sight of a group of apes. They’d probably look something like chimpanzees — about the same height, with the same coat of hair — but their flat faces and other odd proportions of their bodies would indicate that they belong to a different species.

Would they, though, have been the first hominids? At one time paleoanthropologists imagined human evolution proceeding in a straight line from non-hominid apes through various stages until, eventually, you get to homo sapiens. Today, though, some are beginning to argue that evolution as looking more like a bush with a variety of species branching out — and that means it’s hard to know which might have led to the hominid line of which we are the latest example.

Other mysteries which Carl Zimmer discusses include why we walk upright, when we first started to use tools, why our brains evolved to such a large size, why our species succeeded where others failed, how our “minds” developed, which of our genes makes us uniquely human, and of course whether our species continues to evolve.

What makes Zimmer’s article important is that explains what some of the genuine mysteries and genuine debates in the field of human evolution are. These can and should be contrasted with the fake debates concocted by religious zealots on the name of “Intelligent Design” and other creationist enterprises funded by America’s conservative movement.

Read More:

• Evolution vs. Creationism
• Science vs. Religion
• What is Creationism?
• What is Intelligent Design?
• What is Science?