'Wall of Africa' makes humans evolve

Science has long been investigating how climate and vegetation affect the evolution of human ancestors in Africa. But now the geologists of the University of Utah direct us to a completely new perspective: It is the movement of the Earth's crust that creates the hills and valleys that give rise to the environment for the development of the species. people.

Royhan and Nahid Gani's writings will be published in the Geotimes issue in January 2008, the American Geological Institute's mouthpiece wrote: 'Constructivism plays an important role in your evolution people'.

They point out that it is the rapid elevation of mountains and plateaus stretching from Ethiopia to South Africa that blocks the ocean's flow of moisture from the ocean into the continent, making lush tropical forests into regions. Dry arid land between the forest and savanna grassland. This change gradually caused our ancestors, who lived on trees to go to the ground and walk on two feet, to find a richer source of food in a harsh environment.

Nahid and Royhan Gani, two geologists from the Institute of Geosciences and Energy, University of Utah, stand on the Ethiopian plateau near the Nile Pass adorned by the deep blue Nile.The Gani couple are studying the age of the canyon to learn about the movement of the earth's crust that is related to human evolution.(Photo: Solomon Gera, Ethiopian Geological Research)

In the article, the Gani couple also described the 3,700m stretch of plateau and mountains with the name ' Africa's Wall '. This ' wall ' is parallel to the famous East African Rift valley where many fossils of ancient humans were found.

Royhan Gani, who is an assistant professor of civil and environmental construction, said: ' The movement of the earth's crust has caused the environment to change rapidly about 7 million years ago. This leads to climate change from local to large areas. This has motivated humans to evolve from gibbons . '

Homonin is a new scientific term used to refer to humans and ancestors (including Ardipithecus, Paranthropus and Australopithecus) separated from gibbons about 4 to 7 million years ago. The earliest Hominin representatives were Ardipithecus ramidus, 4.4 million years ago. Further evolution is that Homo appeared 2.5 million years ago and the representative of our modern human, Homo sapiens, appeared on the earth 200,000 years ago.

Constructivism has been discussed since 1983, including alternating plates and formation of hills, valleys, ocean basins, which are a factor affecting your evolution. people.

According to Royhan Gani, many of the previous discussions about climate impacts on human evolution only take into account the global climate change caused by the periodic orbital change when the Earth moves. dynamic around the Sun rather than local climate change and by region because the East African terrain is raised.

Earth's internal force.

The internal resources that form Africa originated deep in the earth, causing massive superfluous rocks to rise (called ' superplume ') about 45 million years ago. ' Superplume ' and its small branches have separated Africa and Arabian tectonic plates, forming the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Great Rift valley stretching from Syria to the south of the continent.

From this process, Africa was separated along the East African Rift rift, hundreds of miles wide, surrounded by tens of miles of ' muscular shoulders ' created by the emergence of rock mass.

The East African Rift slit stretches 3,700 miles from the Ethiopian plateau to the south-southwest to the Karoo plateau south of the continent. It is 370 miles wide, with many mountains reaching the maximum level of the continent, about 19,340 feet, in the Kilimanjaro range.

(Photo: Foxnews)

Nahid Gani said that cracks 'characterized by volcanoes, plateaus, valleys, large basins and freshwater lakes' , there are also places where many fossils of primitive people and ancestors are located. find. 40 million years ago, some hills and mountains also formed in East Africa but 'most of the African terrain features today originated between 7 and 2 million years ago.'

"Wall" appeared, new species formed.

Nahid and Royhan Gani wrote: 'Although Africa's' city wall' formed 30 million years ago, recent studies have shown that most of the process took place between 7 and 2 million years ago - the time of human Homonin evolved from African gibbon to form Bepedalissm with larger brains. '

Royhan Gani said: 'Nature has built this' wall' so that humans can evolve, stand up and think. Are there any features of the wall that will help advance human evolution? '

He believes that the main answer is the environment and vegetation that changes after the emergence of the African wall . It constitutes a ' terrain barrier for moisture from the Indian sea ' which makes the climate drier. Contrary to the belief in the global climate cycle, Royhan said that East African climate change is local and due to the lifting of different parts of the ' wall ' at specific times. Forests turned into patchwork areas of inter-forest savanna do not appear all at once in this area, and it also occurs in East Africa later than other parts of the world.

The two scientists thoroughly studied the Ethiopian plateau - the most prominent part of the African city ​​wall . Previous research has shown that the plateau reached an average height of 8,200 feet from 25 million years ago. They also analyzed the speed of the blue Nile that crossed the Ethiopian plateau to create a famous gorge against the Grand Canyon in North America. The results were published in the September 2007 issue, GSA Today published by the American Geological Society.

Conclusion : The period of deep feeding and rising to moderate to moderate speeds took place between 29 and 10 million years ago, it recurred about 10 to 6 million years ago, but the fastest phase of the Ethiopian plateau ( 3,200 feet tall occurred 6 to 3 million years ago.

According to Geotimes, other studies have found Kenya - a part of the ' wall ', formed primarily 7 to 2 million years ago, the mountain range in Tanganyika and Malawai 5 to 2 million years ago. The southernmost part of the main 'wall' is ' rising in height ' in the period 5 million years ago.

In Nahid and Royhan's article, it is written: 'It is clear that Africa's' wall' is the most prominent phenomenon 7 million years ago. Therefore, it plays a big role in drying Africa's climate by preventing moisture from the monsoon climate surrounding the region . ' This time coincides with the time that human ancestors evolved here.

Royhan Gani said that the first representatives of Australopithecus anamensis traveled on two legs, appearing 4.1 million years ago. But some believe that the upright person actually appeared 6 to 7 million years ago.

Nahid and Royhan argue that the formation of the environment changes due to tectonic forces (basins, valleys, mountains, grasslands and forests) 'later also affect greater brain formation in homonin people to adapt. with a fickle environment ' , in which they have to find food and fight predators.

Currently, Royhan Gani also acknowledges that due to the lack of a precise time frame, connecting specific geological events to the development of upright, big brains and other key steps in the evolution of people become extremely difficult.

He said: 'However, all events still happen in time. And now we need to chain them together '.