Human evolution

The broad multi-faceted study of human evolution attempts to discover the patterns and time-course of change in the phenotype and genotype and socio-cultural behavior of intermediate forms in the lineage of Homo sapiens. The enterprise involves the cooperative and competitive work of multiple disciplines, including disciplines in physics, chemistry, and biology, anthropology, and archeology. In its broadest ambition, the study of human evolution targets a full a description of the events characterizing the 'descent with modification' of humans from the common ancestor of all living systems, and the causal mechanisms rationalizing that description.