why is there only one species of human?

Question

There are lots of different types of birds, crabs, fish including many species of whales, sharks, dolphins etc.

Why arent their humans that are a bit different in the way they are eg, humans with eyes in the back of their heads, humans that eat wood, men that get pregnant, people with both types of genitals, really big supreme humans with shiny red helmets???

Answer 1

Supposedly neanderthals were a different species of human, as well as several other extinct species. There's a debate going on right now about some bones found on an island in the pacific that appear to be a different species of human that lived as recently as 20000 years ago and stood about 3 foot tall at adulthood. There are also those that suggest that modern humans are a hybrid of ancient humans and neanderthals - we interbred, ancient humans had big brains and neanderthals had big skulls, and the result was a hybrid that is capable of inventing the atomic bomb.


Sadly, the short answer seems to be that every other human species that has come in contact with homo sapiens has gone extinct soon afterward. We don't seem to be very good at sharing space.

Answer 2

The first example you gave is "birds", so let's stick with that.

There are lots and lots of different species which all fit into the same very broad category of "birds". The corresponding broad category which contains humans would be "mammals".

Yes, there are lots and lots of different species of mammals.

Within that broad category there is a smaller group known as primates, and humans are just one species in that group.

There are lots and lots of species among primates, including apes, chimpanzees, humans, orangutans, and also including some now-extinct species such as australopithecus.

The fossil record suggests that all primates have common ancestors. While it's not true that humans came from monkeys, it does appear to be true that both monkeys and humans came from common ancestors, which were the earliest members of the group known as primates.

Primates first appear in the fossil record about 60 million years ago, after all the dinosaurs had been dead for 5 million years.

Answer 3

All humans are descended from common ancestors - Adam and Eve.
Likewise every species is descended from a single kind. For example lions and tigers are different species but can interbreed and have a common 'big cat' ancestor.

The original kinds had huge genetic variability built in.

Another example - look at dogs - wolves, coyotes, dingos, foxes, hyenas, domestic varieties. Common ancestor.
This speciation/selection is often confused with evolution. It is nothing of the sort. The descendants have *less* genetic information that the original ancestor. (You can't breed a wolf from a pair of poodles, but you probably could breed something like a poodle from a piar of wolves, over time.)

Lots of articles here
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3036/


NB There is no reason to suppose that Neanderthals were anything other than fully human.
Likewise various other alleged human ancestors are just that - alleged. All hominid fossils found so far (and there are few enough to fit on a single table!) are clearly human or clearly ape.

Answer 4

Homo sapiens is our species, I'm sure you have heard of that phrase before. We do have subspecies, or breeds. There are 3 original ones: Caucasian, Aziatic, and *******. With all the worldwide mixing nowadays, there are lots of humans that are not pure - not to say there is anything good about being pure.


Going back to species -> Homo sapiens has evolved from other species. The less successful species died out.

Answer 5

i understand you, but we also have different species but not classified as physical appearance, we are classified on what we do or what we are in the human society, here are some examples of humans species: Homo economicus means economic man, Homo superior means overman or superman, Homo scientia means scientific or knowledgeable man, there are still other names for us.

We are not classified as of our physical appearance because we are born unique to each other.

Answer 6

think about people who are handicapped by birth, or people who are extraordinary....like a family capable of attracting metal objects or contortionists ....I suppose we can see varied species in humans .... check out the Ripley's website or the videos, to see a whole bunch of people out there who are pretty different than you or me!

Answer 7

we haven't been on earth long enough to evolve apart from each other in that way yet....that's my guess.

but i bet that it's also cause of other things we don't know about human genes.

Answer 8

Says who. how do we know we are all the same. There are whites ,blacks , indiers and and and. You know what, not one of them are the same. Each have their own culture and so forth.

Answer 9

well.... maybe the human type of species is the colour we are...!

Answer 10

There are homosapiens(us), homo habilis, homo africanus, homo erectus