Question

Describe two technological innovations that improved our understanding of human evolution.

Answer 1

In the matter of technological innovations, I think it is possible to argue that without the compass and the square-rigger deep sea, Darwin would not be able to travel, thus preventing us from discovering we are, in fact, a product of evolution. Moreover, the airplane is right now the technology that permits anthropologists to travel a great distance in order to uncover the last mysteries around our evolution.

Answer 2

The first is gene sequencing. This allows the sequence of nucleotides on DNA of different organisms to be identified. The sequence is then compared the bigger the difference in this sequence, the stranger the organisms are with regards to the evolutionary relationship.

The second is carbon dating. This enables anthropologists to determine the age of fossils by calculating the time taken, in half-lives, by particular elements to decay, such as carbon-14