Survival of the Fittest The evolution of man as a species can be traced with limited fossil evidence, but the development of the mind follows a different course of inquiry. “Unfortunately, there are still no known hominoid fossils – nor chimpanzee fossils – for the period between 6 and 13 million years ago. Therefore there is no documentation of the branching event between the hominoid fossil and the chimpanzee evolutionary lineage” (What 239). Ernst Mayr, a staunch believer in man as the current supreme species, sheds little light on this topic. While his primary goal in What is Evolution is to provide a biological narrative, it also works to illustrate the evolution of the brain and emotions. Between these lines lie the broader questions. These questions delve into the cognitive and emotional realm. They ask how and why questions that cannot be answered so easily by biology or other means of scientific evidence. One of these questions arises from what appears to be man's innate need to group together. These groups were initially created as a means of protection from predators, of any form, but soon evolved into complex social-emotional support systems. “For tens of thousands of years – the period of recent human evolution – humans lived in groups ranging from 50 to 200 individuals. To survive they had to raise their offspring to social and biological maturity” (Law 4 ). In these well-maintained social structures there were rules and regulations that worked to ensure the survival of the group as a whole. Over time these groups became larger and extremely complicated civilizations. Altruism is the driving force behind these constructions. By creating these codependent infrastructures, humans must depend on one… middle of paper… its environment is not necessarily what would have been considered the most suitable in the past. Civilization creates a large population in a smaller space to increase the possibility of offspring and the survival of the species. In this space natural selection becomes less relevant as the options have been greatly increased. It is man's interpretation of a "controlled" environment. Since this is a world of human creation built by and for humans, they can only thrive in it as a species. In this environment the human species can reign supreme. This was not an option in the "uncontrollable" world of nature where man was not the best equipped or adaptable species. Works Cited Gruter, Margaret. Law and mind: biological origins of human behavior. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications, Inc. 1991.Mayr, Ernst. What is evolution. New York: Basic Books. 2001.