The Origin of Humans.
Questions to answer:
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What is a human?
What is a hominid?
What were early humans (hominids) like?
How long have humans (hominids) been around?
Where - and when - did modern humans
(Homo sapiens) originate?
• How have we changed?
• How did we come to populate the entire earth?
What is a hominid?
• Any human-like
species, including
us.
• Bipedal
(walks on two legs).
• Intelligent
(large brain, uses tools).
Hominids are not the same as modern apes
• Modern apes like chimpanzees,
gorillas, orangutans are not
bipedal.
• Modern apes do not have a large
brain case compared to ours.
• Modern apes do not make tools.
• However, chimpanzees are our
closest relative - our DNA is 98%
similar to theirs!
There have been at least a dozen different species
of hominids over the last five million years or so.
There are many fossils of extinct hominids.
Since the first hominid fossils and artifacts were found, we
have found literally hundreds of others.
• Most hominids are either the
genus Australopithecus or
Homo.
• Australopithecines were a
successful genus.
• The Homo genus first evolved
2.4 million years ago.
Modern humans arose about 200,000 years ago
• Homo sapiens fossils date to 200,000 years ago.
• Human evolution is influenced by a tool-based culture.
• There is a trend toward increased brain size in hominids.
Australopithecus
afarensis
Homo habilis
Homo
neanderthalensis
Homo sapiens
Stages of Early Human Development
4,000,000 – 1,000,000 BCE
Early Hominids: Australopithecines and Apposable Thumb
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Australopithecines
An Apposable
Thumb
HOMO HABILIS (Man of Skills)
• Found in East Africa
• Created stone tools
Paleolithic Age
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Paleolithic - Old Stone Age
2,500,00 – 10,000 BCE
Made tools
Hunting (men), gathering (women)
Small bands of 20-30 humans
Nomadic (moving from place to place)
Human found shelters in caves
Cave painting left behind
1,600,000 BCE – 30,000 BCE
HOMO ERECTUS (Upright Human Being)
• Larger and more varied tools
• Primitive technology
• First hominid to migrate and leave Africa for Europe and Asia
• First to use fire (500,000 BCE)
200,000 BCE – 10,000 BCE
HOMO SAPIENS (Wise Human Being)
Neanderthals
(200,000 – 30,000 BCE)
Cro-Magnons
(45,000 – 10,000 BCE)
NEANDERTHALS
CRO-MAGNONs
Homo Sapiens Sapiens
First specimen found in Neander (Wise, Wise Human)
Valley, Germany (1856)
The name derives from the Abri
First humans do bury their dead de Cro-Magnon, France.
Made clothes from animal skins Brain capacity was large than
average modern human
Lived in caves and tents
By 30,000 BCE they replaced
Neanderthals
Neolithic Age (New Stone Age)
10,000 BCE – 4,000 BCE
Gradual Shift from:
• Nomadic life style to settled, stationary life
• Hunting/Gathering to agricultural production and
domestication of animals
So who were the “first” hominids? We still are not sure, but
we have found more fossil fragments as early as five million
years ago.
Homo sapiens.
Anatomically modern humans.
• Oldest fossils found so
far are perhaps 195,000
years old.
• Found in Africa
(Ethiopia).
Does that mean we all come from Africa?
Yes!
And recently, DNA analysis has proven this.
• DNA testing of thousands of
humans today, using a
simple saliva test kit, has
created a “map” of human
migration since modern
humans first left Africa
80,000 years ago.
We now have an excellent “road map” of how humans evolved
from Africa and migrated to populate the rest of the earth.
This evidence matches the fossils and fills in the gaps.