Human evolution

Human evolution is about the origin of human beings. All humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens. The species appeared first in Africa and later spread to almost all parts of the world. Fossils found in Africa prove that humans first appeared there.^[1][2][3]

The word 'human' in this context means the genus Homo. However, studies of human evolution usually include other hominids, such as the Australopithecines. This group diverged (split) from the genus Homo in Africa by about 2.3 to 2.4 million years ago.^[4][5] The first Homo sapiens, the ancestors of today's humans, evolved around 200,000 years ago.^[6]

People have known for centuries that man and the apes are related. Clearly, even though they look different, their anatomy is similar. For this reason, during the 18th century, Buffon and Linnaeus put men and apes together in a single family. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin suggested that animals have very similar anatomies when they share a common ancestor. In fact, humans and apes are close relatives. Both are primates: the order of mammals which includes monkeys, apes, lemurs and tarsiers.

The great apes live in tropical rainforests. It is thought that human evolution started when a group of apes (now called the australopithecines) began to live more in the savannah. A savannah is more open, with trees, shrubs and grass. This group started walking on two legs. They began to use their hands to carry things. Life in the open was different, and there was a big advantage in having better brains. Their brains grew larger, and they began to make simple tools. This process began at least 5 million years ago. We have fossils of two or three different groups of walking apes, and one was the ancestor of humans.

The biological name for "human" or "man" is Homo. The modern human species is called Homo sapiens. "Sapiens" means "thought". Homo sapiens means "the thinking man".

Paleoanthropology looks at ancient human fossils, tools, and other signs of early human life. It began in the 19th century with the discovery of a skull of "Neanderthal man" in 1856.

1. ↑ Nei M. (1995). "Genetic support for the out-of-Africa theory of human evolution". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 92 (15): 6720–6722. Bibcode:1995PNAS...92.6720N. doi:10.1073/pnas.92.15.6720. PMC 41400. PMID 7624309.
2. ↑ Caro-Beth Stewart and Todd R Disotell (1998). "Primate evolution – in and out of Africa". Current Biology. 8 (16).
3. ↑ Ian Tattersall (2009). "Human origins: Out of Africa". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106 (36).
4. ↑ Stringer C.B. (1994). "Evolution of early humans". In Steve Jones; Robert Martin; David Pilbeam (eds.). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-521-32370-3. Also ISBN 978-0-521-46786-5 (paperback)
5. ↑ McHenry H.M (2009). "Human Evolution". In Michael Ruse & Joseph Travis (ed.). Evolution: the first four billion years. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-674-03175-3.
6. ↑ O'Neil, Dennis. "Evolution's past is modern human's present". Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, California. Archived from the original on 2015-04-30. Retrieved 2013-08-16.