Where had the humans been up until now?

Hmm 🤔,searching for yourself ,😅 I mean  human evolution on google, really ?

Well ,in the last post we got an idea of how organisms evolved on earth ,then plants and mammals. some of you might be like , "what are you talking about ,I don't remember these things" 😑😑😑  ahh you need to have a spoon full of brain booster tonic to remember 😏😏😏 or else the more simpler way is to go to the previous post and give it a read again, this time please don't skip the content, otherwise you all will going to be quite clueless.

So, the majority of what we know about human origins comes from paleoanthropologists, or scientists who examine human fossils. Paleoanthropologists map out where fossils can be discovered. They assess the age of fossils and  the characteristics of unearthed bones and teeth.

Now coming to the main talk of the day, The Human Evolution.

To know about human evolution ,first you need to know about prehistory, a span of around 10 million years that includes pre-humans and humans. Most of the evidence of  this period comes from the study of fossils.

And what is Evolution here? 

Living species emerge from simpler organisms through the process of evolution. Evolution, according to Charles Darwin (1809–1882), is based on a process known as natural selection. Natural selection favours organisms that are most suited to the conditions in which they live, resulting in enhanced reproductive capacity. Darwin's theory was that organisms evolve over time as a result of many little changes.

It was 5.6 million years ago that the first human-like creatures appeared on the earth's surface. After this, several forms of humans emerged and then became extinct. Humans resembling us (henceforth referred to as 'modern humans') originated about 160,000 years ago.

from chimpanzee to modern human 

Are you eager to read on?😓😓, it's ok if not, but the interesting part is going to start from here.😉 so lets go on.

Primates are mammals, much as humans. Around ten to twelve million years ago, the ancestral primate lineage split into two major groupings due to speciation. The development of new and unique species over the course of evolution. These two lineages developed independently to give rise to the diversity of animals we observe today. This process entailed the slow development of features such as human bipedalism and language, as well as interbreeding with other hominins, indicating that human evolution was a web rather than a linear process.

Sahelanthropus tchadensis, based on a skull from Chad in north-central Africa, is the oldest contender for hominin status. This specimen is dated between 7 and 6 mya. The unique feature of the Hominin lineage is usually thought to be upright terrestrial movement on two legs. Three more new early human genera (Ardipithecus, Orrorin, and Kenyanthropus) dated from 6 to 3 million years ago have been discovered in Kenya and Ethiopia. New species were discovered in the long-established taxa Australopithecus and Paranthropus, both of which are found in South and East Africa.

It is believed that, Africa is the place from where the evolution of humans took place. Hundreds of fossils were discovered in East Africa's Olduvai Gorge and Lake Turkana throughout the 1960s and 1970s. These searches were carried out by the Leakey family, which included Louis Leakey and his wife Mary Leakey, as well as their son Richard and daughter-in-law Meave, who were also paleoanthropologists and fossil hunters. 

Another set of discoveries led by Donald Johanson , was  "Lucy," the most complete fossil member of the species Australopithecus afarensis, in Hadar , Ethiopia in 1974,  which became the new paleoanthropology hotspot. This species is regarded to be more closely linked to the genus Homo as a direct ancestor. Afarensis individuals had a curve similar to that of modern humans ,as they were exclusively bipedal and were hunter gatherers.

Homo is the genus that arose from the  genus Australopithecus, and it includes the extant species Homo sapiens (modern humans), as well as several extinct species that are either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans (depending on the species), most notably Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The genus first appeared some 2 million years ago, with the advent of Homo habilis. Homo, along with the species Paranthropus, is most likely related to Australopithecus africanus, which had previously diverged from the ape lineage.

hominin lineage  (image taken  from quora.com)

Scientist examination of all kinds of hominin fossils shows that human evolution ,particularly Homo, was not sudden and easy. It was a long and painstaking process, in which there may have been several varieties of evolved hominins who did not survived due to excess environmental changes and attacks by predators. However we do have evidence of some species who survived and existed for a fairly long period of time. These species were namely ,Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis, homo heidelbergensis, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens sapiens. (anatomically modern humans)

No No, just relax, nothing happened to your tongue or your English pronunciation  😅😅 as pronouncing these name is a hard task, even for those who opted history by their choice.(you can include me too)

So, the finding that Mr. Leaky and team did was discovery of Homo habilis (meaning handyman)  in 1964. Homo habilis first arrived in Tanzania (East Africa) around 2.8 million years ago and died out 1.5 million years ago. They stood around 1.40 meters tall and were terrestrial. They were distinguished from Australopithecus by the shape of their head. The shape was spheroid , similar to a modern human's head, rather than piriform (pear-shaped). Stone tools were created by Homo habilis, indicating their creativity.

Eugene Dubois, a paleoanthropologist, found the first Homo erectus (upright man) fossil, which existed 1.8 million years ago. Homo erectus first arose in East Africa and then went to Asia , where they created polished stone tools. The shells belonging to erectus were transported by Dubois from Java to Europe, scientists after studying those shells concluded that shell and carvings dated back to between 430,000 and 540,000 year old and revealed that H. erectus might have expressed themselves via symbols.

The next most important  species, Homo neanderthalensis, also known as Neanderthals, was known as the European branch, deriving from two lineages that separated some 400,000 years ago, with Homo sapiens recognized as the African branch. The earliest Neanderthal fossil, discovered about 430,000 years ago in La Sima de los Huesos, Spain, is thought to have sprung from a common ancestor known as Homo heidelbergensis. Many of the natural resources in their surroundings were utilized by Neanderthals, including animals, plants, and minerals. Homo neanderthalensis hunted both terrestrial and marine (ocean) species, which necessitated the use of a range of weapons.

Guys, the end part is here, so please go through it too. It's all about modern humans.😅😅

seems like  modern art by famous artists like Pablo Picasso?? 

think  about it more. 🤔

It's a cave painting, made by homo species, quite possibly by Homo sapiens.

 H. s. sapiens is considered to have developed in Africa between 160,000 and 90,000 years ago before moving to the Middle East and Europe, then to Asia, Australia, and the America. Homo sapiens are  thought to have evolved in Africa and then moved out of it some later period due to various reasons like in search of habitable places, for food, and for the protection from predators.

H. sapiens is today jammed into nearly every habitable region of the Earth, but it retains the characteristics of its start as a little population occupying one small corner of the earth. The variety in DNA observed in today's vast human groups is less than that found in any existing ape community. H. sapiens developed as a new reproductively isolated entity.

The last several hundred thousand years have seen temperatures vary regularly between warmer and colder, as well as wetter and drier conditions. During this epoch, sea levels rose and fell frequently, forming islands and growing landmasses. These are the kinds of situations that might lead to tiny populations being isolated and then expanding to recolonize territory when conditions alter. In other words, the conditions were ideal for evolutionary innovation. Humans appear to be a typical outcome of such a process.

So guys, I am ending this post here, leaving  you to think of how  societal development took place, when Homo species evolved. Also think about the factors due to which the differences in the human beings emerged, which several millions of humans are facing till date.

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