Hominins Sapienn Ancestor

Around 10,000 to 2.5 million years ago, the first period of the Stone Age, the Paleolithic Era, existed and was known for the nomadic lifestyle that its people lived. The people of the Paleolithic Era were hunter-gatherers who moved constantly in search of animals to hunt and plants to gather. The Paleolithic people preferred to live off of the resources that existed in abundance in a given region, rather than producing resources for themselves. For this reason, the Paleolithic people were organized into small kinship societies. Small kinship societies enabled the Paleolithic people to live in groups and survive from available resources because larger kinship societies require more resources and living space, which was not ideal. Since the

Neanderthal the most recent archaic human, who was introduced to this world between 300,00 and 100,000 years ago then after many years were replaced by humans between 35,000 and 24,000 years ago. Neanderthals inhabited Eurasia from the Atlantic regions of Europe eastward to Central Asia and from as far north as present-day Belgium southward to the Mediterranean and southwest Asia.” (www.britannica.com). Human populations that were very similar to Neanderthals lived in eastern Asia and Africa. Neanderthals lived in these locations because they had many limestone caves where they lived; limestone caves also preserve bones very well. “The name Neanderthal (or Neandertal) derives from the Neander Valley near

differences in the sequence of mtDNA but more recent analyzes argue that the lack of

The public common conception of Neanderthals is that they were the less intelligent, lumbering cousins of old modern man who died off because they just were not enough equipped or intelligent as their cousins. Some people think that for decades after the first discovery of their bone, homo neanderthalensis was observed as a hairy wanton who tumbled around Ice Age Eurasia on bent knees, finally to be exchanged by elegant, straight Cro Magnon, the true progenitor of modernistic Europeans. Wholeheartedly, I disagree with this view. I think archaeological and research evidence has shown that the Neanderthals lived in a hard, changing environment, and survived then reproduced for over 250 thousand years despite the hardships they likely faced. Also,

Hominin is a group of modern humans, extinct human species and all of our immediate ancestors, such as members of Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Ardipithecus. Of those members, Australopithecus is one of the extinct genuses of hominins. Based on paleontological and archaeological findings, the Australopithecus genus evolved in Eastern African around 4 million years ago. During this time period, different australopithecine species emerged, including A. afarensis, A. africanus, A. anamensis and A. garhi – to name a few.

To begin, Diamond talks about our evolutionary relatives, the apes. The history of humanity began in Africa about seven million years ago, when the African apes evolved into three categories. They evolved into gorillas, chimps, and humans. The earliest species of humans, Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus, became closer to modern humans in physical traits about 2.5 million years ago. One million years ago, Homo Erectus began to migrate out of Africa to Europe, Australia, Asia, etc. Homo sapiens first appeared around half a million years ago, having evolved from Homo Erectus. There is no perfect definition of Homo sapiens and therefore no exact date for when they first appeared. Still, scientists and anthropologists usually agree that Homo

Nathan Young, a researcher behind the study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,, highlights this fact in a news release in a news release. "We have features that clearly link us with African apes, but we also have features that appear more primitive, leading to uncertainty about what our common ancestor looked like.”

In an attempt to find a correct phylogenetic tree, our group has found that Phylogenetic tree C shows a significant lineage. After researching, Phylogenetic Tree C seems to be an accurate depiction of hominid evolution. It shows a clear line of lineage that begins with the common ancestor A. Afarensis. To explain how the hominids connected in the lineage, our group decided to compare the skulls’ cranium width and length of braincase. We concluded that over millions of years, the width of the cranium of the hominids have increased, along with the length of braincases. Our explanation matched up with tree C respectively. The order of the width of craniums recorded are: A. Afarensis (80 mm), A. Boisei (80 mm), A. Africanus (85 mm), H. Habilis (98 mm), H. Erectus (108 mm), H. Heidelbergensis (122 mm), H. Neanderthalensis (128 mm), and H. Sapien

In recent years, anthropologists have made incredible work in discovering all the different kinds of human species. The discovery of a certain human species, the Australopithecus Afarensis, was mostly credited to the finding of a single individual, AL 288-1, or “Lucy.” She has helped anthropologists to understand the diet, anatomy, environment, sexual dimorphism, the technology or tools used during their time, and bipedalism of this early hominin. The evolution of humans is interesting due to the questions we are trying to find and the answers we might never find. While investigating the mysteries behind Australopithecus Afarensis, it may shine some light on how closely related to this ancestor species.

One of the earliest hominids, Australopithecus, is without a doubt one of the key elements as to how we evolved as modern humans. Being one of the first members of the hominid family, they are a key understanding to how we as modern humans evolved.

Australopithecus; Also known as the Southern Ape found in the African Savannah. Believed to have been the first hominids or human-like species about 4 million years ago. It is historically significant because it is basically the early if not the first of human beings on Earth. It is important enough to be included in this top ten list because the Southern Ape played a big role in human evolution. They were the first species to show human-like genes, first ones to have increased brain activity which eventually led to Homo-Habilis and then Homo-Sapiens.

The Australopithecus genus of human like apes walked the earth about 1.9 million years ago however variations of Australopithecus have been estimated to be around as early as 4.5 million years ago. The Australopithecus genus is a set of early upright walking ape species, these early ancestors generally looked more apelike than human as fur still covered most of their bodies and their slanted flat faces and forward jaws still resembled apes more than recent humans. Features more common to later genus homo have been found present on the various Australopithecus species; namely features such as its smaller teeth, longer legs, less hand like feet, adapted pelvis, stronger reliance on bipedalism and slightly increased relative brain size all distinguished

The past works in mysterious way allowing small pieces to leak through to the surface that will one day reveal the answers to the most prominent questions. Ian Tattersall made the claim that in 2012 “…there is nothing in the fossil record that we can regard as a convincing intermediate between any australopith or “early Homo” and the Turkana Boy (Tattersall, 2012, p.94).” In his argument it was difficult to find the missing link that pulled the last species in the Australopith genus, A. Sediba, and the first Homo Species, H. Habilis. The gap was too much of a gray area to even make a definitive speculation according to the fossil records where there is nothing. When Homo Habilis was discover, there were very few specimens to analyze and produce a conclusion is this was the cusp of evolution that many scientists were pondering. They were still searching for more, and this search brought them to the Cradle of Humanity where many specimens have been found along with what is perceived as the last Australopithecus, A. Sediba. This species was found by Lee Burger in the eroded cave system known as Malapa. The features of Sediba were still pretty primitive with having a small brain, longer limbs, and a slightly protruding face. Once they started to die off or some scientist believe began to interbred, came the Early Homo. Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus (H. Ergaster) were the evolutionary species that graced the plains of Africa

Fossil records indicate that the earliest hominins separated around the end of the Miocene period. Fossil remains reveal to us that the remain is hominin because of its dental pieces and its characteristics that include bipedal locomotion, a large brain size, and toolmaking behavior. Although hominins developed these traits, they did not developed at the same pace but rather they evolved at different rates in the last several million years. This is known as mosaic evolution, which is the physiological and behavioral system (characteristics) that evolved at different rates. Because of fossil remains we learn about several hominins that evolved in the past.

Long time ago, some curious human relatives, as if Homo species or a Nutcracker Man whose miniature forms resembled the hobbits on Lord of the Rings, roamed Earth. Scientists are still finding indication that how modern humans crisscrossed paths through some of our lineages, that fossil are proposing (Figure 1). Homo sapiens might have had gender with Neanderthals and straight towards a freshly discovered species called the Denisovans. In the news and features, mostly human evolution and origins are covered, also enlightening the secrecies of humanity, specifics on ancestors of human and the evolutionary phases that might led to modern hominids (Sarich et al., 1967).