Human Evolution

Human Evolution

Humans evolved during the later Cenozoic.

• Primate ancestors: Humans evolved from primates, and apes and humans have a primate common ancestor
• About 7 million years ago, chimpanzees and humans shared their last common ancestor
• Hominids
• Animals of the genus Ardipithecus, living roughly 4 to 6 million  years ago, had brains roughly the size of a female chimp
• Although they lived in trees, they were bipedal
• Standing on two feet allows an organism to see and also to use  its hands and arms for hunting
• Homo: The genus Homo appeared about 2.5 million years ago
• Humans developed the first stone tools
• Fossils of these animals show a much more human-like body structure, which allowed them to travel long distances to hunt
• Cultures begin and evolve
• Homo sapiens: originated about 200,000 years ago in Africa
• The ice ages allowed humans to migrate.
• During the ice ages, water was frozen in glaciers and so land bridges such as the Bering Strait allowed humans to walk from the old world to the new world.