Early Humans
When I think about our human genetics I think about my family lineage connected to the history of our ancestry. But at a whole perspective, we as human beings are all linked and share that same genealogy within each other. In order to understand what we are, we need to go farther than we know in our past but to the beginning of human kind.
The earliest of human like life forms were known as Australopithecus where they originated in Africa which is said to be the center of life. They are closer linked to apes which the genus name, meaning “southern ape,” which were discovered in South Africa but have the common. They were similar to humans being bipedal which is walking on two legs but characteristically looked more like an ape. According to an article in the Britannica, "The various species of Australopithecus lived 4.4 million to 1.4 million years ago (mya), during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs" (which lasted from 5.3 million to 11,700 years ago). One of the most famous Australopithecus fossils that that we know of and found was named “Lucy”.
The next ancestor of human life is called the Homo Erectus also known as the upright man but before them was Homo Habilis which were evolved forms of the previous Australopithecus but are identified with a larger brain and considered the handy man as they used stone tools. It is said that the Homo Erectus were possibly the first to discover and use fire for cooking (Robson, David. Proto-humans mastered fire 790,000 years ago." newscientist.com Oct. 27, 2008). They lived between about 1.89 million and 110,000 years ago.
We are classified as Homo Sapiens by a scientist in 1758 named Carl Linnaeus which we are known as the "wise humans". Since we are the modern age evolution of our predecessors, we are the the last form of human beings to exist and thrive. According to Khan Academy, "Homo sapiens evolved from their early hominid predecessors between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago and developed a capacity for language about 50,000 years ago." Our ingenuity, technological advancements, and artistic capabilities evolved and about 40,000 years ago, ours was the last human species surviving on Earth.
In the end as unique as we are, we are all individually the same inside and out. We evolved, adapted, and changed through many years and we will continue to advance forward but we need to acknowledge our past as our ancestors paved the way to where we are now. Together we are one...
https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-human-familys-earliest-ancestors-7372974/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australopithecus/Australopithecus-afarensis-and-Au-garhi
https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-erectus
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