How long ago did man appear? On which continent did the first people appear?

Man is the crown of creation of the highest heavenly powers, every believer will say.
“No,” the convinced materialist will object to him. - Man evolved from monkeys in the process of long evolution millions of years ago.
“You are both right and wrong,” the intellectual, who tracks information about all the latest scientific discoveries and hypotheses, will tell them. - The fact is that evolution really took place, but it is also very likely that it was initiated and directed by certain heavenly forces...
The material published below also supports this point of view.

About the sons of God
For thousands of years, people believed that their distant ancestors were created by gods - or God, the Most High, the Creator. This process is described in sufficient detail, in particular, in the Bible (Old Testament, Book of Genesis, chapter two).

But in 1871, the book of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, “The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection,” was published, where the author substantiates the hypothesis of the origin of man from an ape-like ancestor.

Soon this hypothesis was recognized as reliable by both many scientists and people “from the common people.” However, not everyone recognized it as such, and not only among clergy and believers of various faiths. And this controversy continues in society to this day.
And starting from the second half of the 20th century, various versions of the “crazy” hypothesis have become popular, according to which the appearance of people on Earth is the result of the activities of... aliens.

The development of such an idea was facilitated by two events: the appearance on June 24, 1947 over the Cascade Mountains, in the northern part of the Pacific coast of the United States, of a flight of clearly manned flying saucers, and also what allegedly happened exactly a week later, on the night of July 2, an emergency landing (or crash) of an alien spaceship in the vicinity of the town of Roswell in the US state of New Mexico.
By the way, it was after these two events that the term “unidentified flying object” - UFO (in English Unidentified Flying Object - UFO) and the name of the science that studies such objects - “ufology” appeared.

It is characteristic that some adherents of the idea of ​​​​the “creation” of humanity by space aliens refer to ancient myths and traditions of various peoples, in which the gods who created people, as a rule, arrive on Earth from heaven. The Bible tells the same story. In it, along with the statement about the creation of Adam and Eve - the two first people in our world - by the Lord God himself, it also speaks about the participation of certain sons of God in the production of the earth's population: “When people began to multiply on earth, and daughters were born to them, then sons God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and took them as wives as they chose.” “At that time there were giants on the earth, especially from the time when the sons of God began to come in to the daughters of men, and they began to bear children to them...” (Bible, Old Testament, Book of Genesis, chapter six, 1-2, 4 ).

Rescue of Star Brother
After the Roswell incident received wide publicity, publications began to appear in the media (mainly in the American ones) about meetings and conversations between people and aliens, during which space aliens reported how their ancestors participated in the creation and formation of our population.

According to a publication in the September 1996 issue of the American magazine Rage, one of these meetings took place just over a month after the Roswell incident, and again in New Mexico.

On the evening of August 13, 1947, six young descendants of the Apache Indians stopped for the night in the desert area of ​​the mentioned state. They were preparing dinner when a strong rumble was heard, then a roar, and the earth shook, as if during an earthquake. Having gone on reconnaissance, the Indians discovered not far away a twisted metal object crashed into the ground, inside of which there was a strange small creature. It was badly mangled, but showed signs of life. The Indians decided to try to save their foundling.
They managed to get out of Star Brother, as they began to call him among themselves. Having recovered, Brother (his real name was Bek Ti), using a crystal that transmits information in the form of images, told the young people the absolutely incredible history of the Earth and humanity.

It turns out that aliens appeared on our planet back in the days when it was a lifeless block of stone, and throughout the entire period of evolution they constantly interfered with its course. In some cases their intervention was beneficial, in others it was not. When people appeared on Earth, the aliens directed the development of humanity, but at the same time often led it to a dead end. They became our gods... and our devils. But they were always here.

How people were created
About the rescue of Star Brother, as well as what this messenger of a distant, highly developed civilization told earthlings about the history of their planet, was told 20 years later to his young grandson, Robert Morning Sky, one of the six Indians who saved the dying Bek Ti.
What he heard shocked and captured Robert. Since then, he has devoted himself to finding and studying sources that confirm Bek Ti's message. Its essence, together with the results of its searches, was outlined by Morning Sky in the work “Terra. The Unknown History of Planet Earth,” published in the early 1990s. Here are its contents.

In ancient times, aliens from outer space colonized the Earth, which was then still uninhabited. Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens - was created by the decision of their leader, initially so that his subjects would have intelligent and obedient workers. But for the right to rule on Earth, this ruler fought with his brother and, in order to assert this right, introduced his DNA into the genotype of the first human beings. And the first people became the “sons of God,” the children of their creator.

However, this “god-father” was also a scientist, he was interested in the possibility of creating creatures endowed with sensitivity and passion, as well as the ability to make their own judgments and independent actions. To achieve this goal, in the first generations of people, he used the DNA of representatives of another race, emotional and sentimental bird-like creatures. It gave people the opportunity to possess the qualities and abilities mentioned above. The “Creator” also taught people to unite for procreation of their own free will, without observing pre-established rules of reproduction. And the young human race began to grow rapidly.

Are they still with us?
As a result of the creativity of space aliens at the early stage of the emergence of humanity, two varieties of humanity arose: obedient individuals who unconditionally obeyed the aliens and genetically altered mutants whose behavior was guided by their own will. The brother of the creator of the human tribe expelled the mutants into the desert, dooming them to inevitable death, and to be sure, he even caused a flood to destroy the entire rebellious branch of the human race. But its creator managed to save a number of persecuted obstinates - a familiar episode from the Bible, isn’t it?

The moment came when the Earth began to be controlled by another race of aliens, in the guise of intelligent lizards, which are now often called “grays”. The Grays, genetically created by an even more highly developed race of reptiles, whose empire is located in a distant galaxy, and now secretly, unnoticed by us, lead many aspects of earthly life. They consume the natural resources of our planet, extract genetic material from our bodies to continue experiments to breed new species of intelligent beings, use our government agencies, such as NASA and the CIA in the United States, to keep secret the purpose, design and operation of a vast class of technological devices, which we define by the general concept of UFO. They have their own base on the Moon, and they warned us not to go there and stay away from it.

Robert Morning Sky ends his work with the following words: “As long as people accept the existence of lords and gods, they accept the existence of slavery. When man finally realizes that his possessions have been taken from him, when he finally begins to look upon himself as his only god and master over himself, then, and only then, will he be freed from the power of aliens and alien gods. Develop your spiritual world... This is the only path to liberation.”

Evidence of Alien Visits
In the Canyonlands, a national park in Utah, there are a number of anomalies that, according to Morning Sky, indicate that aliens have been there since time immemorial. He considers the main one to be the Arch of the Druids - the ruins of a gigantic structure with preserved traces of the hieroglyph. According to Robert, it means "king", and this mark could have been left by an alien ruler declaring his dominion after winning a battle with a rival.

Deep, even horizontal grooves were cut parallel to one of the rocks. Their natural origin is unlikely, especially since at the foot of the cliff there are no accumulations of crumbled rock, usual in such cases. These traces could have been left by a laser beam from a powerful space alien weapon.

In the bed of a dried stream lie huge blocks of stone with smooth rectangular edges. In the rocks that form the bed there are long straight grooves. There are no screes. Quarry using laser technology?

Near the road leading to the national park, there is the newspaper rock with numerous prints of six-toed feet scratched on it. All traces lead to the silhouette of a vertical structure on three supports (a spaceship?) standing among circles with various signs. According to Robert Morning Sky, this is a message about the resettlement of the ancient inhabitants of the Earth to other star worlds.

“You can believe everything I say, or you can not believe a single word I say. Is it all true or fiction? It’s up to you to decide.” In ancient times, the Apache Indians ended their oral traditions with these words.

The origin of man is a mystery. Even Darwin's theory is not considered fully proven, due to the lack of transitional links in evolution. How else do people explain their appearance from ancient times to the present day?

Totemism

Totemism is considered one of the most ancient mythological ideas and is considered the first form of awareness of the human collective, as well as its place in nature. Totemism taught that each group of people had its own ancestor - a totem animal or plant. For example, if a raven serves as a totem, then it is the actual progenitor of the clan, and each raven is a relative. In this case, the totem animal is only a patron, but is not deified, unlike later creationism.

Androgynes

The mythological version includes the ancient Greek version about the origin of man from the Androgynes - the first people who combined the characteristics of both sexes. Plato in his dialogue "Symposium" describes them as beings with a spherical body, whose back was not different from the chest, with four arms and legs and two identical faces on the head. According to legend, our ancestors were not inferior to the titans in strength and skill. Having become proud, they decided to overthrow the Olympians, for which they were cut in half by Zeus. This reduced their strength and self-confidence by half. Androgyny is not only present in Greek mythology. The idea that man and woman were originally one is close to many world religions. Thus, one of the Talmudic interpretations of the first chapters of the Book of Genesis says that Adam was created androgynous.

Abrahamic tradition

Abrahamic religions include three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), dating back to Abraham, the patriarch of the Semitic tribes, the first person to believe in the Lord. According to the Abrahamic tradition, the world was created by God - the Existent One from Nothingness, literally “out of nothing.” God created man, Adam, from the dust of the earth “in our image and likeness,” so that man would be truly good. It is worth noting that both the Bible and the Koran mention the creation of man more than once. For example, in the Bible about the creation of Adam, it first says in chapter 1 that God created man “out of nothing in his own image and likeness,” and in chapter 2 that he created him from dust (dust).

In Hinduism, there are at least five versions of the creation of the world and man, respectively. In Brahmanism, for example, the creator of the world is the god Brahma (in later versions identified with Vishnu and the Vedic deity Prajapati), who emerged from a golden egg floating in the world's oceans. He grew up and sacrificed himself, creating from his hair, skin, meat, bones and fat the five elements of the world - earth, water, air, fire, ether - and the five steps of the sacrificial altar. Gods, people and other living beings were created from it. Thus, in Brahmanism, by making sacrifices, people recreate Brahma. But according to the Vedas - the ancient sacred scripture of Hinduism, the creation of the world and man is shrouded in darkness: “Who truly knows, who will proclaim here. Where did this creation come from, where did it come from? Further, the gods (appeared) through the creation of this (world). So who knows where it came from?”

According to Kabbalistic teaching, the creator Ein Sof created a soul that received the name Adam Rishon - “the first man.” It was a construct consisting of many individual desires interconnected like the cells of our body. All desires were in harmony, since initially each of them had a desire to support each other. However, being on the highest spiritual level, similar to the creator, Adam took on enormous spiritual light, which is equivalent to the “forbidden fruit” in Christianity. Unable to achieve the goal of creation with this one action, the primary soul split into 600,000 thousand parts, and each of them into many more parts. All of them are now in the souls of people. Through many circuits they must carry out a “correction” and reassemble into a common spiritual complex called Adam. In other words, after the “breaking” or the Fall, all these particles - people are not equal to each other. But returning to their original state, they again reach the same level, where they are all equal.

Evolutionary creationism

As science developed, creationists had to compromise with natural science concepts. The intermediate stage between the theory of creation and Darwinism was “theistic evolutionism.” Evolutionary theologians do not reject evolution, but consider it a tool in the hands of God the creator. Simply put, God created the “material” for the emergence of man - the genus Homo and launched the process of evolution. The end result was a man. An important point of evolutionary creationism is that although the body changed, the human spirit remained unchanged. This is precisely the position that the Vatican has officially held since the time of Pope John Paul II (1995): God created an ape-like creature by putting an immortal soul into it. In classical creationism, man has not changed in body or soul since creation.

"Theory of Ancient Cosmonauts"

In the 20th century, there was a popular version about the extraterrestrial origin of man. One of the founders of the idea of ​​paleocontact in the 20s was Tsiolkovsky, who announced the possibility of aliens visiting the earth. According to the theory of paleocontact, once in the distant past, around the Stone Age, aliens visited the Earth for some business. Either they were interested in the colonization of exoplanets, or the resources of the Earth, or this was their transfer base, but one way or another, part of their descendants settled on Earth. They may have even mixed with the local genus Homo, and modern humans are a cross between an alien life form and the aborigines of Earth. The main arguments on which supporters of this theory rely are the complexity of the technologies used in the construction of ancient monuments, as well as geoglyphs, petroglyphs and other drawings of the ancient world, which allegedly depict alien ships and people in spacesuits. Mates Agres, one of the founders of the paleovisit theory, even argued that the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed not by God's wrath, but by a nuclear explosion.

Darwinism

The famous postulate that man descended from apes is usually attributed to Charles Darwin, although the scientist himself, remembering the fate of his predecessor Georges Louis Buffon, who was ridiculed at the end of the 18th century for such ideas, cautiously stated that humans and monkeys must have some kind of common ancestor, ape-like creature.

According to Darwin himself, the genus homo originated somewhere around 3.5 million in Africa. This was not yet our fellow tribesman Homo Sapiens, whose age today is dated back to approximately 200 thousand years, but the first representative of the genus Homo - an ape, a hominid. In the course of evolution, he began to walk on two legs, use his hands as tools, he began to have progressive brain transformations, articulate speech and sociality. Well, the cause of evolution, like all other species, was natural selection, and not God’s plan.

The most ancient, reliable representatives of the human race are known to be approximately 2 -2.5 ml. years ago. And modern humans appeared 40-50 thousand years ago.

For many millions of years, human ancestors inhabited a limited area in eastern Africa. Here, on Lake Victoria, 18 million years ago lived a proconsul, our common ancestor with apes; Here, more than 4 million years ago, Australopithecus afarensis, our upright walking ancestor, arose. The first representative of the genus Man, a skilled man who appeared more than 2 million years ago, spent his entire history here, and here 1.6 million years ago an upright man arose. It is not known where our species, the intelligent man, began its journey, but somewhere nearby.

The oldest of the genus Homo is Homo habilis, or Homo habilis, the first representatives of which appeared on Earth about 2 million years ago. Before this time, only australopithecines probably existed. About 2.5 million years ago, a split occurred in the evolution of hominids, as a result of which the massive australopithecines (a dead-end branch of evolution) and the genus Homo became separated. In addition to the finds from the Olduvai Gorge, the species Homo habilis also includes the so-called Rudolf man, Homo rudolfensis, whose skull was found in Kenya in 1972 in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bLake. Rudolph (now Lake Turkana), as well as finds from Ethiopia and South Africa. The antiquity of these species is from 2.4 to 1.9 million years. It is assumed that these first people were the creators of the tools of the oldest Olduvai (pebble) culture on Earth. There are finds that have not found a taxonomic definition and some researchers refer to Homo habilis, and others to groups of archanthropes (ancient people) that replaced Homo habilis approximately 1.6-1.5 million years ago.

The group of archanthropes includes two main species. This is a species of Asian ancient people, Homo erectus, and its African variant, Homo ergaster.

Time of appearance of sapiens

“There are judgments about three possible levels of identification of the sapiens line: early, middle and late (p. 97).

A more widespread opinion is that the sapiens lineage appeared in the Middle or Early Upper Pleistocene. As a probable ancestor in this case, different authors mention different forms: either one of the late progressive erecti (Vertescelles), or an early archaic sapiens (Swanscombe), or an early progressive Neanderthal (Ehringsdorf).

Finally, there is an opinion about the late origin of sapiens. In this case, the ancestor is usually considered to be the progressive Palestinian paleoanthropes or even the “classical” Würmian Neanderthals. The latter point of view is supported by both archaeological arguments (continuity of the late Mousterian industry of “classical” Neanderthals and the Upper Paleolithic sapiens culture) and morphological ones (for example, the Skhul type of people, who combine “Cro-Magnon” and “Neanderthal” features).

However, it is known that the “classical” Neanderthals were later forms of hominids that coexisted with the first neoanthropic sapiens. To resolve this contradiction, it is assumed that the rate of sapientation in this late short period of anthropogenesis significantly accelerated due to heterosis during displacement.

The processes of sapientation occurred in different populations of paleoanthropes, but at different rates, and for a number of reasons (for example, living conditions) did not always reach the final stage.

Of course, individual features of the “sapient” complex could have appeared early, even in the Eopleistocene. The morphological variability of hominids in general is very wide, and, probably, repeated mutations played an important role in it, as in other primates.

Apparently, some signs of the “sapient” complex could have arisen in the evolution of individual groups of hominids long ago and repeatedly. And in this sense, we have the right to say that sapientation has deep roots, although the oldest real “sapiens are still not known earlier than 0.1 -0.07 million years ago” (p. 97-99).

Spread of modern humans

More ancient fossils have been found in Africa than on any other continent. Thus, in Southern Ethiopia they found Omo-I, an incomplete skull with many modern features, which is probably more than 60 thousand years old. At the mouth of the South African Clasis River, “modern” remains were discovered that were 100 thousand years old, and in Border Cave a “modern” lower jaw was found that was 90 thousand years old.

Fossil skulls from 40 thousand years ago, which belong to a completely modern type, are found in various areas of Asia - from Israel to Java. They all have a chin protrusion or other distinctly "modern" features.

Humans first appeared in North America probably between 70 and 12 thousand years ago. During periods of extreme cold at this time, the sea retreated and a wide land bridge, Beringia, was formed, which is now flooded by the Bering Strait.

Traces of hearths and fossil remains, the age of which has been established, indicate that modern man lived in Australia at least 40 thousand years ago.

Most likely, people first appeared here between 55 and 45 thousand years ago, when the sea level was 160 feet (50 m) lower than now, and many islands formed a single whole.

This scale shows the development of all the primitive people of the world, from the period when the first humanoid hominids arose (5 million years ago) until 700 BC.

5,000,000-2,000,000 up to. AD

The first tree-dwelling hominids appear in Africa.

2,000,000- 250,000 up to. AD

Homo erectus appears and spreads throughout Asia and Europe.

250,000 – 120,000 up to. AD

In Africa - Homo sapiens - who are gradually moving to the north.

80,000 – 30,000 up. AD

Neanderthals (cave dwellers) live in Europe.

50,000 – 25,000 up to. AD

Modern people are settling throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and America. Tools are made from bone and stone.

25,000 – 10,000 up to. AD

The first round houses, drawings and carvings.

10,000 – 9,000 before. AD

Climate change, end of the Ice Age.

9,000 – 7,000 before. AD

The emergence of agriculture in certain areas of the world. Settlements in Syria, Palestine, Cyprus. Domesticated dog.

7,000 – 6,000 before. AD

In the eastern Mediterranean, goats, sheep, and pigs are domesticated. They make linen fabrics, ceramics, and copper is used. The first cities are being built.

5,000 – 4,000 to. AD

In Anatolia, copper and lead are processed. Horse and donkey are domesticated. Maize is grown in the Gulf of Mexico region, cotton is grown in Peru, and rice is grown in China and India.

4,000 – 3,000 before. AD

Sumerian civilization. First writing. Products made of gold, silver, lead. Irrigation. Sailing ships on the Nile and Euphrates. Stone temples and tombs in Malta and Europe.

3,000 – 2,000 up. AD

The first pharaohs of Egypt, hieroglyphic writing. The chariot was invented in Mesopotamia. The Rise of the Indian Valley Civilization. Cotton fabrics. Techniques for copper processing and fabric making spread throughout Western Europe.

2 000 – 1000 up. AD

Distribution of bronze processing methods throughout Europe. Construction of Stonehenge is completed.

1,000 – 700 BC

Olmec culture in Mexico. The Celts settled throughout Central Europe and the British Isles. By 700 BC. The secret of iron processing was discovered in Europe. Prehistoric cultures developed in America and Africa.



The appearance of Homo sapiens was the result of a long evolutionary development that took tens of millions of years.


The first signs of life on Earth arose about 4 billion years ago, later plants and animals arose, and only about 90 million years ago the so-called hominids appeared on our planet, which were the earliest predecessors of Homo sapiens.

Who are hominids?

Hominids are a family of progressive primates that became the ancestors of modern humans. Appearing about 90 million years ago, they lived in Africa, Eurasia and.

About 30 million years ago, a global cooling began on Earth, during which hominids became extinct everywhere, with the exception of the African continent, southern Asia and America. During the Miocene era, primates experienced a long period of speciation, as a result of which the early ancestors of humans, the australopithecus, separated from them.

What are Australopithecines?

Australopithecine bones were first found in 1924 in Africa's Kalahari Desert. According to scientists, these creatures belonged to the genus of higher primates and lived from 4 to 1 million years ago. Australopithecines were omnivores and could walk on two legs.


It is possible that by the end of their existence they learned to use stones for cracking nuts and other needs. About 2.6 million years ago, primates split into two branches. The first subspecies, as a result of evolution, was transformed into Homo habilis, and the second into Australopithecus africanus, which subsequently became extinct.

Who is a skilled person?

Homo habilis (Homo habilis) was the very first representative of the genus Homo and existed for 500 thousand years. Being a highly developed australopithecus, he had a fairly large brain (about 650 grams) and quite consciously made tools.

It is believed that it was Homo habilis who took the first steps to subjugate the surrounding nature, thus crossing the border that separated primates from humans. Homo habilis lived in sites and used quartz, which they brought to their home from distant places, to create tools.

A new round of evolution turned skilled man into working man (Homo ergaster), who appeared about 1.8 million years ago. The brain of this fossil species was much larger, thanks to which it could make more advanced tools and kindle fire.


Later, the working man was replaced by Homo erectus, whom scientists consider as the direct ancestor of humans. Erectus could make tools from stone, wore skins and did not disdain to eat human flesh, and later learned to cook food over a fire. Subsequently, they spread from Africa throughout Eurasia, including China.

When did Homo sapiens appear?

To this day, scientists believe that Homo sapiens replaced Homo erectus and its Neanderthal subspecies about 400–250 thousand years ago. According to DNA studies of fossil humans, Homo sapiens originated from Africa, where Mitochondrial Eve lived about 200 thousand years ago.

Paleontologists gave this name to the last common ancestor of modern humans on the maternal side, from which people inherited a common chromosome.

The ancestor in the male line was the so-called “Y-chromosomal Adam”, who existed somewhat later - about 138 thousand years ago. Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam should not be identified with biblical characters, since both of them are only scientific abstractions adopted for a more simplified study of the emergence of man.


In general, in 2009, after analyzing the DNA of the inhabitants of African tribes, scientists came to the conclusion that the oldest human branch in Africa were the Bushmen, who probably became the common ancestors of all humanity.

Humans belong to a group of animals called primates. Our earliest ancestors were small arboreal animals, a bit like modern tupai. They lived on Earth approximately 65 million years ago, during the era of the extinction of dinosaurs. About 50 million years ago, more highly organized animals of the same type appeared, such as monkeys. Over time, the development of some groups of primates followed a special path, and this path led to the emergence of the first apes about 25 million years ago.
Today, most of the 180 different species of primates live in tropical or subtropical regions, but this was not always the case. 50 million years ago, the climate on Earth was much warmer, and the ancestors of modern apes lived over a much larger area. Their fossil remains have been found in the British Isles, North America and even as far south as the very tip of South America. Chimpanzee-like creatures once lived in Europe and Asia. However, when the climate on Earth began to change, the primates that inhabited these territories gradually became extinct.

Modern tupai give us some insight into what early primates might have looked like.
Life in the trees.

Early primates quickly became skilled tree climbers. To live in trees, you must first of all correctly judge the distance and cling tightly to the branches. The first task is solved by forward-facing eyes: this gives the animal binocular vision. To solve the second problem, tenacious fingers are needed. Both of these properties are the most important distinguishing characteristics of primates. They all have fingers
The fingers on the hands are mobile, and the thumbs give the proper grip. Some apes, like humans, are also able to join the tips of the thumb and index finger to form the letter "o". This type of grip is used for very delicate manipulations. More importantly, primates have developed a large “thinking” part of the brain that coordinates vision and hand movements.

How it all began

Today there is only one species of people: homo sapiens (“homo” is Latin for “man”, and “sapien” means “thinking”). However, scientists today believe that since the emergence of the first hominids (human-like animals), several different species of such creatures have lived on Earth at different times. Between 15 and 7 million years ago, Ramapithecus lived in Africa, Europe and Asia. They were ape-like animals, about 1.2 m tall, with a flat face and teeth similar to those of humans. They may have spent part of their lives on the open plains, foraging for food using sticks and stones. Ramapithecus is probably one of the first hominids, but it does not appear to have been our direct ancestor. Today, scientists find in it more similarities with orangutans.

Our closest living relatives are the great apes. Gorillas and chimpanzees live in forested areas of West and East Africa. Gibbons are found in the rain forests of Southeast Asia, and orangutans inhabit the rainforests of Kalimantan and Sumatra. Of these, gibbons are the least human-like.
Very useful thumbs.

Why are thumbs needed? Have a friend tape your thumbs to your palms so that you can't move them. Now try to take an object with one hand, say, a pencil or a cup. Or try to hold as many objects as possible. You will very quickly see how important it is for all these manipulations to have a thumb separated from all the others.

"Southern Monkeys" from Africa

One of the earliest fossil finds associated with the “ape-man” is the skull of a child. It was dug up in 1924 near Taung, in what is now Botswana. This skull had both ape and human features, and its owner was named Australopithecus afarensis. Since then, many other fossil remains of australopithecines ("southern apes") have been found. All findings indicate that the brain of these animals was not very large (about 500 cm"), and large molars were used for grinding plants and fruits. Australopithecines were short (about 1.2 m in height)." Some were dense and stocky in build, others were fragile and graceful. Some scientists believe that these were
males and females of the same species. Some classify them as different species of Australopithecus. The "Southern Monkeys" are the subject of much debate and their origins are still unclear.

"Lucy", the "southern monkey", found in 1974
These are some fragments of the skull bones of Sinanthropus - one of the “straightened people”. Scientists managed to assemble these fragments into a single whole and restore the complete skull of Sinanthropus. He had a supraorbital ridge, like apes, and a protruding jaw. There was a bony protrusion along the top of the skull, and at the back there was a thickening in the form of a kind of ridge. Both the skull and brain of Sinanthropus are larger than those of Homo habilis.
The story of "Lucy".

In 1974, American anthropologist Doi Johansen made an outstanding discovery when he dug up the remains of a young female “southern ape” just over 1 m tall in Ethiopia. She was named “Lucy”. "Lucy's" brain and teeth resembled those of a monkey, but she probably walked on her crooked legs in an upright position. Before this discovery, scientists believed that the “southern apes” lived on Earth about 2 million years ago. However, the age of the remains of "Lucy" was determined to be approximately 3-3.6 million years. This means that the “southern monkeys” appeared on the planet more than a million years earlier than previously thought.

"Skillful Man"

At the same time that the “southern apes” were roaming Africa, another group of homipiids was developing side by side with them. They appeared a little later, about 2 million years ago. These were already the first real people, or “Habilids”. Perhaps their ancestors were more slender australopithecines. Homo haoilis ("handy man") was about the same height as the "southern apes", but had a larger brain - about 700 cm. "We know that "handy man" used a whole set of tools, which included fragments of stones , cutting and chopping tools (like knives), scrapers, as well as “tools” for making new tools.

The missing synanthrope.

Sinanthropus is a type of homo erectus. He lived in China about 500,000 years ago. In the 30s XX century Scientists have discovered a rich collection of fossil remains of this ancient man in a cave near Beijing. In total, fragments of 45 skeletons were found, including pieces of 14 skulls, 14 lower jaws, 150 teeth, as well as bones of 14 children. In 1941, shortly before the war between America and Japan, it was decided to send these finds to America. Scientists did not want such a valuable cargo to fall into the hands of Japanese soldiers. However, the bones never arrived at their destination. They disappeared without a trace on their way to the ship that was supposed to take them to safety. The location of the remains of Sinanthropus 110 is unknown to this day.

Here is a photograph of the "Piltdown Man" skull, discovered in Sussex, England, at the beginning of the 20th century. Today it is recognized as one of the greatest hoaxes in the history of science.
Neanderthals.

Even before the last “straightened people” disappeared from the face of the Earth, another species of human beings appeared on it. Homo sapiens ("thinking man") first appeared about 250,000 years ago. After another 180,000 years (that is, 70,000 years ago), Neanderthal man settled in Europe. Compared to their predecessors, Neanderthals were larger in all respects, hiding behind a wide convex forehead was a brain like a modern person - 1330 cm." We know a lot about Neanderthals. They lived during the Great Ice Age, so they had to wear clothes, made from animal skins, and shelter from the cold in the depths of caves. The average life expectancy of men was about 30 years, and women 23 years. Many of them suffered from arthritis. Most were right-handed. There are some signs that Neanderthals believed in an afterlife: they solemnly buried the dead and even laid flowers on their graves.

Hunters of ancient people
Louis Leakey (1903-1972), Mary Leakey (b. 1913) and their son Richard (b. 1944) discovered many fossil remains of ancient people in the Oldowan Gorge in Tanzania. Their first important discovery was the discovery of Australopithecus, nicknamed the “nutcracker.” Later they discovered the first “skilled man”, and also found the remains of several “straightened people”. Lately, Richard Leakey has been excavating in other areas of Africa.
These unique fossilized prints were discovered by Mary Leakey in 1978 in Tanzania. Their age is estimated at 3.75 million years, and they were imprinted in a layer of volcanic mud and ash, which later hardened. The result was something like a “plaster cast” of the feet of our distant ancestors who went out for a walk - a kind of prehistoric “family picnic”.
The man who never existed.

In 1912, several skull fragments and a broken jawbone of an ancient man were discovered near Piltdown in Sussex, England. At that time, the find became a real sensation, but soon some experts began to be overcome by doubts. In 1953, the Piltdown bones were carefully examined to determine their age. The result was unexpected. It turned out that the jaw bone belonged to an orangutan 500 years ago, and the skull belonged to an ordinary modern person. The bones were coated with a special coating, and the teeth were carefully filed to give them a prehistoric appearance. All this turned out to be a skillful fake. Piltdown Man went down in the history of science as a hoax, exposed only 40 years after it took place. The “joker” himself was never found.

Head of a Neanderthal man.
A look into the future.

At first, human evolution occurred very slowly. It took almost 7 million years since the appearance of our ancient ancestors for humanity to reach the stage at which it learned to create the first cave paintings. But as soon as the “thinking man” firmly established himself on Earth, all human abilities began to develop rapidly. In just 100,000 years separating us from the first rock paintings, man has become the dominant form of life on Earth. We even managed to leave our home planet and begin space exploration.
It is difficult to say what people will be like after 10,000 years, but it is possible. increase
It’s arrogant to say that they will change a lot. In general, we have changed a lot over the past 400 years, and even since the beginning of this century. Today's soldier would hardly fit into knightly armor of the 15th century. The average height of a medieval warrior was 16^ cm. Nowadays, the average height of British soldiers is 172 cm. There is no way that the current supermodel could squeeze into the dress that her great-great-grandmother wore. Even if she managed to bring her waist to 45cm, like her Victorian relative, she would still be 30cm taller! If our evolution continues in the same direction as it has so far, our faces will become increasingly flatter and our lower jaws will become smaller. Our brain will become larger, and we ourselves will most likely grow up. Well, because many of us. prefer a sedentary lifestyle, it is possible that our, so to speak, lower body will also increase!
As the Great Ice Age came to an end, modern people began to transition to a new way of life. Over time, they began to found settlements where large communities arose. The dawn of civilization was approaching. 10,000 years ago there were only about 10 million people in the entire world. However, around 4,000 years ago their numbers began to increase rapidly. By 55 BC, when Julius Caesar invaded the British Isles, the world population had reached 300 million. Today it is already 4 billion and continues to grow.

The “southern apes” may have already used stones and bones as tools, but the “skilled people” were the first to learn how to make these tools. A piece of stone, clamped between the thumb and all other fingers, served as a good cutting tool. The flatter stones were probably used to scrape meat from bones. Tools with sharp edges were made using stone chippers. Homo erectus invented more modern tools: they were made from flint fragments. Even more subtle “tools” were created by Neanderthals. They processed flint fragments using other stone tools, which they held with two fingers - the thumb and forefinger.
"A cut above."

Recent studies have shown that our ancestors switched to upright walking, that is, walking on two legs, probably in order to avoid overheating. On the hot African plains 4 million years ago, walking on two legs gave them a number of advantages. For a person in an upright position, the sun's rays fell vertically on his head, instead of “frying” his back. Because the top of the head has much less surface exposed to the sun than the back, our ancestors should have been less likely to overheat. This means they sweated less, and therefore needed less water to survive. This allowed ancient people to become “head and shoulders above” other animals in the struggle for existence.

This is what scientists believe our long-vanished relatives looked like. As you can see, our ancestors gradually became taller and the further they went, the less they looked like monkeys.
Where should the hair be?

The transition to upright walking had other important consequences. For example, the bipedal animal no longer needed thick hair, which protected other inhabitants of the savannas from the merciless rays of the sun that fell on their backs. As a result, with the exception of the hair that covered the part of the body of our ancestors most exposed to the sun's heat - namely the head - they turned into the notorious "naked monkeys".

Beneficial coolness

Having started to move on two yogas, the ancient people seemed to have opened another extremely important “evolutionary door”. In an upright position, a much larger part of the animal’s body moves away from the hot soil, and therefore from the heat that it emits. As a result, the body and head with the brain it contains overheat significantly less than if they were located closer to the ground. The cool wind, usually blowing 1-2 m above the ground, provided additional cooling of the body.
When scientists created powerful supercomputers, they had to equip them with a special cooling system. After all, large computers work very intensively and generate a huge amount of heat. It must be removed to prevent the computer from overheating. The same thing happens with the brain. By switching to upright walking, our ancestors thereby moved their own brains to a cooler environment, and this, combined with a very effective “cooling system,” allowed the brain to develop into a larger and more active one.

The man who came in from the cold
On September 19, 1991, a man whose age is 5300 years old returned to our world. Two tourists walking in the Austrian Alps suddenly came across the body of a man sticking out of the ice. There were scraps of clothing on the body, shoes on the feet, a quiver with two arrows, an axe, a flint for striking fire, a small flint dagger, something like a bag or backpack, a set of needles and a lot of hunting equipment. The Ice Man is the oldest corpse ever found. He lived on Earth almost 1000 years before the Egyptians began building their pyramids, and 3000 years before the first Romans appeared.