Sarah+Stoll

 Humans have changed extremely over time. 45 million years ago, humans, monkeys and other primates all belonged to a common ancestor, an animal that we all evolved from. Over time humans have started to walk upright, and change from primates that swung from the trees to primates that walk on two legs.  In a time when dinosaurs roamed the planet, a small mouse like animal also lived. From this tiny rodent came humans and all primates. These little animals lived in trees, and ate insects. Many years later, after dinosaurs had gone extinct these little tree dwelling mammals evolved into the first primates the Earth had ever seen. These primates had large brains, much like the brains of modern day humans. Hundreds of years later **Hominids** evolved. Hominids are the family in which humans belong. Hominids are different from other primates because of their **bipedalism **. Bipedalism is the ability to upright and on two legs. If one looks at a human skeleton, and compares it to one of an ape it will look different because of bipedalism. There are 18 different types of Hominids. The first Hominids had characteristics that resembled those of a human rather than an ape. Such as walking upright, bigger brains, a flatter face, and teeth that were smaller. The first Hominid fossils were found in **Africa**, they are 6-7 million years old.
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Australopithecines ** are a type of early Hominid. Australopithecines used stone tools and had brains that were a little bigger than apes. Fossils of these Hominids have been found in three places in Africa, from about 3 million years ago. There are different types of Australopithecines that lived around the same time. Some had small bodies, and ape like brains, while others had large bodies and very big teeth. Although these Australopithecines are both Hominids like us, scientists do not believe we evolved from either of these Hominids.  2.4 million years ago a different type of Hominid evolved. These Hominids were small, but had large brains, they made tools and were very much like human are today. **Homo ** is a group that modern day humans belong to. These Hominids belonged to that group as well. **Homo habilis ** and **Homo erectus ** both belong to the group as well. 30,000 years ago two groups of Hominids lived, they made art, tools, and wore clothing.
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Neanderthals **<span style="COLOR: #7030a0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> are a group of Hominids that lived 230,000 years ago. They lived in Europe and Asia. Neanderthals disappeared around 30,000 years ago; their disappearance is still a mystery Modern Humans **<span style="COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> belong to the group **Homo sapiens**. Fossils of Homo sapiens were found in Africa from 100,000 – 160,000 years ago! <span style="COLOR: #e6b11a; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> People may study **<span style="COLOR: #7030a0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">DNA **<span style="COLOR: #7030a0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="COLOR: #e6b11a; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">as a way to understand where humans came from. **<span style="COLOR: #7030a0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Spencer Walls **<span style="COLOR: #e6b11a; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="COLOR: #e6b11a; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">is a population geneticist who tries to understand genes to learn about human history. Geneticists look at how similar people’s DNA are. By looking at the similarities in the genes of people living today and comparing them to the DNA in fossils we can determine where we came from. **<span style="COLOR: #7030a0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Allan Wilson **<span style="COLOR: #e6b11a; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="COLOR: #e6b11a; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">looked at DNA in women from Africa, by studying the amount of change in the DNA, **<span style="COLOR: #7030a0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Wilson **<span style="COLOR: #e6b11a; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> came to the conclusion that human have lived in Africa twice the amount of time as anywhere else. One idea that scientists are playing with is that all humans came from a single woman in Africa 150,000 years ago! <span style="COLOR: #ffcc00; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> Over the years human migrated all over the world. Though, people who live in Africa have genes that are more similar to those of first humans. **<span style="COLOR: #0070c0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Allison Brooks **<span style="COLOR: #ffcc00; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="COLOR: #ffcc00; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">thinks that over 200,000 years, after migrating over the planet human have changed immensely. The way humans thought changed, along with the way we socialize, and tool making changed as well. The great migration took an extremely long time, possibly a foot or two a year. <span style="COLOR: #00b050; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="COLOR: #00b050; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> 40,000 years ago humans came into areas that had belonged to Neanderthals. These two species might have interacted, but we do not think that they ever mated. Over time Neanderthals died out. <span style="COLOR: #0070c0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> An anthropologist named **<span style="COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Theodore Schurr **<span style="COLOR: #0070c0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> believes that even if people migrate apart, they will continue to interbreed. Many scientists believe that the first people to come to America are from Asia, while others believe they are from Northern Europe. Scientists are using the DNA of Native Americans that live today to help understand who populated the Americas first. Some Native Americans have DNA that shows that they come from Siberia. **<span style="COLOR: #e719d8; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Spencer Wells **<span style="COLOR: #0070c0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> thinks that the first people to come to America probably came along the coast. **<span style="COLOR: #e719d8; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Jody Hey **<span style="COLOR: #0070c0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> thinks that a lot of human history can only be imagined, as a lot of information is still missing. We still have a long way to go before we know the entire story of where and how we came to be, but something we do know is that we are all connected throughout history, and we remain connected today.
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<span style="COLOR: #7030a0; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Here is a time line to show how and when humans evolved. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #0070c0; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">45 million years <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #002060; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Hominid fossils were <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">2.4 <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #e719d8; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">million years ago modern <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #e719d8; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">ago a common ancestor <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #002060; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">found 6-7 million years ago  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">human fossils found <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #002060; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">that both humans <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">and apes share lived. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times-Roman','serif'; mso-hansi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">

Bibliography Pictures:

http://www.thefeedinglane.com/pics/trout04.gif http://filipinaatheist.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/lemur8.jpg http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/neanderthal/images/Neanderthalman.jpg http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://humanisthall.net/HomoErectus1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://humanisthall.net/SPCL_SUNDAYS_June08.html&h=275&w=300&sz=27&hl=en&start=9&um=1&usg=__2zbsZUnBad5eGBE5oiAALCHh_5U=&tbnid=b307rYCmioNf9M:&tbnh=106&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhomo%2Berectus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DN http://www.iyp.oxfam.org/common/images/library/Hands.JPG