Karinne+Lorig

Have you ever heard of **Evolution**, the theory about how current species developed? Have you ever wondered how we evolved? The most recent idea that scientists have is that humans and other primates (monkeys) evolved from the same ancestor. imagine! if you were to draw a great big family tree, that showed your ancestors from millions of years ago, your ancestors would be the same as the ancestors of Monkeys! But we're very different from monkeys, we don't have a tail, opposable toes or fur and we walk on two legs all the time and we don't live in trees. Over the years, species evolve to be very different from what they started as, and that's just what happened! = =

The beginning of Primates
The very first primates had tails, ate bugs, lived in trees and were **nocturnal** (awake at night) and had very flexible spines. Eventually primates with large brains appeared. They were the first primates with similar carachteristics to great apes, hominids and monkeys.

Hominids are a **bipedal** (walk on two legs) primate that has no tail and legs that are longer than their arms. We, //homo sapiens// are the only hominids that live today, the first hominids lived six million years ago, they were bipedal, had faces that were flatter and brains that were bigger than earlier primates. These hominids all lived in Africa, the ancestral home of humanity. Six million years ago hominids had no fire and did not use stone tools nor did they have a complex language and they only lived in Africa, but they would eventually spread across the globe.

Austrilopithecus
About 3.6 million years ago, humans had changed and gained the ability to make and use stone tools. Some were slender and lived in forests and grasslands, they ate fruits and other plants, others were thick and heavy with smaller brains, they lived in tropical jungles and ate tough plants material such as roots. They also climbed trees like apes but walked on two legs. Later the Austrilopithecines dissapeared to make way for a new group of hominids.

The group //Homo//
2.4 million years ago, a new group of hominids appeared. They were like the earlier, slender Austrilopithecines, but with even bigger, more complicated brains and could make very advanced tools. They were **Omnivorous** (eating many different things) and spread across the world to every continent except Antarctica. They were adaptible and could survive in different climates by changing the way they lived. Modern humans are members of this group. To learn more about the earlier members of this group, click here  http://earlyhumans.mrdonn.org/tools.html

The group //homo// then split into two species, one of them lived in Europe and west Asia starting 230,000 years ago, they were the Neanderthals. They had fire, hunted large animals and wore clothes, some scientists think that they also cared for the old and sick and had rituals for burying the dead. around 30,000 years ago, the Neanderthals went extinct, no one knows why for more information on Neanderthals, go to. http://earlyhumans.mrdonn.org/neanderthals.html

Homo Sapiens
Now the only surviving hominids are of one species, //homo sapiens,// they made lots of art such as sculptures, carvings, cave paintings and even decorated their clothing, they had a complicated society. Homo Sapiens began in Africa 160,000 years ago, they left Africa between 40,000 and 100,000 years ago. They had faces that were smaller and flatter than Neanderthals and a skull that was more rounded. They spread across the world, even into the Americas by way of land bridges. To learn more about the migration of humans, go to http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/ To see more about cave paintings, go here http://harcourtschool.com/activity/cavepaintings/vallon.html

information
//Cells, Heredity, and Classification.//  Holt Science and Technology Series. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 2007. p 148-1153


 * pictures**

Luskin, Casey. "Neanderthals: Are They Us, or Are We Them (or Both)? Overcoming the Icons of Evolution." __Evolution News and Views.__ 2007. 1 may. http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/05/neanderthals_are_they_us_or_ar.html.

Wright, Dan and Kindersly, Dorling. "Side view of Australopithecus walking upright."__dkimages.__ .

Wright, Dan and Kindersly, Dorling. "Homo Sapiens Sapiens drawing on a cave wall."__dkimages.__ < http://www.dkimages.com/discover/DKIMAGES/Discover/Home/Science/Earth-Sciences/Palaeontology/Early-Humans/Homo-sapiens-sapiens/Homo-sapiens-sapiens-7.html >.

Couto, Adam and Melloni, Brian. "Australopithecus." __Physci.__ Westfield State College. 