Mark+Springett

From trees to land. From walking on all fours to walking on two legs. Have you ever wondered where we came from? Have you ever heard that humans came from chimpanzees? Well, that's not true. Chimpanzees are the closest living relative to us, but we didn't descend from them. Scientists believe that we all came from a common ansestor. But when that common ancestor came down from the trees and walked on land on only two legs, that's when human evolution started.

You may have heard that animals have certain classes. Humans are listed under primates. Other primates are apes, monkeys, and lemurs. But humans are in an even separate family than other primates. We call this family hominids. Hominids include humans and that's it. The main reason that humans are separate from others is that we walk upright and on two legs.



(the picture on the right is a picture of a chimpanzee skull and the one on the left is a picture of a human skull) There are at least 18 different types of hominids. Scientists think that hominids came from Africa because they have found fossils there that date back 6 to 7 million years ago. Many early hominids are classified as australopithecines. The people from this group were similar to apes, but different in many ways. Their brains were bigger and some of them used stones as tools. (the picture to the right is a picture of  a //Homo erectus//) Nearly 1.8 million years ago, a new type of hominid appeared. These new hominids were call //Homo erectus//. This species could grow as tall as a modern human.

(The picture to the left is a //Neanderthal//) Another type of hominid, which is more recent, is called a //Neanderthal//. //Neanderthals// lived in Europe and western Asia. They lived around 230,000 years ago. //Neanderthals// could hunt big animals. They could make fires and wear clothes. They cared for the elderly and the sick, and they buried their dead with a cultural ritual. Around 30,000 years ago, //Neanderthals// became extinct and nobody knows why.

Modern Humans are classified as //Homo sapiens.// They left Africa between 40,000 and 100,000 years ago. Compared to the //Neanderthals//, //Homo sapiens// had smaller and flatter faces. Of all of the known hominids, only //Homo sapiens// still exist. (The picture in the middle of the page is a Homo sapien)



Scientists know what these hominids looked like, but they don't know what the first hominids look like. It's still a mystery even today.



(This is a picture of the human evolution time line.)