Noah+Boskey

__Human __ __Evoluti __  __on :__       <span style="font-size: 200%; color: rgb(36, 88, 249)"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: left; display: block"><span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="display: block; font-size: 50%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left">//Note: Click on any picture to see it on it's actual website!//

Where did we all come from? Who were we before? Who are our ancestors? You might be asking yourself these questions. Well, it's actually really cool learning about how we went from swinging on trees to humans living on land. Believe it or not, humans, apes, monkeys and other primates share a common ancestor. You might be thinking, well maybe scientists just made this up, maybe they have no clue where we came from. Well scientists have found evidence in fossils. Just like a what they do with dinosaurs. <span style="font-size: 200%; color: rgb(36, 88, 249)"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: left; display: block"><span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="display: block; font-size: 50%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left">   <span style="font-size: 200%; color: rgb(36, 88, 249)"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: left; display: block"><span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="display: block; font-size: 50%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left">     <span style="font-size: 200%; color: rgb(36, 88, 249)"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: left; display: block"><span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="display: block; font-size: 50%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left">    <span style="font-size: 200%; color: rgb(36, 88, 249)"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: left; display: block"><span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="display: block; font-size: 50%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left"> So far we have found out that a chimpanzee is the closest living relative of humans. Although that doesn't mean that we all came from Chimps. We just both share a common ancestor. An ancestor is a animal that you descended from, such as your grandmother and grandfather. So back to humans... Humans are indeed primates, but there is also another category, or family that we belong to called //**hominids**//. Sounds like humans right? Hominids only include humans. What makes a human a hominid, is mostly because we are **//bipedal//**. Well, you are probably wondering what bipedal means. Bipedal basically means walking upright on two feet. Now if you were to look at a Chimp, you will notice that they **knuckle walk**, which means walking on four legs, and walking on their knuckles in front. There aren't just one type of hominids, there are at least 18 types that scientists have discovered. <span style="font-size: 200%; color: rgb(36, 88, 249)"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: left; display: block"><span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="display: block; font-size: 50%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left"> <span style="font-size: 200%; color: rgb(36, 88, 249)"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: left; display: block"><span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="display: block; font-size: 50%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left">  The earliest hominids recorded dated back 6 to 7 million years old! From evidence that scientists have found, they have figured out that the earliest hominid lived in Africa. Most of the early hominids are put into a group called **Australpithecines**. Australopithecines had many differences from other primates such as apes. Some examples are that the brains were larger then ones in apes. As you can imagine Australpithecines were much smarter then apes. Also, Australpithecines used tools made of stones to maybe get food, or to make weapons.

About 2.4 million years ago, some new hominids appeared. They were very similar to Australopithecines, but they were more human like. Just to clarify things, every new generation of hominids look more human like. The new ones had a more complex brain, a rounder skull, and a flatter face. The new hominids were in a group called **Homo**. Some other groups of homo's were **Homo habilis**, **Neanderthals**, and **Homo erectus**. After many generations of humans, we reach the modern human, you and I! We are in a group called **Homo sapiens**. As you can see we still keep the name Homo, just the ending is different. So that's human evolution in a nut shell, if you would like to learn more, visit any of the links below!

[|Click to here visit human evolution on Wikipedia.]

[|Wanna have some fun playing a human evolution game!]

[|Watch a short clip on human evolution]

[|Watch some clips on human evolution on PBS!]