Abe+Gobel

Where did you come from? Where did your parents come from? The answer starts about 4 million (4,000,000) years-ago during the Cenozoic era, in **Africa**.
 * __The Evolution of the Human__**

The first ancestors of modern day human like you and me are called Australopithecines. Australopithecines were a lot like modern day apes but had larger brains and walked on 2 feet. Primates (monkeys) are also related to us in how they walked and came before Australopithecines. After Australopithecines came Primates ( part of the Homonid family) who knuckle walked (the walked on their feet and knuckles) unlike us but had visible simalarities to us including the shape of the skull and bone scructure, but modern day humans had bigger brains, wider hips, and an "S" shaped spine. After Australopithecines came humans or Homo sapiens who were still living in Africa, but that suddenly changed. Homo sapiens decided to move soon after the Earths' last Ice Age when water levels were low leaving land bridges across the oceans. From Africa these humans moved up into the Middle East where two groups were broken up The first group moved along the coast into India and Asia up to Japan where there was a land bridge across the ocean to what is now the United States of America. The other group stayed around the Middle East and moved up to Europe where the were met by the Neanderthals and stayed around Europe. The Neanderthals were a lot like the humans in there look but inside the skull the brain of the humans was much bigger than the brain of the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals face was also different while still having the same general shape of the human skull. The nose was bigger and the bones protecting the brain were closer together because they had a smaller brain. A hunting difference was the choice of the weapon, the Neanderthals used big heavy spears made for charging and stabbing, while the humans' spears were light weight givving them the ability to throw the spears at a distance with accuracy. If you look at the skulls below the human skull has a better rounded head for bigger brain capacity. Anthropology.net The skull on the left is a casting of a Neanderthal skull while the skull on the right is a casting of a modern day human skull

The timeline of human evolution starts with 4 million years-ago Australopithecus anamensis evolved from primates. 2 million years later Australopithecus africanus evolved from Australopithecus anamesis, then 2 million years later Homo sapiens (modern day humans) evolved from that. www.archeologyinfo.com/species During the evolution of humans there were many different species that I didn't talk about or explain like Ardipithecus or Homo heidelbergensis, but I explained the basic species that led to our be us. As you can probably see on the picture above gorillas, chimps, apes, and orangutans all came from the same common ancestor as us but there is another species that is no longer alive that is also a relative of our common ancestor. for more information click here __http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution__ for a short movie explaining evolution click here __http://www.youtube.com/watch?v-keHKFOQvNqA&NR=1__

Sources: //Cells, Heredity, and Classification//. Holt Science and Technology series. Holt, Rinhart, and Winston. 2007. p 148-161 //Human Evolution//. __http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution__ //Anthropolgy.net// //archeologyinfo.com/species//