Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Australopithecus
afarensis was one
of the earliest
human ancestors.
Encyclopdia
Britannica, Inc.
The earliest
recognized
members of the
genus Homo belong
to the
Encyclopdia
Britannica, Inc.
An ancestor of
modern humans
known as Homo
erectus appeared in
East
Encyclopdia
Britannica, Inc.
By about 35,000
years ago, most of
Africa, Asia, and
Europe were
occupied by
modern forms of
Encyclopdia
Britannica, Inc.
Fossils
M odern humans and apes are still closely related. In fact, most
scientists consider humans and great apeschimpanzees, bonobos,
gorillas, and orangutansto belong to the same scientific family. But
It took millions of there are many important differences between humans and apes.
years for modern For this reason scientists have divided the family into smaller groups.
humans to evolve Orangutans belong to a group called Ponginae. Gorillas,
from an apelike chimpanzees, and bonobos belong to a group called the Gorillini
ancestor. Great tribe. Humans belong to the Hominini tribe. The term hominin refers
apes evolved to humans and all their ancestors from the time they began
Encyclopdia developing separately from those of apes.
Britannica, Inc.
Hominins
Today only one species, or type, of hominin existsmodern humans. In the past two or
more species of hominin often lived at the same time. Scientists do not always agree
about which species are the direct ancestors of other species. But all hominins are
closely related.
Australopithecines
Some of the earliest hominins are known as australopithecines. There were several
different species of this group. Fossils show that they lived in Africa from roughly 4 million
to 2.5 million years ago. One of the most famous such fossils is Lucya partial skeleton
found in Ethiopia. These bones are about 3 million years old.
Australopithecine
individuals left their
footprints in
Tanzania about 3.5
million years ago.
John Reader/Photo
Researchers
Humans
Early forms of humans first existed about 2 to 1.5 million years ago. All species of humans
belong to a scientific group within the hominin tribe called Homo. The scientific names of
all human species begin with the word Homo, which means man. These early humans
had larger brains and mostly smaller teeth and jaws than the australopithecines. Their
behavior was probably also more like that of modern humans. For instance, an early human
species called Homo habilis used stone tools to butcher animals. Later human species
included Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis. Scientists believe that these humans
used fire to cook food.
The humans called Neanderthals were alive for part of the same time as modern humans.
The Neanderthals died out about 28,000 years ago. They were closely related to modern
humans. But most scientists think that these humans were not the direct ancestors of
modern humans.
Britannica Online for Kids, s.v. " human origins ," accessed February 13, 2017,
http://kids.br itannica.com/ebk/ar ticle-9353271.
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.