|
First human like creatures
Many scientists prefer to believe the theory about
humans having developed from human like creatures or
animals that were called australopithecines that
existed about four million years ago. The scientific
name for the genus of these creatures is
Australopithecus or southern ape. The first of these
prehistoric animals is said to have existed in Africa.
The fact that a trail of footprint fossils discovered
in Tanzania in the year 1978 have been classified as
Australopithecus added to the conviction that
prehistoric humans developed from australopithecines.
Studies of fossils found in Ethiopia have suggested
that these creatures walked upright most times and
climbed trees when there was danger.
The two types
Among Australopithecus there are believed to have been
two types, one with a very small built, measuring about four
feet and weighing an average of fifty kilograms and
the other measuring about five feet in height and
weighing about sixty kilograms. Of these, the former
may have weighed about twenty kilograms. Both the
types walked erect and the size of their brain was
roughly one-third the size of that of modern man.
Another interesting conclusion by the scientists was
that the smaller of the two types of
Australopithecines had strong and sharp front teeth,
very similar to those that we have, thereby suggesting
that they were probably meat eaters. The second type
had dull grinding teeth, suggesting that they perhaps
ate plants.
Homo habilis
According to scientists, the earliest species
of man were Homo habilis, skilled people who made stone tools
and lived in groups. Their appearance was similar to
that of the smaller type of Australopithecine, thought
the size of the brain was two times bigger than that
of an Australopithecine's.
Homo erectus
A more advanced type of Homo habilis was the Homo
erectus or the erect human being. They are believed to
have first lived in Africa about one and a half
million years ago. This group had a chinless jaw, a
large sloping forehead and the size of the brain was
bigger than that of the Homo habilis. It is believed
that they may been the first form of human beings to
wear clothing. They were also probably the first human
being to move out of Africa. Scientists base this
assumption on the fact that important Homo erectus
fossils have been found in Germany, Indonesia and
China.
Homo sapiens
A development on the Homo erectus was the Homo sapiens
or the wise human being. The oldest known fossils of a
type of Homo sapiens dates back to almost three
hundred and seventy five thousand years ago. The shape
of the Homo sapiens skull was similar to that of
modern man and his brain was larger than that of his
predecessor.
Modern human beings began to appear on the earth
nearly forty thousand years ago. Modern men are
classified as Homo sapiens a sub species of
Homo sapiens.
|
