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Becoming men: a chronological line of human evolution

@robot

Published in

Nature

· 17 Feb 2024

Becoming men: a chronological line of human evolution

Here is a very concentrated history of the evolution of our species starting from when our ancestors differed from those of the chimpanzee, our closest relative, until the appearance of writing, an event which conventionally marks the end of prehistory.

There is nothing definitive, given that new discoveries could also profoundly change facts and numbers, but for the moment it seems that - more or less - things could have gone like this...

6 million years ago

The evolutionary line of the humans and chimpanzees

5.8 million years ago

First evidence of bipedal walking hominins

3.5 million years ago

Australopithecines appear

The average volume of their brain is 450cc

3.5 - 1.8 million years ago

First hominids move from the forest to the savannah

3.3 million years ago

Pubic louse's leap from gorilla to humans suggests our ancestors became naked apes

3.2 million years ago

Lucy, the famous fossil of Australopithecus Afarensis, dates back to this period

3 million years ago

Females are only able to produce children every 6.5 years

2.5 million years ago

Homo Habilis appears and the average volume of his brain is 750cc
The first simple stone tools are made

2 million years ago

The homo Ergaster, with an average brain volume of 850cc appears in Africa. Skull aside, it is physically very similar to modern man

1.8 million years ago

The first wave of migration from Africa begins. Homo Erectus now has a braincase with a volume of 1000cc. Females are only able to procreate every 4.5 years. There is evidence of shared care of children.

There is no difference between Erectus and Ergaster. Simply put, Erectus fossils were found in Asia before Ergasters where found in Africa, where the species originated. Thus African specimens are called Ergaster and those from other continents Erectus. Homo Erectus was an extremely long-lived species. It is thought that it became extinct only 70,000 years ago and therefore coexisted with all the more modern species that followed, including Homo Sapiens.

1.6 million years ago

First documented use of fire.
More complex stone tools are created.

800,000 years ago

Man learns to make fire.

600,000 years ago

Homo Heidelbergensis (once called archaic Homo Sapiens) appears. The average volume of its brain is greater than 1100cc and its remains have been found in Africa, Europe and western Asia. It is thought that the African Heidelbergensis gave rise to our species (Homo Sapiens), while the Neanderthals would have derived from the European ones.

500,000 years ago

First evidence of wooden huts (completely artificial shelters) found at some sites near Chichibu, Japan.

400,000 years ago

First physical evidence of cooking food (although perhaps it began much earlier). The men begin to hunt using spears.

280,000 years ago

Complex lithic blades and stone tools for cooking sharpening.

230,000 years ago

Homo Neanderthalensis appears. It inhabited Eurasia, in a territory that extended from Great Britain in the west to Iran in the east.

195,000 years ago

The Homo Sapiens appears in Africa.
The brain has an average volume of 1330cc. Women are able to bear children every 2 to 3 years.

170,000 years ago

Mitochondrial Eve.

In humans, mitochondria (the power plants of the cells) are inherited exclusively from the mother. The DNA they contain will therefore be passed down identically from mother to daughter unless there are mutations. Recent techniques allow us to date these mutations and find points of genetic divergence over time.

According to this theory, the direct genetic ancestor of modern humans may have lived in Africa between 150,000 and 200,000 years ago. She was not the only woman existing at her time and in her group; but the only one whose genetic heritage has spread, giving rise, mutation by mutation, to the human race as it is today.

140,000 years ago

First evidence of long-distance exchanges.

120,000 years ago

The use of pigments indicates the presence of a symbolic culture.

72,000 years ago

Invention of clothes and first evidence of jewelry.

60,000 years ago

Second wave of migration from Africa.

50,000 years ago

A profound cultural change occurs, a "great leap forward" (to paraphrase the Chinese revolution). Ritual burial, the use of real clothes (sewn leather clothes) became widespread, complex hunting techniques (traps) were invented, fish hooks, buttons and needles were made from bone. The so-called behavioral modernity of man begins here.

Colonization of Australia.