Last Human Standing

Have you ever wondered why are we the only human left alive when there was so much more humans that lived the same time we did? Well with extensive research and investigating we found out lots of useful information that helped us answered these questions. We had 20 types of ancestors that we currently found which means we had to live at the same time and at one part of time 4 different types of human lived together. One of the most successful humans apart from us were the neanderthals which lived 400,000 more then we have been living. They had bigger brains then us today but didn't use them fully. The huge change that made us who we are now was 140,000 ago when we at the brink of extinction. It was when a mega drought was happening and in that time we were forced to live at the shore were we couldn't get lots of meat from animals on land, so we had to adapt. One thing that archaeologists found was a pit that had lots of bones along with quartz tools and it is one of the most inaccessible places in the world. In the past it was a open hole in the ground that we think the early humans used as a burial site. Archaeologists found lots of fragments but when they combined them they found about 30 complete skeletons. The place they take the bones to investigate is the center of human evolution which there are only 4 in the world. What we found out from all of this is that the neanderthals had a flat skull which caused the part of the brain for speech to be smaller. One reason we continued living was that we many new tools that we could use unlike the neanderthals that just took rock and a huge piece of wood to kill the animal. We made spears for throwing which made us able to kill a animal while still being a safe distance away but the neanderthals had to come close and risk their lives that why they had short and hard lives. When there was a mega drought we when to the shores and lived in caves and we think that all of us descended from 600 individuals but that's only a idea. We adapted in the way that we started eating fish and clams that when the waves were low we could gather. In that time period we developed art and culture. One interesting face is that we pushed the neanderthals out of their area. We will one day find out all the detail but until then we are still evolving.

"Last Human Standing." Becoming Human. PBS NOVA. 31 Aug. 2011. Television.

From Grunts to Grammer

There is one question that still troubles scientists and that is when we started to use complex language. Language is constantly changing and even today its s going through its own little evolution. It is obvious that language is the product of the need for socialization. So we can roughly conclude that the first traces of language appeared over the first camp fire, and slowly evolved from grunts to complex sentences. Dr. Jeffrey Laitman was the first one to conclude that homo Habilis, the earliest human might have been communicating because there is evidence that parts of the brain that were required for speech were present in them. For speech we need a larynx also known as voice box to make sounds and sometime in the past our voice box went lower in our throat so that we could make sounds but for the animals it stayed high up. Some scientist assumed that our voice box subsided when we needed more air to hunt prey. In the past we hunted by using persistent hunting and it is when they chase a animal until it can’t run and gives up. The extra need for air made our voice box lower so that we can breathe through both our nose and mouth. One suggestion to when we started speaking was when we first started to use primitive tools; we needed communication in order to pass on the craft of making tools. Along with migration comes the need to cross the seas and that when scientists think that we started to use more complex language because to make a boat required greater skills. The problem is that we have no solid evidence so we can’t say for sure when it started.

"From grunts to grammar: the evolution of language ." Odyssey: adventure in science Oct. 2009: n. 

     pag. Print. 

Taming Fire

Have you ever wonder when did we start to use fire and why we have it today? Well thanks to science we can figure out that answer out. Playing with fire is dangerous and it still is today, although back in the past one person was so interested in fire that he tried to see what he can do with it and they found out ways of keeping them warm and cooking food which made it easier to eat. There’s no doubt that natural occurring fire were scary to them but when some animals die other animals can eat it. The idea we have it that we have been using fire for 250,000. We know this because we find hearths. Hearths are the reaming of a fire place and it can commonly be identified with a circle of rocks, around it we usually find charred bones and stone tools. Another way to see if there was a fire is that we can check for changes in the bone chemicals because a contained fire is hotter than a wildfire and this method suggest that we have been using fire for 1,000,000. A cave in Swartkrans has animals remains and when they examined the bones it shows that it was in a contenting fire but those people who inhabited the cave didn’t know how to start a fire so they would have to take wood and light it from a naturally occurring fire and run back. These sounds crazy but imagine the improvements for them they could cook and keep warm. The use of fire is maybe why they migrated from Africa to colder places like Europe. This shows that our ancestors observed and tried to understand it which today’s scientists do!

"Taming Fire, The First Scientist." Odyssey: adventures in Science Oct. 2009: 29-30. Print.

On Our Own Two Feet

Have you ever wondered when and how we started walking? Well this question has been around for many years and we are still missing some key elements to confirm it. Walking upright on two legs is a very rare characteristic that we have and many other animals don't. Although we know that walking upright is very old it came before our increasing in brain size. One idea that most people get wrong is that a chimp isn't are ancient ancestor but it has shared a common ancestor. Even thought we do share common characteristics, they are still not our ancestors. One of our most know primate are the afarensis which lived half way between us and chimps. We all have a hole at the back of the skull that they use to tell a difference for us that hole is horizontal and since chimps walk on 4 legs theirs is slightly curved. For the afarensis the have a horizontally facing hole which shows they walked on two legs like us. Afarensis weren't the first one to walk on two feet their were many more old up to 6 million years old. Scientist were shocked when they heard this since they thought it was the opisite that our brains got bigger then we started walking.C.Owen has one of the most known theory that stats that they walked on two legs so their arms would be free so they could carry food or tools.They are still trying to find why we stared walking but the important thing is that we walked and that made a big difference.

Why We Study Human Origins

Didn't you ever think were we come form and how we found out? Well we only have limited information 
 since we cant find all the fossil. There are many question that we would like to have the answer for but we don't have the evidence to prove it. In the past people thought that are origins are from myths but one day a scientist Charles Darwin comes and gives everyone a new idea that plants and animals evolve to adapt to thier environment. After a while sientist accepted the idea. Thomas Henry Huxley also had a theory that anatomically African apes and humans were related. Although in their times no hominid fossils were fund so they had no evidence.Raymond Dart was the first one to find a hominid fossil which enforced Thomas's and Huxley theories. They also found stone tools that they used and that suggested that the were predatory. Their are lots of other idea like that we were knuckle walkers or bipeds living in water. Although it is still helping us understand our origins better.






Susman, Randall. "Why We Study Human Origins." Calliope: Exploring World History Sept. 1999: 4-5. Print.