Currently numerous fossils of the first men on Earth have been found and of which many studies have been carried out. According to the theory of evolutionism, man comes from lower zoological species. To reach his current state, he has undergone many transformations, both physical , to stop walking with the four limbs of him; psychic , for his ability to elaborate ideas, concepts and be able to express them through articulated language; and cultural , by acquiring the ability to craft their weapons and work tools.
Primates, basis of the evolution of the first men
The man in the zoological classification is a primate, relative of the anthropoids, lemurs and tarcid monkeys.
These last two were the last primates whose fossils are between 67 and 36 million years ago, scattered in the temperate regions of the north of the planet, since then they migrated south in search of the tropics.
In this new geographic environment, these species evolved to differentiate into three lineages:the New World monkeys (platyrrhines), Old World monkeys (catyrrhines) and the great anthropoids (gorilla, chimpanzee, orangutan and gibbon).
Man belongs to the same group as the great anthropoids; however, he is not a descendant of monkeys as it is known today
Faced with this enigma, anthropologists, paleontologists and archaeologists explain this phenomenon below:
The Dryopithecus, common ancestor of man and ape
It is likely that men and apes evolved from a different group of primates that inhabited Europe, Africa, and southern Asia. This would have happened between 36 and 14 million years ago.
This primate would be the Dryopithecus , descendant of the Propliothecus , whose characteristics were closer to the ape than to the man; they did not walk upright, they did not make tools, they did not articulate language, they lived in trees and others, possibly on the ground.
The Pre-australopithecines
Discovered in East Africa, they lived between 14 and 8 million years. The Kenyapitec represents this remote common ancestor of man and monkey. , found in Kenya. It was still an advanced primate , but not a man:he lacked the ability to make his tools, however they could choose the stones for their appropriate shapes to grind, break or cut.
The study on the evolutionary process of man has established that the chimpanzee and man are two related species. Biologically, it has been proven that the genetic heritage both are 99 percent the same.
The Australopithecines
Australopithecines make up the most remote ancestors of modern man. They were the first hominids that gave rise to the genus homo .
The fossil remains of the Omo River
In Ethiopia (East Africa), they are about 4 million years old. Until new discoveries, it would be the most remote hominid on Earth and the only fossil remains from the end of the Tertiary Era (Pliocene).
The footsteps of Laetoli
Located in Tanzania, these footprints printed on a layer of volcanic ash in formation, correspond to two individuals of both sexes that followed a group of animals. Buried approximately 3,750,000 years ago, they constitute evidence that hominids were already moving upright, leaning on both lower extremities, as bipedal beings do.
They had longer arms than those of modern man, because the fingers of the hands reached close to the knees; his skull was too small with only 400 cubic cm of capacity.
The incomplete skeleton of Afar (Lucy)
The Afar skeleton belongs to an austrolopithecus of female sex that lived 3.5 million years ago, to which archaeologists gave the name of Lucy .
Following the evolutionary process of this astrolopithecus, came the austrolopithecine gracile , who lived between 3 and 2 million years ago. It follows that he walked bipedally, slightly hunched over and with long arms . His cranial capacity was much larger:480 cubic cm. From this ancestor derived the homo habilis .
Homo Habilis or Intelligent Man
The Homo Habilis was the representative of the gender homo , that is, the immediate predecessor of modern man . His figure was similar to that of an upright and bipedal ape, with long arms and a much larger cranial capacity than austrolopithecines, that is, 650 and 800 cubic cm.
Homo Habilis existed two million years ago and survived until a million years ago , in East Africa, from where he would have emigrated to the Asian continent. He was only 1.30 meters tall and weighed, on average, only 40 kilos.
On the cultural side, they showed some skill in carving their axes, albeit quite crude, from small pebbles. They were omnivorous, since in their diet there was already a certain percentage of meat .
The fossil remains of the Oldovai Man found in the gorge of the same name, in Tanzania by the Leakey spouses in 1959, constitute the maximum representative of this human group. Its age is estimated at 1,750,000 years.
Homo Erectus or Upright Man
Homo Erectus descended from Homo Habilis . It would have lived between a million and 500 thousand years, approximately. It was the result of the hominization process . Indeed, Homo Erectus was already an advanced biped, that is, they walked on two feet , with the flexibility shown by modern man. They were omnivorous, with a marked preference for meat obtained through hunting.
Homo Erectus made his weapons and stone tools. Through gathering and hunting, they provided themselves with food and skins to cover themselves.
There are two human groups representing this stage of the evolution of primitive man:the Java man and Peking Man .
The Java Man
He was the first representative of Homo Erectus or pithecanthropus, whose remains were found on the island of Java, at the southeastern end of the Asian continent, by the Dutch naturalist and anthropologist Eugenio Dubois.
This discovery was relegated until numerous samples of Homo Erectus were discovered in China.
Peking Man
These remains were found in the Dragon Cave in the China area, they updated the importance of the findings of the anthropologist Eugenio Dubois , since they were the remains of Asian Homo Erectus, which would have lived between 700,000 and 500,000 years old.
Homo Sapiens Faber
This ancestor of modern man lived between 150,000 and 50,000 years old. It exhibited the physical characteristics of today's man, as it showed his ability to work, think and express himself. Belong to this group the Rhodesia man , in Africa and the Neanderthal Man in Germany.
Homo Sapiens-Sapiens
He is the closest ancient man endowed with the anthropological characteristics of today's man. He lived between 50 and 20 thousand years. The genuine representative of it is the Cro-Magnon Man , whose remains were found in France. This man was a gatherer, hunter and fisherman. He is the modern man, only differentiated from the current one by his cultural level.