He didn't stray far from the tropics, though (particularly when the world cooled down during the periodic ice ages), and was already on his way to extinction around 100,000 years ago.Īfter this change in abilities that led to the erectus African exodus, a long period of stasis seems to have set in. He even seems to have wandered out of Africa around 1.8m years ago - Java Man and Peking Man were both part of the Homo erectus family.
Homo erectus, the master toolmaker of the era, had a much bigger brain than his ancestors and developed many of the elements of modern human behaviour, probably including the use of fire and some form of rudimentary language.
#The great leap forward free
Over time, these upright apes became completely bipedal, allowing them to see further and run faster, while leaving the hands free to do other things.which they started to do in earnest around 2m years ago when we see the first evidence of tool use by our ancestors. Africa went through a particularly bad drought around 6m years ago, which resulted in the drying up of the Mediterranean and seems to have set in motion some rather significant changes in the hominid - and ultimately human - lineage. This probably happened as a result of - wait for it - climate change. Around the time of Ardipithecus it seems that some apes decided to walk around on two legs. Perhaps the best documented is Ardipithecus, discovered in the 90s. Several recent discoveries have revealed ape-like creatures that could walk upright around 5m years ago. How we came to have so much grey matter is a long story, and one that leads us even further back in time than our hardships on the African veldt 60,000 years ago. In many ways we are very much like our ape cousins, but we are different in a rather important respect - one that our species' Latin name sums up quite succinctly: we are Homo sapiens, or "wise man". The ice sheets sucked up much of the world's moisture, causing widespread droughts particularly in Africa where the tropical latitude and intense sunshine, coupled with the lower moisture levels had a major environmental effect.īut our mass exodus from Africa was not only a matter of escape from bad weather it was also about brain power. Around 60,000 years ago the Earth was in the middle of an ice age, the effect of which was pretty chilling in the far north but in Africa it caused different problems. We can probably blame much of it on the weather. The worst time in the history of our species one we nearly didn't survive.īut why were things so bad, and why does it seem to coincide with the time we left Africa to populate the rest of the world? Surely a species poised on the brink of extinction was not the obvious choice to create M25 gridlock within 2,500 generations? Then there were as few as 2,000 humans in existence. There seem to be more people - but still limited to Africa - and finally settle on 60,000 years ago as the low point. You head back to 100,000 years ago just to make sure. Before that (apart from the Neanderthals) you only find people living in Africa. At 50,000 years ago Australia is part of an uninhabited continent.
Around 20,000 years ago there are no people in America 40,000 years ago you notice a change in Europe - the Neanderthals are in charge. Here, about 10,000 years ago, there are only a few million people. You accelerate, back past the Norman invasion, Julius Caesar, the first farming communities. At this point the world population is around a billion. Back past the Beatles, Churchill, the Boer War (only 1.5 billion people alive), Krakatoa, the French revolution. Could it be true? If it is, what led us from endangered species to motorway mayhem in an evolutionary eyeblink? "Yeah right!" you think, looking out at the endless sea of cars. You catch the end of a Radio 4 show - something about the threat of human extinction thousands of years ago. The average speed of traffic through London is less now than it was in the days of horse-drawn carriages. You know the stats: more than six billion people in the world today, increasing to nine billion by the middle of the century. Sitting on the M25, staring grimly at the surrounding traffic, you sigh.
0 kommentar(er)
