swatkats
Skilled
The path from ape to modern human is not a linear one. Hannah Devlin looks at what we know – and what might be next for our species
Let’s go back to the beginning. When did we and our ape cousins part ways?
Scientists are still working on an exact date – or even a date to within a million years. Like many of the big questions in human evolution, the answer itself has evolved over the past few decades as new discoveries, techniques and technology have provided fresh insights.
Genetics has proved one of the most powerful tools for time-stamping the split with our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. When our complete genomes were compared in 2005, the two species were found to share 98% of their DNA. The differences hold important clues to how long our lineages have been diverging. By estimating the rate at which new genetic mutations are acquired over generations, scientists can use the genetic differences as a “molecular clock”to give a rough idea of when the split occurred. Most calculations suggest it was between four to eight million years ago.
source: https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...led-tracks-of-humankinds-evolutionary-journey
Let’s go back to the beginning. When did we and our ape cousins part ways?
Scientists are still working on an exact date – or even a date to within a million years. Like many of the big questions in human evolution, the answer itself has evolved over the past few decades as new discoveries, techniques and technology have provided fresh insights.
Genetics has proved one of the most powerful tools for time-stamping the split with our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. When our complete genomes were compared in 2005, the two species were found to share 98% of their DNA. The differences hold important clues to how long our lineages have been diverging. By estimating the rate at which new genetic mutations are acquired over generations, scientists can use the genetic differences as a “molecular clock”to give a rough idea of when the split occurred. Most calculations suggest it was between four to eight million years ago.
source: https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...led-tracks-of-humankinds-evolutionary-journey
Quick guide
Evolutionary timeline
55m years ago
First primates evolve.
15m years ago
Hominidae (great apes) split off from the ancestors of the gibbon.
8m years ago
Chimp and human lineages diverge from that of gorillas.
4.4m years ago
Ardipithecus appears: an early "proto-human" with grasping feet.
4m years ago
Australopithecines appeared, with brains about the size of a chimpanzee’s.
2.3m years ago
Homo habilis first appeared in Africa.
1.85m years ago
First "modern" hand emerges.
1.6m years ago
Hand axes are a major technological innovation.
800,000 years ago
Evidence of use of fire and cooking.
700,000 years ago
Modern humans and Neanderthals split.
400,000 years ago
Neanderthals begin to spread across Europe and Asia.
300,000 years ago
Evidence of early Homo sapiens in Morocco.
200,000 years ago
Homo sapiens found in Israel.
60,000 years ago
Modern human migration from Africa that led to modern-day non-African populations.