Where did Homo sapiens come from? Homo sapiens is a species that includes four subspecies

09.05.2019

For a long time in the Anthropocene, biological factors and patterns were gradually replaced by social ones, which finally ensured the appearance of a modern type of man in the Upper Paleolithic - Homo sapiens, or reasonable man. In 1868, five human skeletons were discovered in the Cro-Magnon cave in France, along with stone tools and drilled shells, which is why Homo sapiens are often called Cro-Magnons. Before Homo sapiens appeared on the planet, there was another humanoid species called Neanderthals. They populated almost the entire Earth and differed large sizes, serious physical strength. Their brain volume was almost the same as that of a modern earthling - 1330 cm3.
Neanderthals lived during the Great Ice Age, so they had to wear clothes made from animal skins and hide from the cold in the depths of caves. Their only rival in natural conditions could only be a saber-toothed tiger. Our ancestors had highly developed brow ridges; they had a powerful, forward jaw with large teeth. The remains found in the Palestinian cave of Es-Shoul, on Mount Carmel, clearly indicate that Neanderthals are the ancestors of modern humans. These remains combine both ancient Neanderthal features and features already characteristic of modern man.
It is assumed that the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans took place in the most climatically favorable regions globe, in particular, in the Mediterranean, Western and Central Asia, Crimea and the Caucasus. Latest Research show that the Neanderthal man lived for some time even at the same time as the Cro-Magnon man, the direct predecessor of modern man. Today, Neanderthals are considered to be a kind of side branch of the evolution of Homo sapiens.
Cro-Magnons appeared about 40 thousand years ago in East Africa. They populated Europe and, within a very short period, completely replaced the Neanderthals. Unlike their ancestors, Cro-Magnons were distinguished by a large, active brain, thanks to which they took an unprecedented step forward in a short period of time.
Since Homo sapiens lived in many regions of the planet with different natural and climatic conditions, this left a certain imprint on his appearance. Already in the Upper Paleolithic era they began to develop racial types modern man: Negroid-Australoid, Euro-Asian and Asian-American, or Mongoloid. Representatives of different races differ in skin color, eye shape, hair color and type, skull length and shape, and body proportions.
Hunting became the most important activity for Cro-Magnons. They learned to make darts, tips and spears, invented bone needles, used them to sew the skins of foxes, arctic foxes and wolves, and also began to build dwellings from mammoth bones and other improvised materials.
For collective hunting, building homes and making tools, people began to live tribal communities, consisting of several large families. Women were considered the core of the clan and were mistresses in common dwellings. The growth of the human frontal lobes has contributed to the complexity of its public life and diversity labor activity, ensured the further evolution of physiological functions, motor skills and associative thinking.

The technology for producing labor tools was gradually improved, and their range increased. Learning to take advantage of your developed intelligence, Homo sapiens became the sovereign master of all life on Earth. In addition to hunting mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, wild horses and bison, as well as gathering, Homo sapiens also mastered fishing. The way of life of people also changed - gradual subsidence began separate groups hunters and gatherers in forest-steppe areas rich in vegetation and game. Man learned to tame animals and domesticate some plants. This is how cattle breeding and agriculture appeared.
A sedentary lifestyle ensured the rapid development of production and culture, which led to the flourishing of housing and economic construction, the production of various tools, and the invention of spinning and weaving. It started to take shape completely new type management, and people began to depend less on the vagaries of nature. This led to an increase in the birth rate and the spread of human civilization to new territories. The production of more advanced tools became possible thanks to the development of gold, copper, silver, tin and lead around the 4th millennium BC. There was a social division of labor and specialization of individual tribes in production activities, depending on certain natural and climatic conditions.
We draw conclusions: at the very beginning, human evolution took place very at a slow pace. It took several million years since the emergence of our earliest ancestors for man to reach the stage of his development at which he learned to create the first cave paintings.
But with the appearance of Homo sapiens on the planet, all of his abilities began to develop rapidly, and in a relatively short period of time, man became the dominant form of life on Earth. Today our civilization has already reached 7 billion people and continues to grow. At the same time, the mechanisms still work natural selection and evolution, but these processes are slow and rarely amenable to direct observation. The emergence of Homo sapiens and the subsequent rapid development of human civilization led to the fact that nature gradually began to be used by people to satisfy their own needs. The impact of people on the biosphere of the planet has produced significant changes in it - the species composition of the organic world has changed in environment and the nature of the Earth as a whole.

Homo sapiens ( Homo sapiens) - a species of the genus People (Homo), family of hominids, order of primates. It is considered the dominant animal species on the planet and the highest level of development.

Currently, Homo sapiens is the only representative of the genus Homo. Several tens of thousands of years ago, the genus was represented by several species at once - Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons and others. It has been established for certain that the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens is (Homo erectus, 1.8 million years ago - 24 thousand years ago). For a long time it was believed that the closest ancestor of humans is, but in the course of research it became clear that Neanderthal is a subspecies, a parallel, lateral or sister line of human evolution and does not belong to the ancestors of modern humans. Most scientists are inclined to believe that the direct ancestor of man was the one who existed 40-10 thousand years ago. The term “Cro-Magnon” defines Homo sapiens, who lived up to 10 thousand years ago. The closest relatives of Homo sapiens among the primates existing today are the Common chimpanzee and the Pygmy chimpanzee (Bonobo).

The formation of Homo sapiens is divided into several stages: 1. Primitive community (from 2.5-2.4 million years ago, Old Stone Age, Paleolithic); 2. Ancient world(in most cases determined by major events ancient Greece and Rome (First Olympiad, foundation of Rome), from 776-753 BC. e.); 3. Middle Ages or Middle Ages (V-XVI centuries); 4. Modern times (XVII-1918); Modern times(1918 - present day).

Today Homo sapiens has populated the entire Earth. At last count, the world population is 7.5 billion people.

Video: The Origins of Humanity. Homo Sapiens

Do you like to spend your time in an exciting and educational way? In this case, you should definitely find out about museums in St. Petersburg. ABOUT best museums You can find out about galleries and attractions of St. Petersburg by reading Viktor Korovin’s blog “Samivkrym”.

Almost every one of us has heard about UFOs at least once, but not everyone knows about such a category as unidentified fossil facts (artifacts). They are found at enormous depths of cultural layers of the earth. Artifacts manifest themselves at levels at which, according to today's ideas, not only humans, but even primates should not.

answering the question “how old is humanity?”, in school textbooks they confidently wrote that it is forty thousand years old, but the first creatures similar to humans appeared more than two million years ago. Such figures were obtained by scientists in 1967. However, over time, various evidence began to appear that the age of humanity should be calculated in millions of years. For example, in California, a site of prehistoric people was discovered at a depth of seven meters. Traces of fire and parts of rough stone tools were examined. The result amazed the expedition: the age of the site was determined to be 200 thousand years.

Then, scientists L. Leakey discovered the skull of Zijantropus and various stone tools, the analysis of which indicated that their age was more than two million years. I was looking for an answer to the question “how old is humanity?” another expedition. Its participants were lucky enough to find artifacts in Ethiopia that allow them to conclude that given age can be safely pushed back by 4,000,000 years.

If we delve deeper into the problem, it will become clear that the development of mankind relates to even more early period. For example, a jaw bone was found in Kenya that belonged to our distant ancestor who lived 13 million years ago! The facts obtained tell us about individuals. However, there is also data that concerns entire individual civilizations. They eloquently indicate that they are much older than previously thought.

Near Mexico City, while exploring, scientists decided to guess how old humanity is. In ancient times, its predominant

Part was filled with lava erupted from a volcanic crater. As it turned out later, it was created over five million years, although it was believed that there were no civilizations at all in this region at that time. As we see, this is direct evidence of the existence of organized life. With the help of various modern measurements, it was determined that a person left this structure back in 2160 BC.

It is also interesting that a date dating back to 12,042 BC was carved on one of the walls in Central Africa. In addition, records from later dates were discovered. Excavations prove that there were also developed civilizations near this region, for example, where Peru is now located, bas-reliefs were found with strange creatures depicted on them. According to experts, this civilization existed 20,000 years BC. And how much information has been published about the mysterious Hyperborea, the Arctida continent, our Aryan ancestors, who lived, according to our contemporaries, 18 million years ago!

Unfortunately, modern science takes into account only documentary evidence that answers the question of how old humanity is. But besides them, there are also unconventional, difficult to explain sources (ancient manuscripts, legends, maps of continents from the 15th century, unexpected finds in recently inaccessible places). These evidences and facts also make it possible to establish the true age of humanity. As we see, the Earth is reluctant to part with its secrets.

Difficulties of classification

It would seem that no problems should arise with the classification of the animal species known as Homo sapiens sapiens (reasonable man). It would seem, what could be simpler? It belongs to the chordates (subphylum vertebrates), to the class of mammals, to the order of primates (humanoids). In more detail, his family is hominids. So, his race is human, his species is intelligent. But the question arises: how is it different from others? At least from the same Neanderthals? Were extinct species of humans really that unintelligent? Can a Neanderthal be called a distant but direct ancestor of man of our time? Or maybe these two species existed in parallel? Did they interbreed and produce joint offspring? Until work is done to study the genome of these mysterious Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, there will be no answer to this question.

Where did the Homo sapiens species originate?

Most scientists believe that the common ancestor of all people, both modern and extinct Neanderthals, appeared in Africa. There, during the Miocene era (this is approximately six or seven million years ago), a group of species separated from the hominids, which subsequently evolved to the genus Homo . First of all, the basis for this point of view was the finding oldest remains a person called Australopithecus. But soon other finds were discovered ancient people- Sinanthropa (in China) and Homo heidelbergensis (in Europe). Were these varieties of the same genus?

Were they all ancestors of modern humans or dead-end branches of evolution? One way or another, Homo sapiens appeared much later - forty or forty-five thousand years ago, during the Paleolithic. And the revolutionary difference between homo sapiens and other hominids moving on their hind limbs was that he made tools. His ancestors, however, like some modern monkeys, only used improvised means.

Secrets of the family tree

Even 50 years ago, they taught in school that Homo sapiens descended from Neanderthals. He was often represented as a hairy half-animal, with a sloping skull and protruding jaw. And Homo Neanderthals, in turn, evolved from Pithecanthropus. Soviet science depicted him almost as a monkey: on half-bent legs, completely covered with hair. But if with this oldest ancestor Everything is more or less clear, but the relationship between Homo sapiens sapiens and Neanderthals is much more complicated. It turns out that both of these species existed for some time at the same time and even in the same territories. Thus, the hypothesis of the origin of Homo sapiens from Neanderthals requires additional evidence.

Did Homo neanderthalensis belong to the Homo sapiens species?

A more thorough study of the burials of this species showed that the Neanderthal was completely upright. In addition, these people had articulate speech, tools (stone chisels), religious cults (including funeral ones), and primitive art (jewelry). However, he was distinguished from modern man by a number of features. For example, the absence of a chin protrusion, which suggests that the speech of such people was not sufficiently developed. The findings confirm the following facts: Neanderthal man arose one hundred and fifty thousand years ago and flourished until 35-30 thousand years BC. That is, this happened at a time when the species “Homo sapiens sapiens” had already appeared and clearly formed. The “Neanderthal” completely disappeared only during the era of the last glaciation (Wurmsky). It is difficult to say what caused his death (after all, the change in climatic conditions affected only Europe). Perhaps the legend of Cain and Abel has deeper roots?

Neanderthals [The History of Failed Humanity] Vishnyatsky Leonid Borisovich

Homeland of homo sapiens

With all the diversity of views on the problem of the origin of homo sapiens (Fig. 11.1), all proposed options for its solution can be reduced to two main opposing theories, which were briefly discussed in Chapter 3. According to one of them, monocentric, the place of origin of people of modern anatomical type there was some rather limited territorial region, from where they subsequently settled throughout the planet, gradually displacing, destroying or assimilating the hominid populations that preceded them in different places. Most often, East Africa is considered as such a region, and the corresponding theory of the emergence and spread of homo sapiens is called the “African exodus” theory. The opposite position is taken by researchers who defend the so-called “multiregional” - polycentric - theory, according to which the evolutionary formation of homo sapiens occurred everywhere, that is, in Africa, Asia, and Europe, on a local basis, but with more or less widespread exchange genes between populations of these regions. Although the dispute between monocentrists and polycentrists, which has long history, is still not completed, the initiative is now clearly in the hands of supporters of the theory of the African origin of homo sapiens, and their opponents have to give up one position after another.

Rice. 11.1. Possible origin scenarios Homo sapiens: A- the candelabra hypothesis, which assumes independent evolution in Europe, Asia and Africa from local hominids; b- multiregional hypothesis, which differs from the first by recognizing the exchange of genes between populations of different regions; V- the hypothesis of complete replacement, according to which our species originally appeared in Africa, from where it subsequently spread throughout the planet, displacing the forms of hominids that preceded it in other regions and without mixing with them; G- assimilation hypothesis, which differs from the complete replacement hypothesis by recognizing partial hybridization between sapiens and the indigenous populations of Europe and Asia

First, fossil anthropological materials clearly indicate that people of a modern or very similar physical type appeared in East Africa already at the end of the Middle Pleistocene, that is, much earlier than anywhere else. The oldest currently known anthropological find attributed to homo sapiens is the skull of Omo 1 (Fig. 11.2), discovered in 1967 near the northern coast of Lake. Turkana (Ethiopia). Its age, judging by the available absolute dating and a number of other data, ranges from 190 to 200 thousand years ago. The well-preserved frontal and, especially, occipital bones of this skull are anatomically quite modern, as are the remains of the bones of the facial skeleton. A fairly developed chin protuberance is recorded. According to the conclusion of many anthropologists who studied this find, the skull of Omo 1, as well as the known parts of the postcranial skeleton of the same individual, do not bear signs that go beyond the usual range of variability for homo sapiens.

Rice. 11.2. Omo 1 skull is the oldest of all anthropological finds attributed to homo sapiens

In general, three skulls found not so long ago at the Kherto site in Middle Awash, also in Ethiopia, are very close in structure to the finds from Omo. One of them has reached us almost entirely (except lower jaw), the preservation of the other two is also quite good. The age of these skulls ranges from 154 to 160 thousand years. In general, despite the presence of a number of primitive features, the morphology of the skulls from Kherto allows us to consider their owners as ancient representatives modern form person. The remains of people of a modern or very similar anatomical type comparable in age were discovered at a number of other East African sites, for example in the Mumba Grotto (Tanzania) and the Dire Dawa Cave (Ethiopia). Thus, whole line well-studied and fairly reliably dated anthropological finds from East Africa indicates that people who did not differ or differed little in anatomical terms from the current inhabitants of the Earth lived in this region 150–200 thousand years ago.

Rice. 11.3. Some links in the evolutionary line believed to have led to the appearance of the species Homo sapiens: 1 - Bodo, 2 - Broken Hill, 3 - Latoli, 4 - Omo 1, 5 - Border

Secondly, of all the continents, only Africa is known a large number of remains of hominids of a transitional nature, allowing at least general outline to trace the process of transformation of local homo erectus into people of a modern anatomical type. It is believed that the immediate predecessors and ancestors of the first homo sapiens in Africa could be hominids represented by skulls such as Singa (Sudan), Florisbad (South Africa), Ileret (Kenya) and a number of other finds. They date back to the second half of the Middle Pleistocene. Skulls from Broken Hill (Zambia), Ndutu (Tanzania), Bodo (Ethiopia) and a number of other samples are considered as somewhat earlier links in this line of evolution (Fig. 11.3). All African hominids, anatomically and chronologically intermediate between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, are sometimes classified together with their European and Asian contemporaries as Homo heidelbergensis, and sometimes included in special types, the earlier of which is called homo rhodesiensis ( Homo rhodesiensis), and the later Homo Helmei ( Homo helmei).

Thirdly, genetic data, according to most experts in this field, also point to Africa as the most likely initial center for the formation of the species Homo sapiens. It is no coincidence that the greatest genetic diversity among modern human populations it is observed precisely there, and with distance from Africa this diversity decreases more and more. This is how it should be if the theory of the “African exodus” is correct: after all, the populations of homo sapiens, which were the first to leave their ancestral home and settled somewhere in the vicinity of it, “captured” only part of the species gene pool on the way, those groups that then branched off from them and moved even further - only part of part and so on.

Finally, fourthly, the skeleton of the first European homo sapiens is characterized by a number of features that are typical of inhabitants of the tropics and hot subtropics, but not of high latitudes. This has already been discussed in Chapter 4 (see Fig. 4.3–4.5). This picture agrees well with the theory of the African origin of people of modern anatomical type.

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