Theory An Overview of the Evolution of Man

Although such a study be not, strictly, pertaining to astronomy or even astrobiology, it remains useful in any case both like a helpful memento or like the story of the only advanced intelligent species known in the Universe, which simply is ourselves!

Origins: Mammals and Primates

click to a diagram of the history of man

Humans are primates. Primates are a variety of mammals, like the lemurs or the monkeys and the apes. Mammals, generally, appeared from the tree shrews 65 million years ago, when the disparition of the dinosaurs made room then for the development of the reign of those new animals, as some think that a common ancestor to all primates was extant by 85 million years ago already, which is before dinosaurs got extinct, or that the common ancestor to all mammals dates back to 180 millions years. The closest thing to the ancestor of humans was 55 million-year old monkey-like creature weighing a ounce or less. Being so small and warm-blooded it had to eat bugs and move constantly to keep from losing internal heat. That looks like it hints to that early primates first developed in Asia as humans later evolved in Africa. The golden age of mammals began about 17 millions years ago as first Lemurians, our most obvious mammal ancestor likely dates back to 47 million years ago. Monkeys -not in the informal use- and apes evolved from a common primate ancestor, as a common ancestor to man and the apes of Africa appeared before 17 million years ago or is a gibbon appeared 17 millions years ago. Apes of Africa and other primates are more skilled in social life than other species. On the basis of that common ancestor, the potential human species gradually and eventually separated from the other hominoid apes: from the gibbons 25 million years ago, from the orangutans 15 million years ago, and eventually from hominid apes, like gorillas and chimpanzees, about 10 million years (instead of about 8 million like previously thought). The last separation, the one from the chimpanzees is thought to have occurred between 7 and 4 millions ago, with the various man species evolving, from that time, according to a bushy scheme, which eventually yielded Homo sapiens, about 500,000 years ago. We're sharing 95% of our genes with chimps. Recent studies suggest that that separation between chimps and man could have occurred by some 8 million years instead of 5 to 6 as a seemingly large period of hybridation might have occurred between both ancestors to both species. Tumai, or Sahelanthropus tchadensis, a fossil found in Chad, for example, might fit into that frame, at 7 million years old. Scientists recently discovered that differences between man and chimps mostly is due to 1 percent of so-called 'junk DNA,' or sequences having no biological functions like encoding for protein sequences as they are important on-off regulators of important genes instead. As chimpanzees have gaps in their genome, man have those gap filled with junk DNA. Junk DNA might play some hidden, useful role as it might also consists of the fossils of once useful genes that have now been switched off. A instrumental step into the apparition of man was that the African Rift rose in eastern Africa, along two tectonic plates between 17-13.5 million years ago, which constituted a barrier to the moist coming from the Indian Ocean over the continent. As that brought more grasslands instead of a rain forest, pre-humans were forced to bipedalism as to be able to roam larger distances for food. Paleoantropologists now think that a large part of the evolution of man was due to genes. A lack of some typical genes allowing for empathy -a intuitive understanding of a other individual- or art, for example, is making that apes have behaviors related to autism as, for example, they never look at each other eye to eye. Scientists found that members of a gene family called NOTCH2NL are active in humans but not in apes, which arose roughly 3-4 million years ago, after the human lineage split from the branch that led to the great apes. Those genes brought to a larger brain in humans through the generation of neurons. At the difference of chimpanzees, humans got highly cooperative and altruistic by adopting 'cooperative breeding,' the caring for infants not just by the mother, but also by other members of the family and sometimes even unrelated adults. The advance led to the development of language and complex civilizations. The difference in behaviour and psychology between humans and non-human primates generally, is related to brain's biology, where selection opted in humans for less synchronization of neuron signals and increased efficiency in information processing. Such improvements on the other hand, make that humans are more error-prone or vulnerable to psychiatric disorders. More climate change 3 million years ago due to a cyclical change in the Earth axis brought a ice age with drought and savanah in Africa. Some thinking goes also that some cosmic radiations might have triggered some DNA mutation among apes and brought to the start of the human process

->A More Detailed View
Yves Coppens, the famed French paleontologist defined a classical script of the hominoid origins of man (which might have to be updated about some points however). The great apes of Africa, Australopiths, and man and its various ancestors all are part of the same family of the hominids. More detailed, that translates into that, about 30 and 25 million years ago, during the 'Oligocene', a ligneage common to man and great apes of Africa and Asia -the 'hominoids'- is appearing in East Africa. Then, about 23 to 18 million years ago, by the beginning of the following geological era, the 'Miocene', that ligneage is expanding in whole Africa. Between 18 and 15 million years, then, more dryness in Africa leads to the rain forest to be replaced by some clear vegetation, allowing a large diversification of the hominoids (the 'Afropith', the 'Kenyapith', etc.). As the dryness is keeping further, between 15 and 8 million years, some sucessors of the Kenyapith are forced to migrate into the Eurasia, where they diversificate in turn, at a high rate and may be termed 'advanced primates' (the hominoids which remained in Africa are declining, as far as they are concerned). A last large-scale tectonics event, by 8 -or 10- million years ago, in the African volcanoe Rift, East, separates the rain forest from elevating plateaux in East Africa. It's there, at that time, that the last main rift occurs, the one between the great Apes, like the ancestors to the gorillas or the chimpanzees, and man proper, under the form of the Australopiths!

->The Question of the Anthropoid in Chad
'Sahelanthropus tchadensis', which had been found in 2001 and 2002, in Chad, West of Africa, seems to have been a transitional species, as it walked upright 7 million years ago, but remaining quite chimp-like as far as its skull size, teeth, brow ridges and face were concerned

The view, generally, on the evolution of man followed that of life with a transition from the 'tree of life' concept to that of a bushing system of 'clades', or categories grouping living beings related to a common ancestor. Like life, the evolution of man relied on a a series of branches which coexisted as evolution put a end to some and allowed others to survive

6 Million Years Ago: The Australopiths

6 million years ago an ape species in Africa evolved and differed from apes. It had small canines and bipedalism as its primary form of locomotion. This species is the australopiths. Lucy, a well-known, 3.2 million years old, female, belongs to one species of australopiths. It might the brains of Australopiths were apelike and they expanded in size before they reorganized in the ways allowing to more complex mental behaviors such as making tools and developing language. Australopiths on the other hand, had a relatively long childhood and they might have needed parenting longer than their chimp relatives. Several species of australopiths are known. They kept living until about 1.2 million years ago probably in competition with the first next human species, and other apes and animals. 'Toumai' (Sahelanthropus tchadensis), is considered by some to be the first representative of the human lineage; it is about 7 million years old and was discovered in 2001 in Chad. Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus) is another hominid species discovered in Ethiopia at 4.5 million years ago, while 'Lucy' the famous Australopithecus discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, is 3.2 million years old. A new fossil, discovered in 2016 in Ethiopia (34 miles from where Lucy had been discovered) and called 'MRD,' is believed to belong to one of the very first Australopithecus, the Australopithecus anamensis. MRD and Lucy are believed to have crossed in the savannahs of Afar for about 100,000 years as MRD refers to both Toumai and Ardi but also to other, more recent, species. Such those recent discoveries tend to bridge the gap between Lucy and the oldest human ancestors which are found at 6 million years ago. It's the species "Australopithecus Robustus" which is part of the latest australopiths, with a mostly vegetarian diet. It seems that it's environmental changes which led australopiths to the differentation from apes. Global climate cooled and dried 8-5 million years ago -the Ice Age- leading to varied terrain. A mix of woodland and grasslands likely made that the australopithis as a whole presented traits of bipedalism as they had at the same time remnants of their ability to climb into trees, moving there from tree to tree. Diet of the australopiths was characterized by fluctuating resources, as they possessed physiological adaptations to this instability, with dietary cycles or even a return to milk diet when necessary. One thinks that the Australopiths' feet were not still completely differentiated from those of apes. Most recent finds in terms of foot bones are showing that the balance between bipedalism and tree life among the Austalopiths might have to be tipped on the side of bipedalism as they would have turn back to trees only to escape predators or for food, and albeit walking with a slightly different gait and a strong upper body allowing to climb, or to carry food or youngs. The debate however is still pending as recent findings allows to that despite the ability to walk upright, Australopiths remained active climbers and that exclusive bipedalism only occurred much later. Bipedalism, on a other hand, freed Australopiths' hands for other tasks. It's likely too that varied habitat led to several species of Australopiths which is confirmed by that a 3.4 million-year-old partial foot was discovered in 2012 in Ethiopia belonging to a variant of Australopithecus afarensis and likely part of the group which staid in trees as the other (the one of the famed 'Lucy,') became long-distance ground walkers. Both however were bipedals. Some australopithis species might already have had tools (dating back to 2.8 million years ago) and a meat diet, from kills by other predators. Eating meat, generally, which is more digestible than plant foods allowed smaller digestive tracts and a more active brain. Australopithecus sediba, another species of australopithis, has been found in South Africa at 1.8 or 1.9 million years old with a combination of primitive and more modern human-like characteristics. The ice age lasted until 1.6 million years ago. Some of such first hominids, between 4 and 2 million years ago might have not been taller than 4 feet

->About Bipedalism
An alternate explanation to bipedalism like linked to the savannah theory like exposed above, is that it might have begun much earlier, about between 17 and 24 million years ago, in populations of apes which were still living in trees. The quadripedalism in the gorillas and chimpanzees, on the other hand, beeing just a secondary regression of that. The first Australopiths might have been parted into two species, a one -Lucy- still more tree-related in their life, and a one more dedicated to bipedalism, the latter being the real ancestor to the following species of man

->Did the Australopiths Use Tools?
Mammals bones which were found in Ethiopia by 2010, and bearing traces of cuts, scratching or crushing, may let think that the use of tools is dating back to 3.39 million years, 800,000 years earlier than previously thought. That means that Australopiths, like 'Australopithecus afarensis' -the family of Lucy- might have used tools. It is still unknown whether they were fabricating their tools themselves, or if they used stones which presented a appropriate shape. Stone tools were invented and used by many lineages of early hominids, and as soon as by 3.3 million years for example

2.5 Millions Years Ago: Homo (habilis, erectus, heidelbergensis)

The next step was "Homo", appearing 2.5 million years ago in eastern and southern Africa. The Homo genus is now thought to have split away from more ape-like ancestors like Australopithecus afarensis, like skeleton Lucy, for example, by 2.8 million years, precisely. The evolutionary step from the Ethiopian jaw to the jaw of Homo habilis was not that large. Homo differed from the australopiths essentially as their brain was larger and their teeth smaller, and as they were the first real species to make an intensive use of stone tools. Homo erectus went beyond the ancient, hominids' toolmaking style as instead of hitting rocks against other to form a edge, they developed the 'Acheulean technology' -from a archeological site in France- which consisted into flaking off both side of a stone to form a blade. Homo bipedalism, on the other hand, was permanent. A human-like foot transverse arch was a key step in the evolution of human bipedalism that predated the genus Homo by at least 1.5 million years. Homo erectus was the first hominid to have had the same body proportions than modern men and a real ability to walk as he left tracks similar to modern humans. That allowed thus this new kind of man to roam over larger distances in quest of food among a sparser environment. Another, dryer, environmental change, 2.8-2.4 million years, might have led to this new, better suited, species. Tools allowed for alternative food sources, like roots and tubers, or meat (obtained by scavenging or hunting) in a sparser and drier environment. It's likely that the new form of humans cohabited with the various species of australopiths during about 2 million years, between 4 and 2 million years ago. Homo evolved over a very long timespan. Some think that 4 species of Australopiths, and 4 of 'Homo' might have co-existed during between 3 and 1 million years ago as close species like the Parenthropians -vegetarians- or Homo rudolfensis too. Paranthropus boisei, for example, with much larger teeth, ranged across East Africa 1.2 million to 2.3 million years ago, was recently discovered to have a grass and sedges diet as one living ape feeds mostly on grass only, the gelada baboon in Ethiopia. That hints to a relationship and to that scientists may have to extend the range of potential diets of early humans. It might that, approximately 2.5 million years ago, the Australopithss split into genus Homo, which eventually produced our species and genus Paranthropus, which dead-ended for varied causes
The earlier species of "Homo" were various Homo habilis which lived in Africa only, about 2.5-1.6 million years ago, as the ice age was still lasting, with some branches, like 'Homo ergaster', at about 1.6 million years ago, being more modern. Homo habilis had still apelike skeleton proportions, and likely descended from a gracile australopith. As he had a lesser physicial strength or features, he balanced that with being more clever. He had simple stone tools and probably a diet partly meat as he was able to eat bones marrow. He lived at the Pliocene, an ice age, during which colder and relatively milder phases alternated each 40,000 years. Eating marrow from scavenged bones likely allowed a larger intellectual activity to hominids. Scavenging also likely initiated language at the effect of telling the location of food to the other members of the group. Homo ergaster had acquired bipedalism, he had developed a heat-dissipating modern system with fur kept just over the brain. He had tools, base camps and he shared food resource as he was able to 'read' the world, like tracks or clouds and he transmitted knowledge. Homo ergaster might have been the first to get out of Africa, whence he learned more still and eventually turned into Homo Erectus. Homo erectus appeared then, 1.9 million years ago, likely derived from some early version of Homo habilis. He was a more present people-looking man. At that date, 1.8-1.5 million years ago, humans had spreaded out of Africa for the first time, Homo erectus being the first hominids to do so as it is, with the next Homo sapiens, the human species which spread the most over the Earth! A 1.8-million-year-old site at Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, one of the oldest known sites for ancient human species out of Africa. Hominids -- as some could also be related still to Australopiths -- at the moment of the first move out of Africa about 1.85 millions years ago and ever before, by about before 2 millions, covered vast distances like for example in China, at 8,700 miles from the nearest manned sites in East Africa. Homo erectus began to stride towards far-off places around 1.5 million to 2 million years ago as other hominin species around at that time stayed in Africa, living on borrowed time and facing imminent extinction. Compared with H. erectus, these species such as Homo habilis, as well as the australopiths, which include Paranthropus and Australopithecus had smaller brains and an anatomy that is less similar to modern humans. On the other hand, other hominins besides H. erectus might have dispersed from Africa to Eurasia at about 2.58 million to 0.78 million years ago) as whether Homo erectus is the ancestor of Homo floresiensis is still debated. Homo luzonensis, for example, provides yet more evidence that hints that Homo erectus might not have been the only globe-trotting early hominin. Homo luzonensis is displaying features both related to australopiths and other modern species closing to Homo Sapiens. Hominids first settled in southern Europe around 800,000 to 1 million years ago, and expanded farther North only sporadically until around 500,000 years ago. Homo erectus is thought to have originated in Africa and he spreaded then into Asia. He knew shelters, had more advanced stone tools (two large cultures of tools by Homo erectus (a one, in Africa, western Europe, and southern Asia improving the stone tools of the Homo habilis period, as another, in eastern Asia did not) are hinting to two types of Homo erectus, if not two species of them), and might have use fire from lightning events albeit not having known how to set fire self. Homo erectus might have been cannibal. It was the beginning of the Pleistocene. Man likely reached Europe 1.2 million years ago. At last, a late Homo habilis species, Homo heidelbergensis, appeared in Europe about 800,000 years ago (at the same period, in southwestern Europe, 'Homo antecessor' was extant, as he had settled there after a long migration from Africa, through the Middle East, southeastern Europe and the southern shores of France). Homo heidelbergensis appeared in Africa, like a branch left there when Homo erectus had spread out of the continent. He had no imaginative ability as some finds hint to that stone tips for spears making spears more lethal hunting weapons might have been invented by Homo heidelbergensis however. The migration of Homo erectus reached Caucasus 1.7 milion years ago, or Java 1.6 million years ago. South India, as far as it is concerned, seems to have been settled with people using Acheulian stone tools between 1.07 and 1.5 million years. The 'man of Beijing', a set of Homo erectus as discovered near the Chinese capital-city, and which was thought 500,000 years old might well date back better to 700,000 years with two roads leading to the Far East from Africa -one land-based, the other along the coasts- and not the Beijing man having arrived in China from Java. As the African origin is the current general consensus, yet a competing multiregional view is also held by many scientists like, for example, that Chinese hominids, according to climate change, might have moved to and back in warmer Europe and mated with local Neanderthals. Migrations out of Africa are thought to be linked to migrations of meat-eating animals like lions and hyenas. Starting 700,000 years ago, the alternance of milder and colder periods came to occur each 100,000 years only. From the most recent studies, it appears like -which is the case for the bushy evolutionary history of man- Homo erectus and Homo habilis likely coexisted during some period of time -something like 500,000 years, 1.5 million years ago. Man species lost their body hair 1 million years ago only as first clothing is dated to 170 000 years ago, leaving a long time, in Africa, when men had neither body hair, neither clothing. The youngest, most-advanced form of H. erectus existed by about 111,000 years ago in Indonesia as it had reached there since more than 1,5 million years ago

Of note that during the Pleistocene epoch, or the Great Ice Age (roughly 2 million to 12,000 years ago) researchers found a high occurrence of genetic abnormalities as those had been seen since the time of early Homo erectus, which points to interbreeding among very small and isolated human groups. That would also invalidate many of the genetic views about when humans appeared on the tree of life as such views until now have assumed large populations. The level of variation seen in individuals among the Homo fossils also suggests that instead of Africa once being home to multiple human species such as Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster and Homo rudolfensis, all of these specimens may actually simply be Homo erectus

->When Did Fire Originate?
The mainstream theory is that Homo erectus knew to use fire, just controlling blazes, for example, set by lightnings and that its successors, Homo heidelbergensis or Homo neanderthalensis, eventually learned to set fire themselves, occurring about 300,000 years ago. Most recent findings however, with pieces of flint found close to stone tools which had belonged to Homo erectus might well hint to that it's the latter which would have learned to set fire as soon as by 790,000 years ago. Another finding, dating to 500,000 years ago, in China, and related too to Homo erectus, already tended in the same direction. Near the edge of the Kalahari Desert, in South Africa scientists have discovered by 2012 the earliest known evidence of controlled use of fire, a million years ago! Charred evidence were found alongside stone tools. Grasses, brushes and leaves only were burned for these fires and not capable of flames hotter than 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius). Fire allowed to warmth and protection against night predators, cooking and also socialization around a campfire and thus is a major turning point in the history of mankind. It might, scientists now think, that fire would date as far back as to the appearance of Homo erectus 1.9 million years ago. At that time humans experienced major brain expansion, as cooking might have allowed our ancestors to evolve larger, more calorie-hungry brains and bodies, and smaller guts suited for more easily digested cooked food. A evolution in the genes allowed men to widen their diet range since about 2 million years ago. The ability to cook provided more calories to ancient man to expand his brain. A complementary evolution found with Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago distinguished modern humans from Neanderthals and Denisovans in terms of the ability to digest sugars of starchy foods, giving a advantage to get calories from those

->More About the History of Tools
The discovery and use of tools allowed early humans to consumate the flesh of large, dead animals as they began competing with large carnivors that way. That further likely brought to more collaborative work inside the human groups. Such Darwinist processes allowed the evolution of hominids through access to new source of food and the exploitation of new territories. Right-handedness among humanoids and humans is a trend that dates back since 10,000 years and perhaps as far back as 500,000 or even 2 million years as a styloid bone's apperance in the hand or mastering throwing stones, for example, were instrumental too. It might that the Australopiths had developed several but not all of the traits associated with the precision grip required for habitual toolmaking. A. africanus that lived in South Africa between 2 million and 3 million years ago had a human-like precision grip. Here follows a simple chronology of the use of tools
-3.39 million years ago: most ancient tools (Ethiopia). Australopiths of the Lucy style might have used those. One does not know however whether they were making such tools, or simply using appropriately shaped stones
-2.6-2.5 million years ago: Homo habilis tools. They consist either in 'choppers', with a single face chopped, or 'chopping-tools', with both faces chopped. Early tools were typically manufactured from hard blows from a stone hammer to give another stone a rough blade-like shape, then would use wood or bone implements to carve out relatively small flakes, refining the blade's edge and tip
-more than 1 million year ago (late Paleolithics): tools are beginning to get diversified. The chopping-tools of the Acheulean period are more elaborated and displaying a will of a shape. During the middle Acheulean, first chipped tools appear, like scratchers, stone chips re-worked at their long side, marked or endented tools -of which scratchers and burins, etc
-early humans in eastern Africa crafted advanced tools tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought, or developed trade network. Such changes in human behaviour occurred during an extended period of environmental upheaval, punctuated by strong earthquakes and a shift towards a more variable and arid climate. These changes occurred at the same time as larger animals disappeared from the site and were replaced by smaller creatures
-200,000 years ago: Levallois area tools, which essentially are made of flint, represent a major step in the evolution of tools as the making of chips is getting standardized. Through a preparation and elaboration of the original rock block, chipped tools are getting standardized dimensions and forms. The ultimate stone technique was the one known like 'pressure flaking', with its apogee by the Solutrean culture in France and Spain 20,000 years ago. More delicate and thin stone chips may be obtained from a starting stone block, providing a high degree of control over the sharpness, thickness and overall shape of sharp tools such as spearheads or stone knives. Some stone block could even be heat-treated before use. Levallois-type stone tech first developed around 300,000 years ago in Africa and west Eurasia as it also reached east Asian hominins at approximately 170,000–80,000 years ago

->More About the History of Art
A picture at 73,000 years ago in Blombos Cave, on the southern shore of South Africa is a abstract design drawn made using a crayon made of red ochre. Apart from some cave paintings from Spain dated to around 64,000 years ago - - presumably the work of Neanderthals - - the next instance of drawing came around 40,000 years ago with cave paintings found at opposite ends of Eurasia, like art decorating the walls of caves in Spain and France, and the more recently discovered cave art in Sulawesi in Indonesia, all being figurative art. Engraving as far as it is concerned, has a much longer prehistory with the earliest engravings known are on pieces of shell from Trinil, Java, dated to around 540,000 years ago and presumably made by Homo erectus

500,000 Years Ago: Homo sapiens

->The Latest About the Out of Africa Dispersal
The first hominin dispersal out of Africa is thought to have been when members of the species Homo erectus exited some 2 million years ago. The second wave occurred with ancestral species that eventually gave rise to Neanderthals moving into Europe around 800,000&-600,000 years ago, with population ancestral to both Neanderthals and H. sapiens also extant. It is now almost universally agreed that H. sapiens evolved in Africa self (Morocco, South Africa, Kenya) at about 320,000 years ago, as the earliest fossil of a Homo sapiens in Europe was found in southern Greece at 210,000 years. Rather than a single exit of Homo sapiens from Africa to populate Eurasia, there must have been several dispersals, with some non-permanent occupations and competition with Neanderthals. That massive and unique African scenario on the other hand, tends to give way more recently to a more multiple one. Human coastal adaptations occurred at least as far back as 160,000 years ago. There was a spread of H. sapiens, which mostly came from Africa, into the mid-latitudes of Eurasia before 45,000 years ago as multiple waves of H. sapiens into Europe came into contact with declining Neanderthal populations

H. antecessor is a close sister lineage to subsequent Middle and Late Pleistocene hominins, including modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans. Ancestors of homos who populated Western Europe and East Asia intermixed on multiple occasions with different Neanderthal lineages. Later Middle Pleistocene Africa contained multiple contemporaneous hominin lineages like Homo sapiens, H. heidelbergensis/H. rhodesiensis and Homo naledi which was similar to Eurasia, where Homo neanderthalensis, the Denisovans, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis and perhaps also Homo heidelbergensis and Homo erectus were found contemporaneously. Homo sapiens is our species. It appeared about 500,000 years ago. Homo sapiens' original craddle was established in North of current Botswana, 200,000 years ago as first migrations of people appeared then to have been driven by regional climate changes. It is likely that, before Homo sapiens exited out of Africa and before the Neanderthals, several 'cousins' of modern men had already populated a part of the Earth. Neanderthal dental features had developed by around 450,000 years ago as other human groups, not necessarily related to the Neanderthal lineage, may have existed in Eurasia around the same period. Homo Ergaster occupied Africa (down to 300,000 years ago). In Europe, Homo antecessor and then Homo heidelbergensis followed each other before giving way to Neanderthals 350,000 years ago. In Asia, the territory of Homo erectus extended to Beijing, China. When the Neanderthals already dwelled in Europe, it was Homo sapiens archaic which was found in North Africa and Africa. Pre-Neanderthals, 750,000 years ago, knew how to take ownership of a cave and they mastered fire inside it along with a form of symbolic construction. It is possible that some of those varieties developed dwarfism (like the man of Flores, for example) because in a environment where predators are rare, small species tend to grow (like did the Komodo dragons or the giant rats of Indonesia) as large mammals to shorten. Behavioral and anatomical changes among humans during their long story like previously described, might be related to a process called 'self-domestication,' allowing for more sociability. Sapiens differentiation also, from Neanderthals and Denisovans, as they turned less agressive, might have been due to a process of self-domestication through evolutionary pressures in cooperative groups. Homo sapiens had a larger brain than Homo erectus. Homo sapiens was accompanied by some transitional species like the Neanderthals (230,000-28,000 years ago), as he might have differentiate like a species, from the African branch of the Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis (which would have then replaced the archaic species in western Europe and the Near East), or it might appear like an original species, at the time when Homo erectus was still extent, in Africa, Europe and Asia. Homo naledi represents a mix of traits between ancient and sapiens ones as it likely overlapped with Homo sapiens' ancestors. Differences between the Neanderthal and modern human Y chromosomes suggest both lineages diverged almost 590,000 years ago and that some special genes in the Y chromosome prevented any mass interbreed between both as punished by a miscarriage. A idea is extant that between 800,000 and 200,000 years ago, the Earth underwent a period of fluctuation in its climate, which resulted in a tripling of the human brain thus skull size like a response. The change from scavenging to mastering the real hunting -that concerned deer, aurochs, horse and other big game- had been performed as soon as the late Lower Paleolithic, 400,000 to 200,000 years ago. Scavenging likely coexisted with hunting or collect. People then were less efficient and less organized to carve up their prey as they too attached less social ritual or formal rules to meal time as all that evolved after 250,000 years ago, with, among others, the apparition of some people specialized into butchering the game. The Neanderthals thus came to be extant in the plains of Europe and parts of Asia only. In East Asia, the original line of Homo sapiens possibly might have emerged from the local archaic populations. In Europe, the fact that the new species be isolated led to it turn into the Neanderthals (those were then outpaced by Homo sapiens which came, by 40,000 years ago, from the Middle East). Neanderthals made inroad in southern Siberia, from eastern Europe -- some 1,900-2,500 miles (3,000-4,000 km) treks --60,000 years ago, or later than previously though. Some early Neanderthals might have not evolved so quickly, like in southeastern Europe where they did not endure any environment pressure like Neanderthals had done in western Europe due to rising glaciers of several ice ages. Facial modification was the first step in the evolution of the Neanderthal lineage, pointing to a mosaic pattern of evolution, with different anatomical and functional modules evolving at different rates. Neanderthals were shortier and stockier than Homo sapiens as they had some heavier brow ridges. Reconstruction of a Neanderthal ribcage has revealed that they had straighter spines and a greater lung capacity than modern humans. Perhaps they needed a larger lung capacity to survive climate change, support their large body masses and support a rugged hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Albeit with a larger brain it looks like they might not have acquired speech (speech generally resides in physiological organs and controls which already are available to apes; lip-smacking generally which is rapidly opening and closing the mouth and lips could have been an important step in the evolution of human speech as vocalizing and facial movements during lip-smacking also hints to that as observed in the gelada monkeys). Neanderthal brains may have grown to be larger than those of modern humans because they took longer to reach full size. Modern human brains typically reach 95 percent of their full size in six to seven years. Additionally, parts of the spine that fuse in modern humans by the age of six were not fully developed in the young Neanderthal. It might suggest further that some parts of the Neanderthal body might have grown more slowly to offset the energy required to produce a large brain. Genes associated with neurological development, on a other hand, were regulated differently in the Neanderthal brain compared with that of humans. Human brains might have produced more of the associated protein, accounting for increased language ability. Neanderthals cooked and ate plants about 50,000 years ago as they also probably used plants to self-medicate like salicyclic acid from poplar trees or Penicillium mould (the source of penicillin). In Iraq, they also cooked barley grains. They sometimes buried their dead however as Neanderthals sported a unusually powerful right arm, with a 50 percent or more asymmetry as they used it to scrap animal skins for clothes and shelters, tasks which took most of their time. Homo sapiens do not show such a dramatic unbalance between both arms, that might that they scraped in a different way, perhaps with more complex tools. Neanderthals used pigments and feathers to decorate their bodies, or raptor talons like a decoration, and they may have even organized their caves, or perform a form of primitive art on caves' walls. A three-ply cord made of inner bark from a conifer tree was also among the skill of Neanderthals, implying that the latter understood the concepts of pairs, sets, and numbers. Neanderthals eventually would have ended triggered off by Homo sapiens, as those, in some case might have practiced cannibalism against their cousins! Neanderthals had a lower center of gravity and with longer arms, his walk was more dynamic and vaulted. They were smaller in size and bulkier as they could endure renewed bone fractures without much consequences, or average temperatures of -30°. Celsius. Neanderthalian languages might have survived through nomadic tribes still herdering from the Mediterranean shores to Siberia, there were Neanderthals were following the herds they hunted. It is unsure whether they had a language as they might have had due to the complex strategies they deployed in hunting and other activities. Homo sapiens reached higher cultural standards. He was burying his dead and it might that he had rituals. At 120,000 years ago Neanderthals wore crafted jewelry which could suggest some degree of symbolic thought and crafting. Neanderthals disappeared about 30,000 years ago for miscellaneous causes, like the disparition of their hunting game, climate change, diseases or overpowered by Homo sapiens. Neanderthals' keen vision too may explain why they couldn't cope with environmental change and died out. Nasal cavities larger than those of Homo heidelbergensis appeared both in Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, to better withstand cold and/or dry climates, as Neanderthals evolved even more than Homo sapiens with a calorie requirement of 4,480 per day versus 2,500 for Homo sapiens. Scientists now think that modern humans and Neanderthals mated, albeit rarely, which genetically improved their disease resistances. Ancient mixed couples on a other hand were not fully compatible genetically as their descendants—especially the males—became less fertile over time, purging many Neanderthal genes from modern genomes. Of note is that admixture between lineages occurred both before and subsequent to divergence of non-African modern humans. Some think that Neanderthal remains disappear from European sites by 39,000–41,000 years ago, which earlier than thought. The data challenge arguments that Neanderthals endured in refuges in the southern Iberian Peninsula until as recently as 28,000 years ago. Homo sapiens and Neanderthals overlapped thus for up to 5,400 years in parts of southern Europe, yet to a much lesser extent or not at all in other parts of the continent. The coexistence also supports a controversial idea that some Neanderthal artefacts that appeared in France and Spain more than 40,000 years ago, emerged from contact with humans. The technological breakthrough of new stone stools or weapons, like long, pointed stone bladelets that were thrown long distances atop spears, generally known like Proto-Aurignacian tools, about 40,000 years ago, may have helped Homo sapiensoutcompete Neanderthals

->Pre-Neanderthals, Neanderthals, Homo sapiens and Genes
The genomes of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals have been found similiar to 99 percent. 1 percent thus only is accounting for all the differences between our species and Neanderthals through gene mutations, typical genes. Scientists think that pre-Neanderthals diverged from Homo sapiens in Africa 500,000 years ago and then moved out of Africa to settle in the Middle East and then Europe. When Homo sapiens in turn moved out of Africa 75,000 years ago, he mixed up with Neanderthals in those locations bringing to that 2 to 4 percent of our modern genome is made of Neanderthalian genes. Such a mixed genomes almost was found in Europe and Asia only. As far as the cultural differences between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals are concerned, Neanderthals likely had a language since pre-Neanderthals as he was able too to manufacture spears, fire, clothing and huts. Inbreeding among close relatives was apparently common among them as it is unknown whether that was a cultural practice or due to the few numbers of people among the groups. Neanderthals also may have intentionally buried their dead, a other hint to cultural complexity. Scientists now mostly attribute to genes such cultural advances, like for example a gene responsible for language through how the brain works, or even a gene bringing art, empathy and other social behaviors. Neanderthals likely practiced cannibalism as they cohabitated with Homo sapiens during about 10,000 years. Neanderthals butchered the bodies of other Neanderthals for both cannibalism and/or rituals, and bone tool-making. As Neanderthals might have lacked some genes for cultural behaviors as they did not have art, that might have been a reason for their decline and maybe with ecological ones too. Some recent studies however are showing that Neanderthals possessed the gene for language and had sophisticated music, art and tool as interbreeding occurred between them and Homo sapiens when the latter came out of Africa about 70,000 years ago probably at the crossroads of the Middle East like evidenced by parts of the current X chromosome or haplotype. The slightly less round, and more elongated brain shape of some people with European ancestry is, for example, influenced by Neanderthal DNA acquired through interbreeding. Neanderthals dwelled in France, Spain, Germany and Russia. As far as the disparition of Neanderthals is concerned, theories have focused on climate change, differences in Neanderthals' ability to think and other possibilities as numerical supremacy alone may have been a critical factor as early modern humans outnumbered Neanderthals by 10-to-1 bringing to assimilation, not replacement. The Neanderthalian genome's total sequencing was improved still in 2013. Genetic participation of Neanderthals into modern humans genomics however is larger in some domains than others, like the skin with Neanderthal genes account for 70%. Genes determining speech and communication is nothing Neanderthal. People from East Asia have slightly more ancient genes than Europeans which might hint to a second wave of interbreeding there. By 2014, scientists had arrived to the conclusion that mixing between Neanderthals and humans had occurred between 52,000 to 58,000 years ago as such interbreeding occurred when modern humans began spreading out of Africa. About 1.5 to 2.1 percent of DNA in people outside Africa are coming from Neanderthals

->The DNA Relationships Less Accurate than Thought?
A recent, DNA-based, study, showed that humans and Neanderthal began diverging from a common ancestor 700,000 years ago as both split definitively 400,000 years ago. Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalis were found to have genes similar to 99.5 percent of their genomes. They are, as far as the genomes are concerned, about 35 million differences between the chimps and us. The difference further between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens seem to be lesser than thought, through several late studies, and even with the aptitudes to tools and language available too among the Neanderthals. The question of the relationship between humans and chimpanzees lately led to a questionment of the accuracy of the DNA studies like revealing any parenthood, or lineary evolution parenthood between species. Some scientists are favouring instead the physical, behavioral and fossil data, like tooth enamel, beard, the way smiling, or similar bones. They say, further, that the DNA studies are pointing to 2 to 3 percent only of the genomes as much of the rest of it is a non-coding region, with the genes put together out of order. From such a point of view, humans would be more related to ourangs-utans than to chimpanzees. Such view, on another hand, would drastically question the role of the DNA studies into establishing evolutionary relationships! Last interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans likely occurred as recently as 47,000 years ago. Many modern-day humans carry Neanderthal DNA. People outside Africa share more genetic variants with Neanderthals than Africans do hinting to that modern humans mixed with Neanderthals once Homo sapiens out of Africa, or at least 100,000 years ago. A other explanation is that a African group ancestral to both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens genetically diverged from other Homo sapiens in Africa about 230,000 years ago. Further studies by 2014 have shown more precise dates for when Homo sapiens coupled with Neanderthals, which probably occurred in the Middle East between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. That showed also that humans and Neanderthals coexisted in Europe for much longer than was once thought up to several thousand years in some places

Denisovans form a distinct branch of the Homo family tree as they were like an 'Eastern cousin' of Neanderthals. Denisovans generally, are archaic humans which ceased to exist about 50,000 years ago. From DNA abstracts, a female Denisovan was reconstructed in term of her anatomical profile. She appears to have had a broader face, less pronounced chin and a more protruding jawbone than the Neanderthal. Denisovans most likely had wider pelvises than Neanderthals. Denisovans' ADN is found among certain Southeast Asian and Melanesian populations and also -- albeit in lesser proportion -- among modern-day Han Chinese, southern China Dai and Japanese populations. A First Denisovan in Asia was found North of Chinese Sinkiang in 2019. It's likely that Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovians diverged after man spead out from Africa, from a common ancestor which likely lived in Africa 800,000 years ago. Neanderthals headed toward western Eurasia as Denisovans toward central and eastern Eurasia but those three groups never became so genetically distinct as to block mating between them. At 90,000 years ago, a fossil was formally identified by 2018 through its genome like half Neanderthal and half Denisovan. Denisovans went extinct soon after they mated with the ancestors of Europeans and Asians about 40,000 years ago, passing genes. Interbreeding took place between Neanderthals and Denisovans with at least 0.5 percent of the Denisovan genome coming from Neanderthals. 1.5 to 2.1 percent of DNA of people outside Africa are Neanderthal in origin, while about 0.2 percent of DNA of mainland Asians and Native Americans is Denisovan. Modern humans as far away as Australia and Papua New Guinea have traces of Denisovan DNA in their genomes, suggesting that those made it much further east than Siberia. Denisovans further interbred with an unknown human lineage, getting as much as 2.7 to 5.8 percent of their genome from it. This mystery relative apparently split from the ancestors of all modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans between 900,000 years and 4 million years ago. Modern humans also interbred with both lineages of Neanderthals and Denisovans until about 30,000 years ago as they had splited from the common ancestors of both between 550,000 and 765,000 years ago, and Neanderthals and Denisovans diverged from each other between 381,000 and 473,000 years ago. 31,000 genetic changes eventually dissociated modern humans from both the Neanderthals and Denisovans as the main changes which determined Homo sapiens lie with connectivity in the brain and autism-linked genes, which likely allowed modern human populations to expand dramatically in size as well as cultural complexity. Denisovans knew microblade tools and body ornaments of polished stone. Sub-Saharan groups only are without Neanderthal admixture, which might be a hint to that Neanderthal and modern humans intrebred once out of Africa or that a African group ancestral to both Neanderthals and certain modern human populations genetically split from other early modern humans since 230,000 years ago. With the last exit of Africa by 75,000 years ago, Homo sapiens mingled into preexisting humans, themselves a mix between Homo habilis and local, evolved species, like men of Flores, the men of Beijing, or Neanderthals or the Denisovans. Such transitional species which eventually came to be overpowered by Homo sapiens might have been localized forms of the evolution which occurred from Homo habilis. Such miscellaneous groups of humans began also to practice group-hunting between them

Resource networks and/or intergroup trading of raw materials could have developed very early in the evolution of Homo sapiens, at about 200,000 years ago and at distance of about 100 miles (160 km), for example. Recent findings are showing, on the other hand, that Homo sapiens when exiting from Africa already was mastering navigation, with 130,000 years old remains of maritime embankments found in Crete. Tools found where Homo sapiens landed also show that a population of Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis were living there since long, with more advanced tools than thought. Recent findings in the United Arab Emirates dating back to 100,000-125,000 years ago might hint to that crossing between Africa and Arabia through a then 1-mile wide straight at the southern tip of the Red Sea might have been a other way out of Africa. Those dates only are a trouble with a exit from Africa thus about 50,000 years earlier than the usual 75,000 mark. Raft or boats already being of use in Africa would have been of help. That corridor would thus come in addition to a contemporary, or later, northern one through the Nile and northern Sinai. That group of Homo sapiens is now thought to have interbred with a hitherto unknown human lineage 65,000 years ago, likely originating in Central Africa, before leaving Africa. Hence modern human genome is now considered to harbour 2 percent of that African lineage, 1 to 4 percent of Neanderthal's (as far as Eurasians are concerned) and 4 to 6 percent of Denisovan's (as far as Melanesians are concerned). That unknown lineage would have diverged about 700,000 years ago hence no garden of Eden somewhere in eastern Africa but a gene flow over time instead and interbreeding occuring until recently in the prehistorical times (about 35,000 years ago as far as that new species is concerned). Such interbreeding might have allowed genes acquired by some group at some location to spread to a different group, allowing to the evolution towards Homo sapiens, which eventually benefited from. Neanderthals had diverged since about 500,000 years ago as the first really modern Homo sapiens is dated to 200,000 years ago. Such a more bushying image is also confirmed by the fact that first Homo sapiens were already present in Europe between 44,000 and 42,000 years ago, hinting to that they coexisted with Neanderthals during several thousand years. A new human species have been found by 2012, dated back to just 14,500 to 11,500 years ago in mainland East Asia , with rounded brain cases with prominent brow ridges, flat but short faces with a broad nose, jutting jaws that lack a human chin, their brains are moderate in size with modern-looking frontal lobes but primitive short parietal lobes, and they have large molar teeth as they loved deer venison. They were likely dark-skinned. They have been called 'Red Deer Cave people.' It might or not that it be a new branch in the human evolution -albeit related broadly to Homo sapiens- a very early and unknown migration out of Africa, which persisted until that recent, when Homo sapiens had began turning to farming. It look like they did not contribute genetically to other human groups. Asia thus, with Homo floresiensis in western Indonesia, and modern humans widely dispersed from northeast Asia to Australia might have displayed a varied landscape in terms of humans as Asia generally might represent a late chapter in human evolution. By one million years ago an unknown hominin lineage had colonized Flores and by about 50 thousand years ago, modern humans (Homo sapiens) had crossed into. The hobbit species Homo floresiensis extincted by around 50,000 years ago probably due to interaction with modern humans. Scientists by 2017 eventuellement found that Homo floresiensis diverged from Homo habilis, which it separated from som 1.75 million years as they still do not know where the separation occurred. Sulawesi probably played a pivotal part in these dispersals as, like Flores, it was host to a long-established population of archaic hominins, the ancestral origins and taxonomic status of which remain elusive. That Asiatic group could represent earlier Homo sapiens out of Africa, never numerous or widespread as they turned divided into several isolated or semi-isolated populations. They eventually disappeared when real Homo sapiens spread as outnumbered with some interbreeding. The Skhul/Qafzeh people out of Israel might also be part of such peoples

It was in these last 700,000 years -with a 200,000 years overlapping period with Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis- that the most of the brain evolution took place, due to more challenging environmental conditions. A ice period began 500,000 years ago. Greenland however was free of ice 400,000 years ago or, 130,000 years ago the sea level was 20 ft higher than today, with colder periods alternating. This period is the one of hunting's real evidence, of caves like habitat, and of definitive evidence for the invention of fire. Homo sapiens invented too the art, made significant advances in stone tool-making, as he invented the language 100,000 years ago. Most recent discoveries found that the modified FOXP2 gene, which differs by two amino acids from that of chimpanzees might be at the origin of language. As the gene is identical among Homo sapiens and Neanderthals hints to that the mutation appeared around 500,000 years ago. That gene is involved in the development of brain circuits important for the learning of movement. FOXP2 helps neurons communicate with each other and is also implicated in learning and memory. The mutation might have helped our species to perfect complex facial muscle movements needed to form basic sounds and then combine these sounds into words and sentences. The discovery might have to be moderated however as the move to language might have been more complex as some scientists are reluctant to overrely about genes in terms of human evolution. The diversity and the development of human skills increased still during the last 90,000-50,000 years from now: fishing hooks, paintings on cave walls, clothes made with bone-needles, art, advanced tool-making are related to that period. Homo sapiens also is the one who began to really be omnivorous, including in his diet all types of contemporary aliments. It's at that time too that Australia (60,000 years ago) and Americas (35,000 years ago) were populated. The most ancient, common, matrilinear ancester to the humanity of today has been found to be a 150,000/120,000-year old female 'Homo sapiens idaltu', likely originating from Ethiopia, Kenya or Tanzania. Recent studies are showing that a ice age 195,000 years ago likely reduced to some few hundred individuals in Africa the population of Homo Sapiens. Three lines of Homo sapiens are seen diverging about 100,000 years ago with a group heading in Southern Africa, another in Central and West Africa and the last in East Africa. Modern humans likely originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago and then spread worldwide. They might have first left 120,000 years ago but that generation died out early as the successfull move occurred between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago. A few natives of Papua New Guinea only have kept some DNA evidence of the earliest migration wave. Indigenous populations of Australia and Papua New Guinea generally are the oldest modern population on Earth. It's from that latter group likely formed by about 200 men only that, some 70,000 years ago, people migrated out of Africa into the near East. From there they spreaded to Asia and Australasia 60,000 years ago as some moved into Europe and in Central Asia 40,000 years ago, and in the Americas 35,000 years ago. First traces of navigation are dating back to about 50,000 years ago. The Bering Strait was instrumental into passing into the Americas as that landmass was still unsubmerged; new studies further are showing that it could have been a Ice Age haven in terms of temperatures, game and other resource as migrating groupes might have staid there for thousand of years before moving to the continent. The land bridge between Eurasia and North America existed from about 34,000 to 11,000 years ago, and it is thought that people migrated onto this bridge sometime between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago. Ancient North Siberians diverged from Western Eurasians hunter-gatherers about 38,000 years ago, soon after those split from East Asians. East Asian-related people on the other hand gave rise to Ancient Palaeo-Siberians leading to a mosaic genetic make-up of contemporary peoples who inhabit a vast area across northern Eurasia and the Americas. A renewed wiew is that fully modern Homo sapiens were indeed present in southern China 30,000–70,000 years earlier than in the Levant and Europe, where they did not enter Europe before 45,000 years ago. That might hint to that modern humans could only enter Europe when the demise of Neanderthals had already started. The spread to Asia, generally, took several paths instead of one as Homo sapiens moved there either hugging the coastline from India to Southeast Asia, and then into Indonesia and Australasia as other populations went North or northeast toward China, and some journeyed through the mountains into mainland Southeast Asia, taking advantage of river systems. Most of the era's novelties, like the pressure flaking technique, artwork, and all other functional ideas and devices, were likely invented before man left Africa as they proved instrumental when Home sapiens migrated into Europe, Australia, or North America. 73,000 years ago, a massive supervolcano in South East Asia turned India to cinders with a volcanic winter lasting another two decades and wipping out about 75 percent of the nascent human race. Recentest finds in eastern South Africa are hinting to that hunters-gatherers might have appeared since 44,000 years instead of 24,000! They already had invented some sophisticated hunting tools and techniques like bows or poison-coated arrows. Jewels and decorated objects were also part of the transition. Another view usually admitted now is that, through tens of millenia, beginning about 35,000 B.C., those clans of gatherers-hunters evolved into matriarcal societies due to the mystery surrounding maternity. Such a religious conception of it -and the control of women upon the little infants- had that women pacified and structured the clans, allowing, by the way, to an improved survival of them. The earliest massacre discovered is dating back to 10,000 yeaers ago, a extended group of hunter-gatherers slaughtered by a rival group searching for valuable resource, hinting to that aggression would not have come with the emergence of agricultural, settled and hierarchical societies. Homo sapiens mostly began like a hunter and mainly carnivorous. It was lately only (about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago) that he turned a hunter-gatherer as he then turned too vegetarian at 70 percent testing most of the ways of eating or even preserving plants or fruits. Cave paintings appeared about 40,000 years ago as art, generally, might have tigthened social links between groups of Homo sapiens, like a kind of common language. Some paintings were even aiming to be visualized into moving sceneries with animals' legs, for example, being figured into several motion's positions. A famed scenery at the French Chauvet cave is figuring a hunting scenes of mammals by lions that way! That Aurignacian art mostly is figuring predators animals are the next generation is herbivors. Cave artists have been proved to have painted realistic depictions of the fauna around them, which shows that, as cave art was rooted in reality, cave artists did showed creativity on the other hand. Among Paleolithic painters were kids and girls as young as 3, or teenagers alike as one cave is so rich in such contributions that it might be a special place for them. Playing bone flutes and singing songs appeard 42,000 years ago among the Aurignacian culture and made of mammoth ivory, or bones from a bird. Dogs appeared since 33,000 years ago like domesticated wolves. Ancestors of all modern dogs split into two populations, one that gave rise to East Asian breeds and another which was to turn the modern European, South Asian, Central Asian and African dogs. Dogs and wolves are now understood to have diverged genetically between 36,900 and 41,500 years ago, and that eastern and western dogs split 17,500–23,900 years ago. Domestication had to have happened between both, it likely occurred somewhere from 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. Dogs provided protection, companionship and perhaps hunt-helping, as it is possible that the deep relationship between men and dogs have affected human evolution, like the development of language or other aspects of culture. Wolfes might have been following humans and domesticated themselves or early humans simply caught best genomically-suited-for-sociability wolf cubs and kept them as pets. Some behavioral traits as determined by genetics, played a role in the choice of such or such wolf cub by men. Dogs have evolved to eat a more varied diet than their wolf ancestors. Dogs were the first object of domestication by humans, before any plant, before any other animal. A long history of trading and interbreeding occurred when domestication of animals or plants is concerned. Occasionally too human groups could eat dogs. The so-called 'wolfdog/early dog' were a transitional stage from wolf to dog. Some finds, albeit from a later time, by 16,000 years ago, may allow to think that men tried to domesticate foxes as that relation disappeared to the benefit of the more companionable dog. A gene called SorCS1 alterations of which are associated by humans with autism and Alzheimer’s disease, dictates whether a fox is tame or aggressive. Some selective breeding took place to get dogs fitted to such or such job as dogs also breed on their own and, in addition, humans transported them around the world and certain varieties even disappeared. Most contemporary breeds of dogs, as far as they are concerned, have been created since the 19th century Victorian-initiated Kennel Clubs initiative of breeding some lineages. A supplementary explanation to dog's domestication process is that that likely modified some regions of wolves' genome, among which genes about starch 's digestion, which is likely linked to that, at some time, some adopted cubs found food near human settlements at a time when men were at the dawn of turning to agriculture. The exit of Africa and warmer temperatures turned Homo sapiens into Homo sapiens sapiens. As far human languages are concerned, scientists think that all derive from a single tongue spoken about 50,000 years ago in East Africa. Linguists have reconstructed back language families (like the Indo-European one for Europe) which in turn fit together into a puzzle with other families of the world. The original, African language was of the type 'SOV' (subject-object-verb: 'I roses like'), a ordering which likely is natural to humans. With the evolution then some languages changed that order for unknown reasons, passing to SVO ('I like roses') or other combinations. Hunter-gatherers possibly in an area such as the Caucuses or the modern-day country of Georgia may have spoken a common language about 15,000 years ago. The roots of a common mother tongue, on a other hand, to many Eurasian languages likely dates back 8,000 to 9,500 years ago to Anatolia, Turkey

-> The Categorization of the Current Human Groups Determined by the Last Migration Out of Africa, 50,000 Years Ago!
Most recent studies are showing that it is the 'out of Africa' theory which is right regarding the modern men, with the current human groups resulting from a last migration out of Africa, which occurred about between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. Those men -a few dozens only- likely spread from Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania and expanded through the 'isthm' of the Middle East. Those humans, further, would be the survivors of a gigantic catastroph, the explosion of the super-volcano of Mount Toba, in Sumatra, which, 75,000 years ago, might have yielded a global 'volcanic winter', thus leading to the extinction of most of the humans living then... On the other continents, they replaced more primitive species, like the Neanderthals, for example. A geography of the genetics of the great human groups thus is clearly showing that great human groups are extant on the Earth. Those are the peoples of Subsaharian Africa (from which, on the other hand, peoples like the Pygmees or the Bushmen are different ones), the peoples of Europe, those of South Asia (with the nomad Beduins of the Middle East displaying a lot of traits belonging either to Europeans or South Asians), the Chinese Han (who, in fact, are not a unique people, but two of them -one for northern, the other for southern, China), and the Native Americans (who seem to be closer to East Siberia Yakuts -those themselves close to Siberian hunter-gatherers). Peoples like the Basques or the people from Sardinia seem not related to any other people! That spreading of the humans yielded a decrease in the genetic diversity of the groups, making that the peoples which are the most away from the original, African womb, have more genetic defects -due to a larger consanguinity- than the African populations. It is thus the Africans which display the largest genetic diversity (followed by the Middle Easterners -from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to northern India- there, that is, where all the migrations passed, coming out of Africa; the largest African diversity is likely due to the fact that the human groups in Africa had to adapt themselves to very diverse environmental niches). Europeans and people of South Asia are genetically less diverse (with the Europeans having further endured, about 30,000 years ago, an important demographic decrease). Eastern Asians, at last, have the least genetic diversity (albeit still slightly above that of the Native Americans). Those human migrations, on the other hand, brought too to a physical uniformity, by human groups -and which is larger too, the further the group is from the African original starting point. The Native Americans thus are more lifelike between themselves than Subsaharian Africans are, for example). Men reached to southeastern Asia 60,000 years ago as they journeyed along the coasts, starting in the Middle East and Australia was populated 30,000 years ago. Europe was reached 40,000 years in the past as men also journeyed from the Middle East as Americas, following Siberia, were landed at 30,000 years ago. Such eras which had men to adapt to Earth's miscellaneous climates, were eras of genetic mutations as those occurred swiftly, in the order of 20,000 years. After the first humans left Africa some 100,000 years ago, they were found coming back again around 3,000 years ago, a reverse migration. Such those populations however mostly reached to eastern Africa, like in Ethiopia and not to western and central Africa. Hominids found in southern China and dating 11,500 to 14,300 years ago, displaying a unique mix of traits of modern humans and other never encountered might as much be Denisovans than a new lineage of Homo sapiens. They would have been part of a migration out of Africa -as both are known until now at 60,000-70,000 and 30,000-40,000 years ago- as they eventually would have remained isolated from other sapiens during thousands of years and disappeared. Should such a hypothesis be confirmed, one could think that Homo sapiens would have features a larger diversity at the time. Scientists also know that such a diversity is found in Africa between 100,000 et 12,000 years ago, with sapiens fossils also displaying, in eastern, southern and northern Africa a mix of modern and more primitive traits

Conclusion

->Neolithics, the Consequence Too of An Asteroidal Hit?
An hypothesis since 2008 is stating that a 3-mile wide, shattering comet might have hit over eastern Canada, 12,900 years ago. Such hypothesis might well hint to that the Neolithics might have depended too about the event! The impact, first, would have had an important effect upon men, life and beasts which lived at the time in Northern America. It would have then trigerred vast fires worldwide as, at last, through a massive drain of melting ice water -a melting was occurring at the time- into the North Atlantic Ocean, it would have led to a 1,000-year little ice age, called the 'Younger Dryas', interrupting for a while the general tendency to warmer. Should such hypothesis prove true, the emergence of the Neolithics might well be linked to the impact too, with the hunter-gatherer tribes in the three main focuses of the agricultural revolution -the Middle East, the Indus River Valley in Pakistan, and the Yellow River Valley in China- having had their food resource in game and plants and fruits questioned. That could have been a motivation to them to begin controling their food sources by planting seeds and domesticating wild beasts. Most recent studies are supporting the idea, with our ancestors found, one millenium before the Neolithics, about 12000 years ago, storing natural grains in sophisticated granaries. The cavemen likely began to progressively master sustained food resource through such storage. The era of Homo sapiens, in total, will have known 3 major catastrophies with the explosion of the Toba, a supervolcano in Indonesia 75,000 years ago, the Last Ice Age 21,000 years ago and the American asteroid 13,000 years in the past

Man stopped to be a gatherer-hunter and became a farmer, some 11,000 years ago, about 9,000 B.C. as the evolution first appeared in the Near and the Middle East. This step is called the Neolithic as it likely occurred due to that the last Ice Age came to a end by 12,000 years ago. Such a climate warming, on a other hand, brought the reeinder civilization of the Magdalenians, in Europe, to its end as those people turned into the Siberian nomadic ones. A commonly accepted view is also that during the hunters-gatherers era, women had become specialized into gathering -as men into hunting. That proximity to the vegetal world along with a form a less game available would have had women authoring the farming change! It's likely too that when mainly responsible for gathering, women would have developed a religion of their own, for such a purpose, under the form of great Mother-Goddesses. As soon as of the time of Magdalenians, before 10,000 years from now, they might have given a special interment to a ruling woman. Such religious views lasted into the Neolitics and even when patriarcal societies eventually developed out of the warrior-like Indo-Europeans prominence included, with such figures like Demeter, for example. First statues of Mother-Godesses appeared by 6000 B.C. only. By about 10,000 B.C. -which constitutes the end of the Upper Paleolithics, climate is warming and the Ice Age is coming to a term. That allows the 'Epipaleolithics' -or 'Mesolithics,' which is a transition to the Neolithics. It is possible that the transition between hunter-gatherers and farmers also took the form of megalithic sites such as Göbekli Tepe, current Turkey, making the transition between shamanism-totemic cultures and Neolithics. Göbekli Tepe, in a interesting way, was abandoned -- and voluntarily buried -- around 8,000 BC or the time of the Neolithicd. Societies of those eras could also have evolved due to the impact of asteroids (circa 9,000, 7,000 or 4,500 B.C.) Bow and arrow generalized as basket-making appeared. Men however kept gathering. Long lasting housing, on a other hand, developed also as did conservation techniques with associated culinary practices, like smoking, drying, puree and acorns or chestnuts galette. The availability of stocks of cereals and the weight of millstones to grind those turned human groups to settlements. Such that period might have known the domestication of bees too, the very form of domestication! At that time too, they might have invented the first alcoolized beverages, like hydromel, frênette, or the seve of erables and birches. Alcohol, or ethanol consumption began only after men turned farmers, storing extra food and intentionally making some food ferment as 80 millions years ago primates ate rotten fruits already. On a other hand, hunter-gatherers as soon from the Paleolithic period, have been found eating less meat than thought, which maybe hint to a mixed existence strategy. People from just before the Neolithics, by some 12,000 years ago, also ate about 40 to 50 percent of their diet in meat only as they feasted upon lean meat or fish for the remaining. Larger quantities of food became available to men as the Neolithics caracterized also through groups of humans coming into contact with each other more often, bringing to the establishment of more complex social customs setting the foundation of more-intricate communities. The lifestyle of hunters-gatherers necessitated 247 acres pro person as 37 people could live on that same surface at the Neolithics. Humans, at that time, numbered to 3 or 4 millions as the Last Ice Age is nearing its end, occurring 8,000 years ago. Ten thousand years later humans numbered at 200 millions! The very first area where Neolithics might have appeared would be in the Near East, from the Natufian culture, a group which pioneered into the use of wild cereal evolving into true farming and settled behavior. Such transitional groups kept however to gather raw food and to hunt as they coexisted a while with still nomadic Homo sapiens. One consequence of the new food-production system might also have been that Neolithic farmers feeding upon cereals lacked vitamin D leading to a loss of the dark-skin pigmentation and that they had to synthetize it from the Sun instead. Dark skin lasted in Europe until about 8500 years ago in southern Europe as it lasted less long North of the continent. Southerners also turned light-skinned with the arrival of Middle-East farmers after that. Acquiring vitamin D more efficiently was the factor to the gene of pale skin along with lactose tolerance which appeared later by 2300 B.C. Tallness, as far as it is concerned, was brought by Indo-Europeans of the Yamna culture. Other views however state that the passage to light skin occurred 40,000 years ago when hunter-gatherers settled to more northern latitudes, loosing that pigmentation which had evolved due to Africa's Sun. Blue eyes gene, on a other hand, which are more common among northern Europeans, are a result of the hunter-gatherers period as the delay of Neolithics in the region kept people with more genetic traces from their predecessors. Cats were first domesticated about 9,500 years ago in the Near East, or in China around 5,000 years ago. In the first occurrence, that should have occurred after people first took up farming, plagued by rodents that had invaded grain stores, which draw wildcats into villages. Wildcats are solitary hunters and lack a hierarchical social structure, which made them poor candidates for domestication. Instead a commensal relationship between cats and humans lasting thousands of years took place, before humans exerted substantial influence on their breeding. The invention of villages, of farming, the domestication of plants and animals, then the city-states and the ancient empires, followed by Greece, Rome, and the old monarchies of Europe, all these are related steps originating at the Neolithic. Most ancient Neolithic civilization most of the time are linked to rivers, water supply and irrigated farming, like in Mesopotamia, the Indus or the Yellow River valleys. Larger agricultural yields in those conditions likely allowed to surplus and a workforce which in turn allowed to cities. The following steps, by the 4th millenium, the appearance of towns, which were derived from stores of farming products and first trade networks. Trade developed along rivers as the wheel had barely been discovered as oxes and donkeys turned the first domesticated animals. Towns also saw social differentiation to appear. Societal complexity at the time preceded the apparition of god with morals which itself was preceded by standardization of religious traditions, which suggests that ritual practices were more important than the particular content of religious belief to the initial rise of social complexity. The increase of trade had writing discovered. Conflicts between towns appeared also as, by the 2nd millenium, kingdoms and first attempts to empires occurred. Between 3900 B.C. and 1700 B.C. in Europe when hunters-gatherers groups are transitioning into Neolithics, a great violence, against women included has been observed. Cities were the place of culture and cultural invention like writing, for example as, should any downturn of urban civilization have occurred, country kept improving farming techniques. A major evolution took place about 3000 B.C. when peoples with patriarcal references came and destroyed the old matriarcal societies. Great strides are due to the apparition of the metallurgy, which brings further the metals' work to those agricultural societies (the 'chalcolithic', a transient age; the bronze age, then, from 2,800 to 1,000 B.C.; the iron age, at last, beginning in about 1,000 B.C.). It's not until the mid-1800s that these ancient farming societies were supplanted by the next new form of production, that is the industrial era. The industrial era, in turn, let room to the age of technology since the end of WW2. All these later steps of the evolution of mankind, Neolithic included, are of a cultural nature mainly. Recent studies however also showed that since 5,000 years -or 100 to 200 generations- ago, mankind kept evolving from a genetical point of view as we are now more different from men living at the time than those were from the Neanderthals. World population since passed from some millions of people 10,000 years ago to about 200 millions by year 0, 600 millions about 1700 A.D. and 6.5 billions today