Monkey-like and first ancient people

The scientific concept of Charles Darwin that the ancient people left the animal kingdom due to natural selection and positive mutations (intellectual qualities and body), for a century and a half was subjected to mockery and attacks by critics. However, today this idea, supported by the data of genetics, archeology, cytology and other disciplines, has gained a dominant position in the scientific Justification of the origin of man.

How it all began

The closest relative of man in the modern world is the chimpanzee. It is their genetic data that coincide with ours by more than 98%. And this seemingly tiny difference made it possible to make a leap from the animal kingdom to flying into space and quantum mechanics. According to the calculations of the researchers of the XX century, the paths of anthropoid apes and humans themselves were divided about 6-8 million years ago, when the first erect, forming a family of hominids, arose. The earliest fossil representative of this ladder is a creature called the Sahelanthropus. He lived about 6-7 million years ago, walked on two legs and in the structure of the skeleton already had progressive features. Which, however, still were closer to the monkey. Of course, it can not be said that these were already ancient people. No, but these hominids became the first, descended from tree branches and chose life in the savannahs of Africa, which significantly changed their way of life, and behind it the physiological and social transformations.

Long evolutionary path

In addition to the Sahelanthropus, archaeologists also succeeded in finding a number of other links in the evolutionary chain: Orrorin (who lived 6 million years ago), known to all Australopithecus (4 million years ago), paranthropus (2.5 million years). Each of these hominids had some progressive features in comparison with the previous ones.

The First Ancient Man

The real jerk in the evolutionary path of our ancestors was the emergence of Homo Habilis (skilful) and Homo ergaster (working), respectively 2.4 and 1.9 million years ago. Their brain volume became sharply larger than that of their predecessors, and they were the first to use primitive tools. However, today in the scientific world there is no common opinion about who are the first ancient people in the full sense of the word. Some scholars call the general criterion the use of instruments of labor, others - the physiological volumes of the brain (which even Homo habilis did not yet have), the third - a certain level of social organization. However, it is indisputable that the fully formed first ancient man was called Cro-Magnon. These early representatives of Homo sapiens appeared about 40 thousand years ago in Europe and eventually founded the first cities and states. Interestingly, the ancient people, known as Neanderthals, despite their highly developed social structure, the use of tools and fire, cultural achievements (in religion), are no longer considered the ancestor of modern people, but are only a dead-end branch, extinct for reasons that are not completely understandable 25 thousand years ago. There are various assumptions about the causes of their extinction: the inability to transfer the next glacial period, the expulsion from the hunting grounds Cro-Magnon, and some even allow the physical extermination of the last Neanderthals.