5 differences between ancient man and modern man. Stages of human evolution

The earliest people appeared on Earth about 2.5 million years ago. According to Darwin's theory, their predecessors were australopithecines - a group of higher primates in whose genes mutation processes occurred. The earliest people are divided into two types - Asian ancient people (homo erectus) and African ancient people (working man).

Where did the earliest people live?

We all know that the most ancient people lived in caves, hence their second name - “caveman”. However, the cave did not serve as a home for ancient people for long; over time, the caves turned into primitive places of worship, where magic rituals were performed and the dead were buried.

During times early paleolithic, the most ancient people built their homes from tree branches, and for reliability, they lined their foundations with stones. Very often, the bones of mammoths killed during hunting acted as building material. Instead of a roof, such huts were covered with skins. The leather resisted wind and rain well.

In times of completion Ice Age, people began to build houses from logs. The houses of the most ancient people accommodated about 15 people. Dwellings were built in a circle, in the center of which there was a fireplace. In the northern territories, houses often had the appearance of semi-dugouts, that is, they were partially buried in the ground.

Appearance of ancient people

The most ancient people had an appearance that was close to the appearance of modern humans, but still retained many common characteristics with animals. The average height of the Ancient people was approximately 1.6 m. They had an upright gait, which distinguished them from animals.

The structure of the skull is archaic: the frontal part was much smaller than the jaw, the supraorbital ridges protruded, and the chin in most cases was sloping. The hands of the most ancient people remained elongated.

In ancient Asian people, the total brain volume significantly exceeded the brain volume of working people. They were the forerunners Neanderthals(old people who replaced the ancient ones).

Geography of settlement of ancient people

According to research, ancient people first appeared in East Africa. Approximately 1.8 million years ago, ancient people moved to the lands of the Middle East, and spread widely across the favorable territories of Eurasia.

The earliest people also settled throughout all the lands of the Old World. Existence in different geographical conditions contributed to the division of ancient people into different subspecies. The ancient people who lived in Eurasia began to overcome the next step of evolution faster compared to their African and Middle Eastern relatives.

Vigorous settlement and rapid expansion of the habitat indicate the emergence of ever new ecological traits in humans, that is, their ecological role in the biosphere periodically changes. We are talking about humans, while in fact, not taking into account monkeys, at least three species and two subspecies of people have changed on the planet. Who are they?

Australopithecus habilis.

Although its name is translated simply as “southern monkey,” many experts attribute it to the human race. They designatedthey eat him -skillful man . It appeared in Africa at the border of the early and middle Pliocene, about 5 million years ago and lived until the ancient Pleistocene (about 1.5 million years ago). It was a resident of the tropical savannah. It withstood competition with other australopithecines, shared an ecological niche with them, and in this regard, it experienced a shift in many morphological and ecological characteristics. He ceased to be a consumer of grass, but also did not become a pure predator. Other australopithecines that specialized in one or the other, as we remember, lost to ungulates or large predators and disappeared from the scene. Homo habilis became a true omnivore, had a rich diet of grass, seeds, roots, small and large game, and remained the only large primate in the savannah.

Between the earliest Australopithecines and the first representatives of Homo habilis, there apparently existed many transitional forms. Only at the end of this series, 2 million years before us, did the last of the australopithecines acquire completely human features.

He had numerous achievements generated by his large brain: he conquered the entire tropical savannah. The first artificial dwellings are also characteristic of it. What remained from them were circles of stones that apparently supported poles that held the skins on them. Such tents were made almost two million years ago.

A skilled man produced and used many primitive stone tools, which also helped in competition. This was the first stone tool culture, or Olduvai. This is how it was named by Louis and Mary Leakey, who discovered and described these tools in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. This culture is often called “pebble” because the tools were made from river pebbles. Later Australopithecus (Presinjanthropus), at the very end of their history, already carefully processed their products. They trimmed the tools to obtain the required size, shape, and weight. Such more complexly made tools are attributed to the Acheulean culture, named after the village of Acheul in France. The Acheulean culture lasted more than a million years, tools of this type were made by Pithecanthropus and even early Neanderthals.

In those days, there was a huge “tropical corridor” of forests and savannas. It encircled the Indian Ocean along the eastern coast of Africa, along the Indian subcontinent and further to the Malay Archipelago. It was through this that skilled people spread over vast territories. They lived until the great glaciation. When it began, the tropics also suffered from cold and drying out. The climate changed so dramatically that Homo habilis quickly lost his habitat, that is, a whole complex of essential resources and conditions.

Climate change led not only to the disappearance of our ancestor, Homo habilis, on the planet, but also to a change in the entire fauna. So this Australopithecus left the biosphere scene along with a large number of species that cohabited with it. Their complex, as I already noted, is called the hipparion fauna, because of the numerous species of three-toed horses (hipparions) that were part of it. Many animals of this fauna were the ancestors of modern African species. Among them were the so-called comb-toothed and comb-toothed mastodons, ancient relatives of elephants. The biocenoses of Homo habilis included ancient rhinoceroses, giraffes, antelopes, relatives of deer - pliocervus and croisetoceros, as well as bulls - parabos. All of them grazed in the savannah and disappeared along with the entire fauna at the end of the Pliocene - beginning of the Pleistocene. Many of them also changed their ecological roles and changed their appearance. Their descendants - giraffes, antelopes, deer - still live on the plains of the planet.

Homo erectus (pithecanthropus)

However, man remained on the planet. About one and a half million years ago, individuals of a new species that originated there, Homo erectus (Pithecanthropus), appeared in the populations of this most skilled person. It is not difficult to translate its name into Russian - ape-man. He was named so for some monkey-like features of his appearance, but he was already quite human. Despite the monkey-like features of this primate, his posture differed from Homo habilis. He was taller, had an upright posture and a completely human gait. He did not hobble across the savannah, bent over, like his ancestor, the Australopithecus. This man had many names based on the places where he was found:Sinanthropus (found in China),javanthropus (find in Java). They are all representatives of the same species of fossil people. This newly emerged species had new capabilities compared to its predecessor. It had its own environmental role. At first he, too, was a purely tropical animal, but a much better hunter than the Australopithecus. In hunting, he specialized in large game of the savannah, so he acquired many new qualities in comparison with his ancestor.

The volume of the brain also increases in comparison with a skilled person by almost a third, reaching an average of 950 cubic meters. cm. In some groups of Homo erectus this increase was even greater. Thus, the brain of Sinanthropus has an average volume of 1040 cubic meters. cm. The range of brain variations, however, is significant - from 700 to 1200 cubic meters. cm, so there were considerable opportunities for further development. Let us remember that a skilled person had an average brain size of 508 cubic meters. cm, but this man himself was small - less than one and a half meters, but there were individuals of his with a brain of up to 720 cubic meters. cm, and this is already larger than the minimum size of the Pithecanthropus brain. As we can see, there was no too sharp increase in brain volume with the transition to Homo erectus, but the qualitative changes were significant.

Along with the increase in body weight and brain enlargement, he continued to undergo structural restructuring of the brain, in which he zones associated with the perception of visual images, speech, and exercising control over the actions of others protrude and enlarge.

The area in the brain associated with manipulation increases greatlymastery of objects, and the area that controls goal-directed actions. This immediately makes itself felt in the creation of new weapons. They are much more complex and more skillfully made in Pithecanthropus than in Australopithecus.

However, Pithecanthropus skillfully borrowed the technology for making his tools from humans. These were all the same works of the Acheulean culture, made with the same methods as a million years ago. Even the same set of their types. True, they were made more carefully, better trimmed and sharpened. The innovation in the manufacture of tools was that Pithecanthropus, using fire, discovered that bone or wood processed with it became noticeably harder. This gave impetus to the emergence of a huge number of tools made of wood and bone, processed at the stake.

The main advantage of the ape-man was his increased migratory ability. As a big game hunter, one of the highest order predators, he increasingly left the tropical zone for high latitudes, where hunting was more productive. With a decrease in species diversity there, the number of each species increased greatly. Accordingly, this affected the increase in the density of game animals here. However, it was cold there, and Pithecanthropus began to adapt to the cold. It was this ancestor of ours who learned to use fire and preserve it. True, he did not know how to make fire and used ready-made ones - from volcanic eruptions or forest fires. The fire helped overcome the cold and made the food better quality. People used flame not only for defense against large competing predators, but with its help they could conquer comfortable dwellings - caves - from them. Having received fire, Homo erectus became less dependent on climate change. And he was able to survive the beginning of the glaciation.

The new species of humans has undergone another important change. TOTheir skin has noticeably lost hair, but the number of sweat glands on it has greatly increased. The number of sweat glands in modern humans is from 2 to 5 million; no other mammal has such a number. Scientists suggest that such a network of sweat glands is necessary for reliable cooling of the body. This became especially necessary during heavy physical exertion, and even in extreme heat. Thick hair would prevent evaporation and would stick together from drying sweat. Perhaps that is why this cover has changed so much .

The ecological role of Homo erectus thus expanded so much that he left the tropics and became a hunter-predator with a very small proportion of plant foods in his diet. In this capacity, man conquered almost the entire planet.

Meanwhile, the climate is becoming more and more harsh, and due to the onset of ice, Pithecanthropus is losing large territories for its hunting. In addition, this species still has too few adaptations to protect itself from the cold. Not adapting quickly enough to the increasing harsh conditions, Pithecanthropus gradually dies out, which is due to both cold weather and lack of food. The remnants of the populations of these people were most likely assimilated or destroyed by a new, more competitive human species. Note that if Homo habilis lived on the planet for about 3.5 million years, then the historical life of Pithecanthropus was somewhat shorter - only 1.5 million years.

Many populations of Homo erectus, and especially the northernmost ones, have become specialized for harsh winter conditions. Somewhere among them a new species formed, little different from you and me. This was already a man of an almost modern species, but of a different subspecies - Homo sapiens (Neanderthal).

Ice Age Man - Neanderthal

In the harsh conditions of the tundra, and possibly the tundra-steppe, the Neanderthal, deprived of plant food for most of the year, became a perfect meat eater. (In our time, this diet is followed by the people of the Far North.) The diet, very rich in animal proteins, contributed to many changes in the morphology and physiology of this person. It is quite possible that it also affected the volume of his brain. According to anthropologists, Neanderthals have a larger brain volume on average than modern humans. These relatives of ours have a very highly developed lower parietal region of the brain due to increased physical activity. Needless to say, the physical loads of the ice man were the greatest in the entire history of the human race. Structurally, the Neanderthal brain differed little from the brain of Sinanthropus, and in size all transitions from a volume of 1055 to 1700 cubic meters were found. cm.

Hunting, almost complete meat-eating, is a new role. The absence of hair is associated with it; their loss apparently occurred due to increased stress and began in our ancestors. The Neanderthal hunted during the day, under the scorching sun. It is known that all large predators are night hunters. The human hunter, avoiding competition with them, changed the time of his hunt. Why did this relatively small creature surpass even the largest animals in terms of success in its hunting? But his hunting methods simply changed. This was especially evident in areas of the highest latitudes. After all, primitive man was a specialized hunter. Its prey turned out to be quite specific, and its ecological niche narrowed noticeably. He became a predator, a consumer of animals that did not have special predators in size. Often he was even a predator of large predators, that is, a superpredator.

In this and bit had a very special ecological role; neither before nor after it, not a single animal occupied the ecosystems similar ecological niche. The objects of his hunt were no longer available to anyone: a mammoth, a woolly rhinoceros, a cave bear. A small and frail man in comparison with them, for such a hunt he united in hunting groups and came up with various hunting aids and equipment (pits, stones, spears, spear throwers, etc.). He organized his group hunts very skillfully, aided by his large brain and rudimentary speech skills. He made weapons better and better. These people also inherited the Acheulean culture of tools, but quite quickly, already in the Upper Pleistocene, a new culture of tool making spread among them - Mousterian. It is named after the Le Moustier cave located in southwestern France. These stone tools were technically superior to the Acheulean ones. At the same time, Neanderthal hunters produced fewer and fewer tools from bone and wood, preferring stone.

The man of the Ice Age accumulated and passed on experience not only in hunting techniques, but also knowledge of the habits of various game. So it became nothe Nderthal is a predator of the highest order, a consumer of even very large predators cave bears. The role is unique, giving the opportunity to live another species of fauna - humans, lengthening the food chain. A long power chain allows for a smoother transfer of matter and prolongs the planetary cycle.

What happened to this subspecies of intelligent man next? Neanderthal man appeared about 500 thousand years ago; before him, for 200 thousand years, apparently, there were other subspecies of Homo sapiens, of which very few traces remain. These remains are usually grouped under the umbrella term "early Homo sapiens." The stone tools of these people are known in large quantities, but there are almost no bone remains.

The most severe and prolonged glaciation began 250 thousand years ago and ended only 75 thousand years ago. It came from the Alps region, and it was called Rissky; at the same time, the Saal glaciation was advancing from the European north, rapidly reducing the territory of the Neanderthal. At the same time, the Illionian glaciation took place in the vastness of North America, and Homo sapiens, the Neanderthal, survived all this cold time with several short warming periods.

Unlike Homo habilis and Homo erectus, he became a pure meat-eater from an omnivore. As already noted, its victims - the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, southern elephant - did not have their own predators before; cave bears themselves were large predators. The bison or the huge aurochs bull did not have many predators either. It is clear that the Neanderthal had his own great resource, for which there were no other consumers.

It can be assumed that the Ice Age superhunter ate large animals of his faunal environment very intensively. Many species of camels and horses, giant deer and beavers were completely eaten by the tribes of these hunters. The same fate awaited larger animals - the woolly rhinoceros, mastodon, mammoth and even the cave bear. So, by the end of the Ice Age, the Neanderthal had thoroughly undermined its food supply. Of the glacial fauna, only large forest species and small animals of open spaces survived longer on the planet than him. They had their own predators - wolves, lynxes, foxes. So, again we can note the loss of the resource and, to a greater extent, a change in the climatic characteristics of the habitat. Apparently, throughout the Earth, after glaciation, the climate softened greatly, which led to the extinction of the glacial fauna. The Neanderthal also left the planet with her.

What species of large mammals disappeared along with the Neanderthals before the end of the Pleistocene? There are a lot of them. The Neanderthal man himself appeared in the Middle Pleistocene and was already extinct by the Holocene, which means that he existed on the planet for less than 500 thousand years. This is significantly smaller than Pithecanthropus, and even more so than Australopithecus habilis. At the same time as the Neanderthal man, the following appeared and died out at the same time as him: large and small cave bears, a cave lion, about 20 species of mammoths, about 10 species of forest elephants, and big-horned deer.

Many large animals that appeared in the Pliocene and even earlier, that is, long before the Neanderthal, also entered the Pleistocene fauna and ended their lives together with the Neanderthal or during his life on the planet. These are Deninger's bear, Schlosser's wolverine, about 15 species of saber-toothed cats, comb-toothed and tuberculate-toothed mastodons. There were more than 30 species. Archdiscodont elephants - more than a dozen species, Deinotherium - relatives of ancient elephants. There were also about 10 species of them, numerous types of horses: Stenon's horse, Siwalik and Sanmen horses and at least a dozen more species of these ungulates disappeared in the late Pleistocene. About 30 species of rhinoceroses, ancient hippopotamuses and camels, having appeared in the Eocene, already ceased to exist in the Pleistocene. At the same time, 9 species of bulls and 2 species of bison became extinct. Several species of giant sloths - Megatherium - disappeared from the planet on the American continents at the same time.

Cro-Magnon man - Stone Age man

When studying the life of Neanderthals, they examine the layers in which their bones and traces of their vital activity remained. Such excavations make it possible to approximately find out how and when this ancient man ended up, as well as who came after him. The layers with Neanderthal tools end, then there are layers with practically no tools at all, and only then do the layers begin with tools of another subspecies of people, to which we belong. How can we explain this time of relative “desanity” on our planet?

Most likely, this second subspecies of Homo sapiens, which lived alongside the first, was initially very small in number. Survive in the iceNew times were much more difficult for him than for the Neanderthal. Hence the tool-sterile layers between Neanderthals and modern humans. In severe cold times, their range was small, but with warming they came to the fore. The Cro-Magnon man then gained a noticeable advantage. The climate suited him more than the Neanderthal. The Cro-Magnon man, with his finer hunting gear, was more successful in catching the remaining types of game. And he could organize a large public hunt better with his greater capabilities for coherent speech. If the Pithecanthropus knew how to use fire, and the Neanderthal knew how to preserve it, then the Cro-Magnon man learned to receive fire. He invented the needle and began to sew warm, durable clothes that fit perfectly to the body.

Using the remaining presources of his predecessors, and in addition, by significantly expanding the register of his own, this person also learned to significantly mitigate the effect of unfavorable factors on his populations. Its role just began 40 thousand years ago, and after about 20 thousand years it was left alone on the planet, without its related subspecies.

Usually closely related species that compete intensely for a resource turn out to be very aggravatedpissed off to each other. Predators can directly destroy an opponent. However, it is unlikely that Cro-Magnon killed off the last Neanderthals. There was no point in killing a man from the Ice Age as a competitor, because he lived a different life and his main resources were different. Cro-Magnon most likely assimilated the few Neanderthals that had survived by that time, as evidenced by the intermediate types of skeletons found. The remains of the Neanderthal's resources also went to the Cro-Magnon man.

This was a period of climate warming, a kind of long-term thaw in the last third of the Würm glaciation. The new subspecies of man that appeared on Earth had some progressive features; it had a more developed and complex pharynx. This gave him increased opportunities for coherent speech. His jaws were not as powerful as those of a Neanderthal, and the lower one had a chin protrusion. In general, his skull was no different from ours. This subspecies knew how to make more advanced tools for hunting and farming; it was the first to make a device for making various tools - a chisel. So it was this man who, for the first time on Earth, began producing means of production, which no animal could do.

The Cro-Magnon man was a caveman, like his ancestors, and this tied him to housing, that is, he was inclined to settle down. What made these people finally sedentary was the consumption of fish and shellfish, and then plant foods - cereal seeds. Their tribes, like their ancestors, hunted big game, but at the same time unusually expanded the list of food species of organisms. Thus, he greatly increased the range of food resources and, with the disappearance of large game, began to easily switch to other types of food.

The role of even a superpredator is very short. After all, large animals have the most insignificant reproduction rate, and a fertile person, if this were his only job, would leave the biosphere stage immediately after his eaten game. But he did not leave, because there were smaller animals left on the planet, but also quite large, for example, bulls and hippos. Preserved on Earth and very large giraffes, elephants, whales, finally! Some of them had their own predators, and much larger than humans, but the human mind helped him successfully compete and take on part of the work of lions, tigers and even wolves. One must think that this immediately significantly reduced the number of large predators on Earth.

The Cro-Magnon man significantly changed the characteristics of his ecological niche, mastering many new types of food. It became a true euryphage, so its role as a universal and effective consumer in the biosphere expanded unusually. This species is already difficult to drive away from the biosphere scene; most likely, it will be able to survive the fauna in which it appeared.

There are suggestions that humanity has already survived a planetary catastrophe in which most of it died. This happened just during the time of the Cro-Magnons at the end of the mammoth era. It was associated with intense competition for food resources. The tribes fought for the last large herbivores leaving the planet: mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, giant deer and bulls. Their lack of game was so noticeable that most of humanity was then destroyed in civil strife over the hunting grounds of the tribes. For many reasons, this unlikely incident allegedly gave impetus to people mastering crop production, and after that, animal husbandry. What is the dubiousness of these sad events?

The first reason for the impossibility of human extinction following large and medium-sized ungulates is that, before getting rid of the surplus of fellow tribesmen, man would first starve out competitors - large predators: wolves, lions. Nevertheless, they continued to exist, remaining less successful hunters in comparison with humans. The second reason is that these giants were less convenient hunting targets than medium and small ungulates: deer, pigs, wild goats and sheep. The ancient people most likely felt the loss of mammoths less severely than the Indians felt the loss of bison. Finally, the third and more probable reason is that the ecological niche of the Cro-Magnon man has been expanding all the time. It included more and more plant foods. He seemed to be returning in his biocenotic role to Homo habilis (Australopithecus). At the same time, coastal settlements became more and more numerous. Here people became sedentary, because the sea steadily supplied them with food. As we can see, there is no close connection between their numbers and the numbers of mammoths and rhinoceroses.

And yet, man moved on to raising animals for food purposes. Often in this regard they talk about the emergence in the biosphere of a new biochemical cycle, the author of which was a human genius. Agriculture and cattle breeding, according to many ecologists, are artificial ecosystems (agrocenoses), and they live according to their own new laws (Moiseev, 1996). I don’t see this human invention as such a biospheric innovation. Let's figure out what might be new here.

Man was a predator - a consumer of ungulates. Like any other similar predator, it had ecological mechanisms that controlled this system (predator - prey). To prosper, he had to keep his game population from becoming too dense. He could select from the herd only evading individuals: sick, deformed, with mental disabilities and disorders, as well as old and young animals that had strayed from the herd. Unlike the wolf, humans were not highly specialized consumers of ungulates and therefore did not have innate immunity to their diseases. He differed from the wolf in his hunting techniques and hunting equipment. Nevertheless, the human hunter did not stand out from the general picture of biocenotic relations. The culture of human hunters laid down ecological patterns of interactions between the “predator - prey” system, and they were strictly followed. The tribe's traditions did not allow the killing of pregnant females, nor did they allow excess production. Subsequently, human traits appeared in hunting management, and the calculation of the herd of game animals began in relation to the number of people in the tribe. This is where birth control came into play in some tribes. So the regulation was not only of the prey population, but also of its own.

The owner and creator of a herd of food animals must take care of food for them, that is, not allow excessive density of individuals in the area where they graze. He needs to remove sick and old animals from the herd, as well as ugly, underdeveloped animals with evasive behavior. So he carries out directed selection to increase production, obtaining more and more fertile individuals that gain weight faster. Along the way, he also selects calm, increasingly tame animals, something that no predator in nature usually cares about. And finally, he has to protect his herd from predators and thieving fellow tribesmen.

So, animal husbandry basically has all the same rules of interaction characteristic of the “predator - prey” system. When fulfilled, the owner of the herd is lucky and well-fed, like, for example, a tiger “grazing” his herd of wild boars. Attempts to modify environmental rules by a shepherd result in overgrazing, epizootics and lead to losses and hunger. It turns out that a livestock breeder is the same as a large predator. The novelty here is not great, it consists only in selection aimed at increasing the meat from each individual, and in domestication in order to make hunting less labor-intensive. As for wintering places for their livestock, millions of years before us, ants were also “invented” for the aphids they grazed. Further, I will return more than once to consider animal husbandry as one of the achievements of mankind.

Let us briefly summarize the formation, development and change of species and subspecies of humans in the fauna of the Earth. Over the course of about 5 million years, species and subspecies of humans appeared and replaced each other in different terrestrial faunas. They achieved greater and greater intellectual perfection. Their appearance changed towards the appearance of an increasingly slimmer physique, hair loss and increased height. We are apparently the tallest among other species of people.

Meanwhile, with the improvement of man, the lifespan of each new species on the planet, their historical age, has steadily and rapidly decreased. This trend should give food for thought about the fate of humanity. The rate of change of faunas on Earth is also increasing, which also indicates an evolutionary acceleration of changes in living conditions here. I think that humanity does not have many millennia, and perhaps centuries, left to exist, if people do not make some drastic attempts to extend their historical life. In the meantime, social survival tactics are aimed at reducing the length of time a person stays on Earth, that is, it is quite harmonious with the observed evolutionary trend.

Modern humans have no fewer hair follicles on their skin than apes, but the hair is much thinner and shorter, so they are practically invisible in many areas of the body.

External differences are probably the first thing that catches your eye when comparing prehistoric and modern people. Modern people look different, eat differently, lead a significantly different lifestyle, wear different clothes, have different skills and abilities, and so on. In addition, ancient man did not know writing, had primitive technologies and was more dependent on the forces of nature. This is true, and these are certainly significant differences. Essential, but not fundamental. Modern stories of “Robinsonades”, zones of military conflicts and, in general, the ups and downs of life show how outwardly a person can change, becoming almost indistinguishable in appearance from an ancient one, but at the same time still largely remaining modern internally.

What other differences are there? Life expectancy? Yes, on average it was small in ancient man, in the period under study at different stages from 20 to 35 years. It seems that this is very little, although depending on how you look at it. In the Russian Empire, for example, in the middle of the 19th century, the same figure was only about 24 years, that is, even noticeably lower than in the Late Paleolithic, where it was about 32 years. It sounds incredible at first glance, but it is true. The point here is that a significant contribution to the formation of a short average life expectancy is made by extremely high child (and female) mortality. Those who managed to overcome the barrier of childhood, even Neanderthals, quite managed to live to be 50-60 years old. Thus, it turns out that in the case of life expectancy there are no fundamental differences. Then what is the difference between modern and prehistoric man?

The fundamental difference was the changes that occurred in human consciousness. Having completed mainly biological evolution, man began cultural evolution. It is generally accepted that this happened about 35–40 thousand years ago. And just as the first representatives of biological species at the initial stages of evolution were extremely “primitive,” so human thinking at the beginning of its development was severely limited in the possibilities of conscious activity. What were these restrictions?

Yuri Verderevsky, RVS

To date, there is no exact hypothesis about how and where they appeared. ancient human ancestors. Most scientists are of the opinion that humans and monkeys have a common ancestor. It is believed that somewhere 5-8 million years ago, the evolution of anthropoid apes went in two independent directions. Some of them remained to live in the animal world, and the rest, after millions of years, turned into people.

Rice. 1 - Human evolution

Dryopithecus

One of the ancient ancestors of man is Dryopithecus "tree monkey"(Fig. 2), who lived in Africa and Europe 25 million years ago. He led a herd lifestyle and was strikingly similar to a modern chimpanzee. Due to the fact that he constantly lived in trees, his forelimbs could turn in any direction, which played an important role in the further formation of man.

Features of Dryopithecus:

• developed upper limbs contributed to the emergence of the ability to manipulate objects;
• Coordination improved and color vision developed. There was a transition from a herd to a social way of life, as a result of which speech sounds began to develop;
• brain size increased;
• a thin layer of enamel on the teeth of Dryopithecus indicates the predominance of food of plant origin in its diet.

Rice. 2 - Dryopithecus - an early human ancestor

The remains of Australopithecus (Fig. 3) were discovered in Africa. Lived approximately 3-5.5 million years ago. He walked on his feet, but his arms were much longer than those of modern humans. The climate of Africa gradually changed and became drier, which resulted in a decrease in forests. More than half of the apes have adapted to new living conditions in open space. Due to the hot climate, ancient human ancestors, they mainly began to move on their feet, which saved them from overheating of the sun (the area of ​​their back is much larger than the top of their head). As a result, this led to a decrease in sweating, thereby reducing water consumption.

Features of Australopithecus:

• knew how to use primitive objects of labor: sticks, stones, and so on;
• the brain was 3 times smaller than the brain of a modern person, but much larger than the brain of large monkeys of our time;
• was distinguished by his short stature: 110-150 cm, and body weight could be from 20 to 50 kg;
• ate plant and meat foods;
• earned his own food using tools he made himself;
• lifespan - 18-20 years.

Rice. 3 - Australopithecus

(Fig. 4) lived approximately 2-2.5 million years ago. The posture of his figure was very close to that of a human. He walked in an upright position, which is where he got his second name - “homo erectus.” Habitat Africa, as well as some places in Asia and Europe. In the Olduvai Gorge (East Africa), things made from partially processed pebbles were discovered next to the remains of Homo habilis. This suggests that the ancient ancestors of man of that time already knew how to create simple objects of labor and hunting, and select raw materials for their manufacture. Presumably a direct descendant of Australopithecus.

Features of a “skillful” person:

• brain size - 600 cm²;
• the facial part of the skull became smaller, giving way to the brain part;
• the teeth are not very large, like those of Australopithecus;
• was an omnivore;
• the foot acquired an arch, which contributed to better walking on two limbs;
• the hand has become more developed, thereby expanding its grasping abilities, and the grip strength has increased;
• although the larynx was not yet able to reproduce speech, the part of the brain responsible for this was finally formed.

Rice. 4 - A “skillful” person

Homo erectus

Other name - Erectus(Fig. 5). Without a doubt he is considered a representative of the human race. Existed 1 million - 300 years ago. It got its name from the final transition to straight walking.

Features of Homo erectus:

• possessed the ability to speak and think abstractly;
• knew how to create quite complex objects of labor and handle fire. There is an assumption that an upright man could make fire on his own;
• appearance resembles the features of modern people. However, there are significant differences: the walls of the skull are quite thick, the frontal bone is located lower and has massive supraorbital protrusions. The heavy lower jaw is larger, and the chin protuberance is almost invisible;
• males were much larger than females;
• height is about 150-180 cm, brain size has increased to 1100 cm³.

The lifestyle of the erect walking ancestor of man consisted of hunting and gathering edible plants, berries, and mushrooms. He lived in social groups, which contributed to the formation of speech. Perhaps it was supplanted by Neanderthals 300 thousand years ago, but this version does not have solid arguments.

Rice. 5 - Erectus

Pithecanthropus

Pithecanthropus - is rightfully considered one of ancient human ancestors. This is one of the varieties of upright man. Habitat: Southeast Asia, lived about 500-700 thousand years ago. The remains of the “ape-man” were first found on the island of Java. It is assumed that he is not a direct ancestor of modern humanity, most likely he can be considered our “cousin”.

Sinanthropus

Another species of Homo erectus. Existed 600-400 thousand years ago in the current territory of China. Sinanthropus are relatively developed ancient ancestors of humans.

A representative of the human race, he was previously considered a subspecies of Homo sapiens. Its habitat was Europe and North Africa more than 100 thousand years ago. The period of life of the Neanderthals fell just during the Ice Age; accordingly, in harsh climatic conditions, they had to take care of making clothes and building housing. The main food is meat. It does not relate to the direct relationship of Homo sapiens, but it could well have lived next to the Cro-Magnons, which contributed to their mutual crossing. Some scientists believe that there was a constant struggle between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, which led to the extinction of Neanderthals. It is assumed that both species hunted each other. Neanderthals (Fig. 6) had a massive, large physique, compared to Cro-Magnons.

Features of Neanderthals:

• brain size - 1200-1600 cm³;
• height - approximately 150 cm;
• due to the large brain, the skull had an elongated backward shape. True, the frontal bone was low, the cheekbones were wide, and the jaw itself was large. The chin had a weakly defined character, and the brow ridge had an impressive protrusion.

Rice. 6 - Neanderthal

Neanderthals led a cultural life: musical instruments were discovered during excavations. Religion was also present, as indicated by special rituals at the funerals of their fellow tribesmen. There is evidence that these ancient human ancestors had medical knowledge. For example, they knew how to heal fractures.

Direct descendant of Homo sapiens. Existed approximately 40 thousand years ago.

Features of Cro-Magnons (Fig. 7):

• had a more developed human appearance. Distinctive features: a fairly high straight forehead, absence of a brow ridge, a more distinctly shaped chin protuberance;
• height - 180 cm, but body weight is much less than that of Neanderthals;
• brain size was 1400-1900 cm³;
• spoke clearly;
• considered the founder of the first true human cell;
• lived in groups of 100 people, so to speak, tribal communities, building the first villages;
• engaged in the construction of huts and dugouts, using the skins of killed animals. He created clothing, household items and hunting tools;
• knew agriculture;
• he went hunting with a group of fellow tribesmen, chasing and driving the animal into a prepared trap. Over time, he learned to domesticate animals;
• had its own highly developed culture, which has survived to this day in the form of rock paintings and clay sculptures;
• performed rituals during the burial of relatives. It follows from this that the Cro-Magnons, like the Neanderthals, believed in another life after death;

Science officially believes that the Cro-Magnon man is a direct descendant of modern people.

The ancient ancestors of humans will be discussed in more detail in the following lectures.

Rice. 7 - Cro-Magnon

The most ancient people lived 2 million - 500 thousand years ago.

Pithecanthropus - "ape-man". The remains were discovered

first on o. Java in 1891 by E. Dubois, and then in a number of other places.

Pithecanthropus walked on two legs, their brain volume increased, they

used primitive tools in the form of clubs and lightly hewn

stones. Low forehead, powerful brow ridges, half-bent body with abundant

hair - all this pointed to their recent (monkey) past.

Sinanthropus, whose remains were found in 1927 - 1937. V

cave near Beijing, is in many ways similar to Pithecanthropus, it is geographical

variant of Homo erectus. Sinanthropus already knew how to maintain a fire.

The main factor in the evolution of ancient people was natural

Ancient people

Ancient people characterize the next stage of anthropogenesis,

when social factors begin to play a role in evolution: labor

activities in the groups in which they lived, a joint struggle for life and

development of intelligence. These include Neanderthals, whose remains were

found in Europe, Asia, Africa. They got their name from the place

the first find in the river valley. Neander (Germany). Neanderthals lived during the Ice Age

era 200 - 35 thousand years ago in caves where fire was constantly maintained,

dressed in skins. Neanderthal tools are much more advanced and have

some specialization: knives, scrapers, percussion tools. More artificial and have

some specialization: knives, scrapers, percussion tools. Real name

they received at the place of the first discovery in the river valley. Neander (Germany). jaws

evidenced articulate speech. Neanderthals lived in groups of 50

- 100 people. Men hunted collectively, women and children gathered

edible roots and fruits, old people made tools. Latest

Neanderthals lived among the first modern humans, and were then eventually

completely repressed. Some scientists consider Neanderthals a dead end

branch of hominid evolution that did not participate in the formation of modern

person.

Modern people.

The emergence of modern physical people

type happened relatively recently, about 50 thousand years ago. Their remains

found in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. In the Cro-Magnon Grotto (France)

several fossil skeletons of modern people were discovered

type, which were called Cro-Magnons. They had the whole package

physical features that characterize. They had everything

a complex of physical features that is characteristically articulate

speech, as indicated by the developed chin protuberance; housing construction,

the first beginnings of art (rock paintings), clothing decoration,

perfect bone and stone tools, the first domesticated animals -

everything indicates that this is a real person, definitively

separated from his beast-like ancestors. Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons and

modern people form one species - Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens; this

the species formed no later than 100–40 thousand years ago.

Social factors were of great importance in the evolution of Cro-Magnons.

factors, the role of education and the transfer of experience has grown immeasurably.

Driving forces of anthropogenesis. In human evolution -

anthropogenesis – the most important role belongs not only to biological factors

(variability, heredity, selection), but also social (speech, accumulated

work experience and social behavior). Peculiarities

of a person, determined by social factors, are not fixed genetically and

are not passed on by inheritance, but through the process of upbringing and training. On the first

stages of evolution, selection for greater adaptability to

rapidly changing circumstances. However, subsequently the ability

pass on genetic acquisitions from generation to generation in the form of

variety of scientific, technical and cultural information began to play all

a more important role, freeing man from the strict control of the natural

selection. Social patterns have become important in evolution

person. The winners in the struggle for existence were not necessarily

the strongest, and those who saved the weak: children are the future of the population,

old people - keepers of information about ways to survive (hunting techniques,

making tools, etc.). Victory of populations in the struggle for existence

was provided not only by strength and intelligence, but also by the ability to sacrifice

yourself in the name of family, tribe. Man is a social being

the distinctive feature of which is consciousness formed on the basis

collective work.

Social relationships play a role in the evolution of Homo sapiens

growing role. For modern people, the leading and defining

social-labor relations. This is the qualitative uniqueness of evolution