Comparison of ancient and modern people. Primitive people

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.

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

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 human species and subspecies 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.

Ancient people

The most ancient people were replaced by ancient people, who are also called Neanderthals (after the place of the first discovery in the valley of the Neander River, Germany;). The range of ancient people, as evidenced by finds in Africa, Asia and Europe, was quite large. The finds often include stone tools, traces of fires, and bones of killed animals.

Neanderthals lived during the Ice Age from 200 to 30 thousand years ago. The wide distribution of ancient people not only in areas with a warm, favorable climate, but also in the harsh conditions of glaciated Europe indicates their significant progress compared to the most ancient people. Ancient people knew how to not only maintain, but also make fire.

In warm climates, Neanderthals settled along river banks, under rock overhangs; in the cold - in caves, which they often had to conquer from cave bears, lions, and hyenas. The cave in which the fire was burning reliably protected both from the cold and from attacks by predatory animals.

Ancient people, compared to the most ancient people, represented a more progressive type of person (Fig. 3). The volume of their brain is equal to the volume of the modern human brain. Ancient people experienced further development of speech. The tools of the Neanderthals also testify to the progress of thinking: they were quite diverse in form and served for a variety of purposes. With the help of manufactured tools, ancient people hunted animals, skinned them, butchered carcasses, and built dwellings.

Ancient people noted the emergence of elementary social relationships, which were expressed in caring for those who, due to wounds or illnesses, could not obtain food on their own. Burials are found for the first time among Neanderthals.

Collective actions already played a decisive role in the primitive herd of ancient people. In the struggle for existence, those groups that successfully hunted and better provided themselves with food, took care of each other, achieved less mortality in children and adults, and better: overcame difficult living conditions, won the struggle for existence. The ability to make tools, articulate speech, the ability to learn - these qualities turned out to be useful for the team as a whole. Natural selection ensured the further progressive development of many traits. As a result, the biological organization of ancient people improved. But the influence of social factors on the development of Neanderthals became increasingly stronger.

Fossil modern humans.

The emergence of people of the modern physical type (Homo sapiens), who replaced ancient people, occurred relatively recently, about 50 thousand years ago.

Fossil remains of modern humans have been found in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Several skeletons of people of this type were discovered in the Cro-Magnon Grotto in France. Modern humans are called Cro-Magnons based on the location where fossils were found. In our country, unique finds of these people were made near Voronezh and Vladimir.

Fossil people of the modern type possessed the entire complex of basic physical features that our contemporaries also have. Their mental development, compared with Neanderthals and even more so with Homo erectus, reached a high level. This is evidenced not only by the volume and structure of the brain, but also by the drastic changes that have occurred in their lives. Flint tools gradually became more diverse and sophisticated. To make tools, the Cro-Magnons began to widely use materials that were more difficult to process: bone, horn. The variety of types of tools made of stone and bone (chisels, scrapers, drills, dart tips, harpoons, needles) speaks of complex labor activity, as a result of which dependence on nature became less and less. The study of Cro-Magnon tools shows that already at that time people knew how to sew animal skins and make clothes and housing from them. All this made people less dependent on climatic conditions. That is why people are beginning to explore previously inaccessible areas of the globe and endure unfavorable environmental conditions. At this stage, another major event occurred in people's lives - the emergence of art. Drawings by the first artists discovered on the walls of caves, stone and bone sculptures were made with amazing skill for that time. The painting of the Kapova Cave (in the Urals) is world famous.

Man is a biological and social being.

The appearance of man is a huge leap in the development of living nature. Man arose in the process of evolution under the influence of laws common to all living beings. The human body, like all living organisms, needs food and oxygen to maintain vitality. Like all living organisms, it undergoes changes, grows, ages, and dies. Therefore, the human body, the human organism, is the field of study of biological sciences. However, the human body is not yet a person in the social sense. A child completely isolated from other people will not learn to speak, his thinking will not develop. A person becomes a person only when he develops and lives in society. The social environment in which people find themselves leaves such a big imprint on them that it is impossible to study a person from the standpoint of biological sciences alone.

A person develops a special form of communication between generations, not related to genetic mechanisms - the continuity of traditions, culture, science, knowledge. All this became possible thanks to the development of speech and writing. The experience accumulated by a person in his individual life does not disappear with him, but flows into universal human culture.

In the early stages of hominid evolution, selection for greater adaptability to rapidly changing living conditions was of decisive importance. However, subsequently, the ability of a person to inherit non-genetic acquisitions in the form of various scientific, technical and cultural information, as the volume of knowledge increased, increasingly removed a person from the strict control of natural selection and increased dependence on society. Therefore, when studying human biology, we must always remember that man occupies a very special position in nature and is qualitatively different from other organisms. Man is both a biological and a social being. Ignoring the social role and exaggerating the biological one is a serious scientific

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More than a million years after the appearance of the first people of the Homo habilis type, the most ancient people, Homo erectus, appeared on Earth - homo erectus(Fig. 1). These are Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidelberg man and other forms.

Remains of ancient people

The discovery of Pithecanthropus by E. Dubois on the island of Java - the “missing link” in the human family tree - was a triumph of materialistic science. Excavations in Java were resumed in the 30s and then in the 60s of our century. As a result, the bone remains of several dozen Pithecanthropus were discovered, including at least nine skulls. The most ancient of the Javan Pithecanthropes, judging by the latest dating, are 1.5-1.9 million years old.

Ppithecanthropus (click on image to enlarge)

One of the most famous and expressive representatives of Pithecanthropus is Sinanthropus, or Chinese Pithecanthropus. The remains of Sinanthropus were discovered in northern China near the village of Zhou-Gou-Dian, 50 km from Beijing. Sinanthropus lived in a large cave, which they occupied probably for hundreds of millennia (only over such a long time could sediments up to 50 m thick accumulate here). Many crude stone tools were found in the sediments. Interestingly, the tools found at the base of the sequence do not differ from other tools found in its uppermost layers. This indicates a very slow development of technology at the beginning of human history. Sinanthropus kept the fire burning in the cave.

Sinanthropus was one of the latest and most developed ancient people; it existed 300-500 thousand years ago.

In Europe, reliable and thoroughly studied bone remains of ancient people close in time to Sinanthropus were found in four places. The most famous find is the massive jaw of Heidelberg Man, discovered near Heidelberg (Germany).

Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, and Heidelberg man had many common features and represented geographical variants of one species (Fig. 2). Therefore, the famous anthropologist Le Gros Clark united them with one common name - Homo erectus (upright man).

Homo erectus. Homo erectus differed from his predecessors in height, straight posture, and human gait. The average height of synanthropes was about 150 cm in women and 160 cm in men. Pithecanthropus of Java reached 175 cm. The arm of the ancient man was more developed, and the foot acquired a small arch. The bones of the legs changed, the hip joint moved to the center of the pelvis, the spine received some bending, which balanced the vertical position of the body. Based on these progressive changes in physique and growth, the oldest man received his name - Homo erectus.

Homo erectus still differed from modern humans in some significant ways; a low sloping forehead with supraorbital ridges, a massive, sloping chin and protruding jaw, a flat small nose. However, as one anthropologist noted, they were the first primates of which you would see and say, “These are not apes, they are undeniably human.”

Homo erectus differed most from other primates, his predecessors, in size and significant complexity of the brain structure and, as a consequence, more complex behavior. The volume of the brain was 800-1400 cm 3, the most developed were the lobes of the brain that control higher nervous activity. The left hemisphere was larger than the right, which was probably due to the stronger development of the right hand. This typically human trait, due to the production of tools, is especially strongly developed in Sinanthropus.

Hunting is the basis of the Pithecanthropus lifestyle

Animal bones and hunting tools discovered at the sites of ancient people indicate that they were patient and prudent hunters who knew how to stubbornly wait in ambush along the animal trail and jointly organize roundups of gazelles, antelopes and even the giants of the savannah - elephants.

Rice. 2. Skulls: A - gorillas, B - Pithecanthropus. C - Sinanthropus, G - Neanderthal, D - modern man

Such raids required not only great skill, but also the use of hunting techniques based on knowledge of the habits of animals. Homo erectus made hunting tools much more skillfully than his predecessors. Some of the stones he chipped were carefully given the desired shape: a pointed end, cutting edges on both sides, the size of the stone was selected exactly to fit the hand.

But it is especially important that Homo erectus was able to notice the seasonal migrations of animals and hunted where he could count on abundant prey. He learned to remember landmarks and, having gone far from the parking lot, find his way back. Hunting gradually ceased to be a matter of chance, but was planned by ancient hunters. The need to follow wandering game had a profound impact on the lifestyle of Homo erectus. Willy-nilly, he found himself in new habitats, gained new impressions and expanded his experience.

Based on the structural features of the skull and cervical spine of ancient people, it has been established that their vocal apparatus was not as large and flexible as that of modern humans, but it allowed them to produce much more complex sounds than the muttering and squeals of modern monkeys. It can be assumed that Homo erectus “spoke” very slowly and with difficulty. The main thing is that he learned to communicate using symbols and to designate objects using combinations of sounds. Facial expressions and gestures probably played a significant role as a means of communication between ancient people. (The human face is very mobile, we even now understand the emotional state of another person without words: delight, joy, disgust, anger, etc., and are also able to express specific thoughts: agree or deny, greet, call, etc.)

Collective hunting required not only verbal communication, but also contributed to the development of a social organization that was clearly human in nature, as it was based on the division of labor between male hunters and female food gatherers.

The use of fire by ancient man

In the Zhou-Gou-Dian cave, where the remains of Sinanthropus and their numerous stone tools were found, traces of fire were also found: coals. ashes, burnt stones. Obviously, the first fires burned more than 500 thousand years ago. The ability to use fire made food more digestible. In addition, fried food is easier to chew, and this could not but affect the appearance of people: the selection pressure aimed at maintaining a powerful jaw apparatus disappeared. Gradually, the teeth began to shrink, the lower jaw no longer protruded forward as much, and the massive bone structure required for the attachment of powerful chewing muscles was no longer necessary. The man's face gradually acquired modern features.

Fire not only expanded food sources many times over, but also gave humanity constant and reliable protection from the cold and from wild animals. With the advent of fire and the hearth, a completely new phenomenon arose - a space strictly intended for people. Gathering around a fire that brought warmth and safety, people could make tools, eat and sleep, and communicate with each other. Gradually, a sense of “home” grew stronger, a place where women could care for children and where men returned from hunting.

Fire made humans independent of the climate, allowed them to settle on the surface of the Earth, and played a vital role in improving tools.

Despite the widespread use of fire, Homo erectus could not learn how to make it for a very long time, and perhaps he never learned this secret until the end of his existence. “Fire stones,” such as flint and iron pyrite, have not been found among the cultural remains of Homo erectus,

At this stage of human evolution, many physical features of ancient people continue to be under the control of natural selection, primarily associated with the development of the brain and the improvement of upright walking. However, along with the biological factors of evolution, new social patterns begin to emerge, which over time will become the most important in the existence of human society.

The use of fire, hunting travels, and the development of the ability to communicate to some extent prepared the spread of Homo erectus beyond the tropics. From Southeast Africa he moved to the Nile Valley, and from there to the north along the East Coast of the Mediterranean Sea. His remains were found in the east - on the island of Java and in China. What are the boundaries of the ancestral home of humanity, the territory where the separation of man from the animal state took place?

The ancestral home of humanity

Numerous finds in the south and especially in the east of Africa of very ancient (up to 5.5 million years old) remains of australopithecines, Homo habilis and the most ancient stone tools testify in favor of the African ancestral home of humanity. Of significant importance is the fact that Africa is home to the anthropoids closest to humans - chimpanzees and gorillas. Neither in Asia nor in Europe has such a complete evolutionary series of primates been discovered as in East Africa.

The findings of Dryopithecus and Ramapithecus in India and Pakistan, the remains of fossil apes close to Australopithecus discovered in Southern China and northern India, as well as the remains of the most ancient people - Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus, speak in favor of the South Asian ancestral home.

At the same time, finds of fossil remains of ancient people made in Germany and Hungary. Czechoslovakia, testify in favor of including southern Europe within the boundaries of the settlement of ancient people. This is also evidenced by the discovery of the remains of a hunting camp in the Ballone grotto in southeastern France, which dates back up to 700 thousand years. Of great interest is the recent discovery in northeastern Hungary of the remains of Ramapithecine monkeys, which were on the path of hominization.

So, many researchers do not give preference to any of the three named continents, believing that the transformation of apes into people occurred in the process of their active adaptation to the most diverse and changing environmental conditions. Probably, the ancestral home of humanity was quite extensive, including a significant territory of Africa, Southern Europe, South and Southeast Asia. New discoveries of the bone remains of our ancestors constantly force us to expand the boundaries of the supposed ancestral home of humanity. It should be noted that America and Australia were inhabited by people of a modern physical type who came from Asia no earlier than 30-35 thousand years ago.