The Earth has a 4.6-billion-year history. However, Homo sapiens (modern humans) only evolved between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago.
Humans evolved from the family hominid (great apes) that have existed on Earth for around 20 million years. Over time, different human species with different characteristics have existed on Earth, but not all species of humans have survived the journey with many of them becoming extinct. The only human species left is Homo sapiens.
The idea of humans being linked to the apes came after the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859. He was the first to point out that every species has emerged from an earlier one.
Later, two scientists, Thomas Huxley and Richard Owen, supported him. Huxley published a book in 1863 entitled Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature. Even though scientists held several views and theories, the major problem was proof because there was a lack of fossil intermediaries.
Eugène Dubois discovered the first fossil intermediary in 1891 at Trinil in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) proving that there were species between humans and apes. He called his finding Pithecanthropus erectus or Java Man.
Additional fossils were discovered in Africa in 1920 and the study of the evolution of humans began thereafter.
Here is the list of seven Homo species that have existed on Earth:
7. Homo Heidelbergensis
Homo heidelbergensis lived on Earth between 700,000 and 200,000 years ago.
They emerged from Africa. The Homo heidelbergensis male was about 5ft 9in (175cm) tall and weighed around 136lbs (62kg), whereas the female average height was 5ft 2in (157cm) and with a weight of 112lbs (51kg).
They had a large brain case with a flatter face than today’s humans. They were the first human species to adapt to colder climates and to build their own shelters to live in. They were also widely known for their ability to hunt large animals, which had not been seen in human species before them.
The first Homo heidelbergensis fossil was discovered on October 21, 1907, by a worker in Germany. The workman handed it over to Professor Otto Schoetensack from the University of Heidelberg who later identified and named the fossil.
6. Homo Rudolfensis
Homo rudolfensis is another extinct species that falls into the hominid category. They are believed to have lived around 1.9 million to 1.8 million years ago. Their physical build, weight, and height is still unknown due to the scarcity of cranial fossils.
Paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey and her team announced the discovery of a face and two jawbones belonging to Homo rudolfensis on August 8, 2012. The fossil known as KNM-ER 1470 was at the center of a debate about its age. It was first thought to be around three million years old but later this was corrected to 1.9 million.
The difference in the skull from other Homo species led to the creation of a new species called Homo rudolfensis. There are certain features of the ER 1470 to suggest that it is no different from other Homo species such as the lack of heavy muscle, the crests of australopithecine crania, and the smoothly rounded occipital bone similar to that of Homo erectus.
However, other key features suggest that Homo rudolfensis are different from other Homo species having much longer faces with the upper part being narrower than the middle, and with many more megadont postcanines.
5. Homo Habilis
Homo habilis was another species of hominids who lived on Earth between 2.4 and 1.4 million years ago.
Homo habilis possessed some ape-like features such as long arms and a moderately prognathic face. They had a larger brain case in the range of 550cm to 687cm. However, they had a smaller face and smaller teeth.
There has been some debate as to whether Homo habilis should be classified as Homo since they had very few characteristics of other Homo species, but scientists discovered that they had the capacity to use stone tools for various purposes.
There are three key fossils available of Homo habilis: KNM-ER 1813, OH 24, and OH 8. The first fossil was found by the scientists Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania in the 1960s.
4. Homo Floresiensis
Homo floresiensis was believed to have lived from 95,000 to 17,000 years ago in Indonesia.
They were quite small in size, around 3.5 feet, with a tiny brain. There is evidence that Homo floresiensis made stone tools and used to hunt small elephants and large rodents.
The key fossils of Homo floresiensis were found in 2003 in Indonesia and were named LB-1. The female head was a third of the size of a modern human brain.
Perhaps their small bodies enabled them to survive on the small island with limited resources.
3. Homo Erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of early human that lived throughout the Pleistocene period from about 1.9 million years to most recently 143,000 years ago.
The first Erectus fossil was discovered in Java (present-day Indonesia) in the early 1890s by Eugène Dubois. The study of the fossil proved that Homo erectus originated in Africa and spread through India, China, Georgia, and Java.
Homo erectus were generally in the range of 4 feet 9 inches to 6 feet 1 inch with a weight of around 88 to 150lbs. Their height and weight were different from the fossils found in other parts of the world.
The fossils from Africa had a larger body size than those of Indonesia, China, and Georgia. Their elongated legs and short arms helped them climb trees easily and run faster than modern-day human beings.
2. Homo Neanderthalensis
Neanderthal is an extinct species of human with the closest similarity to modern humans. Only 0.12 percent of their DNA is different to modern humans.
The Neanderthal was believed to have existed from about 600,000 to 30,000 years ago, and lived throughout Europe and southwest to central Asia.
They had most of the features of modern humans, they used different tools for hunting, and wore symbolic ornamental objects.
There is evidence that they used to bury their dead with offerings such as flowers. Some earlier human species have also been found to have engaged in such symbolic behavior.
A study has indicated that the Neanderthal and the modern human brain were similar at birth. However, in adulthood, their brains became larger.
They were stronger than modern humans with a huge body size: male (164-168cm) and female (156-158cm).
1. Homo Sapiens
Most hominid species that existed on Earth became extinct during climatic changes but Homo sapiens survived and became the ancestors of modern humans.
Homo sapiens lived together, hunted food, and evolved to such an extent that they could cope with the climatic changes that occurred.
Besides hunting, they discovered how to propagate certain plants and how to breed animals, which changed history forever. Soon they learned to produce more food, and ate a variety of animals and plants. Their control over fire and their tendency to live in larger groups also led to the creation of better shelters.
Scientists have found various fossils that support strong evidence of Homo sapiens. The oldest known fossils were discovered in Herto, Ethiopia. Researchers from the University of California found the skulls of two adults and a child, who lived around 160,000 to 40,000 years before modern times.
You left out Homo Naledi. Scientists are learning new information about us as a species each day, so nothing is written in stone.
Homo Naledi is an incredible find with regard to our understanding of technology usage by early human species. This find does suggest a much early use of controlled fire than previously evidenced.
There is currently still debate as to whether it is actually a new species, or simply a phenotypic variation.
This is due to our anthropologists typically falling into one of two groups, “lumpers” and “splitters”. Lumpers tend to assume greater variation within a species, while splitters are more prone to think that a sample with trait differences is a new species.
The primary anthropologist for the Naledi find tends toward the “splitter” end of the spectrum.
We shall see, though, in time. :)
Would not interbreeding between species account for more variation, and therefore more species evolution,) than simple evolutionary process would allow or account for?
The definition of species says that two species can’t breed to create fertile offspring, so they can’t vary this way. That’s why they are different species; so they can’t breed. Some species can, like donkeys and horses creating mules, but keep in mind that species like mules can’t have children of their own, so you can’t evolve in that way.
To Some Guy. True what you say. But what’s missing in your point is the incomprehensible element of time. And perhaps the imperfect perfection of nature, not to mention the Universe as it evolves. I say incomprehensible element of time because first, hundreds of millions of years are far beyond any of us to meaningfully comprehend. And even within our human framework of time, there’s an elusive relativity where, for example, waiting at a stoplight can sometimes seem almost longer than a blissful week of vacation that just blew past. It’s why we need clocks as reference for our daily activity, or positions of the sun and stars for a bigger reference of time’s passage. But its under the long passages of time, generally millions of years, for a species to evolve from one to another. They don’t just suddenly spring forth. You can argue whether that’s always millions of years for a new species to evolve, or some other length – it varies depending on the species, lifespans, and environmental conditions presented. But it mostly doesn’t happen overnight, over a lifetime, or even over many generations. However, the process is ceaseless and ongoing as a river. There are rapids and there are quiet pools. Even eddies where the water circles back. Evolution proceeds similarly. As for time, we can generally only grasp time by measuring it; that’s why we’ve corralled it’s infinite capacity into digestible units of minutes, hours, years, and so on as measured by sundials, clocks, calendars and other such instruments. These tools help us make sense of what is basically relentless, and they also help connect us to the infinite cosmos upon which our systems of time are roughly based. We also feel time by experience. What arises from all this limitation is the tendency to package evolution in a step by step process as opposed to a never-ending, organically moving process that sometimes rests and sometimes explodes along the vast journey and unfolding scale of time. So, yes there have to be crumb trails between species, individuals that lead a path toward a more successful solution that we can define as a species. What we forget sometimes is that evolution is still happening even as we make our distinctions and definitions.
so what about the 6-9% matching dna in sapiens and neanderthals? How did that get there if they are different species and cant breed?
Also if you check the first link in the Homo sapiens section it says oldest fossil of modern humans, meaning we are Homo sapiens.
it doesn’t make any sense homo or what is stupid scientist don’t believe In God existence , so because the creation of God is a mystery to them. they are thinking with their canal thought.. if you believe you come from ape is up to you
I find it ironic how due to your ‘book’ the bible gets proven to be a load of crap every year and how yet it is the author of the article who is the blind one, enjoy your Ponzi scheme called religion.
Science and the Bible are not wholly in contradiction of each other.
The contradiction is when someone takes a parable and tries to claim it is literal.
Don’t start that weak connection. The Bible is a story told by old men and has been edited many times with many chapters taken out and in over hundreds of years. Long after Jesus lived. The Bible is a story. It is not a History book or a Science book. Stop trying to justifying Evolution with the stories of Jesus which are mostly inaccurate anyway.
Why does it not make sense ?
The creation of god is not a mystery , man invented him/her/it. Different people invented different gods. but every religion thinks they are right and the others are wrong . Use some common sense, Even if god did exist statistically chances are you have picked the wrong fan club/religion.
Some simple basic questions . Why did god make the other planets ? failed attempts at an earth ? Why not mentioned in any religious text ? If god made us and the sun why did he make the sun give us skin cancer and other health problems ? A mistake or on purpose ? Why did he invent tobacco ? he knew what we would do with it / Why make poisonous foods ? why make animals with better eyesight / hearing/ speed/ strength/recovery abilities etc than us ? we are meant to be the chosen ? etc etc etc so many simple questions the religious ignore/ choose not to see.
No one says we come from apes , we come from same start . But hey Id have no problem coming from an ape !!
Why is a God needed ? i’m happy without one .
God was needed to help us make sense of the unfathamable.It is said only though faith can You know God.I think math proves the existance of God.As for the other questions: How about life is like a bowl of cherry’s.It amazing that people have been talking to God for years and still doubt his existance.If someone told You they had a invisable friend would you believe them.Why not. They might.Can you prove they don’t?What makes You so sure?I have seen ghosts.But what did I actually see is it a reflection A holographic recording afigimant of my imagination.Something else.Five people were there four saw the ghost One did not.Same room same time Why?is there a God? Yes How do I know?I have talked with Him Was he something other than God?He seemed nice.So unless I have reason not to believe well I will just take it at face value and not sweat the small stuff.
Wrong. The religion of old, is the politics of new. Religion is politics. Even in uncontacted societies, resides a “shaman” of sorts, that dictates the ebbs & flow of societal affairs. That’s why the last pope to resign said, “I can’t do this anymore. IF there is a god, I cannot go to hell for lying. There is no Jesus. Jesus was created by the Roman Empire, as a political scheme, in the 1st century AD to unite the Mediterranean world.” Boom! Straight from “The Church”…the very first “Christian” organized group, before all the denominations were created, perverting the Catholic beliefs even further to suit their own needs. King James removed over 20 books from the original biblical text, since they denoted that men and women should be seen as equals. During that time in history, that simply was not acceptable; women had a place, designated by men and were not equal. King James even added the last line of the bible which states “adding unto or removing from these texts, will remove your name from the book of life” to prevent questioning by the people; it’s ‘God’s’ word. Wars for the last millennia have all been fought in the name of a “god”…the beliefs which stem from the society’s religion, involved in the war. Catholicism took the idea of baptism (submersion) and made it a “sprinkle” of water so that the legions of soldiers could be baptized under the new religion very quickly. Today’s ‘Homo Sapien’ is a cross-breed between all the sub-species of ‘man.’ No matter how many times you breed two white sheep, who’ve all been derived from white sheep, will you never result in another variation without genetic mutation without stimuli from external sources (ie gamma radiation). Man, is like dogs. They all belong to the canine family (man from the Homo family), but they are all different species. You can see traits from each of the “extinct” homo species still evident today in ill-named “homo sapiens” (aka species mutts). Skin color, size (if not dietary), shape, hair color, eye color, aversion to certain foods, thought processes (genetically middle eastern species of man are typically more aggressive (they’ve been fighting each other like pitt-bulls for over 3000 years without actual cause)), whereas sub-African species are typically more docile (ie Ubuntu tribes). A blind study was performed internationally, which found regardless of the current society in which an individual resides, each race does, in fact, have particular cognitive differences in how reasoning is handled and remained the same across international borders by “race”. It was even evidenced in particular races that had similarities to other races’ ‘thought patterns’, when asked if these individuals had any ties to the other race in their familial background. More than 90% of the time, relation and ties to other races could be identified. The RH- factor is derived from Homo Capensis sub-species (which had elongated heads and were very similar in appearance though, to modern man, moreso than homo erectus or neanderthal.) Although some of the species could not breed without their offspring being sterile. It can still be seen today when an RH+ mother is pregnant with a child bearing the RH- factor. Typically when this happens, the mother’s body will try rejecting the baby, often resulting in miscarriage or toxemia during birth (My mother is RH+ and I am RH-) RH stands for Rhesus Factor, like the monkey. The fact that there are 49 groups of actual RH factors, indicates the merging of various sub-species across the board throughout history.
At last, someone who thinks as I. I firmly believe that the many so called, ancient “Homo” skulls found in Africa are Not related to us humans, but are merely apes, gorillas, and other creatures who have died out due to change of environment. I believe the Anthropology “Industry” is self perpetuating, to keep these professors and other reseachers in high paid jobs, and receive grants from the governments, so they continually have to “Discover” the origin history of man. From the evidence at hand, I would say that the actual Humans, are the Homo Erectus/Neanderthal/Heidelbergenis peoples, who conquered fire, could hunt, build shelters and live in caves, and could survive in the cold regions. ALL humans, except the Negro Black Africans, are from these early “Europeans”. The facial reconstruction of many of these early skulls, could quite easily be transported to Australia, and you would find natives peoples who look the same…even now. There is NO Homo Sapien Sapien, We are ALL still the direct descendants of those Erectus-Neanderthal etc peoples. Except the black Africans. This rubbish about having 1 or 2% Neanderthal DNA, means nothing, same as saying man is 99.5% Chimpanzee. We are 98% Whale too!!!! The current direct peoples, who look Exactly as Homo Sapiens did 300,000 years ago….other than having darker skin (early Homos in Europe would have been fair skinned), are the Australian Indigenous peoples… they still look like ancient Homos, because they are. (they have been isolated, and did not mix with other Homos for 100,000+ years). We are all just variants of Homo Erectus/Neanderthals.
Was it Voltaire that said, If God did not exist, then he would have to be invented. One should always remember, especially the youth of today, and they should have it stamped in indelible ink, somewhere on their anatomy, then they can remind themselves of the fact every waking moment of their only too short lives. yes with the passage of time comparing a human lifetime compared to the evolution of a species, its like a spit in a bucket. The unexamined life, is one not worth living. Thank you Mr Socrates. Now there is a fine example of a 3,270 year old Homo Sapien. Do any of you guys have any thoughts on the Lionman German cave find, from 40,000 Cro Magnon man, the imagery, now is it a lion or Homo Neaderthalensis, there is a resemblence, we all know that Lions would not not be around in our future for quite a long time.
God… The big why, how, what, when, who. Why is there religion, to explain the unknown perhaps. How did we become who we are as humans, as far as I can tell humans are the odd species living on “earth”. What is the reason for humanity on “earth”. When is this “God” ever going to reveal itself to the modern world. Who is the “missing link”, because it’s not a what. These questions are the Basse of all mythology, from the first cave art to ston engravings and the writing’s of the modern religious movements. Now I’m not saying there isn’t a “God”, I’m saying that what God is to us we are to the app. That’s just a stab in the dark explainable understanding as not to be offensive.
Let’s begin at the beginning of the book, the first book. When the creator said ” let there be light”. Now if you believe that is when the burning ball of radiation we call the sun was formed then I’d say incorrect. And I’ll explain in the most basic way I can, what is light? Is space dark or is it just me that looks up at a black sky at night. Light is and will always be energy, the energy that is produced by our sun filtered by the atmosphere is “the light”. So in this example, no, the sun wasn’t made when light was said to be, it was our atmosphere. Now that we’re all on the same page, some punn intended. This energy we call light is necessary for life to be. From the first ADOM on the EAVE of time was essentially the first life on Earth. Now we get to billions of years ago and explained how this happened, well in the beginning of this planets evolution, this could have been a intended design or fate that a burning ball of metal colliding with a Frozen ball of gaseous mass and a chemical reaction accorded to create the atmosphere. Fact/hypothesis. So this level of evolutionary thinking hasn’t been around for long. How to explain it to the lament human of the past, God. Like a trump card, it was God. But to the modern thinker it was science that said what could have happened with backing as to the events of creating the atmosphere aka the light.
Let’s jump ahead to the ice age, life was thriving the one moment of unexpected disaster hit, probably the tail end of that Frozen ball if gas decided to join the party on earth. I’m sure humans weren’t around, because if we were than it took a long time to make the wheel and a pointed stick for that matter. Just let our thinkers go crazy and this actually happened, when the tail end joined us the building blocks ( primordial ozz) for mammals has arrived. By random or planned creation of this world’s evolution has changed. Just a guess, but it’s believable.. now. So here this planet is a incubator for evolutionary development. Skipping ahead to 1.9 ish MILLION YEAS AGO modern human scientist dug and found human like animals, and more to follow. I think there’s 8, one may be a minute evolutionary change and not it’s own species. None of these are us, not sure as how long modern man has truly been here but the first historical evidence is about 250,000 years ago but they weren’t alone or really us but close 0.12% different in dna. Then like the rain these pre human beings all vanished and a new Mammal that stud on two legs with no connection to the 8 appears. Uuuummmm what, no trace of us before 50 thousand years ago, crazy to believe.
So who is the missing link, who gives a futt. O yeah the smart ones that told the story of God’s and goddess. Then we said nope that’s not true, but I like the story so I’ll tell it over here a different way and say that what you have been told is wrong. Y’all following me so far. Good. So have we decided bunked God, nope. Who created the HSS modern man that just appeared, duah the creator. But is it god, well to the first gene spliced homo sapiens they were. And mythology is factual in a sense as over time the verbal teaching got twisted just a smidge.
Let’s now get to the really interesting stuff. What is matter? DNA ,microorganisms, dirt, salt, water everything is made of molecules.true? Yes. What are molecules made of, protons and electrons and neutrons. And we discovered those are made of even smaller element tool things called quark’s. And those are held together by….. Energy… The light that binds the spark of life. This energy that we all are made of is unique to everyone, like fingerprints. And when the body says that it’s done this energy is released, sometimes it fades to nothing and on rare events the energy that leaves the dead vessel stays together and drifts into the sky. Is that life after this, and is that the missing piece of modern human existing on this planet. Because the creator herself design it to be. We will all find out the reality of life after one day. So is there a god, I’m absolutely sure of her being there, is the religious beliefs fact …
F no, but they keep people from become horrible by fear of hell… And is there something else we may finally understand. All life is energy and the light is where this began. So think on that
You cant talk about the bible to someone who has never read it. It would be like trying to talk about mathematical principals with someone who doesn’t know how to count.
A lot of good questions. This could simply be a learning lesson here on earth with natural and spiritual actions and re-actions. Anyway asking those question and answering them aren’t possible as we are extremely limited as this entire question in itself proves.
But in short there are only so many “core” religions. Judaism, christianity, and muslims have a similar background.
the other 2 are more of mindsets than religions hindu and buddhism.
Makes more since that God created the universe than us getting lucky 1,000,000,000,000 times in a row to be a perfect distance from the sun, with a perfect orbit, tilt, etc…
Ignorance is bliss my friend and you are a shining example of such. Faith answers the question “Why?” things are which can conveniently answered with anything you choose to fabricate as faux fact or superstition. Science on the other hand answers the question “how?” which requires research, experiment and reproducible outcomes transforming hypotheses (educated guesses) with theory (proven fact). Evolution is not a hypothesis. It is a fact. You are sadly ignorant to think otherwise. I do not blame you. One of a few things are true for you. Firstly, you may lack the capacity of understanding science. Secondly, you may refute science due to religious indoctrination and/or fear of death. Thirdly, you may just have a lazy mind that would rather just absorb information by being told “things” as being true instead of having a mind trained to understand how processes work and investigating and corroborating these findings with other reliable sources which automatically exclude superstitious sources based on religion which is based on books written largely, by illiterate people who lived thousands of years ago, and still believed the earth was flat among other ludicrous notions. If it comforts you though and doesn’t hurt anyone else then I will not criticize your lifestyle choices.
When I said written by a largely illiterate people I was not referring to the authors so much as the consumers of said written material because they relied on more literate people to proliferate information by word of mouth which is like the modern version of the game “telephone”. Add a few thousand years to that game and see how much the story has changed.
Again someone trying to make sense of the bible without actually reading it. What compels you to argue about something you are so sure does not exist? Maybe it is the fear that it really does exist and you are totally missing out. Why not just read the bible? Are you scared it will change your life? Even though you claim it is a fake.
Odd that you persist in claiming that. For some time it has been my understanding that in many cases, certainly in my own, the doubts begin to creep in once people actually begin to read the thing.
Certainly it has been my experience that I have met very few Christians as familiar with what’s actually in the bible as me (and none that have read it cover to cover as have I and several atheists I’ve met.)
If you’re honestly interested in informing yourself try googling the following:
1) “U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey”-(Pew Center)
2) “In US, atheists know religion better than believers” (The Christian Science Monitor)
3) “Atheists Are Sometimes More Religious Than Christians”
(Atlantic Monthly)
To anyone “without a dog in the fight” reading the above would provide convincing evidence that the quickest path to doubting the Bible’s content is to read the thing.
What makes you thing people that don’t believe in god, haven’t read the bible? I have read the bible, cover to cover at least 5 times, which is a large part of the reason I do not believe in it. I have read all the other religious books I could find as well, and also don’t believe in them. Why don’t you just read the Vedas? Why don’t you believe in Thor?
So to believe in God means to believe in whoever you heard about Him from. Isnt it the same with science? Someone set the parameters named the names and told someone else what something is. Its all personal belief. Humans all have the same number of dna strands or whatever they are pushing. How do you know? Have you counted every single humans dna? Its all personal belief. Science is a religion. Believe what you want.
Yes my friend. Science, just like religion, is something we hear from someone else. Except that we see tangible positive results from science: from curing disease to landing on the moon. However, what we hear from religious people not only make zero logical sense but has not resulted in a single positive thing. It has only caused killings and division among people throughout the history.
So religion hasn’t resulted in a single positive thing? Science has given us cures to diseases, and landed us on the moon? I myself am not a religious person, I am agnostic, but you seem to be only pointing out half of the truth about “science” here, while condemning in it’s entirety “religion.” The same science that sent man to the moon was also used to create missiles that have killed tens of thousands of people. The same science that was used to cure diseases has also been used to weaponize it. Like ebola, smallpox, and weaponized forms of HUN1 and other flu viruses for example. Hitler got his scientists to use eugenics to try and eradicate people he felt were undesirable, or less than. The fact of the matter is that science has done just as much evil in the world as it has done good. Religion, on a personal level, for some have helped them get over things like addiction, depression, or have helped them to better their marriage or relationships with family and friends. To those people “religion” did something good for them. So, “religion” has been used, or perverted, to meet the wicked ends of certain peoples, and so has science. It is always better to look at the whole picture, than to squint or close ones eye just to make the picture fit a certain world view.
You don’t have to be this aggressive in your response. I learnt from my late devout wife that faith will come to your rescue at your dying bed. While my scientist uncle died in denial and anger.
A concept of combining God and science will definitely ease off our confusion
I struggle with the idea of God but I surrender to the concept when I look up and can’t visualize infinity
The very existence of God is paradoxical. May I quote the greek philosopher Epicurus’, “Epicurean paradox”.
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
Please respect everyone’s belief. Either you’re a jew, Christian, Muslim, Atheist or whatever makes you feel better about yourself and how a man came about, we all came from the main source.
“Muslims” believe the people that were born from Prophet Adam formed the eighth generation of humans. For example Sheikh Saduq narrates a Imam Sadiq (as) in his book Khisal in which the Imam says: “When Allah (GOD, swt) created the earth, he created seven worlds in it (and made each one extinct); none of those worlds [generations] were of Prophet Adam’s generation. Allah created all of them from the earth’s crust and brought them one after another, and created a world for each one after the other, until He created Prophet Adam and ramified his generation from him.
It’s amazing how 1400 years ago people knew there were other generations and how we just getting to know it now. So holly books and scripture’s are right and can’t deny the scientific facts about them. Specially the Quran where every scientific refrence in it was proven to be 100% correct up to today.
Unfortunately we can not and should not respect beliefs because if we do, we can not talk freely about history. In other words, respect would constitute a form of censorship.
Imagine for a second, if we were to respect the old communists, we could not talk about Stalin’s crimes. If we had to respect Mohammad, we could never talk about the 33 wars that he led.
If we respect the fascists, we can never talk about Hitler and so on.
No part of history belongs to any particular group. Mohammad, Moses, Jesus,… and so on do NOT belong to anybody. They are historical people and belong to history. We should respect individuals not belief system. That is why we have the freedom of speech and we can discus communism, fascism, and all religions without censorship.
If god did exist, he/she would never, ever put his thoughts in any book and send it down to us. The books and profits that are debated to this day!!!!
If there was a god, he/she would never even have to communicate with us. He would create us such that no communication was necessary.
Think for a second how absurd it is to think god would send down a messenger with a book to lead us to salvation???????!!!!!!!!
God would not need to do that and would not care at all about what we do or believe.
I respect other peoples right to their opinion. I don’t believe the bible in the literal sense but a group of stories that are that old and are still around holds some weight. I also don’t believe we came from a pool of goop. That is saying something living was made from something not living and to date that has proved impossible. There are just to many holes in that theory. In my opinion currently scientist have 5 pages of a 1000 page novel so I just don’t believe they have the story figured out. But in my research what is apparent to me is there simply has to be some form of intelligent design. The odds of all those things coming together without some form of help is impossible. I do think things can and do evolve but I have room for God too.
“If there was a god, he/she would never even have to communicate with us. He would create us such that no communication was necessary.”
How can you know what God would do and how and what God would create?
The ego of the human mind often thinks, delusionally, it has figured everything out, how the world should be, how life should be, etc. while it is a simple-minded child of the universe. This would be like a spider trying to tell me how to solve a math problem.
My sense is that God, the Great Spirit, source, etc. eventually needs to be experienced to be truly believed. When I experienced the eternal love and grace and compassion of God in my presence during meditation, I deeply believed because I experienced it to be Truth.
I do not have to respect your beliefs, they are ridiculous, however I respect your right to believe what ever you chose. islam is not science. It is BS, again believe what you want. allah is a moon god. koran is rubbish. This debate is about the origins of homo sapiens and has not a thing to do with your moronic cult beliefs. Why even post that crap here?
The same as there are different varieties of dogs, horses, cattle, cats, etc there were also several varieties of humans. The different varieties of animals vary in aggression and intelligence pit bulls are aggressive, herding dogs and poodles are considered exceptionally smart and excel at agility classes. I am sure the same applied to the different human species otherwise we should have the same physical characteristics and IQ’s which we don’t. Some humans are better athletes, others excel in Quantum Physics. We are different from each other due to the various lines of human species that have bred into our families. We are just animals that exist near or at the top of the intelligence ladder.
Superbly expressed. My conclusions too – except I believe in many different forms of intelligence as demonstrated by different animal species. These are not higher or lower, just different. We are all one.
Homo Sapiens is believed to be our direct ancestor, with the addition of some genetic crossover.
We are Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Still the same species, but with enough variation to be considered a different subspecies.
Much like wolves and dogs. Canis Lupis is the Grey (or Timber) Wolf, while Canis Lupis Familiaris would refer to domestic dogs.
Just as dogs are wolves, but wolves aren’t really dogs; we are Homo Sapiens, but they were not precisely us.
I saw a doco that suggest that homo spiens breed with neanderthals, it makes up 3-6% of our DNA expect for black Africans, who don’t have this, they suggested this help make white people white and so forth, this kinda making black Africans pure homo sapiens
Very doubtful that we bred with Neanderthals. The amount of shared genes points to a shared fairly recent progenitor which happens to be true, in that our last progenitor species was about a million years ago, which isn’t really very long. But we do not share each other’s Y or MT haplogroup so no sign of actual parents in each other’s species. Also the shared genes some scientists point to have to do mostly with cold weather, so looks like typical species distribution might account for what genes ending being retained by some Homo Sapiens. Many Africans do in fact share some of these genes though less than Europeans.
Well it is fact that the Neanderthals and Homo spiens intermingeld and slowly became what we are today. There is today a totally different species living with us today. Called the Basque group. Whom only dates back upto 40 thousand years and not further. They have a completely different blood type then any human and are not compatible with our blood.
I appreciate being able to read others inputs and opinions, but iam at a little confused as to this article and the suggestion that we intermingled with Neandrathols. This article states that Neandrathols existed between 350,000 to 600,000 years ago. And Homo Sapiens from as early as 160,000 years ago. This means that Neandrathols were extinct 200,000 years before we ever existed.
I think that the Neanderthals mated with other hominid species (e.g. Cro Magnum) of which there were several different branches living at the same time. The results of these `crosses` produced a variety of new sub-species which over time arrived at Homo Sapiens.
This would explain why most of the world`s population contain a very small amount of the Neanderthal DNA
I agree its very doubtful, because this article states that Neandrathols were extinct 20,000 years before Home Sapiens ever existed.
Oh my, you’re not THE Dr. Susan Solomon of NOAA are you?
If so, have you any plans to respond to Dr K Sienicki’s appraisal* of your claims regarding the effect of the weather upon RF Scott’s second expedition?
*Captain Scott; Icy Deceits and Untold Realities–Open Academic Press
Religion has always acted as a distraction to science and has always impeded human progress.
There is not a single sentence in Koran or bible or … that has not been proven wrong by science.
People out of desperate needs that stem from material profit or mental weakness try desperately to interoperate holy books to align them with science.
But just think about it for a second, if god did exist, there would be no chance that he would:
1) Create so many different religions.
2) Communicate with us in the most ridiculous way by writing his thoughts in these books for which meanings are debated to this day and send them down by profits that in many cases were murdered?????!!!!!!!
3) Even cared about what we do or don’t.
Having to respect other people’s ideas is a form of censorship and is contrary to freedom of speech. We should respect human beings not ideas.
You know I actually agree with you. People get so entangled in their religious beliefs that they often don’t see, or look away from facts that they are presented with. We need to be able to look at things objectively as well as subjectively. Mathematics seems to tell us that our entire dimension is finite and it follows patterns. If it was truly infinite than mathematics wouldn’t exist because math is a pattern that occurs the same way every time. That’s how we’re able to mathmaticaly predict the probability of a certain thing happening. inside of this sub infinite dimension we have reasoned that there are 2 “gods.” the first god is responsible for basic matter, no symmetry or design is responsible for it’s shape. Crude. The first god would seem to be the fundamental laws of our dimension. The second god is responsible for matter with mathematical symmetry and beauty ex: nature. Since we, homo sapiens sapiens, are symmetrical and mathematically beautiful we came from the second god. The origin of the second god would seem to be “the tree of organic life” or “mother nature” however you want to look at it. Now that we can see things a little clearer we should also be able to see that our species is polluting mother nature. We’re loosing species at a rate not seen since the last major natural disaster. In other words we are killing our God. This Earth is a biosphere of life forms that are all related genetically if you go back far enough. This is our family tree and it needs to be protected, not destroyed. I hope that I was able to bring a little light to the subject.
Its so refreshing to hear the few others that exist that actually comprehend and not just pretend and believe the best opinion almighty under various labels.
You know if you count us then it would be 8 or more but here this there’s no more of Homo sapiens right so then they went extinct so we are the last species in the homo tribe exempt a new race called humans. But our skills are greed power selfish chaos destruction and laziness. But there is two species of humans there skills are love care trust freedom smart and friendship.
God is the ultimate believe it or not. Science it just full of guessings, it is not so sure about anything. The archaeologists are the problems of scientific research. And please those of you who try to compare Mohammed to Jesus, should stop that immediately because there’s a very great gap between the two. There is no perfection on the earth not because there is no God, it’s because you have the freedom to whatever you want to do and enjoy the consequences for it.
If you do good, you reap good and if you do bad things you reap bad. Let’s take for instance the depletion of the ozone layer by human activities like fumes from home, cars, factories, rockets, Bush burning etc. Until we minimise our deadly activities we will continue to get cancers, not because there’s no God but it’s because we’re are aware of our destruction to the ozone layer buh we still choose to do it. Christianity is the best way to moral life try considering one. Science is just funny. It can’t even explain some common things like evolution. Every time it is guessing ” about”
Well if science is wrong you are full well allowed to prove it wrong. So please if you have facts please provide them so we can update our books. Faith is a feeling and not a fact so make sure you don’t use your beliefs to prove what is factual.
Not a hundred percent believer, but you say “Faith is a feeling” and feeling comes with one of our 7 senses”Touch”! we see paranormal activities which use our sight sense, this says that holy books are right about other livings among us. we heard about such existence from before us which uses the hearing sense, do we smell or taste this phenomenon so-called God? Yes! I smell it every day and yes I taste it, I taste the joy it brings into my life when I walk as he/she/it asked me to… As I said I’m not a 100% believer but I am walking my path from darkness to its light. Meanwhile, education is amazing too!
Eddie… i agree I too think science is funny, but personally I think religion has got to be the funniest of them all. Definitely the most confused.. Now I do believe in God, and through focused and extensive research from multi-cultural religions or so called mythology. Brother, what I have come to understand is that their is alot of forgot about, lost or misunderstood translation of God and the beginning. However one thing I do know is there is much in common with each ancient text,scripts,songs,psalms, of, the Bhagavad-Gita, Homer(odyssey), Gilgamesh , the bible Old testament kjv, ancient Egyptian poetry , Greek mythology, even the songs of thoughts and poetry of Early China is that, we they all share same basic idea or thought of God and the beginning, but just a little bit differently translated to around about 5000 confused misunderstood ethnical groups around the world. Christians got a really weird view I think but overall we all have the same God and really I dont see how that is confusing.?
Looking at the picture of Homo sapiens, it looks nothing like us. Why have we not evolved or been given a different species name. What characteristic exist to distinguish one species from another in the same genus type. We are bigger, smarter, less hairy, don’t use that thing it is holding, have advanced society much farther than that version did. So why are we still Homo sapiens?
Yes I agree. Still considered Homo sapiens mixed with up to 15% Neanderthal, except real Africans 0% Neanderthal. Basque not homo Sapien or Neanderthal different blood altogether?
What is so frustrating are these artist’s renditions. The do this in the Hall of Man at the American Museum of Natural History. When matched with the ACTUAL FOSSILS, any logical person immediately is suspect (I’ve been there enough times to know…plus, you hear the comments)
If you are going to show the artist’s renditions, then AT LEAST show all the fossilized evidence (or link to it, and not some minuscule picture that cannot be viewed) as well, for every made up picture.
When you view the actual fossilized evidence, it is plain to see that a LOT more research needs to be done! There is not a lot of evidence for many of these Genus Homo artist’s renditions as we are led to believe. If the science is valid, let it stand on it’s own.
Take the modern dog. Can you imagine what these artist’s would come up with if they had 20 skulls fragments from different breeds of dogs, i.e. bulldog, doberman, pug, etc?!?!
Show the evidence…leave the make believe renditions for the movies.
Unless this is designed to fool people. If so, well, that would be a pity.
so how many other subhumans are there in total?
`subhumans` or sub-species of humans?
the only person that needs to get their facts straight is you, there is no point in this article when they state what you claimed of humans “changed” species, what all of the species listed are different species, that is what the word species indicates, none of them evolved from eachother, there all separate, get your facts straight, and a dictionary so you can look up words like species that you seem to not under stand.
I think the writer may have intended to say SUB -species, of which there were several living at the same period in history. They interbred freely and the best adapted survived to form a new type of humanid.
I believe in god and science. I believe a lot of what they say about evolution to a point we are still evolving today and some of what is taught in the Bible isn’t correct. Take for instance when Cain killed able he stated paraphrasing when he was kicked out of the garden of eden he stated that what if someone was to kill me and god said he’d forbid that and he took a wife. People said it was his sister when if you follow the lineage it states when Adam and Eve had other children 800 or so years later. So that shows that there were other beings. Think about it there were dinosaurs so why couldn’t there have other types of people. There are different types of monkeys . Adam and Eve were created in God’s image so I think there were a group of people that were his choosen people.
Eugene Dubois is a fake… Java man has long been discredited. I agree with Gordon, this is all rubbish. Read forbidden Archeology, it gives detailed accounts of modern man and his tools going back millions of years. It also points out no species just becomes another species.
This site provides fascinating scientific facts in a clear, concise way for free to anyone with internet access. It makes no claim that anyone knows exactly what any of these species looked like. They have stated pretty clearly what they do know based on where bones were found and what those bones look like (ie. height, weight, shape). Most of the comments are about God and religion. I find it disappointing that the site is being used as a platform for personal opinions that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the site. Anyway, I thank the writers for providing this info for free. I had not realized just how much more is known today than when I was in school just a few decades ago.
I agree.
So many comments drift of into a discussion of whether such a thing as a god exists. What on earth has that to do with the discussions about the development of the human species ?
I would like for you to sit down, listen to a debate between Christopher Hitchens and whomever you might choose. If he cannot change your mind, no one can. And no one should waste time on trying, for it will surely not be worth it.
Pretty sure investigative journalist and atheist-turned-Christian Lee Stroebel could hold his own against just about anyone. He went into the field to prove that God does NOT exist. He interviewed everyone he could that he thought would discredit a creator. They all proved HIM wrong. He became a believer in God because he could not refute the evidence (mostly scientific) that was presented to him.
I’m not nearly as smart as he is, and my memory is not as great as it used to be before I had children to take care of, so I don’t remember all the details. But I suggest you look up his books, most especially The Case for a Creator. Modern scientists are proving that science and religion do not have to be mutually exclusive. I myself plan to look up this Christopher Hitchens you mention, as I really do enjoy reading all sides of a debate.
Also, which do you think would be the best in the end: living as though God were real and dying to find out He’s not, or living as if God is NOT real, and dying to find out He is?
Tasha, that question depends on what behaviors you do on earth, in the provable here and now, and what you do to others, related to your beliefs. We are all connected and bound together here on earth, whether God is real or not, so we should act like it and treat each other with compassion and make sure we are all treated with dignity, respect, and given equitable resources to make our best go at life. Personally, I find that Science, while a bit pretentious, tends to hold less people down and do less violence than Religion – Science by definition has to be tested and re-tested and is allowed to change as we know more. Regardless, we are all intemingling everything within our total human experience, even when we think we’re not, and basically everyone is just doing and believing what makes the most sense to them for their own survival and the survival if those they love.
This is where I must interject. It’s been interesting reading all the previous ideas. But I havea few issues.
What kind of a God would have chosen people? That certainly excludes some people. So HE prefers SOME people? So some people haven’t got a chance. And what kind of an insecure God would make a commandment that said “Thou shall have no other God before me”. That certainly sounds like a humas quality. And as for myself, I don’t need a commandment that says, “Thuo shall not kill or lie or any of the other”. I have a spirit that knows right from wrong. So if I had no commandment I would kill? Don’t think so. It’s too easy for Christians to blame bad things they do on Saten. We have the will to do good or not. I was raised in a Christian home, but as I have grown up, I gave up on the Christian doctrines. They talk a lot but I don’t see much action. In my opinion, religion is definitely set up to devide us!
In the OT there was chosen people, simply because the all people chose to reject God. His intent for a “chosen” people was to: 1. show those people about His plan for all people, making them an example. 2. The commandment was again, to remind the people to pay attention to Him more than what He can do for them.
“Your spirit” knowing right from wrong, is subjective at best. There are some people groups who kill for survival, they steal for survival, and lie to stay alive. Their “spirit” has trained to do right to avoid wrong. Your spirit has been trained by those who taught you “right from wrong”. That old Bible says that as well. Romans 1 helps the real truth of that hypothesis. It’s been written in your heart aka your “spirit”.
I will admit there are several Christians who haven’t taken the time to study their beliefs enough to defend it, even against themselves. I totally agree with your position about action-less “Christians”. There are tons of things set up to divide us, we have got to make up our minds to not be.
Remember this: “I have chosen to love, for hate is too heavy a burden to bear.” -Christian, social activist who was lead by his spirit, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Religion ( a belief in one or more Gods) was surely invented by man to explain phenomena BEFORE the age of Science. It was developed in order to come to terms with the human environment. Early hominids worshipped different `Gods` through fear and lack of understanding, trying to placate them by making sacrifices to them. Stories, myths and legends grew up about them. These were passed on verbally through the generations. As mankind progressed and developed a written language so the stories became more intricate and were recorded as a kind of `truth` and wisdom. The various forms of `Bible` came into being.
As humans began to find explanations using observation and experimentation, together with the more highly developed brains capacity for reason, so came the age of Science.
Good article and useful scientific information. The information is easily understood. I do have doubts about Rudolfensis, not enough evidence yet to support it as a hominid.
Amazing how much variety there is to the features of current humans (Homo Sapiens).
Homo sapiens seems to evolve towards physically attractive traits.
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” Albert Einstein
To whom it may concern,
I have a question for anyone who is privy to the answer or willing to answer to the best of their ability. If we, as Homo Sapiens, are most closely related to Homo Neanderthals, why is the timeline not congruent to this relationship? By this, I mean, Homo Neanderthals were believed to exist around 600,000 to 350,000 years ago while Homo Floresiensis were believed to live 95,000 to 17,000 years ago. If we more closely related to Homo Neanderthals then why did Homo Floresiensis exist more closer to our current time period. For the record, I am not a science person per se. I am in education and was doing research for something and came across this website and became very interested. Thanks so much!
Nicholas
Where does Cro-Magnon man fit in?
They were an ethnic group of Homo sapien, like the ones now.
i just have to say is the ice age ended 10,000 years ago at the end hhuman came to europe but Neanderthals were there Neanderthals then go extinct tell the end of the ice age and alot of whites like me myself have this blood so there is proof that Neanderthals did not go extinct till around 10,000 i am 5% Neanderthals
This may help clarify a little.
Homo sapiens didn`t interbreed with Neanderthals as they WERE extinct long before. What happened was that Neanderthals bred with other forms of hominids which co-existed ( there being several sub-species alive at the same time). These new sub-species also interbred which ,over time, arrived at us (homo sapiens sapiens). This explains the time problem AND why we carry such a diluted percentage of Neanderthal DNA
Dialing back, Someone I think “Terry” said whites have evolved more than Africans. Well I am white and if we (whites) have mixed blood of a (sub human) in us like the neanderthals that means we stepped backwards in evolution. There is no gain in that. Also, whites only became white, 8 thousand years ago in Europe. These new found DNA projects prove the Africans are pure Homo sapiens and are indeed modern man. Very interesting how many showed violent actions towards them in the last 300 years only to prove otherwise. Only to show we are the sub humans, and it is still alive in us.
You can’t evolve backwards. Whites may not be pure homo sapiens . . . So what?
That would mean homo sapiens are not the leading species and not the most populated homo- on earth.
I don’t see your point to anything.
Some people actually turned this article into a religious topic. I am not sure if humanity is ready to accept that religious beliefs, although all people should be respected for whatever there faith, but reality is there is no higher power, no God or devil etc, we are born to live and die. That’s it. No afterlife or whatever. Too bad though. But true. Science does have its drawbacks lol
First off I am an atheist but I have read and studied the Bible for a number of years. That being said the debate between god and evolution is in my view is a waste of time because the Bible gives no indication in scientific terms as to HOW he created the human species, the universe or anything in it. If there is a god maybe he created the human species through evolution. Maybe specifics were left out because mankind wasn’t ready for that amount of scientific knowledge at the time. We just don’t know. Therefore the options are wide open. The two trains of thought can exist together when people stop focusing on what separates them.
Denying scientific information found in a world that is believed to be created by a god is in a sense denying that gods ability to think and act beyond the followers capability to understand.
Science makes mistakes but it makes the greatest efforts to correct its errors. Which unfortunately cannot be said for the religions of the world.
The world isn’t flat, the earth isn’t the center of the universe, fossils have been found and the world isn’t 6000 years old. Possibilities are endless as our knowledge of our world and the universe increasingly grows but we will only get that knowledge through science.
Well put, Gary.
For me, Yes/And thinking is much more helpful than Either/Or thinking. Maybe whichever way we tend has more to do with our basic personality and our unique set of human experiences than anything else…
What role does Cro-Magnon play and how do they differentiate from the other more modern Humans? Although we originated all from Africa as Humans we are not similar (if you’re a European) to the Negroids and Mongloids
To “Some guy on the Internet” on inter-species breeding: Depends on how close the DNA is – in chromosome count etc. A Fox cannot breed with canines – as their DNA chromo count is so different. However, wolves CAN easily breed with coyote (which are of the same genus [canids] – but distinct species); and we call them ‘hybrids’ (not mixes as in the case of domestic dogs and wolves – as the domestic dog is really a watered down wolf). Coywolfs CAN reproduce – and we see large migration of these – even into cities now. There was a great deal of environmental pressure for this ‘interbreeding’ since the wolf was viciously killed off to near extinction in the U.S. The mule/horse sterile blend is not indicative of all inter species hybrids.
Homonids are the same GENUS. And, certainly the Neanderthal and Sapien could have intermixed and possibly Denovisan (though, overlapping isn’t well known), as they were so similar.
To Katlin, Gary, Matt, Eddie et all on God’s involvement.
The bigger question is what truly selected the Sapien out? – How did it survive over the other hominids? There is mounting evidence that there was advanced technologies well before the Sapien evolved to its present creature and that there may have been some ‘genetic’ selection and engineering even. There is also considerable evidence that religions are testaments to advanced technological beings — documenting their role over eons – But, that does not mean that one has to abandon their belief systems, hope or compassion – as regardless of how the ‘energies’ pan out — they is no doubt of greater beings than us and some may just as well be our ‘Gods’ who were compassionate and loving and advocates of our evolution. But, that the desirable traits just weren’t there in some former hominids and others were casualties of climate – although, I would argue that Homo Sapien Sapien does not display the most desirable traits at times. But, that prefrontal cortex and temperol poles of the brain will keep on developing and our brains will consist more and more of the ‘logic’ (more than the average 27% of processing strength today – with great variation among individuals) that we need to get past the local & global tribalism that is still strong in us when challenged (is a survival function – but can just go too far at times).
Oh yah – there is only ONE RACE – the human race. There are some ‘varieties’ of sapiens due to evolving with their environments (ie sun exposure, vit D production dictated skin color and other examples).
Nicholas :
The answer is plain and easy ; there are two species, Floresiensis belonging to the other (but we can not say “not human” besause then we fall in phylosophical debate) ; Neanderthal being the hybrid between the two species.
There is speculation that Homo Floresiensis (on the Indonesian island Flores) is a descendant of Homo Erectus. H. Erectus died out in Asia, possibly even before Homo Sapiens migrated out of Africa and into South East Asia (the timing has not yet been resolved). It may be an isolated population that survived. It may have shrunk through what is called ‘island dwarfism’ as the mastodons on the island did. It must’ve been an unusual place with small elephants and small humans and giant rats and giant storks and giant meat eating Komodo lizards… weird. They died out 17,000 years ago.
Neanderthals were big game hunters in the ice age. They used ambush hunting. They were unlucky, had a smallish population, and probably had trouble competing with more agile H. Sapiens who used throwing spears, arrows rather than Neanderthals’ up close spearing of big game. On the question of descent from Neanderthals and interbreeding, the dates in some of those responses is wrong. We probably had a common ancestor about 700,000 years ago in North Africa. What can be said with certainty is that there was a population of Neanderthals in Europe 200,000 years ago; and a population of Homo sapiens in east Africa at the same time. Debate places our (H. Sapiens) migration out of Africa some time after 100,000 years ago. There were populations of both Sapiens and Neanderthal in Europe up until 40,000 years ago when the last Neanderthals died out probably in Spain.
OMG on the question of ‘God’… “God is the symbol of everything we don’t understand.” That doesn’t really leave much left today! Maybe the first plank instant of time before the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago… that’s all we’ve got left to work out!
;-)