Etymology and definition

Human timeline
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Human-like
apes
Nakalipithecus
Ouranopithecus
Sahelanthropus
Orrorin

Ardipithecus
Australopithecus

Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Neanderthal
Homo sapiens

Earlier apes

Earliest bipedal

Early bipedal

Earliest stone tools

Earliest exit
from Africa

Earliest fire use

Earliest cooking

Earliest clothes

Modern humans
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Axis scale: millions of years.

Also see: Life timeline and Nature timeline

Life timeline
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Single-celled
life
photosynthesis

Eukaryotes
Multicellular
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Land life
Dinosaurs
Mammals
Flowers

Earliest Earth (4540)

Earliest water

Earliest life
(4100)

LHB meteorites

Earliest oxygen

Atmospheric oxygen

Oxygen Crisis

Earliest sexual reproduction

Cambrian explosion

Earliest humans
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Axis scale: millions of years.

Also see: Human timeline and Nature timeline

Further information: Man (word) and Names for the human species
In common usage, the word "human" generally refers to the only extant species of the genus Homo
anatomically and behaviorally modern Homo sapiens.
In scientific terms, the meanings of "hominid" and "hominin" have changed during the recent
decades with advances in the discovery and study of the fossil ancestors of modern humans. The
previously clear boundary between humans and apes has blurred, resulting in now acknowledging
the hominids as encompassing multiple species, and Homo and close relatives since the split from
chimpanzees as the only hominins. There is also a distinction between anatomically modern
humans and Archaic Homo sapiens, the earliest fossil members of the species.
The English adjective human is a Middle English loanword from Old French humain, ultimately
from Latin hmnus, the adjective form of hom "man." The word's use as a noun (with a
plural: humans) dates to the 16th century.[13] The native English term man can refer to the species
generally (a synonym for humanity), and could formerly refer to specific individuals of either sex,
though this latter use is now obsolete.[14]
The species binomial Homo sapiens was coined by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th century work Systema
Naturae.[15] The generic name Homo is a learned 18th century derivation from Latin hom "man,"
ultimately "earthly being" (Old Latin hem a cognate to Old English guma "man,"
from PIE dgemon-, meaning "earth" or "ground").[16] The species-name sapiens means "wise" or
"sapient." Note that the Latin word homo refers to humans of either gender, and that sapiens is the
singular form (while there is no such word as sapien).[17]

History

Evolution and range

Main article: Human evolution
Further information: Anthropology, Homo (genus), and Timeline of human evolution

The genus Homo evolved and diverged from other hominins in Africa, after the human clade split
from the chimpanzee lineage of the hominids (great apes) branch of the primates. Modern humans,
defined as the species Homo sapiens or specifically to the single extant subspecies Homo sapiens
sapiens, proceeded to colonize all the continents and larger islands, arriving in Eurasia 125,000
60,000 years ago,[18][19] Australia around 40,000 years ago, the Americas around 15,000 years ago,
and remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand between the
years 300 and 1280.[20][21]
Evidence from molecular biology

The closest living relatives of humans are chimpanzees (genus Pan) and gorillas (genus Gorilla).
[22]
With the sequencing of both the human and chimpanzee genome, current estimates of similarity
between human and chimpanzee DNA sequences range between 95% and 99%.[22][23][24] By using the
technique called a molecular clock which estimates the time required for the number of divergent
mutations to accumulate between two lineages, the approximate date for the split between lineages
can be calculated. The gibbons (Hylobatidae) and orangutans (genus Pongo) were the first groups to
split from the line leading to the humans, then gorillas (genus Gorilla) followed by
the chimpanzees (genus Pan). The splitting date between human and chimpanzee lineages is
placed around 48 million years ago during the late Miocene epoch.[25][26] During this
split, chromosome 2 was formed from two other chromosomes, leaving humans with only 23 pairs of
chromosomes, compared to 24 for the other apes.[27][28]
Evidence from the fossil record
There is little fossil evidence for the divergence of the gorilla, chimpanzee and hominin lineages. [29]
[30]
The earliest fossils that have been proposed as members of the hominin lineage
are Sahelanthropus tchadensis dating from 7 million years ago, Orrorin tugenensis dating
from 5.7 million years ago, and Ardipithecus kadabba dating to 5.6 million years ago. Each of these
species has been argued to be a bipedal ancestor of later hominins, but all such claims are
contested. It is also possible that any one of the three is an ancestor of another branch of African
apes, or is an ancestor shared between hominins and other African Hominoidea (apes). The
question of the relation between these early fossil species and the hominin lineage is still to be
resolved. From these early species the australopithecines arose around 4 million years ago diverged
into robust (also called Paranthropus) and gracile branches,[31] possibly one of which (such as A.
garhi, dating to 2.5 million years ago) is a direct ancestor of the genus Homo.[32]
The earliest members of the genus Homo are Homo habilis which evolved around 2.8 million years
ago.[33] Homo habilis has been considered the first species for which there is clear evidence of the

use of stone tools. More recently, however, in 2015, stone tools, perhaps predating Homo habilis,
have been discovered in northwestern Kenya that have been dated to 3.3 million years old.
[34]
Nonetheless, the brains of Homo habilis were about the same size as that of a chimpanzee, and
their main adaptation was bipedalism as an adaptation to terrestrial living. During the next million
years a process of encephalization began, and with the arrival of Homo erectus in the fossil record,
cranial capacity had doubled. Homo erectus were the first of the hominina to leave Africa, and these
species spread through Africa, Asia, and Europe between 1.3 to 1.8 million years ago. One
population of H. erectus, also sometimes classified as a separate species Homo ergaster, stayed in
Africa and evolved into Homo sapiens. It is believed that these species were the first to use fire and
complex tools. The earliest transitional fossils between H. ergaster/erectus and archaic humans are
from Africa such as Homo rhodesiensis, but seemingly transitional forms are also found
at Dmanisi, Georgia. These descendants of African H. erectus spread through Eurasia from ca.
500,000 years ago evolving into H. antecessor, H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis. The
earliest fossils of anatomically modern humans are from the Middle Paleolithic, about 200,000 years
ago such as the Omo remains of Ethiopia and the fossils of Herto sometimes classified as Homo
sapiens idaltu.[35] Later fossils of archaic Homo sapiens from Skhul in Israel and Southern Europe
begin around 90,000 years ago.[36]
Anatomical adaptations

Reconstruction of Australopithecus afarensis.

Reconstruction of Homo habilis, the earliest known species of the genus Homo and the first human ancestor to
use stone tools

Reconstruction of Homo erectus

Reconstruction of an adult female Homo erectus.

Human evolution is characterized by a number of morphological, developmental, physiological,

and behavioral changes that have taken place since the split between the last common ancestor of
humans and chimpanzees. The most significant of these adaptations are 1. bipedalism, 2. increased
brain size, 3. lengthened ontogeny (gestation and infancy), 4. decreased sexual
dimorphism (neoteny). The relationship between all these changes is the subject of ongoing debate.
[37]
Other significant morphological changes included the evolution of a power and precision grip, a
change first occurring in H. erectus.[38]
Bipedalism is the basic adaption of the hominin line, and it is considered the main cause behind a
suite of skeletal changes shared by all bipedal hominins. The earliest bipedal hominin is considered
to be either Sahelanthropus[39] or Orrorin, with Ardipithecus, a full bipedal,[40] coming somewhat later.
[citation needed]
The knuckle walkers, the gorilla and chimpanzee, diverged around the same time, and
either Sahelanthropus or Orrorin may be humans' last shared ancestor with those animals. [citation
needed]
The early bipedals eventually evolved into the australopithecines and later the genus Homo.[citation
needed]
There are several theories of the adaptational value of bipedalism. It is possible that bipedalism
was favored because it freed up the hands for reaching and carrying food, because it saved energy
during locomotion, because it enabled long distance running and hunting, or as a strategy for
avoiding hyperthermia by reducing the surface exposed to direct sun.[citation needed]
The human species developed a much larger brain than that of other primates typically
1,330 cm3 (81 cu in) in modern humans, over twice the size of that of a chimpanzee or gorilla. [41] The
pattern of encephalization started with Homo habilis which at approximately 600 cm3 (37 cu in) had a
brain slightly larger than chimpanzees, and continued with Homo erectus (8001,100 cm3 (49
67 cu in)), and reached a maximum in Neanderthals with an average size of 1,2001,900 cm3 (73
116 cu in), larger even than Homo sapiens (but less encephalized).[42] The pattern of human

postnatal brain growth differs from that of other apes (heterochrony), and allows for extended
periods of social learning and language acquisition in juvenile humans. However, the differences
between the structure of human brains and those of other apes may be even more significant than
differences in size.[43][44][45][46] The increase in volume over time has affected different areas within the
brain unequally the temporal lobes, which contain centers for language processing have increased
disproportionately, as has the prefrontal cortex which has been related to complex decision making
and moderating social behavior.[41] Encephalization has been tied to an increasing emphasis on meat
in the diet,[47][48] or with the development of cooking,[49] and it has been proposed [50] that intelligence
increased as a response to an increased necessity for solving social problems as human society
became more complex.
The reduced degree of sexual dimorphism is primarily visible in the reduction of the male canine
tooth relative to other ape species (except gibbons). Another important physiological change related
to sexuality in humans was the evolution of hidden estrus. Humans are the only ape in which the
female is fertile year round, and in which no special signals of fertility are produced by the body
(such as genital swelling during estrus). Nonetheless humans retain a degree of sexual dimorphism
in the distribution of body hair and subcutaneous fat, and in the overall size, males being around
25% larger than females. These changes taken together have been interpreted as a result of an
increased emphasis on pair bonding as a possible solution to the requirement for increased parental
investment due to the prolonged infancy of offspring. [citation needed]

Rise of Homo sapiens

Further information: Recent African origin of modern humans, Multiregional origin of modern
humans, Anatomically modern humans, Archaic human admixture with modern humans, and Early
human migrations

World map of early human migrations according to mitochondrialpopulation genetics (numbers

are millennia before present, the North Pole is at the center).

By the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period (50,000 BP), full behavioral modernity,
including language, music and other cultural universals had developed.[51][52] As modern humans
spread out from Africa they encountered other hominids such as Homo neanderthalensis and the socalled Denisovans. The nature of interaction between early humans and these sister species has
been a long-standing source of controversy, the question being whether humans replaced these
earlier species or whether they were in fact similar enough to interbreed, in which case these earlier

populations may have contributed genetic material to modern humans.[53] Recent studies of the
human and Neanderthal genomes suggest gene flow between archaic Homo sapiens and
Neanderthals and Denisovans.[54][55][56] In March 2016, studies were published that suggest that
modern humans bred with hominins, including Denisovans and Neanderthals, on multiple occasions.
[57]

This dispersal out of Africa is estimated to have begun about 70,000 years BP from Northeast Africa.
Current evidence suggests that there was only one such dispersal and that it only involved a few
hundred individuals. The vast majority of humans stayed in Africa and adapted to a diverse array of
environments.[58] Modern humans subsequently spread globally, replacing earlier hominins (either
through competition or hybridization). They inhabited Eurasia and Oceania by 40,000 years BP, and
the Americas at least 14,500 years BP.[59][60]

Transition to civilization
Main articles: Neolithic Revolution and Cradle of civilization
Further information: History of the world

The rise of agriculture, and domestication of animals, led to stable human settlements.

Until about 10,000 years ago, humans lived as hunter-gatherers. They gradually gained domination
over much of the natural environment. They generally lived in small nomadic groups known as band
societies, often in caves. The advent of agriculture prompted the Neolithic Revolution, when access
to food surplus led to the formation of permanent human settlements, the domestication of animals
and the use of metal tools for the first time in history. Agriculture encouraged trade and cooperation,
and led to complex society.[citation needed]
The early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Maya, Greece and Rome were some of
the cradles of civilization.[61][62][63] The Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period saw the rise of
revolutionary ideas and technologies. Over the next 500 years, exploration and European
colonialism brought great parts of the world under European control, leading to later struggles for
independence. The concept of the modern world as distinct from an ancient world is based on a
rapid change progress in a brief period of time in many areas.[citation needed] Advances in all areas of
human activity prompted new theories such as evolution and psychoanalysis, which changed
humanity's views of itself.[citation needed] The Scientific Revolution, Technological Revolution and
the Industrial Revolution up until the 19th century resulted in independent discoveries such

as imaging technology, major innovations in transport, such as the airplane and automobile; energy
development, such as coal and electricity.[64] This correlates with population growth (especially
in America)[65] and higher life expectancy, the World population rapidly increased numerous times in
the 19th and 20th centuries as nearly 10% of the 100 billion people lived in the past century.[66]
With the advent of the Information Age at the end of the 20th century, modern humans live in a world
that has become increasingly globalized and interconnected. As of 2010, almost 2 billion humans are
able to communicate with each other via the Internet,[67] and 3.3 billion by mobile
phone subscriptions.[68] Although interconnection between humans has encouraged the growth
of science, art, discussion, and technology, it has also led to culture clashes and the development
and use of weapons of mass destruction.[citation needed] Human civilization has led to environmental
destruction and pollution significantly contributing to the ongoing mass extinction of other forms of
life called the Holocene extinction event,[69] which may be further accelerated by global warming in
the future.[70]