Homo Sapiens

A portrayal of a prehistoric Homo sapien. A red haired man with mustache and beard, wearing a fur.

Image by Martin Veen found on: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cees_de_steentijdman2.jpg

Homo Sapiens:

Today all modern day humans are classified as Homo sapiens. They are the only species in the genus homo to not be extinct. The modern human began to evolve nearly 200,000 years ago. It’s now clear that modern humans did not come from neanderthals but were actually their contemporaries. It has now come to fruition that modern day humans and their contemporaries both were descendants from Homo heidelbergensis. A 195,000 year old fossil from the Omo 1 site in Ethiopia shows the beginnings of the skull changes that we associate with modern people. (Early Modern Homo sapiens 2018)

Features:

Africa, the homeland to the Homo erectus along with the Australopithecus afarensis is also suspected to be the homeland of the Homo sapiens. The current data suggests that the modern humans have evolved from the archaic humans primarily in East Africa. Africa has been a gold mine for specimens of archaic Homo sapiens which bridge the gap between the Homo sapien and early Pleistocene Homo erectus .Modern day humans compared to neanderthals and late archaic humans tend to have more fragile skeletons. Modern humans have skulls that are more rounded along with their brow ridges generally are less protruded. They rarely have occipital buns found on the back of neanderthals skulls. The modern humans also tend to have smaller faces, relatively high foreheads, and pointed chins (Tuttle, R. (1985). Unlike other species of Homo, their skull is broad at the top and features a short base with a high braincase (Dorey, R. (2018).

Intended image: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Homo-sapiens/media/1350865/71625

Photo By: James St. John Found On: Flickr

Fossil Discoveries:

The first fossils of early modern humans to be identified were found in 1868 at the 27,000-23,000 year old Cro-Magnon rock shelter site near the village of Les Eyzies in southwestern France. These people were then subsequently named Cro-Magnon and they share a very similar appearance to the modern day Europeans. Males were 5 feet 4 inches to 6 feet tall which was 4-12 inches taller than Neanderthals. A skull from the Herto site in the Middle Awash area of Ethiopia dates back 160,000 and shows signs of early stages of transition. This certain skull retained its large brow ridges of archaic humans but has a rounded skull case of modern humans. There have been more advanced transitional forms found at Laetoli in Tanzania going back about 120,000 years ago. Early forms of modern humans expanded their range into South Africa about 115,000 years ago and into Southwest Asia (Israel) shortly after 100,000 years ago (Early Modern Homo sapiens 2018).

Google Sites

Report abuse