Introduction

We see so many animals around us, we see ourselves, we see monkeys and we compare ourselves with monkeys. Monkeys look so similar to us. What is so special about monkeys? why we get so much attracted towards monkeys? Is there any relationship between monkeys and us? Lets find out answer to all these question through virtual field trip to human evolution.

Humans are among more than 200 species of primates living on Earth today—one of the latest products of a long history of primate evolution. But over the past 65 million years, many now-extinct primate species flourished around the world. As groups adapted to different environments, they began to acquire features and abilities that persist in many of their varied descendants, including ourselves.

The First Humans

On our first station lets know about the first humans, who are know as hominids.DNA studies and fossils give us clues about the earliest members of the human family. The first hominids lived in Africa, most likely around six or seven million years ago. They probably walked upright when on the ground but still spent much of their time in trees.

Migration

On our second station we will see how the first modern humans migrate to other continents. They have undergone A long walk down the beach. Researchers think these humans traveled along the shores of the Indian Ocean from eastern Africa all the way to Australia. Scientists suggest a coastal route because they find the oldest non-African DNA markers among people living in isolated spots on the Indian Ocean. And archaeological evidence from Australia shows that, by 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, humans had managed to cross the 100 kilometers (60 miles) of open waters that then separated Australia and Asia.The first modern humans to cross the Asian continent probably ate seafood.

Stone age

Although humans reached the coast of southern Asia by around 60,000 years ago, the first arrivals to inland Asia made a separate journey from the Middle East. Humans arrived in southern Siberia by 43,000 years ago, as revealed by discoveries of ancient tools. These people later spread farther east and south, mingling with more recent arrivals. And some of their descendants made the first trip to the America more than 20,000 years later. Man's first tools were sticks and the stones which he learned to chip into rough axes. He used these axes as weapons, and they helped him wren he hunted animals. He also caught fish with spears, and fish-hooks made from thorns. Almost the only things that remain from this period, which is called the Old Stone Age, are some of the stone tools.

Moving into Europe

The first modern humans in Europe probably came from the Middle East via the shores of the Black Sea. Along the way they apparently mixed with migrants from northern Asia. In Europe, they met Neanderthals, a hominid species that had been living there for about 160,000 years. While we don't know whether or not the two species coexisted peacefully, we know they did not interbreed because their DNA markers are so different. And within just 10,000 years of the arrival of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals went extinct.

The First Americans

Today, Asia and North America are separated at their closest point by 85 kilometers (58 miles) of chilly ocean waters. But ocean levels were much lower 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, and a large land mass connected the continents, allowing the first of many waves of immigrants to cross into North America. Climate researchers say that massive sheets of ice covered the inland areas of present-day Canada, so the migrants must have stuck close to the Pacific coast in order to reach the ice-free regions of North and South America.

Culture and technology

The winters of Ice Age Europe some 15,000 years ago were harsh, but modern human—Homo sapience—had developed clever ways to cope with the cold. These residents of eastern Europe sewed clothes from animal hides and built sturdy shelters from mammoth bones. When food was abundant, they buried supplies in the permafrost—an ancient form of deep-freezing.

Modern humans displayed a wide range of cultural and technological abilities not seen among our earlier hominid relatives. These new humans had developed true language and could make highly sophisticated tools. They created art and practiced elaborate rituals. Indeed, these hominids exhibited virtually the entire array of behaviors that characterize people today.