Neanderthals may have had less brain capacity available for social functions. Inferring social group size from endocranial volume (minus occipital lobe size) suggests that Neanderthal groups may have been limited to 120 individuals, compared to 144 possible relationships for modern humans. Larger social groups could imply that modern humans had less risk of inbreeding within their clan, trade over larger areas (confirmed in the distribution of stone tools), and faster spread of social and technological innovations. All these may have all contributed to modern Homo sapiens replacing Neanderthal populations by 28,000 BP. [80] Turner, William (April 1895). "On M. Dubois' Description of Remains recently found in Java, named by him Pithecanthropus erectus. With Remarks on so-called Transitional Forms between Apes On the basis of the early date of Badoshan Iranian Aurignacian, Oppenheimer suggests that this second dispersal may have occurred with a pluvial period about 50,000 years before the present, with modern human big-game hunting cultures spreading up the Zagros Mountains, carrying modern human genomes from Oman, throughout the Persian Gulf, northward into Armenia and Anatolia, with a variant travelling south into Israel and to Cyrenicia. [195] Altering over many thousands of years, these shifting temperatures have been determined by variations in Earth's orbit around the sun. While greater distances have resulted in colder cycles, shifts closer to the ball of heathave led to warmer, interglacial periods.

A new proposed species Australopithecus deyiremeda is claimed to have been discovered living at the same time period of Au. afarensis. There is debate if Au. deyiremeda is a new species or is Au. afarensis. [30] Australopithecus prometheus, otherwise known as Little Foot has recently been dated at 3.67million years old through a new dating technique, making the genus Australopithecus as old as afarensis. [31] Given the opposable big toe found on Little Foot, it seems that the specimen was a good climber. It is thought given the night predators of the region that he built a nesting platform at night in the trees in a similar fashion to chimpanzees and gorillas. The new batch – 150,000 years ago". The evolution of man. London: BBC Science & Nature. Archived from the original on January 18, 2006 . Retrieved April 28, 2015. He said the scientific community is as confident in human-caused climate change today as in the understanding of the theory of gravity. The species that you and all other living human beings on this planet belong to is Homo sapiens. During a time of dramatic climate change 300,000 years ago, Homo sapiens evolved in Africa. Like other early humans that were living at this time, they gathered and hunted food, and evolved behaviors that helped them respond to the challenges of survival in unstable environments. It has been argued in a study of the life history of Ar. ramidus that the species provides evidence for a suite of anatomical and behavioral adaptations in very early hominins unlike any species of extant great ape. [28] This study demonstrated affinities between the skull morphology of Ar. ramidus and that of infant and juvenile chimpanzees, suggesting the species evolved a juvenalised or paedomorphic craniofacial morphology via heterochronic dissociation of growth trajectories. It was also argued that the species provides support for the notion that very early hominins, akin to bonobos ( Pan paniscus) the less aggressive species of the genus Pan, may have evolved via the process of self-domestication. Consequently, arguing against the so-called "chimpanzee referential model" [29] the authors suggest it is no longer tenable to use chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes) social and mating behaviors in models of early hominin social evolution. When commenting on the absence of aggressive canine morphology in Ar. ramidus and the implications this has for the evolution of hominin social psychology, they wrote:Wood, Bernard A. (January 1999). " Homo rudolfensis Alexeev, 1986 – fact or phantom?". Journal of Human Evolution. 36 (1): 115–118. doi: 10.1006/jhev.1998.0246. ISSN 0047-2484. PMID 9924136. During the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of fossils were found in East Africa in the regions of the Olduvai Gorge and Lake Turkana. These searches were carried out by the Leakey family, with Louis Leakey and his wife Mary Leakey, and later their son Richard and daughter-in-law Meave, fossil hunters and paleoanthropologists. From the fossil beds of Olduvai and Lake Turkana they amassed specimens of the early hominins: the australopithecines and Homo species, and even H.erectus.

In May 2021, the average global level of atmospheric CO2 hit 415 ppm . The last time CO2 levels were so elevated was some3 million years ago, when sea levels were around 30 meters (100 feet) higher and modern humans didn't even exist . The earliest known catarrhine is Kamoyapithecus from the uppermost Oligocene at Eragaleit in the northern Great Rift Valley in Kenya, dated to 24million years ago. [24] Its ancestry is thought to be species related to Aegyptopithecus, Propliopithecus, and Parapithecus from the Faiyum, at around 35mya. [25] In 2010, Saadanius was described as a close relative of the last common ancestor of the crown catarrhines, and tentatively dated to 29–28mya, helping to fill an 11-million-year gap in the fossil record. [26] Reconstructed tailless Proconsul skeleton Anatomically, the evolution of bipedalism has been accompanied by a large number of skeletal changes, not just to the legs and pelvis, but also to the vertebral column, feet and ankles, and skull. [126] The femur evolved into a slightly more angular position to move the center of gravity toward the geometric center of the body. The knee and ankle joints became increasingly robust to better support increased weight. To support the increased weight on each vertebra in the upright position, the human vertebral column became S-shaped and the lumbar vertebrae became shorter and wider. In the feet the big toe moved into alignment with the other toes to help in forward locomotion. The arms and forearms shortened relative to the legs making it easier to run. The foramen magnum migrated under the skull and more anterior. [127] The immediate survival advantage of encephalization is difficult to discern, as the major brain changes from Homo erectus to Homo heidelbergensis were not accompanied by major changes in technology. It has been suggested that the changes were mainly social and behavioural, including increased empathic abilities, [153] [154] increases in size of social groups, [147] [155] [156] and increased behavioral plasticity. [157] Humans are unique in the ability to acquire information through social transmission and adapt that information. [158] The emerging field of cultural evolution studies human sociocultural change from an evolutionary perspective. [159] Evolution of the shape, size, and contours of the human ( Homo) skull [160] [161] [a] [164] [d] [2] [166] [167] [168] [169] [103] [170] [171] Sexual dimorphism [ edit ]

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Established as a UN body in 1988, the IPCC has 195 member countriesand assesses the science related to climate change. It has attributed atmospheric CO2 increase to anthropogenic (human-caused) emissions, with three-quarters of them coming from fossil fuel burning, and the rest from land use change. Tavaré, Simon; Marshall, Charles R.; Will, Oliver; etal. (April 18, 2002). "Using the fossil record to estimate the age of the last common ancestor of extant primates". Nature. 416 (6882): 726–729. Bibcode: 2002Natur.416..726T. doi: 10.1038/416726a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 11961552. S2CID 4368374. Fleagle, John; Gilbert, Chris (2011). Rowe, Noel; Myers, Marc (eds.). "Primate Evolution". All The World's Primates. Charlestown, RI: Primate Conservation, Inc. Archived from the original on May 12, 2015 . Retrieved April 27, 2015.

H. ergaster and H. erectus [ edit ] Reconstruction of Turkana boy who lived 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago Homo rudolfensis refers to a single, incomplete skull from Kenya. Scientists have suggested that this was a specimen of Homo habilis, but this has not been confirmed. [63] Whitehouse, David (June 9, 2003). "When humans faced extinction". BBC News. London: BBC. Archived from the original on September 4, 2010 . Retrieved January 5, 2007.

Not to be confused with Pongidae, an obsolete family which grouped together orangutans, gorillas, and chimps to separate them from humans