The first bipedal hominids appeared in Africa about 7-10 million years ago due to the separation of the monkey lineage and the hominid lineage. The first hominid species appeared on earth belong to the following genera: Sahelanthropus (-7 million years), Orrorin (-6 MA), Ardipithecus (between -5 and -4.4 MA), Australopithecus (between -4.2 and -2.5 MA) and Paranthropus (between -2.7 and -1 MA). The appearance of species belonging to the genus Homo was made at the beginning of the Quaternary about 2.5 million years ago: Homo habilis (lived between -2.5 and -1.4 MA), Homo ergaster (a lived between -2 and -1 MA), Homo erectus (lived between -1.5 and -0.3 MA), Homo neanderthalensis (lived between -330 000 and -30 000 years) and Homo sapiens (appeared there 200,000 years old). For about 50,000 years, modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) began to colonize the different regions of the globe. In the course of its history, man discovered fire by Homo erectus about 500 000 years ago, then its use was well developed in Homo sapiens. Around 10 000 years ago, there was the appearance of breeding and cultivation. The tools were used for the first time by Homo habilis, then they were improved by Homo sapiens who invented in addition to weaving, pottery, the wheel and other things that would allow him to develop early civilizations. The settling of man began about 10,000 years ago (villages) and the first true cities did not appear until 8,000 years ago. The discovery of writing is very recent (around 5,300 years), but the prehistoric engravings and rock paintings made by prehistoric man go back more than 40,000 years.
Dear Dr. Abderrazak El Alami,
I could not quite understand your question, since you have already replied it yourself by accepting that Homo sapiens emerged around 200,000 years ago. Although this claim is not wrong, it is incomplete, for we now know that the evolutionary branch that ultimately ended up being the H. sapiens has been evolving much longer than that date.
That being said, I believe there is no scientific reason not to accept H. sapiens as a biological species. What makes you think that it may not be considered a separate species, if that is what you think?
Yes you are right, even the last fossil found very recently in Morocco confirms that H Sapiens appeared a long time ago. Thank you. I ask this question, because a large number of scientists believe that H sapiens is not like other species.
THANKS
If you mean “biological species“ in the usual sense (reproductively isolated), then the answer is no.
Since Pääbo’s team sequenced a Neanderthal genome a decade ago, we have significant genetic evidence of archaic admixture/introgression into modern Homo sapiens from other human species: Neanderthal, Denisovan, and other as yet unidentified hominins.
If we apply the “biological species“ test to Homo, we should probably include all members of the genus as one species; certainly nearly a million years of evolutionary divergence between discrete species of Homo was no barrier to later hybridisation. The “biological species“ concept has, however, been comprehensively undermined as a way of delineating species. Bears (particularly grizzlies, polars, grolars & pizzlies) and zebras are good analogues for how the “biological species“ concept is unuseful for understanding what separates H. sapiens from others in the genus.
Hi! I believe that the first thing that scientists should do is to redefine what a species is. The definition we use is still obsolete, so I think and many of us know that we would have to find a solution to it. Science advances and many concepts are contradicted, I believe that we can not continue talking about species as we have been doing until now but we have to update definitions.
I regret not having answered the question directly, but it can not be that within the world of paleoanthropology we find boxes such as Homo Habilis where everything fits and then there are small samples of fossil remains where each represents a species. If the definition of species is not modified, then everything is possible according to each researcher and this can not continue like this.
I agree with Remei, I understand that what has remained archaic is the species concept and even more so when applied to hominids.
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