Stages through which Man Evolved

​Stages through which Man Evolved

​Archaeological studies show that man evolved through various stages. At each stage man developed certain physical and cultural features. The following are the stages of the evolution of man.

​Aegyptopithecus

​The probable earliest ancestor of man was an ape-like creature whose skull was discovered in the Faiyum Valley in Egypt. This creature was herbivorous. It lived about 33 million years ago.

Features:

1. Walked on four limbs.
2. Had a tail.
3. Weighed four kilograms.

​Dryopithecus Africanus (Proconsul)

The skull was discovered on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria in 1948. It resembled a chimpanzee. It lived about 25 million years ago.

Features

1. Had long teeth.
2. Smooth forehead.
3. Projecting face

​Kenyapithecus (Ramapithecus)

Also known as the grassland ape, Kenyapithecus lived between 15 million and 7 million years ago. Its remains were first discovered at Fort Ternan, near Kericho in 1961. It was more man-like than other earlier ape. Other discoveries have been made at Samburu Hills, Lake Baringo and Lake Turkana basins.

Features

• Had small teeth.
• Occasionally walked on two legs.
• Weighed between 18 and 36 kilograms. 
• Had a larger brain.

​Australopithecines

​Between four and two and a half million years ago, two varieties of small ape-like men came into existence in Southern and Eastern Africa.

These creatures are also referred to as Southern ape-men because their remains were first discovered in Southern Africa at Taung near Kimberley in 1924. 

​Similar fossils of a hominid belonging to the Australopithecus genius have been found scattered throughout Eastern Africa at such pre-historic sites as Olduvai Gorge and Lake Natron in Tanzania.

​Australopithecus used the stone tools he made for defence and to get food. They used sticks and pebble tools to kill small animals for food. They lived in small hunting camps ​near water bodies and led a nomadic life often migrating following the game they hunted. Hunting was the chief process which set man on the evolutionary path that was to lead to his dominance over all other animals.

The revolutionary stages of man

​Species of Australopithecines

• Australopithecus anamensis: This is the latest fossil found at Kanapoi and Alia Bay (on the south western and eastern sides of Lake Turkana) by Dr Mary Leakey, Dr Allan Walker and four fos hunters in the Hominid Gang. The fossil remains, a lower jaw, was given the name Australopithecus anamensis. It is believed to be the oldest Australopithecus, with an age of 4 million years.
• Australopithecus afarensis: This lived between 4 and 3 million years ago. This name is derived from Afar Depression in Ethiopia, where the remains were found. Other remains were found at Laetoli in Tanzania and Tugen Hills in Kenya.
• Australopithecus africanus (or A. gracillis): He lived between 3 and 2.5 million years ago.
• Australopithecus robustus: This was the biggest and most recent. He lived between 2 and 1.5 million years ago in South Africa.
• Australopithecus boisei: The Eastern African form of the Australopithecus robustus was named Australopithecus boisei. In 1986. a 2.5 million-year old skull of this primate was discovered near Lake Turkana.

​Features of the Australopithecines

1. Had an upright posture as he walked on two legs.
2. Had hairy body to keep him warm.
3. Was short in stature with a small slender body of about four feet tall.
4. Was strongly built with heavy shoulders. 
5. Had a large brain capacity of about 500 cc.
6. Had a large face with a low forehead and stereo-scopic vision.
7. Had large jaws and teeth.
8. Weighed between thirty to sixty eight kilograms.

​Homo Habilis

​​At Olduvai Gorge where Mrs Mary Leakey found the Zinjanthropus skull, another of her sons, Jonathan Leakey, found the skull fragments of a very young hominid. The pieces were stuck together to form the back part of the head. Later a lower jaw and the bones of a hand were found. 

​Dr Leakey, convinced that this was a true ancestor of man, called the creature Homo habilis, meaning handy man', 'man with ability' or simply practical man'. Homo habilis thus became the first species of the genus Homo or man. Homo habilis had a bigger brain capacity (775 cc) compared to Australopithecus and was the first true man to make and use tools.

It is believed that both Homo habilis and Australopithecus lived in Africa about one and three quarter million years ago. But Australopithecus then disappeared giving way to new people who had bigger brains. Homo habilis represents a stage of human evolution at which the brain and the hands were beginning to work in closer conjunction.

​Features of Homo Habilis

1. Large brain capacity of about 775 cc.
2. Bigger body stature of about 5 feet tall. Well developed thumb like that of modern man.
3. Shape of face and skull like that of modern man.
4. Teeth like those of modern man.
5. Communicated using elementary speech.

​Homo Erectus

​The other hominid which lived in Africa about one million years ago is called Homo erectus, also referred to as the "upright man". As the name implies. Homo erectus. resembled the modern man especially the upright walking posture. Some fossils have been found of Homo erectus in Hadar in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia, about 500 km north-east of Addis Ababa.

Homo erectus is thought to have been more intelligent than Australopithecus and Homo habilis. He had a much higher brain capacity of between 750 and 1000 cc. He could spend a long time chipping away at pieces of stone and bone to make the weapons and tools he needed. 

Evidence shows that Homo erectus lived in Africa, Europe and Asia and learnt to make many different and more refined tools like hand axes and later crude spears and arrow heads all from stone. It is believed that Homo erectus' knew how to use fire and had a primitive form of speech compared to any of his predecessors.

​Features of Homo Erectus

1. Had an upright posture as he walked on twos.
2. Had a large brain capacity of up to 1100 cc.
3. Was highly intelligent as he made refined tools for specific purposes. e.g., hand axes and scrappers.
4. Communicated well using speech. 
5. Was large in stature of 5½ ft tall.
6. Possessed a prominent brow ridge over the eyes.

Homo Sapiens

​Homo sapiens was divided into three species.

​Rhodesian Man

​The Rhodesian man was given this name because his skull was found in Zambia, then called Northern Rhodesia.
Rhodesian man was closer to the modern man than Homo erectus was.

• He had straight legs and walked with long strides.
• His brain was nearly the same size as that of modern man although he still looked like an ape, with great ridges over his eyes and a backward sloping forehead. Fossils have been found with cutting and scraping tools made of stone and others of bone which have been closely associated with the Rhodesian man. The below shows the skulls of the various hominids in different stages of evolution.

Skulls of human species through evolutionary stages

​Neanderthal Man

​​Even closer to the modern man was a hominid called "Neanderthal Man", whose fossils were first found in Neander Valley in Europe. Traces of Neanderthal have been found scattered throughout Europe and the Near East.

• ​Neanderthal man was heavily built with brow-ridges.
• His cranial or brain capacity in some cases was larger than that of modern man.
• He was quite intelligent and skilled in using his hands.
• He ate meat from the animals like deer, pigs, wild sheep, and rhinoceros which he hunted.

​The oldest remains of the Neanderthal is dated about 250,000 years old. They consist of one nearly complete skull found in 1933 at Steinheim, Germany and three skull bones found in ancient gravels on the bank of River Thames and Swanscombe in England. More than 100 bones of this hominid have been excavated in South West France, Belgium, Gibraltar, Italy, Germany, former Yugoslavia, the middle East and North Africa.

They skillfully chipped stone tools and with them hunted a wide range of game. The arrangements of their bones found in excavations indicate ceremonial burials which show that they had developed religious practices.

​Cro-magnon

Cro-magnon lived in Western Europe about 20,000 years ago.

• He was almost like modern man except that he was taller and had a thicker brow ridge.
• He hunted, gathered and lived in caves and used fire.
• He also painted ​pictures showing hunting scenes.
• He used a variety of refined and delicate tools.

​Features of Homo Sapiens

1. Had straight legs.
2. Walked on twos with long strides.
3. Had a large stature of about 6 feet tall.
4. Had small teeth.
5. Had a steep well rounded forehead. Had a large brain capacity of up to 1800 cc.
6. Had heavy brows and ridges over the eyes. Was strongly built with broad shoulders.
7. Had bushy eye-brows.

​Homo Sapiens Sapiens

​​Homo sapiens sapiens brings to the end the long struggle for early man to better himself and become civilised. This is when he made weapons and tools of flint stone, ivory, wood and horn. These tools were more refined than the earlier ones. 

​He caught fish with bone harpoons, cleaned animal hides with scrapers and made garments out of them with bone needles. Since he was intelligent and was thinking, he made fire and pots. The hunters captured and tamed animals. He began to grow crops, build huts and started leading a settled life. 

Figure below depicts the evolution stages man is thought to have gone through.

​Features of Homo Sapiens Sapiens

1. High intellectual capacity with a large brain of over 2,000 cc.
2. Spoke with well refined speech.
3. Had small jaws and teeth.
4. Was about 6 feet tall.
5. Had well developed thumb for grasping objects.

Stages of man's Evolution