1.b.9 – Are the hominids our ancestors?

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December 20, 2009 — Riccardo Sabellotti - Giacinto Sabellotti

Are the hominids our ancestors?

The group of hominids began its history adapting to a life on the ground, probably because of a climate change that made the forest recede in proximity to some of major lakes in Africa. The drastic environmental change drove the great apes to adapt to a more terricolous life, considering the scarcity of trees. They withdrew together with the forest, perhaps to stay near the lakes since, with an increasingly arid climate, the water had become an increasingly valuable good. Some have hinted the hypothesis that hominids adapted to a life style similar to that of hippos while retaining the omnivorous diet of monkeys.
The hominids are divided into two main groups: the australopitechus, which is the oldest kind, and the genus homo, appeared about 2 million years ago, which also includes today man. The latest hominids present a progressive reduction of bulging eye sockets and jaw associated with an increase in production of tools. There is evidence that the homo erectus, one of the oldest species of the genus homo, already used the fire and therefore such use is not a discovery of our species.
From homo erectus, about 800 thousand years ago, developed the homo antecessor, which disseminated in Africa, Middle East and Europe, where at its turn gave origin to various species; about 600 thousand years ago generated the homo of Heidelberg, which then became the man of Neanderthal; about 200 thousand years ago, in Africa, the homo antecessor gave rise to the current man, defined Homo sapiens.