Hello! Today, I want to talk about our ancestor, ‘Homo erectus,’ who roamed the widest lands for the longest time in human evolutionary history. Please forget the illustration of the stooped ape you saw in textbooks. The Homo erectus revealed by recent studies might have been a ‘capable individual’ comparable to modern humans, and perhaps […]
09. Homo Erectus: We Have Been Misunderstanding Them Read More »
About 1.9 million years ago in Africa, a massive turning point arrived in the history of human evolution. Passing the era of Australopithecus, who moved back and forth between trees, a being finally appeared that strode confidently on two legs upon the ground. The protagonist of this story is Homo ergaster, the first early human
08. Meeting the First “True” Human: Homo ergaster Read More »
Prologue: The Giants Vanished from the Human Family Tree In 1959, a fossil was discovered in the Olduvai Gorge of Tanzania that shook the field of anthropology. The skull (OH 5), found by Louis Leakey, possessed jaws and molars incomparable in size to modern humans, along with a crest (sagittal crest) soaring from the top
07. They Were No “Nutcracker Men”: The Rediscovery of Paranthropus Read More »
We often think of human evolution as a linear process of monkeys gradually straightening their backs to stand up. However, the story told by fossils is much more complex and dramatic. Today, we will dig deep into the first protagonist to shed the characteristics of Australopithecus (apes) and finally earn the name ‘Homo’ (human): Homo
06. Homo habilis: The True Story of the ‘Handy Man’ Who Started Human Civilization Read More »
“Where did humans come from?” To find the answer to this question, scientists have excavated the earth for decades. In that process, they encountered a peculiar being that possessed characteristics of both apes and humans: Australopithecus. Meaning “Southern (Australo) Ape (pithecus),” these were no ordinary apes. Today, we will break down everything about Australopithecus in
05. The Ancestors of Humanity, Everything About Australopithecus: From Lucy to Homo Read More »
When we think of human ancestors, we typically think of Australopithecus afarensis, famously known as ‘Lucy’. This is because, for a long time, we believed that species like Lucy walked the earth alone about 3 to 4 million years ago. However, in 2001, a shocking fossil discovered in Kenya shattered this stereotype. It lived at
04. The ‘Flat Face’ That Rewrote the Textbooks: Everything About Kenyanthropus Read More »
When you think of the history of human evolution, do you often imagine the image of a hunched chimpanzee gradually straightening its back and walking to become a human? In 2009, a fossil was revealed to the world that completely shook this long-held stereotype. It is Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed ‘Ardi’. Today, we will explain in
When we talk about the ‘first humans’ or our ‘human ancestors,’ the first name that usually comes to mind is ‘Lucy,’ the famous Australopithecus afarensis. But would you believe there was a being that stood on two feet and walked the earth 6 million years ago—a staggering 2 million years before Lucy lived (3 Ma)?
02. Walking 2 Million Years Before Lucy? The Secrets of the First Human, ‘Orrorin’ Read More »
Where did we come from? To answer this age-old question, scientists scour dust-blown deserts and dedicate decades to analyzing a single, tiny bone fragment. Today, I’d like to introduce the protagonist who graces the very first page of human evolutionary history—and remains one of its most mysterious figures: Sahelanthropus tchadensis. But rather than that tongue-twisting