The Evolution Of The Homo - 2311 Words

Our homo ancestors date back to about 2.5 million years ago. Classification of the genus Homo into species and subspecies remains poorly defined and subject to incomplete information, leading to difficulties in binomial naming, and the use of common names, such as Neanderthal and Denisovan. With that being said, many people get a misunderstanding when discussing our homo ancestors. The biggest issue is knowing what a species are actually apart of the genus homo and who isn’t. Several species, including Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus sediba, Australopithecus africanus, and Australopithecus afarensis, have been proposed as the direct ancestor of the Homo lineage. These species have morphological features that align them with†¦show more content†¦Homo habilis had smaller molars and larger brains than the australopithecines, and made tools from stone and perhaps animal bones. One of the first known hominids, it was nicknamed handy man by discoverer Louis Leake y due to its association with stone tools. Some scientists have proposed moving this species out of Homo and into Australopithecus due to the morphology of its skeleton being more adapted to living on trees rather than to moving on two legs like Homo sapiens. Homo rudolfensis findings in Kenya have been suggested to be Homo habilis, but scientists are unsure. The fossils found from these two species are said to be from about 1.8 million years ago. Homo georgicus, named after the country Georgia, is said to possibly be an intermediate form between Homo erectus and Homo habilis or a sub species of Homo erectus. Homo erectus lived from about 1.8 million to about 70,000 years ago. Many scientist believe that the early stages of erectus, about 1.8 to 1.2 million years ago, is a separate species called Homo ergaster, seen as a sub species of erectus. In the early Pleistocene, 1.5–1 Ma, in Africa some populations of Homo habilis are thought to have evolved more complex brains and made more elaborate stone tools; these differences and others are sufficient for anthropologists to classify them as a new species, Homo erectus. The next two species are said to be a mix between Homo