First humans
Well, today I didn't run on Friday, on Thursday I had dinner with good friends and I had a lot of dinner, whenever I eat a heavy dinner I sleep badly. This time was no exception, I slept badly. And I didn't dare to get up and run. So today, Saturday, I ended up doing it.
During the week I thought that I left the appearance of the humans half done, I justified that the Australopithecus and first Homo were not, I mentioned them as archaic humans and that the endurance race was responsible for us acquiring the physical adaptations characteristic of modern humans, but I did not say when this occurred.
But let's think about archaic humans, living in the African steppes they did not have it easy, with animals 1.5 m tall competing with much larger animals. There was no shortage of food, in the African steppes there was a lot of carrion, but being so small they had to wait for the other scavengers to leave the remains that they could no longer use. That is why stone tools were handy to them, if they arrived before the older scavengers they could cut large pieces of meat and run away. In the end, when the scavengers left almost nothing, with tools they could break the bones and obtain the marrow, a great food.
Now, being a small scavenger put pressure on him to move quickly over considerable distances, so he had to become faster and stronger. The adaptations for this must have been developed at this stage.
Are there any intermediate hominins between archaic humans and humans?
Well yes, it also appeared in a surprising place. Until now all hominins were located in Africa, mainly in the east. The remains I am going to tell you about were found between Western Europe and Eastern Asia, in Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia. They are 1.8 million old, showing that hominins began leaving Africa much earlier than previously thought. These hominins are a mosaic of characteristics. The skull is very similar to that of Homo habilis, both in shape and cranial capacity, as well as its dimensions, less than 1.5 m in height. The stone tools are Oldowan, like those of the H. habilis. Their arms are long, not as long as those of archaic humans, but, proportionally, longer than those of humans. However, the rest of the body is very similar to that of humans, especially its legs, which, proportionally, are as long as ours, also the leg joints are larger, better able to withstand the pounding of running. They were originally called Homo georgicus, they were considered sufficiently different from the other species of Homo. Can we consider that they were already fully adapted to endurance running? With arms as long as we are, not fully adapted to them, but certainly much longer than archaic humans. Furthermore, due to the number of animal bones with traces of the use of stone tools concurrent with them, it is very likely that they were already hunters. There is also clear evidence that they took care of their patients, one of the best preserved skulls has a single tooth, and the gaps where the other teeth went disappeared, indicating that he lived a long time without teeth, someone must have fed him with previously chewed food.
Nowadays, don't ask me why, it is considered an archaic form of Homo erectus.
Returning to Africa in Turkana, Kenya, we found the next oldest remains of Hominins, approximately 1.9 million years ago. A fairly complete skeleton of a teenager, the skull bones not yet fused together. Height of more than 1.6 m, probably up to 1.85 m, with a greater cranial capacity, about 900 cm3, this thanks to a higher and elongated cranial vault, a great change with respect to archaic humans. The face still had large brow ridges and a reduced forehead, but the nose now projected outwards.
From the head down his body was already completely human, like ours, it was undoubtedly already adapted to the endurance race, which he took advantage of to get married. It was originally called Homo ergaster, it is currently considered an early form of H. erectus.
If you remember in another entry I talked about how endurance race determined our physical characteristics. But in H. erectus We find another important change, it no longer uses Oldowan tools, with which the Acheulian stone industry appears. Much more complex tools, which require much more work and planning. In Africa, Europe, and Western Asia these types of tools remained until the appearance of Neanderthals and modern humans. Also, the H. erectus They are responsible for another great advance for human beings, the use of fire.
Will the endurance race have something to do with the creativity of the first humans?
I think so, with the amount of neuroactive substances produced while running distance undoubtedly stimulates creativity. It's incredible how many things occur to you when you're running, like today, in my case.
So, I believe, the first human appeared in Kenya, about 1.9 million years ago and enjoyed running.
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