Who we are and where
It’s no secret that according to modern scientific classification of a person relates to the animal kingdom . We belong to the family of hominids and present race of people .
The man – an animal
The first signs that the animal kingdom is coming great changes have arisen about seven million years ago, and perhaps even earlier, when “human ” line separated from the chimpanzee line . It is considered that there is a very simple – our ancestors stood on his hind legs and went . Thus, hominids acquired its main feature – bipedalism , ie walking on two legs . However, the habit of climbing trees primitive man refused not soon. Over millions of years, he continued to evolve : changing its appearance , habitat, living conditions , skills, and so on – as long as the late Paleolithic , about 40,000 years ago in Europe has not appeared Cro-Magnon – the ancestor of modern man . Thanks to recent archaeological discoveries , it became clear that the right to existence of our ancestors won in a tough fight – literally a life and death – with his contemporaries : a physically stronger Neanderthals , the so-called man Denisovskoe largely like a Neanderthal and with a tiny little man – a resident of the island of Flores.
Mysterious people Denisovskoe
The existence of human Denisovskoye scientific world learned recently , after the publication in 2010 of the materials found in the mountainous Altai remains of a new kind of primitive any action . Nothing like the scientists have not seen before . The remains were discovered in Denisova Cave , whose age is estimated not less than 50 thousand years . This cave is located near the city of Biisk in the valley Anouilh , 30 years is considered a source of unique historical finds , comparable in importance with the artifacts of ancient Egypt. During excavations , archaeologists found that here for many millennia was prehistoric man . ” Premises” length of 110 meters and an area of 270 square meters consists of several interconnected voids within the rock , and apparently once was a very comfortable place to stay our ancestors.
Most significant for archaeological science items were found in a cave in recent years. This sensation waited scientists when the 11th of the cultural layer they removed bone ancient man previously unknown to science . First it was the phalanx of the little finger girls and adult molar tooth , and later – two artifact. According to scientists , Denisovskoe people lived in northern Asia about 30-50 thousand years ago. In ancient times, they were a single tribe with Neanderthals , but later it left Africa, and Denisovskoe people went to the east, while the remaining Neanderthals moved westward .
smart cannibals
On the existence of Neanderthals world learned in the middle of the XVIII century , when, during construction work in the valley in Germany Neanderskoy workers accidentally unearthed bones humanlike . Frightened diggers immediately called the police , but the police carefully examined the remains , found them very strange and asked for help to local literacy , who taught in school science . Teacher showed finding skilled and she immediately became a sensation in the scientific world . Ancient people whose remains had lain in clay for thousands of years , fits perfectly into the theory of Charles Darwin , taking it nihilo between Homo sapiens and the monkey. Scientists have discovered that Neanderthal looked pretty intimidating. Not giving us in the growth and size of the skull , the whole covered with hair , he had a thick neck , long arms , a broad chest and short strong legs . Yes, such a handsome man could not be called : the forehead and chin almost there, under the powerful brow look small eyes and thick lips rising above a fleshy nose . Nevertheless, this man was able to make a fire and to hunt large animals , used stone tools and burying the dead in their graves , putting them in a fetal position . Moreover, even Neanderthal man wore necklaces and played prehistoric ” flute .” In general , it would be quite a worthy representative of the kind of people and even homely appearance, if not proved … cannibal .
Once Neanderthals and modern humans there was a common ancestor – Pithecanthropus , but our lines diverged about 500,000 years ago , met only 410,000 years later, in the Middle East . And 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals suddenly disappeared from the face of all the earth , leaving only dust-covered remains of centuries . Even mammoths walked on this planet longer extinct only about 10,000 years ago.
People – to Flores hobbits
In the book of John P.P. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, which put on the same film , the adventures of hobbits – clever young men from a fabulous Mediterranean . It seems scientists have found evidence that the creation of like hobbits existed in reality. These primitive people , the descendants of apes , about two million years ago, went into a long and full of dangers way from Africa to Southeast Asia , and on the way they had to overcome even the oceans to get to Flores Island off the coast of Indonesia. Homo florensiensis here , as they are called scientists settled down and became the most popular island hosts hundreds of thousands of years. “The Hobbit” felt in these places so comfortable that lived before the era of Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals and actually became their neighbors in the communal apartment , called Earth. Being on an island in solitude , in the evolution of homo florensiensis turned into people dwarf growth of about one meter , with long arms and small muscular bodies , almost devoid of hair . Facial dominated large flat nose , tiny eyes were deep set and jaw with large teeth greatly protruded , and chin almost absent. From modern pygmies residents Flores different small brain size , about a chimpanzee that has completely changed the view of scientists about the value of the body as the main factor in the development of ancient people. The islanders made stone tools , fire and possessed , in spite of his small stature , successfully hunted different animals . But about 14,000 years ago, people – hobbits suddenly disappeared from the island , possibly dying a volcanic eruption , or as a result of destruction of larger Cro-Magnons . Whatever it was , the locals still portrayed legends about people Ebu Gogo – dwarfs , who lived on the island until the XVI century, when Europeans first came here .