by Chip Walter
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———. “Signs of Neanderthals Mating with Humans.” New York Times, May 5, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/science/07nean derthal.html.
———. “Tools Suggest Earlier Human Exit from Africa.” New York Times, January 28, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/science/28africa.html?pagewanted=all.
Walter, Chip. Thumbs, Toes, and Tears: And Other Traits That Make Us Human. New York: Walker, 2006.
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Footnotes
a Ants.
b Many more human species may have existed at this time, but the farther back in time you go, the more likely those creatures lived in rain forests, and the less likely conditions were optimal for creating fossils.
c See pages 37–38 of Thumbs, Toes, and Tears: And Other Traits That Make Us Human for Bolk’s complete list.
d Life evolved soon after Earth itself came into existence some four billion years ago. The first cells were prokaryotic. The best guesses for the time when eukaryotes (cells with mitochondria) evolved range from just below 2.0 billion years to around 3.5 billion years before the present. The early fossil record for single–celled organisms, as you might expect, is sparse, so it’s tough to set the exact date of this remarkable bargain.
e When the ancient Carthaginian explorer Hanno the Navigator came across a group of what he called savage men and hairy women in West Africa twenty-five hundred years ago, he wasn’t sure if they were human, but the difference between them and him was clearly large. His interpreters called the creatures Gorillae, from which we later derived the term gorilla. It’s possible that’s exactly what Hanno had encountered.
f Aurochs were a type of now–extinct, large, wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia, and North Africa. They survived in Europe until 1627, when the last recorded member of the species, a female, died in the Jaktorów Forest, in Poland.
g The word is still out on Denisovans and the Red Deer Cave people. Even Homo floresiensis. Denisovans appear to also have descended from Homo heildelbergensis.
h A term coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene.
i This is the hypothesis of evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics.
j Conducted by the American Psychological Association, 2010.
k A term coined in my previous book Thumbs, Toes, and Tears: And Other Traits That Make Us Human.
A Note on the Author
Chip Walter is founder of the popular website AllThingHuman.net, a former CNN bureau chief, and feature film screenwriter. He has written and produced several award–winning science documentaries for PBS, in collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences, including programs for the Emmy Award–winning series Planet Earth and Infinite Voyage. Chip’s science writing has embraced a broad spectrum of fields and topics. He is the author of Space Age, the companion volume to the PBS series of the same title; I’m Working on That, written with William Shatner; and Thumbs, Toes, and Tears—And Other Traits That Make Us Human. His books have been published in six languages.
Chip’s articles have also been featured in the Economist, Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, Slate, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Discover magazine, and many other publications and websites. He is currently an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science and Entertainment Technology Center. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Cyndy, and their children Molly, Steven, Hannah, and Annie.
By the Same Author
Thumbs, Toes, and Tears: And Other Traits That Make Us Human
I’m Working on That, written with William Shatner
Space Age
Plate Section
Paranthropus aethiopicus
This creature was among three species of “robust” humans, some of whom roamed the plains of Africa for as many as a million years. They might have outcompeted the line of primates that eventually led to us, but our direct ancestors took an odd evolutionary turn that lengthened our childhoods and profoundly changed human evolution. (See Chapter 2: “The Invention of Childhood.”) Original artwork by Sergio Pérez.
Homotherium—Big Cat of the Ancient Savanna
Life on Africa’s ancient savannas had to have been terrifying. The humans who roamed and foraged there between 5 million and 1.5 million years ago probably spent a good deal of their time avoiding big cats like this one, a precursor of today’s lions, panthers, and tigers. The danger they presented further bonded early humans, making cooperation among them more important than ever, one reason we are so social today. (See Chapter 2: “The Invention of Childhood.”) Homotherium © 2005 Mark Hallet.
Lake Turkana—An Evolutionary Garden of Eden?
Today Lake Turkana is the world’s largest alkaline lake, but millions of years ago it was the garden spot of Africa and home to ancient human species of all kinds, including the line that likely led to us. (See Chapter 3: “Learning Machines.”) Photo credit: Yannick Garcin.
The Boy W
ho Changed Our View of Human Evolution
Also known as Nariokotome Boy, this young man met his end 1.5 million years ago. Luckily, and remarkably, most of his skeleton survived, making him one of the most important paleoanthropological finds ever. His teeth and bones have illuminated the mysterious evolution of our long childhoods and the crucial role it played in our survival. (See Chapter 2: “The Invention of Childhood.”) Photo credit: Look Sciences/Photo Researchers.
The Ancient Continents of Sunda and Sahul
Fifty thousand years ago waves of modern humans began making their way out of Africa, scattering in all directions. Some tribes wandered to Australia, more than ten thousand miles away. They were able to make that journey because forty-five thousand years ago a swing to frigid climate locked oceans of water in earth’s polar caps and dropped global sea levels. That created these immense continents in the Indian and Pacific oceans which are today submerged: Sunda and Sahul. Across these landmasses (with some short hops by sea) early humans made their way to the plateaus and mountains of western Australia, the ancestors of today’s Australian Aborigines. (See Chapter 5: “The Everywhere Ape.”) Based on original artwork by Maximilian Dörrbecker.
The Scattering of the Human Race
Once they had departed Africa, modern humans headed off to every corner of the planet—the Middle East, Europe, Asia, the Far East, the South Pacific, Australia, and the Americas. Among the last continents to be reached? Antarctica, in the nineteenth century. Remote Pacific islands were probably populated about the time the first Pharaohs ruled Egypt. (See Chapter 5: “The Everywhere Ape.”) Original artwork by Altaileopard, Wikimedia commons.
Gorham Cave
Twenty-five thousand years ago the last Neanderthals may have lived, and died, in this cathedral-like cave. (See Chapter 6: “Cousin Creatures.”) Original photo provided by Gibmetal77, Wikimedia commons.
Our Closest Cousin?
We now know the Neanderthal people of Europe and west Asia were remarkably intelligent and tough. This reconstruction illustrates that their large skulls, thick, ropey muscles, and expansive noses, optimized for warming cold air, helped them survive frigid temperatures and a punishing lifestyle. (See Chapter 6: “Cousin Creatures.”) Original artwork by Cicero Moraes, Wikimedia commons.
Final Days of the Neanderthal
Did the last Neanderthal sit on the great snaggled-toothed Rock of Gibraltar and watch her (or his) final sunset? (See Chapter 6: “Cousin Creatures.”) Original photo provided by RedCoat, Wikimedia commons.
If we could compress the emergence of all of the humans we so far know of who evolved over the past seven million years into the space of twelve months, it would look something like this. Many more species probably came and went that we haven’t yet discovered. (See Chapter 1: “The Battle for Survival.”) Artwork and graph by Frank Harris, 2012.
Prehistoric Genius
Long ago a Cro-Magnon artist painted this breathtaking image deep in the Altamira caves of Spain. Today they would be the envy of art galleries around the world, or Madison Avenue marketeers—rich, vibrant, and ingenious. You can almost see the image ripple in the ancient firelight that once illuminated it. Around this time in human history there was a global blossoming of creativity. Was the wellspring of that creativity our long childhood? (See Chapter 7: “Beauties in the Beast.”) Photo credit: akg-images.
One Reason Why We Resemble Baby Apes
The effect of youthful (more feminine) faces on members of the opposite sex illustrate that even today both men and women find their counterparts more attractive if they look more childlike. For this experiment, scientists digitally created an “average,” but attractive, version of two faces for each sex, one Caucasian and one Asian, four “average” faces in all. The researchers then digitally modified each face to create two versions, one slightly more masculine, the other slightly more feminine and childlike. (See Chapter 7: “Beauties in the Beast.”) Reprinted by permission, Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature 394, “Effects of Sexual Dimorphism on Facial Attractiveness,” pp 884–87, August 27, 1998.
Our Preference for Childlike Looks Persists Today
The male versions in the study sport slightly heavier eyebrows, a hint of shaved beard, squarer jaws, and pupils that stand a bit farther apart than female pupils. This creates the illusion that the male faces are larger than the women’s (they aren’t). Ancient preferences like these help explain why we look, even in adulthood, more like baby apes than fully grown ones. (See Chapter 7: “Beauties in the Beast.”) Reprinted by permission, Macmillan Publishers Ltd.: Nature 394, “Effects of Sexual Dimorphism on Facial Attractiveness,” pp 884–87, August 27, 1998.
The Black Box We Call the Human Brain
The human brain is an amalgamation of ancient and newly evolved “mini brains,” each with its own functions, cobbled together by the demands of evolution. Together they create the behavior we call human; complex, mysterious, playful, and unpredictable. Can the mind that the human brain makes possible comprehend itself? (See Chapter 8: “The Voice Inside Your Head.”) Original artwork by permission: Patric Hagmann et.al., Wikimedia commons.
The Red Deer Cave People
Recently scientists stunned the world with the discovery of a mysterious people exhibiting both ancient and modern features who lived in southern China as recently as eleven thousand years ago, just as Homo sapiens were inventing agriculture. Are they somehow related to us, Neanderthals and the newly discovered Denisovan people, or are they an entirely separate branch of the human family tree? Recent discoveries have rapidly rearranged old assumptions. More changes will likely come. (See Chapter 6: “Cousin Creatures.”) Original artwork by Peter Schouten.
Copyright © 2013 by William J. (Chip) Walter Jr.
First published in the United States of America in 2013
by Walker Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.
This electronic edition published in January 2013
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Black and white image credits. Images 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, and insets within 5, 6, and 12: Frank Harris. Image 4 inset of Paranthropus aethiopicus: Sergio Pérez. Image 9: based on an image provided by the National Institute of Health, 2010. Image 8: based on a drawing by T. L. Lentz, originally published in Primitive Nervous Systems (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968).
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