Human Evolution

Human evolution
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the history of humans on Earth, see History of the world.
"Primitive man" redirects here. For the album by Icehouse, see Primitive Man (album).
"Human origins" redirects here. For religious explanations, see Creation myth.


Reconstruction of a Neanderthal hunter, American Museum of Natural History.
Human evolution is the part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of homo sapiens as a distinct species from other hominans, great apes and placental mammals. It is the subject of a broad scientific inquiry that seeks to understand and describe how this change occurred. The study of human evolution encompasses many scientific disciplines, most notably physical anthropology, linguistics and genetics. The term "human", in the context of human evolution, refers to the genus Homo, but studies of human evolution usually include other hominins, such as the australopithecines.
Contents
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1 History of paleoanthropology
2 Before Homo
3 Genus Homo
3.1 Homo habilis
3.2 Homo rudolfensis and Homo georgicus
3.3 Homo ergaster and Homo erectus
3.4 Homo cepranensis and Homo antecessor
3.5 Homo heidelbergensis
3.6 Homo rhodesiensis, and the Gawis cranium
3.7 Homo neanderthalensis
3.8 Homo sapiens
3.9 Homo floresiensis
3.10 Comparative table of Homo species
4 Use of tools
4.1 Stone tools
4.2 "Modern man" debate and the Great Leap Forward
5 Models of human evolution
5.1 Multiregional model
5.2 Out of Africa model
5.3 Comparison of the two models
6 Notable human evolution researchers
7 Species list
8 Additional notes
9 References
10 Further reading
11 See also
12 External links

[edit] History of paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology is the study of ancient humans based on fossil evidence, tools, and other signs of human habitation. The modern field of paleoanthropology began in the 19th century...