How long has the species homo sapiens existed?
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
200,000 years ago, "Homo sapiens" evolves in East Africa. At the time, "Homo sapiens" was one of many human species, such as Neanderthals. Since 13,000 years ago, "Homo sapiens" has been the only surviving human species. Harari suggests that one of the key reasons why Sapiens is able to take control of the world is Sapiens' advanced language.
Homo magi
The "Homo magi" existed for as long as the human race, but due to their special abilities, they did not expand as did "Homo sapiens". Eventually, they started to inbreed with normal humans, resulting in many generations of "Homo magi" turned into "Homo sapiens". As the number of pure "Homo magi" dwindled, they decided to recede and went into hiding.
Upper Paleolithic
Anatomically modern humans (i.e. "Homo sapiens") are believed to have emerged out of Africa around 200,000 years ago, although these lifestyles changed very little from that of archaic humans of the Middle Paleolithic, until about 50,000 years ago, when there was a marked increase in the diversity of artefacts.
This period coincides with the expansion of modern humans from Africa throughout Asia and Eurasia, which contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals.
Homo sapiens
Physiological or phenotypical changes have been traced to Upper Paleolithic mutations, such as the East Asian variant of the EDAR gene, dated to c. 35,000 years ago.
Homo sapiens
In November 2018, scientists reported that nearly all extant populations of animals, including humans, may be a result of a population expansion that began between one and two hundred thousand years ago, based on genetic mitochondrial DNA studies.
Recent African origin of modern humans
The model proposes a "single origin" of "Homo sapiens" in the taxonomic sense, precluding 
parallel evolution of traits considered anatomically modern in other regions, but not precluding limited admixture between "H. sapiens" and archaic humans in Europe and Asia.
"H. sapiens" most likely developed in the Horn of Africa between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago. 
The "recent African origin" model proposes that all modern non-African populations are substantially descended from populations of "H. sapiens" that left Africa after that time.
Human evolution
"H. sapiens" (the adjective "sapiens" is Latin for "wise" or "intelligent") emerged around 300,000 years ago, likely derived from "Homo heidelbergensis". Between 400,000 years ago and the second interglacial period in the Middle Pleistocene, around 250,000 years ago, the trend in intra-cranial volume expansion and the elaboration of stone tool technologies developed, providing evidence for a transition from "H. erectus" to "H. sapiens". The direct evidence suggests there was a migration of "H. erectus" out of Africa, then a further speciation of "H. sapiens" from "H. erectus" in Africa. A subsequent migration (both within and out of Africa) eventually replaced the earlier dispersed "H. erectus". This migration and origin theory is usually referred to as the "recent single-origin hypothesis" or "out of Africa" theory.
"H. sapiens" interbred with archaic humans both in Africa and in Eurasia, in Eurasia notably with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Miocene
Approximately 100 species of apes lived during this time, ranging throughout Africa, Asia and Europe and varying widely in size, diet, and anatomy. Due to scanty fossil evidence it is unclear which ape or apes contributed to the modern hominid clade, but molecular evidence indicates this ape lived between 7 and 8 million years ago. The first hominins (bipedal apes of the human lineage) appeared in Africa at the very end of the Miocene, including "Sahelanthropus", "Orrorin", and an early form of "Ardipithecus" ("A. kadabba") The chimpanzee–human divergence is thought to have occurred at this time.
Sub-Saharan Africa
The fossil record shows "Homo sapiens" lived in southern and eastern Africa anywhere from 100,000 to 150,000 years ago. Between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, their expansion out of Africa launched the colonization of the planet by modern humans. By 10,000 BCE, "Homo sapiens" had spread to all corners of the world. This dispersal of the human species is suggested by linguistic, cultural and genetic evidence.
Homo sapiens
While early modern human expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa before 130 kya persisted, 
early expansion to North Africa and Asia appears to have mostly disappeared by the end of MIS5 (75,000 years ago), and is known only from fossil evidence and from archaic admixture.
Asia was re-populated by early modern humans in the so-called "recent out-of-Africa migration" post-dating MIS5, beginning around 70,000 years ago. 
In this expansion, bearers of mt-DNA haplogroup L3 left East Africa, likely reaching Arabia via the Bab-el-Mandeb, and in the "Great Coastal Migration" spread to South Asia, Maritime South Asia and Oceania by 65,000 years ago,
while Europe, East and North Asia, and possibly the Americas, were reached by 50,000 years ago.
Homo floresiensis
The revised 2016 dating of 50,000 years ago is close to the time that modern humans reached the area, suggesting that the initial encounter with "H. sapiens" caused or contributed to the demise of "H. floresiensis". This would be consistent with the disappearance of "H. neanderthalensis" from Europe about 40,000 years ago, within 5,000 years after the arrival of modern humans there, and other anthropogenic extinctions. Skeletal material from modern humans dated to 46,000 years ago has been recovered from the Liang Bua cave, strengthening the evidence for a role for modern humans in the extinction. Subsequent to this date, other megafauna of the island (such as the proboscid "Stegodon florensis insularis" and the giant stork "Leptoptilos robustus") also disappeared.
History of human migration
The pre-modern migration of human populations begins with the movement of "Homo erectus" out of Africa across Eurasia about 1.75 million years ago. "Homo sapiens" appears to have occupied all of Africa about 150,000 years ago; some members of this species moved out of Africa 70,000 years ago (or, according to more recent studies, as early as 125,000 years ago into Asia, and even as early as 270,000 years ago), and had spread across Australia, Asia and Europe by 40,000 BC.Migration to the Americas took place 20,000 to 15,000 years ago. By 2000 years ago humans had established settlements in most of the Pacific Islands. Major population-movements notably include those postulated as associated with the Neolithic Revolution and with Indo-European expansion. The Early Medieval Great Migrations including Turkic expansion have left significant traces. In some places, such as Turkey and Azerbaijan, there was a substantial cultural transformation after the migration of relatively small elite populations. Historians see elite-migration parallels in the Roman and Norman conquests of Britain, while "the most hotly debated of all the British cultural transitions is the role of migration in the relatively sudden and drastic change from Romano-Britain to Anglo-Saxon Britain", which may be explained by a possible "substantial migration of Anglo-Saxon Y chromosomes into Central England (contributing 50%–100% to the gene pool at that time)."
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
This suggests that, rather than modern humans arising in East Africa around 200,000 years ago, it appears that humans may already have been present across the length of Africa 100,000 years earlier. According to Jean-Jacques Hublin, "The idea is that early "Homo sapiens" dispersed around the continent and elements of human modernity appeared in different places, and so different parts of Africa contributed to the emergence of what we call modern humans today." Early humans may have comprised a large, interbreeding population dispersed across Africa whose spread was facilitated by a wetter climate that created a "green Sahara", around 300,000 to 330,000 years ago. The rise of modern humans may thus have taken place on a continental scale rather than being confined to a particular corner of Africa.
Discovery of human antiquity
There is no one answer from modern science to give. What the original question now means indeed depends on choosing genus or species in the required answer. It is thought that the genus of man has been around for ten times as long as our species. Currently, fresh examples of (extinct) species of the genus "Homo" are still being discovered, so that definitive answers are not available. The consensus view is that human beings are one species, the only existing species of the genus. With the rejection of polygenism for human origins, it is asserted that this species had a definite and single origin in the past. (That assertion leaves aside the point whether the origin meant is of the current species, however. The multiregional hypothesis allows the origin to be otherwise.) The hypothesis of recent African origin of modern humans is now widely accepted, and states that anatomically modern humans had a single origin, in Africa.
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ;) ("Homo neanderthalensis" or "Homo sapiens neanderthalensis") are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans in the genus "Homo", who lived within Eurasia from circa 400,000 until 40,000 years ago.
Horn of Africa
According to both genetic and fossil evidence, archaic Homo sapiens evolved into anatomically modern humans solely in the Horn of Africa between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago and have dispersed from the Horn of Africa. The recognition of "Homo sapien idaltu" as a valid subspecies of the anatomically modern human lineage would justify the description of contemporary humans with the subspecies name "H. s. sapiens". Because of their early dating and unique physical characteristics, they represent the immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans, as suggested by the Out-of-Africa theory.
Homo sapiens
"H. heidelbergensis", dated 600,000 to 300,000 years ago, has long been thought to be a likely candidate for the last common ancestor of the Neanderthal and modern human lineages.
However, genetic evidence from the Sima de los Huesos fossils published in 2016 seems to suggest that "H. heidelbergensis" in its entirety should be included in the Neanderthal lineage, as "pre-Neanderthal" or "early Neanderthal", while the divergence time between the Neanderthal and modern lineages has been pushed back to before the emergence of "H. heidelbergensis", to close to 800,000 years ago, the approximate time of disappearance of "H. antecessor".
Quaternary extinction event
The first possible indications of habitation by hominins are the 7.2 million year old finds of "Graecopithecus", and 5.7 million year old footprints in Crete — however established habitation is noted in Georgia from 1.8 million years ago, proceeded to Germany and France, by "Homo erectus". Prominent co-current and subsequent species include "Homo antecessor", "Homo cepranensis", "Homo heidelbergensis", Neanderthals and Denisovans, preceding human habitation circa 38,000 BCE.
History of East Asia
Homo erectus ("upright man") is believed to have lived in East and Southeast Asia from 1.8 million to 40,000 years ago
Evolution of human intelligence
Around 80,000–100,000 years ago, three main lines of "Homo sapiens" diverged, bearers of mitochondrial haplogroup L1 (mtDNA) / A (Y-DNA) colonizing Southern Africa (the ancestors of the Khoisan/Capoid peoples), bearers of haplogroup L2 (mtDNA) / B (Y-DNA) settling Central and West Africa (the ancestors of Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan speaking peoples), while the bearers of haplogroup L3 remained in East Africa.
Mind
The timeline of human evolution spans some 7 million years, from the separation of the genus "Pan" until the emergence of behavioral modernity by 50,000 years ago. Of this timeline, the first 3 million years concern "Sahelanthropus", the following 2 million concern "Australopithecus", while the final 2 million span the history of actual "Homo" species (the Paleolithic).
Homo ergaster
There are broad divisions in the scientific community re interpreting the development of the earliest species of genus "Homo". "H. habilis" is generally accepted as the putative ancestor of "Homo", and the direct ancestor of "H. ergaster". However, "habilis's" status as a legitimate species within ""Homo"" is particularly contentious. Apparently, "habilis" and "ergaster" coexisted in East Africa for almost half a million years, which likely indicates that, rather than an anagenetic connection between them, they diverged from a common ancestor.
Prehistory
"Neolithic" means "New Stone Age." Although there were several species of human beings during the Paleolithic, by the Neolithic only "Homo sapiens sapiens" remained. ("Homo floresiensis" may have survived right up to the very dawn of the Neolithic, about 12,200 years ago.) This was a period of primitive technological and social development. It began about 10,200 BCE in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world and ended between 4,500 and 2,000 BCE. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops and of domesticated animals.
List of human evolution fossils
Most of the early fossils shown are not considered direct ancestors to "Homo sapiens" but are closely related to direct ancestors and are therefore important to the study of the lineage. After 1.5 million years ago (extinction of "Paranthropus"), all fossils shown are human (genus "Homo"). After 11,500 years ago (11.5 ka, beginning of the Holocene), all fossils shown are "Homo sapiens" (anatomically modern humans), illustrating recent divergence in the formation of modern human sub-populations.
Olduvai Gorge
"Homo habilis", probably the first early human species, occupied Olduvai Gorge approximately 1.9 million years ago (mya); then came a contemporary australopithecine, "Paranthropus boisei", 1.8 mya, followed by "Homo erectus", 1.2 mya. Our species "Homo sapiens", which is estimated to have emerged roughly 300,000 years ago, is dated to have occupied the site 17,000 years ago.
Homo erectus
Stringer ("see" upper graph-model) depicts the presence of "H. erectus" as dominating the temporal and geographic development of human evolution; and as persisting broadly throughout Africa and Eurasia for nearly 2 million years, eventually evolving into "H. heidelbergensis / H. rhodesiensis", which in turn evolved into "H. sapiens". Reed, et al. shows "Homo ergaster" as the ancestor of "Homo erectus"; then it is "ergaster", or a variety of "ergaster", or perhaps a hybrid of "ergaster" and "erectus", which develops into species that evolve into archaic and then modern humans and then out of Africa.
Homo sapiens
A significant dispersal event, within Africa and to West Asia, is associated with the African "megadroughts" during MIS 5, beginning 130,000 years ago.
A 2011 study located the origin of basal population of contemporary human populations at 130,000 years ago, with the Khoi-San representing an "ancestral population cluster" located in southwestern Africa (near the coastal border of Namibia and Angola).
Homo
The Latin noun "homō" (genitive "hominis") means "human being" or "man" in the generic sense of "human being, mankind". The binomial name "Homo sapiens" was coined by Carl Linnaeus (1758).
Names for other species of the genus were introduced beginning in the second half of the 19th century ("H. neanderthalensis" 1864, "H. erectus" 1892).
Common chimpanzee
DNA evidence suggests the bonobo and common chimpanzee species separated from each other less than one million years ago (similar in relation between "Homo sapiens" and Neanderthals). A 2017 genetic study suggests ancient gene flow (introgression) between 200 and 550 thousand years ago from the bonobo into the ancestors of central and eastern chimpanzees. The chimpanzee line split from the last common ancestor of the human line around six million years ago. Because no species other than "Homo sapiens" has survived from the human line of that branching, both chimpanzee species are the closest living relatives of humans; the lineage of humans and chimpanzees diverged from genus "Gorilla" about seven million years ago. A 2003 study argues the common chimpanzee should be included in the human branch as "Homo troglodytes", and notes "experts say many scientists are likely to resist the reclassification, especially in the emotionally-charged and often disputed field of anthropology".
Bonobo
DNA evidence suggests the bonobo and common chimpanzee species effectively separated from each other fewer than one million years ago. The "Pan" line split from the last common ancestor shared with humans approximately six to seven million years ago. Because no species other than "Homo sapiens" has survived from the human line of that branching, both "Pan" species are the closest living relatives of humans and cladistically are equally close to humans. The recent genome data confirms the genetic equidistance.
History of Earth
It is more difficult to establish the origin of language; it is unclear whether "Homo erectus" could speak or if that capability had not begun until "Homo sapiens". As brain size increased, babies were born earlier, before their heads grew too large to pass through the pelvis. As a result, they exhibited more plasticity, and thus possessed an increased capacity to learn and required a longer period of dependence. Social skills became more complex, language became more sophisticated, and tools became more elaborate. This contributed to further cooperation and intellectual development. Modern humans ("Homo sapiens") are believed to have originated around 200,000 years ago or earlier in Africa; the oldest fossils date back to around 160,000 years ago.
Early expansions of hominins out of Africa
"Australopithecina" emerge about 5.6 million years ago, in East Africa (Afar Depression).
Gracile australopithecines ("Australopithecus afarensis") emerge in the same region, around 4 million years ago.
The earliest known retouched tools were found in Lomekwi, Kenya, and date back to 3.3 Ma, in the late Pliocene. They might be the product of "Australopithecus garhi" or "Paranthropus aethiopicus", the two known hominins contemporary with the tools.
"Homo" is assumed to have emerged by around 2 million years ago, "Homo habilis" being 
found at about 2.1 million years ago at Lake Turkana, Kenya. The delineation of the "human" genus, "Homo", from Australopithecus is somewhat contentious, for which reason the superordinate term "hominin" is often used to include both. 
"Hominin" technically includes chimpanzees as well as pre-human species as old as 10 million years ago (the separation of Homininae into Hominini and Gorillini).
Homo
"Homo neanderthalensis" and "Homo sapiens" develop after about 300 kya. "Homo naledi" is present in Southern Africa by 300 kya.
Homo sapiens
The term "behavioral modernity" is somewhat disputed. It is most often used for the set of characteristics marking the Upper Paleolithic, but 
some scholars use "behavioral modernity" for the emergence of "H. sapiens" around 200,000 years ago, while others use the term for the rapid developments occurring around 50,000 years ago. It has been proposed that the emergence of behavioral modernity was a gradual process.
Human
The genus "Homo" evolved and diverged from other hominins in Africa, after the human clade split from the chimpanzee lineage of the hominids (great apes) branch of the primates. Modern humans, defined as the species "Homo sapiens" or specifically to the single extant subspecies "Homo sapiens sapiens", proceeded to colonize all the continents and larger islands, arriving in Eurasia 125,000–60,000 years ago, Australia around 40,000 years ago, the Americas around 15,000 years ago, and remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand between the years 300 and 1280.
Homo sapiens
In taxonomy, Homo sapiens is the only extant human species. The name is Latin for "wise man" and was introduced in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus (who is himself also the type specimen).
Ape
Although the hominoid fossil record is still incomplete and fragmentary, there is now enough evidence to provide an outline of the evolutionary history of humans. Previously, the divergence between humans and other living hominoids was thought to have occurred 15 to 20 million years ago, and several species of that time period, such as "Ramapithecus", were once thought to be hominins and possible ancestors of humans. But, later fossil finds indicated that "Ramapithecus" was more closely related to the orangutan; and new biochemical evidence indicates that the last common ancestor of humans and non-hominins (that is, the chimpanzees) occurred between 5 and 10 million years ago, and probably nearer the lower end of that range; see Chimpanzee–human last common ancestor (CHLCA).
Homo sapiens
Extinct species of the genus "Homo" include "Homo erectus", extant during roughly 1.9 to 0.4 million years ago, and a number of other species (by some authors considered subspecies of either "H. sapiens" or "H. erectus"). "H. sapiens idaltu" (2003) is a proposed extinct subspecies of "H. sapiens".
Homo sapiens
Since the 1970s, the Omo remains, dated to some 195,000 years ago, have often been taken as the conventional cut-off point for the emergence of "anatomically modern humans". Since the 2000s, the discovery of older remains with comparable characteristics, and the discovery of ongoing hybridization between "modern" and "archaic" populations after the time of the Omo remains, have opened up a renewed debate on the "age of "H. sapiens"", in journalistic publications cast into terms of ""H. sapiens" may be older than previously thought".
"H. s. idaltu", dated to 160,000 years ago, has been postulated as an extinct subspecies of "H. sapiens" in 2003. 
"H. neanderthalensis", which became extinct about 40,000 years ago, has also been classified as a subspecies, "H. s. neanderthalensis".
Homo
Classifying the genus "Homo" into species and subspecies is subject to incomplete information and remains poorly done. This has led to using common names ("Neanderthal" and "Denisovan") in even scientific papers to avoid trinomial names or the ambiguity of classifying groups as "incertae sedis" (uncertain placement)—for example, "H. neanderthalensis" vs. "H. sapiens neanderthalensis", or "H. georgicus" vs. "H. erectus georgicus". Some recently extinct species in the genus "Homo" are only recently discovered and do not as yet have consensus binomial names (see Denisova hominin and Red Deer Cave people).
Since the beginning of the Holocene, it is likely that "Homo sapiens" (anatomically modern humans) has been the only extant species of "Homo".
Homo sapiens (disambiguation)
Homo sapiens (Latin) is the taxonomic binomial name of the species which includes contemporary humans.
Homo sapiens
The species was initially thought to have emerged from a predecessor within the genus "Homo" around 300,000 to 200,000 years ago.
A problem with the morphological classification of "anatomically modern" was that it would not have included certain extant populations. 
For this reason, a lineage-based (cladistic) definition of "H. sapiens" has been suggested, in which "H. sapiens" would by definition refer to the modern human lineage following the split from the Neanderthal lineage. Such a cladistic definition would extend the age of "H. sapiens" to over 500,000 years.
Prehistoric warfare
Some scholars believe that this period of "Paleolithic warlessness" persisted until well after the appearance of "Homo sapiens" some 200,000 years ago, ending only at the occurrence of economic and social shifts associated with sedentism, when new conditions incentivized organized raiding of settlements.
Homo
Homo (Latin "homō" "human being") is the genus that encompasses the extant species "Homo sapiens" (modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans (depending on a species), most notably "Homo erectus" and "Homo neanderthalensis. 
The genus is taken to emerge with the appearance of "Homo habilis", just over two million years ago. Genus "Homo", together with the genera "Paranthropus" and "Kenyanthropus", is probably sister to "A. africanus" and/or "A. sediba" in the genus "Australopithecus", which itself had previously split from the lineage of "Pan", the chimpanzees. Taxonomically, "Homo" is the only genus assigned to the subtribe "Hominina" which, with the subtribes Australopithecina and Panina, comprise the tribe Hominini.
Homo sapiens
Evidence for the overwhelming contribution of this "recent" (L3-derived) expansion to all non-African populations was established based on mitochondrial DNA, combined with evidence based on physical anthropology of archaic specimens, during the 1990s and 2000s. 
The assumption of complete replacement has been revised in the 2010s with the discovery of admixture events (introgression) of populations of "H. sapiens" with populations of archaic humans over the period of between roughly 100,000 and 30,000 years ago, both in Eurasia and in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The extent of Neanderthal admixture (and introgression of genes acquired by admixture) varies significantly between contemporary racial groups, being absent in Africans, intermediate in Europeans and highest in East Asians. Certain genes related to UV-light adaptation introgressed from Neanderthals have been found to have been selected for in East Asians specifically from 45,000 years ago until around 5,000 years ago. 
The extent of archaic admixture is of the order of about 1% to 4% in Europeans and East Asians, and highest among Melanesians (Denisova hominin admixture), at 4% to 6%.
Cumulatively, about 20% of the Neanderthal genome is estimated to remain present spread in contemporary populations.
Homo sapiens
Among extant populations, the Khoi-San (or "Capoid") hunters-gatherers of Southern Africa may represent the human population with the from all others. Their separation time has been estimated in a 2017 study to be as long as between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago, compatible with the estimated age of "H. sapiens". "H. s. idaltu", found at site Middle Awash in Ethiopia, lived about 160,000 years ago.
Fossil evidence for modern human presence in West Asia is ascertained for 177,000 years ago,
Asteroid laser ablation
Modern humans, or Homo sapiens, have existed for approximately 200,000 years. By comparison, the dinosaurs survived on Earth for over 100 million years before the Chixculub asteroid wiped them out. Despite the advancements in technology made by humans over the past hundred years there are still no viable defense mechanisms against an asteroid impact. Asteroids could still potentially pose a serious threat to every major city on earth and even to our whole species.
History of Africa
Around 1.8 million years ago, "Homo ergaster" first appeared in the fossil record in Africa. From "Homo ergaster", "Homo erectus" evolved 1.5 million years ago. Some of the earlier representatives of this species were still fairly small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like "H. habilis". The brain later grew in size, and "H. erectus" eventually developed a more complex stone tool technology called the Acheulean. Possibly the first hunters, "H. erectus" mastered the art of making fire and was the first hominid to leave Africa, colonizing most of Afro-Eurasia and perhaps later giving rise to "Homo floresiensis". Although some recent writers have suggested that "Homo georgicus" was the first and primary hominid ever to live outside Africa, many scientists consider "H. georgicus" to be an early and primitive member of the "H. erectus" species.
The fossil record shows "Homo sapiens" living in Southern and Eastern Africa at least 200,000 to 150,000 years ago. Around 40,000 years ago, the species' expansion out of Africa launched the colonization of the planet by modern human beings. By 10,000 BC, "Homo sapiens" had spread to most corners of Afro-Eurasia. Their disperals are traced by linguistic, cultural and genetic evidence. The earliest physical evidence of astronomical activity appears to be a lunar calendar found on the Ishango bone dated to between 23,000 and 18,000 BC.
Homo
"Homo erectus" appeared about two million years ago and, in several early migrations, it spread throughout Africa (where it is dubbed "Homo ergaster") and Eurasia. 
It was likely the first human species to live in a hunter-gatherer society and to control fire. 
An adaptive and successful species, "Homo erectus" persisted for more than a million years, and gradually diverged into new species by around 500,000 years ago.
Homo naledi
Francis Thackeray, of the University of the Witwatersrand, suggested that "H. naledi" lived 2 ± 0.5 million years ago, based on the skulls' similarities to "H. rudolfensis", "H. erectus," and "H. habilis," species that existed around 1.5, 2.5, and 1.8 million years ago, respectively. Early estimates derived from statistical analysis of cranial traits yielded a range of 2 million years to 912,000 years before present.
Late Cenozoic Ice Age
50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa. They began replacing other Hominins in Asia. They also began replacing Neanderthals in Europe. However some of the Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbred. Currently, persons of European descent are two to four percent Neanderthal. For the exception of this small amount of Neanderthal DNA that exists today, Neanderthals went extinct 30,000 years ago.
Early human migrations
"Homo sapiens" (anatomically modern humans) are assumed to have emerged about 300,000 years ago based on thermoluminescence dating of artefacts from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, published in 2017.
Previously, the Omo remains, excavated between 1967 and 1974 in Omo National Park, Ethiopia, and dated to 200,000 years ago, were long held to be the oldest known fossils of anatomically modern humans.
Middle Stone Age
The earliest remains of Homo sapiens date back to approximately 195 thousand years ago in eastern Africa. In the archaeological record of both eastern Africa and southern Africa, there is immense variability associated with Homo sapiens sites, and it is during this time that we see evidence of the origins of modern human behavior. According to McBrearty and Brooks, there are four features that are characteristic of modern human behavior: abstract thinking, the ability to plan and strategize, "behavioral, economic and technological innovativeness," and symbolic behavior. Many of these aspects of modern human behavior can be broken down into more specific categories, including art, personal adornment, technological advancement, yet these four overarching categories allow for a thorough, albeit significantly overlapping, discussion of behavioral modernity.
Homo
"H. sapiens" soon after its first emergence spread throughout Africa, and to Western Asia in several waves, possibly as early as 250 kya, and certainly by 130 kya.
Most notable is the Southern Dispersal of "H. sapiens" around 60 kya, which led to the lasting peopling of Oceania and Eurasia by anatomically modern humans. 
"H. sapiens" interbred with archaic humans both in Africa and in Eurasia, in Eurasia notably with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Among extant populations of "Homo sapiens", the deepest temporal division is found in the San people of Southern Africa, estimated at close to 130,000 years,
or possibly more than 300,000 years ago. 
Temporal division among non-Africans is of the order of 60,000 years in the case of Australo-Melanesians. 
Division of Europeans and East Asians is of the order of 50,000 years, with repeated and significant admixture events throughout Eurasia during the Holocene.
Australopithecus
"Australopithecus" species played a significant part in human evolution, the genus "Homo" being derived from "Australopithecus" at some time after three million years ago.
In addition, they were the first hominids to possess certain genes, known as the duplicated "SRGAP2", which increased the length and ability of neurons in the brain. One of the australopith species evolved into the genus "Homo" in Africa around two million years ago (e.g. "Homo habilis"), and eventually modern humans, "H. sapiens sapiens".
Human evolution
Nearly all modern non-African humans have 1% to 4% of their DNA derived from Neanderthal DNA, and this finding is consistent with recent studies indicating that the divergence of some human alleles dates to one Ma, although the interpretation of these studies has been questioned. Neanderthals and "Homo sapiens" could have co-existed in Europe for as long as 10,000 years, during which human populations exploded vastly outnumbering Neanderthals, possibly outcompeting them by sheer numerical strength.
Jeffrey Goodman
Goodman is the author of "American Genesis: The American Indian and the origins of modern man" (1981) in which he claims that homo sapiens originated in North America in California 500,000 years ago and then spread to the rest of the world. His views have been compared to the paleontologist Florentino Ameghino who believed that humanity had originated on the banks of Río de la Plata.
Archaic humans
A number of varieties of "Homo" are grouped into the broad category of archaic humans in the period contemporary to and predating the emergence of the earliest anatomically modern humans ("Homo sapiens") over 315 ka. The term typically includes "Homo neanderthalensis" (430+–25 ka), "Denisovans", "Homo rhodesiensis" (300–125 ka), "Homo heidelbergensis" (600–200 ka), and "Homo antecessor".
Per Enflo
Today, all humans belong to one population of "Homo sapiens sapiens", which is individed by species barrier. However, according to the "Out of Africa" model this is not the first species of hominids: the first species of genus "Homo", "Homo habilis", evolved in East Africa at least 2 Ma, and members of this species populated different parts of Africa in a relatively short time. "Homo erectus" evolved more than 1.8 Ma, and by 1.5 Ma had spread throughout the Old World.
Homo sapiens
The earliest "H. sapiens" (AMH) found in Europe are the "Cro-Magnon" (named after the site of first discovery in France), beginning about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. These are also known as "European early modern humans" in contrast to the preceding Neanderthals.
Prehistoric Asia
Between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago, "Homo sapiens" came to Southeast Asia by migrating from Africa, known as the "Out of Africa" model. "Homo sapiens" are believed to have migrated through the Middle East on their way out of Africa about 100,000 years ago. Near Nazareth, remains of skeletons, including a double grave of a mother and child, dating to about 93,000 years ago were found in a Jebel Qafzeh cave. Included among the remains was a skeleton of another species which was not "Homo sapiens"; it had a "distinct and undivided browridge that is continuous across the eye sockets" and other discrepancies.
Homo
The genus "Homo" was given its taxonomic name to suggest that its member species can be classified as human. And, over the decades of the 20th century, fossil finds of pre-human and early human species from late Miocene and early Pliocene times produced a rich mix for debating classifications. There is continuing debate on delineating "Homo" from "Australopithecus"—or, indeed, delineating "Homo" from "Pan", as one body of scientists argue that the two species of chimpanzee should be classed with genus "Homo" rather than "Pan". Even so, classifying the fossils of "Homo" coincides with evidences of: 1) competent human bipedalism in "Homo habilis" inherited from the earlier "Australopithecus" of more than four million years ago, (see Laetoli); and 2) human tool culture having begun by 2.5 million years ago.
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis (Latin: "Southern ape from Afar") is an extinct hominin that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago in Africa. "A. afarensis" was slenderly built, like the younger "Australopithecus africanus". "A. afarensis" is thought to be more closely related to the genus "Homo" (which includes the modern human species "Homo sapiens"), whether as a direct ancestor or a close relative of an unknown ancestor, than any other known primate from the same time. Some researchers include "A. afarensis" in the genus "Praeanthropus".
Homo erectus
"Homo erectus" is the most, or one of the most, long-lived species of "Homo", having existed well over one million years and perhaps over two million years;
by contrast, "Homo sapiens" emerged about a quarter million years ago.
If considering "Homo erectus" in its strict sense (that is, as referring to only the Asian variety) no consensus has been reached as to whether it is ancestral to "H. sapiens" or any later human species."Wushan Man" was proposed as "Homo erectus wushanensis", but is now thought to be based upon fossilized fragments of an extinct non-hominin ape.
Homo heidelbergensis
It is uncertain whether "H. heidelbergensis" is ancestral to "Homo sapiens", as a fossil gap in Africa between 400,000 and 260,000 years ago obscures the presumed derivation of "H. sapiens" from "H. rhodesiensis". 
Genetic analysis of the Sima de los Huesos fossils (Meyer et al. 2016) seems to suggest that "H. heidelbergensis" in its entirety should be included in the Neanderthal lineage, as "pre-Neanderthal" or "archaic Neanderthal" or "early Neanderthal", while the divergence time between the Neanderthal and modern lineages has been pushed back to before the emergence of "H. heidelbergensis", to about 600,000 to 800,000 years ago, the approximate time of disappearance of "Homo antecessor".
American anthropology
Chimpanzees ("Pan troglodytes" and "Pan paniscus") are humans' ("Homo sapiens") closest living relatives; both are descended from a common ancestor which lived around seven million years ago. Human evolution has been rapid with modern humans appearing about 340,000 years ago. During this time humanity evolved three distinctive features:
Evolution of human intelligence
Around 200,000 years ago, "Homo sapiens" first appeared in East Africa. It is unclear to what extent these early modern humans had developed language, music, religion etc. They spread throughout Africa over the following approximately 50,000 years.
One Million Years B.C.
Like the original film, this remake is largely ahistorical. It portrays dinosaurs and humans living at the same point in time; according to the geologic time scale, the last non-avian dinosaurs became extinct 66 million years ago, and modern humans, "Homo sapiens", did not exist until about 200,000 years BC. Ray Harryhausen, who animated all of the dinosaur attacks using stop motion techniques, commented on the US "King Kong" DVD that he did not make "One Million Years B.C." for "professors... who probably don't go to see these kinds of movies anyway."
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (, [Ḳitsur toldot ha-enoshut]) is a book by Yuval Noah Harari first published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011, and in English in 2014. The book surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on "Homo sapiens". The account is situated within a framework provided by the natural sciences, particularly evolutionary biology.
Homo heidelbergensis
Homo heidelbergensis is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans in the genus Homo, which radiated in the Middle Pleistocene from about 700,000 to 300,000 years ago),
known from fossils found in Southern Africa, East Africa and Europe. African "H. heidelbergensis" has several subspecies. The subspecies are "Homo heidelbergensis heidelbergensis, Homo heidelbergensis daliensis, Homo rhodesiensis," and "Homo heidelbergensis steinheimensi." The derivation of "Homo sapiens" from Homo rhodesiensis has often been proposed, but is obscured by a fossil gap from 400–260 kya. The species was originally named "Homo heidelbergensis" due to the skeleton's first discovery in Heidelberg, Germany.
Prehistoric technology
"Homo sapiens", the only living species in the genus "Homo", originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. As compared to their predecessors, "Homo sapiens" had greater mental capability and ability to walk erect, which provided freed hands for manipulating objects and far greater use of tools. There was art created during this period. Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods, may be one of the earliest detectable forms of religious practice since it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life." The earliest undisputed human burial so far dates back 130,000 years. Human skeletal remains stained with red ochre were discovered in the Skhul cave at Qafzeh, Israel with a variety of grave goods.
Creation–evolution controversy
Fossil evidence suggests that humans' earliest hominid ancestors may have split from other primates as early as the late Oligocene, circa 26 to 24 Ma, and that by the early Miocene, the adaptive radiation of many different hominoid forms was well underway. Evidence from the molecular dating of genetic differences indicates that the gibbon lineage (family Hylobatidae) diverged between 18 and 12 Ma, and the orangutan lineage (subfamily Ponginae) diverged about 12 Ma. While there is no fossil evidence thus far clearly documenting the early ancestry of gibbons, fossil proto-orangutans may be represented by "Sivapithecus" from India and "Griphopithecus" from Turkey, dated to around 10 Ma. Molecular evidence further suggests that between 8 and 4 Ma, first the gorillas, and then the chimpanzee (genus "Pan") split from the line leading to the humans. We have no fossil record of this divergence, but distinctively hominid fossils have been found dating to 3.2 Ma (see Lucy) and possibly even earlier, at 6 or 7 Ma (see Toumaï). Comparisons of DNA show that 99.4 percent of the coding regions are identical in chimpanzees and humans (95–96% overall), which is taken as strong evidence of recent common ancestry. Today, only one distinct human species survives, but many earlier species have been found in the fossil record, including "Homo erectus", "Homo habilis", and "Homo neanderthalensis".
Paleogenetics
Using the thigh bone of a Neanderthal female, 63% of the Neanderthal genome was uncovered and 3.7 billion bases of DNA were decoded. It showed that "Homo neanderthalensis" was the closest living relative of "Homo sapiens," until the former lineage died out 30,000 years ago. The Neanderthal genome was shown to be within the range of variation of those of anatomically modern humans, although at the far periphery of that range of variation. Paleogenetic analysis also suggests that Neanderthals shared more DNA with chimpanzees than "homo sapiens". It was also found that Neanderthals were less genetically diverse than modern humans are, which indicates that "Homo neanderthalensis" grew from a group composed of relatively few individuals. DNA sequences suggest that "Homo sapiens" first appeared between about 130,000 and 250,000 years ago in Africa.
Middle Awash Project
These earliest known "Homo sapiens" were discovered in 1997 at Herto Bouri by Tim White.  It is dated to 0.16 Ma (160,000 years). It was first announced as a subspecies ""idaltu"" in 2003, but is often called “Herto Man.” The skull of Herto Man has features too archaic to be "Homo sapiens", but is considered a direct ancestor of today’s humans.
Human evolution
The earliest documented representative of the genus "Homo" is "Homo habilis", which evolved around , and is arguably the earliest species for which there is positive evidence of the use of stone tools. The brains of these early hominins were about the same size as that of a chimpanzee, although it has been suggested that this was the time in which the human SRGAP2 gene doubled, producing a more rapid wiring of the frontal cortex. During the next million years a process of rapid encephalization occurred, and with the arrival of "Homo erectus" and "Homo ergaster" in the fossil record, cranial capacity had doubled to 850 cm. (Such an increase in human brain size is equivalent to each generation having 125,000 more neurons than their parents.) It is believed that "Homo erectus" and "Homo ergaster" were the first to use fire and complex tools, and were the first of the hominin line to leave Africa, spreading throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe between .
According to the recent African origin of modern humans theory, modern humans evolved in Africa possibly from "Homo heidelbergensis", "Homo rhodesiensis" or "Homo antecessor" and migrated out of the continent some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, gradually replacing local populations of "Homo erectus", Denisova hominins, "Homo floresiensis" and "Homo neanderthalensis". Archaic "Homo sapiens", the forerunner of anatomically modern humans, evolved in the Middle Paleolithic between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago. Recent DNA evidence suggests that several haplotypes of Neanderthal origin are present among all non-African populations, and Neanderthals and other hominins, such as Denisovans, may have contributed up to 6% of their genome to present-day humans, suggestive of a limited inter-breeding between these species. The transition to behavioral modernity with the development of symbolic culture, language, and specialized lithic technology happened around 50,000 years ago according to some anthropologists although others point to evidence that suggests that a gradual change in behavior took place over a longer time span.
Mauer 1
However, there is agreement among all paleo-anthropologists that the lower jaw of Mauer does not belong to the immediate ancestral line of modern man. He is regarded rather as a descendant of an early migration to Europe and Asia (depending on the terminology - of "Homo erectus" or "Homo heidelbergensis"), whose oldest fossils outside of Africa are about 1.8 million years old. The last descendant of this first migration to Europe was Neanderthal, who became extinct about 30,000 years ago. Members of the species "Homo sapiens" arrived in Europe only in a second migratory wave of the genus "Homo" at around 40,000 to 30,000 years ago, whose descendants include modern man.
Homo sapiens
The subspecies name "H. sapiens sapiens" is sometimes used informally instead of "modern humans" or "anatomically modern humans". It has no formal authority associated with it.
By the early 2000s, it had become common to use "H. s. sapiens" for the ancestral population of all contemporary humans, and as such it is equivalent to the binomial "H. sapiens" in the more restrictive sense (considering "H. neanderthalensis" a separate species).
Jebel Irhoud
Hublin and his team also attempted to obtain a DNA sample from these fossils, but these attempts were unsuccessful. Genomic analysis would have provided necessary evidence supporting the conclusion that these fossils are representative of the main lineage leading up to modern humanity, and that "Homo sapiens" had dispersed and developed all across Africa. Because of the unclear boundaries between different species of the "Homo" genus, and the lack of genomic evidence from these fossils, some doubt the classification of these fossils as "Homo sapiens". Questions remain over the classification of these fossils.
Homo sapiens
The term Middle Paleolithic is intended to cover the time between the first emergence of "H. sapiens" (roughly 300,000 years ago) and the emergence of full behavioral modernity (roughly 50,000 years ago).
Names for the human species
The binomial name "Homo sapiens" was coined by Carl Linnaeus (1758).
Names for other human species were introduced beginning in the second half of the 19th century ("Homo neanderthalensis" 1864, "Homo erectus" 1892).
Homo sapiens
The time of divergence between archaic "H. sapiens" and ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans caused by a genetic bottleneck of the latter was dated at 744,000 years ago, combined with repeated early admixture events and Denisovans diverging from Neanderthals 300 generations after their split from "H. sapiens", as calculated by Rogers et al. (2017).
Homo naledi
Homo naledi is an extinct species of hominin, which anthropologists first described in September 2015 and have assigned to the genus "Homo". In 2013, fossil skeletons were found in the Gauteng province of South Africa, in a chamber of the Rising Star Cave system, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site about northwest of Johannesburg. Although archaic features of its skeleton resembled fossil specimens roughly two million years old, in 2017 the fossils were dated close to 250,000 years ago, and thus contemporary with the first appearance of larger-brained anatomically modern humans.
The research team therefore thinks that "H. naledi" is not a direct ancestor of modern humans, but probably an offshoot within the genus "Homo".
Homo sapiens
The term "anatomically modern humans" (AMH) is used with varying scope depending on context, to distinguish "anatomically modern" "Homo sapiens" from 
archaic humans such as Neanderthals and Middle and Lower Paleolithic hominins with transitional features intermediate between "H. erectus", Neanderthals and early AMH called "archaic Homo Sapiens".
In a convention popular in the 1990s, Neanderthals were classified as a subspecies of "H. sapiens", as "H. s. neanderthalensis", while AMH (or European early modern humans, EEMH) was taken to refer to "Cro-Magnon" or "H. s. sapiens".
Under this nomenclature (Neanderthals considered "H. sapiens"), the term "anatomically modern "Homo sapiens"" (AMHS) has also been used to refer to EEMH ("Cro-Magnons"). 
It has since become more common to designate Neanderthals as a separate species, "H. neanderthalensis", so that AMH in the European context refers to "H. sapiens" (but the question is by no means resolved).
Homo habilis
Homo habilis is a proposed archaic species of "Homo", which lived between roughly 2.1 and 1.5 million years ago, during the Gelasian and early Calabrian stages of the Pleistocene geological epoch.
The type specimen is OH 7, discovered in 1960 at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, associated with the Oldowan lithic industry; the fossils were identified as a separate species of "Homo" with the proposed binomial name of "H. habilis" ("handy man") in 1964.
In its appearance and morphology, "H. habilis" is intermediate between "Australopithecus" and the somewhat younger "Homo erectus" and its classification in the "Homo" genus has been the subject of controversial debate since its original proposal.
A main argument for its classification as the first "Homo" ("human") species was its use of flaked stone tools. 
However, evidence for earlier tool use (3.39 million years ago) by undisputed members of "Australopithecus" has been found in the 1990s.
Proto-Human language
It is uncertain or disputed whether the earliest members of "Homo sapiens" had fully developed language. Some scholars link the emergence of language proper (out of a proto-linguistic stage that may have lasted considerably longer) to the development of behavioral modernity towards the end of the Middle Paleolithic or at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, roughly 50,000 years ago. 
Thus, in the opinion of Richard Klein, the ability to produce complex speech only developed some 50,000 years ago (with the appearance of modern humans or Cro-Magnons).
Johanna Nichols (1998) argued that vocal languages must have begun diversifying in our species at least 100,000 years ago.
In a 2012 study, an estimate on the time of the first emergence of human language was based on 
phonemic diversity. This is based on the assumption that phonemic diversity evolves much more slowly than grammar or vocabulary, slowly increasing over time (but reduced among small founding populations).
African languages today have some of the largest phonemic inventories in the world, while the smallest inventories are found in South America and Oceania, some of the last regions of the globe to be colonized.
The authors used data from the colonization of Southeast Asia to estimate the rate of increase in phonemic diversity.
Applying this rate to African languages, they arrived at an estimated age of 350,000 to 150,000 years ago, compatible with the emergence and early dispersal of "H. sapiens".
The validity of this approach has been criticized as flawed.
Human evolutionary genetics
"H. sapiens" is thought to have emerged about 300,000 years ago. It dispersed throughout Africa, and after 70,000 years ago throughout Eurasia and Oceania.
A 2009 study identified 14 "ancestral population clusters", the most remote being the San people of Southern Africa.
Homo ergaster
Homo ergaster , also Homo erectus ergaster or African "Homo erectus" is an extinct chronospecies of the genus "Homo" that lived in eastern and southern Africa during the early Pleistocene, between about 1.9 million and 1.4 million years ago.
Muscular evolution in humans
DNA and anthropologic data consider modern humans ("Homo sapiens sapiens") a primate and the descendants of ape-like species. Species of the genus ‘Homo’ are all extinct except humans, which are thought to have evolved from australopithecine ancestors originating in East Africa. The development of the modern human has taken place over some 300,000 years and unique adaptations have resulted from ecological pressures that "Homo Sapiens" has faced. Due prominently to ecological and behavioral factors, the modern human muscular system differs greatly from that of our early primate ancestors. These adaptations and changes have allowed "Homo sapiens" to function as they do today.
Paleoanthropology
In 1758 Carl Linnaeus introduced the name "Homo sapiens" as a species name in the 10th edition of his work "Systema Naturae" although without a scientific description of the species-specific characteristics. Since the great apes were considered the closest relatives of human beings, based on morphological similarity, in the 19th century, it was speculated that the closest living relatives to humans were chimpanzees (genus "Pan") and gorilla (genus "Gorilla"), and based on the natural range of these creatures, it was surmised that humans shared a common ancestor with African apes and that fossils of these ancestors would ultimately be found in Africa.
Evolutionary psychology
Humans, comprising the genus "Homo", appeared between 1.5 and 2.5 million years ago, a time that roughly coincides with the start of the Pleistocene 2.6 million years ago. Because the Pleistocene ended a mere 12,000 years ago, most human adaptations either newly evolved during the Pleistocene, or were maintained by stabilizing selection during the Pleistocene. Evolutionary psychology therefore proposes that the majority of human psychological mechanisms are adapted to reproductive problems frequently encountered in Pleistocene environments. In broad terms, these problems include those of growth, development, differentiation, maintenance, mating, parenting, and social relationships.
Semantic primes
It may not be surprising that all humans today possess a common language core of semantic primes and a more or less universal syntax since there is substantial evidence that all humans today descended from a common speech-enabled male and female "Homo sapiens" ancestor. Linguist Johanna Nichols traces "Homo sapiens" language origin as far back as 130,000 years ago, perhaps only 65,000 years after the earliest "Homo sapiens" fossil finds (Adler, 2000). Philosopher G. J. Whitrow expresses it:
Pleistocene
The evolution of anatomically modern humans took place during the Pleistocene. In the beginning of the Pleistocene "Paranthropus" species were still present, as well as early human ancestors, but during the lower Palaeolithic they disappeared, and the only hominin species found in fossilic records is "Homo erectus" for much of the Pleistocene. Acheulean lithics appear along with "Homo erectus", some 1.8 million years ago, replacing the more primitive Oldowan industry used by "A. garhi" and by the earliest species of "Homo".
The Middle Paleolithic saw more varied speciation within "Homo", including the appearance of "Homo sapiens" about 200,000 years ago.
Paleolithic
Both "Homo erectus" and "Homo neanderthalensis" became extinct by the end of the Paleolithic. Descended from "Homo Sapiens", the anatomically modern "Homo sapiens sapiens" emerged in eastern Africa  BP, left Africa around 50,000 BP, and expanded throughout the planet. Multiple hominid groups coexisted for some time in certain locations. " Homo neanderthalensis" were still found in parts of Eurasia  BP years, and engaged in an unknown degree of interbreeding with "Homo sapiens sapiens". DNA studies also suggest an unknown degree of interbreeding between "Homo sapiens sapiens" and "Homo sapiens denisova".
Homo sapiens
The age of speciation of "H. sapiens" out of ancestral "H. erectus" (or an intermediate species such as "Homo antecessor") is estimated to have been roughly 350,000 years ago. Sustained archaic admixture is known to have taken place both in Africa and (following the recent Out-Of-Africa expansion) in Eurasia, between about 100,000 and 30,000 years ago.
Pleistocene human diet
Recents estimates of the last common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees are around 12 million years ago. After this split the first bipedal hominins appeared around 4 million years ago in the genus "Australopithecus".The first appearance of genus "Homo" takes place around 2.8 million years ago with "Homo habilis", followed by "Homo erectus" at around 1.8 million years ago, "Homo neanderthalensis" by 400,000 years ago and finally the first appearance of "Homo sapiens" by 200,000 years ago. In each new species of hominin, particularly genus "Homo" there is a general trend of increasing brain size and decreasing dentition, these patterns are inextricably linked with an evolving diet.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia is also considered one of the earliest sites of the emergence of anatomically modern humans, "Homo sapiens". The oldest of these local fossil finds, the Omo remains, were excavated in the southwestern Omo Kibish area and have been dated to the Middle Paleolithic, around 200,000 years ago. Additionally, skeletons of "Homo sapiens idaltu" were found at a site in the Middle Awash valley. Dated to approximately 160,000 years ago, they may represent an extinct subspecies of "Homo sapiens", or the immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans. "Homo sapiens" fossils excavated at the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco have since been dated to an earlier period, about 300,000 years ago.
Human evolution
"H. floresiensis", which lived from approximately 190,000 to 50,000 years before present (BP), has been nicknamed "hobbit" for its small size, possibly a result of insular dwarfism. "H. floresiensis" is intriguing both for its size and its age, being an example of a recent species of the genus "Homo" that exhibits derived traits not shared with modern humans. In other words, "H. floresiensis" shares a common ancestor with modern humans, but split from the modern human lineage and followed a distinct evolutionary path. The main find was a skeleton believed to be a woman of about 30 years of age. Found in 2003, it has been dated to approximately 18,000 years old. The living woman was estimated to be one meter in height, with a brain volume of just 380 cm (considered small for a chimpanzee and less than a third of the "H. sapiens" average of 1400 cm).
Human evolution
Within the Hominoidea (apes) superfamily, the Hominidae family diverged from the Hylobatidae (gibbon) family some 15–20 million years ago; African great apes (subfamily Homininae) diverged from orangutans (Ponginae) about ; the Hominini tribe (humans, "Australopithecines" and other extinct biped genera, and chimpanzee) parted from the Gorillini tribe (gorillas) between 8–9 million years ago; and, in turn, the subtribes Hominina (humans and biped ancestors) and Panina (chimps) separated 4–7.5 million years ago.
Prehistoric technology
"Homo erectus" ("upright man") lived about in West Asia and Africa and is thought to be the first hominid to hunt in coordinated groups, use complex tools, and care for infirm or weaker companions. "Homo antecessor" the earliest hominid in Northern Europe lived from 1.2 million to 800,000 years ago and used stone tools. "Homo heidelbergensis" lived between 600,000 and 400,000 years ago and used stone tool technology similar the Acheulean tools used by "Homo erectus".
Homo sapiens
An alternative suggestion defines "H. sapiens" cladistically as including the lineage of modern humans since the split from the lineage of Neanderthals, roughly 500,000 to 800,000 years ago.
Human evolution
"H. heidelbergensis" ("Heidelberg Man") lived from about 800,000 to about 300,000 years ago. Also proposed as "Homo sapiens heidelbergensis" or "Homo sapiens paleohungaricus"."Homo neanderthalensis", alternatively designated as "Homo sapiens neanderthalensis", lived in Europe and Asia from 400,000 to about 28,000 years ago.
There are a number of clear anatomical differences between anatomically modern humans (AMH) and Neanderthal populations. Many of these relate to the superior adaptation to cold environments possessed by the Neanderthal populations. Their surface to volume ratio is an extreme version of that found amongst Inuit populations, indicating that they were less inclined to lose body heat than were AMH. From brain Endocasts, Neanderthals also had significantly larger brains. This would seem to indicate that the intellectual superiority of AMH populations may be questionable. More recent research by Eiluned Pearce, Chris Stringer, R.I.M. Dunbar, however, have shown important differences in Brain architecture. For example, in both the orbital chamber size and in the size of the occipital lobe, the larger size suggests that the Neanderthal had a better visual acuity than modern humans. This would give a superior vision in the inferior light conditions found in Glacial Europe. It also seems that the higher body mass of Neanderthals had a correspondingly larger brain mass required for body care and control.