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First primitive primates evolve
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First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge
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Orrorin tugenensis, oldest human ancestor thought to have walked on two legs
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Ardipithecus, early “proto-human” shares traits with chimps and gorillas, and is forest-dwelling
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Australopithecines appear. They have brains no larger than a chimpanzee’s – with a volume around 400 – 500 cm3 -, but walk upright on two legs. First human ancestors to live on the savannah
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Lucy, famous specimen of Australopithecus afarensis, lives near what is now Hadar, Ethiopia
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Paranthropus, lives in woods and grasslands, has massive jaws for chewing on roots and vegetation. Becomes extinct 1.2 MYA
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Homo habilis appears. Its face protrudes less than earlier hominids, but still retains many ape features. Has a brain volume of around 600 cm3. Hominids start to use stone tools regularly, created by splitting pebbles – this starts Oldowan tradition of toolmaking, which last a million years. Some hominids develop meat-rich diets as scavengers, the extra energy may have favoured the evolution of larger brains
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Evidence of Homo ergaster, with a brain volume of up to 850 cm3, in Africa
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Homo erectus is found in Asia. First true hunter-gatherer ancestor, and also first to have migrated out of Africa in large numbers. It attains a brain size of around 1000 cm3
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Possible first sporadic use of fire suggested by discoloured sediments in Koobi Fora, Kenya. More convincing evidence of charred wood and stone tools is found in Israel and dated to 780,000 years ago More complex Acheulean stone tools start to be produced and are the dominant technology until 100,000 years ago 600,000 YA
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Homo Heidelbergensis lives in Africa and Europe. Similar brain capacity to modern human
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Earliest evidence of purpose-built shelters – wooden huts – are known from sites near Chichibu, Japan
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Early humans begin to hunt with spears
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Oldest surviving early human footprints are left by three people who scrambled down the slopes of a volcano in Italy
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First complex stone blades and grinding stones
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Neanderthals appear and are found across Europe, from Britain in the west to Iran in the east, until they become extinct with the advent of modern humans 28,000 years ago
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Our own species Homo sapiens appears on the scene – and shortly after begins to migrate across Asia and Europe. Oldest modern human remains are two skulls found in Ethiopia that date to this period. Average human brain volume is 1350 cm3
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Mitochondrial Eve, the direct ancestor to all living people today, may have been living in Africa
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Humans possibly capable of speech. 100,000-year-old shell jewellery suggests that that people develop complex speech and symbolism
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First evidence of long-distance trade
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Earliest beads – made from ostrich eggshells – and jewellery
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“Great leap forward”: human culture starts to change much more rapidly than before; people begin burying their dead ritually; create clothes from animal hides; and develop complex hunting techniques, such as pit-traps.
