What do you know about Homosapien ?

Throughout there was a tendency for new hominin species to acquire ever larger brains. H. heidelbergensis, for example, had a brain about two-thirds the size of H. sapiens, while those of the Neanderthals were in some cases larger than the H. sapiens average

This increase must have come at a cost, because brain tissue expends significant amounts of energy. There must have been benefits of a larger brain, but what those benefits were can only be guessed; quantifying human intelligence is problematic even among living humans, let alone extinct ones.

H. sapiens is thought to have evolved in Africa. The oldest known remains thought to be H. sapiens, found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, were unearthed in the first decade of the 2000s.

This collection of specimens was made up of skull fragments, a complete jawbone, and stone tools, all of which date to about 315 kya, which may suggest that the species was widely dispersed throughout Africa by that time.

The second oldest remains date to approximately 200 kya in East Africa. This estimate is shaped by the discovery in 1967 of the oldest remains attributed to H. sapiens, in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley.

The remains, made up of two skulls (Omo 1 and Omo 2), were initially dated to 130 kya, but through the application of more-sophisticated dating techniques in 2005 the remains have been more accurately dated to 195 kya. H. sapiens spread later to all continents, arriving in southern China between 120 kya and 80 kya, reaching Australia between 65 kya and 50 kya, and entering Europe about 45–43 kya.

Most evidence points to H. sapiens migrating to the Americas about 14–13.3 kya; however, some evidence suggests that this migration may have taken place up to 15,000 years earlier. H. sapiens have maintained a presence in Antarctica only since the 19th century.

The story of hominin evolution is one of increasing behavioral complexity, but, because behaviour does not leave direct fossil evidence, clues must be sought in other sources.

The most obvious candidates are in the archaeological record, which has traditionally begun with the appearance of Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) tools about 2.5 mya.

however, that date is complicated by the discovery of tools in 2015 that date back to 3.3 mya. Early tools were simple indeed: stone flakes a few centimetres long that were chipped off of one small cobble by a blow from another.

But, for all their simplicity, they marked a major advance in lifestyle: for the first time, the carcasses of dead animals could be dismembered quickly, and favoured parts could be taken for consumption to safer places, where blows from hammerstones allowed the extraction of nutritious marrow from bones.

These tools also signify a cognitive advance in hominins; even with intensive training, no ape has yet mastered the notion of hitting one rock with another at precisely the angle needed to detach a sharp flake.

Furthermore, the early toolmakers had the ability to anticipate their needs, since they often carried suitable rocks long distances before making them into tools.

The history of stone toolmaking ushers in a pattern seen throughout the paleoanthropological record until the emergence of behaviorally modern H. sapiens: in general, technological innovations have been sporadic and rare.

Moreover, behavioral novelties have tended not to coincide with the appearance of new species. For almost a million years following the introduction of stone tools, the methods used for making them remained largely unchanged. It is only after about 1.8 mya, in Africa (well after the appearance of Homo ergaster), that a larger type of tool is introduced: the hand ax.

Shaped carefully on both sides to a standard and symmetrical form, it was usually teardrop- or egg-shaped. It is the characteristic tool of the Acheulean industry. Although the notion has been contested, it does seem fairly clear that these implements bear witness to another cognitive advance: the existence in the toolmaker’s mind of a standard “mental template” to which the tools were made.

Hand axes were manufactured in Africa by the thousands—sometimes at apparent workshops—until quite recent times. Stone tools of this kind have always been rare in eastern Asia. It is only at about 300–400 kya that another major technological (and possibly cognitive) advance is found.

This is the “prepared-core” tool, whereby a stone core was elaborately shaped until a single blow, perhaps with a hammer made of a “soft” material such as bone, would detach a virtually finished tool with a continuous cutting surface around its periphery.

The great masters of this technique (see also Mousterian industry) were the Neanderthals, whose possession of language has long been debated. Regardless, it has been demonstrated (in studies with people) that language is not required for the transmission of the skills needed to make tools of this kind.

The stone tool record is well-preserved, but it is only an indirect reflection of overall lifestyle and cognitive capacities. It is still unknown, for example, whether the earliest tool users hunted extensively or merely scavenged animal remains. It is likely that, if they hunted, it was for small prey.

Most authorities had guessed that efficient ambush hunting was an invention of H. sapiens, but 400,000-year-old wooden throwing spears found in 1995 at Schöningen, Germany, may suggest otherwise.

Unlike thrusting spears, which must be used at close range and with considerable risk, these 2-metre (6.6-foot) javelin-like weapons have their weight concentrated at the front and therefore could have been hurled from a safe distance.

The age of the location at which these spears were found puts them within the period of H. heidelbergensis.

Also at 400 kya there is the first convincing evidence of two other innovations: the domestication of fire in hearths and the construction of artificial shelters. At Terra Amata in southern France, traces of large huts have been found.

The huts were formed by embedding saplings into the ground in an oval and then bringing their tops together at the centre. Stones placed in a ring around the hut braced the saplings. Some of these huts were found to contain hearths scooped in the ground and lined with burned stones and blackened bones.