Evolution Of The Hominids
Who the ancestors of early humans were and when and where tools were first made are much debated questions in scholarly circles. According to the theory of evolution, a crucial development occurred when the ape family became differentiated into the tree-dwelling apes and the ground-dwelling types known as hominids ("pre-humans" or "protohumans"). The remains of Australopithecines ("Southern Apes"), the earliest known hominids, were first discovered in South Africa in 1924. Autralopithecus had an erect posture but an apelike brain.
Since World War II, and especially during the 1970s, our knowledge of the hominids and their relation to the genus Homo ("man") has been rapidly growing. The dominant present view is that Australopithecus was succeded by three species of the genus Homo: Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens. (A genus contains one or more species. The genus name is capitalized and precedes the species name, which is not capitalized.)
Three major sites in East Africa have produced a remarkable collection of Australopithecine fossils. Between 1972 and 1977, an expedition led by C.D.
Johanson worked at Hadar in Ethiopia. The Hadar collection comprises at least thirty-five individuals, with one female skeleton - named Lucy after the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - nearly 40 percent complete and between 3.0 and 3.5 million years ago.
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