Humans have lived tens of millions of years since the beginning of evolution.
Today, there are only Homo sapiens left on the planet, and regardless of their skin color, of course modern humans’ genes are surprisingly consistent. This means both good and bad.
Scientifically, relatively few genes help scientists develop new drugs for human use. But human genetic diversity is still being tested today.
Due to the high degree of genetic similarity, the difference between different races is about 2%. This makes the human resistance to disease relatively weak, so once an epidemic breaks out on a large scale, it often leads to a large number of people getting sick.
However, there were at least 6 human species on earth 100,000 years ago, but why are we the only ones left? In other words, why is there only one species of Homo sapiens in the Hominin family today?
5 human races
In fact, there are very complicating factors in this, because the reduction of humanity is not just one-sided. As the only intelligent being on earth, man may have basic productive capacity. This makes us different from animals. Humans rely on their hands to create and change their surroundings.
During this long process, humanity has undergone changes not only from environmental pressures, but also from interracial struggles.
There are also other potential factors intertwined in human evolutionary history.
So, while discussing this, we cannot ignore the changes in the capabilities of Homo sapiens themselves, as well as the changes that the environment brings to humans.
Human family, humans are really one giant family
From the perspective of human evolutionary history, Homo sapiens appeared 300,000 years ago. In contrast, the hominid clade evolved into a species of the genus Homo about 6 million years ago. Early humans abandoned the long arms of apes for stronger legs.
The fact that primates went from the trees to the ground is a huge evolution. This gives people access to a wider world of behavioral patterns and ranges of activities.
And vertical walking can help people go further, eventually leaving caves and forests and into plains.
About 2.4 million years ago, Homo sapiens appeared, many researchers believe to be the first member of the genus Homo to evolve from apes.
Humans in this period were still relatively thin and small, weighing about 35 kg, most of whom were no more than 1.2 meters tall. The most important point, of course, is that the most rudimentary tools were hand-made by Homo sapiens. These tools helped early humans slaughter animals, as well as craft some relatively more sophisticated items.
This type of life lasted 1 million years, after which Homo erectus appeared. Compared to the stature of apes, Homo erectus had shorter arms, longer and stronger legs, suitable for walking and running for long periods of time.
The evolution of Homo erectus also showed in the set of teeth – relatively fine teeth that help Homo erectus eat meat and digest protein quickly. This was more effective at boosting the body’s energy supply, so Homo erectus had a larger brain than the average apes in this respect.
During further excavations, scientists also discovered that Homo erectus was the first human species to learn how to make campfires. This suggests that people in this period learned to cook, and eating cooked food allowed people to get more easily digestible food.
In this way, the brain receives more nutrients.
Homo erectus survived almost nine times as long as modern Homo sapiens ruled the earth.
From an evolutionary perspective, the appearance of Homo erectus marked the evolution of humanity towards more efficiency and excellence. Since then, a large number of human races began to appear all over the earth, and the arrival of Homo erectus enhanced human activity that allowed our ancestors to travel further.
Madame Rudolph, the Heidelbergers, and the Frosians were all peoples who once lived on Earth. However, compared to these races, their living conditions are much worse than that of other races.
The closure of the environment is a major factor. During this period, the earth underwent tectonic plate changes, which divided many human species. The human evolutionary timeline is 400,000 years ago, and the Neanderthals appeared. This may have been the strongest race before the development of Homo sapiens.
Neanderthals were stronger, and fossil bones unearthed suggest that Neanderthals hunted for a long time. Geographical distribution is mainly in the cold regions of Europe, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, so in terms of cold tolerance, Neanderthals have a stronger ability to adapt to the environment.
In addition, archaeologists have found that Neanderthals were able to use more sophisticated tools and live in elaborate shelters. For example, they may sew clothes with needles made of bones to help them cope with the cold.
Scientists believe that at least six species of humans lived on earth 100,000 years ago, and that Neanderthals did not gradually disappear from human evolutionary history until about 28,000 years ago.
So what factors influenced the evolutionary change of our ancestors, leaving only Homo sapiens in the end?
The existence of Homo sapiens is inseparable from the creation of the time, and this is not only reflected in the better intelligence of Homo sapiens.
Paleontologists, when studying the history of human formation and development, believe that Homo sapiens is different from other species in that only Homo sapiens created a nation, religion and language.
In the activities of Homo sapiens, perhaps no other species is as “aggressive” as Homo sapiens.
In the geological period from the Pleistocene (about 2.5 million years) to 10,000 years ago, the integration of humans was an issue that could not be ignored.
Scientists have found in genetic studies of modern Homo sapiens that modern Homo sapiens carry Neanderthal genes in their genetic makeup. Interbreeding suggests that the encounter between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens was not accidental.
The mating of Homo sapiens in Eurasia and Africa is clearly evidence of an increase in the range of Homo sapiens. Researchers believe the reason why modern Homo sapiens have Neanderthal genes in their genes:
It may have been the result of human activities that split off from Africa 20,000 years after modern humans interbred with Neanderthals in Europe and Asia.
Interbreeding between humans may have provided an additional evolutionary advantage for species.
Homo sapiens lived in more groups than Neanderthals, in other words the Homo sapiens race was larger.
This reduces population decline due to inbreeding, better overall health of the population.
In the course of further evolutionary competition, the evolved brains of Homo sapiens provided more competitive advantages.
Studies have shown that Neanderthals, despite having a larger brain size than Homo sapiens, were less intelligent than Homo sapiens.
Good governance helped our ancestors create more sophisticated weapons, such as spear throwing.
In contrast, Homo erectus could use tools, and hand axes have been used for more than a million years, but they are nothing like the weapons of Homo sapiens.
Finally, in the race of species, Homo erectus disappeared 30,000 years ago.
Darts, arrows, spears thrown were all combat advantages that Homo sapiens possessed that Neanderthals did not have.
Homo sapiens is believed to be a descendant of Homo erectus, which lived in Africa
The departure of Homo sapiens from Africa was an important turning point, and strong creativity and viability gave Homo sapiens more racial advantages.
It also accelerated the sixth mass extinction, which is still happening today.
The migration of Homo sapiens, uncontrolled hunting, and the development of agriculture… led to population growth.
With further population growth came the need for resources that forced Homo sapiens to go out and fight other species.
And after the initial formation of civilization, changes in language and social structure made Homo sapiens more competitive.
In the two hypotheses about Homo sapiens civilization (cultural intelligence and social brain), Homo sapiens could not have achieved today’s achievements without creating civilization and building society.
This has never been shown in other races, and the development of intelligence further optimized the structure of the Homo sapiens race and helped Homo sapiens win the races later. .
Among them is not to mention the changes of the environment, it was the ice age that caused many human races to disappear.
Only Homo erectus, Neanderthal, Homo sapiens, etc. can survive effectively during this period. But Homo sapiens has more population and richer resources.
In the end, in the game of evolution and elimination, Homo sapiens won the final victory, the other races were brutally wiped out, and finally became a remnant of history.
In just tens of thousands of years, human civilization has reached the present day, and Homo sapiens once again faces a new challenge.
