Australopithecines were early hominids.

Two general types are recognized, those with lighter (gracile) bone structure, assigned to the
genus Australopithecus, and those with a sturdier (robust) build, assigned to the genus
Paranthropus (the members of Paranthropus are sometimes treated as also belonging
Australopithecus). Known fossils attributed to these forms range from about 1.2 to 4.2 million
years in age. Most experts say the members of Ardipithecus and Kenyanthropus are also
australopithecines. If this latter view is correct, then the earliest known fossils belonging to
creatures of this type would date to 5.8 mya (Ardipithecus kadabba).

Although australopithecine — a name coined by Raymond Dart who discovered the first
specimen (the Taung Child) — means southern ape, these creatures were not simply apes
because they were bipedal. Their arms were also shorter in proportion to their height than are
those of an ape (but not so short as are a human's)

The robust forms had larger teeth and a stouter skull structure than gracile types. In general, the
features that distinguish the robust skull are associated with a strong chewing apparatus — larger
teeth, a heavier jaw, and a sagittal crest allowing a large attachment surface for the jaw muscles.
With respect to these features, the robust forms tended toward the morphology of modern
gorillas.

There is some doubt as to whether these creatures are actually ancestral to modern humans since
Homo habilis and Homo erectus, which are both generally accepted as human ancestors,
coexisted with them for more than a million years (see human evolution timeline). That is,
instead of being our ancestors, australopithecines might have merely been close relatives of the
forms that gave rise to modern humans.

An additional fly in the ointment has been the recent discovery of Australopithecus sediba,
which existed much more recently than any other member of the genus Australopithecus
previously known. Perhaps these creatures were merely a sideline that existed for millions of
years and then went extinct.

Homo Erectus
Homo erectus

Where Lived: Northern, Eastern, and Southern Africa; Western Asia (Dmanisi, Republic of
Georgia); East Asia (China and Indonesia)
When Lived: Between about 1.89 million and 143,000 years ago

Early African Homo erectus fossils (sometimes called Homo ergaster) are the oldest
known early humans to have possessed modern human-like body proportions with relatively
elongated legs and shorter arms compared to the size of the torso. These features are considered
adaptations to a life lived on the ground, indicating the loss of earlier tree-climbing adaptations,
with the ability to walk and possibly run long distances. Compared with earlier fossil humans,
note the expanded braincase relative to the size of the face. The most complete fossil individual
of this species is known as the ‘Turkana Boy’ – a well-preserved skeleton (though minus almost
all the hand and foot bones), dated around 1.6 million years old. Microscopic study of the teeth
indicates that he grew up at a growth rate similar to that of a great ape. There is fossil evidence
that this species cared for old and weak individuals. The appearance of Homo erectus in the
fossil record is often associated with the earliest handaxes, the first major innovation in stone
tool technology.

Early fossil discoveries from Java (beginning in the 1890s) and China (‘Peking Man’, beginning
in the 1920s) comprise the classic examples of this species. Generally considered to have been
the first species to have expanded beyond Africa, Homo erectus is considered a highly variable
species, spread over two continents (it's not certain whether it reached Europe), and possibly the
longest lived early human species - about nine times as long as our own species, Homo sapiens,
has been around!

Year of Discovery: 1891

History of Discovery:

Eugène Dubois, a Dutch surgeon, found the first Homo erectus individual (Trinil 2) in Indonesia
in 1891. In 1894, Dubois named the species Pithecanthropus erectus, or ‘erect ape-man.’ At that
time, Pithecanthropus (later changed to Homo) erectus was the most primitive and smallest-
brained of all known early human species; no early human fossils had even been discovered in
Africa yet.

Height: Ranges from 4 ft 9 in - 6 ft 1 in (145 - 185 cm)

Weight: Ranges from 88 - 150 lbs (40 - 68 kg)

We don’t know everything about our early ancestors—but we keep learning more!
Paleoanthropologists are constantly in the field, excavating new areas, using groundbreaking
technology, and continually filling in some of the gaps about our understanding of human
evolution.

Below are some of the still unanswered questions about Homo erectus that may be answered
with future discoveries:

1. Was Homo erectus the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens, our own species?
2. Data suggest that increasing body size, greater reliance on animal food resources, and
increased range size were part of a web of factors that facilitated the initial early dispersal
of H. erectus from Africa. Was one of these factors more important than the others?
3. Are the fossils from earlier time periods in East Africa, and from Georgia, all part of a
single species (Homo erectus), regionally variable in size and shape? Or are there actually
several species of early human represented by what we are now calling Homo erectus?
 4. How well did Homo erectus master the control of fire and how widespread was fire used?
What does this say about possible dietary shifts in this species?
5. Did Homo erectus grow up in a more human-like pattern and rate, or a more ape-like
one? Was Homo erectus the first early human species to experience an adolescent
growth spurt?

Homo sapiens
Homo sapiens

Where Lived: Evolved in Africa, now worldwide

When Lived: About 200,000 years ago to present

The species that you and all other living human beings on this planet belong to is Homo sapiens.
During a time of dramatic climate change 200,000 years ago, Homo sapiens evolved in Africa.
Like other early humans that were living at this time, they gathered and hunted food, and evolved
behaviors that helped them respond to the challenges of survival in unstable environments.

Anatomically, modern humans can generally be characterized by the lighter build of their
skeletons compared to earlier humans. Modern humans have very large brains, which vary in
size from population to population and between males and females, but the average size is
approximately 1300 cubic centimeters. Housing this big brain involved the reorganization of the
skull into what is thought of as "modern" -- a thin-walled, high vaulted skull with a flat and near
vertical forehead. Modern human faces also show much less (if any) of the heavy brow ridges
and prognathism of other early humans. Our jaws are also less heavily developed, with smaller
teeth.

Scientists sometimes use the term “anatomically modern Homo sapiens” to refer to members of
our own species who lived during prehistoric times.

History of Discovery:

Unlike every other human species, Homo sapiens does not have a true type specimen. In other
words, there is not a particular Homo sapiens individual that researchers recognize as being the
specimen that gave Homo sapiens its name. Even though Linnaeus first described our species in
1758, it was not customary at that time to designate type specimens. It is rumored that in 1994
paleontologist Robert Bakker formally declared the skull of Edward Drinker Cope as the
“lectotype”, a specimen essentially serving as the type specimen. When Cope, himself a great
paleontologist, died in 1897, he willed his remains to science, and they are held by the University
of Pennsylvania. But a type specimen must be one examined by the original author who names a
species, so Cope’s remains do not qualify.

We don’t know everything about our own species—but we keep learning more! Through studies
of fossils, genetics, behavior, and biology of modern humans, we continue to learn more about
who we are.

Below are some of the still unanswered questions about Homo sapiens that may be answered
with future discoveries:

1. Who was our direct evolutionary ancestor? Was it Homo heidelbergensis, like many
paleoanthropologists think, or another species?
2. How much interbreeding occured between our species and Homo neanderthalensis?
3. What does the future hold for our species in an evolutionary sense?

Recommended readings:

McBrearty, S., Brooks, A., 2000. The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of
modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution 39, 453-563.

Henshilwood, C.S., Marean, C.W., 2003. The origin of modern human behavior: critique of the
models and their test implications. Current Anthropology 44, 627-651.

How They Survived:

Prehistoric Homo sapiens not only made and used stone tools, they also specialized them and
made a variety of smaller, more complex, refined and specialized tools including composite
stone tools, fishhooks and harpoons, bows and arrows, spear throwers and sewing needles.

For millions of years all humans, early and modern alike, had to find their own food. They spent
a large part of each day gathering plants and hunting or scavenging animals. By 164,000 years
ago modern humans were collecting and cooking shellfish and by 90,000 years ago modern
humans had begun making special fishing tools. Then, within just the past 12,000 years, our
species, Homo sapiens, made the transition to producing food and changing our surroundings.
Humans found they could control the growth and breeding of certain plants and animals. This
discovery led to farming and herding animals, activities that transformed Earth’s natural
landscapes—first locally, then globally. As humans invested more time in producing food, they
settled down. Villages became towns, and towns became cities. With more food available, the
human population began to increase dramatically. Our species had been so successful that it has
inadvertently created a turning point in the history of life on Earth.

Modern humans evolved a unique combination of physical and behavioral characteristics, many
of which other early human species also possessed, though not to the same degree. The complex
brains of modern humans enabled them to interact with each other and with their surroundings in
new and different ways. As the environment became more unpredictable, bigger brains helped
our ancestors survive. They made specialized tools, and use tools to make other tools, as
described above; they ate a variety of animal and plant foods; they had control over fire; they
lived in shelters; they built broad social networks, sometimes including people they have never
even met; they exchanged resources over wide areas; and they created art, music, personal
adornment, rituals, and a complex symbolic world. Modern humans have spread to every
continent and vastly expanded their numbers. They have altered the world in ways that benefit
them greatly. But this transformation has unintended consequences for other species as well as
for ourselves, creating new survival challenges.

Homo sapiens sapiens

Homo Sapiens Sapiens

It is believed that modern humans like you and I first originated on the Earth around 50,000
years ago in Africa. These modern humans are referred to by historians as Homo sapiens sapiens.
Within just a few thousand years these modern humans had spread to every continent across the
entire planet, and onto many islands.

As Homo sapiens sapiens migrated outward from Africa, it is believed that they wiped out Neanderthals,
either by absorbing them through intermarriage, or by destroying them through war and competition.

Homo habilis
Homo habilis

Nickname: Handy Man

Where Lived: Eastern and Southern Africa
When Lived: 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago

This species, one of the earliest members of the genus Homo, has a slightly larger braincase and
smaller face and teeth than in Australopithecus or older hominin species. But it still retains some
ape-like features, including long arms and a moderately-prognathic face.

Its name, which means ‘handy man’, was given in 1964 because this species was thought to
represent the first maker of stone tools. Currently, the oldest stone tools are dated slightly older
than the oldest evidence of the genus Homo.

Year of Discovery: 1960

History of Discovery:
A team led by scientists Louis and Mary Leakey uncovered the fossilized remains of a unique
early human between 1960 and 1963 at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The type speciman, OH 7,
was found by Jonathan Leakey, so was nicknamed "Jonny's child". Because this early human had
a combination of features different from those seen in Australopithecus, Louis Leakey, South
African scientist Philip Tobias, and British scientist John Napier declared these fossils a new
species, and called them Homo habilis (meaning 'handy man'), because they suspected that it was
this slightly larger-brained early human that made the thousands of stone tools also found at
Olduvai Gorge.

Height: average 3 ft 4 in - 4 ft 5 in (100 - 135 cm)

Weight: average 70 lbs (32 kg)

We don’t know everything about our early ancestors—but we keep learning more!
Paleoanthropologists are constantly in the field, excavating new areas, using groundbreaking
technology, and continually filling in some of the gaps about our understanding of human
evolution.

Below are some of the still unanswered questions about Homo habilis that may be answered with
future discoveries:

1. Was H. habilis on the evolutionary lineage that evolved into later species of Homo and
even perhaps our species, Homo sapiens?
2. Are H. habilis and Homo rudolfensis indeed different species, or are they part of a single,
variable species? Or was one the ancestor of the other?
3. If H. habilis is not the ancestor of Homo erectus, how does it fit into our evolutionary
tree?
4. H. habilis is one of the earliest members of the genus Homo. Was there a relationship
between the origin of this genus and climate change – either with an increased period of
climatic fluctuations, or major episodes of global cooling and drying leading to the spread
of C4 grasslands?

Homo sapiens sapiens

A significant event in the geologic record is the abrupt appearance a quarter of a million years
ago of Homo sapiens sapiens. In a revolutionary (and still controversial) article, Rebecca
Cann [1] asserted that roughly 275,000 years ago, a single, solitary woman living in sub-
Saharan Africa became the world’s one common grandmother. Based on restriction mapping
of Mitochondria DNA (which can only be passed maternally from the mother), the
conclusion was of a single mother of mankind, i.e. “Eve”.

More recently, R. L. Dorit, et al [2] have found no intraspecific polymorphism whatsoever in

a gene paternally inherited, and concluded a date of the last common male ancestor of all
humans currently on the planet to be 270,000 B.C.E. Michael Brown, in his book, The
Search for Eve [3], greatly expanded on these themes, tracing “Eve’s” birthday to between
140,000 and 290,000 years ago, and the origin and spreading out of Africa of her descendants
between 90,000 and 180,000 years ago.

According to: <http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/adameve.html>, “Even though the

studies refer to a single man or woman in the past, they do not imply that those people were a
couple or even that they were the only parents of all humans. Their primary significance is in
pointing to the time when anatomically modern human beings, Homo sapiens sapiens,
evolved from a more primitive ancestor, generally thought to be an archaic form of Homo
sapiens.”

“Many anthropologists believe this transition happened in Africa and that the subspecies
spread to other parts of the world, replacing more primitive foms of humans such as Homo
erectus. Others, however, dispute the genetic evidence and argue that modern people evolved
in many parts of the world as products both of the people already living there and of
immigrants.”

Meanwhile. other authorities in Carleton, California have noted: “The evolution of Homo
sapiens commenced approximately 200,000 - 300,000 years ago. The Homo sapiens structure
is similar to that of the Homo erectus, yet Homo sapiens skulls were slightly rounder and
larger. Their teeth and jaws were noticeably smaller, which corresponds with, their fragile
face. The Homo sapiens brain capacity averaged an impressive 1,350 cc, surprisingly the
same size of todays humans.”

Zecharia Sitchin [4] has provided extensive documentation on ancient Sumerian texts and
their interpretation. The massive evidence he has presented leads any open minded
individual to the almost inescapable conclusion that a group of extraterrestrials called the
Anunnaki were responsible for the genetic experiments (circa 250,000 B.C.E.) which
transformed Homo erectus into Homo sapiens, by combining the Anunnaki DNA with the
DNA of the early ancestor of man. [Homo sapiens is Latin for “wise man”] From there,
presumably, man further evolved into the modern version, Homo sapiens sapiens.

Laurence Gardner , in his book, Genesis of the Grail Kings, [5] has provided a detailed
history of the legacy of Adam and Eve, their relation to the Sumerian Anunnaki, the
patriarchs of the Old Testament (The Adam's Family), and the extraterrestrial connection
throughout the earliest histories of the human race. His conclusions are essentially the same
as Sitchin’s, with the notable exception that Gardner has recognized the incredible
importance of the “white powder of gold” (aka Star Fire, or ORME), which distinguishes
the kings and patriarchs before the Flood and Deluge (aka the Sumerian King List and The
Adam's Family) from other, possibly lesser humans.
The Book of Genesis, which was written shortly after 600 B.C.E., and likely based on the
Sumerian texts, also makes it clear that mankind was created by extraterrestrial being(s),
which religions later identified as a single “God”. This singular interpretation, however, does
not reconcile the fact that there may have been more than one “god”, a fact which is
mentioned specifically in Genesis 1:26, 3:22, 6:2, and 6:4.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;...”
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them.” -- Genesis 1:26-27

“And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to
know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the
tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:” -- Genesis 3:22

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the
earth, and daughters were born unto them. That the sons of God saw the
daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which
they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for
that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There
were giants [“Nefilm”] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the
sons of god came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to
them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." --
Genesis 6:1-4

A careful and open-minded reading of the first book of the Bible supports both the theses of
Gardner and Sitchin throughout -- although the Anunnaki are not specifically identified by
name in the biblical texts. Nevertheless, even the Jesuits of the Catholic Church have
acknowledged the logical necessity of having at least two gods (if not more) in the story of
Genesis. The only alternative is to identify the one god as exhibiting the characteristics of
schizophrenia or multiple personality syndrome.

A logical question is that if mankind is the product of a genetic crossbreeding, is there any
reason why the average human cannot attain a greater portion of the powers and longevity of
one of his parent stocks, i.e. evolve to the next step: Homo sapiens sapiens sapiens?

Off hand, I can’t think of a single reason why not.