THRESHOLD 5 – THE EMERGENCE OF LIFE

LOOKING BACK: WHAT HAPPENED IN THRESHOLD 4?

Threshold 4 focused on the formation of our Solar System and our planet, Earth. We learned:

• How Earth and the rest of our Solar System formed over a very long period of time.
• About the Earth’s violent and unstable beginning.
• How plate tectonics keeps the Earth’s surface in constant motion.
• How we learn about the Earth’s changes over time through the science of geology.

LIFE ON EARTH

The appearance of life on Earth marked a major arrival: organisms with the capacity to harness energy
and materials from their environments to adapt to changing conditions and to reproduce themselves.
This introduced a new level of creativity, diversity, and complexity to the Universe.

Table 5.1 SUMMARY OF THRESHOLD 5 - LIFE

GOLDILOCKS EMERGENT
THRESHOLD INGREDIENTS STRUCTURE
CONDITION PROPERTIES

Metabolism
(capacity to
Abundant
extract energy);
complex
Complex reproduction
chemicals +
molecules bound (ability to copy
moderate
Complex together themselves
energy flows
LIFE chemicals + chemically and almost perfectly);
+ liquid
energy. physically in cells adaptation (slow
medium such
capable of change and
as water +
reproduction. appearance of
suitable
new forms
planet.
through natural
selection).

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5.1 BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE

 Life is an extension of the complexities of matter; single atoms joined together to form molecules
consisting of thousands or millions of atoms, and molecules joined together to form cells consisting of
billions of atoms: the first living organisms. These single-celled organisms arose spontaneously from
nonliving things through a gradual increase of molecular complexity over vast periods of time.
Metabolism, reproduction, and adaptation began to operate in a feedback cycle, each reinforcing the
other. Living organisms were able to find more ways to extract energy from their environment, to
reproduce themselves more bountifully, and to adapt to their environment.

All living things share life processes such as growth and reproduction. Most scientists use seven
life processes or characteristics to determine whether something is living or non-living.

The table below describes seven characteristics of most living things and contains references to
earthworms to explain why we can definitely say that they are 'living'.

Table 5.2 SEVEN CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING THINGS

LIFE PROCESS EXPLANATION EXAMPLE: EARTHWORMS

All living things move in some way. This

may be obvious, such as animals that are Earthworms use circular and
Movement able to walk, or less obvious, such as longitudinal muscles to move
plants that have parts that move to track through soil or along surfaces.
the movement of the sun.
The food that earthworms eat
supplies their body with energy-rich
Respiration is a chemical reaction that molecules such as glucose. On
happens within cells to release energy entering the cells of their body, these
Respiration from food. Living things break down molecules are broken down in a
food within their cells to release energy series of steps to release energy to
for carrying out the following processes. be used by the body, producing
carbon dioxide and water as waste
products.
The ability to detect changes in the
surrounding environment. All living Earthworms have light-sensitive cells
things are able to sense and respond to scattered in their outer skin. Their
Sensitivity
stimuli around them such as light, skin cells are also sensitive to touch
temperature, water, gravity and and chemicals.
chemical substances.
Earthworms hatch from eggs and can
Growth is seen in all living things. It
grow up to a metre or more in
involves using food to produce new
Growth length! Some earthworms are also
cells. The permanent increase in cell
able to regrow small parts of their
number and size is called growth.
body that have been lost or injured.

The ability to reproduce and pass
Reproduction
genetic information onto their offspring.
All living things excrete. As a result of
the many chemical reactions occurring
in cells, they have to get rid of waste
products which might poison the cells.
Excretion
Excretion is defined as the removal of
toxic materials, the waste products of
metabolism and substances in excess
from the body of an organism.
Living things take in materials from their
surroundings that they use for growth or
to provide energy. Nutrition is the
Nutrition process by which organisms obtain
energy and raw materials from nutrients
such as proteins, carbohydrates and
fats.
Earthworms have both sperm and
eggs within their bodies (they are
hermaphrodites) but they cannot
self-fertilise and need to mate with
another individual. After mating, a
cocoon containing the fertilised eggs
is deposited in the soil.
Earthworms excrete waste from their
anus – the last segment of their
body.
Earthworm nutrition comes from a
variety of sources, depending on
their species. Food types include
manure, compost, plant material,
fungi, microorganisms and decaying
animals. They take in food through
their mouths.

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5.3 THEORIES ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

When did life appear on Earth?

Geologists estimate that the Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago. This estimate comes from
measuring the ages of the oldest rocks on Earth, as well the ages of moon rocks and meteorites, by
radiometric dating (in which decay of radioactive isotopes is used to calculate the time since a rock’s
formation).

For many millions of years, early Earth was pummeled by asteroids and other celestial objects.
Temperatures also would have been very high (with water taking the form of a gas, not a liquid). The first
life might have emerged during a break in the asteroid bombardment, between 4.4 and 4.0 billion years
ago, when it was cool enough for water to condense into oceans. However, a second bombardment
happened about 3 billion years ago. It’s likely after this final go-round that Earth became capable of
supporting sustained life.
The earliest fossil evidence of life

The earliest evidence of life on Earth comes from fossils discovered in Western Australia that date
back to about 3.5 billion years ago. These fossils are of structures known as stromatolites, which are, in
many cases, formed by the growth of layer upon layer of single-celled microbes, such as cyanobacteria.
(Stromatolites are also made by present-day microbes, not just prehistoric ones.)

The earliest fossils of microbes themselves, rather than just their by-products, preserve the
remains of what scientists think are sulfur-metabolizing bacteria. The fossils also come from Australia and
date to about 3.4 billion years ago.

Bacteria are relatively complex, suggesting that life probably began a good deal earlier than 3.5
billion years ago. However, the lack of earlier fossil evidence makes pinpointing the time of life’s origin
difficult (if not impossible).

How might life have arisen?

In the 1920s, Russian scientist Aleksandr Oparin and English scientist J. B. S. Haldane both
separately proposed what's now called the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis: that life on Earth could have
arisen step-by-step from non-living matter through a process of “gradual chemical evolution.”

Oparin and Haldane thought that the early Earth had a reducing atmosphere, meaning an oxygen-
poor atmosphere in which molecules tend to donate electrons. Under these conditions, they suggested
that: Simple inorganic molecules could have reacted (with energy from lightning or the sun) to form
building blocks like amino acids and nucleotides, which could have accumulated in the oceans, making a
"primordial soup."

The building blocks could have combined in further reactions, forming larger, more complex
molecules (polymers) like proteins and nucleic acids, perhaps in pools at the water's edge.

The polymers could have assembled into units or structures that were capable of sustaining and
replicating themselves. Oparin thought these might have been “colonies” of proteins clustered together
to carry out metabolism, while Haldane suggested that macromolecules became enclosed in membranes
to make cell-like structures.

The details of this model are probably not quite correct. For instance, geologists now think the
early atmosphere was not reducing, and it's unclear whether pools at the edge of the ocean are a likely
site for life's first appearance. But the basic idea – a stepwise, spontaneous formation of simple, then
more complex, then self-sustaining biological molecules or assemblies – is still at the core of most origins-
of-life hypotheses today.

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From inorganic compounds to building blocks

In 1953, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey did

an experiment to test Oparin and Haldane’s ideas.
They found that organic molecules could be
spontaneously produced under reducing conditions
thought to resemble those of early Earth.

Miller and Urey built a closed system

containing a heated pool of water and a mixture of
gases that were thought to be abundant in the
atmosphere of early earth (water, ammonia,
methane and hydrogen). To simulate the lightning
that might have provided energy for chemical
reactions in Earth’s early atmosphere, Miller and Figure 5.1 MILLER AND UREY’S EXPERIMENT. After one week,
the nonliving system had formed 13 of the 22 amino acids which
Urey sent sparks of electricity through their make up modern proteins, sugars, lipids, and some of the building
experimental system. blocks of DNA and RNA.

After letting the experiment run for a week, Miller and Urey found that various types of amino
acids, sugars, lipids and other organic molecules had formed. Large, complex molecules like DNA and
protein were missing, but the Miller-Urey experiment showed that at least some of the building blocks for
these molecules could form spontaneously from simple compounds.

Were Miller and Urey's results meaningful?

Scientists now think that the atmosphere of early Earth was different than in Miller and Urey's
setup (that is, not reducing, and not rich in ammonia and methane). So, it's doubtful that Miller and Urey
did an accurate simulation of conditions on early Earth.

However, a variety of experiments done in the years since have shown that organic building blocks
(especially amino acids) can form from inorganic precursors under a fairly wide range of conditions.

From these experiments, it seems reasonable to imagine that at least some of life's building blocks
could have formed abiotically on early Earth. However, exactly how (and under what conditions) remains
an open question.

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From building blocks to polymers

How could monomers (building blocks) like amino acids or nucleotides have assembled into
polymers, or actual biological macromolecules, on early Earth? In cells today, polymers are put together
by enzymes. But, since the enzymes themselves are polymers, this is kind of a chicken-and-egg problem.
 Monomers may have been able to spontaneously form polymers under the conditions found on
early Earth. For instance, in the 1950s, biochemist Sidney Fox and his colleagues found that if amino acids
were heated in the absence of water, they could link together to form proteins. Fox suggested that, on
early Earth, ocean water carrying amino acids could have splashed onto a hot surface like a lava flow,
boiling away the water and leaving behind a protein.

Additional experiments in the 1990s showed that RNA nucleotides can be linked together when
they are exposed to a clay surface. The clay acts as a catalyst to form an RNA polymer. More broadly, clay
and other mineral surfaces may have played a key role in the formation of polymers, acting as supports
or catalysts. Polymers floating in solution might have hydrolyzed (broken down) quickly, supporting a
surface-attached model.

Montmorillonite in particular has catalytic and organizing properties that may have been
important in the origins of life, such as the ability to catalyze formation of RNA polymers (and also the
assembly of cell-like lipid vesicles).

What was the nature of the earliest life?

If we imagine that polymers were able to form on early Earth, this still leaves us with the question
of how the polymers would have become self-replicating or self-perpetuating, meeting the most basic
criteria for life. This is an area in which there are many ideas, but little certainty about the correct answer.

The "genes-first" hypothesis

One possibility is that the first life forms were self-replicating nucleic acids, such as RNA or DNA,
and that other elements (like metabolic networks) were a later add-on to this basic system. This is called
the genes-first hypothesis.

Many scientists who subscribe to this hypothesis think that RNA, not DNA, was likely the first
genetic material. This is known as the RNA world hypothesis. Scientists favor RNA over DNA as the first
genetic molecule for several reasons. Perhaps the most important is that RNA can, in addition to carrying
information, act as a catalyst. In contrast, we don’t know of any naturally occurring catalytic DNA
molecules.

RNA catalysts are called ribozymes, and they could have played key roles in the RNA world. A
catalytic RNA could, potentially, catalyze a chemical reaction to copy itself. Such a self-replicating RNA
could pass genetic material from generation to generation, fulfilling the most basic criteria for life and,
potentially, undergoing evolution. In fact, researchers have been able to synthetically engineer small
ribozymes that are capable of self-replication.

It’s also possible that RNA wasn’t the first information-carrying molecule to serve as genetic
material. Some scientists think that an even simpler “RNA-like” molecule with catalytic and information-
carrying capacity might have come first, and might have catalyzed or acted as a template for RNA
synthesis. This is sometimes called the "pre-RNA world" hypothesis.
The "metabolism-first" hypothesis

An alternative to the genes-first hypothesis is the metabolism-first hypothesis, which suggests

that self-sustaining networks of metabolic reactions may have been the first simple life (predating nucleic
acids).

These networks might have formed, for instance, near undersea hydrothermal vents that
provided a continual supply of chemical precursors, and might have been self-sustaining and persistent
(meeting the basic criteria for life). In this scenario, initially simple pathways might have produced
molecules that acted as catalysts for the formation of more complex molecules. Eventually, the metabolic
networks might have been able to build large molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. Formation of
"individuals" enclosed by membranes (separate from the communal network) would have been a late
step.

A basic property of a cell is the ability to maintain an internal environment different from the
surrounding environment. Today’s cells are separated from the environment by a phospholipid bilayer.
It’s unlikely that phospholipids would have been present under the conditions in which the first cells
formed, but other types of lipids (ones that would have more likely been available) have also been shown
to spontaneously form bilayered compartments.

In principle, this type of compartment could surround a self-replicating ribozyme or the

components of a metabolic pathway, making a very basic cell. Though intriguing, this type of idea is not
yet supported by experimental evidence – i.e., no experiment has yet been able to spontaneously
generate a self-replicating cell from abiotic (non-living) components.

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Another possibility: Organic molecules from outer space

Organic molecules might have formed spontaneously from inorganic ones on early Earth, à la
Miller-Urey. But could they instead have come from space?

The idea that organic molecules might have traveled to Earth on meteorites may sound like
science fiction, but it's supported by reasonable evidence. For example, scientists have found that organic
molecules can be produced from simple chemical precursors present in space, under conditions that could
exist in space (high UV irradiation and low temperature). We also know that some organic compounds are
found in space and in other star systems.
 Most importantly, various meteorites have turned out to contain organic compounds (derived
from space, not from Earth). One meteorite, ALH84001, came from Mars and contained organic molecules
with multiple ring structures. Another meteorite, the Murchison meteorite, carried nitrogenous bases
(like those found in DNA and RNA), as well as a wide variety of amino acids.

One meteorite that fell in 2000 in Canada contained tiny organic structures dubbed "organic
globules." NASA scientists think this type of meteorite might have fallen to Earth often during the planet's
early history, seeding it with organic compounds.

5.4 DARWIN’S THEORY OF EVOLUTION

Natural Selection

In The Origin of Species, Darwin called his ideas the theory of “natural selection,” contrasting it
to artificial selection, which he thought would be familiar to people through the breeding of animals (now
called “selective breeding”). Natural selection, he defined as “preservation of favourable variations and
rejection of injurious variations,” with nature making the selection over time. Darwin named his theory
with the positive word selection; he could just as well have called it “natural elimination.” These were his
central tenets:

1. A species is a collection of individuals (a population) similar enough to breed with one another;
species adapt while individuals do not.
2. Within a species chance variations occur; individuals differ some but not too much.
3. Variations within a species are likely to be inherited by an individual’s offspring. (Darwin observed
this but did not know how it occurred.)
4. Some variants prove to be better adapted to, or fitter for, their particular environment; hence,
they get more resources and have more offspring.
5. Because the more adapted, or fitter, individuals live to have more offspring, later populations will
look more like them and will inherit their adaptive characteristics.
6. Individuals who possess traits that are sexually attractive are also likely to have more offspring
(sexual selection).
7. This process of evolution produces endless change because the environment changes continually.

In artificial selection, change occurs rapidly as breeders choose which individuals will be allowed to
breed to achieve the traits the breeders want. In natural selection, the number of years it takes to sort
out the fittest individuals and create a new species varies. For fast-breeding species like viruses, only a
few months or years are needed, but for slow-breeding species, such as primates, tens of thousands of
years are required.

Since the long-term environment (including food sources, moisture, and landscape) changes, oscillating
between ice ages and warm periods for example, the definition of fitness changes in tandem with it.
Natural selection in response to the changing environment is the source of biodiversity, argued Darwin,
the explanation for the huge variety of organisms that have inhabited Earth over what we now know to
be almost 4 billion years.
Evolution happens on large and small scales

Before we look at the evidence, let's make sure we are on the same page about what evolution
is. Broadly speaking, evolution is a change in the genetic makeup (and often, the heritable features) of a
population over time. Biologists sometimes define two types of evolution based on scale:

• Macroevolution, which refers to large-scale changes that occur over extended time periods, such
as the formation of new species and groups.
• Microevolution, which refers to small-scale changes that affect just one or a few genes and
happen in populations over shorter timescales.

Microevolution and macroevolution aren’t really two different processes. They’re the same process –
evolution – occurring on different timescales. Microevolutionary processes occurring over thousands or
millions of years can add up to large-scale changes that define new species or groups.

The evidence for evolution

First, we'll look at several types of evidence (including physical and molecular features,
geographical information, and fossils) that provide evidence for, and can allow us to reconstruct,
macroevolutionary events. Then we'll finish by seeing how microevolution can be directly observed, as in
the emergence of pesticide-resistant insects.

Darwin’s theory of natural selection rested on three kinds of evidence: (1) fossils, (2) homologies,
and (3) geographic distribution. Specifically, evidence for evolution comes from many different areas of
biology:

• Anatomy. Species may share similar physical features because the feature was present in a
common ancestor (homologous structures).
• Molecular biology. DNA and the genetic code reflect the shared ancestry of life. DNA comparisons
can show how related species are.
• Biogeography. The global distribution of organisms and the unique features of island species
reflect evolution and geological change.
• Fossils. Fossils document the existence of now-extinct past species that are related to present-
day species.
• Direct observation. We can directly observe small-scale evolution in organisms with short
lifecycles (e.g., pesticide-resistant insects).
 1. Anatomy and embryology

Darwin thought of evolution as "descent with

modification," a process in which species change and
give rise to new species over many generations. He
proposed that the evolutionary history of life forms a
branching tree with many levels, in which all species can
be traced back to an ancient common ancestor.

In this tree model, more closely related groups of

Figure 5.2 "DARWIN'S TREE OF LIFE, 1859
species have more recent common ancestors, and each
group will tend to share features that were present in its last common ancestor. We can use this idea to
"work backwards" and figure out how organisms are related based on their shared features.

Homologous features

If two or more species share a unique

physical feature, such as a complex bone structure or
a body plan, they may all have inherited this feature
from a common ancestor. Physical features shared
due to evolutionary history (a common ancestor) are
said to be homologous.

To give one classic example, the forelimbs of

whales, humans, birds, and dogs look pretty different
on the outside. That's because they're adapted to
Figure 5.3 THE FINGERS OF FOUR MAMMALS. These
function in different environments. However, if you homologous bones have been modified by natural selection in
look at the bone structure of the forelimbs, you'll find response to environment and function.
that the pattern of bones is very similar across
species. It's unlikely that such similar structures would have evolved independently in each species, and
more likely that the basic layout of bones was already present in a common ancestor of whales, humans,
dogs, and birds.

Some homologous structures can be seen only in embryos. For instance, all vertebrate embryos
(including humans) have gill slits and a tail during early development. The developmental patterns of these
species become more different later on (which is why your embryonic tail is now your tailbone, and your
gill slits have turned into your jaw and inner ear. Homologous embryonic structures reflect that the
developmental programs of vertebrates are variations on a similar plan that existed in their last common
ancestor.

Sometimes, organisms have structures that are homologous to important structures in other
organisms but that have lost their major ancestral function. These structures, which are often reduced in
size, are known as vestigial structures. Examples of vestigial structures include the tailbone of humans (a
vestigial tail), the hind leg bones of whales, and the underdeveloped legs found in some snakes.
Analogous features

To make things a little more interesting and

complicated, not all physical features that look alike are
marks of common ancestry. Instead, some physical
similarities are analogous: they evolved independently in
different organisms because the organisms lived in similar
environments or experienced similar selective pressures. This
process is called convergent evolution. (To converge means
to come together, like two lines meeting at a point.)

For example, two distantly related species that live in Figure 5.4 ARTIC FOX AND PTARMIGAN
the Arctic, the arctic fox and the ptarmigan (a bird), both
undergo seasonal changes of color from dark to snowy white. This shared feature doesn’t reflect common
ancestry – i.e., it's unlikely that the last common ancestor of the fox and ptarmigan changed color with
the seasons, this feature was favored separately in both species due to similar selective pressures. That
is, the genetically determined ability to switch to light coloration in winter helped both foxes and
ptarmigans survive and reproduce in a place with snowy winters and sharp-eyed predators.

Determining relationships from similar features

In general, biologists don't draw conclusions about how species are related on the basis of any single
feature they think is homologous. Instead, they study a large collection of features (often, both physical
features and DNA sequences) and draw conclusions about relatedness based on these features as a group.
We will explore this idea further when we examine phylogenetic trees.

2. Molecular biology

Like structural homologies, similarities between biological molecules can reflect shared evolutionary
ancestry. At the most basic level, all living organisms share:

• The same genetic material (DNA)

• The same, or highly similar, genetic codes
• The same basic process of gene expression (transcription and translation)
• The same molecular building blocks, such as amino acids

These shared features suggest that all living things are descended from a common ancestor, and that
this ancestor had DNA as its genetic material, used the genetic code, and expressed its genes by
transcription and translation. Present-day organisms all share these features because they were
"inherited" from the ancestor (and because any big changes in this basic machinery would have broken
the basic functionality of cells).

Although they're great for establishing the common origins of life, features like having DNA or carrying
out transcription and translation are not so useful for figuring out how related particular organisms are.
If we want to determine which organisms in a group are most closely related, we need to use different
types of molecular features, such as the nucleotide sequences of genes.

Homologous genes

Biologists often compare the sequences of related genes found in different species (often called
homologous or orthologous genes) to figure out how those species are evolutionarily related to one
another.

The basic idea behind this approach is that two species have the "same" gene because they
inherited it from a common ancestor. For instance, humans, cows, chickens, and chimpanzees all have a
gene that encodes the hormone insulin, because this gene was already present in their last common
ancestor.

In general, the more DNA differences in homologous genes (or amino acid differences in the
proteins they encode) between two species, the more distantly the species are related. For instance,
human and chimpanzee insulin proteins are much more similar (about 98% identical) than human and
chicken insulin proteins (about 64% identical), reflecting that humans and chimpanzees are more closely
related than humans and chickens.

3. Biogeography

The geographic distribution of organisms on Earth follows patterns that are best explained by
evolution, in combination with the movement of tectonic plates over geological time. For example, broad
groupings of organisms that had already evolved before the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea
(about 200 million years ago) tend to be distributed worldwide. In contrast, broad groupings that evolved
after the breakup tend to appear uniquely in smaller regions of Earth. For instance, there are unique
groups of plants and animals on northern and southern continents that can be traced to the split of
Pangaea into two supercontinents (Laurasia in the north, Gondwana in the south).

The evolution of unique species on islands is another example of how evolution and geography
intersect. For instance, most of the mammal species in Australia are marsupials (carry young in a pouch),
while most mammal species elsewhere in the world are placental (nourish young through a placenta).
Australia’s marsupial species are very diverse and fill a wide range of ecological roles. Because Australia
was isolated by water for millions of years, these species were able to evolve without competition from
(or exchange with) mammal species elsewhere in the world.

The marsupials of Australia, Darwin's finches in the Galápagos, and many species on the Hawaiian
Islands are unique to their island settings, but have distant relationships to ancestral species on mainlands.
This combination of features reflects the processes by which island species evolve. They often arise from
mainland ancestors – for example, when a landmass breaks off or a few individuals are blown off course
during a storm – and diverge (become increasingly different) as they adapt in isolation to the island
environment.
 4. Fossil record

Fossils are the preserved remains of

previously living organisms or their traces, dating
from the distant past. The fossil record is not, alas,
complete or unbroken: most organisms never
fossilize, and even the organisms that do fossilize
are rarely found by humans. Nonetheless, the
fossils that humans have collected offer unique
insights into evolution over long timescales.

How can the age of fossils be determined?

First, fossils are often contained in rocks

that build up in layers called strata. The strata
provide a sort of timeline, with layers near the top
being newer and layers near the bottom being
older. Fossils found in different strata at the same Figure 5.5 EQUINE EVOLUTION
site can be ordered by their positions, and
"reference" strata with unique features can be used to compare the ages of fossils across locations. In
addition, scientists can roughly date fossils using radiometric dating, a process that measures the
radioactive decay of certain elements.

Fossils document the existence of now-extinct species, showing that different organisms have
lived on Earth during different periods of the planet's history. They can also help scientists reconstruct the
evolutionary histories of present-day species. For instance, some of the best-studied fossils are of the
horse lineage. Using these fossils, scientists have been able to reconstruct a large, branching "family tree"
for horses and their now-extinct relative. Changes in the lineage leading to modern-day horses, such as
the reduction of toed feet to hooves, may reflect adaptation to changes in the environment.

5. Direct observation of microevolution

In some cases, the evidence for evolution is that we can see it taking place around us. Important
modern-day examples of evolution include the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria and pesticide-
resistant insects.

For example, in the 1950s, there was a worldwide effort to eradicate malaria by eliminating its carriers
(certain types of mosquitos). The pesticide DDT was sprayed broadly in areas where the mosquitoes lived,
and at first, the DDT was highly effective at killing the mosquitos. However, over time, the DDT became
less and less effective, and more and more mosquitoes survived. This was because the mosquito
population evolved resistance to the pesticide.

Emergence of DDT resistance is an example of evolution by natural selection. How would natural selection
have worked in this case?

a. Before DDT was applied, a tiny fraction of mosquitos in the population would have had naturally
occurring gene versions (alleles) that made them resistant to DDT. These versions would have
 appeared through random mutation, or changes in DNA sequence. Without DDT around, the
resistant alleles would not have helped mosquitoes survive or reproduce (and might even have
been harmful), so they would have remained rare.
b. When DDT spraying began, most of the mosquitos would have been killed by the pesticide. Which
mosquitos would have survived? For the most part, only the rare individuals that happened to
have DDT resistance alleles (and thus survived being sprayed with DDT). These surviving
mosquitoes would have been able to reproduce and leave offspring.
c. Over generations, more and more DDT-resistant mosquitoes would have been born into the
population. That's because resistant parents would have been consistently more likely to survive
and reproduce than non-resistant parents, and would have passed their DDT resistance alleles
(and thus, the capacity to survive DDT) on to their offspring. Eventually, the mosquito populations
would have bounced back to high numbers, but would have been composed largely of DDT-
resistant individuals.

Figure 5.6 EMERGENCE OF DDT RESISTANCE

In parts of the world where DDT has been used extensively in the past, many of the mosquitoes
are now resistant. DDT can no longer be used to control the mosquito populations (and reduce malaria)
in these regions.

Why are mosquito populations able to evolve rapid resistance to DDT? Two important factors are
large population size (making it more likely that some individuals in the population will, by random chance,
have mutations that provide resistance) and short lifecycle. Bacteria and viruses, which have even larger
population sizes and shorter lifecycles, can evolve resistance to drugs very rapidly, as in antibiotic-
resistant bacteria and drug-resistant HIV.

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What is Natural Selection?

 5.5 LAMARCK’S THEORY OF EVOLUTION

Darwin was not the first naturalist to propose that species changed over time into new species—
that life, as we would say now, evolves. In the eighteenth century, Buffon and other naturalists began to
introduce the idea that life might not have been fixed since creation. By the end of the 1700s,
paleontologists had swelled the fossil collections of Europe, offering a picture of the past at odds with an
unchanging natural world. And in 1801, a French naturalist named Jean-Baptiste Lamarck took a great
conceptual step and proposed a full-blown theory of evolution.

Though Lamarck was building on the work of his mentor, Count George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon,
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) is often credited with making the first large advance toward modern
evolutionary theory because he was the first to propose a mechanism by which the gradual change of
species might take place. Also, he extended the definition of the change over time, saying that life started
out simple and became more complex. In 1809 he published Philosophie Zoologique, in which he
described the mechanisms by which change was gradually introduced into the species and passed down
through generations. His theory is alternatively referred to as the theory of transformation or simply
Lamarckism. Though today Lamarck's work is considered a major step forward, in his lifetime he did not
receive much recognition.

Lamarckism can be explained in the following points.

1. Direct environmental effect: According to Lamarck, the environment directly influences the
modification of the organs in organisms. He believed that due to the changed environment, there is a
new need for the organism which modifies the organs of the organism.

2. Use and Disuse: A constant use of organs leads to its modification in the form while the less used
structures reduced and ultimately get lost. A disuse of the organs lead to the gradual weakening of
the organs.
 The classic example used to explain the concept of use and
disuse is the elongated neck of the giraffe. According to
Lamarck's theory, a given giraffe could, over a lifetime of
straining to reach high branches, develop an elongated neck. A
major downfall of his theory was that he could not explain how
this might happen, though he discussed a "natural tendency
toward perfection." Another example Lamarck used was the
toes of water birds. He proposed that from years of straining
their toes to swim through water, these birds gained elongated,
webbed toes to better their swimming.

These two examples demonstrate how use could change a

trait. By the same token, Lamarck believed that disuse would
cause a trait to become reduced. The wings of penguins, for
example, would be smaller than those of other birds because
penguins do not use them to fly.

3. Inheritance of acquired traits: He believed that traits

changed or acquired over an individual's lifetime could be
passed down to its offspring. Giraffes that had acquired
long necks would have offspring with long necks rather
than the short necks their parents were born with. This type
of inheritance, sometimes called Lamarckian inheritance,
has since been disproved by the discovery of hereditary
genetics.

An extension of Lamarck's ideas of inheritance that has

Figure 5.7 USE AND DISUSE IN THE
stood the test of time, however, is the idea that evolutionary
EVOLUTION OF THE NECK OF THE GIRAFFE
change takes place gradually and constantly. He studied
ancient seashells and noticed that the older they were, the simpler they appeared. From this, he
concluded that species started out simple and consistently moved toward complexity, or, as he termed it,
closer to perfection.

Criticisms of Lamarckism

1. Lamarck has not proved experimentally that the use and disuse of organs can modify them.
2. It is absolutely incorrect that new organs can be developed according to the need and wish of the
organism.
3. All the require characters are not inherited into the new generation.
 Figure 5.8 LAMARCK VS. DARWIN

5.5 A BRIEF HISTORY OF LIFE ON EARTH

Now the background is in place for us to consider a new question: How did life evolve over
approximately 3.8 billion years to form the diversity of living organisms that we know today? If we were
chickens or praying mantises, we would pose this question to focus on the pathways that led to chickens
or praying mantises. Since we are humans, we will follow those turns through the maze of diversity that
led to humans.

By focusing on complex life-forms, we do not mean to imply that greater complexity is necessarily
more important or better than less complexity. All life-forms are interdependent; more complex entities
depend on less complex ones. Bacteria still mediate all the important cycles of elements on Earth. We
humans have expanded our population so dramatically since the mid-twentieth century that we are
inclined to think that we are in charge or have pulled off some kind of a coup d’etat over the rest of life.
Yet we still remain dependent on less complex forms of life. In this section, we are focusing on humans
not just because humans seem dominant at the moment, but also because we, who are human, are
writing for other humans, who presumably are most interested in the story of their own species.

In describing the evolution of life it is difficult to tell the two strands of the story—the biological
strand and the geological strand—simultaneously. At every moment that living organisms are changing,
Earth is also changing; each is affecting the other. As we focus on the biological changes, we also provide
some examples of the reciprocal effects of living organisms on the composition of Earth and its effect on
organisms.

To simplify the history of life on Earth, we are dividing it into eight stages, which can be seen in
Figure 5.7. The first four stages will concern the development of single-celled organisms over a period of
3 billion years. These stages are:
 1. The emergence of prokaryotes
2. Photosynthesis or energy from sunlight
3. Respiration and the emergence of eukaryotes
4. Sexual reproduction

These first four stages cover six-sevenths of the time elapsed in our story. Throughout this period, life
consisted of single-celled microorganisms. If humans find life anywhere else than on Earth, this is probably
what we will find.The next four stages cover the final one-seventh of time, or only about 600 million years.
They include:

5. The emergence of multicelled organisms

6. The vertebrates, or animals with backbones
7. Life coming on land
8. Dinosaurs and mammals, up to 8 million years ago

Figure 5.9 EMERGENCE OF DDT RESISTANCE

 The geologic time scale is a record of the major events and diversity of life forms present in Earth's
history. The geologic time scale began when Earth was formed and goes on until the present. It divides

Figure 5.7 GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE

Earth's long history into units of time.

Life changes, or adapts, by natural selection, in which the changing environment selects those
genetic mutations that are beneficial to the survival and reproduction of organisms. Living organisms first
emerged through chemical evolution that produced a single cell capable of metabolism, reproduction,
and adaptation. Using this cell’s chemical system of proteins and nucleic acids surrounded by membranes,
more single cells evolved.

Over some 2 billion years they created the underlying systems of current life: fermentation,
photosynthesis, oxygen respiration, eukaryotic cells, and sexual reproduction. In the last half billion years,
living organisms proliferated gloriously into a wild profusion of forms, from multicellular to vertebrates,
to plants, fungi, and animals coming ashore, to dinosaurs and mammals, to the great apes. The evolution
of the last half billion years occurred in waves following five major extinctions. The last of these extinction
events removed the dinosaurs, clearing the way for the mammals to flourish. Among them were our
ancestors, the tree-dwelling primates. Extinctions wiped out the more complex life-forms, but after each
major extinction life rebounded with ever greater complexity.
 THRESHOLD 6 – EARLY HUMANS

LOOKING BACK: WHAT HAPPENED IN THRESHOLD 5?

Threshold 5 focused on the emergence of living things on Earth. During the first 10 billion years in
the history of the Universe, there were no living things. We learned:

• About the conditions required for the emergence of life.

• What similarities exist across all living things.
• How life has changed over time, evolving from simple life forms to complex organisms.
• How life is affected by changes in astronomical, geological, and biological conditions.
• How DNA enables living things to pass adaptations to new generations.

THRESHOLD 6 – EARLY HUMANS

Most of what we know about the origin of humans comes from the research of
paleoanthropologists, scientists who study human fossils. Paleoanthropologists identify the sites where
fossils can be found. They determine the age of fossils and describe the features of the bones and teeth
discovered. Recently, paleoanthropologists have added genetic technology to test their hypotheses. In
this article, we will tell you a little about prehistory, a period of time including pre-humans and humans
and lasting about 10 million years. During the Prehistoric Period, events were not reported in writing.
Most information on prehistory is obtained through studying fossils. Ten to twelve million years ago,
primates divided into two branches, one included species leading to modern (current) humans and the
other branch to the great apes that include gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans. The branch
leading to modern humans included several different species. When one of these species—known as the
Neanderthals—inhabited Eurasia, they were not alone; Homo sapiens and other Homo species were also
present in this region. All the other species of Homo have gone extinct, with the exception of Homo
sapiens, our species, which gradually colonized the entire planet. About 12,000 years ago, during the
Neolithic Period, some (but not all) populations of H. sapiens passed from a wandering lifestyle of hunting
and gathering to one of sedentary farming, building villages and towns. They developed more complex
social organizations and invented writing. This was the end of prehistory and the beginning of history.

Table 6.1 SUMMARY OF THRESHOLD 6 – EARLY HUMANS

GOLDILOCKS EMERGENT
THRESHOLD INGREDIENTS STRUCTURE
CONDITION PROPERTIES

Same as all life + Highly specific Long Collective

highly developed biological preceding Learning, i.e.,
EARLY HUMANS
manipulative, structures period of capacity to share
perceptive, and governed by evolution information
neurological human DNA. generating precisely and
capacity. highly rapidly so that
 developed information
manipulative, accumulates at
perceptive, the level of the
and community and
neurological species giving rise
capacity. to long-term
historical change.

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Threshold 6: Humans and Collective Learning | Big History Project

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6.1 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

What is human evolution?

Human evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people originated from apelike
ancestors. Scientific evidence shows that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all people originated
from apelike ancestors and evolved over a period of approximately six million years.

One of the earliest defining human traits, bipedalism -- the ability to walk on two legs -- evolved
over 4 million years ago. Other important human characteristics -- such as a large and complex brain, the
ability to make and use tools, and the capacity for language -- developed more recently. Many advanced
traits -- including complex symbolic expression, art, and elaborate cultural diversity -- emerged mainly
during the past 100,000 years.

Humans are primates. Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern human species,
Homo sapiens, has a very close relationship to another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and
the great apes (large apes) of Africa -- chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called “pygmy
chimpanzees”) and gorillas -- share a common ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago.
Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of
early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.

Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early humans. Scientists do
not all agree, however, about how these species are related or which ones simply died out. Many early
human species -- certainly the majority of them – left no living descendants. Scientists also debate over
how to identify and classify particular species of early humans, and about what factors influenced the
evolution and extinction of each species.

Early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia probably between 2 million and 1.8 million
years ago. They entered Europe somewhat later, between 1.5 million and 1 million years. Species of
modern humans populated many parts of the world much later. For instance, people first came to
Australia probably within the past 60,000 years and to the Americas within the past 30,000 years or so.
The beginnings of agriculture and the rise of the first civilizations occurred within the past 12,000 years.

Paleoanthropology

Paleoanthropology is the scientific study of human evolution. Paleoanthropology is a subfield of

anthropology, the study of human culture, society, and biology. The field involves an understanding of the
similarities and differences between humans and other species in their genes, body form, physiology, and
behavior. Paleoanthropologists search for the roots of human physical traits and behavior. They seek to
discover how evolution has shaped the potentials, tendencies, and limitations of all people. For many
people, paleoanthropology is an exciting scientific field because it investigates the origin, over millions of
years, of the universal and defining traits of our species. However, some people find the concept of human
evolution troubling because it can seem not to fit with religious and other traditional beliefs about how
people, other living things, and the world came to be. Nevertheless, many people have come to reconcile
their beliefs with the scientific evidence.

Early human fossils and archeological remains offer the most important clues about this ancient
past. These remains include bones, tools and any other evidence (such as footprints, evidence of hearths,
or butchery marks on animal bones) left by earlier people. Usually, the remains were buried and preserved
naturally. They are then found either on the surface (exposed by rain, rivers, and wind erosion) or by
digging in the ground. By studying fossilized bones, scientists learn about the physical appearance of
earlier humans and how it changed. Bone size, shape, and markings left by muscles tell us how those
predecessors moved around, held tools, and how the size of their brains changed over a long time.
Archeological evidence refers to the things earlier people made and the places where scientists find them.
By studying this type of evidence, archeologists can understand how early humans made and used tools
and lived in their environments.

How did humans evolve?

Primates, like humans, are mammals. Around ten to twelve million years ago, the ancestral
primate lineage split through speciation from one common ancestor into two major groups. These two
lineages evolved separately to become the variety of species we see today. Members of one group were
the early version of what we know today as the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos in Africa,
orangutans in Asia) (Figures 6.1 and 6.2); that is, the modern great apes evolved from this ancestral group.
They mostly remained in forest with an arboreal lifestyle, meaning they live in trees. Great apes are also
quadrupeds which means they move around with four legs on the ground (see Figure 2). The other group
Speciation: The formation of new and distinct species in the course of evolution.

Genus: In the classification of biology, a genus is a subdivision of a family. This subdivision is a grouping of
living organisms having one or more related similarities. In the binomial nomenclature, the universally used
scientific name of each organism is composed of its genus (capitalized) and a species identifier (lower case),
for example Australopithecus afarensis, Homo sapiens.
evolved in a different way. They became terrestrial, meaning they live on land and not in trees. From being
quadrupeds they evolved to bipeds, meaning they move around on their two back legs. In addition the
size of their brain increased. This is the group that, through evolution, gave rise to the modern current
humans. Many fossils found in Africa are from the genus named Australopithecus (which means southern
ape). This genus is extinct, but fossil studies revealed interesting features about their adaptation toward
a terrestrial lifestyle.

Figure 6.1. Evolutionary

scheme, showing that
Chimpanzees (or other
apes) didn’t evolve into
humans. Both lineages
descended from a common
ancestor and went their
separate ways.

Figure 6.2. Great Apes in

nature. (right) Arboreal (in
trees) locomotion of
orangutans and (left) the
quadrupedal (four-foot)
locomotion of gorillas and
chimpanzees. Figure 6.1

Figure 6.2

Australopithecus afarensis and Lucy

 In Ethiopia (East Africa) there is a site called Hadar, where several fossils of different animal
species were found. Among those fossils was Australopithecus afarensis. In 1974, paleoanthropologists
found an almost complete skeleton of one specimen of this species and named it Lucy, from The Beatles
song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” The whole world found out about Lucy and she was in every
newspaper: she became a global celebrity. This small female—only about 1.1 m tall—lived 3.2 million
years ago. Analysis of her femurs (thigh bones) showed that she used terrestrial locomotion. Lucy could
have used arboreal and bipedal locomotion as well, as foot bones of another A. afarensis individual had a
curve similar to that found in the feet of modern humans. Authors of this finding suggested accordingly
that A. afarensis was exclusively bipedal and could have been a hunter-gatherer.

Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo neanderthalensis

Homo is the genus (group of species) that includes modern humans, like us, and our most closely
related extinct ancestors. Organisms that belong to the same species produce viable offspring. The famous
paleoanthropologist named Louis Leakey, along with his team, discovered Homo habilis (meaning handy
man) in 1964. Homo habilis was the most ancient species of Homo ever found. Homo habilis appeared in
Tanzania (East Africa) over 2.8 million years ago, and 1.5 million years ago became exinct. They were
estimated to be about 1.40 meter tall and were terrestrial. They were different from Australopithecus
because of the form of the skull. The shape was not piriform (pear-shaped), but spheroid (round), like the
head of a modern human. Homo habilis made stone tools, a sign of creativity.

In Asia, in 1891, Eugene Dubois (also a paleoanthropologist) discovered the first fossil of Homo
erectus (meaning upright man), which appeared 1.8 million years ago. This fossil received several names.
The best known are Pithecanthropus (ape-man) and Sinanthropus (Chinese-man). Homo erectus
appeared in East Africa and migrated to Asia, where they carved refined tools from stone. Dubois also
brought some shells of the time of H erectus from Java to Europe. Contemporary scientists studied these
shells and found engravings that dated from 430,000 and 540,000 years ago. They concluded that H.
erectus individuals were able to express themselves using symbols.

Several Homo species emerged following H. erectus and quite a few coexisted for some time. The
best known one is Homo neanderthalensis (Figure 6.3), usually called Neanderthals and they were known
as the European branch originating from two lineages that diverged around 400,000 years ago, with the
second branch (lineage) Homo sapiens known as the African branch. The first Neanderthal fossil, dated
from around 430,000 years ago, was found in La Sima de los Huesos in Spain and is considered to originate
from the common ancestor called Homo heidelbergensis. Neanderthals used many of the natural
resources in their environment: animals, plants, and minerals. Homo neanderthalensis hunted terrestrial
and marine (ocean) animals, requiring a variety of weapons. Tens of thousands of stone tools from
Neanderthal sites are exhibited in many museums. Neanderthals created paintings in the La Pasiega cave
in the South of Spain and decorated their bodies with jewels and colored paint. Graves were found, which
meant they held burial ceremonies.
 Figure 6.3 A comparison of the skulls of
Homo sapiens (Human) (left) vs. Homo
neanderthalensis (Neanderthal) (right).

Figure 6.4 A trio of other Homo species, all first appearing in the fossil record around two million years ago.

Denisovans are a recent addition to the human tree. In 2010, the first specimen was discovered
in the Denisova cave in south-western Siberia. Very little information is known on their behavior. They
deserve further studies due to their interactions with Neandertals and other Homo species.

Homo sapiens

Fossils recently discovered in Morocco (North Africa) have added to the intense debate on the
spread of H. sapiens after they originated 315,000 years ago. The location of these fossils could mean that
Homo sapiens had visited the whole of Africa. In the same way, the scattering of fossils out of Africa
indicated their migrations to various continents. While intensely debated, hypotheses focus on either a
single dispersal or multiple dispersals out of the African continent. Nevertheless, even if the origin of the
migration to Europe is still a matter of debate, it appears that H. sapiens was present in Israel 180,000
years ago. Therefore, it could be that migration to Europe was not directly from Africa but indirectly
through a stay in Israel-Asia. They arrived about 45,000 years ago into Europe where the Neanderthals
were already present. Studies of ancient DNA show that H. sapiens had babies with Neanderthals and
Denisovans. Nowadays people living in Europe and Asia share between 1 and 4% of their DNA with either
Neanderthals or Denisovans.

Several thousand years ago H. sapiens already made art, like for example the wall painting in the
Chauvet cave (36,000 years ago) and the Lascaux cave (19,000 years ago), both in France. The quality of
the paintings shows great artistic ability and intellectual development. Homo sapiens continued to
prospect the Earth. They crossed the Bering Land Bridge, connecting Siberia and Alaska and moved south
12,500 years ago, to what is now called Chile. Homo sapiens gradually colonized our entire planet.

6.2 HOMO SAPIENS AND EARLY HUMAN MIGRATION

 Homo sapiens is part of a group called hominids, which were the earliest humanlike creatures.
Based on archaeological and anthropological evidence, we think that hominids diverged from other
primates somewhere between 2.5 and 4 million years ago in eastern and southern Africa. Though there
was a degree of diversity among the hominid family, they all shared the trait of bipedalism, or the ability
to walk upright on two legs.

Evolution

Scientists have several theories about why early hominids evolved. One, the aridity hypothesis,
suggests that early hominids were more suited to dry climates and evolved as the Africa’s dry savannah
regions expanded.

According to the savannah hypothesis, early tree-dwelling hominids may have been pushed out
of their homes as environmental changes caused the forest regions to shrink and the size of the savannah
expand. These changes, according to the savannah hypothesis, may have caused them to adapt to living
on the ground and walking upright instead of climbing.

Hominids continued to evolve and develop unique characteristics. Their brain capacities
increased, and approximately 2.3 million years ago, a hominid known as Homo habilis began to make and
use simple tools. By a million years ago, some hominid species, particularly Homo erectus, began to
migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia, where they began to make other advances like controlling fire.

Though there were once many kinds of hominids, only one remains: Homo sapiens. Extinction is
a normal part of evolution, and scientists continue to theorize why other hominid species didn’t survive.
We do have some clues as to why some species were less successful at surviving than others, such as an
inability to cope with competition for food, changes in climate, and volcanic eruptions.

Neanderthal Extinction

Neanderthals went extinct in Europe around 40,000 years ago, roughly 5,000 to 10,000 years after
first meeting Homo sapiens. There are several theories for their extinction. Around 40,000 years ago, the
climate grew colder, transforming much of Europe and Asia into a vast, treeless steppe. Fossil evidence
shows that Neanderthal prey, including wooly mammoths, may have shifted their range further south,
leaving Neanderthals without their preferred foods.

Humans, who had a more diverse diet than Neanderthals and long-distance trade networks, may
have been better suited to find food and survive the harsh, new climate. Some scientists believe that
Neanderthals gradually disappeared through interbreeding with humans. Over many generations of
interbreeding, Neanderthals—and small amounts of their DNA—may have been absorbed into the human
race.

Other theories suggest that modern humans brought some kind of disease with them from Africa
for which Neanderthals had no immunity—or, modern humans violently exterminated Neanderthals
when they crossed paths, though there’s no archeological evidence that humans killed off Neanderthals.

Migration and the Peopling of the Earth

 Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began migrating from the African
continent and populating parts of Europe and Asia. They reached the Australian continent in canoes
sometime between 35,000 and 65,000 years ago. Scientists studying land masses and climate know that
the Pleistocene Ice Age created a land bridge that connected Asia and North America (Alaska) over 13,000
years ago. A widely accepted migration theory is that people crossed this land bridge and eventually
migrated into North and South America.

How were our ancestors able to achieve this feat, and why did they make the decision to leave
their homes? The development of language around 50,000 years ago allowed people to make plans, solve
problems, and organize effectively. We can’t be sure of the exact reasons humans first migrated off of the
African continent, but it was likely correlated with a depletion of resources (like food) in their regions and
competition for those resources. Once humans were able to communicate these concerns and make
plans, they could assess together whether the pressures in their current home outweighed the risk of
leaving to find a new one.

Figure 6.5 Spread of Homo sapiens

Adaptation and effects on nature

When humans migrated from Africa to colder climates, they made clothing out of animal skins
and constructed fires to keep themselves warm; often, they burned fires continuously through the winter.
Sophisticated weapons, such as spears and bows and arrows, allowed them to kill large mammals
efficiently. Along with changing climates, these hunting methods contributed to the extinction of giant
land mammals such as mammoths, giant kangaroos, and mastodons. Fewer giant mammals, in turn,
limited hunters’ available prey. In addition to hunting animals and killing them out of self-defense, humans
began to use the earth’s resources in new ways when they constructed semi-permanent settlements.
Humans started shifting from nomadic lifestyles to fixed homes, using the natural resources there. Semi-
permanent settlements would be the building-blocks of established communities and the development
of agricultural practices.

Figure 6.6 Hominin Family Tree

Suggested Videos

Human Origins 101 | National Geographic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehV-MmuvVMU

The Humans That Lived Before Us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ANNQKKwWGk

Neanderthals 101 | National Geographic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMc81qpCQ3g

Denisovans: Our Mysterious Cousins That Made Us Better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytktpNIN3OM

When We Took Over the World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmboVmtqNJc

Human Prehistory 101 (Part 1 of 3): Out of (Eastern) Africa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8183HPmA2_I

Human Prehistory 101 (Part 2 of 3): Weathering The Storm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Nw66RCMhg

Human Prehistory 101 (Part 3 of 3): Agriculture Rocks Our World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVHD9wGlbho

6.3 THE PREHISTORIC AGES: HOW HUMANS LIVED BEFORE WRITTEN RECORDS

Earth’s beginnings can be traced back 4.5 billion years, but human evolution only counts for a tiny
speck of its history. The Prehistoric Period—or when there was human life before records documented
human activity—roughly dates from 2.5 million years ago to 1,200 B.C. It is generally categorized in three
archaeological periods: the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

From the invention of tools made for hunting to advances in food production and agriculture to
early examples of art and religion, this enormous time span—ending roughly 3,200 years ago (dates vary
upon region)—was a period of great transformation.

The Stone Age

Divided into three periods: Paleolithic (or Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (or Middle Stone Age), and
Neolithic (or New Stone Age), this era is marked by the use of tools by our early human ancestors (who
evolved around 300,000 B.C.) and the eventual transformation from a culture of hunting and gathering to
farming and food production. During this era, early humans shared the planet with a number of now-
extinct hominin relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans.

In the Paleolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.), early humans lived in caves
or simple huts or tepees and were hunters and gatherers. They used basic stone and bone tools, as well
as crude stone axes, for hunting birds and wild animals. They cooked their prey, including woolly
mammoths, deer and bison, using controlled fire. They also fished and collected berries, fruit and nuts.

Ancient humans in the Paleolithic period were also the first to leave behind art. They used
combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal and charcoal mixed into water, blood, animal fats and
tree saps to etch humans, animals and signs. They also carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones and
antlers.

The end of this period marked the end of the last Ice Age, which resulted in the extinction of many
large mammals and rising sea levels and climate change that eventually caused man to migrate.

During the Mesolithic period (about 10,000 B.C. to 8,000 B.C.), humans used small stone tools,
now also polished and sometimes crafted with points and attached to antlers, bone or wood to serve as
spears and arrows. They often lived nomadically in camps near rivers and other bodies of water.
Agriculture was introduced during this time, which led to more permanent settlements in villages

Finally, during the Neolithic period (roughly 8,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C.), ancient humans switched
from hunter/gatherer mode to agriculture and food production. They domesticated animals and
cultivated cereal grains. They used polished hand axes, adzes for ploughing and tilling the land and started
to settle in the plains. Advancements were made not only in tools but also in farming, home construction
and art, including pottery, sewing and weaving.

The Bronze Age

During the Bronze Age (about 3,000 B.C. to 1,300 B.C.), metalworking advances were made, as
bronze, a copper and tin alloy, was discovered. Now used for weapons and tools, the harder metal
replaced its stone predecessors, and helped spark innovations including the ox-drawn plow and the wheel.

This time period also brought advances in architecture and art, including the invention of the
potter’s wheel, and textiles—clothing consisted of mostly wool items such as skirts, kilts, tunics and cloaks.
Home dwellings morphed to so-called roundhouses, consisting of a circular stone wall with a thatched or
turf roof, complete with a fireplace or hearth, and more villages and cities began to form.

Organized government, law and warfare, as well as beginnings of religion, also came into play
during the Bronze Age, perhaps most notably relating to the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids
during this time. The earliest written accounts, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and petroglyphs (rock
engravings), are also dated to this era.

The Iron Age

 The discovery of ways to heat and forge iron kicked off the Iron Age (roughly 1,300 B.C. to 900
B.C.). At the time, the metal was seen as more precious than gold, and wrought iron (which would be
replaced by steel with the advent of smelting iron) was easier to manufacture than bronze.

Along with mass production of steel tools and weapons, the age saw even further advances in
architecture, with four-room homes, some complete with stables for animals, joining more rudimentary
hill forts, as well as royal palaces, temples and other religious structures. Early city planning also took
place, with blocks of homes being erected along paved or cobblestone streets and water systems put into
place.

Agriculture, art and religion all became more sophisticated, and writing systems and written
documentation, including alphabets, began to emerge, ushering in the Early Historical Period.

6.3 PALEOLITHIC SOCIETIES

Sociocultural evolution

Paleolithic literally means “Old Stone [Age],” but the Paleolithic era more generally refers to a
time in human history when foraging, hunting, and fishing were the primary means of obtaining food.
Humans had yet to experiment with domesticating animals and growing plants. Since hunter-gatherers
could not rely on agricultural methods to produce food intentionally, their diets were dependent on the
fluctuations of natural ecosystems. They had to worry about whether overfishing a lake would deplete a
crucial food source or whether a drought would wither up important plants. In order to ensure enough
food production for their communities, they worked to manipulate those systems in certain ways, such
as rotational hunting and gathering.

This was the case for much of human history; it was not until about 11,000 years ago that these
hunter-gatherer systems began to transform. As humans began migrating and adapting to new
environments, they began developing tools and methods that equipped them to make the best of their
respective environmental constraints.

The study of early humans often focuses on biological evolution and natural selection. However,
it is also equally important to focus on sociocultural evolution, or the ways in which early human societies
created culture. Paleolithic humans were not simply cavemen who were concerned only with conquering
their next meal. Archaeological evidence shows that the Neanderthals in Europe and Southwest Asia had
a system of religious beliefs and performed rituals such as funerals. A burial site in Shanidar Cave in
modern-day northeastern Iraq suggests that a Neanderthal’s family covered his body with flowers, which
indicates a belief in something beyond death and a deep sense of spirituality. They also constructed
shelter and tools.

Cultures evolved and developed in specific environmental contexts, enabling their communities
to not only survive but to flourish in unique and dynamic ways. But what exactly is culture? Culture is a
broad term which encompasses the full range of learned human behavior patterns, behaviors which are
often linked to survival.
 Homo sapiens has not changed much anatomically over the last 120,000 years, but it has
undergone a massive cultural evolution. Accordingly, cultural creativity rather than physical
transformation became the central way humans coped with the demands of nature.

Nevertheless cultural evolution cannot be divorced from biological evolution, as the evolution of
a more highly developed and advanced human brain, more highly attuned to social structures, enabled
cultural growth. In fact, the very large size of a human brain itself necessitated certain cultural
adaptations: many scientists have theorized that more difficult births, due to larger skulls, longer gestation
periods, and longer periods of infant dependency, required more advanced social organization and
communication, which played a big role in the cultural evolution of humans.

Homo sapiens’ unique aptitude for creativity allowed for symbolic expression, particularly in
cultural and spiritual contexts, such as artwork and burial rituals. This creative activity is the hallmark of
the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens (wise, wise human), which is what we are today, a subspecies that
is distinctive for its intellectual abilities.

Small communities

Eventually, with the expansion of the human population, the density of human groups also
increased. This often resulted in conflict and competition over the best land and resources, but it also
necessitated cooperation. Due to the constraints of available natural resources, these early communities
were not very large, but they included enough members to facilitate some degree of division of labor,
security, and exogamous reproduction patterns, which means marrying or reproducing outside of one’s
group.

Anthropologists were able to draw these conclusions about Paleolithic people by extrapolating
from the experiences of modern hunter-gatherer communities, such as the Khoisan of the African Kalahari
Desert. Based on the experiences of modern hunter-gatherer societies, who typically have around 500
members, and based on theoretical mathematical models of group process, Paleolithic bands of people
were likely around twenty-five members each, and typically about twenty bands constituted a tribe.

How much land did these bands of people need to provide the necessary food and water to
support life? Anthropologists have estimated that the technology available to Paleolithic humans who
lived between 150,000 and 12,000 years ago would have required over seventy miles of relatively
unproductive land, with a low density of resources, or over seven miles of fertile land to meet the basic
needs of each small community. However, considering how limited these communities were, this land
requirement is extremely inefficient compared to modern productivity levels. At such densities, the area
of the modern-day United States could sustain no more than 600,000 people, and the entire planet only
10 million. For comparison, the current population of the United States is well over 300 million, and there
are 7 billion people on the planet!

Division of labor

Before the advent of agriculture, Paleolithic humans had little control of the environment, so they
focused on staking out territory and negotiating relationships with nearby communities. Eventually,
groups created small, temporary settlements, often near bodies of water. These settlements allowed for
division of labor, and labor was often divided along gender lines, with women doing much of the gathering,
cooking, and child-rearing and men doing much of the hunting, though this was certainly not the case
across all Paleolithic societies. For example, some archaeological evidence suggests that Middle Paleolithic
cultures in Eurasia split work fairly equally between men and women.

However, it is important to note that gender dynamics in Paleolithic times were likely drastically
different from our own, and as such, the division of labor between men and women does not necessarily
indicate differences in equality or power. There are competing theories about whether hunting or
gathering contributed more to group nutrition, but both seemed to have played an important role.

6.3 FORAGING

Life as a Hunter-Gatherer

For 95 percent of their time on Earth, humans have sustained themselves by foraging, that is, by
hunting and gathering food from their natural environment.

The Evolution of Foraging

Living as we do with mass-produced food, markets, and restaurants in every town, and giant
supermarket complexes that are often just down the road, it takes some imagination to think of finding
food every day in the natural environment. Yet that is just what humans (Homo sapiens) have done for
most of their time on Earth — from their appearance about 200,000 years ago until about 11,000 years
ago when they began to develop agriculture. Before Homo sapiens evolved, our hominine ancestors
foraged for millions of years.

Foraging means relying on food provided by nature through the gathering of plants and small
animals, birds, and insects; scavenging animals killed by other predators; and hunting. The word foraging
can be used interchangeably with “hunting and gathering.”

Humans are not the only creatures who forage; many animals do too. What is different about
human foraging? Answers may vary, but the common idea would be that humans, by means of our ability
to communicate verbally, accumulated knowledge, passed it on to younger generations, and worked
together cooperatively. These skills enabled humans to gradually refine their foraging methods, further
distinguishing us from some of our competitors in the animal kingdom.

In fact, one could say that foraging made us human. As fruit trees in the rain forest became less
abundant in the cooling, drying climate, the hominines who survived had to find other food sources. As
they did, many traits evolved: walking on two feet (bipedalism), loss of most hair, smaller intestines, larger
brains, and better communication. These are essentially the hallmarks of being human.

One of the most significant steps that hominines ever took was to learn to control fire. They
probably did this by tending fires started by lightning. No one knows exactly when this occurred, but
hominines may have been using fire to cook meat and roots more than a million years ago. The systematic,
controlled use of fire may have begun before Homo sapiens or it may be one of the species’ distinguishing
features.
 Cooked food provided more nutrition, required less chewing, and allowed intestines to shorten,
all of which contributed to brain development. The social scene of eating together around a fire may have
promoted language development, further contributing to awareness and collective learning. These
changes in food consumption were an important step in increasing the flow of energy through human
systems.

Humans gradually developed their skill in hunting. At first hominines probably scavenged meat that had
been killed by other animals. They could drag a carcass to a safe place and use their stone tools to butcher
the flesh and crack the bones for marrow. As they developed better weapons and learned to hunt
together, they were able to take down larger animals and to devise innovative ways for defeating multiple
prey. Herding groups of animals over a cliff and retrieving the carcasses later is one example of this.

The Economics of Foraging

Climate and environment determined what life was like for any specific group of humans, but
some generalizations apply to any group of foragers. They must have possessed a detailed knowledge of
their environment. They must have had a large territory in which to forage, larger if they lived in harsh
environmental conditions that provided fewer food resources and smaller if they had abundance. Most
foragers lived by moving frequently and making temporary encampments. They might have repeated
seasonal movements based on animal migrations or the ripening of different plant food sources. Foragers
usually lived in small groups of 15 to 30, and split up further when food became scarce or when conflicts
arose. Populations grew extremely slowly, if at all. Mothers’ milk provided the only sustenance for infants
and nursing extended for three to four years, often preventing a new pregnancy. In any case, mothers
could not carry more than one infant at a time. In these close-knit groups, foragers usually shared the
food they accumulated, especially prizes of fresh meat. Apparently, foraging societies were the most
egalitarian in human history.

The Bushmen of Southern Africa

Until relatively recently, five different groups of people had been living as foragers in the same
place for 30,000 years. And it’s a semidesert — the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, Namibia, and South
Africa. The groups each have a name, but collectively they are known as San, Bushmen, or the First People.
Most call themselves Bushmen when referring to themselves collectively.

How did the Bushmen survive as foragers in such harsh environmental conditions for so many
years? Their survival has given the human community a valuable example of the skills of foragers in
extremely challenging surroundings.

The Bushmen moved every day during the rainy season in search of budding edible greens. They
constructed simple shelters against the rain at night. During the dry season, however, they built more
stable huts of branches and grass around water sources. Finding water was their essential activity.
Sometimes they had to dig deep holes wherever the sand was damp and sip up water through hollow
grass straws, often storing it in ostrich eggshells, which held about five cups, more than a day’s supply.

The tools of the Bushmen were simple. Men used a bow with poison-tipped arrows and spears
for hunting deer, antelope, kudu (another species of antelope), and buffalo. For gathering, the women
used a blanket, a sling made of hide, a cloak to carry wood and food, smaller carrying bags, and a digging
stick about three feet long and about an inch in diameter. Nuts and roots provided the staple foods.
Women also collected fruit, berries, bush onions, and ostrich eggs. Insects — grasshoppers, beetles,
caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and termites — supplied a portion of the Bushmen’s protein. Hunting
contributed about 20 percent of the total diet, while gathering provided 80 percent.

The Bushmen spent a large portion of their time in “leisure” activities — conversation, joking,
singing, and dancing. Decisions were reached by consensus, with women having relative equality with
men. Chiefs were designated, but they had little additional power.

Studies of the Bushmen began in the 1950s when they still lived in the traditional way. By the
1990s most had been forced to adopt subsistence farming as African governments had created game
preserves out of some of their former hunting territories.
 THRESHOLD 7 – AGRICULTURE

LOOKING BACK: WHAT HAPPENED IN THRESHOLD 6?

Threshold 6 focused on the emergence of humans as part of the Big History story. We learned:

• What physical adaptations have made us different from our primate cousins.
• What role human language plays in collective learning.
• How collective learning allows us to pass knowledge from one generation to the next.
• How the first humans lived.

THRESHOLD 7 – AGRICULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

Foraging is hard. It takes a long time to find the food and materials needed to feed a village.
Foragers often have to walk long distances to get everything they need. Throughout the year they have
to move from place to place as they used up resources or follow the seasons. It is not an easy life. One
day, someone came up with the idea of farming. It is easy to assume farming always existed, but it hasn’t.
Humans invented agriculture. Farming enabled people to grow all the food they needed in one place, with
a much smaller group of people. This led to massive population growth, creating cities and trade. Since
not everyone in the community was needed to run a farm, this freed up other people to specialize in other
things, like government, armies and the arts. Civilizations were born. Wherever agriculture flourished,
humans came together in larger populations, stocked pile resources and developed complex
infrastructures. Farming radically transformed almost every aspect of human society.

Table 6.1 SUMMARY OF THRESHOLD 7 – AGRICULTURE

GOLDILOCKS EMERGENT
THRESHOLD INGREDIENTS STRUCTURE
CONDITION PROPERTIES

Increased capacity
Increasing
Long of humans to
Collective Human
preceding extract energy
Learning → communities
period of and food →
innovation sharing
Collective larger, denser
increasing ability information
AGRICULTURE Learning; communities →
to manipulate needed to
warmer increased social
and extract manipulate their
climates; complexity →
resources from surroundings in
population accelerating
environment and new ways.
pressure. Collective
other organisms.
Learning.

Suggested Video

Threshold 7: Agriculture | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n4nne9FQFo
 7.1 THE RISE OF AGRICULTURE

The Neolithic Revolution, also called the Agricultural Revolution, marked the transition in human
history from small, nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers to larger, agricultural settlements and early
civilization. The Neolithic Revolution started around 10,000 B.C. in the Fertile Crescent, a boomerang-
shaped region of the Middle East where humans first took up farming. Shortly after, Stone Age humans in
other parts of the world also began to practice agriculture. Civilizations and cities grew out of the
innovations of the Neolithic Revolution.

Neolithic Age

The Neolithic Age is sometimes called the New Stone Age. Neolithic humans used stone tools like
their earlier Stone Age ancestors, who eked out a marginal existence in small bands of hunter-gatherers
during the last Ice Age.

Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe coined the term “Neolithic Revolution” in 1935 to
describe the radical and important period of change in which humans began cultivating plants, breeding
animals for food and forming permanent settlements. The advent of agriculture separated Neolithic
people from their Paleolithic ancestors.

Many facets of modern civilization can be traced to this moment in history when people started
living together in communities.

Neolithic Humans

The archaeological site of Çatalhöyük in southern Turkey is one of the best-preserved Neolithic
settlements. Studying Çatalhöyük has given researchers a better understanding of the transition from a
nomadic life of hunting and gathering to an agriculture lifestyle.

Archaeologists have unearthed more than a dozen mud-brick dwellings at the 9,500 year-old
Çatalhöyük. They estimate that as many as 8,000 people may have lived here at one time. The houses
were clustered so closely back-to-back that residents had to enter the homes through a hole in the roof.

The inhabitants of Çatalhöyük appear to have valued art and spirituality. They buried their dead
under the floors of their houses. The walls of the homes are covered with murals of men hunting, cattle
and female goddesses.

Some of the earliest evidence of farming comes from the archaeological site of Tell Abu Hureyra,
a small village located along the Euphrates River in modern Syria. The village was inhabited from roughly
11,500 to 7,000 B.C.
 Inhabitants of Tell Abu Hureyra initially hunted gazelle and other game. Around 9,700 B.C. they
began to harvest wild grains. Several large stone tools for grinding grain have been found at the site.

The world before agriculture

Based on current archeological evidence, anatomically modern humans have existed roughly
200,000-300,000 years. However, before roughly 15,000-20,000 years ago, we have no evidence that our
ancestors had agriculture. Instead, we believe they strictly hunted or foraged for food. There were times
when they had a big kill and had more food than they knew what to do with. There were other times when
they overforaged or hunted and they didn’t know how many days it would be until their next meal. If they
didn’t find food, they or their families would starve. Even when there was food, it might take miles of
walking to find it. For many of these preagricultural societies, a good bit of their energy went into just
getting more energy—in other words, food—to keep going and reproduce.

There also couldn’t be too many humans living in one area since there was only so much food to
be found or killed. Because of this, a tribe of 100 hunter-foragers would have needed to be the only
humans on 50 to 500 square kilometers to survive—places lush with life, like tropical rain forests, could
support a higher density. With only hunting and foraging to support human populations, it is estimated
that the Earth could only support about 10 million people. Historians estimate the world population was
around six to ten million 10,000 years ago.

The birth of agriculture

About 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, humans began to mold nature to their needs and agriculture
emerged in multiple places around the planet. We believe that it emerged independently and spread from
places as varied as Mesopotamia, China, South America and sub-Saharan Africa. As we explore more, it is
likely that scientists will find more places where agriculture may have emerged even earlier. The birth of
agriculture is often referred to as the Neolithic Revolution since it seems to coincide with the Neolithic
period—or new Stone Age. The Neolithic period’s name stems from the fact that stone artifacts were
more smooth and refined than those of the Paleolithic period, or Old Stone Age. Many of these tools
facilitated early agriculture.
 Figure 7.1 Agricultural tools found in the Iberian settlement Bastida of Alcusses, ca. late 5th
century B.C.E. to the 4th century B.C.E.

The first agriculture was likely cultivation of wild species of plants and basic herding of livestock.
As time went on, humans became more and more sophisticated at breeding the plants and livestock that
best met our needs. The corn you see in the grocery store and the pigs, cows, and sheep you see at a farm
did not evolve independently in the wild. They are the product of thousands of years of human selection
and breeding from original, wild forms.

Why did agriculture emerge when and where it did?

The simple answer is that we’re not sure. We do, however, have several theories—can you think
of more?

End of a glacial period: The last glacial period ended 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. This seems to
coincide with the emergence of agriculture. After the glacial period ended, there was more moisture in
the air, less frozen soil, and better conditions overall for more plant and animal life. These conditions
would have also been more suitable for agriculture. This theory still has several open questions:

1) Why have we not found evidence of agriculture during the last interglacial—warmer—period over
100,000 years ago? Have we just not found it yet?
2) Even during the glacial period, weren’t there some places on Earth in the tropics that would have
still been suitable for agriculture?

Continued human development: Even though anatomically modern humans have been around for
roughly 200,000 years, our brains, language, and culture may have continued to develop and change—
including through natural selection. It is possible that only 10,000 to 20,000 years ago did we first have
the right mix of environmental, mental, and cultural development to implement agriculture. This theory
is bolstered by the fact that the dawn of agriculture seems to coincide with humans being able to make
the more sophisticated stone objects which define the Neolithic period.
Pastoralism: a branch of agriculture

A branch of agriculture—called pastoralism—began around the same time as cultivation of plants.

Pastoralism is the domestication and herding of animals such as goats, sheep, and cattle. In regions where
plant cultivation proved difficult due to rocky terrain or climates that were inhospitable to plants,
pastoralists herded animals. While many pastoralists were nomadic, their lifestyle differed fundamentally
from that of hunter-foragers in that they did not rely exclusively on naturally occurring resources. They
milked animals for dairy products and used their wool to weave textiles, which they could trade with
agricultural societies if they lived in close enough proximity to them.

A mix of cooperation and conflict resulted from the relationship between pastoralists and
farmers. Pastoralists’ military-related artifacts suggest that they may have come into conflict with farming
societies; however, in other cases, pastoralists traded goods with farmers in a cooperative relationship.

Agricultural Inventions

Plant domestication: Cereals such as emmer wheat, einkorn wheat and barley were among the first crops
domesticated by Neolithic farming communities in the Fertile Crescent bounded on the west by the
Mediterranean Sea and on the east by the Persian Gulf. These early farmers also domesticated lentils,
chickpeas, peas and flax.

Domestication is the process by which farmers select for desirable traits by breeding successive
generations of a plant or animal. Over time, a domestic species becomes different from its wild relative.

Neolithic farmers selected for crops that harvested easily. Wild wheat, for instance, falls to the
ground and shatters when it is ripe. Early humans bred for wheat that stayed on the stem for easier
harvesting.

Around the same time that farmers were beginning to sow wheat in the Fertile Crescent, people
in Asia started to grow rice and millet. Scientists have discovered archaeological remnants of Stone Age
rice paddies in Chinese swamps dating back at least 7,700 years.

In Mexico, squash cultivation began about 10,000 years ago, while maize-like crops emerged
around 9,000 years ago.

Livestock: The first livestock were domesticated from animals that Neolithic humans hunted for meat.
Domestic pigs were bred from wild boars, for instance, while goats came from the Persian ibex.
Domesticated animals made the hard, physical labor of farming possible while their milk and meat added
variety to the human diet. They also carried infectious diseases: smallpox, influenza, and the measles all
spread from domesticated animals to humans.

The first farm animals also included sheep and cattle. These originated in Mesopotamia between
10,000 and 13,000 years ago. Water buffalo and yak were domesticated shortly after in China, India and
Tibet.
 Draft animals including oxen, donkeys and camels appeared much later—around 4,000 B.C.—as
humans developed trade routes for transporting goods.

Impact of agriculture on collective learning

The impact of agriculture has been profound on humanity, most clearly in terms of population.
This is because breeding plants and animals has significantly increased the availability of human
consumable calories per square kilometer. One way to think about it is that we replaced things that
weren’t consumable by humans with things that were. Through techniques like irrigation, we were also
able to make things grow where they might not have before.

To put this in perspective, before the agricultural revolution experts estimate that there were six
to ten million people, which is about how many hunter-foragers the Earth could sustain. By the time of
the Roman Empire, about 10,000 years later, the world population had grown over 25-fold to 250 million.
Fast forward 2000 years to the present, and the population has grown another 28-fold to seven billion. In
roughly 10,000 to 15,000 years, advances in agriculture have allowed the human population to become
roughly 1000 times larger!

Agriculture also has had environmental impacts. Farmers used complex tools to cultivate and
irrigate their fields and to build settlements. To expand their amount of usable land, agriculturalists
cleared forests using the slash and burn technique; they would remove a ring of bark from the trees,
drying out the trees and allowing them to burn more quickly. The ash from the trees acted as a fertilizer
for the soil.

Pastoralism also brought challenges to the environment and people. Herds of animals
concentrated in one area could overgraze the land, ultimately rendering it unusable or subject to erosion.
In addition, with a closer proximity to animals, came a higher likelihood that diseases could be transmitted
from animals to humans

By actively managing their food supplies, agricultural societies were able to produce more food
than hunter-foragers and support denser populations. Having a large population nearby made it
worthwhile for farmers to grow more food than they needed for themselves, as they could trade this
surplus for other goods. For non-farmers, this meant that they could focus on making other goods and
trading these goods for food and other things. People could specialize—focus on doing one thing—which
led to increased productivity. Increased productivity led to the creation of better buildings, tools,
weapons, and also to the rise of governments to oversee this activity and military forces to protect people
and resources.

Many population centers evolved into the first wave of city-states that emerged within a few
thousand years of the agricultural revolution. Eventually those states began to have complex
bureaucracies to tax and administer their people, a significant catalyst for the birth of writing, which was
transformational for civilization.

7.2 THE FIRST CITIES AND STATES APPEAR

 The first agrarian civilizations developed in about 3200 BCE. These early farming societies started
in three areas: Mesopotamia; in Egypt and Nubia (now northern Sudan); and in the Indus Valley. More
appeared in China a bit later and in Central America and along the Andes Mountains of South America at
about 2000 — 1000 BCE. Why in these places?

First, we must be clear about the definitions of the words city, state, and civilization. A “city”
contains tens of thousands of people. It’s larger than a town which contains only thousands of people. A
village is made up of just hundreds. In cities, people had specific jobs. They weren’t all farmers. The food
they ate was grown by farmers nearby.

A “state” is a city, or several cities, and the surrounding villages and farms. A state could include
hundreds of thousands of people, even millions. Those people fell into different levels depending on their
social rank or how much wealth and power they had. A few people called “elites” were on top.

Elites typically made up no more than 10 percent of the population, yet had more wealth and power than
the bottom 90 percent. States were ruled by these elites. They kept order and collected taxes or tribute
through the use of force, if necessary.

Out of states arose empires. An empire was led by a single ruler who controlled large territories
of cities and farmland. These large states are often called “civilizations.”

All civilizations share certain characteristics. They have dense populations and are controlled by
elites. This does not mean they are better than other kinds of societies. However, they are more complex.
Since these early civilizations always depended on the farming around them, we call them “agrarian
civilizations.”

Places of early civilizations

Four of the earliest agrarian civilizations occurred in fertile river valleys. Plants and animals in
those areas had been tamed earlier and helped civilizations get their start.

The first of these formed in Mesopotamia, now called Iraq. What made this area so fertile was
the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Access to water helped people grow more in these
valleys. Wheat and barley were the major crops. Mesopotamians also grew lentils and chickpeas and
herded sheep and goats.

The next three places where agrarian civilizations emerged were in the Nile River Valley in Egypt
and Nubia, the Indus River Valley in India, and the Huang He (Yellow) River Valley in China. Each river
valley had its own type of plants and animals, which had been taken from the wild nearby. The Egyptians
and Nubians had wheat, barley, cattle, fish, and birds. The Indus Valley people raised cattle and cotton,
as well as wheat, barley, lentils, sheep, goats, and chickens. In China, wheat was grown in the north. Rice
was cultivated later in the south. Pigs, chickens, and soybeans also formed the main crops in China.

Large states appeared a couple of thousand years later in the Americas. The food options there
were quite different. People in Central America learned to grow maize (corn), peppers, tomatoes, squash,
beans, peanuts, and cotton. Their only domestic animals were dogs and turkeys. Along the Andes
Mountains in South America, people used llamas and alpacas for wool and transport; for food they
depended mostly on potatoes and quinoa, a grain rich in protein. They had guinea pigs, and fish brought
up from the coast.

Why and how did states emerge?

After people learned to grow plants and tame animals, they gradually learned to utilize animals
for a variety of things. Instead of eating animals right away, they used them for their milk, wool, manure,
and muscle power. The world’s population was able to grow dramatically as humans were able to farm
more. In 8000 BCE, it stood at perhaps 6 million. By 3000 BCE, it was maybe 50 million.

At the same time, the climate was changing dramatically. The Earth had reached a stable level of
warmth by about 8000 BCE. It had been gradually warming since the height of the last ice age, which was
about 20,000 BCE. After 8000 BCE, the climate in the northern hemisphere generally became drier,
possibly due to slight changes in the Earth’s orbit. This dryness drove people from mountain areas down
into river valleys to find water. During floods, rich soil was deposited into the valleys. It made the land
fertile and good for farming.

As more food became available and people lived closer together, the social structure changed. A
handful of people became much wealthier and more powerful than the rest. Why did the majority of
people allow this to happen?

We can only guess that leaders were needed to manage projects like building big watering
systems or dividing up extra food. They also needed armed protection against groups nearby. At the same
time, priests and rulers could take opportunities to control the extra food supply. Controlling food meant
power. Gradually their power grew. They formed political or religious groups that controlled the land and
its people.

Areas without early civilizations

Some areas of the world did not produce full-blown cities and states early on. Even so, the trend
toward agriculture seems to have been present everywhere.

In sub-Saharan Africa, people were separated from the northern coast by the harsh desert. Rain
forests covered much of the land. The Bantu people, in the eastern part of modern Nigeria, cultivated
yams, oil palm trees, millet, and sorghum and herded cattle. Eventually camels replaced horses and
donkeys for travel across the Sahara. Muslim merchants could now make their way across the desert to
the west coast. Small regional states and kingdoms emerged. But a major agrarian civilization never
sprung up.

Small islands in the Pacific did not have the resources to create full-scale agrarian civilizations. But
their smaller states and chiefdoms had features similar to those around the world. In Australia, agriculture
never really materialized. The soil was poor, and the island was isolated.

Archaeologists have long thought that the basin of the Amazon River didn’t contain the resources
to support dense human societies. But recent evidence suggests that people there found ways to fertilize
the soil by adding charcoal.
Comparing early agrarian civilizations

In the earliest agrarian civilizations there were at least two things: a high-ranking group in control,
and the forceful collection of taxes. It seems centralized state control was needed to bring together and
support large populations of people. Yet, these civilizations developed many similar traits beyond those.

Civilizations commonly included the following:

1. Storage of surplus food

2. Development of a priestly class; a state religion based on gods/goddesses
3. Central rule (such as a king, pharaoh, or emperor)
4. Specialized jobs
5. Social rank based on wealth, ancestry, and job
6. Increased trade
7. Systems of writing or recording information; increased collective learning
8. Armies and increased warfare
9. Monumental public architecture (temples, pyramids)
10. More inequality between men and women; male-dominated traditions

Table 6.2 CIVILIZATION COMPARISON CHART - 1

Table 6.3 CIVILIZATION COMPARISON CHART - 2

Suggested Videos

The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I

Why Was Agriculture So Important? | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx6-m510hjU

Jacqueline Howard: History of Domestic Animals | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCQqiO5zXok

Where and Why Did the First Cities and States Appear? | Big History Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppNmUPTbXtU
7.3 WAYS OF KNOWING: AGRICULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

Recordkeeping and history

History is typically defined as the study of the past. To study of the past historians need to focus
on questions and evidence. They must come up with questions about the past and gather evidence to
answer these questions.

In some ways studying history is a lot like trying to solve mysteries. Once something happens, it’s
gone. Only “residue,” various kinds of evidence, is left behind for the detective or historian to ponder. The
mystery can only be solved or historical event explained if the detective/historian asks the right questions
and finds the necessary evidence to answer it.

Science is different from history in some important ways. Scientists asks questions and design
experiments or plan observations to test their hypotheses. Repeating experiments and observations gives
them confidence about their conclusions. Historians ask questions, but they must rely on the analysis of
artifacts and written evidence to answer them. They can’t perform and repeat experiments.

There are many types of historians, and their questions differ depending on the field of history
they work in. For example, the questions that an environmental historian asks are going to be different
from the questions of an economic historian.

Many species have ways of tracking the past, but only humans have writing.

• Plants and animals can track the past. Trees, for example, create tree rings, but creating
a ring each year is not the same as remembering abstract ideas or origin stories.
• Humans can use language and writing to record ideas and make them accessible without
an individual person having to memorize them.

For a long time, humans could only transmit their ideas orally. This required people to memorize
the ideas or records, and then pass them on to someone else.

Writing allowed humans to remember and record much more information than any one human
could pass on orally. Once the information was recorded in a permanent way, a person was not required
to remember it to keep it in the collective learning of the human community.

Historians depend on written records. Historians use them to help answer the questions they have
about what happened in the past.

The origin of world religions

Most of the large-scale, world religions developed around the same time—between 1200 BCE and
700 CE. As a result of increasing commercial and cultural interaction between people across large areas,
religions were shared.

Common features of these religions are the following: there is usually a founding man who
receives the word of God; there is a key text or set of texts that defines man’s relationship with God; there
are recommended ways of living and worshipping; people come together regularly to have God’s word
interpreted for them by an authority; and there is a path to self-transformation and eternal salvation in
one way or another.

Religion provided structure and meaning for large groups of people in ways that small, tight-knit
village communities used to do. Religion provided stability in cities and appealed to many different people
from all social classes and occupations.

Urban dwellers, and particularly poor, marginal persons, found that authoritative religious
guidance, shared faith, and mutual support among congregations of believers could substitute for the
tight-knit custom of village existence (within which the rural majority continued to live) and give meaning
and value to ordinary lives, despite daily contact with uncaring strangers.
Suggested Videos

Intro to History | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_bKCdxLkF0

Migrations and Intensification: Crash Course Big History #7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy2XJMczUNc
7.4 WHAT SHOULD WE EAT?

Humans and Nutrition Table 6.4

The human body uses food
both as a source of energy and as a
source of materials for building and
maintaining body tissues. The
amount of energy that is available in
food is expressed in Calories. One
Calorie (Cal) is equal to 1,000 calories,
or one kilocalorie. As shown in Table
6.4, the major nutrients we get from
food are carbohydrates, proteins, and
lipids. Our bodies need smaller
amounts of vitamins and minerals to
remain healthy.

Malnutrition is a condition that occurs when people do not consume enough Calories or do not
eat a sufficient variety of foods to fulfill all of the body’s needs. There are many forms of malnutrition. For
example, humans need to get eight essential amino acids from proteins. This is easily done if a variety of
foods are eaten. However, in some parts of the world, the only sources of food may be corn or rice. Each
of these foods contains protein but lacks one of the essential amino acids. A type of malnutrition called
amino acid deficiency can result from such a limited diet.

Sources of nutrition

A person’s diet is the type and amount of food that he or she eats. A healthy diet is one that
maintains a balance of the right amounts of nutrients, minerals, and vitamins. In most parts of the world,
people eat large amounts of food that is high in carbohydrates, such as rice, potatoes, and bread. The
foods produced in the greatest amounts worldwide are grains, plants of the grass family whose seeds are
rich in carbohydrates. Besides eating grains, most people eat fruits, vegetables, and smaller amounts of
meats, nuts, and other foods that are rich in fats and proteins.

Diets around the world

 People worldwide generally consume the same major nutrients and eat the same basic kinds of
food. But diets vary by region, as shown in Figure 7.2. People in more developed countries tend to eat
more food and a larger proportion of proteins and fats than people eat in less developed countries. For
example, in the United States, almost half of all Calories people consume come from meat, fish, and oil.
The Japanese, whose diet traditionally included a mix of rice, vegetables, and seafood, have started to
consume more beef in recent decades.

Figure 7.2 People in developed countries generally eat more food and more proteins and fats
than people in less developed countries eat.

The ecology of food

As the human population grows, farmland replaces forests and grasslands. Feeding everyone
while maintaining natural ecosystems becomes more difficult. Different kinds of agriculture have different
environmental impacts and different levels of efficiency.

• Food Efficiency

The efficiency of a given type of agriculture is a measure of the quantity of food produced on a
given area of land with limited inputs of energy and resources. An ideal food crop is one that
efficiently produces a large amount of food with little negative impact on the environment.

On average, more energy, water, and land are used to produce a Calorie of food from animals
than to produce a Calorie of food from plants. Animals that are raised for human use are usually fed
plant matter. Because less energy is available at each higher level on a food chain, only about 10
percent of the energy from the plants gets stored in the animals. Thus, a given area of land can usually
produce more food for humans when it is used to grow plants than when it is used to raise animals.
The efficiency of raising plants for food is one reason why diets around the world are largely based on
plants. However, meat from animals generally provides more nutrients per gram than most food from
plants.

• Old and New Foods

Researchers hope to improve the efficiency of food production by studying plants and other
organisms that have high yield—the amount of food that can be produced in a given area. Researchers
are interested in organisms that can thrive in various climates and that do not require large amounts
 of fertilizer, pesticides, or fresh water. Some organisms have been a source of food for centuries, while
other sources are just being discovered.

Artificial selection and GMOs

Artificial selection, also called Figure 7.2

"selective breeding”, is where humans
select for desirable traits in agricultural
products or animals, rather than leaving
the species to evolve and change
gradually without human interference,
like in natural selection.

Artificial selection has long

been used in agriculture to produce
animals and crops with desirable traits.
The meats sold today are the result of
the selective breeding of chickens,
cattle, sheep, and pigs. Many fruits and
vegetables have been improved or even
created through artificial selection. For
example, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage were all derived from the wild mustard plant through
selective breeding. Artificial selection appeals to humans since it is faster than natural selection and allows
humans to mold organisms to their needs.

Dog breeding is a perfect example of how humans select for desirable or fashionable traits. There
are three different types of breeds that exist:

• Purebred is a type of dog that comes from a lineage of the same dog breed and that has never
mated with another breed. For example, a purebred german shepherd is all german shepherd and
nothing else.
• A cross-breed dog is a dog that was the offspring of two different types of purebreds. Let’s say
your purebred german shepherd mated with a purebred husky. The resulting offspring would be
a cross-breed of half german shepherd, half husky.
• Finally, mixed-breeds are a combination of multiple breeds, where their parents were not
purebreds. There are too many possible combinations to count!

One advantage to choosing cross-breeds and mixed-breeds over purebred dogs is that harmful
genetic mutations that tend to frequently occur in certain lineages can be covered up, or “bred out”, by
the genetic background of the other dog breed(s) in the individual. In purebreds, since there is only one
lineage, these mistakes are often more apparent and can make purebred dogs prone to certain diseases.

An example of artificial selection - Genetically modified organisms

 Humans haven’t only selected for traits in animals. We’ve also shaped an incredible amount of
agricultural plant products that make plants easier to grow and tastier to eat. Recently we have started
to artificially select traits at a molecular level where we mix DNA from different plant or animal species to
make genetically modified organisms (GMOs). To genetically modify an organism, genetic information (or,
the blueprint of the organism) is added or removed, or replaced by the information from another
organism that has a trait we desire. For example, let’s say you have a species of corn that is highly
susceptible to drought, but is the most delicious corn that exists. If you could identify the genetic
information that coded for drought resistance from another plant, then you could insert that into the
blueprints of your corn species to make it more resistant to drought.

GMOs are used in agriculture to help crops become more resistant to drought, cold, salinity, pests
and diseases. This is advantageous for us because it allows us to feed our growing population by doing
agriculture in places that are usually less than ideal or not possible. With more areas to do agriculture, we
have larger agricultural production to feed ourselves.

Figure 7.3 The evolution of corn

 THRESHOLD 8 – THE MODERN REVOLUTION

LOOKING BACK: WHAT HAPPENED IN THRESHOLD 7?

Threshold 7 focused on the emergence of agriculture, as well as the first cities and civilizations.
We learned:

• How the development of agriculture changed humans’ lifestyle.

• How cities, states, and civilizations developed to organize agricultural societies.
• About the development of writing and the impact that has on what evidence is available to
modern-day historians.

THRESHOLD 8 – THE MODERN REVOLUTION

For most of the Agrarian era, the various agrarian civilizations had little contact with or knowledge
of agrarian civilizations in the other world zones. The lack of global connections was an impediment to
innovation and growth. The linking of the four world zones enabled the exposure of people cultures, ideas,
foods, plants, and diseases from the other world zones. This increased the exchanges between the
different zones and increased the possibilities for innovations. The modern world as we know it developed
from these changes.

Table 8.1 SUMMARY OF THRESHOLD 8 – THE MODERN REVOLUTION

GOLDILOCKS EMERGENT
THRESHOLD INGREDIENTS STRUCTURE
CONDITION PROPERTIES

Vast increase in
human use of
Globally connected
Globalization; resources →
human
MODERN rapid entirely new
communities with Acceleration in
WORLD/ acceleration in lifeways, social
rapidly Collective
ANTHROPOCENE Collective relationships →
accelerating Learning at
Learning; first single species
capacity to global scales.
innovation; use in the history of
manipulate the
of fossil fuels. Earth capable of
biosphere.
transforming the
biosphere.

Suggested Video

Threshold 8: The Modern Revolution | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJzrIKtKok

8.1 EXPANSION
WHY DID CIVILIZATIONS EXPAND?

Agrarian civilizations needed to expand because they derived their wealth primarily from
resources they grew from the land. A parcel of land was only able to produce a limited number of crops
each year, and environmental fluctuations affected the quality and size of the crops. The only certain way
to increase productivity was to take over more land.

However, innovations designed to improve the effectiveness of armies were also used to improve
economic productivity. Iron developed for weapons could be used to make better plows, which improved
farm productivity. Similarly, roads built to allow armies to move from region to region also allowed
merchants to trade over wider areas, thus making for more productive economies.

THE FOUR WORLD ZONES

Climate and geography divide human populations

For a brief period, from about 10,000 years ago to about 500 years ago, the rising seas at the end
of the last ice age divided the world into four non-connected geographic zones. Isolated from one another,
four groups of people developed distinct lifeways and conducted their own experiments in human culture.

What are world zones?

In his book Maps of Time, David Christian describes the division of the world into four world zones,
which helps him analyze and explain human history. Many other historians have recognized the two
largest world zones — Afro-Eurasia, which they often call the “Old World,” and the Americas, which they
call the “New World.” But Christian was living in Australia, and preferred looking at the whole world. These
are the four world zones that he uses:

01 - Afro-Eurasia: Africa and the Eurasian landmass, including offshore islands like Britain and Japan

02 - The Americas: North, Central, and South America, plus offshore islands like the Caribbean Islands

03 - Australasia: Australia and the island of Papua New Guinea, plus neighboring islands in the Pacific
Ocean

04 - The Pacific: Island societies such as New Zealand, Micronesia, Melanesia, Hawaii

(Antarctica is not considered a world zone because until very recently no people lived there.)

A world zone is simply a large region of human interaction, linked geographically, culturally,
economically, and sometimes politically. It may have a hundred thousand to millions of people living in
different types of communities. Each of the four world zones functioned as a separate world, not in regular
contact with other zones until Europeans sailed to the Americas late in the 15th century. The world today
no longer has four separate world zones — our world is increasingly global.
 For most of human history, humans existed only in Afro-Eurasia. Homo sapiens migrated to
Australasia about 60,000–50,000 BCE and to the Americas about 20,000–15,000 BCE. Human interaction
continued among these three areas until the melting at the end of the Ice Age caused sea levels to rise
sufficiently to drown the land bridge between Asia and the Americas. There never was a land bridge
between Australasia and Afro-Eurasia; a significant sea passage always existed, which is why the arrival of
humans in Australasia seems such an achievement. But the passage between Afro-Eurasia and Australasia
became wider, and harder to cross, after the seas rose.

The rising of the seas occurred sometime after humans got to the Americas, creating three
separate world zones. The fourth world zone, the Pacific Islands, did not emerge until humans became
skilled enough at sailing to reach these islands — sometime in the past 4,000 years. Hence three of the
four world zones operated from about 10,000 BCE to about 1500 CE, while the fourth functioned only
from about 2000 BCE to 1500 CE. After 1500 CE, extensive travel by sea connected all of the zones and
established the first global exchange network.

What the four world zones reveal

The rising seas cut off the four groups of humans from each other long enough for them to
develop different experiments in culture and civilization, but not so long that they would develop into
separate species.

Comparing human societies is a bit like deciding whether a glass is half full or half empty. You can
notice how different human societies are from each other, or you can exclaim how similar they are to one
another. World history and anthropology courses usually focus on the differences in human societies in
the four world zones. Big history courses focus instead on the similarities of different human societies,
even though they were completely separated from each other for quite a long period.

Agrarian civilizations emerged only in the two largest world zones for very specific reasons. A
closer look at the four zones demonstrates that some zones had more advantages than others. Afro-
Eurasia was so much larger, with better plants for food and animals better suited for transportation, that
civilization emerged there several thousand years earlier than in the Americas. This gave peoples from
Afro-Eurasia a decisive edge when they arrived in the Americas and found civilizations similar to theirs in
structure, but earlier in their development.

The smaller two world zones were so much smaller in their habitable land mass, available
resources, and population that they did not reach the density of people required for civilization in the
time allowed. On the larger Pacific islands, like Hawaii and New Zealand’s North Island, agriculture
emerged, and something very close to states. Would these societies have become states/civilizations if
they had not been interrupted by conquest from the larger zones? We can never know.

In most areas of the Australasian world zone people remained foragers until the arrival of the
Europeans. Agriculture did emerge in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, but their root crops could not
be stored in large quantities and villages were not easily connected. Hence, political structures beyond
village life did not emerge. On the Australian mainland, widespread agriculture never developed. Soil was
poor and, by chance, the available species of plants were not easy to domesticate. Still, archaeological
sites show that the population was increasing in the two millennia before Europeans arrived.
 When you compare the four zones, it’s easy to see the advantages that people living in Afro-
Eurasia had over the other regions. Its people had a head start with the earliest human habitation, the
greatest geographic area, and the largest population. Afro-Eurasia also had the most varied resources and
the largest networks of collective learning, which contained more — and more diverse — information
than those networks existing in the smaller zones.

THE MODERN REVOLUTION

The connection of the four world zones changed the rate of acceleration on Earth and ushered
forth the Modern Revolution.

European explorations to other parts of the world eventually connected the four world zones,
which greatly increased collective learning. All of this began in the fifteenth century because Europeans
needed to find new trade routes to Asia to bypass the Ottoman Empire. European kingdoms were
constantly competing for more resources to pay for war. Also, trade was extremely profitable for
European countries, which became very wealthy from the exchange of goods and ideas with Asia and the
Americas.

Worldwide exploration brought negative effects as well—slavery and the decimation of millions
of Native Americans, who did not have immunities to such Afro-Eurasian diseases like small pox.

It was eighteenth-century British inventors and entrepreneurs who kicked off the Industrial
Revolution. However, these achievements would not have been possible without the raw materials and
new markets of the colonies – a result of European exploration, which would not have been possible
without gunpowder and the compass from China. The new inventions of the Industrial Revolution
including the advancements in textile and agricultural production allowed for populations and innovation
to expand at rates never before seen.

New goods and markets meant an increase in competition with companies attempting to create
better products, which led to an increase in both supply and demand.

Great Britain had the Goldilocks Conditions necessary for industrialization to begin and expand,
including wealth, a large labor force, technological innovations, natural resources like coal, and the desire
to venture out and open new markets for trade. Our population has soared and technology is advancing
at an astronomical rate.

Suggested Videos

Why Did Civilizations Expand? | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QihY-g20QA

Crash Course Big History #8: The Modern Revolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Zdmd4J7TI
 8.2 EXPLORATION & INTERCONNECTION

WHY EARLY GLOBALIZATION MATTERS

Globalization didn’t start with phones and shopping malls. Early societies can be measured by
population and connectivity – the basic factors that brought the four world zones together. Globalization
is not as recent a phenomenon as you might think. In fact, it is a process that goes back hundreds of years.
And it deeply impacted the collective learning of humanity.

Collective learning is the process that has raised the complexity of human societies for all 250,000
years of our history. It is the accumulation of more innovation with each generation than is lost by the
next. It allowed us to get better at foraging, it allowed us to spread out across the world and adapt to the
harshest of environments, it gave birth to agriculture, industry, and any revolutionary technology you may
care to name.

Globalization, in its broadest possible sense, brought the previously separate world zones of Afro-
Eurasia, the Americas, Australasia, and the Pacific Island Societies together. With both globalization's
positive and negative impacts.

CHINA: THE FIRST GREAT DIVERGENCE

Historians sometimes refer to the Industrial Revolution as the “Great Divergence,” when industry
propelled Europe and North America ahead of most of the rest of the world.

In many ways, the Industrial Revolution can be considered the second Great Divergence, behind
rapid technological growth in China in the tenth and eleventh centuries CE.

Rapid growth of the Chinese population resulted from improved farming techniques and food
processing. Higher populations meant more innovators which rendered China one of the most
technologically advanced and wealthiest countries in the world from 900 to 1300 CE.

IBN BATTUTA, MARCO POLO, AND ZHENG HE

Explorers from different parts of the Afro-Eurasian world zone played a key role in helping to
connect the different parts of this massive world zone. The accounts they published about the places they
visited and the new objects, ideas, and peoples they encountered contributed immensely to collective
learning and stimulated further interaction.

Ibn Battuta left his home in Tangier in 1325, returning in 1349. His travels took him to many places
in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Along the way he visited many important cities, including Mecca, Baghdad,
and Delhi.

Marco Polo made two trips from Europe to China, spending the better part of the years 1271–
1295 traveling and exploring. His experiences of life in China, as well as in the other areas he visited, were
recorded in the book The Travels of Marco Polo.
 Zheng He led seven overseas voyages in the name of the Chinese emperor between the years
1405 and 1434. On these voyages, he directed massive fleets and crews that visited ports throughout the
Indian and Pacific Oceans, re-establishing Chinese tribute relationships that had been interrupted by
Mongol control of China.

Suggested Videos

Crash Course Big History: Why Early Globalization Matters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1esRyRV8H2M

How Did the World Become Interconnected? | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLOQJVv77w8

8.3 THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

The Columbian Exchange can be broken down into four categories: Diseases, animals, plants, and
people.

More than 50 percent of the Native American population was wiped out as a result of the arrival
of the Europeans. Some researchers expand this number to as high as 90 percent. People mostly died
from diseases such as smallpox, measles, mumps, and chicken pox.

The New World did have its negative impacts on the Old World as well in the form of Syphilis and
tobacco. Pigs, cows, and horses which were introduced from the Old World to the New, completely
remade the food supply. The abundance of meat and plentiful land for agriculture meant there wasn’t
famine. In addition to food, the larger animals, such as horses, helped with transportation. Horses also
facilitated a nomadic lifestyle for Native Americans because hunting buffalo was more lucrative than
farming.

New World plants had a large impact on Eurasia. There is a long list of New World crops that
moved to Eurasia, and since New World food was more caloric than Old World crops, more people were
able to grow to maturity, which helped cause the world population to double between 1650 and 1850.

In the early stages of the Columbian Exchange, the movement of people was mostly one way, with
Europeans choosing to go to the Americas while Africans were forced into slavery and taken to the
Americas. It also led to the repopulation of the New World. In addition, the increased food supply
increased the population of Eurasia.

Alfred Crosby, the writer of a famous book about the Columbian Exchange, overall, thought it had
a negative effect on the world. The Columbian Exchange has caused the extinction of more plants and
animals than would happen with normal evolution and led to an impoverished biosphere.

The Columbian Exchange is arguably one of the biggest events to have changed our world since
the appearance of humans because it moved us away from isolated continents toward an interconnected
world. The exchange of diseases, plants, animals, and people increased the world’s complexity in
unprecedented ways since the beginning of human history.

Plants and animals were exchanged between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. World populations
changed as a result of this, both as a result of the spread of disease and the movement of people. There
were many biological and cultural consequences of the Columbian Exchange.

In 1492 the four world zones became connected as plants, animals, and people moved in all
directions across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The following items moved east during the Columbian
Exchange: corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, manioc, vanilla, peanuts, tobacco, beans, squash, tomatoes,
chili peppers, cocoa, pineapple, and turkeys. The following items moved west during the Columbian
Exchange: wheat, barley, oats, rice, sugarcane, olives, peaches, pears, grapes, turnips, mustard, coffee,
cattle, pigs, sheep, horses, goats, chicken, honeybees, smallpox, and measles.

The Native Americans were exposed to new infections, which had a catastrophic impact on their
population. In the Americas, the population dropped dramatically. In Africa, China, Europe, and India the
populations grew.

The Columbian Exchange made the world slightly richer, more crops were spread over larger
portions of the globe, the disease pools were more homogenous, and inequalities increased because some
populations were better able to take advantage of the new connections than others.

THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

As a part of the European quest to become effective producers of commodities, they ended up
enslaving Africans to help them reach their goals. Over 2.7 million Africans were enslaved and brought to
the New World between 1500 and 1800. The environmental, political, and social consequences of this
trade are still apparent in today’s world.

Most Europeans who migrated to the Americas landed in tropical areas and wanted to produce
crops that grow well in those regions. Because the Europeans were unfamiliar with the climate and crops,
they needed to find workers who had that set of knowledge. Africans knew how to grow those types of
crops. For this reason, Africans were often the targets of slavery.

The Atlantic slave trade began when the Portuguese brought over the first enslaved Africans in
1519 and continued into the early nineteenth century. We know a great deal about how many Africans
were enslaved and where they went during this time because the Spanish kept records of everything that
came through their ports (they had ports in places outside of Spain), so those records reflect the
movement and number of these slaves.

The journey across the Atlantic usually lasted 6 to 12 weeks with ships packed with as many slaves
as they could carry, restrained to hold them down. Many people did not survive this journey.

The Atlantic slave trade allowed Europeans to become the producers of goods that were not
native to Europe. The Atlantic slave trade arose out of the desire of Europeans to be producers and not
just middlemen and consumers of the goods that were being traded around the world. To become
producers, they enslaved millions of Africans who knew how to grow the crops that the Europeans were
not familiar with. This enslavement resulted in extreme brutality that sprung from pre-existing racist
ideologies, but ultimately did allow Europeans to reach their economic goals.

Suggested Video

The Columbian Exchange: Crash Course World History #23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQPA5oNpfM4

8.4 COMMERCE & COLLECTIVE LEARNING

THE HISTORY OF MONEY

The development of money has had a huge impact on societies, and is a great example of how
humans evolve socially.

Prior to the existence of money, agricultural societies operated under systems of barter. Later,
value was given to shells and to metals such as copper, silver, bronze, and gold, as coins and then paper
became currency.

The idea of credit developed during the Age of Exploration and evolved into the Gold Standard
System and then modern systems, in which monetary transfers are primarily electronic.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GLOBAL ECONOMY

Trade with Asia was severely limited in the early sixteenth century because at that time Europeans
didn’t produce any commodities or finished goods that Asians wanted to buy, so trade was limited. Most
trade between Europe and Asia was due to Europeans seeking out goods produced by Asians.

Gold, dyes, pearls, silver, hides, tobacco, medicinal plants, indigo, and sugar all went from the
New World to Spain from 1493-1550.

When trade started between the New World and Spain, the Spanish wanted to make sure they
had control over this new trade route. Therefore, all trade with the New World had to go through the port
of Seville so they could regulate the process. As a result of this, the Spanish kept records of what came
through that port, giving today’s historians the information about the goods being traded.

Mercury was being sent to the New World. This meant that the Spanish were starting to refine
silver in the Americas, rather than sending the raw materials to Spain for processing.

The trans-Pacific trade, as its name implies, was trade across the Pacific Ocean. While these trade
routes were mainly controlled by Spain, they did not have total control over these routes, which meant
that a good deal of illegal trading took place along these routes. When the trans-Pacific trade routes
began, the Spanish crown could no longer control the trade of silver and therefore it was not regulated.
Since everyone could trade silver, it became worth much less. Gold, on the other hand, was more strictly
controlled by the Chinese and therefore remained valuable.

The Portuguese were the original importers of tea, however, companies such as the British East
India Company ended up creating a monopoly over the transport of tea, and therefore Britain became the
main importers of tea in Europe.

Beaver fur was the most valuable because its fur is durable, waterproof, soft, and can be easily
shaped into a variety of products including coats, boots, and hats. While the upper and middle classes
initially used fur, it eventually became an item necessary for those living in cold places.

SYSTEMS OF EXCHANGE AND TRADE

As the world zones connected, trade between agrarian civilizations facilitated the transfer of
goods, ideas, and diseases. Innovations in transportation and communications helped make increased
trade possible. When the exchange network grew and diversified, collective learning increased.

THE FIRST SILK ROADS

Exchange networks not only facilitated the movement of goods, but they also stimulated
innovation because they helped spread collective learning further and create more diverse networks.

Agrarian civilizations were critical to the operation of the Silk Road because they created stability
and security, built and maintained road networks, and innovated to support traders. Important trade
goods moved in both directions along the Silk Road. The Romans imported Chinese silk, Han iron, Arabian
and Indian spices, and agricultural products. The Chinese imported agricultural products, art, glassware,
and horses from Central Asia, India, and the Mediterranean. Innovations like the use of the Bactrian camel
and the discovery and use of the trade winds across the Indian Ocean were critical to the success and
expansion of the Silk Roads.

Trade on the Silk Road stimulated economic growth, which benefited the agrarian civilizations
involved. The Silk Road also made the Afro-Eurasian zone more connected and its networks more diverse
than those of the other world zones. These benefits, coupled with the many advantages that Afro-Eurasia
already enjoyed over other world zones, allowed it to dominate the others after 1492 when the world
became interconnected.

LOST ON THE SILK ROAD

Traders and travelers using the Silk Road faced a number of major challenges. They encountered
a great variety of climate zones and landforms, and in some places they were vulnerable to attack by
nomadic raiders.

Some of the specific challenges that users of the Silk Road encountered were mountains, cliffs,
thin air, sudden thunderstorms, raging rivers, and log footbridges. Because they relied on yaks to carry
their goods, many of these challenges were magnified.

Despite these challenges, traders persevered and exchanged a great variety of things. Silk was
carried from China to Europe. Chinese merchants bargained for horses, cattle, leather, furs, ivory, and
jade. The Chinese were introduced to grapes, wine, music, stories, and religions from the other zones.
Ideas were also traded back and forth.

AFRICAN AGRARIANISM

Compared to other world regions like the Fertile Crescent, the parts of Africa below the Sahara
and Sahel adopted agriculture relatively late in human history.

After the adoption began, the first states began appearing in Central and South Africa. While
these states clustered in dense populations and supported divisions of labor, they did not reach empire
status like the agrarian civilizations in West Africa and Egypt.

As it was the late start of agriculture in the region meant that Central and South Africa’s
independent story was interrupted by the larger story that was driving the world closer together—the
unification of the world zones.

COLLECTIVE LEARNING AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN SCIENCE

Collective learning increases when people are more connected and when there is great diversity
within a network, and uneven distributions of information produce uneven distributions of power and
wealth.

Europeans had an advantage in the sixteenth century when it came to new knowledge because
Europe was essentially the hub of global trade during this time period. They were able to amass and
synthesize a great deal of knowledge and distribute it throughout the world.

The “Scientific Revolution” was more of a revolution of thought processes rather than just a
discovery of more scientific information. Processes include reading and discussing different theories
about a phenomenon, drawing on different sources of evidence to formulate theories or hypotheses,
conducting experiments, and drawing conclusions based on this evidence.

Excerpts from Copernicus’s “The Earth Moves” reflected the steps of the scientific process. Redi
replicated an experiment multiple times to confirm his results. He also had control and experimental
conditions to further prove his findings—now the gold standard for scientific proof. Copernicus and Redi
helped to usher in the Age of Enlightenment by helping to establish that reason, evidence, and proof
should be a central part of human thought. They created a reliance on observation and explanation in
order to explain scientific and historical information.

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 8.5 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The industrial revolution happened at about the same time as the American, French, and Haitian
Revolutions, but it focused more on economics than politics. This revolution transformed how people
lived, how goods were made, and how economies operated.

Before the Industrial Revolution, 80 percent or more of people were involved in agriculture. The
Industrial Revolution ushered in an era of wage labor. People moved from the countryside to the cities,
and the numbers of people doing agricultural work began to decline in many parts of the world.

The economies of India and China dominated the world textile market prior to the Industrial
Revolution. The innovations introduced in English factories, coupled with the fact that British could
transport their products virtually anywhere, help explain why European countries surpassed India and
China in this period.

The Industrial Revolution is the name given to a series of economic and social changes first
observed in England around 1750, and this revolution was characterized by the introduction of machines
into the manufacturing process. Fossil fuels came to be the energy source for these machines.

Steam engines used coal and water to power locomotives, steamboats, and machines in factories.
Using fossil fuels allowed humans to generate huge amounts of power. While the Industrial Revolution
was born in England, its effects soon spread to the rest of Europe, America, Russia, and Japan.

Industrialized countries needed raw materials for factories and markets for finished goods, so
they began conquering non-industrialized countries to gain access to resources and markets.

These unequal relationships have had lasting impact: there are significant differences in income,
life expectancy, birth rates, and levels of education between industrialized and non-industrialized
countries today.

HOW DID CHANGE ACCELERATE?

The modern era is characterized by acceleration. This is shown most clearly by the dramatic rise
in human population in the last 200 years. Acceleration has been driven by three important factors:

• The breakdown of barriers between the four world zones, which made a truly global, network
possible.
• The rise of commerce and markets, where competition spurred innovation that was critical for
success.
• New sources of energy, primarily fossil fuels, which powered these expanding networks and new
connections.

The increasing speed of expansion of the Universe provides evidence of acceleration at the cosmic
level. On Earth, we see acceleration when we look at the rate of human population growth, the pace of
human history, the expansion of humans’ global economy, and the rate of human consumption of fossil
fuels. Technology may provide the clearest example of acceleration in human life: From the introduction
of the worldwide web in 1990, to the introduction of the iPad in 2010, there is an enormously long list of
new technologies that have been introduced in recent decades. These technologies have facilitated access
to increasingly large amounts of information, as well as increasing the speed of human communication.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTtlgX27FgI

8.6 THE ANTHROPOCENE

The Anthropocene is the name proposed by scientists for a new geological epoch. They believe
that the human impact on the biosphere is so profound that this new geological epoch ought to be created
to distinguish it from earlier times when the human impact was not as great.

These scientists cite the movement of plants into new regions, glacial melting, the increase of CO₂
in the atmosphere, and changes in the chemistry of the oceans as evidence of the nature of human impact.

While change should be expected to result from the geologic and climatic processes that take
place naturally in the biosphere, change in a number of areas is greater than expected, and many see
humans as the cause. Some of these changes, like increases in carbon in the biosphere, can happen
without human intervention, but humans can also contribute to the rise of carbon in the atmosphere by
burning fossil fuels.

ANTHROPOCENE AFRICA: OUT OF EVERY CRISIS, AN OPPORTUNITY

Africa was a land well-suited for small, closely-knit foraging communities for many thousands of years.
The rise of agriculture in Egypt and West Africa created many states that competed for land and resources.
These states expanded and prospered until 1500 when the world zones began to unite, and slavery robbed
the African population of millions of potential innovators.

European imperialism also swept through the continent, as European nations established colonies
across the continent. As populations have rebounded and begun to explode, sub-Saharan Africa has found
itself at a supreme disadvantage. The primary goals for the region must be to industrialize and lowerbirth
rates or it will experience an extreme social catastrophe.

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8.7 THE MODERN WORLD

CHANGING ECONOMIES – SMITH, MARX, AND KEYNES

A number of important economic thinkers emerged during the Modern Revolution. Their ideas
had a tremendous influence on government policies and world events in the twentieth century.

Adam Smith, an eighteenth century philosopher, is considered by many to be the father of

capitalism. He wrote about the benefits of a division of labor—the idea of breaking down a job into smaller
parts, with each performed by one person—for increasing efficiency in the production process. He also
wrote positively about self-interest in economics.

Karl Marx is considered the father of communism. In his writings, he criticized what he saw as the
excesses of capitalism, with its focus on profit and efficiency and what he saw as a disregard for the
worker.

John Maynard Keynes was an important twentieth century economist. His observations of the
economic crash of the Great Depression led him to argue that government had the resources to stimulate
an economy during difficult economic times. He believed that certain economic conditions required
governments to step in and use their resources to create jobs and stimulate economic growth.

HOW WAS THE MODERN WORLD CREATED?

Humans have become the most powerful force for change in the world. Some change has been
positive: there have been increases in life expectancy, literacy rates, and gender equality. Other change
has been negative: there have been world wars, atomic bombs, and gaps in living standards between the
industrialized and nonindustrialized worlds.

In the modern world, innovations in food production and economic expansion have resulted in an
unprecedented rise in human population without the declines typical of the agrarian era. Some scholars
argue that the Earth has entered a new age, the Anthropocene. This name reflects the dominant role that
humans play in the modern world.

IMPERIALISM AND RESISTANCE SHAPE A MODERN WORLD: 1850 – 1914

The age of imperialism was caused by a variety of factors, including the Industrial Revolution.
Imperialism and colonialism help explain why former colonies, now independent nations, are behind both
economically and politically in relation to their former rulers. This helps us understand some of the
economic and political disparities that exist around the world today.

The age of imperialism was different from previous eras because of the changes in industrialism
and consumer economies around the world; the geographic scope of the conquests; and the impact of
colonization on tens of millions of people.
 Countries moved toward imperialism for different reasons:

• Economics, countries needed export markets to continue to improve their economies.

• Cultural and racial, which argued that some races and cultures were better than others and
therefore had more rights.
• Religious, in which the colonizers brought Christianity to other countries.
• Nationalism, in which people felt their own nations were important and great enough to spread.

Europeans controlled 90 percent of Africa, 57 percent of Asia, and 99 percent of the Pacific Islands. In
some areas, such as in India, people thought that participating in colonial governments offered them
opportunities to advance within British society.

Some colonies resisted colonization through co-option, military resistance, mysticism, and
nationalism, however, these methods rarely proved successful. Gandhi was most famous for promoting
Indian freedom through nonviolent resistance.

The primary economic reason for European colonization was the need for raw materials so Europe
could manufacture and export goods.

CRISIS AND CONFLICT ON THE GLOBAL STAGE

Three big themes are used to make sense of the major events that took place during the first half
of the twentieth century:

• Global political order, which involves how nations interacted with one another politically and
diplomatically
• Economics
• Technological advancements

The four main long-term causes of the First World War include militarism, alliances, imperialism,
and nationalism.

Political and military alliances arose because nations thought that if they became allies, it would
deter any one nation from attacking another nation out of fear of bringing more nations into a conflict.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
launched the First World War. It is considered particularly horrific because technology had progressed
much faster than war strategies, and trench warfare was tremendously lethal.

After the First World War, Germany was unable to pay its war debts, so they stopped paying
reparations altogether. To keep the economic system afloat, a system (The Dawes Plan) was created in
which the United States lent money to Germany so it could pay France and Great Britain, and then France
and Great Britain could pay back the United States.

There is no agreed upon cause of the Great Depression, but many different events seemed to
come together to cause it. Some of those were the inability of nations to pay their reparations and war
debts, the overproduction of goods in the United States, and the crash of the stock market.
 Following the Great Depression, countries took different populist paths including the creation of
welfare states to protect people from the depression, the organization of freedom movements for
independence, and creation of dictatorships. Hitler’s dictatorship is the most famous example of this.

J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill assert multiple distinct conflicts that made up the Second
World War including:

• The conflict between Japan and China

• Japan’s bombing of the United States
• Germany’s invasion of Poland
• Great Britain and France’s declaration of war on Germany

The United States emerged from World War II as the greatest economic power, because it was
contributing more than half of the world’s industrial output, it had the largest navy in the world, and it
was the only country to have a nuclear weapon.

AND THEN GANDHI CAME: NATIONALISM, REVOLUTION, AND SOVEREIGNTY

In the past 100 years, millions of people have revolted against their governments and formed
new, independent nations. Over 50 new nations have formed since 1945.

According to Benedict Anderson, nationalism is imagined. You can’t know everyone in your
nation. You have to imagine your fellow-members and imagine yourselves as a community, even though
there are many people you will never know or meet. You have to imagine that you are part of something
that is bigger than just yourself and the people you know.

Anderson also says the nation is imagined as sovereign. When forming new nations, the people
put the concept of independence, or sovereignty, at the center of what that nation is trying to do.
Community is the relationships or “comradeship” that people have in relationship to the loyalty that they
have to their nation. It is what unites people under a common vision.

The Amritsar Massacre (April 13, 1919) involved people being fired upon at a peaceful gathering
in a park in the city of Amritsar, India. This event started India’s move toward independence from the
British.

Gandhi brought new ideas about freedom, sovereignty, and community, which were related to
truth, nonviolence, and self-suffering. The Quit India movement was a nonviolent path, as outlined by
Gandhi, for waging a revolution and achieving independence from Britain.

The concepts of nationalism, according to Benedict Anderson, applied to India. Imagination:

Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha was adopted by the people. Sovereignty: The Amritsar Massacre helped
solidify the idea that Indians wanted independence. Community: Indians had to trust that if they were to
follow Gandhi’s proposal, they would have to have faith that the rest of the country would be following it
as well.

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World War II: Crash Course World History #38

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8.8 THE FUTURE

THE SPACE RACE

During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States were embroiled in a
race to space. The Soviets won in terms of being the first to launch a satellite and a man into space. The
Americans were soon to follow but the government wanted more than just catching up to the Soviets.
Enter JFK and his goal of launching a man on the Moon.

When the Soviets and Americans eventually decided to work together rather than against each
other, a joint mission to space was completed. The benefits of the space race outshone the actual space
race itself, as we now use so many byproducts of this race to space including advanced funding for
education and even GPS.

The Mojave Air and Space Port is the location of a battle between what is Old Space and New
Space. Old Space is what we all think of when we learn about the history of space exploration: NASA,
Apollo missions, and government-funded space exploration. New Space is dominated by private
companies wishing to market the next trip to space but without any of them actually making it into space,
yet.

While this may be a battle of old and new, both actually rely on each other for survival in this next
phase of space exploration. Old Space needs more funding, which New Space seems to have a great deal
of while New Space needs Old Space’s knowledge and experience.

The billionaires backing New Space technology have some lofty ideas about the future of space
exploration from reusable rockets to putting astronauts on Mars in less than 10 years.

WILL WE EVER COLONIZE MARS?

Why are humans so determined to colonize Mars when this planet is anything but hospitable for
our species? Temperatures can drop to -153 degrees Celsius because the atmosphere is too thin to hold
heat and even if it did, we wouldn’t be able to breathe the air anyway.
 Even with these stark differences in our planet and Mars, it’s still the most similar planet to Earth
in our Solar System, and it’s also one of the closest. A day on Mars is just 39 minutes longer than a day on
Earth, and there are stores of water, albeit frozen, on the planet. If we could split the water into separate
elements then we would also have oxygen. It might also be possible to grow crops on Mars, which would
help create a breathable atmosphere for humans. Even with these positive aspects, life on Mars would
still be extremely difficult for us. The temperatures vary dramatically, and the planet has about 40% less
gravity, which begins to deteriorate the human body over time.

Scientists have begun to devise ways to sustain human life on the planet from transforming Mars’
atmosphere by triggering a greenhouse effect to creating underground communities. In fact, NASA plans
to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s while private ventures are underway to begin colonizing
Mars as early as 2023.

HUMANS AND ENERGY

Humans have an insatiable appetite for energy, and for the vast majority of our time on Earth, we
have only been able to use humans and animals to provide the energy necessary to do work. And we’ve
done quite a lot of work in that time from building the pyramids to sailing across the oceans.

All of the energy needed to fuel humans and animals comes from the Sun. All living things need
food to survive and work, and this food would not exist without energy from the Sun. Humans did use
other means of energy in order to do work such as fire, which provided the necessary heat to create alloys
from metals, and water, which was used to power mills. It wasn’t until relatively recently that humans
began to use alternative forms of fuel, and this energy revolution completely changed the world. About
250 years ago with the start of the Industrial Revolution, Europeans began to burn coal to power machines
to do the work that people used to do.

The next energy revolution came with the invention of the internal combustion engine, which led
humans to use oil in vast amounts. Humans now use an unprecedented amount of fossil fuels, and
eventually these fuels will run out if we don’t find alternative and renewable sources of energy.

THE ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE

There are many types of evidence that give us insight into what the Earth’s climate was like in the
past:

• Pollen grains from bogs and lake beds show which plants flourished in the past.
• Tree rings provide information about temperature and precipitation levels.
• Ice cores contain air bubbles that hold samples of ancient air.
• The chemicals in ocean sediments contain evidence about water temperatures in the past.

The evidence shows that Earth’s climate didn’t change much during the agrarian era. However, the
modern era has seen more variation. Average temperatures began to rise in the early twentieth century.
Global temperatures are expected to rise several degrees during this century.

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