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They first appeared in the fossil record around 66 million years ago, soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that eliminated about three-quarters of plant and animal species on Earth, including most dinosaurs. [25] [26] One of the last Plesiadapiformes is Carpolestes simpsoni, having grasping digits but not forward-facing eyes.
The oldest human skeletal remains are the 40ky old Lake Mungo remains in New South Wales, but human ornaments discovered at Devil's Lair in Western Australia have been dated to 48 kya and artifacts at Madjedbebe in Northern Territory are dated to at least 50 kya, and to 62.1 ± 2.9 ka in one 2017 study. [26] [27] [28] [29]
Human history is the record of humankind from prehistory to the present. Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago and initially lived as hunter-gatherers.They migrated out of Africa during the Last Ice Age and had spread across Earth's continental land except Antarctica by the end of the Ice Age 12,000 years ago.
Basilosaurus, one of the first of the giant whales, appeared in the fossil record. 38 Ma Earliest bears. 37 Ma First nimravid ("false saber-toothed cats") carnivores — these species are unrelated to modern-type felines. First alligators and ruminants. 35 Ma Grasses diversify from among the monocot angiosperms; grasslands begin to expand.
The first seaborne human migrations were by the Austronesian peoples [dubious – discuss] originating from Taiwan known as the "Austronesian expansion". [144] Using advanced sailing technologies like catamarans , outrigger boats , and crab claw sails , they built the first sea-going ships and rapidly colonized Island Southeast Asia at around ...
The Neanderthal DNA found in modern human genomes has long raised questions about ancient interbreeding. New studies offer a timeline of when that occurred and when ancient humans left Africa.
For most of human history we shared the planet with other kinds of early humans, and those now-extinct groups were a lot like us. Science paints a new picture of the ancient past, when we mixed ...
The first debates about the nature of human evolution arose between Thomas Henry Huxley and Richard Owen. Huxley argued for human evolution from apes by illustrating many of the similarities and differences between humans and other apes, and did so particularly in his 1863 book Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature.