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Australopithecus "Southern
Ape"
Human-Like Hominids
3.6 to 1.8 million BCE
About 3 million year ago, the earth was populated with deer, giraffes,
hyenas, cattle, sheep, goats, antelope, gazelles, horses, elephants,
rhinoceroses, camels, ground squirrels, beavers, cave lions, ants, termites,
porpoises, whales, dogs with huge teeth, and saber-toothed tigers! Giant
sharks, about 42 feet long, were plentiful. There were all kinds of birds
and plants and fish, similar to birds, plants and fish today. (Dinosaurs,
in case you missed the introduction, died out about
65 million years ago. They were long gone.)
About this same time in history, around 3 million years ago, the higher
primates, including apes and early man, first appeared. There was a difference
between apes and man. Human-like hominids could stand upright. Apes could
not. Their hands were different, too. Ape hands were made for climbing
and clinging. Early man's hands were jointed differently, which allowed them
to not only use tools, but to make tools. No one knows if these
very early human-like people actually made tools, but remains of polished
bones have been found in South Africa, which suggests they might have made
simple digging tools from bone! Their diet was mostly vegetarian, along with
some meat, probably obtained by scavenging.
You might wonder how we know anything
about hominids who lived over 3 million years ago! How do we know they even
existed? Lucy told us!
In 1974, a skeleton was found in Africa. The bones were those of young
female, approximately 20 years old when she died. Scientists named this "young
lady" Lucy. About 3 million years ago, when Lucy was alive,
she was rather short, about 4 feet tall, and probably weighed about 50 pounds.
Her brain was about the size of an orange. Her bones showed she probably
walked erect, although she still had the ability to climb trees easily.
There were no signs of broken bones or teeth marks that might show why she
died. Scientists suspect that she probably fell into a lake or river and
drowned.
Scientists
are like detectives. They can tell a great deal from a skeleton, whether
it's a year old, or 3 million years old!
To learn
more about Early Humans,
click
on the tools below
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