The distribution of people around the globe is brief. Human species

The history of mankind is being erased from our memory and only the efforts of scientists can bring us closer to it. The origins of man have occupied the minds of researchers for hundreds of years. Theologians argue that man came into being as a result of an act of divine creation; paranormal investigators talk about our extraterrestrial origins; anthropologists present evidence of the origin of man in the process of evolution. Supporters of this or that theory provide their evidence of correctness. The materials I publish tell about the conclusions made by anthropologists, archaeologists, geneticists, biologists and representatives of others scientific directions. I would like to point out that these are people who have spent thousands of hours behind microscopes; dug up tons of earth; transported to laboratories, examined and compared hundreds of thousands of fossil bones of our ancestors. Do you want to ask if I am the same Charles Darwin who laid the foundations of modern evolutionary theory? No, we're just namesakes...

From many other planets - the presence of intelligent beings on it - people. Where and when did the first man appear? People have been searching for an answer to this question for a very long time.

Human settlement of the Earth

There are two stages in the settlement of people around the planet. About 2 million years ago, ancient people began to penetrate from other areas and to other continents. This stage of exploration of the Earth ended approximately 500 thousand years ago. Subsequently, the ancient people became extinct.

Modern man (“Homo sapiens”) appeared only about 200 thousand years ago. It was from here that the second stage of human settlement began. They were forced to go to new unexplored lands primarily by concern for food. With the increase in the number of people, the territories where hunting was carried out expanded and edible plants were collected. Strong climate changes also contributed to the migration of people. The level 15-16 thousand years ago was 130 m lower than the modern level, so there were “land bridges” between individual continents and islands. The transition to a sedentary lifestyle occurred 11 thousand years ago. This contributed to the development of ancient civilizations. Many monuments of their culture have survived to this day.

Races

The long existence of people in different natural conditions led to the emergence of races - large groups of people who have common, inherited, external characteristics. According to external signs, all of humanity is divided into four large geographical races.

Negroid race formed in hot regions of the Earth. Dark, almost black, skin, hard curly or wavy black hair, characteristic of these people, protects against sunburn and overheating of the body. The eyes are brown. A wide, flat nose and thick lips help regulate body temperature.

Australoid race According to the external characteristics of its representatives, it is close to Negroid.

Mongoloid have adapted to life in steppes and semi-deserts, where summer temperatures are high, strong winds and dust storms are frequent. Yellow skin color protects against overexposure sun rays. The narrow shape of the eyes protects them from wind and dust. Mongoloids have straight, coarse hair, a large flattened face, prominent cheekbones and a slightly protruding nose.

Caucasian is divided into northern and southern branches. Southern Caucasians have dark skin, brown eyes and dark hair. The northern ones have white skin, light and soft hair, blue or gray eyes.

Mixed races. Over time, the proportion of people on Earth whose appearance contains signs of different races is growing. They form mixed races, the emergence of which is associated with the migration of people. These include mestizos - descendants of Europeans and Indians; mulattoes - descendants of Europeans and peoples of the Negroid race; sambo - descendants of Indians and peoples of the Negroid race; Malgash are descendants of the peoples of the Negroid and Mongoloid races.

The generally accepted story of the origin of life on Earth is outdated. Two scientists, Peter Ward and Joseph Kirschvink, offer a book that brings together all the findings of the latest research. The authors show that many of our previous ideas about the history of the origin of life are incorrect. First, the development of life was not a leisurely, gradual process: cataclysms contributed to the formation of life more than all other forces combined. Secondly, the basis of life is carbon, but what other elements determined its evolution? Third, since Darwin we have thought in terms of the evolution of species. In fact, there has been an evolution of ecosystems - from underwater volcanoes to tropical forests, - which shaped the world as we know it. Drawing on their decades of experience in paleontology, biology, chemistry, and astrobiology, Ward and Kirschvink tell a story of life on Earth that is so fantastic that it is difficult to imagine, and at the same time so familiar that it is impossible to ignore.

Book:

<<< Назад

Forward >>>

Human settlement to the globe

Many of the above climate change occurred during the period of human exploration of the earth's territories. About 35 thousand years ago the last evolutionary leap took place, and modern man finally formed. Step by step modern people inhabited the planet. Slowly but persistently they explored new regions. Not in one century. This human advance into new areas was unlike the European colonization of North America, when, over the course of a couple of centuries, virgin forests and prairies gave way to cultivated fields and cities of glass and concrete. This conquest was slow. Even remote island Australia was discovered by Homo sapiens 35 thousand years ago. However, at that time there were still places where no human had set foot: Northern Asia and both Americas.

The first to come - in the Paleolithic about 30 thousand years ago - were big game hunters to the vast territory that we call Siberia today. They brought already mastered methods of survival in a harsh climate: stone tools. These Eastern Siberian objects are different from those in use by European settlers of the time and are definitely influenced by Southeast Asian cultures. Their main craft was hunting large animals, as can be judged by the way they processed large stone spearheads.

The arrival of the first people in Siberia coincided with a period of slight warming that followed a cold interval, which could have been the reason for the development of a generally unfriendly area. However, soon after their arrival it became colder again, and 25 thousand years ago another long ice age was still ongoing on Earth.

IN Western Europe and North America, huge ice sheets moved inexorably southward, covering entire regions with ice 1.6 km thick. In Siberia, however, it was so dry that ice did not form. People continued to gradually move east across this treeless, frozen territory. Since there were very few trees, skins and horns were used to build shelters; even the bones of mastodons and mammoths, the largest prey, were used. These people, by necessity, became excellent big game hunters.

Humanity also reached Beringia (a paleogeographic region where in the past there was an isthmus connecting Asia and North America), this probably happened 30-12 thousand years ago. Continental ice, covering large areas of North America, reached their maximum during that period. The increase in glaciers led to a decrease in sea levels, and vast expanses of land were exposed, providing the opportunity for intercontinental migration for both animals and humans. When the ice finally began to melt, sea levels rose again. 14,000 years ago, the continental glaciers that covered most of Canada and much of what is now the United States were in the process of slowly but steadily melting under the influence of gradually rising temperatures.

Soon, however, the melting accelerated due to another important event. Numerous icebergs that accumulated in the oceans off the east and west coasts of North America between 18,000 and 14,000 years ago generated cold winds and cooled water, which also maintained a cold climate on land. But at a certain point, gradual melting led to the fact that the ice that had been growing on land stopped flowing into the seas in the form of broken icebergs. Winds along the coasts warmed, and ice on land began to melt even faster.

The melting glacial front must have presented quite harsh terrain, as the retreat of the ice was characterized by relentless winds. The wind was so strong that it created high deposits of sand and various debris, which turned into deposits called loess soil. In addition, the wind carried seeds, and soon the unstable soils near the boundaries of the glaciers, despite everything, were covered with the first plants. At first these were ferns, and then more developed forms. Willows, junipers, poplars and various shrubs were the plants that began to transform the effects of the long-term glacial regime. Afterwards, other plant communities spread. For example, in the milder conditions of the west, spruce forests predominated; in the colder middle lands, tundra plants and permafrost. One way or another, the glacier retreated everywhere, and everywhere it was followed by the tundra, followed by a spruce forest.

The large spruce tracts of North America were interspersed with areas of grass and shrubs. Such a landscape was in no way like the dense forests that remained in some places in the north-west of North America - there was then neither dense undergrowth nor rotting windbreaks that could make such a forest completely impenetrable for large animals and humans.

South of the North American glacier, even during ice age a variety of ecosystems were preserved: forest-tundra, grassy steppe, desert - and many plants that supported huge herds of giant mammals. When the Ice Age ended and the climate in many regions of the Earth became much milder, human communities began to grow rapidly.

Ten thousand years ago, people successfully colonized all continents except Antarctica, and adaptation to different conditions habitat led to the formation of variants of the species that today we call human races. For a long time it was believed that such an obvious racial characteristic as skin color was an adaptation solely to the amount of solar heat and light. Recent research has shown that much of what is called racial traits may simply be the result of sexual selection rather than a desire to conform to the environment. However, other adaptation processes also occurred, many of which are not evident in body morphology.

Africa has always been valued for its abundance of large mammals. Nowhere on Earth is there such a diversity of large herbivores and carnivores as on this continent. Nevertheless, this paradise was no exception, it only corresponded to the norm - until quite recently, all the pastures of the temperate and tropical regions of the globe were similar to Africa. Unfortunately, due to one unusual phenomenon, a significant number of large mammal species have declined sharply over the past 50 thousand years.

Of course, the disappearance of large animals is primarily of interest to those who study extinction events, but special attention should be paid to the fact that the death of large animals leads to much larger consequences for ecosystems than the extinction of smaller organisms. The extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period was great importance not because many small mammals died, but because very large land dinosaurs disappeared. It was their departure that rebuilt all habitats on land. Likewise, the extinction of most large mammal species around the world over the past 50,000 years is an event whose meaning we are only beginning to fully understand today, and whose consequences will have implications for millions of years into the future.

Of particular note is the Late Pleistocene period, approximately 15–12 thousand years ago, when many species of large mammals in North America became extinct. At least 35 genera, and therefore at least the same number of species, have disappeared. Six of them lived everywhere on the planet (for example, horses, which became extinct in the Americas, but continued to exist in the Old World). Most extinct species belonged to numerous taxonomic groups - 21 families and seven orders. The only characteristic that united all these very diverse and genetically distant species was large size, although this characteristic was not present in all extinct organisms.

The most famous, textbook example of animals that disappeared as a result of that extinction were representatives of the proboscis order - mastodons and gomphotheres, as well as mammoths. All of them were close relatives of modern elephants. The most common was the American mastodon, whose range occupied the entire non-glacial territory of the mainland, from coast to coast. It was the most numerous species in the forested regions of the eastern part of the continent. Gomphotheres - creatures unlike any that exist today - were widespread in South America, although their remains were apparently found in Florida. Mammoths that lived in North America included two species: Columbian mammoths and woolly mammoths.

Another famous group of large herbivores that lived in North America during the Ice Age were the giant sloths and their close relatives the armadillos. In total, seven species in this order became extinct; only one genus of armadillos survived in the southwest of the North American continent. The largest representative of this group of animals was the giant sloth, which, unlike modern sloths, lived on the ground and not in trees. The smallest of these animals were the size of a black bear, and the largest were the size of a mammoth. The remains of medium-sized giant sloths are often found in tar pits in the area of ​​modern Los Angeles; the last of them, the equally famous Shasta sloth, was the size of big bear. Another representative of the same group, the glyptodont, looked incredibly impressive. It had a heavy shell, reminiscent of a turtle. The genus of armadillos also became extinct, only the nine-banded armadillo survived.

Artiodactyls and odd-toed ungulates also became extinct. Of the equids, the horse should be mentioned - ten species have disappeared, and tapirs - two species. There were even more losses among artiodactyls: in North America during the Pleistocene era, 13 genera belonging to five different families became extinct, including: two genera of peccaries, one genus of camels, two genera of llamas, as well as mountain deer, elk, and three genera of pronghorn antelope. , saiga, bush ox and musk ox.

It is not surprising that such losses among herbivores led to the extinction of predators. For example, the American cheetah, the saber-toothed cat, the saber-toothed tiger, the giant short-faced bear, the Florida cave bear, two kinds of skunks, and one kind of dog disappeared. This list can also include smaller animals, including three genera of rodents and the giant beaver, but they were exceptions - almost all extinct animals were large.

The North American extinction coincided with a dramatic restructuring in the plant kingdom. Large territories Northern Hemisphere changed their plant appearance: the place of highly nutritious willows, aspens and birches was replaced by not very nutritious spruce and alder groves. For some time, even where spruce (a nutrient-poor tree) had always dominated, there were still places with more nutritious plants. When the number of nutritious plants began to decline due to climate change, herbivores still continued to eat them, thereby further reducing the number of such plants. Perhaps this led to a decrease in the size of animals, which depended on the amount of plant food. During the late Pleistocene, relatively passable spruce forests and more nutritious plant communities quickly gave way to dense forests with less diversity of plant species and less nutritional potential. IN eastern parts North America's spruce trees gave way to large, slow-growing oaks, pecans and southern pines, and the Pacific Northwest became covered with huge forests of Douglas-fir. Pseudotsuga menziesii). These types of forests, compared to the Pleistocene vegetation they replaced, are unsuitable for large mammals.

The extinction did not only affect North America. North and South America were isolated from each other for some time, and therefore their faunas developed in their own special ways until the Isthmus of Panama was formed about 2.5 million years ago. Many large and unusual animals evolved in South America, including the enormous armadillo-like glyptodonts and giant sloths - both groups later migrated to North America and spread there. Also living on the South American continent were giant pigs, llamas, huge rodents and several marsupials. When the intercontinental land bridge was formed, active interchange between faunas began.

South American large mammals also experienced extinction immediately after the end of the Ice Age. In the interval of 15–10 thousand years ago, 46 ​​genera disappeared. In percentage terms, the extinction in South America was even more devastating than on the North American mainland.

Australia suffered even more, but slightly earlier than America. Since the time of the dinosaurs, Australia has been isolated by the ocean from other areas of the earth's land, so it was cut off from the main development processes of mammals that occurred on other continents during the Cenozoic era. Australian mammals followed their evolutionary path, resulting in numerous marsupials, many of large size.

Over the past 50 thousand years, 45 species of marsupials belonging to 13 genera have disappeared from the Australian fauna. Of the 49 species of large (heavier than 10 kg) marsupials that lived on the Australian continent 100 thousand years ago, only four survived, and other animals did not penetrate into Australia from other continents. Victims of the extinction include large koalas, several species of diprotodons (hippopotamus-sized animals), several large kangaroos, giant wombats, and a group of marsupials that had deer-like features. Predators (also marsupials) also went extinct, such as creatures that resembled a lion and a dog. Fossil cats that became extinct relatively recently were discovered on islands off the Australian coast. Large reptiles also disappeared, for example, the giant monitor lizard, the giant land turtle, the giant snake and even several species of large flightless birds - all of them were representatives of the so-called Australian megafauna. Those large creatures that were able to survive are either able to run fast or are nocturnal - this is an interesting observation made by our great friend Tim Flannery.

All the described cases of extinction - in Australia and the Americas - occurred simultaneously with the colonization of these territories by humans, and these were also periods of significant climatic changes. There is reliable evidence indicating that the first people arrived in Australia 50-35 thousand years ago. Most of Australia's large animals became extinct between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago.

Events developed slightly differently in those regions where people had settled for much longer - in Africa, Asia and Europe. In Africa, a small extinction of mammals occurred 2.5 million years ago, and later the scale of animal deaths, compared with other regions, was very small. Mammals North Africa, in particular, were exposed to climate change that resulted in the formation of the Sahara Desert. In East Africa the extinction was very small, but in South Africa strong changes climate approximately 12–9 thousand years ago caused the death of six species of large mammals. In Europe and Asia, the consequences of the extinction were also not as serious as in Australia and America: mammoths, mastodons and woolly rhinoceroses died.

Thus, the Pleistocene extinction can be summarized as follows:

First of all, the extinction affected large land animals; smaller forms and almost all marine fauna were not subject to extinction;

Over the past 100 thousand years, large mammals of Africa showed the greatest survival rate - only 14%, the percentage of losses among mammal genera in North America - 73%, in South America - 79%, in Australia - 86%;

Extinctions were sudden for every major group of land animals, but the timing of extinctions varied across continents; carbon dating methods make it possible to more or less accurately determine that some species of large mammals may have become completely extinct over periods of 3 thousand years or even faster;

Extinctions were not the result of the invasion of ecosystems by new forms of animals (other than humans); It has long been believed that many extinctions were triggered by the emergence of new, more developed creatures, but this position is not true for the Ice Age extinction, since during periods of death of specific animals in the regions of their habitat, new forms did not appear. Numerous data suggest that the cause of the described extinction (a series of extinctions on different continents) was man. Other researchers persistently argue that the cause was changes in plant food resources that arose in response to climate change at the end of the Pleistocene glaciation. Much of the discussion surrounding this extinction revolves around determining the main cause: some believe it was humans, others believe it was an unstable climate.

Whatever the reason, it is necessary to recognize the fact of a significant reorganization of land ecosystems that occurred during this period on all continents, with the exception of Africa. Today Africa is gradually losing its giant mammals - although they are trying to preserve their herds in national parks and nature reserves, but it is there that they become easy prey for poachers.

The end of the existence of megafauna is not fully determined. When we look at the Pleistocene extinction of large mammals, it seems like it happened just a moment ago. Accurate dating of intervals that last 10 thousand years is not yet possible for our technologies if we apply them to periods that occurred thousands and millions of years ago. From the perspective today The end of the mammalian megafaunal period appears protracted, but in the future it may seem rapid and sudden.

The surviving large mammals today are a group of species at risk of extinction, and many other mammals are also at risk. If the first phase of the modern mass extinction resulted in the death of large mammals, then at the moment plants, birds and insects are in immediate danger, because the ancient forests of the Earth are gradually being replaced by fields and cities.

<<< Назад

Forward >>>

The first event that historical science studies is the appearance of man himself. The question immediately arises: what is a person? The answer to this question is given by various sciences, for example, biology. Science proceeds from the fact that man emerged as a result of evolution from the animal kingdom.

Biologists since the time of the famous Swedish scientist of the 18th century. Carl Linnaeus classifies humans, including their now extinct early species, as a member of the order of higher mammals - primates. Along with humans, the order of primates includes modern and extinct monkeys. Humans have certain anatomical characteristics that distinguish them from other primates, in particular great apes. However, it is not at all easy to distinguish the remains of early human species by anatomical characteristics from the remains of apes that lived at the same time. Therefore, there is debate among scientists about the origins of man, and approaches to solving this issue are constantly being refined as new archaeological finds appear.

Archeology is of paramount importance for the study of the primitive period, as it allows scientists to obtain at their disposal objects made by the ancient inhabitants of our planet. It is the ability to make such objects that should be considered the main feature that distinguishes humans from other primates.

It is no coincidence that archaeologists divide history into stone, bronze And Iron Age. The Stone Age, based on the characteristics of the tools of ancient man, is divided into ancient (Paleolithic), middle (Mesolithic) and new (Neolithic). In turn, the Paleolithic is divided into early (lower) and late (upper). The Early Paleolithic consists of the Olduvai, Acheulian, and Mousterian periods.

In addition to tools, excavations of dwellings and places of human settlement, as well as their burials, are of utmost importance.

On questions of human origins - anthropogenesis – There are several theories. Enjoyed great popularity in our country labor theory, formulated in the 19th century. F. Engels. According to this theory, the labor activity that human ancestors had to resort to led to a change in their appearance, which was fixed in the course of natural selection, and the need for communication in the labor process contributed to the emergence of language and thinking. Labor theory is based on Charles Darwin's doctrine of natural selection.

Modern genetics has a slightly different opinion about the reasons for the evolution of living beings. Genetics denies the possibility of consolidating qualities acquired during life in the body if their appearance is not associated with mutations. Currently, different versions of the causes of anthropogenesis have emerged. Scientists have noticed that the region where anthropogenesis took place (East Africa) is a zone of increased radioactivity.

An increased level of radiation is a powerful mutagenic factor. Perhaps it was the effects of radiation that caused anatomical changes, which ultimately led to the appearance of man.

At present, we can talk about the following scheme of anthropogenesis. The remains of the common ancestors of monkeys and humans, found in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, are 30 - 40 million years old. The remains of the most likely human ancestor have been discovered in Eastern and Southern Africa - Australopithecus (age 4 - 5.5 million years). Australopithecines most likely could not make tools from stone, but in their appearance they resembled the first creature to create such tools. Australopithecines also lived in savannas, walked on their hind limbs and had little hair. The Australopithecus skull was larger than that of any modern ape.

The oldest human-made stone tools (about 2.6 million years old) were found by archaeologists in the Kada Gona area in Ethiopia. Almost equally ancient items were discovered in a number of other areas of East Africa (in particular, in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania). Fragments of the remains of their creators were also excavated in these same places. Scientists have named this oldest human species a skilled person ( Homo habilis ). Homo habilis was not very different in appearance from Australopithecus (although his brain volume was somewhat larger), but he can no longer be considered an animal. Homo habilis lived only in East Africa.

According to archaeological periodization, the existence of Homo habilis corresponds to the Olduvai period. The most characteristic tools of Homo habilis are pebbles chipped on one or both sides (hoppers and choppers).

The main occupation of man since his appearance was hunting, including quite large animals (fossil elephants). Even “dwellings” of Homo habilis have been discovered in the form of a fence made of large stone blocks stacked in a circle. They were probably covered with branches and skins on top.

There is no consensus among scientists regarding the relationship between Australopithecus and Homo habilis. Some consider them to be two successive steps, others believe that Australopithecus was a dead-end branch. The two species are known to have coexisted for some period.

There is no consensus among scientists on the issue of continuity between Homo Habilis and Noto egectus (homo erectus). The oldest discovery of the remains of Homo egectus near Lake Turkana in Kenya dates back to 17 million years ago. For some time, Homo erectus coexisted with Homo habilis. By appearance Homo egestus was even more different from a monkey: its height was close to that of a modern person, and the volume of the brain was quite large.

According to archaeological periodization, the existence of erect walking man corresponds to the Acheulean period.

Homo egectus was destined to become the first human species to leave Africa. The oldest finds of the remains of this species in Europe and Asia are dated back to approximately 1 million years ago. Back at the end of the 19th century. E. Dubois found on the island of Java the skull of a creature he called Pithecanthropus (ape-man). At the beginning of the 20th century. In the Zhoukoudian cave near Beijing, similar skulls of Sinanthropus (Chinese people) were excavated. Several fragments of the remains of Homo egestus (the oldest find is a jaw from Heidelberg in Germany, 600 thousand years old) and many of its products, including traces of dwellings, have been discovered in a number of regions of Europe.

Homo egestus became extinct approximately 300 thousand years ago. He was replaced by Noto saieps. According to modern ideas, there were originally two subspecies of Homo sapiens. The development of one of them led to the appearance approximately 130 thousand years ago Neanderthal (Notosarieps neanderthaliensis). Neanderthals settled all of Europe and large parts of Asia. At the same time, there was another subspecies, which is still poorly understood. It may have originated in Africa. It is the second subspecies that some researchers consider the ancestor modern type of person – Noto sapiens. Homo sarins finally formed 40 - 35 thousand years ago. This scheme of the origin of modern man is not shared by all scientists. A number of researchers do not classify Neanderthals as Homo sapiens. There are also adherents of the previously dominant point of view that Homo sapiens descended from Neanderthals as a result of his evolution.

Molecular genetics allows us to reconstruct the history of the formation of both individual peoples and humanity as a whole. Research in recent decades has literally revolutionized our understanding of human origins. The study and comparison of DNA samples isolated from the blood of inhabitants of different continents made it possible to establish the degree of their genetic relationship.

Just as in comparative linguistics related languages ​​are determined by the number of common words, so in genetics by the number common elements the genealogy of humanity is built in DNA (see “In the World of Science”, No. 7, article by L. Zhivotovsky and E. Khusnutdinova “Genetic History of Humanity”).

It turned out that through the female line all people can be traced back to a single common foremother, which was dubbed mitochondrial (mitochondrion - cellular organ, which contains DNA), or African Eve.

The long existence of people in various natural conditions led to the emergence of races. Race () is a large group of people who have common, inherited, external characteristics. According to external signs, all of humanity is divided into 4 large geographical races.

It was formed in hot regions of the Earth. Representatives of this race are characterized by dark, almost black skin and coarse, curly or wavy black hair. The eyes are brown. Wide flat nose and thick lips.

The main region of settlement is the area of ​​historical formation of the race: Africa, south of the Sahara. Also to the Negroid population on beginning of XXI century includes a significant part of the population of Brazil, the West Indies, the USA and France.

2. Russian geographical society ().

4. Tutorial by geography ().

5. Gazetteer ().