The article tells about who the hominids are, what primates are included in this family, about their evolution and excavation of the remains.
Ancient times
Life on our planet has existed for more than 3 billion years. During this time, many biological species have changed on it, some have been exterminated, others have evolved or gone into a dead-end branch of development and disappeared. But the greatest interest, of course, is our ancestors - hominids. This family of the most developed primates and great apes, some of them exist to this day. These include orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and the subspecies listed. And also man, the pinnacle of primate evolution. So who are they, how do they differ from the rest, and why did our ancestors develop into people? We'll figure it out.
Our ancestors
Hominids are a family that, in addition to existing primates, includes 22 more extinct species. In fact, there are several more of them, but these are only those who are included in the pedigree of modern Homo sapiens. Among them were the most diverse representatives of ancient erect walking monkeys, but, as time has shown, it was Homo Sapiens that became the most successful subspecies. And the most famous and more or less well-studied hominids are the Neanderthal (caveman), Pithecanthropus, Homo erectus and Homo Habilis - Homo erectus and Homo sapiens respectively.
Different from other primates
First and most important is, of course, bipedalism. There are several plausible theories why our ancestors preferred this mode of transportation, but more on them below. And be that as it may, this gave a serious impetus to evolution and development into a person, because the upper limbs (hands) became free, and they began to be used for various types of activities: making tools, traps, etc. Hominids understood this and actively began to take advantage of other relatives.
The second difference is brain size and intelligence. But it is worth making a reservation, the relationship between these two facts is not very large, but still there. Our smarter ancestors realized the benefits of a collective form of survival and interaction, besides, a large brain requires a lot of calories, and you can’t get enough of ordinary roots, you need meat. And it is difficult to get it alone, which means it is wiser to unite for hunting in groups. As you can see, nothing goes unnoticed in evolution.
The family of hominids, by the way, until recently included only humans and their immediate ancestors, omitting the living developed primates. But most biologists do not agree with this, and now it includes, as already mentioned, gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans with subspecies.
Reasons for "humanization"
This topic continues to be debated to this day,new hypotheses and theories are born. Most of them, fortunately, are weeded out due to their inconsistency, but there are several most reasonable assumptions why ancient hominids evolved while other mammals remained animals.
For example, paleanthropologist Alexander Markov in the first part of his two-volume book “Human Evolution. Monkeys, Bones and Genes leads the following assumptions. Unfortunately, they are too extensive, and we will analyze two - about bipedalism and general social development.
According to the first, at a time when our ancestors settled steadily in the forests on the borders of the steppes and savannahs, it became necessary to be able to climb trees, hiding from predators and getting food. This was the reason for the development of the upper limbs. And then they started using their hands as a way to carry more prey. After all, the more often you give a female, the more favorable she is. But you also need to leave yourself so as not to be hungry …
The next important stage of such a phenomenon as the evolution of hominids is associated with the emergence of families and monogamy. Let's look at the wild society of monkeys, where the harem system reigns. At the top is the leader, he must constantly defend his dominance, and the rest are always fighting for females, and there can be no talk of any interaction and friendship.
But everything changes with monogamy! There is no need for eternal rivalry between members of the pack, because even the most "ugly" found a mate. And the absence of enmity has strengthened ties, because if you unite, hunting is much more productive, raids on neighboring tribes, and even getting food inin general. So, you will become more successful than your neighbors and leave more offspring. And the last, by the way, is a very important factor.
In the harem system, the monkeys often kill their children in order to mate again with the female. And with monogamy, they grow quietly. And it has been scientifically proven that the more carefree childhood an animal or person has, the smarter it grows. But you should not confuse with infantilism.
Fossil hominids
The remains of our ancestors have been preserved in one state or another depending on the era, and, unfortunately, most often the finds are limited to two or three bones, from which they gradually form a whole skeleton. The process is painstaking, and new technologies for determining age, what our ancestors ate, and more allow us to look into the past.
