Why We Study Human Origins

Why We Study Human Origins
By:Randall Susman
Calliope:Exploring World History

Historians wonder and ask questions to find out more about our past. People ask why did humans evolve? And where did humans come from? By asking and answering these questions we get more information about our past. A way we find out lots of information is fossils. Fossils tell us different stages hominids had to evolve to become human. Fossils tell us how hominids adapted to there surroundings. They tell us when there certain species was extinct or how old this hominid was when he or she died. In the 1800's Charles Darwin was the first to have the idea of plants and animals having to evolve to adapt to their surroundings. What evolution means according to the dictionary is: A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form. People really started to believe and think about evoltion when Tomas Henry compared humans with apes. Then in 1925 Raymond Dart in Africa found the first hominid fossil and they could see that it was very similar to the human fossil more than a monkey fossil.Archaeologist have also found stone tools that have been shaoed into points which shows that the hominds started to hunt. And showing that they started to hunt also shows that they eat meat, which is a new food to their diet. So many historians came up with differnt theories about our ancestors people said that hominids "were tree-dwelling apes, or four legged knuckle-walkers or even bipeds that live in water". What bipeds or bipedal mean is: walking on two leggs for example humans we are bipedal we walk on two legs. So ideas, theories, fossils, and facts, if we put these all together we can uncover the mysteries of our past and we can learn even more from where human came from.

Susman, Randall. "Why We Study Human Origins." Calliope: Exploring World History Sept. 1999: 4-5. Print.