Becoming Human: Birth of Humanity

Becoming Human: Birth of Humanity
(PBS NOVA DOCUMENTARY)

Homo Erectus was probably one of the most successful of the different hominids. Homo erectus had a big brain but a small mouth. Their arms were thinner and their legs grew taller. The Leeky's found a skull fragment and found more and could see that it was a H. erectus skull then he found more of the body. H. erectus looks more like humans than apes. By looking at the skeleton they could see that it was a boy and about 14 they could also tell at the time the bones were still growing. But then by looking at his teeth they could see that the boy was actually 8 years old. But an 8 year old is usually not that tall. So in growing they were very related to the apes because apes grow fast very quickly compared to humans. To make tools they chipped bits of rock of stones and then making in a tool to chop things. For them to live and have enough energy they would need to eat many plants but then they could eat meat which would give them more energy. Homo erectus were not at the top of the food chain, so how did they kill an animal when the animal is able to kill them? First Homo erectus was built for running. But it would be hard for them to run with all the hair they have on their bodies so did they have that much hair? We do not have hair from when they were alive so we need to look at something different and that would be lice. Because all mammals, birds, and even fish have lice. By looking at the different lice we can see when they started to lose their hair which was 3 million years ago. Mammals today the only way they can cool down is by panting. But humans we sweat which helps us cool down. So when mammals are catching their pray they cannot pant while catching so they can only short amounts of sprints and then need to rest.

Homo erectus also started to build fires. A scientist beleives that we started to learn how to share and communicate by sitting around the fire waiting for the food to cook. We have also learned how to be caring. Human mothers today will be happy to let other people that they know hold the baby and bond with it. But apes and monkey mothers do not let anyone hold their babies. Another piece of evidence to show how we cared is, some archaeologists have found a skull of an old man that has lost his teeth for 2 years. This shows that other members of the tribe must have feed him or even chewed the food for him. Learning to care for one another is probably a big reason of why Homo erectus was able to stay for a long time.