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The Secret of the Rise of Homo Sapiens: How did our ancestors spread from Africa to the world?
Homo sapiens, meaning "wise man" or "thinking man", is the most common and widespread primate living today and the last surviving species of the genus Homo. They are characterized by their hairless bodies, bipedalism, and high intelligence. Homo sapiens possesses a large brain, which enables them to survive in a changing environment, develop highly complex tools, and form complex social structures and civilizations. Homo sapiens are highly social, with individuals typically belonging to multiple levels of cooperative, unique, or even competitive social groups. These social interactions shape a variety of values, social norms, language, and traditions, which in turn reinforce the structure of human society.
All Homo sapiens are Homo sapiens, a name first proposed by Carl Linus in 1735 in Systema Naturae.
Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa about 300,000 years ago, evolving from Homo heidelbergensis or a similar species. As they migrated out of Africa, they gradually replaced or mated with local hominins. Scientists have proposed a variety of hypotheses for the extinction of ancient human species such as Neanderthals, including competition, violence, intermarriage with Homo sapiens, or failure to adapt to climate change. Between 16,000 and 6,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began to show behavioral modernity. For most of history, humans were primarily hunter-gatherers until the advent of the Neolithic Revolution around 13,000 years ago, when the advent of agriculture and permanent settlements led to the development of civilization and sustained population growth.
Human biological variation is influenced by both genes and the environment, which manifests itself in visible traits, physiology, disease susceptibility, and lifestyle. Despite differences in many characteristics, humans are one of the least genetically diverse species, with the gene sequences of any two humans being at least 99.5% similar. Sexual dimorphism is also evident in humans: men, on the whole, have greater physical strength, while women have a relatively higher body fat percentage.
Human intelligence is highly developed, with strong independent thinking ability and self-awareness.
As omnivores capable of consuming a wide variety of plant and animal sources, Homo sapiens have used heat sources such as fire to prepare and cook food since the time of Homo erectus. Humans can survive up to eight weeks without food and a few days without water. Humans have very obvious sleeping habits, and generally need an average of seven to nine hours of sleep per night. The high risk of complications and death during childbirth makes reproduction extremely costly for Homo sapiens, often requiring both parents to care for helpless newborns.
Human evolution is not a simple linear progression, but involves mating between multiple related species. Genomic studies have shown that interbreeding between widely divergent species is common in evolution, and the prevalence of Neanderthal genes in non-Saharan African humans today shows signs of ancient human admixture. The evolutionary hallmarks of Homo sapiens include important adaptations such as hairlessness, required bipedalism, increased brain size, and reduced sexual dimorphism, changes that pushed humans into a variety of environments around the world.
Early human settlements were dependent on water sources and selected the ideal resource for survival based on their lifestyle. Today, with the development of technology, Homo sapiens has a tremendous ability to transform habitats and can survive even in extreme environments. However, settlements are threatened by natural disasters, and buildings located in danger zones are particularly vulnerable. Although the human population is distributed globally, it also shows a significant uneven distribution, with most humans (61%) living in Asia and the rest distributed in America, Africa, Europe and Oceania.
How did wise choices lead our ancestors to break through environmental limitations and go global?
