It is true that there were no people on Earth in the beginning. Not only were there no people, but if we go back far enough in time, there was not even life, not even our Earth was born yet.
But everything must have a beginning, today we will not discuss "how everything originated" such a profound problem, let's talk about how man was born.
Before the advent of modern science, "creationism" ruled the origin of life for a long time. In this respect, the ideas of the East and the West are similar. For example, the West believes that God created everything, while our country also has the myth of Nuwa creating man and Pan Gu opening up the sky and the earth.
All myths are essentially the same, an omnipotent God who created everything, including the creation of ourselves as humans.
Creationism, however, has a fatal flaw: it lacks convincing evidence. And if creationism is valid, then any species born as it is will remain as it is, which is not consistent with the laws of species evolution.
It seems that we also have to analyze the problem of human origins from a scientific point of view, that is, from an evolutionary point of view.
According to modern archaeological and genetic studies, human beings originated in Africa, Eastern Africa to be precise.
In the era of dinosaur domination of the earth, mammals have emerged, but because of the dominance of dinosaurs on the earth is too strong, so it is difficult for mammals to obtain a broad space for development.
After the accidental extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the space for mammals increased steeply and began to flourish, and the ancient ancestors of humans, primate species, emerged.
In the beginning, primate species live in the forest for a long time by virtue of their agility, and they are very well adapted to life there, jumping around in different trees seemingly with ease and without fear of being attacked by fierce animals. At the same time, the forest has an abundance of fruit, they do not have to worry about food.
However, about 10 million years ago, the environment of Eastern Africa changed dramatically, the terrain is too high, blocking the moisture of the ocean, resulting in a sharp decline in precipitation in the forest, a large area of forest faded into grassland.
Therefore, primates also had to come to the grasslands, and the huge changes in the environment put them under great pressure to survive. Because in the grassland they had to face the attack of the beast at any time.
At the same time, after coming to the grasslands, primate species began to walk upright, forced to survive the pressure to walk upright genes were also preserved, why was it preserved?
Walking upright for the primate species from the forest to the grassland is very beneficial, allowing them to have a better range of vision, fully look around the environment, in time to find out whether there are predators around and prepare in advance.
Walking upright saves more energy and is more conducive to their survival.
At the same time, walking upright completely frees their hands and gives them unlimited room for development. Therefore, upright walking is also one of the important signs of the primate species towards human beings.
But not all primate species have chosen to walk upright. Although walking upright has many benefits, the process of change is also full of ups and downs, and some primate species that are not used to walking upright will find the forest again and still choose to walk on all fours.
And chose to walk upright a group of primate species began to move in a completely different evolutionary direction, their food sources way more diversified, not only fruit, leaves, etc., and more nutritious meat, although only raw meat or perhaps even rotten meat, but it is still rich in nutrients, such as rich protein.
The abundance of energy and nutrition allowed primitive humans to have extra energy to supply many organs, including the brain, and the capacity of the human brain began to soar.
In fact, for most animals, the surge in brain capacity is not a good thing, but rather a liability. Because the brain's energy consumption is huge, take humans, the brain only accounts for 2% of the human body, but consumes nearly 20% of the body's energy.
Therefore, for the majority of animals, the brain capacity is enough on the line, more than a pure waste, but only humans are an exception, no one would have thought that the rapid expansion of brain capacity will allow us to become "human".
Humans evolved from ancient apes, and scientists have classified humans and apes according to brain volume, and when the brain volume exceeds 700 ml, it is defined as "human". According to this criterion, the first human on earth is able man.
However, this criterion of division is not absolute, because strictly speaking, there is no clear dividing line between humans and apes. It does not mean that "a person with 700 ml of brain volume is a human being and a person with 699 ml is not a human being", it is not so absolute.
The scientists found that although 700 ml was defined as the dividing line between humans and apes, able humans with a brain volume of 700 ml and apes with a brain volume of 690 ml were still able to communicate genetically and were not reproductively isolated.
Therefore, there is no "first man" in the world, the so-called "first man" is only a vague relative concept, more precisely, there is only a race, not a person.
And the concept of "first person" does not make logical sense, assuming the existence of the first person, then the parents of this person can not be human, if you, you would agree to such a conclusion? Just as there is no clear line of demarcation between a bowl and a basin, so is the relationship between man and ape, there is no absolute line of demarcation across the board!
