Homo Sapiens: Main Features

The first ancestors of the current human being appeared almost 3 million years ago, specifically around 2.85 million years. The life of humanity in the world is divided into two great periods, the prehistory and History, and specifically the first men appeared in the Paleolithic era in Prehistory and developed exponentially during the Neolithic. Then there were several ancestors of ours, among which were Homo Hábilis, Homo Erectus and Homo Neanderthalensis. At the end of the Paleolithic, Homo Sapiens Sapiens emerged, the most direct relative of Homo Sapiens, our species.

The evolutionary process of our species is something incredible, since we were able to adapt to certain circumstances imposed by nature, leaving behind other species of hominids with whom we shared ancestors. For this reason, in this lesson from a Professor we are going to focus on the beginnings of our species, that is, Homo Sapiens during Prehistory, so we are going to discover the main characteristics of Homo Sapiens.

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The most direct ancestor of our species, that is, of Homo Sapiens, is Homo Sapiens Sapiens. This hominid appeared in Africa in the stage of Prehistory known as the Middle Palaeolithic and its name comes from the Latin 'Homo' which translates as 'man' and from 'Sapiens' which is 'wise'. Although it began on the African continent in a short time, it spread first to south-west and central Asia, then to Europe, and finally to various areas of America.

This part of the evolution of the human being has several characteristics that make it really different from its ancestors and from the other hominids that were until then on the planet. In fact, this human begins to give signs of well-differentiated knowledge that allow him to evolve more quickly, it is for this reason that he is attributed the name of 'wise'. This fact allowed them to continue expanding in the world and evolving, while other species such as Homo Neanderthalensis, after having been on the planet for many years, became extinct. In a PROFESSOR you will discover the Neanderthal man characteristics.

Some main characteristics of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, both physical and cultural and that allowed him to make a great difference on the evolutionary scale are the following:

Social characteristics

• Ability to organize in groups to hunt large animals
• Create much more refined polished tools and begin discovering other techniques such as polished stone
• Using hunted animal skins as well as plant fibers to create clothing that would protect them from the weather, doing so with tools such as improved bone-in needles
• The construction of much more effective temporary shelters against the elements of nature and predators
• They perfected fire control and began to use it in various aspects of their daily lives.
• They improved art in various aspects such as painting and music
• They began to domesticate some animals like the dog
• Appearance of a way of communicating much clearer than the previous ones, thanks to this they managed to start saving and passing the knowledge learned from one generation to another with success.

Physical characteristics

• They began to understand the functioning of vegetables and did the first tests to try
• This species has a full bipedal gait and a fully upright posture.
• The cranial capacity of Homo Sapiens Sapiens increases to around 1,500 cubic cm
• Their teeth get smaller and their jaw shortens compared to other hominids.
• Due to the use of fire to cook food, his digestive system began to adapt to this type of diet.

Thanks to all these aspects and to the various improvements that appeared during the end of the Paleolithic, even in this same period. our species Homo Sapiens appeared, evolving directly from Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

In this other lesson from a teacher we will tell you all about the characteristics of Prehistory in the Paleolithic so that you know a little better the other species of human beings that inhabited at this time and delve into the facts that made this part of the Prehistroia very relevant for the evolution of the human being until the beginning of the Mesolithic.

Also, know in this other lesson all about the Neolithic in a short summary ideal for studying, so that you can delve into all aspects of this time of Prehistory.

The new species that appeared at the end of the Paleolithic era was ours, Homo Sapiens, which evolved remarkably during the Neolithic period, still in Prehistory, to reach mastering metals and even inventing writing at a time when, after the Metal Age, the Story.

Homo Sapiens has been on Earth for almost 200,000 years, since it appeared at the end of Prehistory and is still on the planet today, although obviously already very changed. For this reason, we can say that it is the hominid species that has best adapted to the changes on this planet and has known how to make the most of everything within its reach.

Some Main physical characteristics of Homo Sapiens, which have helped him to continue improving in all aspects, are the following:

• A greater cranial capacity, reaching up to 1,600 cubic cm, and partly because of this the forehead becomes wider
• One of the main characteristics of Homo Sapiens is that the head becomes modified not only in the capacity of the skull, but also in other aspects of its constitution as a shorter jaw with smaller teeth, a fact that makes the chin more pronounced in a V-shape rather than a OR
• The eyes are more centered and the eyebrows less pronounced than those of the ancestors of Homo sapiens
• They are completely bipedal so your hands are completely free to continue perfecting your daily activities and, thus, be able to survive more easily
• The amount of body hair has decreased greatly since its ancestors, although Homo Sapiens Sapiens already had less hair, leaving hair only to protect some specific parts of the body
• Vision improves both in the quality of color perception and in the ability to aim and precision
• The average height is around 1.60 meters and 1.70 meters, with men generally being taller and women somewhat shorter.
• The weight of Homo Sapiens at the beginning was between 60 and 70 kg

In addition to the physical characteristics of Homo Sapiens that allowed a great evolution and improvement in many aspects of the human species already in the Prehistory, we must also look at cultural characteristics to better understand where some things began that today are very normal. Some of the main cultural characteristics of Homo sapiens are as follows:

Emergence of agriculture and livestock

One of the main characteristics of Homo Sapiens is that thanks to its ability to begin to reason, memorize things and understand them better, it began to develop activities that his direct ancestor, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, had already begun to try, such as trying to cultivate food. Thus, the human species in the Neolithic period managed to dominate agriculture and livestock, domesticating various species.

Due to the new needs they also improved the quality of the tools, using stone polished rather than carved, and created new tools needed for farming and more resistant.

The first human settlements

Another of the main characteristics of Homo Sapiens in the Neolithic is that, due to the aforementioned, they began to settle in places permanently, that is, they became sedentary beings instead of nomads as had been all their ancestors. Thus, they created towns and settlements in various places on the planet practically at the same time, specifically began in the Middle East, part of the Indus River Valley, in the Anatolia and Crete area, and also in America.

They created houses made of sun-dried adobe and straw, which they later managed to dry in ovens, making them a more resistant building material. They decorated the interior of their homes not only with the essential elements for their daily life, but also introduced decorative elements such as tapestries.

Art in the Neolithic

Also, thanks to their new capacities, art improved remarkably both in music and in the tapestries that decorated their homes and on the walls on which they reflected their day-to-day lives. The shapes they drew began to be somewhat more geometric and precise.

In addition, thanks to testing different mixtures of minerals and the use of kilns, ceramics appeared, which were also decorated with drawings. Because of this they were also able to improve the storage and transportation of food.

Religion and beliefs of Homo Sapiens

In the early days of Homo Sapiens, their beliefs led them to bury their deceased under spectacular stone monuments, such as menhirs and dolmens. These already existed during the existence of some ancestors, but without a doubt Homo Sapiens during the Neolithic period also perfected this part of their culture.

Principles of trade

Finally, one of the most important main characteristics of Homo Sapiens is that towards the end of the Neolithic it began to dominate some metals, giving rise to the Age of the Metals, and thanks to all its advances such as agriculture, livestock and the appearance of ceramics, among others, trade and exchange began to take place between different villages.