Mathematics
People inhabiting the earth today. The place of man in living nature. Signs and properties of Homo sapiens, allowing it to be classified among various systematic Humanity has two
character traits
: poor memory and excessive self-confidence. From an evolutionary perspective, these traits give us a survival advantage. And perhaps it is precisely these qualities that lead us to forget that we are not the first inhabitants of the Earth, and man was not always the same as he is now. For hundreds of thousands of years, the “human” species has inhabited our planet, and its representatives continuously and imperceptibly change, adapting to the requirements of the environment. How we would like to look at least with one eye into the future to see what all these gadgets, devices, cozy warm houses that our ancestors never dreamed of, the endless stresses and anxieties of our complex world will turn people into.
modern world ...What will they be like - the people of the future? Unknown. But we know what they were like! We invite you to view a selection of exterior reconstructions
various types
extinct people. There are a dozen and a half of them on this list - that’s exactly how much is known to science at the moment.
Homo habilis / Homo habilis 
The first representative of the genus Homo. They lived 2.6-2.5 million years ago.
Rudolf Man / Homo rudolfensis 
A species of people representing (according to traditional ideas) a transitional stage from Homo habilis to erectus. Lived 2.0-1.78 million years ago.
Working man / Homo ergaster 
A fossil species of humans that appeared in Africa 1.8 million years ago as a result of the evolution of Homo habilis or Homo rudolfensis. Homo erectus.
Fossil species of humans that is considered to be a direct ancestor 
modern people
Homo floresiensis 
Dwarf fossil species of humans. They are also called “hobbits” by analogy with the creatures invented by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Homo antecessor
A fossil species of humans that existed from 1.2 million to 800 thousand years ago. Homo antecessor is considered the most ancient hominid in Europe.
Heidelberg Man / Homo heidelbergensis 
A European variety of Homo erectus that lived in Europe 800–345 thousand years ago. 
The most probable age of the “Ceprano man” is 450,000 years.
Georgian Man / Homo georgicus 
A form of hominids whose remains were discovered on the territory of Georgia.
Denisovsky man 
Even 40 thousand years ago, Denisovans inhabited an area that overlapped in time and place with the territories in Asia where Neanderthals and modern people lived.
Neanderthal / Homo neanderthalensis 
The last Neanderthals lived 25–30 thousand years ago.
Cro-Magnons 
They appeared much later than the Neanderthals and coexisted with them for some time (40-30 thousand years ago).
Homo sapiens elder / Homo sapiens idaltu 
The approximate age of the find is from 154 to 160 thousand years.
From many other planets - the presence on it intelligent beings- of people. Where and when did the first man appear? People have been searching for an answer to this question for a very long time.
Human settlement of the Earth
There are two stages in the settlement of people around the planet. About 2 million years ago, ancient people began to penetrate from other areas and to other continents. This stage of exploration of the Earth ended approximately 500 thousand years ago. Subsequently, the ancient people became extinct.
Modern man (“Homo sapiens”) appeared only about 200 thousand years ago. It was from here that the second stage of human settlement began. They were forced to go to new unexplored lands primarily by concern for food. With the increase in the number of people, the territories where hunting was carried out expanded and edible plants were collected. The strong also contributed to the resettlement of people. The level 15-16 thousand years ago was 130 m lower than the modern one, so there were “land bridges” between individual continents and islands. The transition to a sedentary lifestyle occurred 11 thousand years ago. This contributed to the development of ancient civilizations. Many monuments of their culture have survived to this day.
Races
The long existence of people in different natural conditions led to the emergence of races - large groups of people who have common, inherited, external characteristics. By external signs all humanity is divided into four large geographical races.
Negroid race formed in hot regions of the Earth. Dark, almost black, skin, hard curly or wavy black hair, characteristic of these people, protects against sunburn and overheating of the body. The eyes are brown. A wide, flat nose and thick lips help regulate body temperature.
Australoid race According to the external characteristics of its representatives, it is close to Negroid.
Mongoloid have adapted to life in and where summer temperatures are high, strong winds are frequent and dust storms. Yellow protects the skin from excessive exposure to sunlight. The narrow shape of the eyes protects them from wind and dust. Mongoloids have straight, coarse hair, a large flattened face, prominent cheekbones and a slightly protruding nose.
Caucasian is divided into northern and southern branches. Southern Caucasians have dark skin, brown eyes and dark hair. The northern ones have white skin, light and soft hair, blue or gray eyes.
Mixed races. Over time, the proportion of people on Earth whose appearance contains signs of different races is growing. They form mixed races, the emergence of which is associated with the migration of people. These include mestizos - descendants of Europeans and Indians; mulattoes - descendants of Europeans and peoples of the Negroid race; sambo - descendants of Indians and peoples of the Negroid race; Malgash are descendants of the Negroid peoples.
1. According to the modern formulation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, in a closed system the entropy S for any real process either increases or
remains unchanged, i.e. the change in entropy dS is greater than or equal to zero. According to M. Planck’s formulation, “in nature, every physical or chemical process occurs in such a way as to increase the sum of the entropies of all bodies participating in this process.” However, through the process of photosynthesis, plants absorb external energy and turn it into energy chemical bonds complex compounds, i.e. carry out their metabolism with the accumulation of internal energy and a decrease in entropy! Do plants violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics? - 10 points. 2. Suppose Vasya Ivanov was sent to spaceship to Mars. After a ten-year stay there, he returned to Earth. What problems will Vasily have on Earth after such a trip? - 10 points. 3. Why species richness and total abundance of birds in western Siberia grow from the middle taiga to the forest-steppe, and in Eastern Europe are they decreasing? - 10 points. 4. If we assume that all cytoplasmic membranes were instantly removed from a eukaryotic cell, what metabolic disturbances in the cell would this cause? - 10 points. 5. Currently in Japan, when applying for a job, getting married, etc. There is an increased interest in a person’s blood type and even discrimination against people with “undesirable” blood types. What biological (not social) consequences for the population will the exclusion of people with such blood groups from reproduction lead to? - 10 points.
inside the heart is completely divided into two parts by a longitudinal septum. Some children suffer from a developmental defect in which the heart is not dividedcompletely into two parts (right and left). Currently, this defect can be cured surgically.
a) name the differences in the composition of the blood of the right and left parts of the heart in healthy people:
b) explain how the blood composition changes in children with the above-mentioned heart defect;
c) explain why children with a similar heart defect cannot cope with physical activity
1.Process historical development alive
organisms since their appearance on Earth
and to this day it is called…. 2.
Increasing the complexity of the organization, raising it to higher levels
high level... . 3.Small (private)
adaptations of living organisms to
specific (specific) conditions
Wednesdays... 4. Simplifying the organization of living
body... . 5. Manifestation in the body
ancestral characteristics... .
6.Non-functioning organs…. 7.Science of
the origin and evolution of man...
8. Division within the species Human
Reasonable…. 9.Organisms capable of
create organic matter
are called... 10.Organisms that feed
organic matter in finished form,
called... 11.Organisms living in
oxygen-containing environment are called...
12.Organisms that can live in an environment without
oxygen are called... 13.Organisms,
a cell that does not have a nucleus is called...
14.Organisms whose cells contain a nucleus
are called...
Municipal budget educational institution
Znamenskaya average comprehensive school №1
Minusinsk region, Krasnoyarsk Territory
TEST
DIAGNOSTIC WORK
on this topic
"MAN ON EARTH"
5th grade
Developed
teacher of biology and chemistry
Zhukova I.M.
Test work
on this topic " MAN ON EARTH."
Item : Biology
Class : 5
Subject: MAN ON EARTH
Goal of the work : check the level of mastery by grade 5 students of subject and meta-subject results on the topic « Man on Earth."
Subject knowledge and skills are:
- human ancestors, their characteristic features, way of life;
- basic ecological problems, standing in front modern humanity;
- rules of human behavior in dangerous situations of natural origin;
- the simplest methods of providing first aid for burns, frostbite, etc.
Students should be able to:
- explain the reasons for the negative impact economic activity man to nature;
- explain the role of plants and animals in human life;
- justify the need to take measures to protect wildlife;
- follow the rules of behavior in nature;
- distinguish species of plants and animals that are dangerous to human life on living objects and tables;
- lead healthy image life and fight against bad habits their comrades.
Meta-subject learning outcomes:
General education UUD :
The ability to compare and highlight the characteristics of human ancestors, their characteristic features, way of life; the main environmental problems facing modern humanity;
Compare the properties of living organisms;
Conduct a simple classification of poisonous plants and animals;
Explain the role of plants and animals in human life;
Analyze and explain the basic rules of behavior in nature;
Find and use cause-and-effect relationships;
- Transform sign-symbolic means,draw logical conclusions
Regulatory UUD :
Make a plan for completing the educational task;
Check and make corrections
Communication UUD :
Reflect inwritten results of their activities.
Specification
Test work on the topic " MAN ON EARTH."
1. Purpose of work – check the level of mastery by 5th grade students of subject and meta-subject results on the topic “MAN ON EARTH”
2. The main content of the test is oriented for the maintenance of the Federal State educational standard main general education(Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation No. 1897 dated December 17, 2010) and complies Sample programs in academic subjects. Biology grades 5-9. (N.I. Sonin and A.A. Pleshakov)
3. Characteristics of work.
Form of control: test test
Number of options -1
Number of tasks in the test work - 16
The test includes questions to test your knowledge of the following: educational material: “How man appeared on Earth”, “How man changed the Earth”, “Life is under threat. Will the Earth become a desert”, “Human health and life safety”.
4. Characteristics of tasks. The sequence of presentation of tasks corresponds to the difficulty levels: basic, advanced, high.The work uses tasks: with the choice of one answer, with the choice of several answers, with correspondence, with the choice of correct judgments, with a short answer, with a detailed answer.
Test consists of three parts:
Part 1 : contains 10 tasks basic level difficulty choosing one correct answer out of four proposed.
Part 2 : 4 tasks higher level difficulties. Of these tasks: 1 task with choosing and writing down three correct options out of six; 1 task to establish compliance; 1 task to select the correct judgments; 1 to determine the sequence of biological processes and phenomena.
Part 3 : contains 2 tasks of increased difficulty level. Of these tasks: 1 task for working with a text of biological content, in which it is necessary to correct biological errors in the given text, 2 task with a detailed answer.
Part 1 includes 10 basic level tasks (A1 – A10). For each task there are 4 possible answers, of which only one is correct. For each correct answer 1 point is given. Maximum score for 1 part – 10 points.
Part 2
For each correct answer 2 points. The maximum score for part 2 is 8 points.
Part 3 contains 2 of the most complex, voluminous tasks. C1 and C2 - require a complete answer, for correct completion of the task 3 points.
The maximum score for part 3 is 6 points.
A total of 21 points for the work.
on the topic: “Man on Earth”
Level A assignments.
You are taking one correct answer out of four suggested:
1. This man found himself a wonderful helper who became his most devoted friend - a dog...
1) Neanderthal
2) Cro-Magnon
3) a skillful person
4) homo erectus
2. The common ancestors of humans and apes were...
1) chimpanzee
2) gorillas
3)australopithecus
4) dryopithecus
3. The tall grass of the savannas and steppes prevented him from examining the surroundings, and he stood up...
1) a skillful person
2) Cro-Magnon
3) Australopithecus
4) a reasonable person
4. All people living on Earth now belong to the species...
1) a skillful person
2) a reasonable person
3) homo erectus
4) family man
5.The negative significance of cattle breeding for nature lies in
1) receiving meat2) development of the dairy industry
3) depletion of pasture lands
4)breeding new breeds
6.Acid rain is formed as a result of
1) breeding domestic animals2) distribution of agricultural plants
3) scaffolding
4) waste emissions into the atmosphere industrial enterprises
7. Desertification is:
1) gradual swamping of dry lands
2) gradual overgrowing of abandoned lands with forests
3) gradual transformation of dry lands into deserts
4) gradual overgrowing of dry lands with grasses
8. K global changes in nature can lead
1) increase in the number of certain species of animals and plants
2) desertification of territories
3) heavy rainfall
4) overgrowing of land with forests after a forest fire
9.The plant is on the verge of extinction
1) sequoia
2) spruce
3) pine
4) poplar
10. During a hurricane, a person should
1) hide under a tree
2) take cover under the balcony
3) monitor what is happening on the street
4) close windows and doors tightly in the room.
Level B assignments.
Choose three correct answers out of six
Q1.Choose three correct answers. Harmful effects man to nature led to the formation
6)greenhouse effectAT 2. Match the terms :
Answer:________________________________________________________
AT 3. Are the following statements true?
A. Deforestation leads not only to the destruction of plants, but also to desertification of lands.
B. With a large number of domestic animals on pastures, the growth and density of grass stands increases due to increased soil fertility.
1) only A is correct
2) only B is correct
3) both judgments are correct
4) both judgments are incorrect
Answer____________________________
AT 4. “ Timeline " Arrange the numbers of cards with pictures according to the development of man on Earth.
Insert: Timeline
Answer:_______________________________________________
Level C assignments.
1. Find errors in the given text and correct them.
(indicate the numbers of sentences in which errors were made, explain them)
1. All people inhabiting the Earth at present belong to the species Homo sapiens.
3. The common ancestor of humans and gorillas is Dryopithecus.
5. Neanderthals ate almost exclusively meat, made complex tools of labor and hunting from stone, and clothing from skins.
2. Study the diagram. Based on its content, give short written answers to the questions.
1. What is the most common reason for land destruction throughout the world?
2. Besides land destruction, what other consequences could there be from deforestation?
3. What problem can you participate in solving right now?
Standard for performing assessment material
Answers:
B4 – 3,1,5,6,2,4
C1- 2. The ancient ancestors of people lived on Earth 2-3 million years ago and were more like humans. (The ancient ancestors of people lived on Earth 4-5 million years ago and were more like a monkey than like a human).
4. Neanderthals used natural shelters - caves - for housing. (Cro-Magnons).
6. The relatives of man who lived in Africa in ancient times are called Homo habilis. (Australopithecus)
C2.
Correct answer:
1. Most often, lands are destroyed due to overgrazing of livestock.
2. The consequences of deforestation can also be the death of animals, which will lose their home and place to obtain food; the amount of oxygen entering the atmosphere will decrease.
3. I can participate in forest planting.
Evaluation criteria:
11-14 points - mark"3" (51%-65%)
15–18 points – mark “4” (66%-84%)
19 -21 points – mark “5” (85%-100%)
10 points and below mark« 2" (0%-50%)
Instructions for students to complete the test
Part 1 includes 10 basic level tasks (A1 – A10). For each task there are 4 possible answers, of which only one is correct. For each correct answer 1 point is given. The maximum score for part 1 is 10 points.
Part 2 consists of higher level tasks.
For each correct answer 2 points. The maximum score for part 2 is 8 points.
Part 3 contains 2 of the most complex, voluminous tasks. C1 and C2 - require a complete answer, 3 points for correct completion of the task.
The maximum score for part 3 is 6 points.
A total of 21 points for the work.
Biology test for 5th grade
Anthropogenesis - the process of separating humans from the animal world - has, according to most researchers, gone through three main stages:
1. the time of successive existence of anthropoid human ancestors,
2. ancient people (archanthropes)
3. modern people (neoanthropes).
All people inhabiting the Earth at present belong to the species Homo sapiens (homo-man, sapiens-reasonable). The most important signs of Homo sapiens are an upright body position and walking on two legs, a very well-developed brain and flexible hands. The combination of these characteristics gives man the opportunity to use the environment to feed and clothe his entire large population and create amazing civilizations. However, the unceremonious and often hostile treatment of all types of living beings (including humans) began to turn against us. We are belatedly realizing that our planet is a closed ecosystem with limited space and limited energy supplies, and that we are consuming and destroying its resources faster than nature can restore them. According to some scientists, we simply play the role in nature that is destined for us and which we cannot avoid: we change the environment to such an extent that it is no longer able to support our existence, and pave the way for other species (perhaps some insects) who will one day take over the Earth. Others believe that we will be able to solve our environmental problems, just as we have solved so many other problems.
Human population growth ultimately lies at the root of most of our other environmental problems. The population explosion began when primitive tribes began to obtain food not by hunting and gathering, but by cultivating the land - a change that had a profound impact on the history of mankind.
Human evolution
Homo sapiens is one of the representatives of mammals belonging to the order of primates, which also includes tupai, tarsiers, lemurs, lorises and monkeys, including great apes.
Order of primates
Lower primates or prosimians (Prosirnii): Tupaii, lemurs, lorises, galagos, tarsiers.
Higher primates, or monkeys (Anthropoidea).
New World monkeys, including capuchins, marmosets.
Old World monkeys, including macaques and baboons.
Great apes (Hominoidea)
Apes: gibbon, orangutan, gorilla, chimpanzee Humans (Hominidae): Australopithecus (extinct prehuman), Homo erectus, N. neanderthalensis, N. sapiens
Among living primates, various stages of evolution of this group are represented - from animals similar to primitive mammals of the Cretaceous period, to large apes and humans.
The most characteristic adaptive traits of primates are associated with the extremely high development of certain departments nervous system, especially those parts of the brain on which rational behavior and the ability of muscles to perform dexterous and subtle actions depend. This development of the nervous system is closely related to the arboreal lifestyle of ancestral primates and many modern forms. The arboreal lifestyle requires dexterity and well-developed senses. An animal that has to jump from branch to branch especially needs good eyesight. In most primates, both eyes look forward and therefore see the same thing; two identical images superimposed on one another create stereoscopic (3D) vision.
During the evolution of primates, the facial part of the skull gradually became shorter. This change is probably adaptive in nature, since nothing prevents forward-facing eyes from looking at the world around them. The shortening of the muzzle was accompanied by shortening of the jaws and loss of some teeth.
On the one hand, during anthropogenesis the brain skull increases, reflecting the adaptive growth of the mass and volume of the brain, on the other hand, the configuration and structure of the bones of the brain skull change in the direction of autonomy relative to eliminating environmental factors - mainly mechanical influences. This is reflected in the transformations of the brain skull that occur after the cessation of selection for brain volume, and is completely within the framework of the theory of rotational shells. In particular, the supraorbital and occipital ridges in the skulls of archanthropes and paleoanthropes can be considered as a special structure (“support ring”) that works in tension (“perception of thrust”). Occurring in anthropogenesis, the predominant increase in the height of the cerebral skull and the change in its configuration from the shape of a flat spherical dome to the shape of a dome outlined along half of the ellipsoidal surface leads to a decrease in the spacer and the disappearance of the spacer ring, that is, the supraorbital and occipital ridges.
If evolutionary transformations leading to racial and population variability of the human brain skull are associated with adaptation to gradually and constantly acting weak influences, depending on geographical conditions area (insolation intensity, air temperature and humidity, the content of chemicals in the soil, the intensity of the geomagnetic field), then the evolutionary transformations of the brain skull as a structure that protects the brain from external mechanical influences arise as a result of adaptation to extreme eliminating factors acting panocumenally (trauma ). This is reflected in the transformations of the skull that occur after the cessation of selection for brain volume under conditions of constant climatic and geographical factors, and indicates the relative independence of the formation of racial (population) and structural features of the brain skull.
Primates have five digits on all limbs, with one digit usually at least somewhat opposed to the other four; Thanks to this, the animal can grasp and hold a tree branch or food. The fingers end in sensitive pads and are often equipped with flattened nails rather than curved claws like the fingers of other mammals.
In the early stages of primate evolution, some kind of prosimian, resembling a mouse in appearance, switched to life in the trees. The living relatives of this prosimian - tupai - are also very similar to rats or mice. The most evolutionarily advanced representative of prosimians is the Indonesian tarsier, which lives in trees and is nocturnal; The tarsier has huge eyes, completely stereoscopic vision, and its fingers are equipped with nails rather than claws. In addition, his upper lip is covered with hair, like that of higher primates, and his face is mobile and expressive. In higher primates, facial expressions serve as a means of communication; this reflects the transition to vision as the dominant sense; In most other mammals, the sense of smell is used to exchange information.
Greater primates (apes, including apes, and humans) have stereoscopic color vision, a rounded skull and a relatively large, well-developed brain, thanks to which they are able to learn complex forms of behavior. Although most monkeys use all four limbs to move, they can sit upright for long periods of time; In addition, some tree monkeys spend a lot of time in an upright position, when they throw their bodies from branch to branch, clinging to them with their forelimbs - a method of movement called brachiation. Upright walking played a huge role in the evolution of anthropoids, as it freed up the forelimbs, allowing them to be used for manipulating food, caring for young, and performing various other functions.
Currently, there are only four genera of great apes: gibbon, orangutan, gorilla and chimpanzee. They all live in the Old World and, in their structure and behavior, occupy an intermediate position between other monkeys and hominids (representatives of the human family). The brain of apes is relatively larger than that of other apes; in addition, they do not have a tail, so it is more convenient for them to sit with their back straight. Apes, like hominids, have a broad chest, but the two groups differ in that apes have forelimbs and spines that are more capable of brachiation, lower limbs that are specialized, and canines and incisors that are larger and more powerful than those of hominids. Gorillas and chimpanzees spend a lot of time on the ground; When moving, they rely on the hind limbs and on the knuckles of the forelimbs, which gives them the ability to use the fingers themselves to carry objects such as food or stones.
Over the past few decades, biochemists have developed methods for determining the evolutionary relatedness of organisms by comparing the structure of their chromosomes and proteins. Proteins are synthesized according to “instructions” contained in genes; The more similarities between proteins between representatives of two given species, the more similar their genetic maps are and the closer the relationship between the species. Human proteins and chimpanzee proteins are 99% similar. These data, as well as similarities in body structure and behavior, allow us to consider chimpanzees to be our closest relatives of all living organisms. Biologists do not believe that humans descended directly from chimpanzees; in their opinion, both species descended from some common ape-like ancestor that lived several million years ago, and they are probably separated from each other by several extinct species. The ancestral line leading to gorillas separated from the hominid-chimpanzee line somewhat earlier; Even earlier, a branch arose that led to orangutans.
Few areas of research, and among them the search for the fossil remains of our ancestors, have caused so much controversy and created such confusion. Many finds consist of only a few teeth (they are better preserved due to their hardness) and a fragment of a jaw or one of the leg bones and several fragments of a skull. From such remains, scientists can draw conclusions about the nature of nutrition, brain size and body position. It is easy to imagine how difficult this is; indeed, scientists often disagree about how to interpret a particular sign. Recently, anthropologists have found a number of very important fossil remains and have re-analyzed all the available data. This made it possible to partially eliminate ambiguities, but nevertheless left a number of significant gaps.
Since our closest living relatives are the African apes, the search for the putative common ancestor of these apes and humans has focused primarily on Africa. During the Miocene (25-13 million years ago), many forested areas turned into open steppes. Apparently during this period some ape-like forms came out of the forests; One possible hominid ancestor from the Miocene deposits of Africa and Asia showed a tendency to walk on two legs.
According to anthropologists, hominids diverged from the apes 10 to 4 million years ago, but we have almost no fossil remains of hominid ancestors dating back to this period.
Currently accumulated scientific data allows us to consider North-East Africa as the “cradle of humanity”. The oldest known human ancestor, Ramapithecus, is known only from a few teeth and jaw fragments, the age of which is estimated at 9-14 million years ago. It is unknown whether he walked upright.
The initial stages of anthropogenesis began 2.5 - 3 million years ago with the emergence of Australopithecus Africanus, which was upright, had a developed brain and made tools. However, some modern experts do not consider any known variety of Australopithecus to be the direct ancestor of modern humans, but believe that it was a side (dead-end) branch of evolution, and, therefore, Archanthropus only had a common ancestor with Australopithecus.
The first undoubted remains of hominids, aged from 4 to 3.5 million years, were found in Ethiopia and assigned to the genus Australopithecus. The almost complete skeleton of an Australopithecus, nicknamed Lucy, belongs to an adult woman who lived approximately 3.5 million years ago. During her life, she walked on two legs, i.e. standing up straight; her height reached one meter, although men belonging to the same species were larger. Whether Lucy was entirely terrestrial or spent much of her time in the trees is controversial.
The teeth of Australopithecus were very similar to the teeth of modern humans (small incisors and canines); however, large massive jaws and a brain that was marginally larger than those of living apes bring them closer to the latter. Apparently, these hominids scavenged and hunted.
Later australopithecines were undoubtedly upright and lived on the ground, so their hands were free and they could catch animals, throw stones and perform other actions. Piles of animal bones found with Australopithecus fossils dating back to about 2.5 million years ago indicate that meat became a regular part of their diet. These hominids also used crude stone tools.
One can only hypothesize that the advantages created by cooperation during hunting and group defense could cause selection that led to the development of language as a means of communication.
Homo erectus, the species from which modern humans are believed to have evolved, appeared approximately 1.5 million years ago. Its jaws, teeth and brow ridges were still massive, but the brain volume of some individuals was almost the same as that of modern man. Some bones of H. erectus have been found in caves; this suggests that he had a more or less permanent home. In addition to animal bones and fairly well-made stone tools, heaps of charcoal and burnt bones were found in some caves, so, apparently, at this time, Australopithecines had already learned to make fire. It is possible that this custom arose from the use of natural fire for warmth or cooking, as well as for splitting stones.
This stage of hominid evolution correlates with the settlement of other colder areas by people from Africa. It would be impossible to survive cold winters without developing complex behaviors or technical skills. Apparently the pre-human brain of Homo erectus was capable of finding social and technical solutions (fire, clothing, storing food and living together in caves) problems associated with the need to survive in the winter cold.
The selection pressures that drove the evolution of humans' most prominent feature, a large brain, are still unclear and widely debated. This discussion is complicated by the fact that scientists have not reached a consensus on the relationship between brain size and hand development, on the one hand, and intelligent behavior, on the other. We still have not studied our own brains well enough, not to mention the brains of ancient hominids that remained in the distant past, and therefore we can only speculate about when and under what selection pressures certain changes occurred.
The improvement of tools and human development led to the next period of anthropogenesis, represented by modern people (Homo sapiens). Modern look humans include only two subspecies: Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), who appeared 250-200 thousand years ago, and people of modern morphological appearance (Homo sapiens sapiens), who appeared about 40-35 thousand years ago.
Neanderthals lived 250-40 thousand years ago during the Ice Age. These people were widely distributed over the earth, lived in different climatic and natural conditions and were divided anthropologically into different groups, but these groups do not correspond to modern races. Previously, scientists assumed that people descended from one of the groups of Neanderthals in the subsequent era modern type. Now Neanderthals are considered as a kind of side branch of Homo sapiens. In the Don and North Caucasus, the appearance of people is associated precisely with Neanderthals.
The transition of human society to the Upper Paleolithic
The birthplace of modern humanity was most likely Western Asia and the adjacent regions. About 20 thousand years ago, modern people spread widely across Europe, Asia and Africa. The Cro-Magnons developed articulate speech and the appearance of fine art. At this time, the material culture of primitive man changed significantly - stone processing technology reached a high level, horn and bone were widely used, and the primitive herd was replaced by a new form of organization of human society - the clan.
The Neanderthal, whose brain was the same size as that of a modern person, but whose skull was still heavy, is sometimes classified as Homo sapiens. Neanderthals appeared approximately 100,000 years ago. The remains of a completely modern representative of N. sapiens were first discovered in 40,000-year-old sediments.
Neanderthals are paleoanthropes, they are much closer to to modern man than the archanthropes that preceded them. Neanderthals spread very widely. Their sites on the territory of our country were discovered in the Caucasus, Crimea, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Don, near Volgograd. Glaciation began to play a major role in human development, changing the composition of animals and the appearance of flora. Neanderthals learned to make fire, which was a huge achievement for emerging humanity. Apparently, they already had the first rudiments of ideological ideas. In the Teshik-Tash cave in Uzbekistan, the dead man was surrounded by the horns of a mountain goat. There are burials in which the bodies of the dead are oriented along the east-west line.
For many years, the question of where the Neanderthals place on the evolutionary tree and whether interbreeding could have occurred between them and Homo sapiens during the period of their coexistence for tens of millennia. If crossing was possible, then modern Europeans might have some Neanderthal genes. The answer - although not definitive - came only recently from a study of Neanderthal DNA. Geneticist Svante Paebo is the same one who studied DNA from Egyptian mummies and extracted DNA from the remains of a Neanderthal man, several tens of thousands of years old. Despite the fact that the DNA was highly fragmented, scientists were able to use the most modern DNA analysis method - the polymerase method chain reaction(PCR) - establish the nucleotide sequence of a small section of mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA was chosen for the study because in cells it molar concentration hundreds of times higher than the concentration of nuclear DNA.
DNA extraction was carried out under extremely sterile conditions - scientists worked in suits resembling spacesuits in order to prevent accidental contamination of the studied samples with foreign, modern DNA. Under normal conditions, using the polymerase chain reaction method used by scientists, it is possible to “read” DNA fragments up to several thousand nucleotide pairs in length. In the samples studied, the maximum length of “read” fragments was about 20 nucleotide pairs.
Having received a set of such short fragments, scientists used them to reconstruct the original nucleotide sequence of mitochondrial DNA. Comparing it with the DNA of modern humans showed that they are significantly different. The findings suggest that Neanderthals were a separate, albeit related, species to humans.
Most likely, crossing these two species was impossible - the genetic differences between them were too great. Consequently, there are no genes derived from Neanderthals in the human gene pool. Based on the DNA sequence, the divergence time of the Neanderthal and modern human branches was estimated to be 550-690 thousand years.
In the Late Paleolithic (40-35 thousand years ago), a modern type of man (Cro-Magnon man) was formed. These people have already significantly improved the technique of making stone tools: they are becoming much more diverse, sometimes miniature. A throwing spear appears, which significantly increased the efficiency of hunting. Art is born. Rock paintings served magical purposes. Images of rhinoceroses, mammoths, horses, etc. were painted on the walls of caves using a mixture of natural ocher and animal glue. (for example, Kapova Cave in Bashkiria). During the Paleolithic era, the forms of human communities gradually changed. From the primitive human herd - to the tribal system, which arose in the Late Paleolithic.
The basic unit of human society becomes the clan community, which is characterized by common ownership of the main means of production. The transition to the Middle Stone Age - Mesolithic on our territory began in the XII-X millennia BC, and ended in the VII-V millennia BC. At this time, humanity made many discoveries. The most important invention was the bow and arrow, which led to the possibility of not driven, but individual hunting, and for small animals. The first steps were taken towards cattle breeding. The dog was tamed. Some scholars suggest that pigs, goats and sheep were domesticated at the end of the Mesolithic. Cattle breeding as a type of economic activity was formed only in the Neolithic, when agriculture also began. The transition to a productive economy has such extraordinary significance for humanity and, on the scale of the Stone Age, occurred so quickly that it allows scientists to even talk about the Neolithic “revolution.”
The range of stone tools is expanding and improving, but fundamentally new materials are also appearing.
Thus, in the Neolithic, the production of ceramics, still molded, without a potter's wheel, was mastered. Weaving was also mastered. The boat was invented and the beginning of shipping was laid. In the Neolithic, the tribal system reached a higher stage of development - large associations of clans - tribes - were created, intertribal exchange and intertribal connections appeared.