A brief pedigree of man: who are Australopithecus, Cro-Magnon and Denisov

Most people who are far from anthropology and paleontology have difficulty understanding what they are talking about when scientists report a sensational discovery of the missing link in the history of human evolution or a discovered genetic link between Neanderthals and Denisovans. Yes, we all once passed the history of the appearance of man on our planet at school, but since then a lot of new scientific data has appeared, and the chronology of events itself has erased a little from our memory. Therefore, we decided to briefly remind our readers about who the Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals and Australopithecus are.

So, according to scientific data, in the field of human evolution, our species, Homo sapiens (lat.Homo sapiens sapiens), belongs to the hominid family, the primates order, which, in addition to humans, also includes orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees. According to the latest genetic studies, human civilization originated in the vastness of Africa, and from there the ancient people settled on other continents. The very process of human evolution (anthropogenesis) continued for several million years, and the exact dates of the appearance of various human ancestors are still the subject of discussion by anthropologists. Nevertheless, by the fossil remains of anthropoid apes and ancient representatives of the genus Homo, one can make a picture of the appearance of our ancestors on the planet. This is shown more clearly in the diagram.

It can be seen from the above diagram that human evolution did not proceed strictly linearly, and in the process of development, species arose that later became extinct without leaving any traces in the genes of modern humans. There is a high probability that this evolutionary tree of man will be supplemented and revised more than once, because scientists regularly report new findings and discoveries in this area.