Chapter 24 Chapter 26 Species Born During Earth's Long Winter

The so-called history is all our memories of ourselves as a species, and as far as we can remember, in the whole "history", human beings have never faced total destruction.In different times and in different regions, there have been terrible natural disasters on the earth. However, in the past 5000 years, human beings as a whole have never encountered the crisis of extinction. Has this always been the case?If we go back to earlier times, is it possible that we find that at a certain period, our ancestors were almost wiped out?Flood myths and other disaster stories circulated by peoples of the world seem to focus on such a period.Scholars generally believe that these myths are nothing more than fantasies of ancient poets and should not be taken seriously.Is it possible for scholars to judge wrongly?Perhaps, our prehistoric ancestors did experience a series of major natural disasters, and only a few survived by chance, scattered all over the world, trying to survive independently.Is there no such possibility at all?

We are looking for an era that fits these myths as seamlessly as Cinderella's shoes.In this quest we don't have to look at any period before modern humans, because that would obviously be pointless.We are not interested in "HO mo habilis" or "Homo erectus" (Homo erectus) who lived more than a million years ago, or even "Neanderthal man" ( HomoSapiens neanderthalensis), but our own species - "Homo sapiens sapiens", that is, modern humans.Speaking of it, the history of our living in this world is not long. When did modern humans appear on earth?This issue is still debated in academic circles.Some scholars claim that human remains more than 100,000 years old, although incomplete, can still be considered "fully modern humans."Other scholars believe that 35,000 to 40,000 years is a more reasonable figure.Another group of scholars proposed a compromise—50,000 years.No scholar has come up with conclusive evidence.An expert admitted: "The origin of fully evolved modern humans represented by the name Homo sapiens is still a great mystery in paleoanthropology."①

The fossil record shows that the evolutionary process that humans have undergone as a whole is about 3.5 million years old.For the convenience of academic research, scholars generally regard the remains discovered in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa in 1974 as the beginning of the human fossil record.The skeleton belonged to a diminutive, bipedal hominid—scholars named her "Lucy."With a brain volume of only 400 milliliters (less than 1/3 of the average brain volume of modern humans), Lucy cannot be called a human being.However, she is not considered an ape either, as she has some notable "humanoid" features, notably her upright gait, and the shape of her pelvis and posterior teeth.For these and other reasons, the species she belongs to—classified by academics as Australo Pithecus afarensis—is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be our earliest direct ancestor.

About 2 million years ago, the ancestor of human beings "Skillful Man" began to leave skull and bone fossils.Over time, the species showed clear signs of evolution, with bodies becoming increasingly "slender and graceful" and brains expanding in size.The "Homo erectus" who followed the "Smart Man" had a brain volume of 900 ml (compared to the 700 ml of "Smart Man"); about 1.6 million years ago, they began to appear on the earth.For the next million years, until about 400,000 years ago, humans do not appear to have undergone significant evolution—at least no fertilizer fossils show this.Then, "Homo erectus" began to die out; then, what paleoanthropologists call "intelligent" humans began to slowly—very, very slowly—appear on Earth:

Exactly when humans began the transition to more intelligent forms is difficult to determine.Some scholars believe that this transition involving the expansion of brain volume and thinning of the skull began as early as 400,000 years ago.Unfortunately, not enough fossils remain of this critical period for us to be sure what happened during it. One thing we do know for sure: Storytelling, myth-making "intelligent humans"—the subspecies to which we belong today—didn't even appear 400,000 years ago.It is generally accepted by the academic community that "intelligent humans evolved from Homo erectus"④; moreover, there is evidence that during the period from 400,000 to 100,000 years ago, some ancient intelligent humans did appear on the earth.It is a pity that we still cannot sort out the relationship between these transitional races and modern humans.As mentioned above, some scholars believe that the first humans who can be called "Homo sapiens" appeared at the end of this period.However, the skeletons they left behind are all incomplete, and their identities have not been generally confirmed by the academic community.The oldest of these remains—a fragmentary skull—was presumed to be a modern human specimen from 113,000 BC.It was during this period that a distinct subspecies known to Westerners as "Neanderthal Man" was discovered in Neanderthal, Germany in 1857. Valley) began to appear.

Burly, muscular, with high foreheads and prominent faces, Neanderthals had larger brain volumes than the average modern human (1400 cc, versus our 1360 cc).For this "intelligent, perceptive, and resourceful" species, a large brain capacity is a valuable asset.The fossil record shows that they were indeed the species that dominated the planet from about 100,000 years ago until 40,000 years ago.At some point during this long period, "Homo sapiens" gradually emerged; starting about 40,000 years ago, they left fossil remains that showed that they were indeed modern humans.By about 35,000 years ago, they completely replaced the Neanderthals and became the masters of the earth⑤

All in all, when humans who look like us - if they shaved off their beards, put on modern clothes, and walked down the street, we would never look at them more and treat them as monsters - when did they first appear on Earth? , certainly no more than 115,000 years ago, and probably no more than 50,000 years ago.If the catastrophe myths we have discussed reflect the geological upheavals that humans have experienced at a certain time, then these disasters must have occurred in the past 115,000 years, and probably even in the past 50,000 years. cinderella shoes In geology and paleoanthropology, we have discovered a strange phenomenon: the beginning and progress of the last ice age and the rise and reproduction of modern humans almost coincide in time.It's also amazing how little we know about either.

In North America, the last ice age was called the Wisconsin Glaciation (after geologists studying rock formations in Wisconsin).According to expert calculations, its early history can be traced back to 115,000 years ago.Since then, the advancement and retreat of the ice cap fluctuated, and the fastest accumulation of ice and snow occurred 60,000 years ago and l. Between 70,000 years ago.The whole process culminated in what scholars call the "Tazewell Advance" - around 15,000 BC, when glaciation expanded to its greatest extent.By 13,000 BC, however, millions of square miles of ice sheets had begun to melt (for reasons still unknown); by 8000 BC, "Wisconsin glaciation" had disappeared altogether.

Ice ages are a global phenomenon, affecting both the northern and southern hemispheres, and as a result, similar climate and geology occur in many other parts of the world, notably eastern Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America.At that time, large-scale glaciation occurred in Europe: the ice and snow extended southward from Scandinavia and Scotland, covering most of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Poland, Russia, many parts of Germany, the entire territory of Switzerland and Austria, Much of Italy and France.The European Ice Age, known to geologists as the Wurm Glaciation, began about 70,000 years ago, slightly later than the American Ice Age, but peaked around the same time - 17,000 years ago , and then subside rapidly, ending in the same period ⑧.

The history of the Ice Age has several key phases: ① About 60,000 years ago, the glaciation in "Wom", "Wisconsin" and other parts of the world was in full swing; ②, about 17,000 years ago, in the eastern and western hemispheres, the expansion of ice sheets reached its maximum extent; ③. What followed was a period of 7000 years of glacier melting. The rise of modern humans happened to be during this long period of great geological and climatic changes, and the biggest features of this period were severe cold weather and floods everywhere.During the thousands of years when the ice sheet continued to expand, our ancestors were certainly frightened, but the situation must have been even more terrifying during the 7,000 years when the glaciers melted, especially those days when the snow cover melted rapidly and comprehensively.

We should not speculate to what extent the human beings who lived in that turbulent age had evolved in terms of social organization, religious belief, science, and mental development.In the eyes of ordinary people, they are all primitive people living in caves.This stereotype may be wrong.In fact, we don't know much about them, except that they are similar to us both physically and mentally. During the period of geological upheaval, it is probable that they faced total destruction several times; and those myths of catastrophes which scholars have dismissed as having no historical value may have recorded actual events and eye-witness reports.As we'll see in the next chapter, if we're looking for an era that fits these myths as seamlessly as Cinderella's shoes, we're probably looking for the last ice age on Earth. Notes: ①Roger Lewin, "Human Evolution", 74 pages R0ge Lewin, Human Euolution, fLewh, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1984, p. 74． ②Johnson and Eddy, "Lucy: The Origin of Mankind", pp. 28, 259-310. Donald C． Jo Hanson and Maitland C． Eddy, Lucy: the Beginnings of Mankind, Pal adin, London 1982, pp. 28, 259-310. ③ "Human Evolution", 76 pages. ④ "Encyclopedia Britannica", 1991 edition, Volume 18, page 831. ⑤ "Human Degeneration", 76 pages. ⑥ Same as above, pages 73 and 77. ⑦ "Grand Prize Encyclopedia", 1991 edition, Volume 12, page 712; Hapgood "The Way of the Pole", page 146152. C． H． Hapgood, Path of the Pole, Chilton Books, New York, 1970, pp. 146,152. ⑧Unlocking the Mystery of the Ice Age by John Imbury and Catherine Imbury, pp. 11 and 120. John Imbrie and Katherine Palmer Imbrie, Ice Ages: Soluing the Mys tery, Enslow Publishers, New Jersey, 1979, PP 11, 120 See also Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 12, p. 783 and The Evolution of Man, p. 73.