The direct evidence for studying the origin of human beings comes from fossils. Anthropologists use the method of comparative anatomy to study all kinds of ancient ape fossils and human fossils, determine their relative and absolute ages, and thus determine the age of human fossils, and roughly divide the evolutionary history of human beings into several stages. Geneticists use biochemical and molecular biological methods. To study the differences and variation speed of protein and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) among modern humans, various apes and other higher primates, and thus calculate their respective origins and differentiation ages. At present, it is generally believed in academic circles that the time when ancient apes turned into human ancestors was 7 million years ago.

Judging from the discovered human fossils, human evolution can be roughly divided into the following four stages:

(1) Australopithecus stage. The discovered Australopithecus lived 4.4 million years ago to 1 10,000 years ago. According to the study on the anatomical characteristics of fossils, the most important feature of Australopithecus is that it can walk upright on two feet.

(2) the stage of capable people. 1960 homo habilis fossils were found in Tanzania and Kenya in East Africa. The earliest homo habilis existed 190000 years ago. An able person is classified as an able person under the human subject. Homo habilis has a larger brain than Australopithecus, made tools (stone tools) from stones, and then gradually evolved into Homo erectus.

(3) Homo erectus. Homo erectus belongs to Homo erectus in classification, referred to as Homo erectus, commonly known as Homo erectus. Homo erectus fossils were first discovered in Java, Indonesia in 189 1. There was an argument about whether it was a man or an ape. It was not until the 1920s that Peking man fossils and stone tools were discovered in Zhoukoudian, Beijing. Established the position of Homo erectus in the history of human evolution. Homo erectus lived about 6.5438+0.7 million years ago to over 200,000 years ago. So far, homo erectus fossils have been found in Asia, Africa and Europe.

(4) Homo sapiens is generally divided into early homo sapiens (ancient homo sapiens) and late homo sapiens (modern homo sapiens). Early Homo sapiens lived from 200,000 years ago to 65,438+million years ago. The survival of late Homo sapiens began about 65,438+million years ago. Its anatomical structure is basically similar to that of modern people, so it is also called modern people in anatomical structure.

According to the evidence of human fossils found so far, Australopithecus is the earliest known human.