This timeline picks up our story with the evolution of primates, hominids, and hominins.
- Hominidae Family: The Great Apes (all hominids and hominins including genus Homo).
- Hominid: Us=direct ancestor from the Great Apes LCA to Homo habilis; Not Us=Not a direct ancestor, not our branch of evolution.
- Hominin: Us=direct ancestor back to CHLCA or genus Homo; Not Us=side branch hominin and not genus Homo.
Great Apes
Ape Thumb Evolves
32 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 million)
Baboons Branch Off: Old World Monkeys
27 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 million)
Large neocortex, Coalition politics emerge
Genus Proconsul (Self-Awareness Settles)
20 Million Year Ago (+/- 2 Million Years)
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Complex Sentience; Maybe Self-aware; Likely Simple EI.
Great Apes: Medicine Emerges
18 Million Years Ago, ± 3 million years
Causal reasoning, Early prefrontal integration
Gibbons Branch Off: Genus Hylobates
17 Million Years Ago, ± 1 million
Long-distance pair bonding, Fine motor control
Emergence of the Great Apes (Great Apes LCA)
16.5 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 Million Years)
Tool potential begins, Neocortical expansion
Genus Kenyapithecus: EI Emerges
Lived 16 to 14 Million Years Ago
Prefrontal–limbic integration, Reading others, Modulating reaction
Animal Vocabulary: Thousands of Words (The Great Apes)
circa 15 Million Years Ago
Inferior frontal gyrus homologues, Mirror neuron systems
Laughter Emerges
14.5 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 million)
Limbic vocalization pathways, Breath control
Skin Color Diversity Across and within Primate Species
By 14 Million Years Ago
Phenotype Variations
Genus Dryopithecus: Cultural Transmission Emerges
Emerged 13 mya, extinct 9 to 7 mya
Cultural Transmission
Orangutans Branch Off: Genus Sivapithecus
Emerged 12.5 to 12 mya, extinct 8.5 to 7 mya.
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Complex Sentience; Self-aware; Complex EI.
Gorillas Branch Off: Genus Nakalipithecus
Emerged 10 mya, extinct 9.8 to 9 mya.
Ancestral Hominids (us, pre-split)
Transition from Trees to Savannah Begins
9 Million Years Ago
Enhanced spatial mapping and endurance planning
Genus Gigantopithecus
Emerged 9 mya, extinct 100,000 BCE.
Chimpanzees Branch Off (CHLCA)
7.5 Million Years Ago
Advanced coalition politics and tool precursors
Genus: Sahelanthropus (Walking Upright)
7 Million BCE
Partial bipedal posture + visual reorientation
Genus Gorilla
7 Million Years Ago
Genus: Orrorin
6 Million Years Ago (Maybe Us)
Femoral adaptation, Motor cortex recalibration
Genus: Ardipithecus
Lived 5.8 to 4.4 Million Years Ago (Maybe Us)
Reduced aggression, Reduced canine dimorphism
Echoes of Early Steps: The Laetoli Footprints
3.66 Million Years Ago
Hominin
Early Wood tools
3.4 Million Years Ago
cognitive sequencing + motor precision + future modeling
Early Stone Tools
3.3 Million BCE (Hominins)
Prefrontal Cortex Expansion, Internal 3D modeling
Collective Learning Emerges
3.3 Million Years Ago
Human Thumb Evolves
3 Million Years Ago (+/- 400,000 years)
Human Laughter Emerges
3 Million Years Ago
+/- 1 million years
Genus: Australopithecus
2.9 Million BCI
Hominin, Us, From 4.2 to 2 MYA
Genus: Paranthropus
2.7 Million Years Ago
Hominin, Not Us (2.7 to 1.2 million years ago)
Homo habilis: Our Intelligence Settles.
2.3 Million BCE
First Proto-Containers
2 Million Years Ago
Emergence of the Chimpanzee Family
2 Million BCE
Hominids, Not Us (different branch)
Homo erectus: A True Omnivore
1.9 Million BCE
Emergence of Early Hominin Shelters
1.8 Million Years Ago (+/- 500,000 years)
Modern Gorilla Species
1.75 Million Years Ago
Oldest Modern Human-like Footprints
1.52 Million BCE
1.53 to 1.51 Million BCE
Chimpanzee-Bonobo Split
1.5 Million Years Ago (+/- 500,000 years)
Less Body Hair Emerges in Homo erectus
1.2 Million BCE
Supported by DNA evidence.
Homo antecessor: Earlier Modern Looks
1.2 Million BCE
Rapid Brain Growth
800,000 BCE
800,000 to 200,000 BCE
Fire-Altered Stone Tools
790,000 BCE
Genus Homo
Hyoid Bone: Speach Emerges
700,000 BCE
Hominin World Population: 2 Million (speculative)
700,000 BCE
Highly speculative. Based on rational analysis of the great apes.
Full Emotional Intelligence Emerges
700,000 Years Ago
Homo heidelbergensis
Circa 640,000 Years Ago
Homo heidelbergensis on Earth from about 640,000 to 200,000 BCE.
First Clothes: Proto-Clothing and the Advent of Garments
600,000 Years Age
Transcendental Intelligence Emerges
475,000 Years Ago
Neanderthal-Sapien LCA
440,000 Years Ago (+/- 40,000 years)
Homo neanderthalensis: Verified True Symbolic Thought
430,000 BCE
On Earth from 430,000 to 29,000 BCE
Terra Amata Site, France
circa 400,000 Years Ago
Nice, France
Genus Orangutans
400,000 Years Ago
Oldest Surviving Spear
350,000 BCE
400,000 to 300,000 BCE
Homo naledi: A Likely Hybrid
335,000 BCE
Human, but probably not our human branch.
Homo Sapiens: Advanced Transcendental Intelligence
315,000 BCE
Neanderthal-Denisovan Split
300,000 BCE
500 to 30 Thousand BCE
Venus of Tan-Tan
300,000 BCE
Africa; 300,000 to 500,000 years ago
Hominin World Population: 2 Million (maybe)
300,000 BCE
Very speculative.
Homo rhodesiensis: A Hybrid Lesson
300,000 Years Ago
Survived from about 300,000 to 125,000 years ago.
Bhimbetka Petroglyphs, Cupules
Before 290,000 BCE
Hominins; 290,000 to 700,000 years ago
Adam: Haplogroup A
275,000 BCE
Extinction: Homo naledi
236,000 Years Ago
Extinction: Homo heidelbergensis
200,000 Years Ago
Eve: Haplogroup L
175,000 BCE
200,000 to 150,000 BCE
Modern Human Looks and Brains
150,000 BCE
200,000 to 150,000 BCE
Homo longi: Rewriting Human Migration Narratives
146,000 Years Ago
Extinction: Homo rhodesiensis
125,000 Years Ago
Many Early Out of Africa Migrations
120,000 BCE
130,000 to 100,000 BCE
Extinction: Gigantopithecus
100,000 BCE
Blombos Cave Engravings
75,000 BCE
“The” Human DNA
70,000 BCE
2,800 Generations Ago
Successful Out of Africa Migration
70,000 BCE
Starting by 70,000 BCE
Oldest Known Bracelet
70,000 BCE
2,880 Generations Ago
World Population: 1.5 Million
By 70,000 BCE
The Sentinelese people on North Sentinel Island
70,000 BCE
circa 60 to 70 thousand BCE
The Settlement of Australia
65,000 BCE
Homo sapiens or an earlier Homo species
Extinction: Homo luzonensis
65,000 BCE
Divje Babe Flute
50 to 60 Thousand BCE
Extinction: Homo Erectus
50,000 BCE
Extinction: Homo floresiensis
48,000 BCE
58,000 to 48,000 BCE
Neanderthal Rope!
48,000 BCE (+/- 2,000 years)
Phenotype Variation: Eye Shape and the Epicanthic Fold
circa 40,000 BCE
Extinction: Denisovans
40,000
Extinction: Neanderthals
38,000 BCE
Extinction range: 38,000 BCE to 22,000 BCE
Czeck: Dolní Věstonice Community
30,000 BCE
29 to 32 thousand years ago.
Advanced Sewing Needles
28,000 BCE
28,000 to 21,000 BCE
Modern Skin Color Variety Emerges
By 25,000 Years Ago (+/- 10,000 years)
Ukraine: Mezhyrich Community
18,000 BCE
15 to 20 Thousand Years Agao
Phenotype Variation: Blue Eyes
8000 BCE
Genetic Mutation from the Neolithic Era
Phenotype Variation: Lactose Tollerance
7500 BCE