Page 1 para 2 – where the water in our bodies etc has been
We began to branch off from chimps around 13 million ya but began interbreeding until around 7 mya (7) – we’re so new even compared with other animals
A hot plume of magma under north-east Africa 30mya began to create the east African rift – where the continent pulled apart, creating what is now Ethiopia to Mozambique and forming new mountain ranges. These mountain ranges changed the amount of rainfall in certain areas (now about 3-4mya), creating savannah-like terrains as opposed to rainforests, and it was this that began to separate ‘hominins from tree dwelling apes’ (11-12) the irregular rock formations of cooled volcanic activity probably helped these early hominins catch prey and hide from predators
Fossil of an early hominin from 3.2 mya is now named Lucy as Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was played after her discovery in the excavation camp (the peculiarity of this, us projecting ourselves back in time, the sudden odd clashing of two so different worlds)
‘Stone age tools have been found made from materials like quartzite, chert, volcanic obsidian, and flint. These rock types are mainly composed of silica: silicon dioxide. Silica has offered the base materials for transformative technologies throughout history as a species, from stone tools, to glass, to the high-purity silicon wafers of modern computer microchips. In this way, the East African Rift, for over 2 million years the centre of the cutting-edge technology of stone tool manufacture, was the original Silicon Valley.’ (17)
The specific geographic features of East Africa, caused by all the tectonic activity, meant there were a lot of vastly different habitats near to each other, and also ‘amplifier lakes’ that reacted extremely to slight changes in climatic conditions. Therefore in the epoch of ice ages coming and going intelligence had to emerge to be able to cope with these rapidly changing conditions – the conditions were changing faster than natural selection could keep up. And it was likely for this same reason that we out-lived Neanderthals – we were probably able to adapt to changing conditions more effectively so out-competed them for food etc
(TBC)
Anna Harris 