Quick guide

Evolutionary timeline
55m years ago
First primates evolve.

15m years ago

Hominidae (great apes) split off from the ancestors of the gibbon.

8m years ago
Chimp and human lineages diverge from that of gorillas.

4.4m years ago

Ardipithecus appears: an early "proto-human" with grasping feet.

4m years ago
Australopithecines appeared, with brains about the size of a chimpanzee’s.

2.3m years ago

Homo habilis first appeared in Africa.

1.85m years ago

First "modern" hand emerges.

1.6m years ago

Hand axes are a major technological innovation.

800,000 years ago

Evidence of use of fire and cooking.

700,000 years ago

Modern humans and Neanderthals split.

400,000 years ago

Neanderthals begin to spread across Europe and Asia.

300,000 years ago

Evidence of early Homo sapiens in Morocco.

200,000 years ago

Homo sapiens found in Israel.

60,000 years ago

Modern human migration from Africa that led to modern-day non-African populations.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/12/tracing-the-tangled-tracks-of-humankinds-
evolutionary-journey