Quarto Publishing Group USA

Humans are the last remaining hominin species and the only member of the genus Homo to have colonized the entire planet.

The earliest known stone tools date to 3.3 million years ago—although it is highly likely that tools made from wood or bone were being used before this, but have not survived.

The earliest known stone tools were made by an unknown hominin species about 3.3 million years ago at Lomekwi in modern-day Kenya.

The first definite evidence of fire use dates to 1 million years ago, but there are claims that fire was used as long as 1.4 million years ago.

Our ancestors’ use of fire broadened their diet by allowing inedible foods, such as starchy and fibrous roots, to be cooked.

Cooking food can massively increase the calories released during digestion and kill harmful parasites and bacteria found in meat.

Ancient DNA shows that they interbred with Homo sapiens several times and also with the little-known Denisovan hominins from the Altai mountains in Siberia.

We now have a much clearer image of the Neanderthals as Eurasia-dwelling humans who lived in groups of about 30–40, wore clothes, used fire, cared for their sick, and produced colored pigment for decoration.

Based on fossil and genetic evidence, we can trace our direct ancestry back to East Africa around 200,000 years ago.

We began to move beyond our African homeland some time after 100,000 years ago and interbred several times with Neanderthals in Asia and Europe, and the Denisovans in Siberia.