The_Great_Leap_Forward

The Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward Humans have gone through many major developmental stages since distant relatives diverged from gorillas and chimps. This divergence is believed to have begun 6-10 million years ago; it was not a simple overnight process. Approximately 4 million years ago one significant change occurred when our ancestors began to walk upright. This allowed them more use of their arms and hands. 3 million years ago the species divided into two, possibly three hominid species. These two types of man evolved differently. Only one survived. About 2.5 million years ago man began to use crude tools, stones and wood. Anatomically we resemble man from about 60,000 years ago but behaviorally we are very different. Diamond states that in the region of 35,000 years ago man began to evolve intellectually with the use of simple language. Diamond stresses the anatomical difference between Neanderthal man and modern man. He describes Neanderthal man as having very distinctive facial features: “eyebrows resting on prominently bony ridges”, the eyes were set deep in the eye sockets, while the nose and jaw protruded out. The lower jaw sloped backwards as they had no chin. Unlike our vertical foreheads, Neanderthal mans sloped backwards. Neanderthal man had neanderthal, man, years, ago, million, diamond, able, very, ours, began, about, two, tools, speech, species, sloped, simple, similarity, shorter, possible, possibility, one, off, occurred, neanderthals, months, maybe, jaw, greatest, great, difference, describes, crude, cro-magnon, backwards