The Signposts Perspectives 59,999,999 BC- 51,000 BC:

Large land and aquatic mammals appear; many kinds of primates appear (almost as many go extinct); an island continent finally disappears for good; the Mediterranean valley turns into the Mediterranean Sea; human beings emerge, develop housing, clothes, lamps, and drugs, breed dogs, use horses; Mars dies (or goes dormant)

(latest major update of this section on or about 2-20-2002)

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Back to the MASTER Table of Contents of the Signposts Timeline

Before 59,999,999 BC in Perspectives...

The Signposts Perspectives: 59,999,999 BC- 51,000 BC BC Table of Contents

Introduction

Approximately 57,800,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include elephants, whales, camels, bats, penguins, weasels, cats, and dogs

Approximately 55,500,000 BC: Huge amounts of methane are added to the atmosphere, setting off a period of extensive global warming

Approximately 55,000,000 BC: Color vision first appears in the species preceding primates

Approximately 50,000,000 BC: Ants begin agricultural pursuits (cultivating fungi); Australia, Antarctica, and South America are joined near the South Pole

Tiny precursors to people

Approximately 45,000,000 BC: Some of the earliest emerging primates (predecessors to humanity) are astonishingly tiny creatures

Approximately 36,600,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include monkeys, pigs, deer, and saber-toothed cats

Approximately 35,000,000 BC: Chesapeake Bay is struck by a comet possibly as large as three miles in diameter; a similar impact happens at Popigai, northern Siberia; 100,000 years of cooler than normal climate burdens the world in the aftermath

Antarctica is Icing Over

Approximately 34,000,000 BC- 33,000,000 BC: Antarctica's massive ice sheets begin to form

Approximately 30,000,000 BC: Something similar to a sea cow (dugong/manatee) has grown legs and made the transition from aquatic to semi-aquatic environments, on the way to full-fledged dry land status; one day this strange semi-aquatic mammal equipped with a snorkel will become the elephant known in 1999 AD

Approximately 23,500,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include dolphins, apes, bears, seals, giraffes, hyenas, and grasses

Earth goes ape

Approximately 22,000,000 BC: A veritable explosion in the numbers of primitive ape species inhabiting Earth takes place

The lost continent

Approximately 20,000,000 BC: The last major island continent of a sequence including at least three and existing as dry land for many millions of years now sinks beneath the seas in the southern Indian Ocean

Approximately 18,000,000 BC: An eruption of the volcano Kisingiri in East Africa kills a large group of Proconsul (human ancestral predecessors) living near it in a manner similar to that which will occur later (79AD) in Pompeii

Most ape lines die off

Approximately 15,000,000 BC: Suddenly most competing ape lines go extinct, leaving only a handful of survivors

Approximately 15,000,000 BC: Assuming gamma bursters effectively prevented any civilization galaxy-wide from emerging until around 65,000,000 BC, the first of those have by now each had sufficient opportunity to colonize the entire Milky Way galaxy

Approximately 13,000,000 BC: A 'mini-extinction' event may be afflicting life on Earth

Approximately 9,000,000 BC- 7,000,000 BC: On an island in the Mediterranean, an unusual ape is spending much of its time standing upright, and walking short distances to procure food

Approximately 9,000,000 BC- 4,000,000 BC: The Tibet Plateau is forming, changing weather patterns for much of Asia and east Africa

The ancestral lines of gorillas and humans part ways

Approximately 8,000,000 BC: The primate ancestors of 20th century human beings are diverging genetically from gorillas now

The ancestral lines of chimpanzees and humans split apart

Approximately 6,000,000 BC - 5,000,000 BC: The primate ancestors of 20th century human beings are diverging genetically from chimpanzees now

Approximately 6,000,000 BC - 5,500,000 BC: What will be known in 1999 AD as the vast Mediterranean Sea is today an enormous dry gorge in the Earth...

Approximately 5,500,000 BC: The great natural dam at Gibralter is either burst by an earthquake or over-run by rising sea levels, with the result being a staggeringly violent rebirth of the Mediterranean Sea...

Approximately 5,200,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include australopithecines, Homo habilis, armadillos, giant sloths, and mammoths

Approximately 5,000,000 BC: Any predominant non-human galactic empire in our own galaxy apparently begins no earlier than now

Chimp-like human predecessors lose most of their hair, stand upright, and gain the ability to mimic the sounds of other animals (a versatile speech capacity)

Approximately 5,000,000 BC: Earth possibly suffers a 'cosmic ray' winter for thousands of years; human ancestors are walking upright on two legs (and consequently gain the power of imitative speech)...

Approximately 4,100,000+ BC: Hominids are definitely walking upright now, if not earlier

Approximately 3,300,000 BC: Human predecessor Australopithecus possesses the skull of an ape, but teeth and hands similar to those of later 20th century man

Human predecessors are learning the power and pleasure of vocal harmonies and other sounds (song and music)

Approximately 3,000,000 BC to 2,000,000 BC: A mysterious time of transformative evolution for the creature that someday will call itself "human"

Approximately 2,500,000 BC: Some primordial humanoids are now butchering and eating meat; Bonobos are diverging genetically from the other chimpanzees

Approximately 2,300,000 BC: A Stone Age "tool factory" is in operation in Kenya

Human predecessors on rare occasion enjoy brief use of fire

Approximately 2,000,000 BC -8,000 BC: Primordial humanoids are nomadic hunter-gatherers

Approximately 2,000,000 BC -1,700,000 BC: At least some australopithecines are practicing cannibals at this time

Human predecessors are learning to maintain multiple fires for lengthy periods (since they cannot start them from scratch); the regular need for fuel in addition to food intensifies both the nomadic nature of these beings and their territoriality; relationships between the sexes are changing dramatically

Approximately 1,900,000 BC: Some hominids are perhaps making use of fire to cook vegetables (and undergoing revolutionary changes in sexual relationships and matters of social cooperation); cooking helps extend lifespans in several ways

Approximately 1,600,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include Homo erectus, neanderthals, modern humans, giant beavers, giant bison, and many other species of hoofed mammals

Approximately 1,500,000 BC: Homo erectus is using fire for heat, light, and perhaps food preparation and preservation

Approximately 1,500,000 BC - 500,000 BC: Saber-toothed tigers help human predecessors expand into Europe from Africa

Approximately 1,000,000 BC: Things are beginning to get interesting in the Americas

Approximately 2,000,000 BC- 1,000,000+ BC: Prototypical humans are producing chopping tools and using flaking techniques for other tool-making chores; The terrifying giant flightless predatory bird Titanus (Phorusrhacidae) and its relatives may be going extinct in the Americas

Approximately 1,000,000 BC- 400,000 BC: Small, closed societies of nomadic hunter-gatherers dot southern England

Approximately 1,000,000 BC- 100,000 BC: Some mutated Homo erectus (or perhaps prototypical Homo sapiens) of this time in central Java may be capable of complex reasoning and even spoken language

Many of the most advanced human predecessors of this time may be wiped out by tidal wave

Approximately 998,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: Ten percent of the island of Oahu Hawaii suddenly plunges into the ocean during an earthquake, creating a gigantic tidal wave for much of the Pacific Rim

Humans are making purposeful sea crossings, and likely have developed language

Approximately 878,000 BC to 798,000 BC: Some factions of humanity may be managing to successfully traverse the oceans now, at least in part due to the organizational power of rudimentary speech skills

Approximately 800,000 BC: At least some of the complex social patterns required to support prolonged child rearing apparently exist among some variations of human ancestors now...

Approximately 780,000 BC: Apparently cannibalism is common among some prehistoric humans at this time; Homo erectus is expanding into Israel; The Earth's magnetic field undergoes one of its periodic reversals now

Approximately 700,000 BC: A rare super meteor storm may be raging over the region of Australia and southeast Asia now...

Mars loses the last of its surface life

Approximately 600,000 BC: The last surface life on Mars (bacteria) may be dying

Approximately 800,000 BC- 500,000 BC: The ancestors of 20th century humans split from those of the Neanderthals now

Approximately 500,000 BC +: Several variants of hominids expand into temperate europe, some 20,000 years after others had settled in China

Humans are constructing housing

Approximately 500,000 BC: Homo erectus is building huts; The primate Gigantopithecus may be going extinct

Approximately 500,000 BC: Microbial life is continuing to survive in the crust of Mars

Approximately 450,000 BC-100,000 BC: Homo Sapiens is making practical food containers and tools suitable for "cutting, chopping and scraping"

Approximately 400,000 BC- 350,000 BC: Humans in Africa are making pigments/paints for aesthetic purposes now, if not earlier; People in Germany are beginning to engage in sculpture

Approximately 400,000 BC: The Earth warms up considerably and stays that way for at least 30,000 years

Approximately 400,000 BC: Hominids are using covered wood shelters in the vicinity of France, and sophistocated throwing spears to kill big game

Approximately 400,000 BC- 200,000 BC: Eventually all of 20th century humanity will be descended from a single woman living during this time

Approximately 250,000 BC: Small but significant numbers of human beings are reaching Mexico from across the Pacific now

Approximately 200,000 BC: Eurasian humanity may be taking the baton from African humanity now in terms of accelerated evolution

Humans begin wearing clothing

Approximately 200,000+ BC: Hominids are treating animal skins for use as clothing

Approximately 200,000 BC- 50,000 BC: Various hominids are living in small, roaming groups; The majority of humanity has become righthanded

Approximately 187,000 BC: The ancestral gene tree of modern humans splits into two branches now...

Approximately 148,000 BC- 98,000 BC: A relatively small migration of modern humans leaves Africa

Humanity is domesticating wolves/dogs

133,000+ BC: The first wolves are successfully tamed by humans in Eurasia, and world geography closely resembles that of 1999 AD...

Approximately 128,000 BC: Humanity gets chins; possibly due to thousands of years of 'wolf wars'

Approximately 128,000 BC - 108,000 BC: The Earth enjoys a warm interglacial period (the Eemian period)

Approximately 123,000 BC: People may be tending to cluster on the sea coasts of Africa, due to the access to seafood

Approximately 118,000 BC: Flint tools are appearing in south Africa

MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR: 118,000 BC to 8,000 BC: the last Ice Age; a third of Earth's surface is sheathed in ice for much of this period-- and world geography undergoes drastic changes

100,000 BC+: Humanity may have domesticated horses by now-- at least in some regions of the world

98,000 BC: Humanity has definitely developed the mental skills necessary to support spoken language by now (if not much earlier); a tsunami beginning with a height of possibly a quarter-mile strikes portions of coastal Australia and New Zealand (as well as miscellaneous other isles)

Approximately 98,000 BC: Neanderthals in Europe are practicing cannibals

98,000 BC- 9,500 BC: Global sea levels are consistently lower now than they will be in the 20th century AD

Approximately 98,000 BC - 88,000 BC: Around 98,000 BC fully modern humans are emerging now for the first time worldwide; Sometime over the next 10,000 years they take up residence in the Middle East and Africa

Approximately 98,000 BC- 48,000 BC: Human populations may be increasing rapidly now

Approximately 78,000 BC: A child appears to be intentionally buried in the Nile Valley

Humanity mostly solves the fire problem with the invention of lamps

Approximately 70,000+ BC: Lamps are invented; mankind more conveniently illuminates the darkness above and below ground, as well as inside constructed housing

Approximately 400,000 BC-69,000 BC: The direct predecessors of humanity suffer a grievous blow in terms of population numbers during this time; perhaps more than one

A humanity significantly mutated by near-extinction now diverges from the original black skin color to many hues.

69,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: Humanity may be nearly driven to extinction by a massive volcanic eruption which intensifies the current Ice Age via a 'nuclear winter' type effect

Approximately 58,000 BC: Another wave of humanity is migrating out of Africa and across India, Asia, and Australia

Drugs/medicines

Approximately 58,000 BC- 48,000 BC; Prehistoric man now (if not earlier) begins purposeful use of various substances for the alleviation of pain and sickness, and perhaps other matters

Approximately 174,000 BC - 53,000 BC: Human beings begin populating Australia

To 50,999 BC and later in Perspectives...

Introduction: Today, many of us are people without a past...

(click the link above to see the full Intro)

...So, without further ado lost civilization lovers-- here's a thread of continuity between you and some form of the Atlantis mythos-- how and why one (or more) lost but advanced civilizations and their bodies of knowledge might have become that way-- for real. Lots more about the latest scientific finds regarding prehistoric catastrophes, human evolution, the best (and worst) moments of human history, and other matters are included as well. Enjoy!

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Approximately 57,800,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include elephants, whales, camels, bats, penguins, weasels, cats, and dogs

-- Geologic Time Scale, page 564, Earth Science, Science and Technology, The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews and McMeel, 1995

Signposts 15,000,000,000 BC-60,000,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 55,500,000 BC: Huge amounts of methane are added to the atmosphere, setting off a period of extensive global warming

This global warming drives much deep sea life into extinction. This LPTM (latest Paleocene thermal maximum) lasts 10,000-20,000 years. Much new mammalian life appears around this time, including the predecessors to primates.

Ironically perhaps, this warming was itself triggered by a much more subtle long term warm up (over 4.5 million years). Now, that previous slow rise in temperature has apparently pushed the Earth past some critical point, thereby initiating a large release of gas (methane and carbon dioxide) from worldwide methane clathrates deposits in the sea floor.

Such gases are called 'greenhouse gases' because they help insulate the Earth from space and make it heat up.

-- Evidence for historic global warming published in Science, EurekAlert!, University of California, Santa Barbara, 18 NOVEMBER 1999, Contact: Gail Brown, [email protected], 805-893-7220

Circa late 1999 AD, the Earth's hidden deposits of marine gas hydrates will be estimated at 14,000 gigatons.

-- Geologists pinpoint source of major global warming event more than 55 million years ago, National Science Foundation /EurekAlert!, 19 NOVEMBER 1999, Contact: Cheryl Dybas [email protected] 703-306-1070

During the LPTM sea temperatures rise between 7 and 14 degrees Fahrenheit in just one thousand years.

-- Ocean Burp Caused Global Warming, Associated Press/Discovery Online News Brief, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 11-19-99

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 55,000,000 BC: Color vision first appears in prosimians and other species (which eventually will begat primates)

-- Shedding light on the origin of primate color vision, Contact: Sharon Parmet [email protected] 773-702-6241 University of Chicago Medical Center , 3 NOVEMBER 1999, EurekAlert! (http://www.eurekalert.org)

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 50,000,000 BC: Ants begin agricultural pursuits (cultivating fungi); Australia, Antarctica, and South America are joined near the South Pole

-- Ethological Curiosities, Miscellaneous Wonders of Nature, by Francis F. Steen The exotic and strange native lifeforms of modern Australia are in part due to Australia's long geological journey across the face of planet Earth. Around 50 million BC Australia was joined with Antarctica and South America in a single continent close to the South Pole. It gradually split with the others and began a trek northwards, where it became isolated by ocean all around. This gave native Australian wildlife perhaps 20 million years of evolution free of effects from the life of other continents. Big changes in climate over this time in Australia also had an impact on the development of life there. -- Cool Fact: Strange Australia; The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for April 13, 2000 , http://www.LearningKingdom.com

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 45,000,000 BC: Some of the earliest emerging primates (predecessors to humanity) are astonishingly tiny creatures

The Madagascar mouse lemur of the early 21st century will weigh one ounce and be the smallest known living primate (a fairly close relative to humanity) of that time. But the mouse lemur will be huge compared to the smallest primate of 45,000,000 BC, living in the vicinity someday to be called eastern China. This tiny animal weighs around a third of an ounce and could stand on a 21st century human's thumb.

The tiny creatures are denizens of a rain forest, feasting upon sap and insects. A slightly larger species (weighing in at half an ounce-- roughly 20th century shrew-size) living in the same time and place may be a closer relative to later human beings than the first. The animals are nocturnal. More than a dozen different types of tiny primates will be documented in the find cited below.

-- Fossils of Tiny Primates Found By DAVID KINNEY, Associated Press/Yahoo! Science Headlines, March 16 2000

Prior to the discovery described above, scientists believed primates didn't emerge until five million years later in Asia.

40,000,000 BC: At least one variant of early primate is roughly the size of a small 20th century squirrel, living on insects, and spending much of its time in trees. -- Tiny Primate Could Rewrite Some History, Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News Science Headlines, October 15 1999

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 36,600,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include monkeys, pigs, deer, and saber-toothed cats

-- Geologic Time Scale, page 564, Earth Science, Science and Technology, The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews and McMeel, 1995

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 35,000,000 BC: Chesapeake Bay is struck by a comet possibly as large as three miles in diameter; a similar impact happens at Popigai, northern Siberia; 100,000 years of cooler than normal climate burdens the world in the aftermath

-- Tiny Teeth Shed Light on Ancient Comets; 3/20/98; News Release; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Geological Survey, Central Region Outreach Office, P.O. Box 25046, MS 150, Denver, CO 80225-0046. Contact Heidi Koehler Phone 303-236-5900 ext. 302 Fax 303-236-5882

The Exmore Boulder Bed along the north through central eastern North American coast appears to be debris left from a cosmic impact roughly 35.5 million years BC, struck upon the continental shelf off New Jersey. This impact may represent a different event from that of Chesapeake Bay-- however, the close proximity in both location and time seems to indicate otherwise.

-- GIANT IMPACT-WAVE DEPOSIT ALONG U.S. EAST COAST From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #87, MAY-JUN 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing C. Wylie Poag, et al; "Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 612 Bolide Event: New Evidence of a Late Eocene Impact-Wave Deposit and a Possible Impact Site, U.S. East Coast," Geology, 20:771, 1992 Two major meteorite impacts, one following relatively closely after the other (perhaps separated by only 10,000 to 20,000 years), around 35 million BC in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay USAmerica and Popigai of northern Siberia, caused a long term cooling of the world for around 100,000 years. The meteorites may have each been around several km in diameter. Some forms of sea life thrived at the lower temperatures incurred by the collisions. The lengthy period of cooling, which seems far too long to be accounted for solely by the dust of impact, may have been the result of global glaciation triggered by the initial cooling from the impacts. -- earth : When it's cool to be cool by PHILIP BALL, Friday 4 August 2000, NATURE NEWS SERVICE, Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2000 Reg. No. 785998 England

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 34,000,000 BC- 33,000,000 BC: Antarctica's massive ice sheets begin to form

-- Antarctica's icy origins, Sci/Tech, BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/, 7 December, 1999 Around 34 million BC 90% of some of the smallest sealife in the Gulf of Mexico (mollusks) perished due to climate change. Colder than usual winters (seven degrees Fahrenheit cooler) seem to have been the culprit. -- Climate Change Led to Mass Extinction Along Gulf By Patricia Reaney, Reuters/Yahoo! Science Headlines, October 18, 2000 Ocean temperatures were 4 degrees Celsius cooler than average during winters around 34 million BC. -- Ancient Crystals Provide Clues To Deaths of Sea Creatures by Thomas H. Maugh II, October 19, 2000, Los Angeles Times , http://www.latimes.com/news/science/science/20001019/t000099668.html A worldwide extinction event took place around 34 million BC. Along North America's gulf coast the extinctions included a certain type of shellfish. -- Researchers uncover secret to mass extinction events, 18 OCTOBER 2000, EurekAlert!, US Contact: Nancy Ross-Flanigan [email protected] 734-647-1853 University of Michigan Judy Holmes [email protected] 315-443-3784 Syracuse University News Services -- Finding by Syracuse University and University of Michigan researchers reveals secret to mass extinction events, 18 OCTOBER 2000, EurekAlert!, US Contact: Judy Holmes [email protected] 315-443-3784 Syracuse University -- Finding By Syracuse University And University Of Michigan Researchers Reveals Secret To Mass Extinction Events, Source: Syracuse University (http://www.syr.edu/), Posted 10/20/2000

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 30,000,000 BC: All the continents of Earth have finally reached positions which will be familiar to 20th century humanity; The dolphins of this time are smarter than the current predecessors of humanity

Antarctica is near completely ice-covered by now.

-- A visitor's introduction to Antarctica and its environment, found on or about 2-3-01; a reprint by NEW ZEALAND ANTARCTIC PROGRAMME of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with permission from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. The URL is from a Google search engine cache of http://www.icair.iac.org.nz/Subfolder/tourism/visitor.html

Something similar to a sea cow (dugong/manatee) has grown legs and made the transition from aquatic to semi-aquatic environments, on the way to full-fledged dry land status; one day this strange aquatic mammal equipped with a snorkel will become the elephant known in 1999 AD

-- "Early elephants used 'swimming trunks'", May 11, 1999, BBC News Online: Sci/Tech

Also taking place now: HERV-K (human endogenous retrovirus K) is managing to embed some of its own genetic patterns into the DNA of the primate predecessors of humanity (Old World monkeys). This new addition to primate DNA shares similarities with what will be called human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by 20th century humanity.

Some three percent of 20th century human DNA will be composed of genetic remnants of inactive viruses like HERV-K (there will be 30 to 50 copies of HERV-K alone in a typical human being's DNA).

-- Human Genome Bears a Virus Related to HIV, November 9, 1999, HHMI research news

It may be these embedded remnants of fossil virus will help assist the late 20th century HIV-1 virus by acting as 'replacement parts' for it when anti-AIDS drugs impair the modern virus' functionality.

-- A "Fossil" Virus Involved In AIDS Drug Resistance? 4 DECEMBER 1998 Contact: Randy Atkins [email protected] 202-872-4097 American Chemical Society

The dolphins of this era possess significantly more brain power than the current predecessors of 20th century humanity.

-- CNN - Scientists more optimistic about life beyond Earth - October 15, 1998, Associated Press/CNN

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 23,500,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include dolphins, apes, bears, seals, giraffes, hyenas, and grasses

-- Geologic Time Scale, page 564, Earth Science, Science and Technology, The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews and McMeel, 1995

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 22,000,000 BC: A veritable explosion in the numbers of primitive ape species inhabiting Earth takes place

-- "Scientists Find 15-Mln-Year-Old Pre-Human In Kenya" By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News Top Stories Headlines, August 26 1999

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 20,000,000 BC: The last major island continent of a sequence including at least three and existing as dry land for many millions of years now sinks beneath the seas in the southern Indian Ocean

Twenty million years from now it will be known to submariners as the "Kerguelen Plateau", and lie two kilometers deep. But for around 90 million years previous to the present sinking it was a massive piece of dry land on Earth.

-- "'Lost continent' discovered" By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News Online: Sci/Tech, 5-27-99, BBC Homepage

Note that the previous boom in ape species two million years earlier means apes existed simultaneously with the last couple of million years of a dry Kerguelen continent. However, from existing evidence it seems safe to assume the Kerguelen continent at best offered an evolutionary environment similar to Australia/New Zealand, with perhaps some intriguing marsupial and flightless bird species and other exotic evolutionary niches all its own. It was even more isolated than New Zealand for a very long time, and sufficiently far south to put it into a climate category similar to southernmost New Zealand, or the southern tip of South America. There's a good chance that an enormous (up to 15 feet tall [Terror, Take Two By Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, found on or about 9-1-99]) flightless bird like the New Zealand Moa also lived on the Kerguelen continent before its submergence.

Another caveat about higher life forms and evolution on the Kerguelen continent however was its mostly low altitude and featureless plains. There was little in the way of terrain features to protect Kerguelen life from raging sea storms or tidal waves spawned by earthquake, volcano, or large meteor strikes during the land mass' dry span. Thus, the continent may not have offered a level of bio-diversity comparable to New Zealand, Australia, or Madagascar, after all (it's a toss up).

-- Illustrated Transcript of The Future Eaters, Illustrated transcript of episode 2, Nomads of the Wind, Presented and Narrated by Dr Tim Flannery, Author of the Future Eaters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. email: [email protected], http://www2.abc.net.au/, found on or about 9-12-99

Though there might be a chance a few small primate species somehow developed or otherwise found their way to the lost continent, it seems very unlikely any primate closely related to humanity's ancestors ever lived there.

NGDC/WDC A for MGG - Marine Geology & Geophysics Images may be helpful in visualizing the size and location of this continent that Earth loses now to the sea.

[To see more about this lost land, please refer to A possible history of the mysterious frozen Antarctic and sunken Kerguelen continents]

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 18,000,000 BC: An eruption of the volcano Kisingiri in East Africa kills a large group of Proconsul (ancestral predecessors to humans) living near it in a manner similar to that which will occur later (79AD) in Pompeii

-- "Early volcano victims discovered", BBC News Online: Sci/Tech, May 3, 1999

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 15,000,000 BC: Suddenly most competing ape lines go extinct, leaving only a handful of survivors

-- "Scientists Find 15-Mln-Year-Old Pre-Human In Kenya" By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News Top Stories Headlines, August 26 1999

Why the sudden extinctions of many ape lines at this time? That remains a mystery.

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 15,000,000 BC: Assuming gamma bursters effectively prevented any civilization galaxy-wide from emerging until around 65,000,000 BC, the first of those have by now each had sufficient opportunity to colonize the entire Milky Way galaxy

Assuming virtually all planets galaxy-wide were prevented from developing higher lifeforms until approximately the same time the Earth did-- and that they did so on a similar schedule as the Earth, with the key differences being that they suffered no late mass extinction event around 65,000,000 BC like the Earth, and their highest lifeforms of the time (unlike Earth's dinosaurs) developed at a pace more akin to Earth's primates than its dinosaurs-- then the civilizations which emerged then have by now enjoyed 50 million years or so in which to colonize the whole galaxy.

At least fractional (10-20%) lightspeed propulsion for interstellar travel methods appear feasible to humanity, even at our present primitive level of technological know-how (2000 AD). Thus, five million years would be a reasonable amount of time for a single star faring race to colonize the entire galaxy, even if equipped with only 10% lightspeed propulsion, and an average of 400 years was spent inbetween establishing a fresh colony and undertaking further colonization missions from that colony. If an interim period of 5000 years is substituted for the 400 number, then 50,000,000 years would be required to colonize the galaxy. Possible resolutions of the Fermi Paradox due to things like aliens adhering to a Star Trek style "Prime Directive" demanding non-interference with primitives, or accidentally destroying themselves early in their history, or being disinterested in colonization altogether, might only work if the total number of emerging galactic civilizations is relatively small. Just one star faring race with a history and motivations similar to our own, which avoided self-destruction, would be sufficient to colonize the entire galaxy no more than 50 million years after they began. -- Scientific American: Feature Article: Where Are They?: July 2000 by Ian Crawford

Apparently there are more challenges and obstacles involved in the successful galaxy-wide colonization efforts of an advanced star faring civilization than we will realize, circa 2000 AD; witness the lack of evidence that Earth was colonized (or even visited) by advanced aliens in 15,000,000 BC or later.

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 13,000,000 BC: A 'mini-extinction' event may be afflicting life on Earth, and the giant man-ape Gigantopithecus makes its debut

-- "Nearby supernova may have caused mini-extinction", SciNews-MedNews, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 31-Jul-99, Contact: James E. Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor (217) 244-1073; [email protected]

Possibly 600-1200 pounds and up to 10 feet in height, Gigantopithecus will be the largest primate known to have ever existed, by 1999 AD humanity. Note that the ancestors of Gigantopithecus were among the few survivors of the multiple ape species extinctions two million years before. And now Gigantopithecus itself emerges as a separate species from yet another significant extinction event.

Gigantopithecus is proving itself to be a hardy and adaptable line among the apes-- perhaps comparable in some ways to the much later Neanderthals who will survive a brutal Ice Age in the times ahead.

-- The UnMuseum - Gigantopithecus by Lee Krystek, found on or about 10-20-99

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 9,000,000 BC- 7,000,000 BC: On an island in the Mediterranean, an unusual ape is spending much of its time standing upright, and walking short distances to procure food

The island region will eventually be known as central Italy. The ape will be named Oreopithecus bambolii by 20th century human scientists. The ape's walking motions are somewhat restricted due to an unusual bird-like design to its feet, whereupon the big toe juts out at 90 degrees from the rest of the foot. The other toes appear to be more like 20th century human toes (relatively short and straight compared to 20th century apes). The slow walk of the Oreopithecus bambolii may have been encouraged by there being no predators but plentiful food on its island.

-- Ancient Ape Shuffles to Prominence by B. Bower, Science News Online, http://www.sciencenews.org, October 18, 1997

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Approximately 9,000,000 BC- 4,000,000 BC: The Tibet Plateau is forming, changing weather patterns for much of Asia and east Africa

Both regions gain more seasonality and become dryer. The changes may also help trigger evolutionary development of human ancestors from apes. 20th century Chinese scientists will differ with western scientists in this area, suggesting that a form of parallel evolution is taking place in China during this time that rivals what is occuring in Africa, rather than all important changes occuring solely in Africa and then spreading elsewhere.

In the Chinese view Homo erectus, Gigantopithecus, and orangutans all evolved from an Asian forest ape circa 10 million BC and later.

The tendency of early humans (like many large mammals) to roam widely over the land makes it more difficult to determine many details of their origins. The article cited below suggests that early humans and the cat carnivore Megantereon were "...traveling companions..." (though I take it to mean NOT that they literally traveled together, but instead that their separate population migration paths share striking similarities).

-- EARLY HOMO ERECTUS TOOLS IN CHINA by RUSSELL CIOCHON and ROY LARICK, NEWSBRIEFS, Archaeology, Volume 53 Number 1, January/February 2000, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/0001/newsbriefs/china.html

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Approximately 8,000,000 BC: The primate ancestors of 20th century human beings are diverging genetically from gorillas now

20th century gorilla and human DNA will be 97.9% identical.

-- "Chimpanzees Offer Window In Time On Human Genes" By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent, Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News June 1 1999

Just how intelligent and socially complex are apes anyway? Well, for one thing they (as well as certain other animals) appear to have developed some limited forms of medical practices to cope with digestive problems and various parasite infestations. Some primates (monkeys) have even gone so far as to practice birth control and biologically engineering the sex of their progeny.

Various animals from cats and dogs to bears and apes appear to self-medicate themselves when necessary with the eating of certain plants. Certain monkeys appear to increase or decrease the chances of pregnancy in the same way-- as well as also sometimes select the sex of their offspring. Usually the purposeful engineering of fertility and sex of progeny appear to be based on the social environment of the group, among other things (the current difficulties of survival may also play a role). One aspect of such findings which make them all the more puzzling is that many of the medicinal plants the animals use appear to taste bad to them. -- PLANTS OF THE APES From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #81, MAY-JUN 1992 by William R. Corliss, citing Roger Lewin; "What Monkeys Chew to Choose Their Children's Sex," New Scientist, p. 15, February 22, 1992. Also: Ann Gibbons; "Plants of the Apes," Science, 255:921, 1992

At least two gorillas will be considered by some to have learned human language by early 2000 AD. They will communicate via sign language.

In the far off 20th century gorilla lifespans will be known to extend into the fifties, except where heart disease or other afflictions have cut it short.

-- Gorilla said to have known sign language dies, The Associated Press, April 20, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com Gorilla family units usually consist of one dominant male and several female mates. -- Bonobo Sex and Society, by Frans B. M. de Waal, 2000, (Originally published in the March 1995 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, pp. 82-88)

This may be where the ancestors of 20th century Bonobo chimpanzees and humans are parting ways too, genetically speaking.

-- Bonobo Sex and Society, by Frans B. M. de Waal, 2000, (Originally published in the March 1995 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, pp. 82-88)

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Approximately 6,000,000 BC - 5,000,000 BC: The primate ancestors of 20th century human beings are diverging genetically from chimpanzees now

-- "The First Human?" By Robert Locke, Discovering Archaeology, July/August 1999, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/

20th century chimpanzee and human DNA will be 98.5% identical.

-- "Chimpanzees Offer Window In Time On Human Genes" By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent, Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News June 1 1999

20th century yeast and human DNA will be about 50% identical.

-- Mankind Pursues Forbidden Fruit, Via Computer JAY BOOKMAN; COMPUTER NEWS DAILY - NYT SYNDICATE/Cox News Service (http://www.coxnews.com), found on or about 4-11-2000

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Approximately 6,000,000 BC - 5,500,000 BC: What will be known in 1999 AD as the vast Mediterranean Sea is today an enormous dry gorge in the Earth...

...with perhaps a sprinkling of salt lakes amidst a great desert, having dried up with the continental closure of the Straits of Gibralter perhaps 1500-2000 years before. The closure created a great dam keeping out the Atlantic ocean, thereby preventing the Mediterranean Sea from replenishing what it lost due to evaporation.

-- "The Mediterranean: Sea of Man's Fate" by Rick Gore, National Geographic December 1982, pages 704-705

The Mediterranean Sea either drains away or dries up around 5.8 million BC-- for unknown reasons. The disappearance of the Mediterranean Sea brings about the 'Messinian Salinity Crisis' which so unbalances the ecology of the Earth as to cause multiple extinctions and help pave the way for the next Ice Age.

-- Vanished By Douglas McInnis, From New Scientist, 7 August 1999

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Approximately 5,500,000 BC: The great natural dam at Gibralter is either burst by an earthquake or over-run by rising sea levels, with the result being a staggeringly violent rebirth of the Mediterranean Sea...

...in a once in several millennia spectacle which would have been awesome and terrifying for any spectators from among humanity's ancestors to behold.

-- "The Mediterranean: Sea of Man's Fate" by Rick Gore, National Geographic December 1982, pages 704-705

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Approximately 5,200,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include australopithecines, Homo habilis, armadillos, giant sloths, and mammoths

-- Geologic Time Scale, page 564, Earth Science, Science and Technology, The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews and McMeel, 1995

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Approximately 5,000,000 BC: Any predominant non-human galactic empire in our own galaxy apparently begins no earlier than now

Any alien civilization in the Milky Way galaxy which may be destined to someday dominate the entire galaxy and meet up with a 21st century or later humanity is likely now to be at least equivalent in technology to what humanity will be between 10,000 BC and 2000 AD.

Such a civilization could be located on the opposite side of the galaxy from Sol system, and still have time to develop advanced spacecraft, and reach 21st century or later Earth-- assuming they advance technologically at roughly the same rate as humanity.

A civilization located closer than this to Sol could mature later to still encounter us at around the same time. One located as far as possible from us in the galactic disk, but developing considerably later, might not encounter humanity until 3000 AD or later.

At least fractional (10-20%) lightspeed propulsion for interstellar travel methods appear feasible to humanity, even at our present primitive level of technological know-how (2000 AD). Thus, five million years would be a reasonable amount of time for a single star faring race to colonize the entire galaxy, even if equipped with only 10% lightspeed propulsion, and an average of 400 years was spent inbetween establishing a fresh colony and undertaking further colonization missions from that colony. If an interim period of 5000 years is substituted for the 400 number, then 50,000,000 years would be required to colonize the galaxy. Possible resolutions of the Fermi Paradox due to things like aliens adhering to a Star Trek style "Prime Directive" demanding non-interference with primitives, or accidentally destroying themselves early in their history, or being disinterested in colonization altogether, might only work if the total number of emerging galactic civilizations is relatively small. Just one star faring race with a history and motivations similar to our own, which avoided self-destruction, would be sufficient to colonize the entire galaxy no more than 50 million years after they began. -- Scientific American: Feature Article: Where Are They?: July 2000 by Ian Crawford

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Approximately 5,000,000 BC: Earth possibly suffers a 'cosmic ray' winter for thousands of years; human ancestors are walking upright on two legs (and consequently gain the power of imitative speech)...

...possibly evolved this way because they have been living in a seasonally flooded or swampy location (or other highly liquid environment such as off-shore islands, lagoons, or continental seashores) for a lengthy period of time by now.

These humanoids have also acquired several other characteristics normally associated only or primarily with aquatic mammals by this time: a substantial loss of body hair, development of insulating and bouyant fat under the skin, breath control and flexibility suitable for diving, the weeping reflex, face-to-face sex, body temperature regulation via sweating, and others.

-- OUR AQUATIC PHASE! From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #34, JUL-AUG 1984 by William R. Corliss, citing Elaine Morgan; "The Aquattic Hypothesis," New Scientist, p. 11, April 12, 1984 -- Why we are different from chimpanzees; A brief introduction to the Aquatic Ape Theory, a copy of the leaflet printed by Accent of Swansea for Elaine Morgan, Daily Mail&Guardian;: In search of our swimming ancestors, THE AQUATIC APE, THE AQUATIC APE THEORY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION, Possible aquatic adaptations in humans, The Multi-habitat Hypothesis of human evolution, and The Human Origins Debate in Australia -- "Seafood Was Brain Food, Says Researcher", CONTACT: Bruce Rolston, U of T Public Affairs, (416) 978-6974, [email protected], ScienceDaily Magazine, http://www.sciencedaily.com//releases/1999/08/990827152557.htm, 8/30/99, Source: University Of Toronto A super nova 100 lightyears from Earth may have caused a mini-extinction 5 million years ago, with substantially increased cloud cover worldwide but reduced ozone layer protection from ultraviolet radiation for thousands of years. The Earth would have been darker and colder than usual during this time. Such an event could have helped accelerate the evolution of modern human beings from their primate predecessors. -- "Nearby supernova may have caused mini-extinction", SciNews-MedNews, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 31-Jul-99, Contact: James E. Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor (217) 244-1073; [email protected] -- "Nearby Supernova May Have Caused Mini-Extinction, Scientists Say", ScienceDaily Magazine, http://www.sciencedaily.com//releases/1999/08/990803073658.htm, 8/3/99, Source: University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign

The Earth's Solar System will soon enter a relatively empty area of interstellar space; the barrens between galactic spiral arms.

-- "NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER" From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #107, SEP-OCT 1996 by William R. Corliss, citing Ray Jayawardhana; "Earth Menaced by Superbubble," New Scientist, p. 15, June 22, 1996

To see more regarding this time of human development, refer to Our aquatic stage?

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Approximately 4,100,000+ BC: Hominids are definitely walking upright now, if not earlier

Australopithecus anamensis looks very much like a near hairless chimpanzee. Males tend to be much larger than females.

-- ONLINE NEWS May 27, 1998 Early Bipedalism Confirmed by ANGELA M.H. SCHUSTER, the Archaeological Institute of America http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/biped.html

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Approximately 3,300,000 BC: Human predecessor Australopithecus possesses the skull of an ape, but teeth and hands similar to those of later 20th century man

The apeman may nest in trees for protection from saber tooth tigers and hyenas. One such apeman dies after entering a cave near future Johannesburg South Africa.

As of 1999 AD a disparity exists between finds of human and Great Ape fossils of this vintage (zero Great Ape fossils of this age have been found). One of the wilder possibilities is that modern Great Apes may split off from human predecessors much later in the evolutionary game than 1999 AD scientists will believe.

-- S.Africa Apeman Is Guide to Human Origins By Ed Stoddard, Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ Science Headlines, December 30 1999

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Approximately 3,000,000 BC to 2,000,000 BC: A mysterious time of transformative evolution for the creature that someday will call itself "human"

A 'mini-extinction' event now going on world-wide may be helping spur evolutionary changes in the predecessors of humanity.

-- "Nearby supernova may have caused mini-extinction", SciNews-MedNews, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 31-Jul-99, Contact: James E. Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor (217) 244-1073; [email protected] -- "The First Human?" By Robert Locke, Discovering Archaeology, July/August 1999, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/

The climate is becoming dryer now, thereby making it necessary to cover more ground faster in search of food. Over generations, advanced hominids evolve longer legs, making them more efficient at hunting and gathering.

-- Walk this way by Matt Walker From New Scientist, 16 October 1999 http://www.newscientist.com/

Note that much of 20th century humanity will find taller, longer legged people more attractive than others. The reason appears to be evolutionary.

-- MEASURING BEAUTY From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #118, JUL-AUG 1998 by William R. Corliss, citing Albert M. Magro; "Why Barbie is Perceived as Beautiful," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85:363, 1997

Australopithecus africanus hominids may be eating at least a bit of meat from herbivores now-- or else eating large quantities of sedges and grasses to gain the same nutrients-- as supplements to their historic fruit and leaf diet, similar to that of 20th century chimpanzees.

The possible addition of meat at this time is important. Keep in mind hand tools do not seem to be in use as yet. So any meat acquisition is likely gotten from scavenging after kills by big cats, and in competition with other scavengers such as hyenas.

-- Paleoanthropology (revised 16 December 1999) by Francis F. Steen, Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara, http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/EP/Paleoanthropology.html

A couple million years in possession of powerful imitative speech capabilities has allowed these predecessors of human beings to learn some of the value of a chorus-- multiple voices applied in unison. Such actions can offer a pleasing if somewhat haunting feeling to the primates; a seemingly mysterious premonition of hidden talents, and greater things to come. At least, if such harmonies effect human ancestors in ways similar to how they will do their 20th century descendents.

Loud harmonies may provide a deep inner pleasure to the ape-people.

Humans and other higher animal lifeforms possess an evolutionary family tree which necessarily includes fish at some point in past history. There's numerous places in human genetics and physiology wherein this ancestry may be traced. One of them may include the love of many humans for loud music. The sacculus (a component of the inner ear's vestibular/balancing system) is notably responsive to acoustic frequencies like those found in music-- at least at high volumes (90 decibels plus). The sacculus is connected to the area of the brain which drives sex, hunger, and pleasure-seeking in general, and can produce pleasure for its owner under these conditions. No other hearing-related function of the sacculus is known to exist in humans as of early 2000 AD. This might explain music's strong influence upon modern human culture. Saccular sensitivity seems to peak around 300 to 350 hertz-- but has a full sensitivity range of 50-1000 hertz. The music in dance halls and rock concerts often seem to exploit this sensitivity. The chants of a crowd at a sports event, or the singing of a church chorus may also stimulate the sacculus. -- Music lovers 'have fish to thank' BBC News Sci Tech, 17 February, 2000 Human beings and many other species have a tendency-- even an instinctive need-- to synchronize their actions with those of their peers. These actions in humans run the gamut from menstrual cycles to rhythmic hand clapping as part of an audience. Some scientists speculate such human synchrony in acts like applause may be a social behavior first acquired thousands of years ago in the species. -- Synchronized Clapping a Primal Desire? By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery.com News, Feb. 24, 2000

The use of chorus begins as random accidents of simultaneous calls achieving harmony, with they and their consequences eventually observed and emulated by the packs purposely later on. Choruses are seen to have unusual effects on not only the pack members themselves, but other packs who hear them, as well as even mighty beasts such as lions, bears, and wolf packs. Indeed, hints of the chorus can be detected in some of the sounds emanating from wolf packs too at times (Did early humans get one clue to chorus from the sounds of wolf packs? Does this signal the initial stirrings of kinship between humans and wolves, which will one day lead to the domesticated dog? Maybe. But keep in mind at this early date that wolves are both competitors and a constant predatory threat to humans in various regions of the world).

Over the millennia a few packs grasp the value of chorus techniques in battles against competing packs, as well as during hunts of great predators and other large beasts. A chorus can make a pack seem larger and stronger than they are-- a terrific survival advantage.

Over time the chorus technique spreads to virtually all of this class of primates, worldwide.

Some (such as William R. Corliss cited below) note with puzzlement the significant presence of genetically encoded musical talents among the human population; after all, what survival advantages might such convey? Hopefully the above text and additional items later in this document help to answer that question. -- IS PERFECT PITCH FAVORED BY NATURAL SELECTION? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #111, MAY-JUN 1997 by William R. Corliss, citing Michael Day; "Keeping Perfect Pitch in the Family," New Scientist, p. 19, November 23, 1996 and John Travis; "Pitching in to Find a Musical Gene," Science News, 150:316, 1996

Note that as the use of the chorus spreads among these hominids, its value to a given group will be somewhat proportional to that group's ability to recognize and harmonize with the voices of others in the group-- and to distinguish members' sounds from those of animals which they might be preying upon (or hiding from).

As the power of the chorus spreads across all hominid groups, inter-group competition in related acoustic pattern recognition will intensify. After all, those best able to master and exploit the chorus technique will more often win various survival challenges than those that don't. Intra-group competition of course will also be present, from the very earliest point that the technique is recognized as beneficial to survival.

Does an intellectual 'bootstrapping' process of switching back and forth between marginal improvements in acoustic pattern recognition and trial-and-error tool-making begin to take place now? Could it be that the acquisition of speech and the earliest tool-making capacities are intimately linked?

The part of the brain known as Wernicke's area is one of those responsible for language processing. Scientists have now discovered Wernicke's area also is involved in the predictability of nonverbal events. Thus, learning to speak may depend at least somewhat upon a subsconscious capacity to recognize predictable phenomena. That is, our intellectual abilities to string together separate actions or thoughts to reach an end-- and realize the likelihood of certain outcomes from such sequences-- may be an important part of our evolutionary acquirement of language. -- Emory researchers discover a neurological link between language and predictability that operates without conscious awareness, EurekAlert! 1 MARCH 2000, Contact: Lilli Kim [email protected] 404-727-5692 Emory University Health Sciences Center

Note one implication of the above citation is that human predecessors may be developing their sense of past and future in parallel with their struggle to speak and learn to create hand tools. This in turn demands greater conscious memory capacity...

Did language develop at least partially as an extension of grooming behavior? To better deal with larger social groups? Did language begin as social gossip? Human groups seem to be roughly three times bigger than groups typically formed by apes or chimpanzees. Did the development of language proceed in several steps, each allowing for (or being nudged by) an increase in the size of social groups? Perhaps the first stage occured around two million BC with Homo erectus. Another stage may have come around 400,000 BC, with language dealing with more abstractions in content. In modern humans some 66% of dialogues relate to social matters, with a limit of 10% being placed upon any one topic. Same sex groups of both males and females seem to spend similar amounts of time on the same subjects during talks. Where the sexes are not separated, the time allotted to certain conversational topics changes. For instance, the speech time devoted to morals, religion, and other wide-ranging theoretical matters goes up substantially. This may be due somewhat to male verbal preening and competition displays in regards to the women. The author of the book cited in the review believes women likely invented language, since (for one thing) modern women show better skills at it in general than men. The evolution of ever more complex language skills in the brain may have helped improve humanity's coordination at precise tasks like tool making-- since both seem to share the same region of the brain. The author also considers the theory that language evolved at least partly from song. Though from the brief mention given in the review it appears the author believes language came first, and song later-- at least slightly. -- Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language; Book review by John Collins of Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language by Robin Dunbar Faber & Faber, 230 pp., ISBN 0-571-17396-9

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Approximately 2,500,000 BC: Some primordial humanoids are now butchering and eating meat; Bonobos are diverging genetically from the other chimpanzees

The "Australopithecus garhi" variant of human ancestor is living in what'll be known in the 20th century as Ethiopia.

The variant appears to have characteristics somewhere between those of the earlier Australopithecus afarensis and later Homo habilis.

-- "Meat-Eating Missing Link Fossil Found In Africa"By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent, http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News Science Headlines Friday April 23 1999, Reuters Limited

The ancestors of 20th century bonobo chimps are diverging genetically from other chimpanzees now; the Homo lineage of human predecessors with larger brains is also branching off from the Australopithecine line now

One human generation is considered by many (circa the 20th century) to be 25 years.

-- Climate Instability and Hominid Brain Evolution by William H. Calvin, Abstract of 18 June 1998 talk for American Geophysical Union's Chapman Conference, Mechanisms of Millennial-Scale Global Climate Change. University of Washington, Seattle WA 98195-1800; ph. 206-328-1192; fax 206-720-1989; Web http://WilliamCalvin.com; Internet: [email protected] See also http://WilliamCalvin.com/1990s/1998AGU/

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Approximately 2,300,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: A Stone Age "tool factory" is in operation in Kenya, and a possible 0.5+ km asteroid impact in the deep southeast Pacific Ocean may increase atmospheric water vapor sufficiently to eventually bring about the next Ice Age

-- "Researchers Amazed to Find Tools More Than 2 Million Years Old" Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II , May 6, 1999, Los Angeles Times, Science in Brief -- DID AN ASTEROID IMPACT TRIGGER THE ICE AGES? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #59, SEP-OCT 1988 by William R. Corliss, citing Frant T. Kyte, et al; "New Evidence on the Size and Possible Effects of a Late Pliocene Oceanic Asteroid Impact," Science, 241:63, 1988 Around 2,200,000 BC the approximately one km in diameter asteroid Eltanin impacts the Earth in the Bellingshausen Sea between South America and Antarctica, creating tsunamis 1 km tall, which themselves strike parts of South America and Australia. Severe changes to the Earth's climate follow. -- TWO CATASTROPHE SCENARIOS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #117, MAY-JUN 1998 by William R. Corliss, citing Jeff Hecht; "A Bigger Splash," New Scientist, p. 11, November 1, 1997, and Anonymous; "The Splash Felt 'round the World," Earth, 7:12, April 1998

Homo erectus will appear to be butchering animals trapped in a natural fissure with stone tools in the vicinity of eastern China around 2,250,000 BC.

Perhaps most intriguing are hints that Procynocephalus monkeys may be serving Homo erectus in a semi-domesticated fashion in this region and during this time-- or at least hanging around in a scavenger role much like some wolves may be doing later on. If such service or related scavenging is ever confirmed by other finds it could offer a myriad of surprising implications and new questions regarding human development. Keep in mind that much later in the game humans may tolerate wolf scavengers hanging about their camps because of various advantages they can offer, such as alerts to incoming threats at the periphery of camps, and a contingency food source in hard times. Monkeys too could offer similar benefits perhaps...

Fossils of Homo erectus and monkeys similar to Procynocephalus seem to be commonly found together in Asia and east Africa...

-- EARLY HOMO ERECTUS TOOLS IN CHINA by RUSSELL CIOCHON and ROY LARICK, NEWSBRIEFS, Archaeology, Volume 53 Number 1, January/February 2000, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/0001/newsbriefs/china.html Even as late as 2000 AD there will be primitive human tribes which possess extraordinarily close relationships with other primates and/or other animals-- even going so far as their women from puberty on nursing baby monkeys, raccoons, and pigs, as takes place among the Awa Guaja tribe of the Amazon. The Awa Guaja (a matriarchal society) consider monkeys to be sacred, and will raise baby monkeys among their own human children, with perhaps little difference in care. Some arbitrary observations: the Awa Guaja expect women to continuously breast-feed needy animals as well as human children from puberty onwards, and regard non-producing breasts as a curse. Could similar ways among much of prehistoric humanity over a million years or so have been one reason why human female breasts on average became more prominent than those of other large primates, by the dawn of recorded history? In primitive human societies-- especially those not far removed from apes themselves, such as those of seven million to two million BC or so-- baby monkeys might often have served mothers as welcome replacements for true children lost to disease, accident, or predators. Such monkeys may have often grown into helpful and loyal pets or aides for their human foster parents-- perhaps even performing chores taught them by their families, to help out with gathering food, preparing it, and even chipping stones for tools. They may also have helped enhance the vigilance of a camp against predators or hostile humans. If the practice of incorporating monkeys into human family units became sufficiently widespread, and continued on long enough in terms of generations, eventually the monkeys themselves might undergo certain evolutionary pressures of their own as a result. Imagine multiple generations of monkeys raised as human children reproducing amongst themselves, within and alongside their human host tribes. The smartest and most helpful monkeys might be favored and encouraged to breed by their masters, much as the wolves of later millennia will be transformed into obedient and capable dogs. Only monkeys can be more intelligent and versatile than wolves/dogs. They could be trained to do more and understand more than wolves/dogs. And their ultimate evolutionary potential would certainly rate considerably higher than wolves/dogs-- after all, primates begat human beings. -- Salon Health & Body | Suckling monkeys By Jack Boulware, May 3, 2000

But if human predecessors and one or more species of monkeys early on worked together in some sort of substantive, long term, cooperative partnership, similar to that which would later develop between humans and wolves/dogs, what happened to that development? Did an unfortunate plague kill off the majority of the humans and/or monkeys participating in this arrangement, thereby ending the evolutionary experiment? Note that both would have been vulnerable to such a possibility-- especially if they were gathering together in large, concentrated communities-- like villages, towns, or cities. Or perhaps their cooperation began to turn more into a competition-- in which case they might part ways as enemies rather than friends, perhaps both losing precious evolutionary ground as a result. Indeed, there would have been plenty of opportunities for such an alliance to go wrong, as climatic disasters made food scarce, or one primate line found another they liked better than the previous partner (note that both the monkeys and human predecessors suffered competition from close relative species). Maybe it was even the growing fondness for wolves/dogs themselves that in the end displaced such monkey allies-- or some combination of several of the elements listed above.

Whatever the truth of the matter, if such a parallel monkey ally evolution ever occured (and lasted long enough), more discoveries on the subject could prove fascinating...

In one of the latest trends, gangs in Paris France were using Barbary apes rather than outlawed dogs like pitbulls and others to attack their enemies in 2000. Orchestrated fights between the apes of rival gang members are also being held. Baby apes are being carried around in diapers. -- Apes new weapon of gangs in Paris suburbs, September 27, 2000, (Guardian Service)

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Approximately 2,000,000 BC -8,000 BC: Primordial humanoids are nomadic hunter-gatherers

The species variants out of which 20th century humanity will ultimately evolve largely consist of nomadic hunter-gatherers using stone tools (homo habilis), fire, and caves for survival during this period. In the latter millennia these variants are exhibiting faith in magic and the supernatural, participating in communal hunting, and constructing artificial shelters. They are also doing rock carving and paintings.

-- page 789, "Stone Age", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press -- Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel A bit of aggressive behavior in males may be encouraged by improved immune systems around this time or before. Aggression may bolster the immune systems of men. Throughout the evolution of humanity, warriors and hunters likely required stronger immune systems than other family/tribal members, since they were more likely to suffer injuries and exposure to new disease than others. This effect seems to have continued into the modern day. Moderate aggressiveness seemed to provide the best immune system benefits, with the effect plateauing after that, in terms of aggressive tendencies spurring further immune advantages. -- Aggression helps men fight off illness By Amy Norton, Reuters Health/Yahoo! Health Headlines, August 23, 2000; SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine 2000;62:583-590

Note that humanity's use of fire remains extremely fragile over most of this time-- for they cannot start a fire from scratch.

Rather, someone from a group must either capture a flame from a natural forest fire ignited by lightning, then the group must do their best to maintain the flame into perpetuity, or else the group must try to steal or trade for a flame from another group in possession of such.

The lack of fire-starting technology and the relative rarity of local natural fires (perhaps occuring only once in a generation) combine with the usefulness of fire to make it one of the rarest and most valuable commodities known to early man.

-- lamp; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000, and fire; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000

Notice the presence of supply and demand here for a mysterious, rare, and valuable commodity: fire. A commodity which can not be produced unless one already possesses it-- in which case it can be indefinitely recreated at no more cost than supplying dry wood or brush for consumption. A commodity which can help the old live longer and the feeding of babies be eased, due to cooking. A commodity which can help protect against animals and other beings, as well as the cold. A commodity which magically brings a bit of sunlight to the darkness, allowing work and exploration to proceed despite nightfall or subterranean environs. A commodity which is difficult to store and maintain, and is easily lost through accident or sabotage. A commodity that is dangerous, capable of inflicting severely painful injuries and death, in a multitude of ways.

People with fire and the knowledge to use it possess enormous advantages over those without.

Are there not the makings of a market economy here? Some of the conditions above would make fire-related theft and sabotage or conquest exceedingly problem-prone, compared to more friendly barter and trade. The problems of fire maintenance would also seem to encourage groups to remain on good terms with neighbors-- as any might need to request a 'light' refresher from the other at any time.

Could the hazards and requirements of fire mark the earliest beginnings of a bartering system in the making?

Anthropologist D. Falk suggests that one advantage human predecessors enjoy now over competing hominids is better cooling systems for the brain. William R. Corliss questions if this advantage will be expanded upon later by the development of male pattern baldness.

-- COOLER HEADS, BIGGER BRAINS? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #77, SEP-OCT 1991 by William R. Corliss, citing Pat Shipman; "Hotheads," Discover, 12:18, April 1991

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Approximately 2,000,000 BC -1,700,000 BC: At least some australopithecines are practicing cannibals at this time; Homo erectus is using toothpicks

-- "Who are we having for dinner this evening, dear?" Connected, Electronic Telegraph, 17 June 1999, Telegraph Group Limited

Using the term "cannibals" may not be quite fair, due to the often difficult time the species has surviving, and their long term legacy as scavengers. It may be that instances of eating one another are usually due to someone in the family dying of natural causes or predator attack, and the group is simply exploiting the body as a food source in the aftermath. Keep in mind that burial after death is not yet practiced; so if a family doesn't eat its own it is merely leaving the meat for other scavengers or predators to devour (and so thereby encouraging predation or stalking of themselves or their kin at the same time). Total population numbers of hominids are sufficiently low that lengthy survival via cannibalism is virtually impossible; most hominids might never see more than a hundred others of their own kind during their entire lives.

Homo erectus seems to be using toothpicks by around 1.8 million BC. Modern 20th/21st century apes do not use toothpicks. -- First pick, From New Scientist magazine, 22 April 2000

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Approximately 1,900,000 BC: Some hominids are perhaps making use of fire to cook vegetables (and undergoing revolutionary changes in sexual relationships and matters of social cooperation); cooking helps extend lifespans in several ways

-- "Light My Fire: Cooking As Key To Modern Human Evolution, ScienceDaily Magazine, http://www.sciencedaily.com//releases/1999/08/990810064914.htm, 8/10/99, Source: University Of Minnesota

AUTHOR'S NOTE: In regards to fire, it bears repeating here that humanity's use of fire remains extremely fragile over most of this time-- for they cannot start a fire from scratch.

Rather, someone from a group must either capture a flame from a natural forest fire ignited by lightning, then the group must do their best to maintain the flame into perpetuity, or else the group must try to steal or trade for a flame from another group in possession of such.

The lack of fire-starting technology and the relative rarity of local natural fires (perhaps occuring only once in a generation) combine with the usefulness of fire to make it one of the rarest and most valuable commodities known to early man.

-- lamp; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000, and fire; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000

END NOTE.

Millions of years ago human predecessors gained a survival advantage by beginning to mimic animals via speech. Now they are beginning to mimic one other (other hominids). This may mark the beginning of human civilization. It may also signify the first root of religion.

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Approximately 1,600,000 BC: Emerging lifeforms of this time include Homo erectus, neanderthals, modern humans, giant beavers, giant bison, and many other species of hoofed mammals

-- Geologic Time Scale, page 564, Earth Science, Science and Technology, The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews and McMeel, 1995

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Approximately 1,500,000 BC: Homo erectus is using fire for heat, light, and perhaps food preparation and preservation

-- Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Keep in mind that humanity still cannot start a fire from scratch, and so must obtain it however they can and then maintain it perpetually over generations or else risk becoming subservient to other groups, or more easily falling prey to predators or other threats from the environment.

-- lamp; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000, and fire; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000

END NOTE.

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Approximately 1,500,000 BC - 500,000 BC: Saber-toothed tigers help human predecessors expand into Europe from Africa

It seems saber-tooth meals provide lots of leftovers, and hominids of the time are competing with hyenas for the scraps. However, the saber-tooth population is gone from Africa by 1,500,000 BC, moving northwards into Europe. Following this ready source of food scraps may be part of the reason some hominids move into Europe too. By 500,000 BC though the saber-tooths are gone from Europe as well, leaving the hominids to secure a replacement for that food source in their diet.

-- free lunch, New Scientist, 29 May 1999

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Approximately 1,000,000 BC: Things are beginning to get interesting in the Americas

[Caution: Extreme speculation ahead; this section mostly created for "What If?" entertainment value]

Click here to see the surprising possibilities

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Approximately 2,000,000 BC- 1,000,000+ BC: Prototypical humans are producing chopping tools and using flaking techniques for other tool-making chores; the terrifying giant flightless predatory bird Titanus (Phorusrhacidae) and its relatives may be going extinct in the Americas

Tools and other implements are being made from stone, bone, antler, and wood.

-- page 551, World History, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books

Titanus walleri is roaming Florida; in the past it and its kin terrorized South America (29 to 24 million BC and later). Around 4 to 3 million BC the two American continents were connected by the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama, and the predator expanded into the north, actually advancing against much more modern design large predators like mammalian big cats and others, which killed off virtually all Titanus' peers in South America. Titanus is up to six feet tall and 400 pounds, and can likely run at horse galloping speeds. Note that the 20th century African ostrich will grow up to eight feet tall and achieve speeds up to 50 miles per hour, and as late as around 1800 AD there will be 15 feet tall flightless birds in New Zealand (the Moa).

-- Terror, Take Two By Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, found on or about 9-1-99

Titanus may be nearly as stealthy when hunting as 20th century big cats like lions and tigers.

Titanus is something close to a reincarnated velociraptor from the bygone dinosaur ages-- only with feathers and a stubbier tail. As such, it may hunt in packs.

-- Decline of the Terror Birds, Carl Dennis Buell - Titanus, Titanis, and Coolrox Limited: The Hunt for Titanus

Diatryma, another large flightless bird that is possibly a carnivore (seven feet all) is also perhaps facing extinction at this time. In the past (since 38 million BC) they may have dominated western Europe and North America.

-- Extinct Birds Other possibly relevant sites include: Pleistocene Extinctions, Biodiversity and Conservation (book), EXTINCTION AND DEPLETION FROM OVER-EXPLOITATION, , History of Life,(book), JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY 15(4), Decem� , NWF - International Wildlife Magazine - Birds, �, and UF SCIENTIST'S DISCOVERY CHALLENGES ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT KILLER BIRD by Cathy Keen, University of Florida News, June 5, 1996

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Approximately 1,000,000 BC- 400,000 BC: Small, closed societies of nomadic hunter-gatherers dot southern England

During this time people living in the vicinity of southern England seem to pretty much keep to themselves, rarely if ever cooperating in group activities scaling beyond that of families.

Innovations are slow to appear and even slower to spread during this time. Daily life is largely one of habit.

The absence or rarity of formal or long term camp sites, hearths, and related items during this period will suggest to some 20th century scientists that they were not using spoken language, or else not doing so extensively. Body language, presence, and gestures may be the prime elements of mainstream communication today, among these peoples. Long distance trade and contacts seem virtually non-existent for these folks.

The people of this region and time are highly mobile and nomadic. The limitations of their lifestyles and the environmental conditions of the time point to regular extinctions of local populations.

-- Boxgrove Man didn't speak and ignored strangers by Clive Gamble, British Archaeology, Issue no 1, February 1995, ISSN 1357-4442 Editor: Simon Denison

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Approximately 1,000,000 BC- 100,000 BC: Some mutated Homo erectus (or perhaps prototypical Homo sapiens) of this time in central Java may be capable of complex reasoning and even spoken language

The size and shape of the brains implied by their fossil skulls in the later 20th century will indicate intellectual capacities very close to that of 20th century humanity.

The significance here is the early end of the time range. If any sizeable number of people possessed true language skills as early as one million BC then late 20th century humanity will be guilty of severely underestimating the capacities of prehistoric peoples-- and the probability of one or more lost civilizations equipped with various advanced attributes will zoom upward.

Another intriguing possibility comes from the opposite end of the time period. For if these people were mutated Homo erectus existing as late as 100,000 BC, then they were in some sense an alternative human race in competition with our own forebears to conquer the planet. In other words, there would have really been two separate human (or near-human races) on the planet at once. Add in the Neanderthals and you get three.

-- Hominid Fossil Says Plenty By Christine Soares, Special to ABCNEWS.com, http://www.abc.com, found or or about 9-7-99

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Approximately 998,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: Ten percent of the island of Oahu Hawaii suddenly plunges into the ocean during an earthquake, creating a gigantic tidal wave for much of the Pacific Rim

This may be among the biggest tsunamis ever to strike many Pacific coastal areas.

The Hawaiian islands themselves appear to suffer such huge 'splashes' from their own landslides about once every 100,000 years.

-- Landslide By Jonathan Knight, From New Scientist, 7 August 1999

This tsunami likely kills a substantial number of the most advanced and adventuresome human predecessors to date, as many of those will be living in various spots along the coast of southeast asia at the time of impact.

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Approximately 878,000 BC to 798,000 BC: Some factions of humanity may be managing to successfully traverse the oceans now, at least in part due to the organizational power of rudimentary speech skills

The most advanced hominids may have possessed robust imitative speech skills for over four million years by now. They've used hand tools for at least one and a half million years, and been knowledgeable in fire use (where fire is available) for over a million.

The secret of fire is sufficiently powerful to have greatly rewarded those able to learn and pass along the best possible information on the subject to friends and family-- and dangerous enough to kill and injure or leave defenseless those who couldn't. Inadequate ventilation in fire warmed caves in the winter alone has surely suffocated and/or brain damaged thousands over the millennia-- a substantial portion of the global human population. This die off/dumbing down has likely helped a lot to accelerate human evolution-- especially where the use of fire is concerned. Similar long term costs/benefits may be associated with the manufacture and use of hand tools as well.

The enhancement that their imitative speech skills could give to hand signs and motions and physical demonstrations in the teaching and communication of these ideas must have been crucial to the welfare of untold generations. Thus, it would seem safe to assume that some crude form of spoken language now exists (possibly a hybrid of speech and sign language)-- at least among some factions of humanity.

-- "Ancient mariners"By Tim Thwaites, Melbourne, From New Scientist, 14 March 1998 Some archeologists believe Homo erectus navigated the seas 800,000 years ago-- at least across 15 mile stretches at a time, between islands, and utilizing watercraft more substantial and functional than a crude raft or log-- something like a steerable raft with working sails or paddles at minimum. A workable power of speech (language) also seems evident and necessary to support such a task. -- ERECTUS AFLOAT By Robert Kunzig, Human Origins 1998, Section: THE YEAR IN SCIENCE, DISCOVER magazine; JANUARY 1999 Thor Heyerdahl undertook several ocean voyages during the 20th century utilizing sea-going craft and equipment as near identical to that estimated for ancient peoples as possible, in order to prove such expeditions were achievable for the ancients. Among the journeys were: 1947: A 101 day long trip between South America and Polynesia across the Pacific, using a balsa raft named Kon Tiki, with a total of seven men onboard. 1969/1970: The Ra trips using Egyptian reed boats to cross the Atlantic. -- "Heyerdahl Defeats Oceans, Battles Scholars" By Alister Doyle, Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News, Science Headlines, September 13 1999

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Keep in mind that humanity still cannot start a fire from scratch, and so must obtain it however they can and then maintain it perpetually over generations or else risk becoming subservient to other groups, or more easily falling prey to predators or other threats from the environment.

-- lamp; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000, and fire; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000

END NOTE.

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Approximately 800,000 BC: At least some of the complex social patterns required to support prolonged child rearing apparently exist among some variations of human ancestors now...

...in the vicinity someday to be known as Spain. Circa 1999 AD evidence will be mounting that these early human predecessors also boast brain sizes similar to 20th century humans.

-- "Human Growth Displays Ancient Roots" By B. Bower, Science News Online, Vol. 155, No. 14, April 3, 1999, p. 212

Such complex social developments seem to indicate the presence of language of some sort.

One element of the above bears repeating: HUMANS OF 800,000 BC APPEAR TO POSSESS VIRTUALLY THE SAME SIZE BRAINS AS LATER 20TH CENTURY PEOPLES.

This suggests much of modern man and his capabilities exist by this point in some form.

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Approximately 780,000 BC: Apparently cannibalism is common among some prehistoric humans at this time; Homo erectus is expanding into Israel; The Earth's magnetic field undergoes one of its periodic reversals now

Homo antecessor, in the area that will someday be named Spain, shows an appetite for fellow human flesh during this time.

-- "Who are we having for dinner this evening, dear?" Connected, Electronic Telegraph, 17 June 1999, Telegraph Group Limited Homo erectus was apparently arriving in the area of Israel around 780,000 BC. The most recent reversal of the Earth's geomagnetic field occured around 780,000 BC. -- Hominid Journey Set 250,000 Years Earlier The Associated Press, Aug. 11, 2000

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Approximately 700,000 BC: A rare super meteor storm may be raging over the region of Australia and southeast Asia now...

...composed of a few gigantic meteors along with many much smaller ones.

-- HEAVY BOMBARDMENT OF SOUTHEAST ASIA 700,000 YEARS AGO From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #78, NOV-DEC 1991 by William R. Corliss, citing John T. Wasson; "Layered Tektites: A Multiple Impact Origin for the Australasian Tektites," Journal of Geophysical Research, 102:95, 1991

Approximately 770,000 BC or later: A volcanic eruption on the Moon may result in a shower of natural glass fragments (tektites) onto the Earth. Some twelve such events may have occurred since 65 million BC, many or all contributing to climate change and possibly species extinctions on Earth.

Lunar volcanic eruptions could threaten humanity. -- Researcher Says Tons of the Moon on the Earth; Tektite Events May Have Triggered Extinctions; Vector Science News Release; March 22, 2001; Contacts include Darryl S. Futrell, 6222 Haviland, Whittier, CA 90601-3735 USA and Louis Varricchio; Vector Science News Release; 802-388-3268; [email protected]

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Approximately 600,000 BC: The last surface life on Mars (bacteria) may be dying

-- Pursuing Life on Two Frontiers: On Mars by R. Cowen, November 9, 1996, Science News Online, http://www.sciencenews.org

If complex Mars life is to continue, it must do so in underground grottoes isolated from the ever harsher conditions of the surface, and blessed with a more or less steady supply of liquid water. Small animals such as millipedes, centipedes, mutant scorpions (including an aquatic variety), leeches, spiders, springtails, pillbugs, and bristletails might conceiveably survive in such refuges for millions of years-- assuming they also enjoy a sufficient source of oxygen, and a platform of suitable lower lifeforms (microbes and fungi) to support them, such as will be found in similar locations on Earth during the 20th century.

Such eco-systems appear capable of developing in as little as 5.5 million years. Thus it would seem ample opportunities existed for Mars life to adapt as Mars' surface environment deteriorated.

-- Romanian cave contains novel ecosystem By ERIK SKINDRUD, June 29, 1996, Science News Online, http://www.sciencenews.org

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Approximately 800,000 BC- 500,000 BC: The ancestors of 20th century humans split from those of the Neanderthals now

The parent line of both these splinter groups is Homo erectus. Homo erectus appears to contain much greater genetic diversity now than later 20th century humanity will display.

-- Paleoanthropology (revised 16 December 1999) by Francis F. Steen, Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara, http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/EP/Paleoanthropology.html

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Approximately 500,000+ BC: Several variants of hominids expand into temperate europe, some 20,000 years after some had settled in China

-- `Eco-noble savages' who never were: Prehistory contains many examples of people driving animal species to extinction, explains James Steele, British Archaeology, no 12, March 1996: Features, British Archaeology homepage -- "After 100,000 Years, a Bug Is on the Run" By TERENCE MONMANEY, Times Medical Writer, Los Angeles Times, September 2, 1999, http://www.latimes.com/

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Approximately 500,000 BC: Homo erectus is building huts; the primate Gigantopithecus may be going extinct

North of Tokyo Japan people (Homo erectus) seem to be building huts. The intended lifespans of the structures on the part of their builders remains unclear, but holes were dug to insert posts for the construction.

-- World's oldest building discovered, BBC News | SCI/TECH |, 1 March, 2000

Note the construction of artificial shelters shows that primitive humanity is 'thinking bigger' now in regard to tool-making: they are building housing.

If nothing else, the primate Gigantopithecus is suffering a drastic reduction in total population numbers and territory, possibly due to adverse climatic changes as well as increasingly severe competition for food.

Possibly 600-1200 pounds and up to 10 feet in height, Gigantopithecus will be the largest primate known to have ever existed, by 1999 AD humanity.

Gigantopithecus may be a gentle vegetarian like 20th century mountain gorillas-- a trait which may not help it much in the cut throat competition happening among primates today.

-- The UnMuseum - Gigantopithecus by Lee Krystek, found on or about 10-20-99

For instance, Homo erectus (a predecessor of 20th century humans) may be actively hunting, killing, and eating Gigantopithecus (or at least driving them out of their preferred territories). Gigantopithecus has lived throughout southeast asia for millions of years by now. But due to many factors, change (or extinction) is now in the air. A close relative of Gigantopithecus lived in India, but predated the southeast asian variety by millions of years. Gigantopithecus may usually move on all fours like the mountain gorillas of the 20th century (though this is uncertain due to complete skeletons of the species being unavailable in the late 20th century).

Gigantopithecus seems far too large to ever utilize trees like its primate ancestors. So it appears limited to ground living. However, its primate heritage gives it an excellent capacity for climbing up rocks and mountains (and down into caves).

Gigantopithecus females may be only 50% the size of their mates.

A diet highly dependent on bamboo and its sprouts may be putting Gigantopithecus into competition with both giant pandas (bears) and Homo erectus, as well as be making it vulnerable to the periodic dearths of bamboo which occur in the region.

If Gigantopithecus shares a love for bamboo sprouts with the giant pandas, Gigantopithecus may also share some digestive characteristics with the Chinese bear-- such as sleeping as little as four hours a day, and eating almost constantly. Of course, if Gigantopithecus is forced to leave its native regions it may also be forced to give up the bamboo-- and develop somewhat different eating habits. In theory this could allow them to cut back on the time spent eating, even while they retain the short sleep period per day-- thus making it much less likely that Homo erectus can come upon them while they are in slumber.

One intriguing element of Gigantopithecus to 20th century humanity will be its resemblance to 20th century myths of the Sasquatch, Yeti, and Bigfoot of widely diverse geographical locales.

-- From the Teeth of the Dragon - Gigantopithecus blacki by Eric Pettifor, found on or about 10-20-99

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Approximately 500,000 BC: Microbial life is continuing to survive in the crust of Mars; Circa 2000 AD Earth-based radioactive carbon dating will be accurate to around this time

Bits of Mars blasted off the planet now by cosmic impacts will eventually find their way to Earth (and be labeled meteorites EETA 79001 and ALH 84001), and display strong evidence for continuing widespread survival on Mars of at least microscopic organisms.

-- MARTIAN LIFE: ACT II From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #110, MAR-APR 1997 by William R. Corliss, citing Anonymous; "Life on Mars: Part Two," Sky and Telescope, 93:12, January 1997. Anonymous; "More Evidence for Martian Life," Astronomy, 25:26, February 1997 -- Part of prehistoric mastodon unearthed in Nevada By TOM GARDNER, The Associated Press/Nando Media, May 7, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com

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Approximately 450,000 BC-100,000 BC: Homo Sapiens is making practical food containers and tools suitable for "cutting, chopping and scraping"

-- "Milestones in Technology", February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel

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Approximately 400,000 BC- 350,000 BC: Humans in Africa are making pigments/paints for aesthetic purposes now, if not earlier; People in Germany are beginning to engage in sculpture

The colors are likely used in body painting for various rituals and social occasions. The use of paint in this manner suggests symbolic thinking, perhaps even use of spoken language.

-- BBC News | SCI/TECH | Earliest evidence of art found, 2 May, 2000 Human beings in Syria were apparently delving into the creation of sculpture as far back as around 218,000 BC. People in Europe and Kenya may have been doing the same at the time-- perhaps earlier. A German relic appears to have been created around 348,000 BC. Such works imply symbolic thought on the part of their makers. -- 'Lump of Rock' Turns Out to Be World's First Sculpture By The Independent, September 25, 2000

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Approximately 400,000 BC: The Earth warms up considerably and stays that way for at least 30,000 years

Global sea levels stabilize at 7.5 meters above 1999 AD levels for millennia, then rapidly rise to about 20 meters higher than 1999 levels, remain there for thousands of years, and finally decline back to 1999 levels over a period of a couple millennia.

Note that any long term hominid settlements in low lying coastal areas are being flooded and erased during this time worldwide, thereby forcing many potential innovations leading to agriculture or other characteristics of civilization to be postponed or forgotten as populations are repeatedly forced to move elsewhere to start again from scratch.

-- "In Ancient Ice Ages, Clues to Climate" By WILLIAM K. STEVENS, 2-16-99, The New York Times -- "The big thaw"by Jeff Hecht, Boston, From New Scientist, 17 April 1999

It appears the melting collapse of the entire western Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, as well as ten percent of east Antarctica's ice, was the cause of the global rise in sea levels of perhaps at least 13 meters.

The facts of past sea levels are muddled somewhat by fluctuations in the levels of the continents themselves, due to tectonic processes, and the varying weights of covering ice sheets (when present).

-- Climate's Long-Lost Twin By R. Monastersky, From Science News, Vol. 157, No. 9, February 26, 2000, p. 138

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Approximately 400,000 BC: Hominids are using covered wood shelters in the vicinity of France, and sophistocated throwing spears to kill big game

Neanderthals inhabit the region of eurasia at this time.

-- page 551, World History, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books

Neanderthals endure a harsh life during this time.

-- `Eco-noble savages' who never were: Prehistory contains many examples of people driving animal species to extinction, explains James Steele, British Archaeology, no 12, March 1996: Features, British Archaeology homepage

In Germany human predecessors around 400,000 BC to 350,000 BC appear to be using wooden spears to hunt horses and other big game. The spear designs seem quite advanced, being something similar to 20th century javelins. Thus, they appear to be throwing weapons.

-- German mine yields ancient hunting spears by B. Bower, Science News Online, March 1, 1997, http://www.sciencenews.org

The primate hypoglossal canal is the entry hole in the base of the skull for the spinal cord, as well as the place where a nerve bundle extends from the brain to the tongue. Thus, its size may be important to its owner in terms of complex speech potential-- at least where such potential depends upon tongue control. It appears the hypoglossal canal in human ancestors has by now already enlarged to a size comparable to that which will be enjoyed by 20th century humanity. This may suggest that complex language capacities now (400,000 BC) exist in humanity-- at least theoretically and physiologically speaking. Neanderthals also/will own a similar sized canal. However, as of 1998 there remained some uncertainty among scientists in regards to the canal size's true importance to complex speech.

-- Paleoanthropology (revised 16 December 1999) by Francis F. Steen, Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara, http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/EP/Paleoanthropology.html

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Approximately 400,000 BC- 200,000 BC: Eventually all of 20th century humanity will be descended from a single woman living during this time

Some later writers will refer to this remarkable female as "Eve", after the first woman of mainstream Christian Biblical beliefs circa 1999 AD.

-- "Eve Is A Lot Older Than Previously Thought-Studies" Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/, March 10, 1999

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please note that this is not scientific evidence for the "Adam and Eve" of Genesis, but rather a back-tracking of human genetics through the funnel of time to the one hominid woman among many whose progeny always managed to live long enough to reproduce over hundreds of thousands of years to become the human race of the 20th century. At some point the descendents of all this woman's peers either suffered a break in their lineage (a critical path individual died before they had children) or were overpowered by our line by force of numbers in procreation prowess (we either killed off, starved out, or absorbed the other lines which emanated from our nth degree great-aunts). END NOTE.

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Approximately 250,000 BC: The last pure Homo erectus groups are dying out or evolving into something different now; Small but significant numbers of human beings may be reaching Valsequillo Mexico from across the Pacific now

-- THE HUEYATLACO DILEMMA from Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #21, MAY-JUN 1982 by William R. Corliss, citing Virginia Steen-McIntyre, et al; "Geologic Evidence for Age of Deposits at Hueyatlaco Archeological Site, Valsequillo, Mexico," Quaternary Research, 16:1, 1981 -- Hominid Fossil Says Plenty By Christine Soares, Special to ABCNEWS.com, http://www.abc.com, found or or about 9-7-99

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Approximately 200,000 BC: Eurasian humanity may be taking the baton from African humanity now in terms of accelerated evolution

Ancestors of 20th century humanity may be diverging from other hominid variations now...specifically, European and Asian groups may represent the most advanced strains of humanity worldwide, rather than any African line. Some theories see virtually all substantial human evolution taking place primarily in Africa, with one or more waves of migrations outwards to Eurasia spreading the genetic improvements worldwide. The latest genetic finds seem to dispute this, saying that after a certain point human evolution was occuring faster in Eurasia than Africa, and perhaps feeding evolutionary improvements back to the hominid homelands instead, via migration and competition.

-- "Groups From Europe, Asia May Be True Ancestors of Modern Humanity" by Times Staff and Wire Reports, March 18, 1999, Science in Brief SCIENCE FILE, Los Angeles Times If it is true that Eurasians began outpacing African hominids during this time, it may have had something to do with the several extra geophysical advantages (and challenges) the Eurasian continent itself offered natives compared to Africa, as described for later developments regarding humanity by Jared Diamond in articles like "Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years? -- A Talk By Jared Diamond", The Third Culture, found on or about 1-2-99 on the web

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Approximately 200,000+ BC: Humans are treating animal skins for use as clothing

Many humans worldwide are moving in seasonal migrations and making use of a wide variety of plants and animals for food.

The greater exploitation of animal hides for clothing and accessories is substantially increasing humanity's flexibility in terms of climate, terrain, and hunting by providing better protection from the elements and animal attacks, as well as offering improvements in camouflage and storage options.

This invention and use of clothing is a significant technological breakthrough for humanity, and will allow people to greatly expand their exploration and settlement of the Earth.

Humans long ago became masters at imitating animal noises and calls-- now they can imitate animal smells and appearance as well. Humans may be emulating animals in other ways too, wherever they observe a particularly useful survival or hunting technique being practiced by the beasts.

There's a good chance at least some advances in human footwear are also occuring at this time.

-- page 551, World History, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books

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Approximately 200,000 BC- 50,000 BC: Various hominids are living in small, roaming groups; the majority of humanity has become righthanded

-- "Humans Switched To Fast Food When Slow Prey Ran Out" By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent, Reuters Limited, http://dailynews.yahoo.com/, 1-9-99

Note that by now the majority of humanity has likely become right-handed. Why? Perhaps because of the differences in vulnerability to ingesting mind-altering substances-- since left-handedness and right-handedness traits seem to be accompanied by such differences in psychoactive susceptibility.

Right-handed people are less sensitive to neuro-toxins than left-handed people. As early humanity often encountered periods of starvation, as well as gradually roamed over more and widely varying terrain and climates, experimentation in foodstuffs was essential. Some plants and animals however contain nerve toxins, and would have done anything from kill or sicken eaters, to bring on hallucinations which would have made them much more vulnerable to accidents or attacks by other people or animals. Ergo, lefthanders, being more vulnerable to such effects, would have died at a higher rate, leaving the predominantly right-handed population humanity will consist of by 1999 AD.

Of course, it isn't a 'clean sweep' for righthanders; a small percentage of left-handers also survive the toxic foods filter, either by accident or some competitive advantage(s) over right-handers in another area, somewhat narrower in scope than resistance to psychoactive food and drink. What might such advantages be?

Between six and sixteen percent of 20th century humans are left-handed. Besides the differences noted above with right-handers, left-handedness is also associated with a higher incidence of epilepsy and learning disorders than right-handedness. -- WHY MOST PEOPLE ARE RIGHT-HANDED From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #36, NOV-DEC 1984 by William R. Corliss, citing Liz Grist; "Why Most People Are Right-Handed," New Scientist, 22, August 16, 1984

To see more about the possible differences between left and right handed people, refer to Left and Right

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Approximately 187,000 BC: The ancestral gene tree of modern humans splits into two branches now...

...African and non-African. Both these groups together total to only 11,000 to 18,000 people worldwide.

This split likely occured in Africa itself; the "non-African" distinction signifies primarily which group left the home continent to populate the rest of the world later. The genetic and other challenges of eurasia will have a profound impact on the non-African group, eventually causing genetic changes sufficiently valuable to survival that they would eventually return to Africa to change the African population as well (in a "genetic sweep" removing much of the variability between the two groups), resulting in the ultimate composition of humanity circa 1999 AD.

-- "Study Alters Time Line for the Splitting of Human Populations" By NICHOLAS WADE, March 16, 1999, The New York Times

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Approximately 148,000 BC- 98,000 BC: A relatively small migration of modern humans leaves Africa

By 1999 AD this and other events will have left native Africans with much greater diversity in genetic composition compared to much of the rest of humanity. 1999 AD native Europeans and Mideastern populations will possess the next greatest degree of genetic diversity, while native Americans will possess the least. This would appear logical, and in line with current notions of which continents were settled in what order in prehistory. The most far ranging humans which settled the Americas last of all would have endured passage through more evolutionary challenges and filters than any other faction-- thereby pruning their genetic diversity to its 1999 levels. Plus, it should be kept in mind that the small subset of human ancestors which leave Africa at this time (148,000 BC- 98,000 BC) will possess only a small subset of the genetic diversity of the whole African population-- thus offering considerably less genetic diversity for their descendents to draw upon in their subsequent migrations.

-- Little-Explored African Genetic Diversity May Hold Key To Human Origins, Medical Questions, 22 JANUARY 1999, Contact: A'ndrea Elyse Messer, [email protected], 814-865-9481, Penn State

These differences in genetic diversity would seem to indicate that in any given worldwide epidemic the average native African is likely to possess a greater chance of survival than representatives of other human populations.

A bottleneck of only some 2000 individuals in a breeding population seems to have marked the earliest beginnings of the modern human species. Of the roughly 1000 women expected to be among these progenitors, only one would give birth to children whose lineage would continue to survive on to modern times, by 2000 AD forming the whole of the human race. This original pool of 2000 breeders likely lived in Africa. They seem to have splintered into two or more separate groups sometime after around 142,000 BC. European lineages indicate an arrival of modern humans in Europe around 49,000 BC- 37,000 BC (archaeological relics indicate arrival no later than 33,000 BC). The source cited below gives a date of around 48,000 BC for the first modern humans leaving Africa. It is speculated the first groups each consisted of perhaps a few hundred hunter-gatherers. -- The Human Family Tree: 10 Adams and 18 Eves By NICHOLAS WADE, May 2, 2000, The New York Times Company The oldest human fossils in the world are found in Africa. By approximately 1,700,000 BC Homo erectus (or possibly Homo ergaster) is in the Republic of Georgia. Homo erectus evolved around 2,000,000 BC, and were so different from their predecessors that they likely changed lifestyles and territories pretty rapidly-- possibly leading to long range migrations. One major factor was a new independence from vegetation in their diet; these new peoples were more prone to eating meat than those they succeeded. -- Ancient Exodus BY MICHAEL D. LEMONICK, REPORTED BY SORA SONG/NEW YORK, Time magazine, SCIENCE MAY 22, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 21 VISIONS 21

It may be that in the early part of this period some old, injured, sick, outcast, or young orphan wolves begin to attach themselves to the outskirts of human camps for easier scavenging and to regain some of the social companionship they lost when they were ejected from their packs or otherwise split from their own orders.

It may be the singing and music of the camps remind the wolves of the chorus of their native packs.

The typically lone wolves soon learn not to anger the humans of the camps, and to keep a respectful distance, basically living off the trash the humans throw outside camp, or leave behind as they move on. These wolves of course tend to follow the nomadic human families now, staying on the lookout for food scraps. Staying near the camps also offer the wolves some protection from other predators.

As the wolves grow more dependent on the camps and their humans, they naturally begin to take on guard duties at the fringe, barking an alert whenever a strange human or beast approaches. Such a combination challenge/alert not only fits in well with its natural territorial instincts, but possibly increases activity in the nearby camp too, which all by itself will serve to frighten off some intruders. After awhile the humans realize the value in such sentinals, plus like the way the wolves help keep the camp and its outskirts cleared of trash. Such trash clearing all by itself helps minimize the attraction of unwanted predators and scavengers likely much worse than a semi-friendly wolf or two.

Another good thing about the fringe wolves is that in a pinch they too can be killed for food. So the humans regard them as sentinals, trash disposals, and emergency food supplies. When camp wolf killing becomes necessary, the people naturally tend to kill those wolves which are most difficult to get along with first.

Eventually enough of these camp fringe wolves accumulate to breed, and those pups best able to get along with the nearby humans live to reproduce again, while others do not. Thus, the genetic engineering of wolves into dogs begins.

-- Man's trash was likely dog's lure by Phil and Nancy Seff, November 10, 1999, Deseret News Science/Technology, http://deseretnews.com/, Man's trash was likely dog's lure (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,125015089,00.html?)

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Approximately 144,000+ BC: Perhaps as few as 2,000 human beings of breeding age exist worldwide at some point during this period...

...possibly due to harsh environmental conditions of one kind or another.

Of the roughly 1000 women in this group, 999 will give birth to lineages which do not survive the coming millennia. Only one woman's progeny will survive to produce all of humanity by 2000 AD.

The children of this prehistoric human population have or will split into two major factions sometime around now.

-- The Human Family Tree: 10 Adams and 18 Eves By NICHOLAS WADE, May 2, 2000, The New York Times

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133,000+ BC: The first wolves are successfully tamed by humans in Eurasia, and world geography closely resembles that of 1999 AD...

...as sea levels in 133,000 BC to 118,000 BC never rise more than two meters above 1999 AD levels. Note that the Bering land bridge between Asia and North America is definitely closed at this time.

-- "Dogs Really Man's Best Friend, Book Claims" ("Evolving Brains,'' biologist John Allman of the California Institute of Technology) http://dailynews.yahoo.com//Reuters Limited, 12-16-98 -- "The big thaw" by Jeff Hecht, Boston, From New Scientist, 17 April 1999 The mid-point of the interglacial period which preceded the present one was around 133,000 BC. -- A Debate That Could Last An Iceage by Kurt Sternlof, March 22, 2000 SpaceDaily, Columbia University -- "U.S. News: Archaelogists study dogs to learn about humans (7/5/99), The secret life of animals" BY JONAH BLANK , Science & Ideas 7/5/99, U.S. News Online -- Stalking the Ancient Dog By CHRISTINE MLOT, June 28, 1997, Science News Online, http://www.sciencenews.org/

The animal which is domesticated by humanity now and will serve as the foundation from which virtually all the different sizes and shapes of dogs familiar to 20th century humanity will spring, is the Eurasian gray wolf.

It may be that domesticated wolves will help give humanity's most direct ancestors an evolutionary advantage over the typically physically stronger Neanderthals in millennia to come.

-- The secret life of animals BY JONAH BLANK, Science and Ideas, US News and World Report, 7-5-99, http://www.usnews.com/

The mutating wolf is now becoming an official camp guard and hunting companion-- and even occasional baby sitter. Its keen sense of smell is an added boon for those factions of humanity whose own smell has been compromised by evolutionary facial changes (Neanderthals may possess better smelling senses than other humans of this time). The wolf's nose helps track down animals in hunts, warn of approaching danger, and locate lost tribal members. Young wolves which do not display the desired traits are routinely killed for food-- so the camp wolves are a somewhat steady food supply as well as companions. This means a typical wolf-owning family of humans likely keeps anywhere from one to several friendly wolves around now-- depending on how plentiful food supplies overall are.

-- Man's trash was likely dog's lure by Phil and Nancy Seff, November 10, 1999, Deseret News Science/Technology, http://deseretnews.com/, Man's trash was likely dog's lure (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,125015089,00.html?)

Note that technically the use of the camp wolves as a contingency food supply might qualify as some of the earliest animal husbandry on the part of humanity.

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Approximately 128,000 BC: Humanity gets chins; possibly due to thousands of years of 'wolf wars'

-- Face values by Joan Smith (review of The Face: A Guided Tour by Daniel McNeill, H Hamilton ) BOOKS: SOCIOLOGY; The Sunday Times, http://www.the-times.co.uk/ February 14, 1999

[Caution: Extreme speculation ahead; this section mostly created for "What If?" entertainment value]

Why the sudden sprouting of chins at this late date? There's little data on which to venture a speculation at this time. However, the sudden sprouting of chins practically worldwide in those who are/will be the ancestors of 21st century humanity suggests one or more traumatic evolutionary events-- die offs resulting in such a small number of survivors that a small mutation like growing a chin can suddenly spread through a majority of the population afterwards. Indeed, there are indications of one or more such events between 400,000 BC and 69,000 BC.

-- WHEN HUMANS WERE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES, From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #100, JUL-AUG 1995, by William R. Corliss , citing "The Mystery of Humanity's Missing Mutations," by Ann Gibbons, Science, 267:35, 1995

Of course, there's also other possibilities. Such as one or more of the first major world wars fought around this time. Perhaps only a few thousand years earlier eurasian humanity had managed to domesticate the wolf. The use of wolves as hunting companions, camp guards, garbage disposals, and contingency food supplies could have spread across a large part of the human population by now.

The domesticated wolf would offer a terrific advantage to its master against anyone lacking such an animal. Something like a firearm will, later on in human history. And what happened in regards to firearms? They were first developed for purposes of war and defense.

Perhaps there were one or several 'wolf' wars. First, those 'armed' with wolves decimated those without. This taught all survivors the value of wolves, and domestication spread rapidly.

The presence of domesticated wolves could so empower humanity in general that it could allow for a population boom in the species (humanity), thereby leading to still more intensive and frequent conflicts and fighting. Note that the population boom would mainly occur among wolf owners (so even if no 'wars' take place, eventually the wolf owners would overwhelm the non-owners by sheer force of numbers).

The next major wolf war might have seen both sides so equipped, with the main deciding factors for a victor being attrition (victory through superior numbers, and/or better killing skills), and the quality of training and breeding (size, strength, speed, intelligence) in the wolves, and how well they and their masters worked together.

In all such wolf wars an unprotected human throat was decidedly inferior to a protected one. Thus, those with chins which could be dropped to protect the throat from wolf jaws survived more often that those without chins.

Of course, if this is how humanity acquired chins, that would signify a horrifically brutal and large scale extended conflict among most of humanity via their newly domesticated wolves. Due to a variety of factors, such conflicts likely would have had to rage for millennia to make chins appear as quickly as they did.

The actuality of thousands of years of wolf wars would also imply a larger eurasian population of humanity near the beginning of the wars than 20th century scientists will expect-- because otherwise population densities would be too low to allow such intensive conflict and casualties. Another implication however is an enormous death and injury toll from the fighting, equivalent perhaps to a third or even two thirds of humanity overall, by the time the wars are winding down (a rough stalemate is reached, or else population densities drop so low that it's difficult to find anyone to attack afterwards).

-- "Dogs Really Man's Best Friend, Book Claims" ("Evolving Brains,'' biologist John Allman of the California Institute of Technology) http://dailynews.yahoo.com//Reuters Limited, 12-16-98 -- "U.S. News: Archaelogists study dogs to learn about humans (7/5/99), The secret life of animals" BY JONAH BLANK , Science & Ideas 7/5/99, U.S. News Online -- Stalking the Ancient Dog By CHRISTINE MLOT, June 28, 1997, Science News Online, http://www.sciencenews.org/ -- The secret life of animals BY JONAH BLANK, Science and Ideas, US News and World Report, 7-5-99, http://www.usnews.com/ -- Man's trash was likely dog's lure by Phil and Nancy Seff, November 10, 1999, Deseret News Science/Technology, http://deseretnews.com/, Man's trash was likely dog's lure (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,125015089,00.html?) In one group of primitive peoples in the Ecuadorean Amazon studied by scientists, any given male possessed a 50% chance of being killed by another in the same vicinity. In general however the murder rate for males in primitive tribal societies appears to be around 30%. The tendency to kill others seems to have evolved as a means for men to get ahead in tribal societies. The more they killed, the higher a status they gained in their society. The higher their status, the more wives they took, and the more children they likely fathered. Fortunately, murder rates in modern civilization have diminished considerably compared to the tribal societies from which they sprang-- tribal cultures maintain rates about 50 times higher than that of modern developed nations, circa 2000 AD. (Of course, societies in modern developed nations may simply have replaced physical murder with virtual murder-- as in actions of omission or commission which contribute to enemies losing their jobs, businesses, investments, savings, families, friends, allies, or other important elements of social stature. Keep in mind that symbolism and abstraction remain a hallmark of human development, and as such may still be progressing among us in a variety of ways. It would be interesting to see what the difference is between the physical murder rate in tribal societies and the virtual murder rate in modern ones-- if any difference exists at all.) The measures here include the deaths in war as well as plain individual homicides. -- Ask Dr. Universe Survival of the meanest? Evolution hard-wires humans for violence, expert believes, May 9, 2000, The Seattle Times Company, [email protected]. Dr. W.S. Universe, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-1040. http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/ Ask Dr. Universe is a service of Washington State University

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Approximately 128,000 BC - 108,000 BC: The Earth enjoys a warm but stormy interglacial span (the Eemian period)

The Eemian period possesses two phases: the first 12,000 years are relative stable and cozy in terms of climate and temperature while the remainder retains much warmth even as the north american ice sheets gradually grow larger again, presaging the later decline back to much colder temperatures. The second phase may well have been marked by monstrous storms, due to its unusual conditions.

Thus, North America may be suffering terrific storms during the period between 116,000 BC and 108,000 BC. Note that in many cases (especially towards the end of this period, and/or in the more northern regions), these storms are horrific blizzards, laying down snow to form the advancing glaciers of the new Ice Age.

-- "In Ancient Ice Ages, Clues to Climate" By WILLIAM K. STEVENS, 2-16-99, The New York Times The last major break between Ice Ages was somewhere around 128,000 BC- 114,000 BC, lasting for roughly 14,000-20,000 years, depending on how you define the conditions (up to twice as long as the current period circa 2000 AD so far). Ice Ages can also begin and end pretty abruptly, and with perhaps little warning. -- Essay: Climate Future Told Through Mud By Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery.com News, February 15, 2000 The current interglacial period (circa 2000 AD) is apparently no more stable than any before it. The last major interglacial was between 128,000 BC and 114,000 BC. Ice Ages apparently may begin or end quickly. The current heating of the world by mankind however is a new wild card in the mix. If the planet's natural Ice Age cycle isn't much affected by human works, and the present interglacial continues for another 10,000 years, the Earth could get very hot indeed. On the other hand, if mankind can hurry the next Ice Age along, or its natural schedule is simply faster than we expect, then our extra heat production might help postpone the glaciers while keeping planetary temperatures about the same as they were over the past thousand years. -- Essay: Climate Future Told Through Mud By Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery.com News, February 14, 2000

Note that global sea levels now are likely near the same as circa 1999 AD (or slightly higher), thereby insuring that land links such as the Bering landbridge (and many islands) are submerged. The greater southeast asian peninsula is also in large part underwater, presenting something a bit smaller than its circa 1999 AD incarnation to surface observation.

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Approximately 123,000 BC: People may be tending to cluster on the sea coasts of Africa, due to the access to seafood

-- ABCNEWS.com : Ancient Humans Lived on Coast By Malcolm Ritter, The Associated Press, May 3 2000

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Approximately 118,000 BC: Flint tools are appearing in south Africa

-- Paleoanthropology (revised 16 December 1999) by Francis F. Steen, Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara, http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/EP/Paleoanthropology.html

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MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR: 118,000 BC to 8,000 BC: the last Ice Age; a third of Earth's surface is sheathed in ice for much of this period-- and world geography undergoes drastic changes

For the 15,000 years preceding this time, world sea levels never rose more than two meters above that of the sea level circa 1999 AD. But now sea levels worldwide drop to 1999 AD levels and significantly below between 118,000 and 8000 BC. This means there are greater chances for landbridges connecting islands and continents, and considerably more land exposed along the coastlines of continents and islands, among other things. All this extra dry land offers places where human civilizations might spend centuries or even millennia building cities and nations, and migrating over to explore new territories-- only to have the sea take them away again in the centuries to follow (and possibily leaving some folks permanently stranded on places like islands afterwards). In 1998 AD archaeologists will be discovering many human works submerged this way during prehistoric times.

Another implication of the great ice sheets are 'ice bridges' essentially offering yet another means of connection between many land masses during this time that would otherwise be inaccessible due to surrounding seas. Note that the Earth's north pole will have little or no exposed land area by 1998 AD; and yet it will be covered by an ice sheet sufficient to support lengthy migrations of human and animal species across the region. Thus, technically there exist paths allowing exploration of the americas and other regions for ancient hominids as far back as two million years or more as of 1998 AD. Such access ways may be as forbidding as deserts, or as temporary as seasonal sea ice, but they are there none-the-less. Indeed, early humans could theoretically explore almost every continent on earth now requiring little more than their feet for locomotion, due to ice sheets and lowered sea levels exposing various land bridges. No boats or rafts are required for most excursions. And yet, any humans intelligent enough to use floating constructions may trod the last few percentage points of the Earth's surface remaining out of reach of their land locked peers as well.

Unfortunately, towards the end of this period, when the ice sheets are retreating and the ocean levels rising again, volcanic action tends to increase as the weight of the ice sheets themselves seemed to have restrained them earlier. And the huge cataracts of flood waters released from melting glaciers and overflowing of sea-sized inland lakes during this time also wreak havoc on many regions.

-- "Surprise: Geologists Find Glaciers Can Suppress Volcanic Eruptions", 12-8-98, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill -- "The big thaw" by Jeff Hecht, Boston, From New Scientist, 17 April 1999

Sudden large climate changes worldwide occurred during the last Ice Age. Apparently there were six events where immense numbers of ice bergs were created in Canada, which then flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. These spurred global climate changes.

-- SIX IMMENSE ARMADAS OF ICEBERGS INVADED THE NORTH ATLANTIC From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #98, MAR-APR 1995 by William R. Corliss, citing Wallace S. Broecker; "Massive Iceberg Discharges as Triggers for Global Climate Changes," Nature, 372:421, 1994

Climates fluctuated substantially during the last Ice Age, between very cold and milder conditions. The frequency of these swings was on average once per 3,000 years. The warm ups are called interstadials. The northern and southern hemispheres often were not synchronized in the timing of their respective interstadials. Apparently these warm ups happened in the southern hemisphere roughly a thousand years ahead of the time they occurred in the northern.

Curiously, western Antarctica does show some synchrony with the interstadials of the north-- unlike the rest of the continent.

-- Rhythm of the ice age: North versus south By R. Monastersky From Science News Online, Vol. 154, No. 8, August 22, 1998, p. 119. Science Service

Orbital insolation may be the main culprit behind Ice Ages. This involves the Earth's tilt on its axis, possible changes in solar output, and cyclic changes in Earth's orbit about the Sun.

One of the cycles involved here is periodic (once in 41,000 years) wobbles in the tilt of Earth's axis of one to three degrees from normal (in the range of 22 to 25 degrees from vertical). The shape of the Earth's orbit shifts between a rough circle and a slight ellipse every 100,000 to 400,000 years. Once every 22,000 years there's a change in which hemisphere faces the sun when the Earth's orbit puts it nearest Sol.

All these factors affect the Earth's climate.

The mid-point of the interglacial period which preceded the present one was around 133,000 BC.

-- A Debate That Could Last An Iceage by Kurt Sternlof, March 22, 2000 SpaceDaily, Columbia University

The ice sheets of Europe and North America began melting around 12,000 BC and were gone by around 6000 BC. Sea levels rose by roughly 350 feet in only 6000 years.

The Ice Age is also known as the Pleistocene Epoch, which began around 2,000,000 BC and ended about 6000 BC. There were possibly ten separate cycles of cooling and rewarming during this period, in which the glaciers advanced then retreated again. Sea levels may also have declined and rose again in these cycles.

Four of the cycles were exceptionally harsh in the cooling stage. The most recent cooling stage may have begun around 56,000 BC- 48,000 BC.

During the cooling stages of the Pleistocene, the North American west was wetter than circa 2000 AD.

Prior to the Pleistocene there was another Ice Age on the super-continent of Gondwana, in the southern hemisphere. There were 60+ cooling/warming cycles in that period. This Ice Age began around the end of the Paleozoic.

There was maybe 250 million years between the end of the Gondwana Ice Age and the beginning of the Pleistocene, during which no large ice sheets existed on Earth, and the entire planet was considerably warmer and more humid than 2000 AD.

It may be that Earth circa 2000 AD is subject to various cycles of orbit and axis-tilting/rotation that may coincide every 500,000 years to possibly trigger a new Ice Age.

-- GLG 111, Chapter 12: Glaciers and Glaciation GLG 111, The Dynamic Earth, Steven D. Schafersman in the Department of Geology at Miami University, August 27, 1998, [email protected]

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100,000 BC+: Humanity may have domesticated horses by now-- at least in some regions of the world

-- THE ANCIENT HORSEMEN From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #29, SEP-OCT 1983 by William R. Corliss, citing Timothy Perrin; "Prehistoric Horsemen," Omni, 5:37, August 1983

Note that they are likely using horses primarily for pack animals and food sources. Humanity probably hunted and trapped horses for food for many millennia before they began actively trying to domesticate them.

After locating one, a man can run a horse down in three days or less [according to anthropologist William S. Laughlin]. Having a trained wolf to help might cut that down by a lot.

-- Why Are There So Many of Us? Description and Diagnosis of a Planetary Ecopathological Process by Warren M. Hern, University of Colorado, Why Are There So Many of Us? (http://www.drhern.com/fulltext/why/paper.html), found on or about 1-17-2000

Note that the domestication of horses would have further intensified and expanded any warring notions among humanity during this time. For just as in the previous instance involving domesticated wolves, those people equipped with both wolves and horses would enjoy tremendous advantages over those not so resource-rich.

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98,000 BC: Humanity has definitely developed the mental skills necessary to support spoken language by now (if not much earlier); A tsunami beginning with a height of possibly a quarter-mile strikes portions of coastal Australia and New Zealand (as well as miscellaneous other isles)

The tidal wave may have been triggered by a Hawaiian landslip or an asteroid impact in the Pacific.

-- "Was The Lack Of Language The Force Of Driving Stone Age Art?", 12-9-98, New Scientist -- TWO TSUMANI TALES From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #85, JAN-FEB 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Garry Davidson; "A Tsunamis Tale from Sydney," New Scientist, p. 17, October 17, 1992, and Jan Smit, et al; "Tektite-Bearing, Deep-Water Clastic Unit at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in Northeastern Mexico," Geology, 20:99, 1992 -- EVIDENCE FOR A GIANT PLEISTOCENE SEA WAVE From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #37, JAN-FEB 1985 by William R. Corliss, citing James G. Moore, and George W. Moore; "Deposit from a Giant Wave on the Island of Lanai, Hawaii, Science, 226:1312, 1984

A super nova explosion around this time in our vicinity creates a 200-600 lightyear diameter 'bubble' of space around us largely cleared of interstellar dust and gas. Our 'local bubble' is located on the inner edge of the Orion galactic arm. The Sagittarius galactic arm lies corewards from the Sun about 1500 parsecs away.

-- Ask the Astronomer: Is there anything interesting about the Sun's location in the Milky Way? (http://www2.stx.com/cafe/qadir/q662.html) by Dr. Sten Odenwald, found on or about January 15, 2000

Our local bubble is but one of several such regions within 2000 lightyears. They are called Loops I, II, and III respectively. Each consists of a roughly spherical region a few hundred lightyears in diameter.

Though the bubbles possess a lower density of interstellar dust and gas than the regions outside them, they are not completely empty, but populated by very diffuse clouds, such as the Local Fluff, which our solar system will appear to be entering around the end of the 20th century. Aging bubbles also tend to slowly refill again, to eventually regain their original densities of dust and gas. Entering and exiting bubbles can expose solar systems to changes in cosmic ray environments.

-- Ask the Astronomer: Are the properties inside 'Local Bubbles' the same everywhere? (http://www2.stx.com/cafe/qadir/q2402.html) by Dr. Sten Odenwald, found on or about January 15, 2000

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Approximately 98,000 BC: Neanderthals arrive in Europe and are practicing cannibals

-- Old Bones Show Neanderthals Were Cannibals By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent, Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News Science Headlines, September 30, 1999 Neanderthals migrated into Europe around 98,000 BC. -- Neanderthals and modern humans may have coexisted By PAUL RECER, Nando Media/Associated Press October 25, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com

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98,000 BC- 9,500 BC: Global sea levels are consistently lower now than they will be in the 20th century AD

-- Exploration - A-Z History - Homework Help - Discovery Channel School

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Approximately 98,000 BC - 88,000 BC: Around 98,000 BC fully modern humans are emerging now for the first time worldwide; Sometime over the next 10,000 years they take up residence in the Middle East and Africa

Strictly modern humans are only just now appearing or emerging on Earth. But that I mean people physically and mentally indistinguishable from people who will live in the 20th century AD. Sure, they don't enjoy a developed civilization and related technologies on par with the 20th-- but a time traveler could kidnap a newborn in 98,000 BC, delivering it to adoptive parents in the 20th, and it would look, grow, and develop exactly like any newborn from the 20th century might be expected to-- except perhaps for a few extra vulnerabilities to infectious diseases which have newly evolved since 98,000 BC.

-- Hominid Fossil Says Plenty By Christine Soares, Special to ABCNEWS.com, http://www.abc.com, found or or about 9-7-99 -- Neanderthals and modern humans may have coexisted By PAUL RECER, Nando Media/Associated Press October 25, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com

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Approximately 98,000 BC- 48,000 BC: Human populations may be increasing rapidly now

-- Ancient populations were game for growth from Science News Online, Feb. 5, 2000, Vol. 157, No. 6, http://www.sciencenewsbooks.org/

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Approximately 78,000 BC: A child appears to be intentionally buried in the Nile Valley

This may be a human first for the African continent.

-- The Ancient Tomb of a Young Child, Breakthroughs, Discover Magazine Vol. 19 No. 11 (November 1998), The Walt Disney Company, http://www.discover.com

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Approximately 70,000+ BC: Lamps are invented; mankind more conveniently illuminates the darkness above and below ground, as well as inside constructed housing

This is a major technological breakthrough, creating a form of artificial lighting much more practical and mobile than torches, braziers, or cooking fires could ever be.

The earliest lamps may consist of sea shells or hollowed rocks filled with something absorbant (like moss), and saturated with animal fat to allow combustion.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of lamps is their contribution to maintaining lots of small, relatively long-lived perpetual flames around-- for it will still be many thousands of years before mankind has a reliable way to start fires from scratch.

-- lamp; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000, and fire; Encyclopedia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000

It may be very fortunate for humanity that it invents lamp technology around this time-- for they will need every advantage they can get in the coming near-extinction event.

Readers of previous sections of this document will realize the enormous importance of perpetual flames/fire sources to the well being of both individuals and communities up to this point in history. The invention of lamps helps tremendously now in lessening ancient people's insecurity regarding fire sources. However, conventional lamps only lessen or dilute the burden of maintenance, not dissolve it entirely. Thus, with the invention of basic lamps must follow the logical next step: the invention of a perpetually burning flame or light requiring still less maintenance-- with zero maintenance being the ideal.

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 400,000 BC-69,000 BC: The direct predecessors of humanity suffer a grievous blow in terms of population numbers during this time; perhaps more than one

The primate populations of Africa (hominid, gorillas, and chimps) all seem less affected by this than others.

-- WHEN HUMANS WERE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES, From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #100, JUL-AUG 1995, by William R. Corliss , citing "The Mystery of Humanity's Missing Mutations," by Ann Gibbons, Science, 267:35, 1995

Why would the primates of Africa be less affected by die offs than others of this time? Could it be because they are isolated from 'wolf wars' going on in Eurasia? Note that unlike humans, the other primates do not develop chins during this time. Or maybe their lack of domesticated wolves means they don't suffer some of the new sicknesses wolf owners do (illnesses passing across species). Or maybe it has nothing to do with the domestication of wolves, and everything to do with location and other matters. The humans of Africa may not be competing as directly and robustly with other primates there as their cousins are in Eurasia. Closer competition often means closer interaction: ergo, new diseases passed between different primate lines. Or, it could be that the non-African primates (including humans) tend to cluster near the coastlines of southern and southeast Asia, as well as elsewhere. If so, unexpected tsunamis from local or distant earthquakes, eruptions, and meteor impacts could periodically wipe out entire local populations along those coasts-- while those living in the African interior would largely be protected from such events.

Note that this harsh period may be what spurs humanity into its massive tool-aided opportunistic exploitation and long term storage of wild grains-- a precursor to fixed-site agriculture.

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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69,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: Humanity may be nearly driven to extinction by a massive volcanic eruption which intensifies the current Ice Age via a 'nuclear winter' type effect

This may well be the moment when an up-to-now entirely black modern humanity diverged in terms of skin color, as near-extinction reduced population numbers to the point that tiny genetic mutations become amplified in subsequent generations. This was very nearly the end of humanity here.

Another item to consider here is the loss of accumulated knowledge. The loss would be especially deep and wide if, as most circa 1999 AD experts believe, humanity's only conscious memory store and preservation technique at this time consisted of skills passed down from parent to child. With perhaps 70-90% of the population rapidly succumbing to the harsh environment, much knowledge would be lost.

Ever heard of nuclear winter? The scenario where a global nuclear war leads to such dense cloud cover worldwide that the world descends into a horrific winter lasting years or even decades, which kills off innumerable species, perhaps leading to the extinction of humanity itself?

Well, something similar can also be brought about by a sufficiently large asteroid or comet strike-- or even a sudden eruption of many small volcanos all at once (or one very big one).

Such a volcanic-inspired 'nuclear winter' may have been the final trigger which led to the appearance of modern human beings, 71,000 years ago (69,000 BC). Immediately following on the heels of that winter was the worst 1000 years of the most recent Ice Age (gosh, but this makes you wonder how anybody could tell the difference of one from the other, doesn't it?). All this killed off enormous numbers of humanity's ancestors, so that afterwards a relatively tiny group of survivors was responsible for the human diversity that emerged. You see, the smaller a starting group, the greater changes in the population that may occur from fairly small genetic mutations. In larger groups small genetic mutations usually get washed out or diluted by the law of averages. But in smaller groups they become much more important among progeny.

Some geneticists believe that"...no more than 15,000 to 40,000 people survived..." this period, worldwide. To put this into perspective, this is probably the current range of population for the small rural Tennessee county I live in today. Such numbers would seem to imply the survivors mostly consisted of isolated extended family groups of maybe a dozen to a dozen and a half persons, at the worst moments. In a worst case scenario this breaks down to 833 family groups spread over 52,500 square miles of dry land area on Earth. Each group would be separated by around 63 miles from their nearest neighboring family on average (distance between centers of occupied areas). These calculations assume no one is living in Antarctica at this time.

So a given person of this period could bump into a stranger within a few days of walking in a straight line (with a little luck).

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Take a good look at who the experts are talking about this drastic reduction in human numbers-- geneticists. This means they are likely talking about the breeding populations of the hominid line specifically leading to 20th century humanity. So their tally probably does not include those hominid lines which were already differentiated from 20th century humanity's predecessors by now. This means if some technologically advanced observers had performed their own survey at the time, they may have determined there was a considerably larger total population of such humanoid bipeds around than this. It could be that only our own direct ancestors suffered this disaster, while others thrived. For instance, a plague or other highly localized disaster could have been the affliction, based only on genetic information. It could even be that some other hominids were out-competing humanity's ancestors at this time-- and humanity only lucked out in the end by something catastrophic happening to the others in time to save humanity's line before it fell below critical mass in numbers. Or, one tiny group of human ancestors somehow obtained a survival advantage that so far outclassed all others that they rapidly swamped all their competitors in the reproductive race for some reason. If that was the case, total human numbers could actually have never declined at all-- only the reproductive rates of various lines would have changed drastically, with the winners suddenly having lots of children, and the losers virtually none. Even a quickie solar flare of sterilizing radiation flashing one region but not another (or a significant meteor impact or volcanic eruption) could have made the difference here, depending on the distributions of populations. Of course, there's also the real possibility of genocide: that one group realized sufficient advantage to wipe out all others-- and exploited that advantage to the fullest. END NOTE.

-- Paleoanthropology (revised 16 December 1999) by Francis F. Steen, Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara, http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/EP/Paleoanthropology.html

One anthropologist (Stanley Ambrose) even thinks he knows of a single super-volcanic eruption perhaps substantially responsible for all this havoc: Mount Toba in Sumatra (the eruption of which lasted around 6 years and affected global climate for maybe 1000 years afterwards).

It may well be that things like present day skin color differences among human beings came from this near extinction of the whole species at that time. Before that, we may all have been black (since our common source was Africa).

Note that at this time it seems the only tools humanity possesses include its brains, hands, stones, clubs, fire, speech, and tamed wolves. All of these things must have become much more important during this challenging time.

Also note that these same conditions may well have helped decimate the populations of large predators in the americas-- thereby paving the way for an easier migration by more human beings to the new lands.

-- "Ancient 'volcanic winter' tied to rapid genetic divergence in humans", News From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, September 1998, News Bureau University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 807 S. Wright St., Suite 520 East Champaign, IL 61820-6219, found on or about 9-10-98 -- "History Of Humans And Great Apes Strikingly Different" University Science, 27-Apr-1999, UniSci Science and Research News, http://unisci.com

If an eruption of Mount Toba really is the instigating event for a massive die off of humanity at this time, part of the reason may be humanity's own preferences regarding migration and population densities up to this point. For humanity has mostly left Africa to populate the southern and southeastern asian coasts by this time-- with a strong preference for southeastern asia. Thus, when Mount Toba erupts and severely affects southeastern asia for maybe a thousand years, the enormous casualties there are enough to wipe out perhaps the majority of people on Earth at the time.

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 58,000 BC: Another wave of humanity is migrating out of Africa and across India, Asia, and Australia

This 'wave' may be comprised of only a few hundred to a couple thousand people, given the minute population of the world at this time.

-- Genetics Tag Early Human Exodus to Asia By Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery Online News Brief, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 12-1-99

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 58,000 BC- 48,000 BC; Prehistoric man now (if not earlier) begins purposeful use of various substances for the alleviation of pain and sickness, and perhaps other matters

There is evidence of some medicinal use and knowledge of plants by Neanderthals in northern Iraq around 58,000 BC to 48,000 BC. Among other things, Neanderthals may have used the plant Ephedra/woody horsetail as a stimulant. But in general evidence of drug use during the Palaeolithic remains scant, but for the sometimes hallucinogenic-looking cave paintings left behind by prehistoric peoples.

There are signs that the first interest in active cultivation of plants (or agriculture) in Australia stemmed from a desire to grow psychoactive plants. It could be a desire like this helped create agriculture worldwide.

Some have suggested that the earliest plants cultivated in the Near East were narcotics like belladonna/nightshade, henbane, and mandrake.

Similarly, in North America the native Blackfoot peoples (and many other native Americans) cultivated nothing but tobacco before the arrival of the Europeans.

Widespread drug use in the vicinity of southeast Asia appears to have emerged in the practice of betel-chewing, between 7,000 BC and 5,500 BC. Even by 2,000 AD perhaps 10% of the world's population will remain active users of the drug. Leaves of the Piper betle plant are used, wrapped around a seed of the Areca catechu palm, with a substance like slaked lime combined with the seed. Heavy use turns the teeth black.

During late prehistoric times the most often used drugs in Eurasia seem to have been psychoactive plants such as mandrake, opium (source of both heroin and morphine), and marijuana. Opium was farmed in the region of the western Mediterranean around 6,000 BC. Opium offers other benefits such as its seeds in baking and its seed oil burned for cooking and lighting purposes, but its greatest use seems to have been for its psychoactive properties.

The psychoactive aspects of opium were used for more than pain-relief. They were also utilized for spiritual reasons (achieving mind-altered states).

Around 6,000 BC natives of southern South America began actively cultivating certain plants, including tobacco, and the practice would eventually spread across all the Americas. For many of the cultivators tobacco was by far the most important product of their endeavors (food output from the efforts came in a distant second).

Beer and wine making was being done around 4,000 BC and perhaps still earlier in Eurasia and Africa.

Alcohol tended first to be used in combination with the older mind-alterring substances, then gradually displaced those previous substances almost entirely in the west-- except possibly in times of especially great need, such as for preparation for surgery or to alleviate very painful illness or injuries.

Alcohol combined with other substances such as mandrake would often be used as an anaesthetic for surgery around 100 AD. Mythology of the time indicates men also knew such substances aided in the seduction of women.

Cannabis/marijuana was in widespread use over Eurasia before 3,500 BC. Cannabis was not only remarkable for its psychoactive elements, but its fiber strength as well (hemp). It was an excellent primitive source of fibers for ropes and the like. Shamans of Asia used it in their rituals.

-- 'The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age'... by Rudgley, Richard. (1999). New York: The Free Press. ISBN: 0-684-85580-1; web compilation by Thomas B. Roberts & Paula Jo Hruby

By the early 21st century a multitude of harmful effects had been found to accompany many of the drugs of choice of ancient humanity, listed above-- at least where excessive amounts were consumed, and/or mixed with other deleterious substances or behavior.

But less well known by the early 21st century are the various beneficial health effects which will have been found for various of the early drugs adopted by mankind (at least in moderate dosages). For example, alcoholic drinks such as wine can help older men stay sharper mentally longer than would otherwise be the case. They can also reduce cancer risks for men and women alike. Marijuana can relieve pain and chronic nausea, thereby encouraging the ill to continue eating and therewith postpone death due to starvation. It may also kill some brain tumors. Betel nuts can reduce the symptoms of mental illness. Even tobacco shows signs of some beneficial properties-- although to prove a net benefit to users (i.e., be so advantageous as to cancel out its negative effects), only a very few people with very particular ailments might be recommended to use it.

And all the above are in addition to the mind-alterring effects sought out by ancient peoples in these substances. Research indicates that such mind effects themselves could offer some beneficial effects (where the practice is not abused) by relieving stress, allowing relaxation, and aiding sleep.

As little as one glass of wine a week appears to measurably reduce a person's colon cancer risk. -- Wine Drinking May Reduce Colon Cancer Risk By AliciaMarie Belchak, Reuters Health/Yahoo! Health Headlines, October 17, 2000] Moderate alcohol usage (up to one drink a day) offers better resistance to mental decline in men 50 or older than either abstinence or heavy drinking. -- More Evidence That Drinking Is Good for You, Reuters/Yahoo! Science Headlines, July 31, 2000 Regular betel nut chewing appears to help reduce signs of schizophrenia. Tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, and betel nuts are sources of the most commonly used drugs on Earth circa 2000. -- Chewing betel nut improves schizophrenia symptoms, Reuters Health/Yahoo! Health Headlines, August 29, 2000 (British Journal of Psychiatry 2000;177:174-178 is cited); Chew on this by Abbie Thomas, From New Scientist magazine, 05 August 2000, (The British Journal of Psychiatry (vol 177, p 174) is cited) Injected chemicals derived from marijuana killed tumors of a rare and deadly brain cancer in a third of animal tests performed; another third of cancer-ridden test subjects survived longer than expected after the injection. Marijuana has also been found useful in pain relief and the alleviation of nausea. -- Study Says Marijuana Ingredients Kill Rat Tumors By Lisa Richwine, Reuters/Yahoo! Science Headlines, February 28, 2000, and Pot may block fatal brain cancer, Reuters Health/Yahoo! Health Headlines, February 28, 2000 (Nature Medicine 2000;6:255-256, 313-319 cited) The practice of chewing gum dates back at least as far as around 7000 BC in northern europe. Birch bark tar was the preferred substance, and was also pressed into service for purposes such as waterproofing and aiding in attaching handles to bladed tools. Birch bark tar may have released antibiotic substances during chewing; mention of it relieving sore throats can be found in historical documents. It may also have been used to hold in place toothache relieving agents inside cavities. The gum chewing may have helped clean teeth. Most prehistoric chewers seem to have been children and young teens, suggesting it was an aid in ridding them of baby teeth and reducing the pain associated with same. Parents may also have administered the gum as a sort of pacifier. Pine resin offered much of the same chewing properties, and for less preparation effort, but was less often used than the tar, for reasons which remain unclear in the 20th century AD. The preparation process for the tar in prehistoric times is also a mystery, as it seems to require relatively high temperatures in sealed ceramic vessels for any substantive output. In the earliest times of its usage, such vessels are not thought to have been available. So how was it prepared? -- Chew, chew, that ancient chewing gum by Elizabeth Aveling, British Archaeology, no 21, February 1997 Tobacco smoke offers up a chemical to reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease. -- Chemical in tobacco smoke may protect against Parkinson's By Karla Harby, Reuters Health/Yahoo! Health Headlines, March 28, 2000

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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Approximately 174,000 BC - 53,000 BC: Human beings begin populating Australia

Are some of the earliest Australians reaching the continent directly from Africa, island-hopping across the Indian Ocean, rather than taking the mostly land route across southern Asia? They very well could be, since there is evidence of sea voyages by humanity going back hundreds of thousands of years before now.

The Ice Age began lowering global sea levels a few thousand years before 114,000 BC, and continued to do so largely unabated throughout this period. Thus it would be easier to island hop now rather than earlier.

-- "ANCIENT SEAFARERS"BY PETER BELLWOOD, SPECIAL REPORT, Volume 50 Number 2 March/April 1997, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/9703/etc/specialreport.html -- "Early Human Activity In Australia May Have Led To Animal Extinctions", 1-7-99, University of Colorado at Boulder Humans may have begun populating Australia as early as 174,000 BC, and producing engraved artwork in caves around 73,000 BC. Lowered global sea levels circa 133,000 BC may have aided some of the migrations. -- Human Origins Recede in Australia By Bruce Bower, September 28, 1996, Science News Online, http://www.sciencenews.org

Recall that the lowered sea levels of today (50,000+ BC) mean the worst single barriers to man reaching Australia from the nearest other dry land is about 150 km (100 miles) of open sea.

-- page 467, "The Search for Modern Humans", National Geographic, October 1988

[Caution: Extreme speculation ahead; the section below mostly created for "What If?" entertainment value]

One of the earliest tribes to delve deep into the Australian outback accidentally stumbles its way (over the course of several generations) into a symbiotic relationship with an immense, sprawling fungal growth spanning tens of kilometers in their vicinity.

The fungal entity happens to be one of the oldest living things on Earth at this time.

The tribe discovers that ingestion of certain parts of the fungal entity brings about ecstatic visions and occasionally new and highly inventive ways of hunting and trapping and other useful activities. Certain healing properties of the entity also become evident with experience.

-- The Amazing Fungi! and Botanical Record-Breakers! Other relevant links may include Ethological Curiosities , Fungi and Insect Symbiosis, and http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/Bot430/Lecture20.htm -- "Study Uproots Ideas on How Plants Evolved" By RICK WEISS, The Washington Post/Los Angeles Times, August 5, 1999 The biggest living thing ever found is a fungus intertwined with the roots of the Malheur National Forest of eastern Oregon, USAmerica, slowly strangling the trees it winds around. It's an Armillaria ostoyae, or honey mushroom. This particular example is estimated to be 2,400 years old, three and a half miles across, and span 2,200 acres. The lifeform exists almost completely underground, with only dead or dying trees and clumps of mushrooms appearing on the surface after fall rain to indicate its presence. -- Giant fungus thought to be world's largest living thing By JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press, August 5, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com

Signposts 59,999,999 BC-51,000 BC Contents

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To 50,999 BC and later in Perspectives...

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The above article(s) come from and make references to a collection copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 by J.R. Mooneyham (except where otherwise noted in the text). Text here explicitly authored by J.R. Mooneyham may be freely copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes in paper and electronic form without charge if this copyright paragraph and link to jmooneyham.com or jrmooneyham.com are included.

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