Australopithecus is a genus of hominids that lived from about 4,000,000 years ago to about 2,000,000 years ago. The organisms in this genus played an important role in human evolution. Over here, you can see the reconstruction of a skull of an Australopithecus species, Australopithecus afarensis, which you can see that name printed on this map over here. And so that is the species name, and next to that skull, we have a reconstruction of that organism, what people think it might have looked like. This is based on partial fossils that have been uncovered. So, there's some artistic license being taken here. But this is thought to be the ancestor, or an ancestor of modern humans, Australopithecus afarensis, and this particular organism is known commonly as Lucy, which is the common name given to a particular skeleton of the species that was found. As you can see in this map, there are many different species of Australopithecus, and they're found all over Africa. Australopithecus is indeed native to Africa, and there were a bunch of different species in that genus. Now, from that genus arises this new genus, Homo. That's the genus that we belong to. It's thought that the lineage of hominids evolved from possibly Australopithecus afarensis around 2,000,000 years ago. So, let's actually take a look at some of the species in the genus Homo. Now, an early species in the genus Homo is Homo habilis, and that, I'm abbreviating the name here just to be clear. So habilis is short for Homo habilis. And, basically this, this name just means handyman, and these organisms were named for their tool use. They're very early humans, and some scientists actually believe that they're better classified in the Australopithecus genus, rather than the genus Homo. So, that line, that distinction is not super clear-cut. Right? It's not super explicit. There's a vague enough transition that some people even classify Homo habilis as Australopithecus habilis, for example. Another early species is Homo erectus, and also Homo ergaster. These early humans originated in Africa but actually emigrated from the continent. And here in this map behind my head, you can see the path taken by early humans. And we're actually looking at three different species, and in yellow is the distribution of Homo erectus. So you can see they were found in Africa, but they also crossed over, via the Sinai Peninsula, to the Arabian Peninsula. And they also made it into the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia. However, it was Homo neanderthalensis that made it up into Europe. Right? So those guys are colored in orange. And you can see that they were found, really, like, all across Europe, into the Bactrian region, all around the Black and Caspian Seas, and even on the island of Albion, or as we know it today, England. Now, these guys, these Homo neanderthalensis, these are what we often commonly refer to as Neanderthals. Right? Who sometimes we also call them cavemen. However, when we say Neanderthal in science, we're actually referring to this particular species or potentially subspecies. There's actually some argument there as to whether Neanderthals are a species or a subspecies of human. And it's worth noting that they do share 99.7% of their DNA with modern humans, which to put that into perspective chimpanzees share about 98.8% of their DNA with modern humans. So this is like a full percentage point closer to modern humans. So very similar DNA. Now humans are known as, Homo sapiens, which means wise man. And Homo sapiens are actually what we call, anatomically modern humans. People living today are thought of as a subspecies. We actually call ourselves Homo sapiens sapiens. Right? So our subspecies of modern humans just tacks on an extra sapiens. Right? So we're not wise man, but wise wise man, like super extra smart, I guess. And you can see that homo sapiens have inhabited the whole planet. We, our trajectory here is shown in red. We spread over Africa, made it up into Europe, Asia, Russia, crossed the Bering Strait into Alaska, down into the Americas, colonized all of the South Pacific region, Oceania, if you will, even went up into the Arctic region. So, our ancestors, I should say. I shouldn't take credit. Our ancestors colonized the whole planet. So, their forebears, the Neanderthals, now another term I want to briefly mention is Cro-Magnon, Cro-Magnon man. Right? Cro-Magnon people. Those are actually just early European Homo sapiens. So those are technically humans. Those are our direct ancestors, in essence. Now, in addition to this map, I also have this other cool chart that shows basically the presence of various species of the Homo genus, and their distribution, and also, like, when they were populating a certain area. So you can see we have Homo ergaster and Homo erectus. And you can see that Homo erectus started in Africa. Right? Spread out into Asia. So I know this chart might look a little confusing. Hopefully, you can kinda get the idea. I don't expect you to draw any terribly important conclusions from it. It's just there to add a little color to this story. Now, one thing I do want to point out though is that there is overlap between Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. That is to say that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were contemporaries. They lived at the same time. However, there are no more Neanderthals. Right? Those guys disappeared at some point. Homo sapiens are everywhere now. And, you know, there's a lot of and also, you know, if you look at this figure you notice that the Neanderthals break off way before home sapiens break off. So they represent distinct lineages. Right? So what happened to the Neanderthals? That's a really big question. Where did they go? They were contemporaries with Homo sapiens, now there are none. There are many different theories as to why this is, including, you know, what they call assimilation. Essentially, Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens, and now we're all just kind of one species. They were essentially, Neanderthals were absorbed into Homo sapiens, which would give credence to the idea that they're actually just a subspecies, not a distinct species. Some theories go into places that are a little darker. I mean, for example, some people piggyback off the idea that there is an inherent violence in human nature. Right? That humans are innately violent organisms, and so people think that those old Homo sapiens may have actually, carried out genocide against the Neanderthals, that they actually wiped them out, and that's why they disappeared. So there's a whole range of explanations. I don't pretend to know enough to, you know, weigh in and say that I believe one is more likely than another. Though I do think they're very interesting. And I highly recommend that, if you're interested in this, you go check out some of those explanations, because it is fascinating stuff. That's our history. Right? So that's all I have for this video. Hopefully, this tickled your imagination a little bit, tickled your fancy, and I'll see you guys next time.