The traits that make us human evolved at different times


These fossil skulls, representing pre-erectus Homo and Homo erectus, exhibit diverse traits and indicate that the early diversification of the human genus was a period of morphological experimentation. Kenyan fossil casts (Chip Clark, Smithsonian Human Origins Program); Dmanisi Skull 5 (Guram Bumbiashvili, Georgian National Museum).
These fossil skulls, representing pre-erectus Homo and Homo erectus, exhibit diverse traits and indicate that the early diversification of the human genus was a period of morphological experimentation. Kenyan fossil casts (Chip Clark, Smithsonian Human Origins Program); Dmanisi Skull 5 (Guram Bumbiashvili, Georgian National Museum).
It didn’t happen all at once.
That’s the main message of a new paper published in Science by the Director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program, Rick Potts, and his colleagues Susan Antón, Professor of Anthropology at New York University, and Leslie Aiello, President of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

National Museum of Nature History

By Dr. Briana Pobiner, Human Origins Program, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History