Mutations in donkey DNA can therefore never cross over to horses, or vice versa. They will mate if induced to do so – but their offspring, called mules, are sterile. But they show little sexual interest in one another. Horses and donkeys have a recent common ancestor and share many physical traits. Animals are said to belong to the same species if they tend to mate with each other, giving birth to fertile offspring. The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish.īiologists classify organisms into species. Nobody, least of all humans themselves, had any inkling that their descendants would one day walk on the moon, split the atom, fathom the genetic code and write history books. These archaic humans loved, played, formed close friendships and competed for status and power – but so did chimpanzees, baboons and elephants. On a hike in East Africa 2 million years ago, you might well have encountered a familiar cast of human characters: anxious mothers cuddling their babies and clutches of carefree children playing in the mud temperamental youths chafing against the dictates of society and weary elders who just wanted to be left in peace chest-thumping machos trying to impress the local beauty and wise old matriarchs who had already seen it all. But for countless generations they did not stand out from the myriad other organisms with which they shared their habitats. Animals much like modern humans first appeared about 2.5 million years ago. There were humans long before there was history. This book tells the story of how these three revolutions have affected humans and their fellow organisms. The Scientific Revolution, which got under way only 500 years ago, may well end history and start something completely different. The Agricultural Revolution sped it up about 12,000 years ago. Three important revolutions shaped the course of history: the Cognitive Revolution kick-started history about 70,000 years ago. The subsequent development of these human cultures is called history. The story of organisms is called biology.Ībout 70,000 years ago, organisms belonging to the species Homo sapiens started to form even more elaborate structures called cultures. The story of atoms, molecules and their interactions is called chemistry.Ībout 3.8 billion years ago, on a planet called Earth, certain molecules combined to form particularly large and intricate structures called organisms. The story of these fundamental features of our universe is called physics.Ībout 300,000 years after their appearance, matter and energy started to coalesce into complex structures, called atoms, which then combined into molecules. ABOUT 13.5 BILLION YEARS AGO, MATTER, energy, time and space came into being in what is known as the Big Bang.
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