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Chapter 17 - Out of Africa

Human Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2025

Peter Copeland  and
Janok P. Bhattacharya
Peter Copeland
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Janok P. Bhattacharya
Affiliation:
McMaster University, Ontario
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Summary

In Charles Darwin’s 1871 book, The Descent of Man, a follow-up to his landmark book On the Origin of Species, he made it clear that humans were likely an offshoot of “old world simians,” which include the great apes – chimps, gorillas, and orangutans. The “Old World,” refers to Africa, Asia, and Europe, versus the “New World,” which refers to the Americas and Oceania. Although Gregor Mendel published his first paper on genetics in 1865, Darwin was not aware of this, so he began his discussion of the evolutionary origin of humans by detailing the physical similarities of humans with apes and mammals.

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Chapter
Information
Earth History
Stories of Our Geological Past
 , pp. 336 - 353
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading and References

Callaway, E., 2017, Oldest Homo sapiens fossil claim rewrites our species’ history, Nature, 546, 289–293.Google Scholar
Franzen, J. L., Gingerich, P. D., Habersetzer, J., et al., 2009, Complete primate skeleton from the middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and paleobiology, PLoS One, 4(5), e5723.Google ScholarPubMed
Gould, S. J., 1981, The Mismeasure of Man, Norton.Google Scholar
Leakey, R. E., 1981, The Making of Mankind, Dutton.Google Scholar
Morris, D., 1967, The Naked Ape, Jonathan Cape Publishing.Google Scholar
Naef, A., 1926, Über die Urformen der Anthropomorphen und die Stammesgeschichte des Menschenschädels, The Science of Nature/Naturwissenschaften, 14, 472–477, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01507526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagan, C., 1977, The Dragons of Eden, Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, Random House.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L., and Sanders, W. J., 2010, Cenozoic Mammals of Africa, University of California Press.Google Scholar
White, T. D., Asfaw, B., Beyene, Y. et al., 2009, Ardipithecus ramidus and the paleobiology of early hominids, Science, 326(5949), 75–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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