Timeline of human evolution

Further information: Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, Archaic admixture, Recent human evolution, Human genetic variation
The **timeline of human evolution** outlines the major events in the development of the human species, *Homo sapiens*, and the evolution of the human's ancestors. It includes brief explanations of some of the species, genera, and the higher ranks of taxa that are seen today as possible ancestors of modern humans.

This timeline is based on studies from anthropology, paleontology, developmental biology, morphology, and from anatomical and genetic data. It does not address the origin of life. That discussion is provided by abiogenesis, but presents one *possible line of evolutionary descent* of species that eventually led to humans.

## Timeline

See also: List of human evolution fossils

## Events

*Homo* appears in East Africa; with most Australopithecines they are considered the first hominins—that is, they are designated (by some) as those earliest humans and human relatives or ancestors to rise *after* splitting from the lineage of *Pan*, the chimpanzees. Others consider the genus *Pan* as hominins also, and perhaps the first hominins.
Sophisticated stone tools mark the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic.
*Homo habilis* appears—the first, or one of the first, hominins to master stone tool technology. Stone tool implements also found along with *Australopithecus garhi*, dated to a slightly earlier period.
*Homo habilis*, although significantly different of anatomy and physiology, is thought to be the ancestor of *Homo ergaster*, or African *Homo erectus*; but it is also known to have coexisted with *Homo erectus* for almost half a million years (until about 1.5 Ma).
Stone tools found at the Shangchen site in China and dated to 2.12 million years ago are considered the earliest known evidence of hominins outside Africa, surpassing Dmanisi in Georgia by 300,000 years.

*Homo erectus* derives from early *Homo* or late *Australopithecus*.
From its earliest appearance, *H. erectus* (in Africa also known as *Homo ergaster*) is distributed in East Africa and Southwest Asia.
*H. erectus* later migrates throughout Eurasia,
and is described in a number of subspecies.
*H. erectus* is also the first known species to develop control of fire, by about 1.5 Ma.
Evolution of dark skin at about 1.2 Ma.
 800–300 ka
Divergence of Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages from a common ancestor.
*Homo heidelbergensis* (in Africa also known as *Homo rhodesiensis*) had long been thought to be a likely candidate for the last common ancestor of the Neanderthal and modern human lineages.
However, genetic evidence from the Sima de los Huesos fossils published in 2016 seems to suggest that *H. heidelbergensis* in its entirety should be included in the Neanderthal lineage, as "pre-Neanderthal" or "early Neanderthal", while the divergence time between the Neanderthal and modern lineages has been pushed back to before the emergence of *H. heidelbergensis*, to about 600,000 to 800,000 years ago, the approximate age of *Homo antecessor*.
Solidified footprints dated to about 350 ka and associated with *H. heidelbergensis* were found in southern Italy in 2003.

Fossils attributed to *H. sapiens,* along with stone tools, dated to approximately 300,000 years ago, found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco yield the earliest fossil evidence for anatomically modern *Homo sapiens*.
Modern human presence in East Africa (Gademotta), at 276 kya.
A 177,000-year-old jawbone fossil discovered in Israel is the oldest human remains found outside Africa.
Neanderthals emerge from the *Homo heidelbergensis* lineage at about the same time (300 ka).
Patrilineal and matrilineal most recent common ancestors (MRCAs) of living humans roughly between 200 and 100 ka
with some estimates on the patrilineal MRCA somewhat higher, ranging up to 250 to 500 kya.
 130–80 ka
Modern human presence in Southern Africa and West Africa.
 80–50 ka
Early evidence for behavioral modernity.
 50–25 ka
Extinction of *Homo floresiensis*.
M168 mutation (carried by all non-African males).
Appearance of mt-haplogroups U and K.
Peopling of Europe, peopling of the North Asian Mammoth steppe. Paleolithic art.
Extinction of Neanderthals and other archaic human variants (with possible survival of hybrid populations in Asia and Africa.)
 after 25 ka
Last Glacial Maximum; Epipaleolithic / Mesolithic / Holocene.
Peopling of the Americas.
Appearance of: Y-Haplogroup R1a; mt-haplogroups V and T.
Various recent divergence associated with environmental pressures,
e.g. light skin in Europeans and East Asians (KITLG, ASIP), after 30 ka;
Inuit adaptation to high-fat diet and cold climate, 20 ka.
Extinction of late surviving archaic humans at the beginning of the Holocene (12 ka).
Accelerated divergence due to selection pressures in populations participating in the Neolithic Revolution after 12 ka, e.g.
East Asian types of ADH1B associated with rice domestication, or lactase persistence.

## Detailed timeline of Homo Sapiens

This **timeline of human prehistory** comprises the time from the first appearance of *Homo sapiens* in Africa 300,000 years ago to the invention of writing and the beginning of historiography, 5,000 years ago.
It thus covers the time from the Middle Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) to the very beginnings of the world history.

All dates are approximate subject to revision based on new discoveries or analyses.

### Middle Paleolithic

Main articles: Middle Paleolithic
Further information: Timeline of human evolution#Homo sapiens, List of human evolution fossils#Middle Paleolithic, List of first human settlements#Middle Paleolithic
*See Timeline of human evolution, Timeline of natural history for earlier evolutionary history.*
* 315,000 years ago: approximate date of appearance of *Homo sapiens* (Jebel Irhoud, Morocco).
* 270,000 years ago: age of Y-DNA haplogroup A00 ("Y-chromosomal Adam").
* 250,000 years ago: first appearance of *Homo neanderthalensis* (Saccopastore skulls)
* 250,000–200,000 years ago: modern human presence in West Asia (Misliya cave)
* 230,000–150,000 years ago: age of mt-DNA haplogroup L ("Mitochondrial Eve")
* 195,000 years ago: Omo remains (Ethiopia).
* 170,000 years ago: humans are wearing clothing by this date.
* 160,000 years ago: *Homo sapiens idaltu*
* 150,000 years ago: Peopling of Africa: Khoisanid separation, age of mtDNA haplogroup L0
* 125,000 years ago: peak of the Eemian interglacial period.
* 120,000–90,000 years ago: Abbassia Pluvial in North Africa—the Sahara desert region is wet and fertile.
* 120,000–75,000 years ago: Khoisanid back-migration from Southern Africa to East Africa.
* 100,000 years ago: Earliest structures in the world (sandstone blocks set in a semi-circle with an oval foundation) built in Egypt close to Wadi Halfa near the modern border with Sudan.
* 82,000 years ago: small perforated seashell beads from Taforalt in Morocco are the earliest evidence of personal adornment found anywhere in the world.
* 80,000–70,000 years ago: Recent African origin: separation of sub-Saharan Africans and non-Africans.
* 75,000 years ago: Toba Volcano supereruption that may have contributed to human populations being lowered to about 15,000 people.
* 70,000 years ago: earliest example of abstract art or symbolic art from Blombos Cave, South Africa—stones engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns.

### Upper Paleolithic

Main articles: Upper Paleolithic, Late Stone Age
Further information: List of human evolution fossils#Upper Paleolithic, List of first human settlements#Upper Paleolithic
"Epipaleolithic" or "Mesolithic" are terms for a transitional period between the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution in Old World (Eurasian) cultures.

* 67,000–40,000 years ago: Neanderthal admixture to Eurasians
* 50,000 years ago: earliest sewing needle found. Made and used by Denisovans.
* 50,000–30,000 years ago: Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa. The Sahara desert region is wet and fertile. Later Stone Age begins in Africa.
* 45,000–43,000 years ago: European early modern humans.
* 45,000–40,000 years ago: Châtelperronian cultures in France.
* 42,000 years ago: Paleolithic flutes in Germany.
* 42,000 years ago: earliest evidence of advanced deep sea fishing technology at the Jerimalai cave site in East Timor—demonstrates high-level maritime skills and by implication the technology needed to make ocean crossings to reach Australia and other islands, as they were catching and consuming large numbers of big deep sea fish such as tuna.
* 41,000 years ago: Denisova hominin lives in the Altai Mountains.
* 40,000 years ago: extinction of Homo neanderthalensis.

* 40,000 years ago: Aurignacian culture begins in Europe.
* 40,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art the zoomorphic Löwenmensch figurine.

* 40,000–30,000 years ago: First human settlement (Aboriginal Australians) in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.
* 40,000–20,000 years ago: oldest known ritual cremation, the Mungo Lady, in Lake Mungo, Australia.
* 35,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art of a human figure as opposed to a zoomorphic figure (Venus of Hohle Fels).
* 33,000 years ago: oldest known domesticated dog skulls show they existed in both Europe and Siberia by this time.
* 31,000–16,000 years ago: Last Glacial Maximum (peak at 26,500 years ago).
* 30,000 years ago: rock paintings tradition begins in Bhimbetka rock shelters in India, which presently as a collection is the densest known concentration of rock art. In an area about 10 km2, there are about 800 rock shelters of which 500 contain paintings.
* 29,000 years ago: The earliest ovens found.
* 28,500 years ago: New Guinea is populated by colonists from Asia or Australia.
* 28,000 years ago: oldest known twisted rope.
* 28,000–24,000 years ago: oldest known pottery—used to make figurines rather than cooking or storage vessels (Venus of Dolní Vestonice).
* 28,000–20,000 years ago: Gravettian period in Europe. Harpoons and saws invented.
* 26,000 years ago: people around the world use fibers to make baby carriers, clothes, bags, baskets, and nets.
* 25,000 years ago: a hamlet consisting of huts built of rocks and of mammoth bones is founded in what is now Dolní Vestonice in Moravia in the Czech Republic. This is the oldest human permanent settlement that has yet been found by archaeologists.
* 21,000 years ago: artifacts suggests early human activity occurred in Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
* 20,000 years ago: Kebaran culture in the Levant: beginning of the Epipalaeolithic in the Levant
* 20,000 years ago: oldest pottery storage or cooking vessels from China.
* 20,000–10,000 years ago: Khoisanid expansion to Central Africa.
* 20,000–19,000 years ago: earliest pottery use, in Xianren Cave, China.
* 18,000–12,000 years ago: Though estimations vary widely, it is believed by scholars that Afro-Asiatic was spoken as a single language around this time period.
* 16,000–14,000 years ago: Minatogawa Man (Proto-Mongoloid phenotype) in Okinawa, Japan
* 16,000–13,000 years ago: first human migration into North America.
* 16,000–11,000 years ago: Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer expansion to Europe.
* 16,000 years ago: Wisent (European bison) sculpted in clay deep inside the cave now known as Le Tuc d'Audoubert in the French Pyrenees near what is now the border of Spain.
* 15,000–14,700 years ago (13,000 BC to 12,700 BC): Earliest supposed date for the domestication of the pig.
* 14,800 years ago: The Humid Period begins in North Africa. The region that would later become the Sahara is wet and fertile, and the aquifers are full.
* 14,500–11,500: Red Deer Cave people in China, possible late survival of archaic or archaic-modern hybrid humans.

* 14,000–12,000 years ago: Oldest evidence for prehistoric warfare (Jebel Sahaba massacre, Natufian culture).
* 13,000–10,000 years ago: Late Glacial Maximum, end of the Last glacial period, climate warms, glaciers recede.
* 13,000 years ago: A major water outbreak occurs on Lake Agassiz, which at the time could have been the size of the current Black Sea and the largest lake on Earth. Much of the lake is drained in the Arctic Ocean through the Mackenzie River.
* 13,000–11,000 years ago: Earliest dates suggested for the domestication of the sheep.
* 12,900–11,700 years ago: the Younger Dryas was a period of sudden cooling and return to glacial conditions.
* 12,000 years ago: Jericho has evidence of settlement dating back to 10,000 BC. Jericho was a popular camping ground for Natufian hunter-gatherer groups, who left a scattering of crescent microlith tools behind them.
* 12,000 years ago: Earliest dates suggested for the domestication of the goat.