Human Evolution

Question 1

The Cradle of Humankind

Answer 1

There are 13 major fossil sites in Gauteng Province which are together given the official name “The Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai Environs World Heritage Site”. Sites are named as the “Cradle of Humankind’. This happened because many scientists believed that birthplace (the ‘cradle’) of all humans was in these sites.

Question 2

The birthplace of all humans

Answer 2

About 3 million years ago, a hominid which was part ape and part human (Australopithecus africanus), occupied the Gauteng highveld. This ape man may have been one of the ancestors of modern man, Homo Sapiens.
Fossils show that one of the earliest known members of the modern human family, Homo habilis, lived in the cradle about 2 million years ago.
Homo habilis appears to have given rise to the Homo erectus and fossils of Homo erectus have been found at the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans sites on the cradle. The fossil record also shows that Homo erectus was able to make use of fire as long as 1.2 million years ago.
Homo erectus probably lived together with another form of ape men, Paranthropus robustus, a flatter-faced creature with big teeth, Paranthropus robustus also had the ability to make tools.
By one million years ago, the ape men were all extinct.