Characteristics of Homo Sapiens

On the zoological scale, modern man has been called homo sapiens (the genus "homo" refers to "man"), to distinguish him from other now extinct members of this branch of primates; later to this separation a more specific one was added distinguishing homo sapiens as prehistoric man and homo sapiens sapiens as historical, current man.

Homo sapiens has its origin in sub-Saharan Africa, from where it spread to the rest of the continent and from there it spread to Asia, Europe, Oceania and finally to America.

Its appearance is estimated to be around 200,000 years old, which seems to be confirmed by the archaeological finds of skeletal remains, which have typical characteristics of homo sapiens and were calculated in those dates.

Some species preceded Homo sapiens, such as Homo erectus, Homo habilis, and Homo neanderthalensis. These had physical and psychological characteristics similar to that of homo sapiens:

• Bipedal gait
• Simple stone and wood tool carving
• Fire management and
• Rudimentary artistic expressions (cave paintings).

In homo sapiens this knowledge was more advanced, perfected and complex. This perfection is caused by the increase in cranial capacity, the consequent increase in brain mass, as well as a greater number of convolutions in the cerebral cortex; This evolution is believed to be mainly due to change in eating habits.

Characteristics of homo sapiens:

Homo sapiens has an average cranial capacity of between 1,400 and 1,600 cubic centimeters, being larger than the brain of his ancestors, which gives it a greater ability to carry out complex mental processes, such as conceiving abstract concepts, developing complex languages, as well as the symbology for represent them; knowledge retention and technical-practical complexity to adapt and survive the environment.

Homo sapiens has several common physical characteristics with some of its predecessors such as: the bipedal position, and the cranial configuration common to the species predecessors, but with marked differences: greater brain capacity, and decreased jaw size, less muscle mass and disappearance of orbital prominences of the eyes.

There are indications that the first homo sapiens had dark colored skin to withstand the amount of ultraviolet rays that reached the area of ​​the African savannah from where they originate; This is due to the large concentrations of melanin necessary for protection against these radiations.

It is believed that as homo sapiens migrated to different latitudes on the planet, their skin adapted to different climates and levels of ultraviolet rays and that this adaptation caused mutations that through the generations, resulted in the different variations in the color of the skin and hair of man current.

Homo sapiens is an omnivorous animal, that is, it has the ability to feed on animals and plants; This is observable both by its digestive system, which digests meat products with great ease, as well as its ability to absorb nutrients from plant foods. (except cellulose), which can be seen in its dentition, since it has teeth specialized in grinding vegetables (molars), as well as tearing fibers such as those of meats (incisors and tusks), although the latter have reduced their size, due to changes in their eating habits, mainly their cooking.

The dress, since it was devoid of body hair, required covering to protect itself from the cold, so it used the skin of the animals to dress, and later created his clothing of various materials, such as vegetables and with the hair of some animals; this allowed it to adapt to harsher environments.

Unlike other hominids, homo sapiens, learned to grow seeds and domesticate animals, which led him to be sedentary and this was accompanied by the creative explosion and the subsequent creation of villages that were the beginning of civilization known.

Homo sapiens is the only representative of the hominid genus, which managed to use and dominate metals, making this material diverse tools and weapons with which they revolutionized techniques, which in turn caused other technological-cultural advances, which have continued till the date.

One of the qualities that distinguish homo sapiens and homo sapiens sapiens is that they safeguard their knowledge for posterity through various techniques, such as oral tradition and writing, and created the culture, with which they organize and protect the outstanding data of their religions and experiences, which resulted in the creation and differentiation of the cultures.

Follow with:

• Homo herectus