Evolution of Man on Earth:

       Pre-History of Man on Earth

·         The Stone Age has been divided into Palaeolithic Age(early or Old stone Age), Mesolithic Age(Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic Age(New Stone Age).

·         The Palaeolithic Age lasted for 1 million and 10,000 years ago, where the human beings used stone tools, roughly dressed by crude chipping. The Palaeolithic sites have been discovered throughout the country except the alluvial plains of the Indus, Ganga and Yamuna rivers. The people were gathering foods by hunting and had no knowledge of cultivation and house building. This phase continued till about 9000 BC.

·         The Palaeolithic Age in India is divided into 3 phases according to the nature of the stone tools used by the people.

        

Evolution of Man on Earth:

·         The South African Ape Man: This type of men are also known as Austropithecus man. They had small bodies and knew the use of pebbles. Such men are believed to be existed over a million years of age.

 

·         The Java Man: it is believed that this type of man lived in about 5,00,000 BC. They are around 165cm in height and were walking in a stooped position. Its brain was small, probably, of half ape and half man. The remains of this type of men were found as early in 1891 in Java.

 

·         The Peking Man: The remains of these people are discovered near Peking(Beijing,China) in 1923-27. They are also called Sinanthropus Pekinensis, is an example of Homo erectus. The findings have been dated from roughly 2,50,000- 4,00,000 years ago in the Pleistocene.

 

•          Heidelberg Man: The bones of this man is found near Heidelberg(Germany). The archaeologists believe that this type of man lived about quarter a million years ago. The man developed the power of speech.

 

•          The Pilt-Down Man: From the bones of man discovered near  Pilt-Down(England). The brain capacity of this man is much bigger than the Java man, though much less than that of the modern man. They had ape like jaws.

 

•          The Neanderthal Man: This type of man whose traces are found near Neanderthal(Germany), lived in the last interglacial period. They were improved than the Java man and had large brain. This type of men lived in the caves and knew about the use of fire. They used the skin of animals for warming themselves and were using bones as tools as well as jewellary. It is believed that the  Neanderthal men were the real ancestor of man of today. They were still ape looking but their brain was quite big.

 

•          The Cro-Magonon Man: The skeleton of this type of man is found in France. This man was considerably advanced over Neanderthal man. It was about 180 cm in height, of good complexion, broad faced and had long legs. They could stand straight and knew the use of stone tools. They used bones as needles and also knew the use of needles for sewing the skin of animals for using as their clothes. They also knew the art of painting and some of the paintings of animals like wild bears and reindeers are found on the caves of France and Spain.