Why We Study Human Origins

 Date- Wednesday October 26, 2011
Title- Why We Study Human Origins
Author- Randall Susman

Summary-
Right know this is what I am thinking, Who were our ancestors??? How are they similar to us??? Why are they extinct??? How did they develop??? All this big questions are bouncing around in my head and they were all answered by this article that my teacher game me. Its a magazine article written by Randall Susman. Its a great article which answered all my questions!!!
So you know how archaeologists go around the world, searching for fossils and you always ask yourself, WHY???!!!! Well because fossils are clues about our ancestors. What they looked like, their behavior, development, environment. In the past when we didn't know as much as we do know scientists could only count on religious techniques or myths to study our ancestors but know we know much more!!!! Then suddenly scientists started making predictions. A famous scientist Charles Darwin was the first one who brought the idea of ape like creatures that lived millions of years before us grew and developed to something that we are know, into our heads. Years later Darwin's theory token seriously because another scientist Thomas Henry found the first fossil, in South Africa in 1925. In the article Susman says, "tree-dwelling apes, or four legged knuckle-walkers, or even bipeds that lived in water". Bipeds are any kind of animal that needs to use only 2 legs for walking. For example apes or chickens. The theories that scientists thought of scared people but know it was clear that our ancestors were a lot like us. Well mostly on the inside, not the outside.




Susman, Randall. "Why We Study Human Origins." Calliope: Exploring World History Sept. 

1999: 4-5. Print.