Question: How were we made

James Cole answered on 7 Nov 2017:

Right, this is a really complicated question. Essentially we have been evolving fro the last 7 million years from an ancestor we shared with Chimpanzees. This means that the first human ancestors 7 million years ago may well have looked very ape like. As time progresses we see a change in human ancestors, they become more bipedal (walking on two legs) and they start to lose their body hair.
At about 3.3 million years ago our human ancestors start to make stone tools (which begins the technological journey that ends up with the iPhone X) and a subsistence strategy that successfully scavenges carcasses (as well as plant material). From about 800 thousand years ago we start to see a change in the record where our human ancestors begin to be more active hunters (rather than scavengers, but scavenging is still an important role in diet) and they start to make stone tools with specific shapes.
About 300 thousand years ago we see the first fossils of our own species emerge in Africa and a change in the stone tools form hand held butchery objects to composite tools (like stone tipped spears). Once our species starts to evolve in Africa, it does not take too long before we start to move out across the world (around 120 thousand years ago) and meet other human species like the Neanderthals and the Denisovans.
Eventually, around 40 thousand years ago we are the only human species left on the planet.