Humans
Skeleton of early human Lucy, from
about 3.2 million years ago
About six million years ago, the earliest people evolved from earlier primates in East Africa. People seem to have evolved in order to take advantage of new grasslands that were taking over from the jungle in Africa beginning about eight million years ago as the Earth cooled down. Very soon, these people began to walk on two feet, so they could run faster in the grasslands to get away from danger or hunt animals, and their arms became weaker and shorter, because they didn't need to swing from trees anymore. These first people were still pretty hairy, like monkeys, and had small brains. Possibly they continued to have babies with chimpanzees sometimes for another million years. They probably ate mostly roots like sweet potatoes, nuts, fruit, insects, meat, and fish and shellfish.
By about two million years ago, modern humans were beginning to evolve. About one million years ago, people figured out how to make fires to cook their food and keep warm.
