The story of our
ancestors on their long road to human civilization is perhaps human imagination. Facts have it that it begins in East Africa, at a gorge called Olduvai, where scientists stumbled across the fossilized remains of
animals that provide an invaluable link with the past. What is more, quantities of strangely-shaped stones were found nearby, which could have been crude tools for cutting and slicing meat. Then came other significant discoveries- the fossilized remains of skulls, not altogether human, but with features markedly similar to those of humans. Such finds together with the strangely-shaped stones were likely to be an evidence of
creatures which were developing a primitive intelligence and not relying on just jaws and teeth to get their
food.
It is hard to believe that discoveries like these are very few. This is not surprising when we consider how rare it is to find a few bones of anything that has perished countless years ago. When a creature died on the
open plains of Africa, the scent of its decay sooner or later attracted other animals of all kinds. They devoured the soft tissue and crushed the bones in their jaws. Hardly any trace of its existence would be left over for us to call it discovery of ancestors. A few carcasses however sank into the muddy shores of lakes or rivers, where they lay hidden from the other animals. Then the gradual process of fossilization had set in. Ever so slowly, bone and tissue turned into stone or metamorphosed rock.
Fossil finds alone will not tell us the whole story, however. Scientists have to take into account what the world was like when our earliest ancestors began to appear. Two millions of years ago, the gorge at Olduvai would have held a great lake, and around its shores animals would have swarmed in abundance. But their world was slowly changing as the planet underwent major alterations as far as climate and environment are concerned. A drastic cooling of the earth’s surface meant that the rich forests of Africa began to die off, and the almost endless canopy of trees broke up into scattered areas, each isolated from the other. So, too the lush green
plants and the vegetation began to dwindle: the forests no longer provided an ever ready supply of food for the creatures that roamed them, as bare, open grasslands took over the landscapes. Now in their struggle to survive, they had to keep moving to where food could be found. It was about that time, so scientists believe that our ancestors emerged. They faced the same problems as their fellow creatures: they too had to learn on how to search out food in the wide plains of Africa and acquire essential skills of survival.
Very interesting to note that ancestors of ours did not acquire these skills overnight, nor did they enter these open plains like people rushing to stake a claim in empty territories: they were competing for a place in an environment already significantly populated with hordes of other animals, experts by now in exploiting the food resources of the open plains. Our ancestors shared the same habitat with many other creatures at the same time that would snap at their feet, trying to steal their meal as they were eating it, or would pace menacingly around them nearby. It was physically impossible to master them out: our ancestors simply had to stay out of their reach.
Besides this at that time the life and living conditions must have been very much at the mercy of the different weather seasons. The dry season would mean lean times, and many animals had to be content with tough, low-quality vegetation, bald landscapes, which was the only food around in any quantity. But our ancestors did not go on new opportunities to get at tastier foods.
What they discovered was that the African plains contained plants and herbs that hid their juicier parts underground. During dry season, when other edible plants above the ground grew scarce, the roots and bulbs of these special plants provided them with rich and healthy eating- but all of it below surface, available only to animals which could claw them out and eat them and digest. Lacking the specialized claws and teeth needed to get at these prized foods, our ancestors learnt how to fashion a stick or stone to dig out the succulent food roots of these plants.
By now our ancestors were clearly acquiring an even more valuable skill, that of knowledge-not just in knowing how to make simple instruments, but also knowing their own habitat more livable. They came to recognize the habits of other creatures and to turn them to their advantages. Circling vultures promised the remains of some animal killed not far away, a meal for the taking if they got there soon enough. They knew that adult antelopes were impossible t o catch, but sometimes left their young in grass and went off to browse. Our hungry ancestors could pluck the infant like ready fruit, if they knew where to look.
With the passage of time they came to rely a great deal on communicating knowledge such as this to one another. This communication undoubtedly gave them an edge over many four-footed rivals in prizing out the secret scraps of energy-giving food that dotted the landscape thus making a living that way.
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