I note that the NatGeo article you shared referred to Neanderthals and Denosivans as hominins not humans. As has already been pointed out, “Human” is an imprecise term. As wikipedia notes: “In common usage, the word “human” generally refers to the only extant species of the genus Homo —anatomically and behaviorally modern Homo sapiens .”
Biblically, I would think once a species rose past other animals and began using tools and language, we’re on the “human branch”.
Not to overly-generalize, but that’s really where the divergence happens. If it’s a species that built fires, it’s “human”.
Well that would be Homo Erectus about 2 million years ago and all the species from this line.
Welp, there. Done.
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Homo habilis was the first to use tools and came a few hundred thousand years prior to erectus. We can include them as well.
What other problems can we solve tonight? There’s still time.
I lump Homo habilis with Homo Erectus so we are good.
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I don’t think making and using tools is enough. Chimps crack nuts with stone tools and fish for ants or termites with sticks while Sumatran orangutans use a wide variety of tools. Tool use is found in at least thirty-three different of birds, and here in New Zealand one of our native parrots the Kea even makes tools out of sticks to set off stoat traps. Making fire sounds more promising.
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While Homo habilis should certainly be included in my mind as most definitely on the branch leading away from the rest of the animal kingdom and toward “human”, I don’t think it’s certain they used fire. Homo erectus certainly did, and like Patrick said you can pretty much lump the two together, so we’re still talking about the same lines using fire as the qualifier.
Works for me.
How about language, culture, seafaring, butchering and cooking meat? Mountains of evidence showing H. Erectus and descendants doing this will advancing sophistication for 2 million years.
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That’s fantastic! I love seeing animals outsmart our crafty gadgets.
The curious thing is its hard to see why the Kea does it. Either it likes the noise of the trap going off or it does it solely to annoy humans.
I like to think it’s the second. if I were a Kea, that’s why I’d do it.
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