Talking about Class, Evolving Genotypes, …In the Beginning was the Foot. (This will be done in two parts)
The separation of the ancestral line leading to human beings from the line leading us to the Chimpanzees, our closest nonhuman relatives, probably occurred between 5 and 8 million years ago. By 2.5 million years (Cichon 1985, Pilbeam 1986) there was at least two kinds of hominids (members of the human family) called the Australopithecines, which became extinct, and the other called Homo Habilis, which was remote but a direct ancestor of our species. We know they were hominids because…