There is an abundance evidence that humans evolved on our planet. Australopithecus afarensis is considered the central species from which all later hominins evolved. The caves and quarries at Sterkfontein, 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, are a rich site for hominin fossils. Since the 1936 discovery of the first adult Australopithecus some 500 specimens have been recovered there .¹

Homo erectus is another very well-known human species. Five hominin skulls were recovered from Dmanisi in Georgia, which are thought to represent a single regional variant of Homo erectus, or possibly a separate species, called Homo Georgicus. In addition, there are about 200 skeletal fragments that are attributed to about 40 individuals from Homo rudolfensis and its sister species, Homo habilis (2,4–1,5 million years ago).²

A species called Homo Naledi was discovered in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa between 2013 and 2014. It is most likely descended from Homo habilis, the first representative of the human species, 2 million years after habilis first appeared. More than 1500 fossils, representing at least 15 individuals of this species, have been excavated.³

At the Grand Dolina site in Spain, 80 skeletal remains belonging to six Homo antecessor individuals were found, along with 200 stone artifacts. At another site, Galeria, 6000 faunal remains were found along with stone tools and two hominid fossils. At Sima los Huesos, anthropologists have found 3000 human fossils belonging to 30 individuals and dated to about 300 000 years ago.⁴ Another human species, Homo cepranensis, is known only from a single skullcap discovered in Italy in 1994.

These are just some examples of human fossil discoveries. New discoveries are constantly made. Anthropologists can study these fossilized human remains and find out about their behavior, diet, and even cause of death. Lucy, for example, died from traumatic injuries after falling from a tree. Homo erectus often suffered from exostosis or osteoma, which is a benign growth of new bone on top of existing bone. Neanderthals frequently suffered from arthritis and tuberculosis of the spine.⁵ In one case, the skull of a male Homo erectus from 1.77 million years ago was found in Dmanisi, Georgia. The man had lost all but one of his teeth long before he died, causing much of his jaw to degenerate. This means that other m embers of the man’s group must have cared for him.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s website gives the estimate that “From skeletons to teeth, early human fossils have been found for more than 6000 individuals.” Considering how many human beings have lived on this planet in total throughout human humanity, that number is tiny. But then, that’s to be expected.

Different human species have left their footprints on the planet. Footprints found on the Greek Mediterranean island of Crete show hominin-like characteristics. They have been dated to approximately 5.7 million years ago, making them the oldest known pre-human footprints. The tracks of Laetoli in northern Tanzania date from 3.6 million years ago. It is generally believed that they are the tracks of Australopithecines. The double trail of larger footprints represents two individuals, one walking in front of the other. The smaller of the two stepped intentionally into the tracks of the larger one. There are 1.5-million-year-old footprints from Ileret, Kenya. They were made by about 20 Homo erectus individuals. These footprints suggest that Homo erectus individuals lived and moved in cooperative groups. The total sample includes 97 hominin tracks. One set of footprints was found in Happisburgh, England, over 850 000 years ago. The hominins probably belonged to Homo antecessor, a European cousin of Homo erectus. The tallest individual at Happisburgh was an adult male. The smaller footprints were probably made by either female adults or children. One set of footprints, known as the “devil’s trails”, has been preserved in volcanic ash atop the Roccamonfina volcano in Italy. Recently, a team of anthropologists identified 87 Neanderthal footprints found on an ancient shoreline in Spain that date from about 300 000 years ago.

In 2021, a team of Chinese researchers discovered cave art estimated to be 169 000 to 226 000 years old. The artwork is a series of deliberately arranged handprints and footprints. It was recovered from a hot spring on the Tibetan Plateau at an altitude of 4269 meters above sea level. Based on the size and shape of the prints, it is believed that the artwork was created by children.⁶

Humans leave various types of tracks, many of which other life forms do not. Humans have developed a cumulative culture throughout their existence. For example, stone tools do not have to be fossilized to be preserved for our time. It was mentioned in chapter 4 that the number of Acheulean stone tools is in the hundreds of thousands. In total, there are millions of these tools, or “lithic artifacts”, that clearly display the intelligence of their makers. No animal makes these kinds of tools.

“A sizeable dataset comprising millions of lithic artifacts sampling over two million years of early paleolithic tool technology from Africa and Eurasia is now available”. Corbey 2020, 1

Anthropologists have discovered a variety of different knapping techniques and cultures among these tools. Tools 3.3 million years old were found recently found in Lomekwi, West Turkana, Kenya. They are associated with Australopithecus afarensis, the species of Lucy. Homo habilis developed the pebble core and flake technique, as shown by the Oldowan choppers. Acheulian bifacial handaxes and cleavers were used by Homo ergaster/erectus. The more sophisticated prepared-core Levallois tools were used by Homo Heidelbergensis. The Mousterian tool culture was produced by Neanderthals. In the Upper Paleolithic, our own species made the more sophisticated blade tools; scrapers, burins, and projectile points.⁸

Bone retouchers have been part of the human tool spectrum since the Lower Paleolithic. These tools were used to make or reshape used stone tools. These t ools were obtained by recycling the bones of butchered animals.⁹ For the more sophisticated Levallois tools, which required a lot of work to make, it may have been more economical to reshape the tools (if possible) than to make new ones.

Research on these tools is something that proponents of ID would probably call “messy”. Without industrial machinery, it is nearly impossible to reproduce the same tool twice. The humans who made these tools were not always so systematic in their approach that once they gained the ability to make, say, Levallois tools and spears, they never made simpler tools again. This probably depended on necessity and the situation at hand.

“During human evolution, tools have become smaller and more complex, being handled largely by the whole hand in the earliest technological stages, then by the fingers, and finally with the fingertips. Although prehistoric archaeology has long relied on fixed typological models, it must be noticed that the variation of these tool types, both in terms of geography and chronology, is generally large, and their function is not always clear. Some of these tools may have been handled, furthermore, through hafting. In general, later tools do not entirely replace but coexist with former and more archaic technologies.¹⁰

The ingenuity of ancient humans is evidenced by archaeological finds in Java, Indonesia. Homo erectus used pointed objects such as shark teeth to open live mollusks to access their flesh. To open the mollusks, the movement had to be rotating and properly placed on the anterior adductor muscle. This required a great deal of manual dexterity and knowledge of mollusk anatomy.¹¹

Hominin fossils and lithic artifacts are found near fossilized mammal bones. The bones often have cut marks caused by the lithic artifacts when cutting the flesh and extracting the fat from the bones. Abrasions caused by the use of tools can be distinguished from impressions left by human and animal teeth. In caves where humans lived and fed, such animal remains can be found en masse. For example, in the cave of Lazaret, France, researchers found more than 70 000 animal remains.¹²

The cave systems in the Cradle of Humankind area also have several episodes of the deposition of human and animal remains. Cut marks, percussion marks, and burned bones show that hominins accumulated the animal remains of Swartkrans.¹³ According to the archaeological and ethnological records, after scavenging or hunting, hunters would disarticulate the carcasses, flesh them out, and percuss the bones to extract marrow. During this process, the tools used by humans probably pressed against the animal bones, resulting in cut marks. These cut marks are clear evidence that early humans processed animals for food. These cut marks can help anthropologists understand the diet, hunting, and scavenging patterns of human ancestors. These marks can also be used to investigate whether carnivores or hominins held the upper hand in their competition over carcasses against other predators.¹⁴