ABSTRACT
Humans, like all other biological species, have an evolutionary history. The evidence for human evolution is found in the fossil and archaeological records and in the detailed similarities between modern humans and their closest relatives among living animals, the primates. The fossil record consists of the mineralized remains of bones and teeth with occasional preservation of the outlines of soft tissues, such as fossilized footprints. Fossils provide most of our information about the earlier, extinct species of humans which preceded the ‘anatomically modern’ humans that make up the world's population today. The emergence of uniquely human characteristics, such as upright posture, bipedal locomotion, increase in brain size and specialization of the hand, can be investigated by studying these fossils and identifying the changes that have occurred in human skeletal anatomy. Dating of the fossil record establishes the sequence and rate at which these evolutionary changes have occurred.
