Paleolithic

Main articles: Lower Paleolithic, Middle Stone Age, and Later Stone Age
The first known hominids evolved in Africa. According to paleontology, the early hominids' skull
anatomy was similar to that of the gorilla and the chimpanzee, great apes that also evolved in Africa, but
the hominids had adopted a bipedal locomotion which freed their hands. This gave them a crucial
advantage, enabling them to live in both forested areas and on the open savanna at a time when Africa
was drying up and the savanna was encroaching on forested areas. This would have occurred 10 to 5
million years ago, but these claims are controversial because biologists and genetics have humans
appearing around the last 70 thousand to 200 thousand years.[7]

By 4 million years ago, several australopithecine hominid species had developed throughout Southern,
Eastern and Central Africa. They were tool users, and makers of tools. They scavenged for meat and were
omnivores.[8]

By approximately 3.3 million years ago, primitive stone tools were first used to scavenge kills made by
other predators and to harvest carrion and marrow from their bones. In hunting, Homo habilis was
probably not capable of competing with large predators and was still more prey than hunter. H. habilis
probably did steal eggs from nests and may have been able to catch small game and weakened larger prey
(cubs and older animals). The tools were classed as Oldowan.[9]

Around 1.8 million years ago, Homo ergaster first appeared in the fossil record in Africa. From Homo
ergaster, Homo erectus evolved 1.5 million years ago. Some of the earlier representatives of this species
were still fairly small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like H. habilis. The brain later grew in
size, and H. erectus eventually developed a more complex stone tool technology called the Acheulean.
Possibly the first hunters, H. erectus mastered the art of making fire and was the first hominid to leave
Africa, colonizing most of Afro-Eurasia and perhaps later giving rise to Homo floresiensis. Although
some recent writers have suggested that Homo georgicus was the first and primary hominid ever to live
outside Africa, many scientists consider H. georgicus to be an early and primitive member of the H.
erectus species.[10][11]