Birthplace of Man |
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The Cradle of Humankind is Gauteng's most famous World Heritage site (situated less than an hour from Johannesburg). The famous Sterkfontein Caves have produced nearly half of the world's hominid fossils. Additionally, to the Northeast of Sterkfontein lies the fabulous Wonder Cave, home to the ice Madonna and an underground `cathedral' that is simply mesmerising.
One of the most famous predictions made by Charles Darwin was also based on biogeography: The location for the "origin of man". "We are naturally led to enquire, where was the birthplace of man at that stage of descent when our progenitors diverged from the Catarrhine stock? The fact that they belonged to this stock clearly shews that they inhabited the Old World; but not Australia nor any oceanic island, as we may infer from the laws of geographical distribution. In each great region of the world the living mammals are closely related to the extinct species of the same region. It is therefore probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee; and as these two species are now man's nearest allies, it is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African continent than elsewhere." - The Descent of Man; Darwin 1871 Indeed, all of the oldest humanoid fossils have been found in Africa, despite searches on other continents. Both modern genetics and paleontology support the "out of Africa" hypothesis. There is still on-going debate about at what point human ancestors left Africa and how much of human evolution took place outside of Africa, but the initial origin of the human lineage appears to be in Africa, where it was predicted to be by Darwin through the use of biogeographic principles. Read More about the evolution of man here Understanding Evolution |