Beginnings Lecture Series: Hominids and Humans

n our "Beginnings" lecture series, we have become time travelers. But it is very difficult for us to understand the time span covered by our time machine, the Big Bang Express. Instead of saying that the universe began some 13.82 billion years ago, let's equate all of time to a more comprehensible single calendar year. The Big Bang was on January 1. Our sun and earth were formed in August. Life began in September. The first dinosaurs appeared on December 24. Apes appeared first on Dec 31 at 10:15 am. Homo erectus appeared at 10:48 pm; humans at 11:54 pm. In this lecture, travel back an hour or so to meet Ardi, the Taung child, Lucy, George from Georgia, the Trinil fossil, KNM-ER 1808, Turkana Boy, Shanidar One and the Cro-Magnon family. You might bring a gift for when you meet your ancestors.