Guns, Germs and Steel: ch 1: Up to the starting line

The first chapter is a brief history of the human race from our appearance on the planet Earth as an offshoot of a species of apes in Africa to the cusp of our most glorious era, starting about 13,000 years ago after the end of the last ice age.'

The apes of ancient Africa split into 3 different groups 7 million years ago. These groups were the ancestors of modern gorillas, modern chimpanzees and modern humans. About 4.5 million years ago, our ancestors began standing in an upright posture, and 2 million years ago, human brain size relative to body increased close to the proportions of humans today. Human beings first moved out of Africa (probably) about a million years ago. We spread to all corners of the earth except the Australian and American continents. The reason for this is that Australia was separated from the Eurasian landmass by sea and primitive humans had no boats. The reason for not reaching the American continent was that it was separated from the Eurasian continent by the Bering strait, which was inaccessible because primitive humans had yet to discover warm clothing to help them cope with the cold climate.

Around 500,000 years ago, our close ancestor homo erectus appeared. He would learn to make tools of stone and also discover fire.
Around 50,000 years ago, our human ancestors really got started. This was the time of the Cro-Magnon Man. Cro-Magnon man was physically and behavorially similar to modern humans. Cro-Magnon Man made relatively complex stone tools with multiple pieces and specialised functions. Human beings around this time learned to make clothes, art, culture, boats, developed language. Our ancestors began to colonize the previously unreachable Australian continent as well as the American continent. In our ancestors' expansion efforts, their near human cousins were displaced and eventually were eliminated. These near human cousins were Neanderthals and also some indigenous Chinese and Indonesian species. It is interesting to read that some anthropologists have found physical similarities between modern Chinese and these ancient Chinese humans. This disputes the account that Cro-Magnon Man evolved and displaced all other near human species, as it did to the Neanderthals from Europe. Instead the evidence suggests that at least some of the cousins of Cro-Magnon Man co-evolved or interbred with him to bring about modern humans. The issue is disputed and evidence not wholly conclusive.

An interesting observation the writer made is that at around this period of 50,000 years ago, that he calls the Great Leap Forward, large mammals or megafauna began to become extinct at an astonishingly fast rate. Modern Australia doesn't have native large mammals with sizes on the scale of elephants, giraffes or even bears. However, fossil evidence indicates that pre-historic Australia did have giant kangaroos, rhino-like marsupials, a marsupial leopard and some huge reptiles.

The author ends the chapter by considering the states of human development in each continent at slightly after the beginning of the Great Leap Forward. Each continent seemed to have certain favourable conditions for why it would become the site of rapid human development. Even though we know in the end Eurasia won this race, we still need to explore why and now we have the groundwork.

I have 2 interesting thoughts about chapter 1. The first is about Megafauna. I just love that name. Think of how cool it sounds. It reminds me of strange science fiction fluff from old saturday morning cartoons. Aahhhh... nostalgia. Also, it's a perfect candidate to help you break the news to an obese friend of yours with low self-esteem. "You aren't fat, you're just born in the wrong era. Once you and your kind, large and majestic, roamed the land with the Megafauna!"

The second thought that came to mind as I read chapter 1 is also related to Megafauna. The Great Leap Forward marked the first time humans really were responsible for mass extinctions. This is truly amazing! Our ancestors were eliminating entire species before they even had guns. I didn't know any species went extinct because of us before the Mauritian Dodo. This, of course, is nothing to be proud of. I think too many of us still believe the world so large, our needs so small that we can't really have a significant effect on the Earth. The best example of this would be our relative inaction towards global warming. If with clubs and axes we could wipe out the Megafauna from Earth, how much more damagae could be done by altering the global temperature? Yet we continue to live our lives as if nothing was happening. I shudder at the thought.