1 INTRODUCTION

How HUMANS TOOK OVER THE WORLD

TIMELINE OF HISTORY 6 million years ago Last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. 2.5 million years ago Humans evolve in Africa. use of stone tools. 2 million years ago Evolution of different kinds of humans. 1.5 million years ago Earliest use of fire. 400,000 years ago Neanderthals evolve in Europe and the Middle East. 300,000 years ago Sapiens evolve in Africa. 70,000 years ago Emergence of storytelling. Sapiens leave Africa in large numbers 50,000 years ago Sapiens spread across Australia. Extinction of the big Australian animals. 40,000 years ago Development of Art. 35,000 years ago Extinction of Neanderthals. Sapiens are the last surviving kind of human. 15,000 years ago Sapiens spread across the Americas. Extinction of the big American animals.

WHAT ARE HUMANS ALL ABOUT? GROWING UP IS HARD WORK. NOT JUST FOR YOU AND YOUR friends, but for everybody, including animals. For lion cubs to grow up, they need to learn how to run and hunt zebras. A young dolphin must learn how to swim and catch fish. An eagle chick needs to learn how to fly and build a nest. And none of that's easy. But growing up is even harder for humans because we're not sure what we need to learn. Lions run and hunt zebras, dolphins swim and catch fish, eagles fly and build nests — what do humans do? When you grow up, you might drive a racing car faster than any lion can run. You might sail a ship farther than any dolphin can swim. You might pilot an aeroplane higher than any eagle can fly. You might do a million other things that animals can hardly even imagine, like invent a computer game, discover a new kind of

medicine, lead an expedition to Mars or sit at home all day and watch TV. Humans have so many options! That's why being a human is really confusing. But no matter what you end up doing, it's good to know why humans have so many options in the first place. It's because we rule planet Earth. Planet Earth was once ruled by many different animals. Lions, bears and elephants ruled the land. Dolphins, whales and sharks ruled the sea. Eagles, owls and vultures ruled the sky. But now we humans rule everything: the land, the sea and the sky. Wherever we go in our cars, ships and aeroplanes, the lions, dolphins and eagles need to move aside — and fast! Animals can't stop us from building roads through their forests. They can't stop us from building dams across their rivers. And they can't stop us from polluting the oceans and skies. In fact, we humans are now so powerful that the fate of all other animals depends on us. The only reason lions, dolphins and eagles still exist is because we allow them to. If humans wanted to get rid of all the lions, dolphins and eagles in the world, we could make it happen by next year. That's a lot of power, and it can be used in good ways or bad ways. To be a good human being, you need to understand the power you have and what to do with it. And for that, you need to know how we got our power in the first place. We humans aren't strong like lions, we don't swim as well as dolphins and we definitely don't have wings! So how did we end up ruling the planet? The answer to that is one of the strangest tales you'll ever hear. AND it's a true story.

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