Hominin Timeline
Do a google search and ask AI who the first hominin was. The consensus definition of a hominin is a “bipedal ape” like us, i.e. a human (if not modern human). The answer is “Sahelanthropus” who lived about 7 million years ago. I can easily list dozens of authoritative sources to confirm this story that AI is good at summarizing.
Problem is Sahelanthropus was a facultatively biped, like chimps and gorillas, and a habitual knuckle-walker who climbed trees and walked when it had to, but was not habitually bipedal. If it was the first hominin, then hominins became bipedal later. But ‘hominin’ means bipedal, so… maybe Sahelanthropus wasn’t a hominin and if you can’t trust AI and all the experts piled high and deep…. Damn, I hate then consensus stories of experts standing proud on their mountain of firm opinion are wrong. Evidence should be made illegal.
Human (Homo sapiens) Population, Zero to ?
1.3 mya (million years ago) Homo sapiens evolve from Homo erectus ergaster in Africa (population zero then counting)
1.1 mya Homo sapiens slowly spreads out of Africa as K-strategists to southern Eurasia (population max <1 million)
1 mya H. sapiens in Africa subspeciates to form a west African form (unnamed, no fossils found yet). In Africa H. sapiens population = 100k
0.9 mya = 1k (severe ancestorial bottleneck lasting 117k years, near extinction event #1)
0.765 mya H. sapiens in Eurasia subspeciates into the ancestor of Neanderthals and Denisovans
0.6 mya H.s. neanderthalensis, having unique Neanderthal features, had begun evolving
0.4–0.35 mya Homo sapiens sapiens (1 of 5 subspecies) evolves in Africa from east African H. sapiens (pop. = 0 then counting)
0.3 mya H. sapiens in Sino region subspeciates, may be named Homo sapiens hualongdong
0.22 mya H.s. denisova inhabits Asia
0.075 mya or 75 kya (thousand years ago) the ancestor of all Modern humans (except San, Hadza, Pygmy, Sandawe) emerges to expand within Africa. May be given a new subspecies name, e.g. H.s. insapiens.
55 kya the expansionist form of Modern humans rapidly spreads out of Africa to Eurasia, Australia, the Americas.
1.003 kya (1021 CE) those expansionists who spread north met those who had spread east across southern Asia then north and west throughout the Americas in Newfoundland for the first time in 54 thousand years.
0.57 kya the expansionist’s taking of a planet is completed in Oceania (Zealandia) prior to likely global climax in the 21st century.
Homo sapiens (and subspecies) Total Population
1.4 million BCE = 0
1712 = 600m (Newcomen steam engine, fossil fueled energy slaves proliferate)
1804 = 1000m (1k million or 1 billion) up from zero in 1.3 million years
1927 = 2000m in 123 years
1960 = 3000m in 33 years
1974 = 4000m in 14 years
1987 = 5000m in 13 years
1999 = 6000m in 12 years
2011 = 7000m in 12 years
2022 = 8000m in 11 years
2037 = 9 billion? in 15 years
2058 = 10 billion? in 21 years
2100 = 11 billion? in 42 years — or zero to 2 billion on the downslope?
2200 = Zero to 1 billion?
2300 = Zero to 500 million?
2400 = Zero to 100 million?
2500 = Zero to 50 million?
2600 = 7–35 million if humans renormalize (or, as Nature is unkind, zero works).
Modern humans arose 75-76 thousand years ago with Modern human Adam, male ancestor to all modern humans.
The San, Hadza, Pygmy, and Sandawe are mostly not modern humans genetically (some San and Hadza also have a pre-expansionist for of culture), but most have been acculturated/domesticated to serve technology and ideology.
Modern humans are not people of place.