You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on questions 16 30, which are based on Reading Passage 2.

. THE FIRST HUMAN A. Anthropologists all over the world are engaged today to find the missing links between the humans and apes and a mad race to hunt fossils in order to track down the real existence of the first Adam has started. The quest for the earliest human ancestors is a challenging scientific pursuit to know how the first human lived millions of years ago. Modern researchers are seeking the help of molecular science to establish the veracity of evidence taken from the fossils of humans and apes. In 1992, 17 specimens of Hominid fossils were discovered from Ethiopia, the Ardipithecus ramidus being the prominent and a new interpretation and research of early fossil history emerged. The discoverers endured the heat and thirst of the Sahara desert in their mania to find the First Human of this Universe. Tim White and Gen Suwa estimated the age of ramidus fossil 4.4 millions years. It has many primitive apes like features such as the small brain size, small canine teeth. Tom Gray and Donald Johnson discovered Lucy fossil that is 3.2 million years old. It is a fossil of a young female of about 25 years of age. About 40% of her skeleton was found and her pelvis, femur and tibia show her to have been bipedal. Le Clark performed a morphological study of teeth and jaws, since these formed most of the fossil evidence. Lee came up to the conclusion that Lucy fossil was human like and not ape like. B. In November 2000, Martin Pickford and Brigitte Senut of France made a remarkable discovery and unearthed Orrorin fossil from the Tugen hills of Kenya. Martin and Brigitte have been studying fossils for the last 30 years; they claimed that the bones were of a hominid-an early ancestor of humankind. The bones were not of apelike creatures, Orrorin was a bipedal creature, and CT scans of the femur bone reveals a pattern of bone intensity that could be the result of an upright walking posture. This important fossil was 6 million years old. Tutavel Hunter fossil was discovered by a team of French discoverers, the fossil consists of a fairly complete face, with 5 molar teeth and a part of the braincase. The skull contains a mixture of features form archaic Homo sapiens and Homo erectus; he was a prehistoric hunter 450000 years ago. This First Adam lived in Arago cave; he lived on hunting, selected rocks to make his tools. This Paleolithic hunter used sandstone, sandstone slabs for choppers, scrappers and the materials were available in their habitat. C. It is an established fact that humans are most closely related to the great apes that are indigenous to Africa as confirmed by DNA investigations

of fossils. The million dollar question is why did Raymond Dart and Robert Boom go to Africa in search of early hominid fossils? Why did they not go to Australia, Siberia or other parts of the world? Charles Darwin had aptly stated long before any hominid fossils were discovered. Darwin observed thus; It is probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and Chimpanzee and these two species are now mans nearest allies; it is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African Continent than elsewhere. Most scientists agree that modern humans first evolved in Africa and later colonized the globe. Some anthropologists believe that a wave of migration from Africa started about 50,000 years ago with modern humans moving from North Africa into the Middle East, then moving in to Asia and Europe and Australia. They crossed the Red Sea, journeyed along the Arabian Peninsula to India, Malaysia and Australia. The mitochondrial DNA investigations have proved that Nicobarese, Onge, Anamneses, African tribes reveal the same genetic ancestry and it is concluded that these tribes descend from the early migrants out of Africa. D. Vincent Macaulay of the University of Glasgow in Scotland conducted his research on the basis of ecological and archaeological evidence and contended that modern humans left Africa via a southern migration route. They had to master ocean travel, life was pretty hard for them, but crossing the Red Sea would not have been impossible and they had successfully crossed the sea on a raft. They used boats to cover a distance of 12000 km to reach Australia. The archaeologists observe that the prehistoric hunters from Spain and France sailed to North America as the glaciers started receding around 17000 years ago. These migrants were hunting marine animals such as seals, walrus and tuna and they miraculously crossed the Atlantic on boats after years of perseverance, hardships, and trials and tribulations. Radioactive carbon dating, microscopic analysis of ancient hair prove that humans crossed a land bridge from Asia to the Americans and these settlers were called the Clovis people. E. The earliest tools found in Asia are attributed to Homo erectus, species of African origin. Its body had long limbs, a brain that was capable of hunting, hard and sturdy, suited to life in prehistoric Asian terrain. Early humans lived in China about 1.66 million years ago; they used stone tools and used their tools on bones of deer to butcher them for food. Ann Gibbons introduces the various maverick fossil hunters such as Brunet and Leakey who endured extreme heat, blowing sand and other hazards of fieldwork in Africa.Neanderthal human utilized language and tools, played musical instruments, danced and sang, walked, run and jumped, he had the potential to play music. The first evidence is a piece of some bone from a deer with holes looking like a flute discovered in the Neander valley of

Germany in 1856. Even Darwin had observed our ancestors endeavored to charm each other with musical notes and rhythm. Scientists observe that it was music that helped hominids to find a mate, soothe a child and to cheer a companion in inhospitable habitat. Thus, the fossil investigations reveal that the immediate ancestors of early humans were living in East Africa and they have been identified as Homo rudolfensis, a Homo erectus. It is believed that the early humans had about 35% larger brains than those of the great apes. People, but not apes, have a gene that stops the production of Nglycolylneuramine acid. Modern day scientists of the University of California have used Molecular Clock Analysis to determine the evolutionary process of the growth of genetic mutation of human beings that led to their growth and modernism.