populated by Homo erectus, ‘Upright Man’, who survived there for

close to 2 million years, making it the most durable human species

ever. This record is unlikely to be broken even by our own species.
It is doubtful whether Homo sapiens will still be around a thousand
years from now, so 2 million years is really out of our league.
On the island of Java, in Indonesia, lived Homo soloensis, ‘Man
from the Solo Valley’, who was suited to life in the tropics. On
another Indonesian island – the small island of Flores – archaic
humans underwent a process of dwar ng. Humans rst reached
Flores when the sea level was exceptionally low, and the island was
easily accessible from the mainland. When the seas rose again, some
people were trapped on the island, which was poor in resources. Big
people, who need a lot of food, died rst. Smaller fellows survived
much better. Over the generations, the people of Flores became
dwarves. This unique species, known by scientists as Homo
oresiensis, reached a maximum height of only one metre and
weighed no more than twenty- ve kilograms. They were
nevertheless able to produce stone tools, and even managed
occasionally to hunt down some of the island’s elephants – though,
to be fair, the elephants were a dwarf species as well.
In 2010 another lost sibling was rescued from oblivion, when
scientists excavating the Denisova Cave in Siberia discovered a
fossilised nger bone. Genetic analysis proved that the nger
belonged to a previously unknown human species, which was
named Homo denisova. Who knows how many lost relatives of ours
are waiting to be discovered in other caves, on other islands, and in
other climes.
While these humans were evolving in Europe and Asia, evolution
in East Africa did not stop. The cradle of humanity continued to
nurture numerous new species, such as Homo rudolfensis, ‘Man from
Lake Rudolf’, Homo ergaster, ‘Working Man’, and eventually our own
species, which we’ve immodestly named Homo sapiens, ‘Wise Man’.
The members of some of these species were massive and others
were dwarves. Some were fearsome hunters and others meek plant-
gatherers. Some lived only on a single island, while many roamed
over continents. But all of them belonged to the genus Homo. They
were all human beings.
It’s a common fallacy to envision these species as arranged in a
straight line of descent, with Ergaster begetting Erectus, Erectus
begetting the Neanderthals, and the Neanderthals evolving into us.
This linear model gives the mistaken impression that at any
particular moment only one type of human inhabited the earth, and
that all earlier species were merely older models of ourselves. The
truth is that from about 2 million years ago until around 10,000
years ago, the world was home, at one and the same time, to several
human species. And why not? Today there are many species of
foxes, bears and pigs. The earth of a hundred millennia ago was
walked by at least six di erent species of man. It’s our current
exclusivity, not that multi-species past, that is peculiar – and
perhaps incriminating. As we will shortly see, we Sapiens have good
reasons to repress the memory of our siblings.

The Cost of Thinking

Despite their many di erences, all human species share several
de ning characteristics. Most notably, humans have extraordinarily
large brains compared to other animals. Mammals weighing sixty
kilograms have an average brain size of 200 cubic centimetres. The
earliest men and women, 2.5 million years ago, had brains of about
600 cubic centimetres. Modern Sapiens sport a brain averaging
1,200–1,400 cubic centimetres. Neanderthal brains were even
bigger.
That evolution should select for larger brains may seem to us like,
well, a no-brainer. We are so enamoured of our high intelligence
that we assume that when it comes to cerebral power, more must be
better. But if that were the case, the feline family would also have
produced cats who could do calculus. Why is genus Homo the only
one in the entire animal kingdom to have come up with such
massive thinking machines?
 The fact is that a jumbo brain is a jumbo drain on the body. It’s
not easy to carry around, especially when encased inside a massive
skull. It’s even harder to fuel. In Homo sapiens, the brain accounts
for about 2–3 per cent of total body weight, but it consumes 25 per
cent of the body’s energy when the body is at rest. By comparison,
the brains of other apes require only 8 per cent of rest-time energy.
Archaic humans paid for their large brains in two ways. Firstly, they
spent more time in search of food. Secondly, their muscles
atrophied. Like a government diverting money from defence to
education, humans diverted energy from biceps to neurons. It’s
hardly a foregone conclusion that this is a good strategy for survival
on the savannah. A chimpanzee can’t win an argument with a Homo
sapiens, but the ape can rip the man apart like a rag doll.
Today our big brains pay o nicely, because we can produce cars
and guns that enable us to move much faster than chimps, and shoot
them from a safe distance instead of wrestling. But cars and guns are
a recent phenomenon. For more than 2 million years, human neural
networks kept growing and growing, but apart from some int
knives and pointed sticks, humans had precious little to show for it.
What then drove forward the evolution of the massive human brain
during those 2 million years? Frankly, we don’t know.
Another singular human trait is that we walk upright on two legs.
Standing up, it’s easier to scan the savannah for game or enemies,
and arms that are unnecessary for locomotion are freed for other
purposes, like throwing stones or signalling. The more things these
hands could do, the more successful their owners were, so
evolutionary pressure brought about an increasing concentration of
nerves and nely tuned muscles in the palms and ngers. As a
result, humans can perform very intricate tasks with their hands. In
particular, they can produce and use sophisticated tools. The rst
evidence for tool production dates from about 2.5 million years ago,
and the manufacture and use of tools are the criteria by which
archaeologists recognise ancient humans.
Yet walking upright has its downside. The skeleton of our primate
ancestors developed for millions of years to support a creature that
walked on all fours and had a relatively small head. Adjusting to an