Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human is a very interesting read in terms of evolution. For me it cleared up a lot of my uncertainty and filled in so many blanks. The majority of the population knows what evolution is and what it means but not many people know the intricate details. Parts of the book such as the introduction and explanation of the habilines really caught my attention as he mentioned this species is thought to be the intermediate between apes and humans. This species had the same characteristics as humans and apes. I have been taught throughout my school and university career that fire was one of the most important findings in our ancestral years but I never really knew why or how.
Somewhere between 1.9 million and 1.8 million
Some believe it only became the norm about forty thousand years ago whilst others say it was two hundred thousand years ago. It is difficult to pin point where exactly it started because evidence of fires can very easily be inaccurate. There are some examples of fire pits being found in England about four hundred thousand years ago but prior to that the entire country was covered in ice which would not have preserved any ash or evidence of fire. It is also easy to cook food without burning bones leaving no fossil evidence of fires. On top of this, our ancestors could have used fire for things other than cooking such as warmth or light which further proves the difficulty when trying to find evidence of fire use. The best and most reliable evidence comes from the animal fossils themselves. Archaeologists and anthropologists can use the changes in morphology to determine what the diet of that certain species consisted of. The smaller the mouth and jaw and teeth means that species did not need huge muscles in order to eat their food. There is evidence that points to the evolution of the Homo erectus round about the time fire was a common use, such as reduced canines and smaller molars. One possibility for this is that the ancestors would have had to hold the fire torch in one hand if they were walking somewhere which could have made them start walking on two legs instead of the usual