How long has the human species existed on earth?

Question

How long has the human species existed on earth?

Answer 1

The oldest modern human found is 195,000 year old fossil from South Africa.  DNA is amplified by selection so assuming you can get an accurate age from it is dubious at best.  Pinpointing the beginning of a species is not exact and it would be silly to put forth a precise time.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

Answer 2

The oldest known hominid, or humanlike species, has been dated at 4.4 million years old. Another species, which is yet to be confirmed as a hominid, has been dated at 6 million years old. Scientists estimate that the hominid lineage diverged from the ape lineage 5 to 8 million years ago. Homo sapiens, the species to which we belong, has existed for about 100,000 years.

Answer 3

If one stars with Homosapien as the first human, that would be between 2 & 300,000 yrs.  However if one starts with hominds that walked upright & used fire, that would go back to 1.5 to 2 million yrs ago.  If one considers those that walked upright to be human, then that is about 4.5 million yrs. Homo Erectus & possibly homo hablis were reasonably cognitive & certainly far above the tree dwelling primates in reasoning ability.

We are making more finds every year & our view of the hominid "bush" changes when these finds are factored into the equation.

Both Neandertal & homo sapien appear to have descended from homo erectus.... as did several more modern hominids found in south east Asia.

Following the DNA gene "clock" we place Homosapien at near 350,000 yrs old, but fossiles that confirm this have not been found.

Answer 4

All the above answers are correct!

As science improves, history changes...

Answer 5

Nobody really knows. It's only scientific guesses based upon what is found within the earth itself.