Blinkist: Serving curious minds.

In many ways, we were just another animal, and we didn’t have any greater impact on our environment than parrots, cheetahs, or jellyfish. Sure, we had large brains, walked upright, used tools, and were highly social— but we weren’t the only ones. There were lots of other humans around. It’s a common misconception that Homo sapiens, the last human species to step onto the scene, evolved linearly from earlier human species— but actually, early Homo sapiens existed contemporaneously with at least six other species of humans. There were the Homo floresiensis, a small archaic human who reached a maximum height of about three feet— but were still clever and organized enough to hunt down elephants. There were the Homo denisova, a species native to Siberia that was only discovered in 2010, which raises questions of what other extinct human species we have yet to discover. And of course, there was our most well-known cousin, the Homo neanderthalensis. Despite immodestly calling ourselves Homo s

In many ways, we were just another animal, and we didn’t have any greater impact on our environment than parrots, cheetahs, or jellyfish. Sure, we had large brains, walked upright, used tools, and were highly social— but we weren’t the only ones. There were lots of other humans around. It’s a common misconception that Homo sapiens, the last human species to step onto the scene, evolved linearly from earlier human species— but actually, early Homo sapiens existed contemporaneously with at least six other species of humans. There were the Homo floresiensis, a small archaic human who reached a ma