This song covers the major stages of human evolution over the past five million years of adaptation, including Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neandertalensis, and Homo sapiens. The song was inspired by Bob Marley reggae songs, and the image above is an homage to the Robert Freeman photo montage on the first Beatles album, "With the Beatles" (British version, released November 22, 1963).
1.
Ardipithecus, part human, part ape,
Prehensile toe and a simian gape,
Hips adapted to trees and to land,
With very long arms and with very long hands.
2.
Australopithecus made footprints in ash,
At Gona made tools with percussion and flash,
Ate berries and fruits and occasional prey,
They walked on two legs through the African day.
Homo habilis had much bigger brains,
With Oldowan tools they made much bigger gains,
Cut-marks on bones, which they broke with stone hammers,
Ate marrow and meat in a carnivore manner.
4.
Homo erectus, handaxe in hand,
Spread to Eurasia, to many new lands,
With braincase two-thirds of the size of our kind,
Had primitive language and primitive mind.
"Ancestral Faces"
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Heidelbergensis, bigger brains, better ways,
Made spears out of wood for their hunting forays,
Soft hammer blows, handaxes they fashioned,
Aesthetic concern and symmetrical passion.
6.
Neandertal people they buried their dead,
With fire and flake-tools in Ice Ages bred,
Then came modern humans with symbols and blades,
Now artists, inventors, a new path was laid.
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