Homo Sapiens: Spreading over the world

We are in what will become France. Here is a group of Homo sapiens. They've been walking a long way. A man in the group is injured and they need to find a place to camp so they can look after him. This is a completely unfamiliar landscape, and on the way here, they’ve seen traces of the others.

They don't know who they are, but ever since childhood they have been told about a people that don't look like themselves. Stories told for generations. These others may not be dangerous, but this group tries to avoid them. Look a perfect spot: an overhang! Under here, they can seek shelter from the snow.

Now they work fast. They carry the injured man under the overhang, light a fire, and build shelter from the wind. In this group everyone knows what to do. Homo sapiens have a unique ability to cooperate. It’s this that distinguishes them from all other species.

Compared to those that preceded them, Homo sapiens have a more developed language. Not only can they talk about concrete things in front of them, but they also tell stories, reflect upon what might happen tomorrow, and what they have in common with - and how they differ from - the others, that they have only heard about. They have abstract reasoning. This ability to cooperate, communicate, and think abstractly, allows Homo sapiens as a species to adjust to, and survive in, different environments like no other. Homo sapiens spreads all over the world, to every continent.

They move to the coldest, hottest, driest, and wettest areas on earth. Not only do they manage to survive, they make these places home. This is exactly what this group has done: walked further, and into a colder environment, than ever before. But by the fire it’s warm and cozy. Food is on the way.

It looks like there’ll be left overs. They put two pieces of meat, half a bird, and some acorns in the fire, and crack some nuts. It’s not much. It has been hard to find food in this new cold environment. So they need to help the wounded hunter to get well, so they can start to hunt.

Dinner goes quickly. The meat and the acorns are now easier to chew, and it becomes easier for the stomach to digest the food. It’s faster to eat cooked food. Unlike Homo sapiens’ relatives, the chimpanzees, who spend several hours every day chewing raw food, Homo sapiens don't need as much time to eat. Food that otherwise requires enormous jaw muscles and very sharp teeth to eat, is easy to eat when it’s cooked.

Another advantage is that the fire kills bacteria and parasites. The fire allows Homo sapiens’ menu to expand, and gives them time to do other things. Manufacture better fishing tools and hunting weapons. To talk, maybe think about what happens after you die? To carve and paint pictures of important things, maybe of gods?

Or, just to show that they have ‘been here’? The others! Yes. Homo sapiens have entered a territory that has been populated for more than 200,000 years by another species of human; Homo Neanderthalis. Even though the Neanderthals have been here longer, and in many ways are better suited to the climate, they will soon die out.

Homo sapiens will become the only human species left in the world. But we know that before Neanderthal disappears, they have time to meet Homo sapiens, and together with them, have children.