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lemurs - the ancestors of man

   Summary:

   About one million years ago, as a result of three consecutive sudden mutations of early lemurs - placental mammals, the direct ancestors of man appeared. The dominant factors of these early lemurs were derived from the Western or Late American group of evolving life plasms. But by the time the direct human lineage began, that lineage had been improved at the expense of the central implantation of life developed in Africa.

   The early lemurs - the ancestors of man - were not directly related to the gibbons and monkeys that existed before them, whose tribes lived in Eurasia and North Africa at that time and whose descendants have survived until now. Nor were they descendants of the modern type of lemur, although they descended from common but long-dead ancestors.

   Although these early lemurs appeared in the Western Hemisphere, the beginning of the direct line of mammals leading to man was laid in Southwest Asia, in the original zone of the central implantation of life, but on the border of the eastern zone. A few million years ago, North American-type lemurs migrated west across the Bering Land Bridge, gradually moving southwest along the Asian coast. Finally, the migrating tribes reached the fertile land located between the then expanding Mediterranean Sea and the elevated mountainous regions of the Indian peninsula. Here, in the west of India, they united with other favorable lines, resulting in the appearance of the progenitors of the human race.

 

   A little more than a million years ago, the early mammals, the direct descendants of the placental mammals - the North American type of lemur - suddenly appeared in Mesopotamia. These nimble little creatures were less than a meter tall, and although they were uncharacteristic of walking on their hind legs, they easily assumed a vertical position. They were covered in fur, lively, and squealed in an ape-like manner, but unlike the apes, they were carnivores.

   Of all the animals that had existed on Earth up to that time, the representatives of this new species possessed the largest brains relative to the size of the body. They experienced many of the feelings and possessed many of the instincts which later became characteristic of primitive man. They were extremely curious and expressed violent joy in case of success in any undertaking. Being small creatures and possessing intelligence enough to understand the danger of forest life, they became extremely timid, which led to the adoption of these sensible safety precautions which proved extremely important to their survival. The emergence of the tendency to fear in humanity dates back to these very days.

 

   And exactly seventy generations after the appearance of this new tribe, the progenitor of which was the superior Lemur type, a new epochal event took place: the sudden separation of the progenitors of the next important link in the evolution of man on Urantia.

 

    In the initial stage of the development of early mammals, in a dwelling built on the top of a tree, one of the best pairs of these mobile creatures gave birth to twins - a male and a female. Compared to their ancestors, these were truly beautiful little creatures. The almost complete absence of fur was not a disadvantage, since they lived in a warm and even climate. When these children grew up, they were just over four feet tall. In every way they were greater than their parents; their legs were longer and their arms shorter. They were upright walkers, and their feet were almost as adapted for locomotion as those of the later races of man.

   These intermediate mammals were in every way superior to their ancestors. Even their potential lifespan increased to approximately twenty-five years. A number of rudimentary human traits appeared in the new species. These intermediate mammals were the first to demonstrate pronounced building tendencies, as evidenced by their rivalry in the construction of both tree dwellings and multi-tunnel underground shelters serving as refuges.

   Over time, the natural increase in their numbers led to a dangerous rivalry for food and sexual partners. All this spilled over into a series of internecine wars that nearly wiped out the entire species. These battles continued until only one group of less than a hundred specimens remained alive.

   A battle-hardened couple became the happy parents of twins - the most important and significant animals that had ever appeared in the world up to that time, as they were the first representatives of the new animals - the Primates, representing the next important step in the course of pre-human evolution. Primates were more like man and less like animals than the intermediate ancestors of man.

 

   And lo and behold, traversing the path of development in the course of nearly nine hundred generations, which spanned some twenty-one thousand years from the origin of the early human ancestors, the primates suddenly gave birth to two astonishing creatures—the first true human beings.

 

    An important event during this ice age was the evolution of primitive man. A little to the west of India, in the area that is now under water, among the descendants of the ancient North American type of lemur that migrated to Asia, the mammals that became the early ancestors of man suddenly appeared.

 

   Simultaneously with the birth of these primate twins, twins were also born to another pair - an extremely backward male and female of the tribe of intermediate human ancestors with a low level of both mental and physical development. These backward twins marked the beginning of modern human-like monkeys.

 

   Man and ape are connected only by their common descent from the intermediate ancestors of man, the tribe in which the simultaneous birth and subsequent separation of two pairs of twins took place: the primitive pair gave rise to the modern type of baboons, baboons, chimpanzees, and gorillas; the superior couple was destined to continue the evolutionary line of which man himself became the crown.