1. "man's best friend"
   "wise man"
2. "smart woman"
   "pigeon hole"

Homo sapiens is (for the moment) the planet's most powerful species. "Homo sapiens" means "wise man."

1. South America
   Africa
2. United States
   USSR

Homo sapiens -- humans -- all evolved from the same central location. And that location? Iowa. Just kidding, it was Africa.

1. 32 million years ago
   300,000 years ago
2. 2,000 years ago
   2 trillion years ago

In geological terms, homo sapiens are younguns. The species goes back about 300,000 years to Africa.

1. feet
   brains
2. hands
   fingernails

Zombies everywhere are drooling at their good fortune. Modern humans have very large brains, especially compared to those of their ancestors.

1. prominent brow
   incomplete rib cage
2. white skin
   rotted toenails

Early homo sapiens had very, very prominent brow lines. That heavy, bony brow is still regarded as a giveaway to these first humans.

1. Albert Einstein
   Charles Darwin
2. Carolus Linnaeus
   Marie Curie

In 1758, Carolus Linnaeus became the first person to describe homo sapiens as such. He was rather bold for his era, using the same taxonomic system meant for the animal kingdom applying it to humans.

1. about 7 million years ago
   about 39 million years ago
2. about 212 million years ago
   about 1 billion years ago

The number keeps shifting as scientists alter their technologies. But right now, they think that the evolution of homo sapiens split from apes roughly 7 million years ago.

1. creation of tools
   walking on two legs
2. speaking with a larnyx
   speaking in tongues

Homo sapiens is the only species that walks upright on two legs. "Terrestrial bipedalism" is indeed one of the species' most important traits.

1. steel tools
   mining
2. agriculture
   mathematics

It was just around 12,000 years ago that homo sapiens began to use agriculture to harness their environment to create food. Since then, farming has become an incredibly vital source of nutrition.

1. hammers
   primitive drills
2. hacksaws
   screwdrivers

No one is sure exactly which species of our ancestors created the first tools. But it seems that about 3 million years ago, primitive humans were using basic hammers to accomplish day-to-day tasks.

1. Australia
   Mexico
2. Morocco
   Canada

The discovery literally flipped the Africa script. In 2017, homo sapiens remains found in Morocco, on the west coast of Africa, made it clear that our species didn't necessarily arise in eastern Africa, the place most scientists placed our origins.

1. a hot hellscape
   green and lush
2. moon-like
   exactly like the sun

These days, you'd never know it, but hundreds of thousands of years ago the Sahara Desert was a green and wonderful place for life of all kinds. The region helped our ancestors reproduce and spread all over the continent and eventually, the world.

1. black powder
   fishing tools
2. agriculture
   pizza magnets

About 90,000 years ago, homo sapiens began to make and use very simple fishing tools. Since then, Babe Winkelman will prove to you that we've come a long, long ways.

1. people from Australia
   a type of early human
2. an alien race
   NFL players

There's very little fossil record (so far) of the Denisovans. But they were an early version of humans that overlapped with both Neanderthals and homo sapiens.

1. animal and plant life
   mostly salads
2. nothing but bumpy-skinned toads
   seafood

Once homo sapiens began creating simple tools, the real feasting began. These upright walkers could suddenly kill and dismember all sorts of animals in addition to gorging on various plant life.

1. about 40 million years ago
   about 4 million years ago
2. about 400,000 years ago
   about 400 years ago

In geologic terms, we humans are newish creatures. And we didn't master fire until about 400,000 years ago.

1. all rotted by sugar
   much larger
2. pretty small
   like sabertooth tigers

Modern humans don't have the need for enormous teeth. Our ancestors, however, did. Their teeth were much bigger than those found on people today.

1. clean ourselves
   remove parasites
2. strike one rock with another to create a sharp point
   making pottery

It's a seemingly obvious action that no monkey or gorilla can figure out -- the striking of one stone against another to create a point. This kind of tool building is specific to our species alone.

1. They created adobe forts.
   They built large huts.
2. They hid in caves.
   condos

The earliest humans didn't build much of anything. But they still needed shelter -- and they found shelter thanks to caves and other naturally occurring alcoves.

1. totally pointless
   rather thin-walled
2. incredibly thick
   black instead of white

Earlier versions of humans had thick, heavy skulls. In comparison, our thin-walled skulls are pretty weak and not very effective for headbutting.

1. dried skin
   homo sapien bones
2. footprint
   DNA

Trace fossils show traces of long-dead creature. Homo sapiens and other hominids have left many fossilized footprints all over the globe.

1. behind the eyes
   above the eyes
2. below the neck
   shoulder level

In modern humans, the brain -- specifically the pronounced forebrain -- rests above the eyes. In older humans, the brain was located mostly behind the eyes.

1. fast running ability
   flexible fingers
2. cooperation skills
   math skills

As homo sapiens have evolved, they've often been team players. This spirit of cooperation is a major survival tool that helps keep the gene pool thriving.

1. Aztecs
   Egyptians
2. Neanderthals
   anarchists

Formally called Homo neanderthalensis, they are the Neanderthals. More than a convenient and backhanded way of calling someone stupid, the Neanderthals exhibited many traits found in modern humans.

1. advanced art
   speaking
2. mathematics
   plyometrics

There are all sorts of early version of homo sapiens, including Neaderthals. Their remains feature throat structures that may well have allowed them to speak like modern humans.

1. extreme stupidity
   inability to adapt
2. violent homo sapiens
   tiny lizards

About 40,000 years ago Neanderthals died out. In a changing environment (one that was gettng colder), the species struggled to adapt to difficult hunting conditions and eventually faded from the evolution of humans.

1. changing genetics
   environmental pressure
2. search for food
   all of the above

Homo sapiens demonstrates an amazing ability to adapt. The species has spread largely due to environmental pressures and genetic change, among other reasons.

1. tibias
   hamstrings
2. heads
   fingers

As you've probably already noted, it's the (relative) intelligence of homo sapiens that makes us stand out in the animal crowd. That's why our species (and ancestors) demonstrated ever-larger skulls and brains with which to fill them.

1. They were genetically incompatible.
   They never crossed paths.
2. They reproduced.
   They taught them.

For a short time, Neanderthals and homo sapiens overlapped in Asia and Europe. They even reproduced, meaning that many modern humans can be traced back to Neanderthal origins.

1. New York City
   Europe
2. Antarctica
   North Pole

Modern homo sapiens quickly began migrating throughout the world. The first arrived in Europe about 40,000 years ago.

1. ability to feel fear
   colorblindness
2. agriculture
   dexterity

Neanderthals were strictly hunter-gatherers … and it cost them everything. Meanwhile, homo sapiens developed agricultural skills that sustained them when other food sources were scarce.

1. 14 toes
   only three feet tall
2. small teeth that resemble a dog's
   biggest brain ever

There are a whole lot of predecessors to homo sapiens. Sahelanthropus tchadensis is a well-known ancestor that had small, canine-like teeth, as well as a skull that looks fairly modern.

1. about 200
   about 20,000
2. about 2 million
   about 20 million

As it currently stands, there around about 200 species included in the order Primates. And homo sapiens is just one of those hundreds of hairy animals.

1. humans with bird-like brains
   very old humans
2. humans with just eight fingers
   very short people

Modern humans arose about 300,000 years ago. The ancestors of modern humans are archaic humans, a term that includes Neanderthals and several other species.

1. all of Africa
   Iraq
2. Egypt
   Brazil

With the 2017 publication in "Nature," it's clear that homo sapiens arose all over Africa. The so-called Garden of Eden wasn't just a small place … it was a broad swath of territory that gave rise to our incredible race.