The earliest humans, , or "handy man," adapted to the environment by making and using tools. Two more recent groups, the in Europe, and their close relatives from Asia, the , lived at the same time as the first modern humans. But those groups were less capable of adapting to the environment, so they vanished about 28,000 years ago. The scientific name for modern humans is , or "wise people."

The answer to each blank is as follows:

1. h-o-mo habilis

2. h-o-mo neanderthalensis

3. h-o-mo er-ect-us

4. h-o-mo sapiens

The archaic humans known as h-o-mo habilis, or "able man", lived in East and South Africa. They were given that name because they were believed to have been the first to make and use tools from stones, although we now know that the production of stone tools began earlier. H-o-mo habilis lived between 2.3 and 1.65 million years ago.

The h-o-mo neanderthalensis could be found in Europe and West Asia while the h-o-mo er-ectus was found in East Asia. They too belong to the h-o-mo genus, which means they were also human. Neanderthals were sturdier than we are, well adapted to cold weather. The h-o-mo er-ect-us was the human species that lived the longest - 1.5 million years, a record unlikely to be broken even by our species.

We belong to the h-o-mo sapiens species - the "wise people". Our species first appeared in East Africa, around 350 thousand years ago. We call ourselves "wise", "sapiens", due to our well-developed brains and our ability to think abstractly, use language, and solve problems.

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NOTE: I had to spell h-o-mo and er-ect-us this way because, otherwise, I cannot post the answer. The words have possible bad meanings, which is why this issue happens.

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