In the past, the evolution of Homo sapiens was viewed as a continuous progressive journey, without setbacks and that our cultural development was inevitable. We separated from the primate branch that led on to the chimpanzees and bonobos about 4 million years ago, and our ancestors gradually evolved bigger brains,upright posture and developed the ability to make tools, control fire, develop agriculture and so on. This simplistic narrative with its underlying inevitability is rapidly crumbling in the face of recent discoveries.

There were several, possibly many, pre-modern human species, with varying degrees of evolution of height, stance, size of skull/brain and facial features. Some developed the ability to make tools and several of these species lived at the same time – there was no smooth transit from one form to another. At some stage, perhaps a quarter of a million years ago, in East Africa, one of them evolved into H.sapiens, and a small number later moved out into Europe and Asia, but related species were still around. ‘Modern humans’ co-existed for a long time in Eurasia and interbred with at least two other species – Neanderthals and Denisovans.

So the human diversion from the primate branch on the tree of mammals, is no longer regarded as a single twig, but more like a small tangled bush. Evolution is a messy affair with no goal or purpose, and the outcomes are mostly the result of chance. The world could just as easily have come to be inhabited by clever dolphins, cunning capuchins, or rapacious rats. We have become the dominant species, but we need to be aware it was all due to circumstance, and evolution does not stand still.