Sapiens: a brief History of Humankind

Homo
sapiens
was about to put an end to this biological exuberance.
Following the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens acquired the technology, the
organisational skills, and perhaps even the vision necessary to break out of Afro-
Asia and settle the Outer World. Their rst achievement was the colonisation of
Australia some 45,000 years ago. Experts are hard-pressed to explain this feat. In
order to reach Australia, humans had to cross a number of sea channels, some
more than a hundred kilometres wide, and upon arrival they had to adapt nearly
overnight to a completely new ecosystem.
The most reasonable theory suggests that, about 45,000 years ago, the Sapiens
living in the Indonesian archipelago (a group of islands separated from Asia and
from each other by only narrow straits) developed the rst seafaring societies.
They learned how to build and manoeuvre ocean-going vessels and became long-
distance shermen, traders and explorers. This would have brought about an
unprecedented transformation in human capabilities and lifestyles. Every other
mammal that went to sea – seals, sea cows, dolphins – had to evolve for aeons to
develop specialised organs and a hydrodynamic body. The Sapiens in Indonesia,
descendants of apes who lived on the African savannah, became Paci c seafarers
without growing ippers and without having to wait for their noses to migrate to
the top of their heads as whales did. Instead, they built boats and learned how to

---

steer them. And these skills enabled them to reach and settle Australia.
True, archaeologists have yet to unearth rafts, oars or shing villages that date
back as far as 45,000 years ago (they would be di cult to discover, because rising
sea levels have buried the ancient Indonesian shoreline under a hundred metres of
ocean). Nevertheless, there is strong circumstantial evidence to support this
theory, especially the fact that in the thousands of years following the settlement
of Australia, Sapiens colonised a large number of small and isolated islands to its
north. Some, such as Buka and Manus, were separated from the closest land by
200 kilometres of open water. It’s hard to believe that anyone could have reached
and colonised Manus without sophisticated vessels and sailing skills. As mentioned
earlier, there is also rm evidence for regular sea trade between some of these
islands, such as New Ireland and New Britain.
1
The journey of the rst humans to Australia is one of the most important events
in history, at least as important as Columbus’ journey to America or the 
Apollo 11
expedition to the moon. It was the rst time any human had managed to leave the
Afro-Asian ecological system – indeed, the rst time any large terrestrial mammal
had managed to cross from Afro-Asia to Australia. Of even greater importance was
what the human pioneers did in this new world. The moment the rst hunter-
gatherer set foot on an Australian beach was the moment that 
Homo sapiens
climbed to the top rung in the food chain on a particular landmass and thereafter
became the deadliest species in the annals of planet Earth.
Up until then humans had displayed some innovative adaptations and
behaviours, but their e ect on their environment had been negligible. They had
demonstrated remarkable success in moving into and adjusting to various
habitats, but they did so without drastically changing those habitats. The settlers
of Australia, or more accurately, its conquerors, didn’t just adapt, they
transformed the Australian ecosystem beyond recognition.
The rst human footprint on a sandy Australian beach was immediately washed
away by the waves. Yet when the invaders advanced inland, they left behind a
di erent footprint, one that would never be expunged. As they pushed on, they
encountered a strange universe of unknown creatures that included a 200-
kilogram, two-metre kangaroo, and a marsupial lion, as massive as a modern
tiger, that was the continent’s largest predator. Koalas far too big to be cuddly
and cute rustled in the trees and ightless birds twice the size of ostriches sprinted
on the plains. Dragon-like lizards and snakes ve metres long slithered through
the undergrowth. The giant diprotodon, a two-and-a-half-ton wombat, roamed the
forests. Except for the birds and reptiles, all these animals were marsupials – like
kangaroos, they gave birth to tiny, helpless, fetus-like young which they then
nurtured with milk in abdominal pouches. Marsupial mammals were almost
unknown in Africa and Asia, but in Australia they reigned supreme.

---

Within a few thousand years, virtually all of these giants vanished. Of the
twenty-four Australian animal species weighing fty kilograms or more, twenty-
three became extinct.
2
 A large number of smaller species also disappeared. Food
chains throughout the entire Australian ecosystem were broken and rearranged. It
was the most important transformation of the Australian ecosystem for millions of
years. Was it all the fault of