Maropeng exhibition

impact on the environment. But this has changed, as our technological abilities have progressed. Now our activities have serious implications for our planet, including the unusually fast extinction of species and global warming. Visit the exhibition and find out where you originate from and how your life is affecting the planet.

" /> modern humanity.

" /> human family tree is something scientists are still debating, the one thing that they mostly agree on is that humankind was born here in Africa.

" /> (hominids) become what we are today.

" /> history of life on Earth has been rocked by five major extinctions. The last great extinction was 65-million years ago, when the dinosaurs were wiped out, probably after a giant meteor slammed into the Earth off the coast of Mexico, and set off volcanic eruptions all over the world, changing the global climate. Today, some scientists say we are in the midst of the sixth major extinction – and its cause is us.

" /> Fossils are the remains of plants or animals which have been turned into stone over a long period of time in a process known as “mineralisation”. Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, was one of the first people to express a theory of evolution – the idea that species change over time, as they adapt to changing environments.

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