Q:   I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that man descended from more than one source? Like a sort of mixture of ancestors? Or is it that we simply don't know yet, which of the many primitive homonids was our true ancestor?
— Jim Sloan
A:   No, we are not saying that humans are descended from more than one source or from a mixture of ancestors. Living humans are certainly the product of a single lineage, extending back for many millions of years until a common ancestor with the great apes is reached. But, during that time, our lineage had many branches, producing hominid relatives that have not survived to this day. Our evolutionary tree that once seemed so simple, when we had only a few fossils to work with, is now like a complex bush, through which it is not easy to follow a single line. And each new fossil that turns up has to be fitted into an ever more complex picture. Each time the question has to be asked: was this an ancestor of ours, or a relative? As you can imagine, there is plenty of argument and disagreement among the specialists!

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Q:   How do you know what color the prehistoric beasts' skin or fur was? And, how do you know which color their eyes were?
— From Kimmy, age 6
A:   The simple answer is that we usually don't know, as these features do not fossilize and cannot be observed, unless the beast was, for instance, frozen in permanent ice. Take the example of the African fossil ape-men, for instance — what was the color of their hair and eyes? We only have fossil bones to go on, but since these ape-men were relatives of chimpanzees, it is probably reasonable to say that they had dark eyes and brown hair. But your guess is as good as mine!

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