The timeline of human evolution can be traced back millions of years. Experts estimate that the family tree goes as such:

55 million years ago

- First primitive primates evolve

15 million years ago

- Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon

7 million years ago

- First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge

5.5 million years ago

- Ardipithecus, early 'proto-human' shares traits with chimps and gorillas

4 million years ago

- Ape like early humans, the Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee's but other more human like features

3.9-2.9 million years ago

- Australoipithecus afarensis lived in Africa.

2.7 million years ago

- Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing

2.6 million years ago

- Hand axes become the first major technological innovation

2.3 million years ago

- Homo habilis first thought to have appeared in Africa

1.85 million years ago

- First 'modern' hand emerges

1.8 million years ago

- Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record

800,000 years ago

- Early humans control fire and create hearths. Brain size increases rapidly

400,000 years ago

- Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia

300,000 to 200,000 years ago

- Homo sapiens - modern humans - appear in Africa

50,000 to 40,000 years ago

- Modern humans reach Europe