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THE PRE-LITHIC
ERA
Hominids - Prehistoric Hunters
from the Dawn of Time
Robert D. Morritt
Availability
 Radiometric dating indicates that
the Earth is about 4.570 billion years old. Earth's past has been organized
into various units according to events which took place in each period.
Different spans of time on the time scale are usually delimited by major
geological or paleontological events, such as mass extinctions. For example,
the boundary between the Cretaceous period and the Paleocene period is
defined by the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, which marked the demise
of the dinosaurs and of many marine species. Older periods that predate the
reliable fossil record are defined by absolute age. Innovations in nuclear
technology have revised opinions drastically over the last two decades with
the interesting concept (in the Mediterranean) of Neolithic peoples
co-existing with modern man. Within these pages we consider different
opinions of geographic 'genesis' the location of 'missing links' and follow
the path of mankind from the cradle of civilization.
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