Homo sapiens

Modern humans (Homo sapiens = you and me) are characterized by having a large brain relative to body size, with particularly well developed areas making them capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, problem solving and culture through social learning.
This mental capability, combined with an adaptation to bipedal locomotion that frees the hands for manipulating objects, has allowed us to make far greater use of tools than any other living species on Earth. We are the only extant species known to build fires and cook their food, as well as the only known species to clothe themselves and create and use numerous other technologies and arts. We are the only surviving species of the genus Homo. All our human relatives ( = the species belonging to that genus except us) went extinct at some point in the past. Some died out in a rather recent past (Homo erectus: 140.000 years ago, Homo neanderthalensis: 30.000 years ago, Homo floresiensis: 17.000 years ago), others vanished from Earth somewhere between half a million years and almost two million years ago (Homo rudolfensis: 1.800.000 years ago, Homo habilis: 1.400.000 years ago, Homo ergaster: 1.300.000 years ago, Homo antecessor: 1.000.000 years ago, Homo heidelbergensis: 400.000 years ago).
Our closest living non-human relative is the chimpanzee. The human lineage diverged from the last common ancestor with the chimpanzee some 5.000.000 years ago. We reached anatomical modernity about 200.000 years ago in Africa, where we originated (but recent findings suggest that this happened much earlier). We moved out of there around 125.000 years ago, arrived in Eurasia 125.000-60.000 years ago, in Australia around 40.000 years ago, the Americas around 15.000 years ago, and remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand between the years AD 300 and 1280. As early as 12.000 years ago, we began to practice sedentary agriculture, domesticating plants and animals which allowed for the growth of civilization. We subsequently established various forms of government, religion, and culture around the world, unifying people within a region and leading to the development of states and empires.