August Gallery

Stages in human evolution

Human evolution. Illustration showing stages in the evolution of humans. At left, proconsul (23-15 million years ago) is depicted hypothetically as an African ape with both primitive and advanced features. From it Australopithecus afarensis (>4- 2.5 Myr BP) evolved and displayed a bipedal, upright gait walking on two legs. Homo habilis (2.5 Myr BP) was truly human ("homo") resembling Australopithecus but also used stone tools. About 1.5 Myr BP Homo erectus (at centre) appeared in Africa, used fire, wooden tools, and migrated from Africa into Eurasia. Homo neanderthalensis (200, 000 years BP) lived in Europe and Middle East and was closely related to modern humans (right)

© DAVID GIFFORD/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

17 Aug 1996

© Mirrorpix

1990s, 1996, 20th Century, Action, Football, Friendly, Middlesbrough, Nineties, Sport, Teams

Hubble Space Telescope view of nebula NGC 604

Nebula in galaxy M33. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image showing clouds of gas in the nebula NGC 604. This nebula is a region of intensive star formation. At the centre are more than 200 hot stars, each 15 to 60 times more massive than our Sun. High energy (ultraviolet) light from these stars heat the gas of the nebula and make it fluoresce. NGC 604 is about 1, 500 light years across, making it a peculiarly large nebula. It is situated in a galaxy called M33, found about 2.7 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Triangulum. This image was made on 17 January 1995

© NASA/ESA/STSCI/H.YANG, U.ILLINOIS/ SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY