Hominoids lived on tress. The trees provided them protection from the predators. The Hominoids were food gatherers. They procured food by gathering seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, tubers, etc. They were not meat eaters. Hominids adapted to land dwelling. They began to use caves and extended stone boulders as shelters. These shelters on land provided them with considerable safety from the predators and from rain, wind and the sun. The Neanderthal man was the earliest cave dweller.

The shortage of food made them to scavenge for food. They covered long distances to forage or scavenge for naturally dead animals or leftovers of animals killed by predators. The above activities made them gradually develop an upright posture and consequently the bipedal motion. This was required for survival.

Hominines and the archaic human species added planned hunting and fishing to the already existing gathering, foraging and scavenging techniques. Planned hunting and making tools stimulated the growth in the brain size. The growth in brain size in turn helped them to plan and make better tools.

Domestication of animals was followed by the commencement of agriculture. Humans who were food gatherers and hunters till then, now became food growers or food producers. They were prepared to overcome the effects of the climate changes like the ice age by adapting to domestication of animals and agriculture. Dogs are believed to be the first animals to be domesticated as they were continuously hanging around the hunters’ camps to pick up bones and scrapes of meat.

They developed a bond and dogs were domesticated. This was followed by sheep, goat, cow, cat, camel, and horse. Dogs helped humans in hunting and guarding their shelters. The rearing of animals made humans, nomads. Commencement of agriculture is considered as a revolutionary change in the history of human evolution. This was an important aspect of the Neolithic age.

Humans began to grow various crops like wheat, rice, millets etc. The practice of agriculture is not more than 13,000 years old. It made them lead a settled life. This resulted in the formation of human settlements termed villages and later towns. Villages and towns were the foundations of civilizations.

The Hominoids were quadrupeds. They walked on all four limbs, but, their forelimbs were flexible. The Hominids gradually adapted an upright posture. Hominines further adapted to bipedalism. The skeletal structure and the muscles also adjusted over a period of time to the upright posture and the bipedal motion, which freed the forelimbs.

The forelimbs developed precision grip and power grip and evolved into hands. This greatly helped in hunting and defending from predators as hands could be used to make tools and also use them. Walking on two legs also provided a greater long distance vision and helped them to cover long distances without spending much energy.

The use of tools is not confined to only humans. For e.g. some monkeys and apes use stones as tools to break nuts. But use of tools by humans is far more advanced compared to the monkeys and apes. Wood, bones and stones were used to make tools. They were mainly used for hunting or defending from predators. The use of stone tools is studied as the Stone Age in history. The making and use of stones tools were responsible to the evolution of forelimbs into hands and also the growth in brain size.

The oldest known stone tools are the ‘Oldowan stone tools’ from Ethiopia which are dated to a period 2.6 million years ago. The skill and advancement in making stone tools have made historians to classify the Stone Age as Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic stone ages. In course of time, humans began to produce metals from ores and make copper, bronze and iron tools which are studied in history as the respective metal ages.

The Australopithecus species is said to have first used the naturally available stones as tools. But, the making of stone tools from naturally available stones and using them is positively identified to have begun with Homo habilis.