the first group of animals to live on land was the
Evolutionary history of life Ediacara biota appear during the Ediacaran period,[37] while vertebrates, along with most other modern phyla originated about 525 Ma during the Cambrian explosion.[38] During the Permian period, synapsids, including the ancestors of mammals, dominated the land,[39] but most of this group became extinct in the Permian–Triassic extinction event 252 Ma.[40] During the recovery from this catastrophe, archosaurs became the most abundant land vertebrates;[41] one archosaur group, the dinosaurs, dominated the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.[42] After the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 Ma killed off the non-avian dinosaurs,[43] mammals increased rapidly in size and diversity.[44] Such mass extinctions may have accelerated evolution by providing opportunities for new groups of organisms to diversify.[45]
History of South Africa Scientists researching the periods before written historical records were made have established that the territory of what is now referred to generically as South Africa was one of the important centers of human evolution. It was inhabited by Australopithecines since at least 2.5 million years ago. Modern human settlement occurred around 125,000 years ago in the Middle Stone Age, as shown by archaeological discoveries at Klasies River Caves.[1] The first human habitation is associated with a DNA group originating in a northwestern area of southern Africa and still prevalent in the indigenous Khoisan (Khoi and San). Southern Africa was reached later by the migration of the ethnically different, dark-skinned, Bantu-speaking or African people originating in the northwestern region of southern Africa during the early centuries AD.