ORIGINAL AIRBRUSH Early artists employed various techniques for applying pigment to surfaces. One method seems to have been blowing paint onto the wall. Karen Carr Studio, Inc.
ANCIENT JEWELRY Pierced periwinkle shells found at the site of Cro-Magnon in France date to around 30,000 years ago. Details of the perforations and wear marks on the shells indicate that humans made the holes and strung the shells together tightly, creating a necklace. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
THE REAL HOBBIT Homo floresiensis was a mini-human species that lived as recently as 17,000 years ago on the island of Flores in Indonesia. It stood roughly a meter high and had a brain the size of a grapefruit. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
KISSING COUSINS The original fossil skulls of a Neandertal from La Ferrassie, France [left], and an anatomically modern human from Cro-Magnon, France [right], are on display for the first time in the U.S. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
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NEANDERTAL VISAGE Neandertals lived in Eurasia between roughly 230,000 and 28,000 years ago. The reason for their demise remains a mystery. Paleo-artist John Gurche creates forensic reconstructions of ancient humans like this one by sculpting a sequence of muscle, fat and skin onto replicas of fossil skulls. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
NEANDERTAL SKELETON This original skeleton of a Neandertal recovered from Shanidar Cave in Iraq is between 45,000 and 35,000 years old and is the only original Neandertal fossil housed in the U.S. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
FIRST CAMPFIRE The earliest solid evidence for controlled use of fire comes from the site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel and dates to around 790,000 years ago. Karen Carr Studio, Inc.
BRINGING HOME THE BACON Homo erectus lugs an antelope home to her family. An increased reliance on meat, which is rich in calories and nutrients, seems to have been a key factor in the evolution of our large, metabolically demanding brains. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
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FAMILY RESEMBLANCE The face-morphing station allows visitors to see what they would look like as an early human—in this case, a Neandertal. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
DINNER FOR TWO Homo heidelbergensis, which many researchers consider to be the last common ancestor of Neandertals and anatomically modern humans, proffers meat to any visitor who cares to join him. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
SHAPE SHIFTING Early members of the human family, such as Australopithecus afarensis [middle], retained a number of apelike traits, such as long arms and a small brain. Homo erectus [left] was the first human species to exhibit modern proportions. Meanwhile, Homo neanderthalensis [right] had a body built to withstand cold. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
CUTTING-EDGE TOOLS Our forebears used large, pointed stone tools called hand axes for more than a million years. Above are examples from Olduvai Gorge in Africa (1.6 million years old) [left], Isampur in India (1.1 million years old) [middle] and Meyral in France (250,000 years old) [right]. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
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DIGGING FOR DINNER Paranthropus boisei, an australopithecine species that lived in Africa between 2.3 million and 1.4 million years ago, unearths a tuber. This life-size bronze and the others in the exhibit are the work of paleo-artist John Gurche. Visitors are encouraged to touch these sculptures. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
TIME TRAVEL Visitors enter the exhibition through a "time tunnel," which encapsulates humanity's 6-million-year journey. Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
TRANSITIONAL SPECIES Australopithecus afarensis lived between 3.7 million and 3 million years ago. Best known from the "Lucy" fossil, it walked upright yet had a small brain. A. afarensis is one of several candidates for the ancestor of our genus Homo. Copyright 2010 John Gurche
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