Bernard Wood forecasts the future

Nearly all we know about human evolution before 2 million years ago comes from the Great Rift Valley and a few caves in southern Africa. The first breakthrough will be the discovery of rocks in west, north and central Africa that are the right age – between 8 and 2 million years old – containing fossils of mammals, including our ancestors. The second breakthrough will be in the fine details of how evolution works. By 2056 we will not only know how we differ from chimpanzees, but also how we came to differ. Developmental biologists will be able to explain…