The question of how old the human race is: seven thousand, two hundred thousand, two million or a billion is still open. There are several versions. Let's consider the main ones.
Young "homo sapiens" (200-340 thousand years old)
If we talk about the species homo sapiens, that is, "reasonable man", he is relatively young. Official science gives it about 200 thousand years. This conclusion was made based on the study of mitrochondrial DNA and the famous skulls from Ethiopia. The latter were found in 1997 during excavations near the Ethiopian village of Herto. These were the remains of a man and a child, whose age totaled at least 160 thousand years. Today these are the most ancient representatives of Homo sapiens known to us. Scientists have christened them homo Sapiens idaltu, or "the oldest intelligent man."
Around the same time, maybe a little earlier (200 thousand years ago), the progenitor of all modern people, "mitrochondrial Eve", lived there in Africa. Her mitochondrion (a set of genes that is transmitted only through the female line) is in every living person. However, this does not mean that she was the first woman on earth. It's just that in the course of evolution, it was her descendants who were most fortunate. By the way, "Adam", the Y-chromosome of which every man has today is relatively younger than "Eve". It is believed that he lived about 140 thousand years ago.
However, all these data are inaccurate and inconclusive. Science is based only on what it has, and it has not yet been possible to find the more ancient representatives of homo sapiens. But the age of Adam was recently revised, which can add another 140 thousand years to the age of mankind. A recent study of the genes of one African American, Albert Perry and 11 other villagers in Cameroon, showed that they have an older Y chromosome, which was once passed on to his descendants by a man who lived about 340 thousand years ago.
"Homo" - 2.5 million years old
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"Homo sapiens" is a young species, but the genus "Homo" itself, from which it comes, is much older. Not to mention their predecessors - Australopithecines, who were the first to stand on both feet and began to use fire. But if the latter still had too many similarities with monkeys, then the most ancient representatives of the genus "Homo" - homo habilis (a skilled man) were already similar to people.
Its representative, or rather its skull, was found in 1960 in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, along with the bones of a saber-toothed tiger. Perhaps he fell victim to a predator. Then it was established that the remains belonged to a teenager who lived about 2.5 million years ago. His brain was more massive than that of typical australopithecines, his pelvis allowed him to easily move on two legs, and the legs themselves were suitable only for walking upright.
Subsequently, the sensational find was supplemented by an equally sensational discovery - homo habilis himself made tools for labor and hunting, carefully selecting materials for them, leaving for them long distances from the camps. This was found out due to the fact that all his weapons were made of quartz, which was not near the places of residence of the first person. It was homo habilis who created the first - the Olduvai archaeological culture, from which the Paleolithic or Stone Age begins.
Scientific creationism (from 7,500 years ago)
As you know, the theory of evolution is not considered fully proven. Its main competitor was and remains creationism, according to which both all life on Earth and the world as a whole were created by the Supreme mind, the Creator or God. There is also scientific creationism, the followers of which point to scientific confirmation of what is said in the Book of Genesis. They reject the long chain of evolution, claiming that there were no transitional links, all living forms on earth were created complete. And they lived together for a long time: people, dinosaurs, mammals. Up to the flood, the traces of which, according to them, we meet today - this is the great canyon in America, dinosaur bones and other fossils.
Creationists do not have a consensus on the age of humanity and the world, although all of them in this matter are guided by the first three chapters of the first Book of Genesis. The so-called "young earth creationism" takes them literally, insisting that the whole world was created by God in 6 days, about 7,500 years ago. Followers of "old earth creationism" believe that God's activities cannot be measured by human standards. One “day” of creation may not mean a day at all, millions and even billions of years. Thus, it is almost impossible to determine the real age of the earth and humanity in particular. Relatively speaking, this is the interval from 4.6 billion years (when, according to the scientific version, the planet earth was born) to 7500 years ago.