By JOSEPH LELYVELD. Author of 'On the Road' was Hero to Youth--Rejected Middle-Class Values ack Kerouac, the novelist who named the Beat Generation and exuberantly celebrated its rejection of middle-class American conventions, died early yesterday of massive abdominal hemorrhaging in a St. Petersburg, Fla., hospital. He was 47 years old.
Primates are relative newcomers on our planet. The earliest ones are found in the fossil record dating to 50-55 million years ago. These first prosimians thrived during the Eocene Epoch. There were no monkeys or apes for them to compete with yet.he first true primates evolved by 55 million years ago or a bit earlier, near the beginning of the Eocene Epoch. Their fossils have been found in North America, Europe, and Asia. They looked different from the primates today.
The development of human characteristics took place over millions of years. The earliest primate (an order of mammals that includes humans, apes, and monkeys), no bigger than a rat, appeared 60 million years ago. About 10 million years ago, the Ramapithecus showed remarkable hominoid attributes. But there is no further evidence until 6 million years later. The first generally accepted hominoid is called Australopithecus, and some believe they are actually the most primitive of the human lineage. Homo habilis, dating back at least 2 million years in modern-day Africa, is undisputedly human.