Becoming Human Part 2 of 3 "Birth of Humanity" HD (2011)

00:51:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Ra1IX1aPY

Summary

TLDRThe documentary presents a comprehensive examination of Homo erectus, showcasing how this species fundamentally shaped the path of human evolution. Key discoveries, such as the skeleton of Turab Boy, offer crucial information about their physical appearance, capabilities, and social behaviors. The film highlights their mastery of tool-making, use of fire, dietary adaptations, and the emergence of more complex social structures. It also explores the migrations out of Africa, emphasizing that these early humans laid the foundation for modern humanity, making them pivotal in our ancestral lineage.

Takeaways

  • 🦧 Homo erectus is a key ancestor of modern humans.
  • 🔥 They were the first to control fire for cooking.
  • 🔍 Discoveries like Turab Boy deepen our understanding of our origins.
  • 🌍 Migration out of Africa began earlier than previously thought.
  • 🛠️ Tool-making was a significant advancement for survival.
  • 🏃‍♂️ Persistence hunting strategies were crucial for obtaining food.
  • 👥 Social structures were developing among early humans.
  • 👶 Prolonged childhood may have contributed to brain development.
  • 🍖 A diet rich in meat supported their larger brains.
  • 🧬 Genetic studies reveal important insights about human evolution.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The video discusses the evolution of humans from our ape ancestors, highlighting the significance of Homo erectus in understanding the path to humanity. It explores how Homo erectus became the first humans to leave Africa, creating societies and utilizing tools and fire for survival.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Homo erectus emerged approximately 2 million years ago, showcasing advanced abilities like tool-making and hunting that marked a pivotal transition in human evolution from apes to beings resembling modern humans.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    From the discovery of fossil evidence like 'Turab boy', researchers learned about Homo erectus’ physical traits and developed a clearer understanding of how closely they resemble humans today while possessing distinct primitive features.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Turab boy’s skeleton provided insight into the growth patterns of early humans, suggesting he was only eight years old but already 5'3” tall, implying a rapid growth rate similar to that of chimpanzees, leading to questions about childhood development in early humans.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    The video posits that the extended childhood in humans evolved to accommodate large brain size, necessitating prolonged learning periods for survival within complex societies, contrasting with the quick maturation of chimpanzees.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Research indicated that Turab boy's brain, while smaller than modern humans', showed signs of advanced communication capabilities which potentially links him to the beginnings of language development.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Homo erectus overcame challenges in hunting large animals by leveraging endurance running and cooperation, aided by their hairless bodies that enabled effective cooling through sweating during prolonged exertion.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    The insight into Homo erectus' social structure includes a cooperative child-rearing dynamic that supported survival among early humans, contrasting with the strict maternal bonds seen in modern apes.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    The video highlights that Homo erectus were able to migrate out of Africa much earlier than previously believed due to their adaptation to hunting and environmental changes, spreading across continents, including findings from the Caucasus region and the island of Flores, Indonesia.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:51:31

    Fossil discoveries leading to the understanding of Homo erectus’ endurance, social behavior, and complex relationships provide a vital link illuminating the ancestry of modern humans as they evolved into our present form, showcasing the intricate tapestry of human origin.

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Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What is Homo erectus?

    Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived approximately 1.9 million to 110,000 years ago and is considered a direct ancestor of modern humans.

  • What were the key changes in Homo erectus?

    Key changes in Homo erectus include an increase in brain size, the development of bipedalism, and the ability to use tools and control fire.

  • Why is the discovery of Turab Boy important?

    Turab Boy, a nearly complete Homo erectus skeleton, provides significant insights into the physical characteristics and life stages of early human ancestors.

  • How did Homo erectus hunt?

    Homo erectus likely used persistence hunting strategies, following prey until they were exhausted, aided by their ability to sweat and regulate body temperature.

  • What role did fire play in Homo erectus life?

    Fire provided warmth, protection, and allowed for cooking, which made food easier to digest and enhanced social interactions.

  • When did Homo erectus migrate out of Africa?

    Homo erectus began migrating out of Africa approximately 1.8 million years ago, earlier than previously thought.

  • What innovations did Homo erectus introduce?

    Homo erectus introduced tool-making, the use of fire, and social cooperation, which helped in their survival and adaptation.

  • How does Homo erectus compare to modern humans?

    Homo erectus had a smaller brain than modern humans, lower foreheads, and a primarily carnivorous diet, but shared important social and physical traits.

  • What evidence suggests Homo erectus had social behaviors?

    Findings show that Homo erectus may have cared for their sick and elderly, indicating social structures similar to modern human relationships.

  • What is the significance of the Kalahari Bushmen in understanding Homo erectus?

    The hunting strategies of the Kalahari Bushmen provide insights into how Homo erectus may have hunted and survived in their environment.

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  • 00:00:04
    humans without a doubt the smartest
  • 00:00:06
    animal on earth yet we're unmistakably
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    tied to our ape
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    Origins millions of years ago we were
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    Apes living ape lives in Africa so how
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    did we get from
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    that to
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    this what happened what set us on the
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    path to humanity
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    the questions are huge but now there are
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    answers at the threshold of humanity one
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    ancestor contains tantalizing Secrets it
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    is known as Homo erectus homoerectus had
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    a slightly smaller brain slightly bigger
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    jaw but it's basically
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    us basically
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    us almost 2 million years
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    ago new finds are revealing the truth
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    about the ancestors at the heart of our
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    Evolution here were the Trailblazers who
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    first left Africa the first fir makers
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    the first
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    Hunters these creatures were capable of
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    analizing possible uses of tools and
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    coming up with a technological solution
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    to the problem how do you kill a big
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    dangerous animal without getting killed
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    yourself Homo erectus pioneered what it
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    means to be human colonizing whole
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    continents and creating the first human
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    societies our ancestors began to care
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    about what others thought and care about
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    what that individual thought about them
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    now new discoveries are bringing them
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    alive as never before at last we come
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    face to face with the ancestors at the
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    birth of humanity right now on Nova
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    major funding for Nova is provided by
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    the
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    [Music]
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    following the Great Rift valy Valley of
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    East
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    Africa 2 million years ago these
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    spectacular Plains and canyons witnessed
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    a mysterious
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    event the birth of the first ancestor we
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    can really call
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    human new discoveries are revealing a
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    creature surprisingly like us a world
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    traveler a tool maker a hunter Tamer of
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    Fire creator of the first human
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    societies amazingly the qualities that
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    make us human began not with our own
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    species Homo
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    sapiens the true birth of humanity began
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    much further back in time millions of
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    years
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    ago imagine the entire span of recorded
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    human history about 5,000 years years
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    taking us back to the Egyptian pyramids
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    double it 10,000 years to the time when
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    plants are domesticated and agriculture
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    begins double it again 20,000 years Ice
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    Age Hunters are painting stunning images
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    on Cave walls and keep doubling six more
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    times only then do we encounter our
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    ancestor Homo erectus in Africa's great
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    Rift
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    Valley for millions of years this
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    massive geological fault line running
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    the length of East Africa was a stage on
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    which our human evolution was played
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    [Music]
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    out it all started with the first Apes
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    to walk upright on two legs about 6
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    million years
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    [Music]
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    ago there were many different types all
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    variations on the same theme aplike
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    creatures with small
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    brains the fossil known as Lucy is the
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    most famous
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    example here she is just 3' 8 in tall
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    with a brain the size of a
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    chimps for millions of years creatures
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    like her roam the forests and grasslands
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    of
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    Africa but then
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    something
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    changed about 2 million years ago new
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    creatures appeared with abilities never
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    seen before in the animal
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    kingdom meet Homo erectus a toolmaker
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    and
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    Hunter one of the first members of our
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    genus the genus homo
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    humans the transition to homo was
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    probably one of the most important
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    Transformations that occurred in human
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    evolution
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    arms got thinner legs got longer brains
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    got bigger it was a huge evolutionary
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    step from eight bodies to bodies like
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    ours but what about the things that make
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    us distinctly human
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    creativity intelligence caring for each
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    other how can we know when these got
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    started with only skulls and Bone
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    fragments to go on how could we ever
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    know what those first humans were really
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    like it would take a momentous find to
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    shed light on their
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    lives Lake turana Northern
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    Kenya surrounded by volcanoes and vast
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    expanses of baking
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    desert in 1984 famed anthropologists
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    Richard and me leaky were working at
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    this remote Inland Sea I was actually on
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    the east side of the lake and then
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    Richard flew over and said you've got to
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    come there's something really
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    exciting as the first family of
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    paleoanthropology the Leakes were used
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    to Fossil
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    fins but this was very
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    special one of leak's team had found a
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    skull fragment of one of those early
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    humans he could tell from its size and
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    shape it was Homo erectus and there was
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    more than just a fragment so we started
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    looking at this site on a on a more
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    extensive basis and of course once we
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    did we found the rest of the skull a
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    complete skull was rare enough but it
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    was just the beginning soon parts of the
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    homo erectus skeleton which had never
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    been found before started to emerge we
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    couldn't believe it but we started
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    getting pieces of ribs these were parts
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    of hom Reus that nobody actually knew
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    about nobody had ever seen before so
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    every bone that came out of the ground
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    was was something brand new to science
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    and and we were looking at these things
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    and it was really
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    amazing and here they are the actual
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    bones of a human ancestor who lived over
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    1 and A2 million years ago it's the
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    earliest human skeleton ever discovered
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    the Leaky called him turab
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    boy his bones have revolutionized our
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    understanding of the transition from a
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    to human the really important thing
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    about Turon boy is how complete he is
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    we've got arms and legs and bits of his
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    spine and his ribs and usually when we
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    find these things we get very excited
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    about one little bit of bone but that
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    little bit can't tell us very much about
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    an individual so having a nearly
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    complete skeleton we can start to ask
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    big
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    questions the first big question was
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    what did he look like
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    his skeleton tells us he was 5' 3 in
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    tall with a build closer to a man's than
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    an
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    ap's but how
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    close paleo artist Victor deck
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    specializes in painting and sculpting
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    our human ancestors with precise
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    anatomical
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    [Music]
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    accuracy Victor's going to add turab boy
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    to his family of ancient
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    faces at this stage of the game I know
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    that turab boy is not an ape he is a
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    very early true human and so here we
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    have a modern human skull the faces are
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    very similar to one another but turab
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    boy's skull is a bit more primitive and
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    has a lower forehead and a much smaller
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    brain
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    capacity Victor will build to boy's face
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    muscle by
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    muscle based on his studies of cadavers
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    and modern
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    Anatomy while his head may be primitive
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    tono skeleton is surprisingly human his
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    hips are a little wider his arms a
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    little longer but his overall body shape
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    is just like
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    ours tonoy and erectus that's something
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    that if you were to see from 100 ft away
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    you would think well there's a large
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    naked man there woman or or you know but
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    it's a
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    human it will take Victor a week to
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    flush out tur boy's
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    face meanwhile a team of animators is at
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    work creating scenes that will bring tab
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    boy and his people to life to make sure
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    they they do it accurately they have
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    Enlisted the help of Harvard
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    Anthropologist Dan liberman they've had
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    a more forward position of the PMS when
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    they ran just slightly there you
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    go the blue suited actors are there to
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    create movement references for the
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    artists in the final animations they
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    will be replaced by Homo erectus bodies
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    and action their heads and faces based
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    closely on Victor's model
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    as tab boy's forensically reconstructed
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    head nears
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    completion a face emerges that looks a
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    lot like
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    us now for the first time in a million
  • 00:11:13
    and a half years here he is our ancestor
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    the homo erectus called turab
  • 00:11:21
    boy but what he looked like is only the
  • 00:11:25
    beginning of his
  • 00:11:26
    story to reconstruct his life we need to
  • 00:11:30
    find out how old he was and if we look
  • 00:11:33
    at his skeleton we can see that the
  • 00:11:36
    growth plates on his limbs that would
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    fuse when he's fully adult are all
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    unfused so even though he's very tall we
  • 00:11:44
    know that he's still
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    growing the fact that toab boy was not
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    fully grown has turned out to be a boon
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    to
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    researchers you can answer questions
  • 00:11:55
    like did the boy grow up like a modern
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    human or did he grow up more like an
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    ape tur boy was already 5' 3 in tall
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    when scientists compared his bones and
  • 00:12:09
    teeth to ours he seemed to be about 14
  • 00:12:12
    years old but when dental specialist
  • 00:12:15
    Chris Dean began to study his teeth he
  • 00:12:18
    was in for a
  • 00:12:21
    shock it turns out that all teeth fossil
  • 00:12:24
    or not preserve a remarkably precise
  • 00:12:27
    record of childhood
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    this is a fossil tooth and we can see
  • 00:12:33
    the enamel cap which covers the core of
  • 00:12:36
    the tooth which is made of dentine uh
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    dentine is just another word for Ivory
  • 00:12:41
    and within the enamel you can see the
  • 00:12:43
    rods which are running from the enamel
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    denting Junction here out to the surface
  • 00:12:47
    of the
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    tooth enamel has a regular growth
  • 00:12:51
    pattern like the rings of a
  • 00:12:54
    tree under an electron microscope it
  • 00:12:57
    looks like rods made of tiny beads each
  • 00:13:00
    of the little beads along these prisms
  • 00:13:03
    represent one day's growth because the
  • 00:13:05
    cells which produce enamel are actually
  • 00:13:08
    under the influence of a circadian or
  • 00:13:10
    daily clock and those secretions during
  • 00:13:14
    the day speed up and then slow down and
  • 00:13:17
    there's a permanent record of that in
  • 00:13:19
    every
  • 00:13:20
    tooth so you can see rods running all
  • 00:13:24
    the way through this tissue and every
  • 00:13:27
    day along the rod there is a wobble
  • 00:13:30
    where the tissue slows down and then
  • 00:13:32
    speeds
  • 00:13:33
    up so if you count the beads in these
  • 00:13:36
    strings you can figure out exactly how
  • 00:13:38
    many days that tooth has been
  • 00:13:41
    growing when Chris looked at the
  • 00:13:43
    fossilized teeth of tab boy he got a
  • 00:13:46
    huge surprise turab boy wasn't 14 years
  • 00:13:50
    old he was
  • 00:13:52
    eight what that implies is that the
  • 00:13:55
    growth of the takana boy resembled more
  • 00:13:58
    closely than of chimpanzees today to be
  • 00:14:02
    5'3 at age 8 turab boy must have grown
  • 00:14:05
    up very fast at a rate closer to chimps
  • 00:14:09
    than
  • 00:14:10
    us a chimpanzee's childhood is short it
  • 00:14:14
    is sexually mature at about
  • 00:14:17
    7 human childhood is longer we reach
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    puberty at about
  • 00:14:23
    12 so as humans evolved from apes
  • 00:14:26
    childhood was extended
  • 00:14:29
    but what advantage could be gained by
  • 00:14:32
    having helpless children around to feed
  • 00:14:34
    and care for who take so long to grow
  • 00:14:39
    up the mystery of prolonged childhood is
  • 00:14:42
    at the heart of human evolution it may
  • 00:14:45
    be related to brain
  • 00:14:51
    size we humans have the biggest brains
  • 00:14:54
    in the animal kingdom in relation to our
  • 00:14:56
    body
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    size they're so big big that most of our
  • 00:15:00
    brain growth has to happen outside the
  • 00:15:02
    womb or our heads would never get
  • 00:15:04
    through the birth
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    canal a long slow childhood gives our
  • 00:15:09
    brains time to grow after
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    birth and time to learn everything we
  • 00:15:15
    need to function in our complex human
  • 00:15:19
    societies that's the advantage of
  • 00:15:21
    prolonged childhood for us at
  • 00:15:24
    least but what about turab boy
  • 00:15:29
    his brain was 9900 cubic cm smaller than
  • 00:15:32
    ours but more than twice as large as a
  • 00:15:36
    chimp's so was he on the way to thinking
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    and Talking Like
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    Us Ralph Holloway believes he was he's
  • 00:15:46
    been collecting the brain endocasts of
  • 00:15:49
    human ancestors for over 30
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    years an endocast is a mold taken from
  • 00:15:56
    the inside of the skull which reveals
  • 00:15:58
    the shape of the brain Ralph is
  • 00:16:01
    particularly interested in something
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    called the brokas area brokas area
  • 00:16:07
    involved with memory functions executive
  • 00:16:10
    functions but it does have a very
  • 00:16:12
    important role to play in the motor
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    aspects of
  • 00:16:16
    speech in the brain of turab boy Ralph
  • 00:16:19
    believes he sees evidence for something
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    remarkable a change in the broka area
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    tied to
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    communication broka cat regions on the
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    turab boy are fully modern in terms of
  • 00:16:33
    their appearance it is good solid
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    evidence for the having the ability of
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    symbolic Communication in other words
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    language it's a controversial idea and
  • 00:16:46
    we'll never know for sure if turab boy
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    could speak
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    but
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    e
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    e
  • 00:18:27
    e
  • 00:18:57
    e
  • 00:19:27
    e
  • 00:19:57
    e
  • 00:20:27
    e e
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    and Africa was filled with it the one
  • 00:21:07
    highquality resource that's probably
  • 00:21:09
    most important for the evolution of the
  • 00:21:10
    genus homo is meat and meat bribe
  • 00:21:13
    products such as brain and Marrow and
  • 00:21:15
    fat they're high in protein they're high
  • 00:21:17
    in calories and they're easy to digest
  • 00:21:20
    but the one problem with getting meat is
  • 00:21:22
    that it's hard to get most Predators
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    rely on strength or speed to kill the
  • 00:21:28
    prey our ancestors had
  • 00:21:32
    neither today we are on top of the food
  • 00:21:35
    chain so it's hard to imagine the
  • 00:21:37
    predicament of those early
  • 00:21:40
    humans here was a slow moving creature
  • 00:21:43
    with no claws or fangs easy prey for the
  • 00:21:47
    hungry Predators around
  • 00:21:51
    him this is a fossil forehead and brow
  • 00:21:54
    Ridge of a homo erectus and on the brow
  • 00:21:58
    rid you can see the bite mark of a
  • 00:22:01
    carnivore well this reminds us that
  • 00:22:03
    these homoerectus individuals weren't at
  • 00:22:06
    the top of the food
  • 00:22:08
    chain so how did turab boy a weakling
  • 00:22:11
    with a big brain which needed calories
  • 00:22:15
    get his meat homoerectus faced a problem
  • 00:22:18
    how do you kill a big dangerous animal
  • 00:22:20
    that has lots of meat and fat in it
  • 00:22:22
    without that animal also killing you I
  • 00:22:24
    think the answer to that was a very
  • 00:22:26
    clever set of Innovations and that is
  • 00:22:29
    endurance running and high activity in
  • 00:22:31
    the middle of the
  • 00:22:33
    day the ancestors of homo erectus small
  • 00:22:37
    hairy Apes like Lucy were bipedal but
  • 00:22:41
    probably didn't do much
  • 00:22:44
    running but tab boy kind were built to
  • 00:22:47
    run like us a this is an accelerometer
  • 00:22:52
    Dan liberman believes they could run
  • 00:22:53
    long distances because like us they had
  • 00:22:57
    lost their thick coat of body hair and
  • 00:23:00
    could keep Cool by sweating ha's not on
  • 00:23:02
    this was the key to their
  • 00:23:06
    success but how do we know if these
  • 00:23:08
    crucial changes go back all the way to
  • 00:23:11
    toana boy's time over a million years
  • 00:23:15
    ago skin and hair are rarely preserved
  • 00:23:18
    in the fossil record so to find out we
  • 00:23:21
    have to look to a creature that's been
  • 00:23:23
    intimately connected with hair for a
  • 00:23:26
    long time the LA
  • 00:23:29
    all animals seem to have some type of
  • 00:23:30
    lice to parasitize them mammals have
  • 00:23:33
    them birds have them even fish have
  • 00:23:35
    types of lice but most other creatures
  • 00:23:38
    have only one type of Li that parasitize
  • 00:23:40
    them humans have one kind of Lous on
  • 00:23:43
    their heads and another in the pubic
  • 00:23:46
    area geneticist Mark stoning asked
  • 00:23:49
    himself why the answer that seems
  • 00:23:52
    obvious is that when we had body hair
  • 00:23:53
    all over our bodies we had one type of
  • 00:23:56
    Lies but then we became hairless until
  • 00:23:58
    we only add hair on our heads and in our
  • 00:24:00
    pubic region and so therefore you would
  • 00:24:02
    have this hairless Geographic barrier to
  • 00:24:05
    contact between the
  • 00:24:06
    two Mark was surprised to find out that
  • 00:24:09
    the human pubic louse is very different
  • 00:24:12
    from the human head louse somehow in the
  • 00:24:15
    past it seems to have come from
  • 00:24:18
    gorillas because the pubic Li that is
  • 00:24:21
    actually more closely related to gorilla
  • 00:24:22
    lice now how it is our ancestors got
  • 00:24:24
    pubic lice from gorillas I wouldn't care
  • 00:24:27
    to
  • 00:24:29
    speculate nonetheless one needs gorilla
  • 00:24:32
    life in order to really work this whole
  • 00:24:34
    thing
  • 00:24:35
    out the most likely scenario is that
  • 00:24:39
    when we lost our body hair the original
  • 00:24:41
    human louse migrated to our heads
  • 00:24:45
    leaving the pubic area temporarily
  • 00:24:47
    unpopulated by lice when our ancestors
  • 00:24:51
    had contact with gorillas perhaps
  • 00:24:54
    sleeping in their nests or Scavenging
  • 00:24:56
    their bodies for meat the gorilla louse
  • 00:25:00
    colonized their pubic region eventually
  • 00:25:03
    it turned into the human pubic louse of
  • 00:25:07
    today so if we could find out when the
  • 00:25:10
    human pubic louse and the gorilla louse
  • 00:25:13
    diverged we would have a rough idea of
  • 00:25:16
    when we lost our body
  • 00:25:19
    hair fortunately there's a way to figure
  • 00:25:22
    that out the genetic dating technique
  • 00:25:25
    known as the molecular clock
  • 00:25:28
    it's based on the fact that the sequence
  • 00:25:30
    of chemical bases which make up DNA
  • 00:25:34
    mutate at a regular rate it's just a
  • 00:25:37
    very simple idea that the rate of change
  • 00:25:40
    in DNA sequences is more or less
  • 00:25:43
    constant over time and that means that
  • 00:25:45
    you have a way of determining when two
  • 00:25:48
    species last Shar a common
  • 00:25:51
    ancestor by counting the number of
  • 00:25:53
    differences in the genetic code of two
  • 00:25:55
    species scientists can determine how
  • 00:25:58
    long they've been evolving away from
  • 00:26:00
    each other when Mark used the molecular
  • 00:26:03
    clock to count the differences between
  • 00:26:06
    the DNA of gorilla lice and human pubic
  • 00:26:10
    lice he came up with a date for their
  • 00:26:13
    Divergence the estimated date for the
  • 00:26:15
    Divergence is roughly 3 million years
  • 00:26:18
    ago that means long before turab boy
  • 00:26:21
    maybe even around Lucy's time our
  • 00:26:24
    ancestors had slowly begun to lose their
  • 00:26:27
    body hair
  • 00:26:31
    turab boy was mostly hairless just like
  • 00:26:37
    us and that may be what gave him an edge
  • 00:26:40
    over other
  • 00:26:42
    Predators most animals are at a
  • 00:26:45
    disadvantage in the midday sun because
  • 00:26:47
    they overheat they can only cool down by
  • 00:26:51
    panting and when they run fast they
  • 00:26:54
    can't pant that means they can only run
  • 00:26:58
    in in short
  • 00:27:00
    Sprints quadrupeds can G for about 10 to
  • 00:27:02
    15 minutes and then they overheat but
  • 00:27:05
    hominids can cool down by sweating they
  • 00:27:08
    use their entire body like like a dog's
  • 00:27:11
    tongue our hairless bodies allow air to
  • 00:27:15
    circulate freely on our skin and cool us
  • 00:27:18
    down as sweat evaporates this makes us
  • 00:27:21
    one of the best longdistance runners in
  • 00:27:23
    the animal
  • 00:27:25
    kingdom Dan liberman believes this gave
  • 00:27:27
    our ancestors the ability to hunt in a
  • 00:27:31
    very unusual way it's called persistence
  • 00:27:35
    [Music]
  • 00:27:37
    hunting and he believes the modern
  • 00:27:40
    ethnographic record can show us how it
  • 00:27:42
    was
  • 00:27:45
    done the Bushmen of the Kalahari offer
  • 00:27:49
    us an insight into how Homo erectus
  • 00:27:52
    might have hunted 2 million years
  • 00:27:55
    ago the Bushmen know that at midday
  • 00:27:59
    animals rest in the shade which is why
  • 00:28:02
    it's the perfect time to be
  • 00:28:04
    hunting once they locate their prey in
  • 00:28:08
    this case audo the marathon
  • 00:28:11
    [Music]
  • 00:28:17
    begins their strategy is simple run it
  • 00:28:20
    to
  • 00:28:22
    exhaustion every time the animal tries
  • 00:28:25
    to rest the hunters track it down and
  • 00:28:28
    get it moving again they never give it a
  • 00:28:31
    chance to cool
  • 00:28:33
    down and the reason they can keep going
  • 00:28:36
    is that they can
  • 00:28:41
    sweat so if the theory is right the
  • 00:28:44
    Bushman hunt may help explain how tab
  • 00:28:47
    boy got his
  • 00:28:50
    meat Homo erectus had come up with an
  • 00:28:53
    Innovative way of feeding his hungry
  • 00:28:56
    brain
  • 00:29:02
    in this modern hunt the Bushmen ran in
  • 00:29:05
    the fierce heat for over 4
  • 00:29:09
    hours the kudu was finally immobilized
  • 00:29:12
    by heat
  • 00:29:15
    stroke turab boy wouldn't have had steel
  • 00:29:19
    tip Spears like the Bushmen but he
  • 00:29:22
    wouldn't have needed
  • 00:29:26
    them hom is probably hunted with Close
  • 00:29:28
    Quarters weapons with Spears that were
  • 00:29:30
    thrown at animals from a short distance
  • 00:29:32
    clubs thrown rocks weapons like that
  • 00:29:35
    they weren't using longdistance
  • 00:29:37
    projectile weapons that we know
  • 00:29:38
    [Music]
  • 00:29:41
    of the homo erectus hunt was simple but
  • 00:29:46
    effective it fed not just their larger
  • 00:29:48
    brains but the growing complexity of
  • 00:29:51
    that early human society
  • 00:29:58
    there are other social animals but none
  • 00:30:01
    quite like
  • 00:30:02
    [Music]
  • 00:30:06
    us Society is in every corner of our
  • 00:30:09
    lives our relationships
  • 00:30:12
    communication rules symbolism all the
  • 00:30:16
    things that bind us
  • 00:30:18
    together what's behind it why do we
  • 00:30:21
    become so
  • 00:30:24
    social could it have something to do
  • 00:30:27
    with another
  • 00:30:29
    Innovation something unprecedented in
  • 00:30:31
    our
  • 00:30:33
    Evolution building fires and
  • 00:30:36
    cooking here we got erectus the first
  • 00:30:39
    species that looks like us and I think
  • 00:30:41
    only cooking can explain the magnitude
  • 00:30:44
    of this
  • 00:30:45
    change the earliest evidence that our
  • 00:30:48
    ancestors deliberately used fire for
  • 00:30:50
    cooking dates to long after taboy
  • 00:30:54
    time but Richard rangam is sure homeo
  • 00:30:58
    erectus was building fires much
  • 00:31:02
    earlier now for the first time we had a
  • 00:31:04
    species that was committed to living on
  • 00:31:06
    the ground because they lose their
  • 00:31:08
    climbing
  • 00:31:09
    adaptations well how were they sleeping
  • 00:31:13
    they had to be able to protect
  • 00:31:14
    themselves from wild animals on the
  • 00:31:17
    African Savannah full of predators who
  • 00:31:20
    hunt by Night Richard believes turab boy
  • 00:31:23
    and his people couldn't have survived
  • 00:31:26
    Without fire
  • 00:31:28
    and he thinks only cooking which makes
  • 00:31:31
    food more soft and digestible can
  • 00:31:33
    explain why Homo erectus evolves smaller
  • 00:31:37
    teeth and a much smaller gut these
  • 00:31:40
    things are compatible with the reduced
  • 00:31:42
    cost of digestion produced by cooking
  • 00:31:44
    food nothing else is as our ancestors
  • 00:31:48
    reaped the benefits of cooking something
  • 00:31:51
    else happened too at least according to
  • 00:31:54
    rangam we became more social humans have
  • 00:31:58
    this wonderfully calm temperament
  • 00:32:00
    compared to chimpanzees say where did it
  • 00:32:03
    come from we were drawn to a common
  • 00:32:06
    place the
  • 00:32:08
    fireplace rum believes we learn to share
  • 00:32:11
    and
  • 00:32:13
    communicate sitting around fires waiting
  • 00:32:16
    for food to
  • 00:32:19
    cook it's speculative but one thing is
  • 00:32:22
    for sure in the homo erectus World new
  • 00:32:25
    social relationships had to be
  • 00:32:29
    evolving the bonds between mothers and
  • 00:32:31
    children must have been very different
  • 00:32:34
    from the
  • 00:32:37
    Apes for example a mother Oran will not
  • 00:32:41
    allow any other individual to take her
  • 00:32:44
    infant will be in constant skin-to-skin
  • 00:32:47
    contact with that baby for at least the
  • 00:32:50
    first 6 months of life not a moment out
  • 00:32:52
    of contact secure in this unbreakable
  • 00:32:56
    mother infant Bond ape babies need less
  • 00:32:59
    capacity to read the intentions of
  • 00:33:01
    others than human
  • 00:33:03
    babies whose bond with their mothers is
  • 00:33:06
    surprisingly less
  • 00:33:08
    secure the shocking fact is that human
  • 00:33:12
    mothers abandon their infants much more
  • 00:33:15
    often than AP mothers infanticide by a
  • 00:33:18
    mother is more common among humans than
  • 00:33:22
    any other higher ape maternal commitment
  • 00:33:25
    is a lot more contingent in humans than
  • 00:33:27
    it seems to be in other Apes unlike most
  • 00:33:31
    primates human mothers share parenting
  • 00:33:34
    with
  • 00:33:36
    others a child's survival can depend on
  • 00:33:39
    making itself appealing to a number of
  • 00:33:42
    caregivers perhaps that's why human
  • 00:33:45
    infants have evolved a uniquely acute
  • 00:33:49
    sensitivity human infants are born
  • 00:33:52
    connoisseurs of mothers reading her
  • 00:33:55
    facial expression looking for signs of
  • 00:34:01
    commitment we are born hardwired with an
  • 00:34:04
    awareness of the intentions and emotions
  • 00:34:07
    of others which is unique in the animal
  • 00:34:11
    world when did humans develop this gift
  • 00:34:16
    for attributing mental States and
  • 00:34:19
    feelings to others and for caring about
  • 00:34:21
    what others thought about
  • 00:34:24
    them could these social instincts have
  • 00:34:27
    developed with Homo erectus along with
  • 00:34:30
    Cooperative hunting bigger brains longer
  • 00:34:33
    childhoods and the use of
  • 00:34:37
    fire perhaps tab boy and his people
  • 00:34:41
    already had social skills that would be
  • 00:34:43
    familiar to
  • 00:34:45
    us here were intelligent social beings
  • 00:34:49
    with an increasing capacity for
  • 00:34:55
    cooperation it may be this that made
  • 00:34:58
    possible another great achievement The
  • 00:35:01
    Exodus from
  • 00:35:04
    Africa for millions of years our
  • 00:35:06
    earliest ancestors stayed on the African
  • 00:35:10
    savanas but at some point they started
  • 00:35:13
    to
  • 00:35:15
    leave ancient fossil skulls and tools
  • 00:35:18
    have been found as far away as China and
  • 00:35:22
    Indonesia the question is when did they
  • 00:35:25
    leave Africa and why
  • 00:35:29
    why when turab boy was found scientists
  • 00:35:32
    thought they had the
  • 00:35:34
    answer here was a strong large-brained
  • 00:35:37
    ancestor capable of an arduous
  • 00:35:41
    migration he had the look of a World
  • 00:35:44
    Conqueror in the mid 1980s we were
  • 00:35:47
    thinking that a homonid like this one
  • 00:35:49
    had left Africa but had done it maybe
  • 00:35:51
    about a million years
  • 00:35:54
    ago for decades scientists believed big
  • 00:35:57
    strapping humans like turab boy left
  • 00:36:01
    Africa a million years ago but new
  • 00:36:04
    discoveries are showing the migration
  • 00:36:06
    may have started a lot earlier than
  • 00:36:10
    that dimini
  • 00:36:13
    Georgia the mountains and plains of the
  • 00:36:16
    Caucasus thousands of miles from the
  • 00:36:18
    Great Rift Valley had never produced any
  • 00:36:21
    fossils of early human
  • 00:36:25
    ancestors but then an astonishing
  • 00:36:28
    Discovery was
  • 00:36:34
    made it was a lower jaw with teeth
  • 00:36:38
    downward this way in the
  • 00:36:41
    ground so when I started to clean those
  • 00:36:44
    front teeth came to light it became
  • 00:36:47
    obvious to me that we had found some
  • 00:36:49
    kind of
  • 00:36:50
    homade but what
  • 00:36:53
    kind the jaw seemed to be a primitive
  • 00:36:56
    form of homo
  • 00:36:58
    rectus but at first hardly anyone
  • 00:37:01
    believed
  • 00:37:02
    it in ' 91 when we found this
  • 00:37:06
    Joe this was lot of scientists were
  • 00:37:09
    quite skeptical about it was it was very
  • 00:37:12
    hard to imagine georia Caucasus to be on
  • 00:37:16
    the map of the human
  • 00:37:18
    evolution since then demoni has been put
  • 00:37:22
    on the map of human evolution in a big
  • 00:37:25
    way the site has turned up a Treasure
  • 00:37:27
    Trove of homo erectus
  • 00:37:30
    fossils they've transformed our
  • 00:37:33
    understanding of who left Africa and
  • 00:37:36
    when they showed that the first humans
  • 00:37:39
    to leave Africa were much more primitive
  • 00:37:41
    than turab boy people thought that homin
  • 00:37:45
    that left Africa were very tall like
  • 00:37:48
    turab boy with big Brands advanced
  • 00:37:51
    technology and the Mani proved the the
  • 00:37:55
    opposite at 4 and 1/2 ft tall they were
  • 00:37:58
    smaller than turab
  • 00:38:00
    boy with more aplike shoulders and a
  • 00:38:03
    simple stone technology they are much
  • 00:38:06
    more primitive they have small brains
  • 00:38:09
    and same time they were using very
  • 00:38:12
    primitive stone
  • 00:38:14
    tools the next surprise came when they
  • 00:38:17
    dated the
  • 00:38:19
    site the ancient dimini landscape has
  • 00:38:22
    been built up layer by layer over
  • 00:38:24
    millions of years
  • 00:38:28
    1.81 million years ago massive volcanic
  • 00:38:32
    eruptions deposited a layer of
  • 00:38:35
    Ash the fossils sat on top of this ash
  • 00:38:39
    so must have been slightly younger
  • 00:38:41
    around 1.8 million years
  • 00:38:45
    old to the vast majority of scientists
  • 00:38:48
    who believe that all our ancestors
  • 00:38:50
    evolved in Africa this was a stunning
  • 00:38:54
    surprise how had a small primitive home
  • 00:38:57
    Homo erectus migrated to the caucuses
  • 00:39:00
    almost 2 million years ago long before
  • 00:39:05
    taboy scientists now accept that as soon
  • 00:39:08
    as Homo erectus appeared on the savannas
  • 00:39:11
    of Africa they started to
  • 00:39:14
    leave suddenly with the origin of homo
  • 00:39:17
    erectus we get this shift in body shape
  • 00:39:20
    and then boom They're Out of Africa
  • 00:39:22
    right
  • 00:39:22
    away the Georgia fossils proved that
  • 00:39:25
    homo erectus left Africa much earlier
  • 00:39:28
    than previously thought an even more
  • 00:39:31
    provocative find shows the migration may
  • 00:39:34
    have started even
  • 00:39:37
    earlier 5,000 mil from
  • 00:39:42
    Africa the island of Flores
  • 00:39:47
    Indonesia in 2003 researchers made a
  • 00:39:51
    discovery so strange nobody knew what to
  • 00:39:54
    make of
  • 00:39:55
    it they found the B B of A tiny human
  • 00:39:59
    ancestor just over 3 ft tall even
  • 00:40:03
    smaller than the dimini fossils they
  • 00:40:06
    called this baffling new ancestor homo
  • 00:40:10
    floresiensis and because of its tiny
  • 00:40:12
    size nicknamed it The
  • 00:40:17
    Hobbit this has created a tremendous
  • 00:40:20
    amount of grief because we're not really
  • 00:40:22
    sure of what we're seeing here uh the
  • 00:40:25
    size of the hoppit brain endic cast is
  • 00:40:27
    roughly 400
  • 00:40:31
    CC's that's barely bigger than the brain
  • 00:40:33
    of Lucy the famous bipedal AE from 3
  • 00:40:36
    million years
  • 00:40:40
    ago it's not just a small brain and A
  • 00:40:43
    Primitive looking face but the foot is
  • 00:40:45
    primitive the hand's primitive the leg
  • 00:40:47
    is primitive the lower limb is very much
  • 00:40:49
    like zy skeleton that was a big
  • 00:40:53
    surprise and in the cave where this
  • 00:40:55
    primitive creature was found
  • 00:40:57
    they also uncovered stone tools
  • 00:41:00
    something Lucy never
  • 00:41:03
    had people have for a long time said
  • 00:41:05
    well you need a big brain to make stone
  • 00:41:07
    tools uh well okay if homop Anis is
  • 00:41:09
    making stone tools this creature has a
  • 00:41:10
    brain the size of an orange clearly that
  • 00:41:12
    equation's
  • 00:41:15
    gone everything about these creatures is
  • 00:41:18
    an
  • 00:41:19
    enigma where did they come from and what
  • 00:41:22
    were they some researchers have argued
  • 00:41:24
    that floresiensis is just a dwarf
  • 00:41:27
    population of modern people that
  • 00:41:29
    suffered some kind of disease that
  • 00:41:31
    caused them to both dwarf and have
  • 00:41:34
    relatively small
  • 00:41:35
    brains but when scientists took a closer
  • 00:41:38
    look most saw no evidence of
  • 00:41:41
    disease the stone tools and the shape of
  • 00:41:44
    the face moved the focus to our old
  • 00:41:47
    friend Homo
  • 00:41:49
    erectus some researchers think that homo
  • 00:41:52
    fanis evolved from Homo
  • 00:41:55
    erectus but how did they get so so
  • 00:41:58
    small something called Island dwarfism
  • 00:42:01
    may be the
  • 00:42:03
    answer isolated on islands with limited
  • 00:42:06
    food large mammals sometimes shrink over
  • 00:42:10
    time on flues there were once pygmy
  • 00:42:13
    elephants the size of
  • 00:42:17
    cows could the same evolutionary
  • 00:42:19
    pressure have acted on Homo erectus to
  • 00:42:22
    produce The
  • 00:42:23
    Hobbit or was this mysterious creature
  • 00:42:26
    descended from an even more primitive
  • 00:42:29
    ancestor so perhaps we're sampling a
  • 00:42:33
    period which is at the very beginning of
  • 00:42:35
    the homo
  • 00:42:37
    lineage so whatever The Hobbit was
  • 00:42:40
    perhaps its ancestors were the very
  • 00:42:42
    first wave of migration Out of Africa
  • 00:42:46
    some unknown creature part bipedal ape
  • 00:42:50
    like Lucy and part Homo erectus
  • 00:42:54
    [Music]
  • 00:42:59
    so if that's the case then what we see
  • 00:43:01
    in Indonesia makes sense it's kind of a
  • 00:43:03
    body that existed before human bodies
  • 00:43:06
    became more
  • 00:43:11
    modern what would push such primitive
  • 00:43:13
    creatures out of
  • 00:43:20
    Africa a key driving force behind the
  • 00:43:23
    migration was probably a climate shift
  • 00:43:27
    which spread grasslands from Africa into
  • 00:43:31
    [Music]
  • 00:43:35
    Asia and with the grasses went the game
  • 00:43:39
    animals animals are going to be moving
  • 00:43:41
    out of Africa and the homs will just be
  • 00:43:43
    keeping Pace with those animals after
  • 00:43:45
    all that's their
  • 00:43:46
    livelihood of course our ancestors
  • 00:43:49
    didn't know they were leaving Africa
  • 00:43:52
    they just followed the animals they
  • 00:43:53
    depended on through the cyani up into
  • 00:43:56
    the middle e East and
  • 00:44:00
    Beyond it's often been called an exodus
  • 00:44:03
    but it really wasn't like that when
  • 00:44:06
    people think of Exodus they think of the
  • 00:44:08
    Bible or they think of migration they
  • 00:44:09
    think of Europeans coming over here to
  • 00:44:11
    the new world it probably wasn't like
  • 00:44:14
    any historical migration this dispersal
  • 00:44:16
    of humans Out of
  • 00:44:18
    Africa the process was probably very
  • 00:44:22
    very
  • 00:44:23
    slow much like the spread of any other
  • 00:44:26
    animal species into new
  • 00:44:28
    territories you could imagine a group of
  • 00:44:31
    homo erectus moving their range a
  • 00:44:35
    kilometer a year in One Direction and
  • 00:44:38
    doing that continually over a long
  • 00:44:40
    enough period of time you can get the
  • 00:44:43
    distance from Africa to Indonesia
  • 00:44:45
    covered in say 15,000
  • 00:44:50
    years by a million years ago our
  • 00:44:53
    ancestors had populated Asia from the
  • 00:44:55
    caucuses to
  • 00:44:59
    Indonesia and they were in Europe too as
  • 00:45:02
    a recent discovery in Spain has
  • 00:45:04
    [Music]
  • 00:45:06
    shown Homo erectus had conquered the old
  • 00:45:15
    world the fact that they made it so far
  • 00:45:18
    with limited technology and relatively
  • 00:45:20
    small brains makes them seem even more
  • 00:45:24
    remarkable
  • 00:45:27
    and their longevity was astonishing a
  • 00:45:31
    few pockets of homo erectus may have
  • 00:45:33
    been still Clinging On in Asia just
  • 00:45:36
    50,000 years ago that's a span of 2
  • 00:45:40
    million
  • 00:45:43
    years our own species has only been
  • 00:45:46
    around for
  • 00:45:49
    200,000 what was the secret of homo
  • 00:45:52
    erectus
  • 00:45:55
    success the amazing finds at dimini have
  • 00:45:58
    given us one last
  • 00:46:01
    clue one of the skulls belonged to an
  • 00:46:04
    old man his Jawbone revealed he had lost
  • 00:46:07
    all his teeth well before he died that
  • 00:46:11
    was a real surprise it means that this
  • 00:46:13
    individual survived two years without
  • 00:46:17
    teeth for an elder to have survived that
  • 00:46:21
    long without teeth must mean that others
  • 00:46:24
    in the group were feeding him perhaps
  • 00:46:26
    perhaps even chewing his food for him I
  • 00:46:30
    love this story this was a remarkable
  • 00:46:33
    testimony from the past about the
  • 00:46:36
    quality of emotional life that may have
  • 00:46:39
    characterized Homo
  • 00:46:42
    erectus here is a tantalizing clue to
  • 00:46:45
    what may be this ancestor's most
  • 00:46:47
    important
  • 00:46:48
    Legacy the instinct to look after each
  • 00:46:54
    other and it helps us imagine tab boy's
  • 00:46:58
    final day on
  • 00:47:05
    Earth in the animator's scenario he
  • 00:47:08
    starts the day out on a
  • 00:47:12
    hunt but he has trouble keeping up with
  • 00:47:15
    the hunting
  • 00:47:16
    party
  • 00:47:19
    why the evidence from his skeleton is
  • 00:47:22
    that he was sick and in pain at the time
  • 00:47:24
    he
  • 00:47:25
    died if we look at his lower jaw we can
  • 00:47:29
    see right here under the teeth that
  • 00:47:31
    we've got a bit of an abscess and an
  • 00:47:34
    infection that kind of an infection
  • 00:47:36
    could have entered the rest of his body
  • 00:47:38
    could have killed him an abscess that
  • 00:47:40
    ate away that much of his Jawbone would
  • 00:47:43
    have been
  • 00:47:45
    agonizing turab boy is in so much pain
  • 00:47:49
    he's unable to continue the
  • 00:47:54
    hunt knowing he would be looked after
  • 00:47:57
    perhaps he returned to his campsite to
  • 00:47:59
    find Comfort among the
  • 00:48:02
    females I think he was probably a
  • 00:48:05
    miserable fellow um in a lot of pain and
  • 00:48:08
    very dependent on on support and
  • 00:48:11
    handouts so it was a species that
  • 00:48:14
    already felt that he one of our
  • 00:48:16
    weaklings that you know we love and must
  • 00:48:18
    must protect and care for to have got
  • 00:48:20
    him that
  • 00:48:22
    far but however much they may have
  • 00:48:24
    wanted to help him they would nothing
  • 00:48:27
    they could do about the infection that
  • 00:48:29
    was probably spreading through his
  • 00:48:34
    body from what the evidence suggests I
  • 00:48:37
    just always imagined him not knowing
  • 00:48:40
    what was wrong with him and there's a
  • 00:48:44
    sadness to it but ultimately from that
  • 00:48:47
    comes this Immortal
  • 00:48:51
    being his skeleton was so complete it is
  • 00:48:56
    likely he died in water which would have
  • 00:48:58
    protected
  • 00:48:59
    [Music]
  • 00:49:03
    him it's very unusual to get a skeleton
  • 00:49:06
    because normally these things are eaten
  • 00:49:08
    by Carnival and in this case it seems
  • 00:49:10
    that the boy's body was washed into a
  • 00:49:12
    swamp and so the carnivals never saw it
  • 00:49:15
    and never destroyed it and it gradually
  • 00:49:17
    decomposed and as the rivers flooded
  • 00:49:20
    brought in more sediment buried it and
  • 00:49:23
    you could see Footprints of hippos that
  • 00:49:24
    had walked all over the bones and and
  • 00:49:27
    some of the ribs and things were
  • 00:49:28
    standing vertically instead of lying
  • 00:49:30
    flat on the ground and you could sort of
  • 00:49:32
    reconstruct the situation and how how
  • 00:49:34
    the boy what had happened after he died
  • 00:49:36
    and and why he was complet it was just
  • 00:49:39
    it really was it was an amazing
  • 00:49:40
    experience to see
  • 00:49:41
    [Music]
  • 00:49:45
    it for almost 2 million years his bones
  • 00:49:49
    were preserved by the Earth their
  • 00:49:52
    Discovery opened a window for us on an
  • 00:49:54
    unknown world
  • 00:49:57
    the world of the most successful human
  • 00:49:59
    ancestor of all
  • 00:50:02
    time Homo
  • 00:50:04
    [Music]
  • 00:50:05
    erectus they've revealed to us that
  • 00:50:08
    mysterious moment when almost everything
  • 00:50:11
    human was born our bodies Our Minds our
  • 00:50:20
    emotions think of all we've become
  • 00:50:24
    [Music]
  • 00:50:28
    trace the threads of our Origins through
  • 00:50:31
    the ancestors who went before they all
  • 00:50:34
    lead back to taboy and His Kind the
  • 00:50:38
    first humans
  • 00:50:40
    [Music]
  • 00:51:02
    this Nova program is available on DVD
  • 00:51:05
    and Blu-ray at shop
  • 00:51:07
    pbs.org or call 1800 play PBS
  • 00:51:11
    [Music]
  • 00:51:19
    [Applause]
  • 00:51:19
    [Music]
  • 00:51:28
    [Music]
Tags
  • Homo erectus
  • human evolution
  • Turab Boy
  • migration
  • tool-making
  • fire
  • diet
  • social behavior
  • persistence hunting
  • ancestors