Documentary, 1 Walking with Cavemen (Prehistoric Earth Version) Episode 1
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00:00Have you ever wondered
00:29what incredible stories you might discover
00:32if you could go back and spend time with your ancestors?
00:36Not like here, to just a few generations ago,
00:40but through millennia, to thousands of generations ago.
00:46To an ancestor who shared the world with the Neanderthals.
00:52Jump back 60,000 generations
00:55and we'd meet one of the first people to ever step foot outside Africa.
01:02A hundred thousand generations
01:04and meeting the relatives would be even more intimidating
01:07than you could ever have imagined.
01:12Well, that's just what we're going to do.
01:15Travel through time to meet the creatures who have become us
01:19and see how their lives led to the amazing reality of ours.
01:25Our dead ancestors have left us a key to unlock the past.
01:29With their fossil bones and relics as a guide,
01:32scientists can build a picture of what it would be like to travel back in time.
01:38These tiny pieces hold secrets, not only to how our ancestors died,
01:48but to how they lived.
01:55From our closest cousins, the Neanderthals,
01:58to the first fierce Europeans.
02:01From our ancestors with the wit to survive in the jungles of Asia,
02:15to the first true families who work together in sun-baked Africa.
02:20We're journeying back in time,
02:27revealing with each step the mysterious ingredients that make us unique
02:33and meeting the first creatures to have them.
02:37The earliest tool-makers.
02:40The heavyweight contenders who shaped our past.
02:45We've travelled back three and a half million years
02:48to Africa.
02:52To meet a creature who began the journey from apes to us.
03:01This is your ancient ancestor from 300,000 generations ago.
03:07Australopithecus afarensis.
03:10They're nesting for the night.
03:12This one has a special role in the story of you and me.
03:19We'll call her Lucy.
03:21She's special to someone else as well.
03:23Her infant, born just a few days ago.
03:26Lucy's troop is engaged in a turf war.
03:30A potentially violent territorial dispute.
03:33In the morning, it will change their lives forever.
03:36The
03:42The
03:46The
03:48The
03:50The
03:53For Aparensis, like apes of any time, filling up with water is an important mission of the
04:14morning.
04:23But there is something that sets these creatures apart from any ape that's gone before them.
04:45They can stand and walk on two legs.
04:50This is the troop's most senior male.
04:53He's also the father of Lucy's infant.
04:55He's 25 years old and in his prime.
04:59He could live as long as 50 years.
05:04That's Ancylotherium, an ancestor of the rhino.
05:12In this prehistoric world, it's the leader's strength that holds the troop together.
05:20But if you thought the now-dead leader, or any other aparensis, dominated this prehistoric
05:39world, you'd be wrong.
05:45Aside from walking upright, there's really nothing very remarkable about these creatures
05:50at all.
05:51They are as subject to the laws of nature as everything else.
06:00Yet Lucy and her kind are the ancestors of you and me.
06:10To discover exactly what makes them so special, we must watch them rather more closely.
06:20Lucy is 22.
06:22She's mother, not only to her new infant, but to several others in the troop, including
06:30this adolescent female, who also makes a handy babysitter.
06:43The sound is an unsettling one.
06:51It's aparensis, but a rival troop.
06:55Several times the territory of Lucy's troop has been invaded in a battle for its rich pickings.
07:06And their leader presents another problem.
07:10Two males are contenders for supremacy.
07:13He is the quiet man of the troop, dependable and solid, whilst he is quite the opposite,
07:19brash and impulsive.
07:24Now they're driven to work together.
07:25A patrol party must be organised, and the males will rouse themselves into a frenzy of display
07:32to form one.
07:46We believe an aparensis troop has a territory like modern chimps.
07:51Just ten square miles, bounded by rivers and mountains.
08:03Though the adults know their way around their land well, a crossroads is a flashpoint for
08:08the leadership battle to begin.
08:20The first skirmishers are noisy displays.
08:25The stakes couldn't be higher.
08:28The eventual winner will gain respect and the favours of the troop's females.
08:32Meanwhile, the rival troop is surprisingly close by.
08:43These reed beds form the overlap between the neighbouring afarensis territories.
08:48Apparently neither troop comes here, as they're not a good place for fruits and food.
08:53But this group of marauding males is on the trail of something different.
08:58Lucy, probably whilst foraging nearby, she's disturbed them.
09:10An isolated afarensis is always vulnerable.
09:14The intruder males will seek them out and attack them to warn off their troop.
09:18At just over a metre tall, a female like Lucy is an easy target.
09:24If they found her now, they'd almost certainly kill her.
09:37It's a lucky escape.
09:47With the trail cold, the intruder males move on.
09:55The river marks the southernmost border with Lucy's troops' land.
10:00It also makes a handy refreshment stop.
10:07Not only for the intruders.
10:12By pure chance, the patrol party from Lucy's troop has also stopped by for a drink.
10:18As with rival apes of any time, the encounter provokes a face-off.
10:22With water between them, actual bloodshed is unlikely.
10:27Which is lucky, as the intruders have arrived in numbers.
10:33If they were to meet on different grounds, there might be a pretty uneven fight.
10:39The more you watch of these creatures, the more like apes they seem.
10:43So why, in the one crucial aspect, are they so very unlike apes?
10:48What on earth could have happened to make an ape stand upright and walk on two legs?
10:57The answer is, the world's changed.
11:03Apes travel even further back in time, before even Afarensis was around.
11:13We're still in Africa, but it's eight million years ago, and home to the true living ancestor
11:19of Lucy and her kind.
11:23We've never found any fossil evidence of these mysterious apes.
11:27But we know a few vital things about them.
11:34We know that, like modern apes, they use their hands, as well as their feet, to move around.
11:43We know that's true because it's the only way to get around in their dense forest home.
11:48But how do we know this forest is their home?
11:54Because eight million years ago, this forest is everywhere.
12:00Africa is covered almost from edge to edge.
12:03And it's the forest, and what happened to it, that holds the secret of why an ancient
12:08tree-swinging ape was transformed into a two-footed Afarensis.
12:12Yet the catalyst for this change doesn't come from trees, but from beneath the sea's surface.
12:25Here, thousands of miles away, the ocean floor is expanding.
12:29The Earth itself is on the move, at about the speed that fingernails grow.
12:38It's changing the face of the planet.
12:45A vast chunk of the Earth's crust has been pushed to the north.
12:49One day, we will know it as India.
12:59Deep underground, as it collides with Asia, it creates a twisted mass of rock.
13:05The biggest mountain range on the planet, the Himalayas.
13:16The mountains are having an extraordinary effect on the world's weather.
13:21They've prompted some of the heaviest storms ever seen, the monsoons.
13:32The rain strip the air of moisture, so the air currents that reach Africa are not wet, but dry.
13:43The rain forests retreat.
13:46Over millions of years, a scattered landscape takes shape.
13:54And something else has changed the scenery.
13:57A vast chasm.
14:00The Great Rift Valley has ripped through one side of Africa.
14:04It's altered the habitat still further.
14:11Everything from beetles to apes has had to keep pace with this phenomenal change.
14:17Our tree swinging ancestors have evolved.
14:24Forced to spend more time on the ground, they've become the upright walking afarensis we've met.
14:30Like Lucy.
14:31But why use only two feet to get around on the ground?
14:46It's easy to think that being upright brings obvious advantages.
15:03Lucy can stand taller and see further.
15:07But that also means everything else can see her.
15:14It's a black eagle.
15:16An expert aerial hunter.
15:18An adult afarensis is too big to take on.
15:22But where there are adults, there are infants.
15:29But at least they will be the two feet to have to get out of the ground.
15:32You've got to make the park.
15:33To see them their feet to here.
15:34In its way, you've got to make the park.
15:35The deer is over.
15:36The deer is around there.
15:38It's easy to cut on the ground.
15:39The deer is around here.
15:40It'ssst efficient enough to manage the perfect crew with theduction of the sea.
15:41The deer is around here.
15:43The deer is over.
15:48The deer is only positioned to be somewhere.
15:51The deer is down there.
15:52The deer is not at the ground.
15:53The deer is down there.
15:54The deer is taking care for the dead.
15:55The deer is.
15:56Two legs have, in fact, made Lucy neither quicker nor safer.
16:10So what is the advantage to Afarensis of walking upright in this new world?
16:16The truth is, walking on two legs became a defining feature of our lives for the most
16:21surprising of reasons, raising babies.
16:29The males have returned from their patrol.
16:32They must have tired of their face-off with the intruders.
16:36With security looked after, it's an opportunity for the troop to attend to the serious business
16:41of grooming and building relationships.
16:46With Lucy's regular mate gone, she attracts immediate attention.
16:50It's one of the leadership contenders, the quiet one.
16:59In the natural world, sex and raising babies are the key to a species surviving.
17:10So anything that gives you extra energy to do it better is like gold dust.
17:19And extra energy is what walking upright has given Afarensis.
17:24In this landscape, walking on two legs is simply more efficient than walking on four.
17:28The savings are tiny.
17:29Perhaps as little as the number of calories found in one packet of biscuits a year.
17:36But even such a tiny amount makes a difference.
17:39Lucy is able to recover that little bit quicker after giving birth.
17:50It could mean in a lifetime she could raise one more baby.
17:57And one more baby might be the difference between survival of the species and extinction.
18:09The rival troop is on the move again.
18:12This time from the west and once again patrolling takes priority.
18:25But not all the males are going to investigate.
18:29It's the brash, would-be leader.
18:31He too has his eye on Lucy.
18:39All the attention is not simply to do with sex.
18:42To become the dominant male, he needs the support of the troop.
18:54Any chance to carry favor with a high-ranking female like Lucy is not to be squandered.
19:04But his advances catch Lucy unaware.
19:07And his position between Lucy and her baby adds to her alarm.
19:16Suddenly the situation is out of control.
19:19It's become a full-scale fight for leadership.
19:27The fight takes an unexpected twist.
19:30The brash contender grabs Lucy's infant.
19:33Whatever he hopes to achieve, the stakes are raised dangerously.
19:57It's the rival troop.
19:59They've come right into Lucy's territory.
20:06With the enemy surrounding them, the infant is forgotten.
20:26Except, of course, by Lucy.
20:27Except, of course, by Lucy.
20:33Look!
20:34Not at all.
20:43I think the bad.
21:00It's Lucy, an accidental victim of the territorial dispute.
21:25She was neither clever nor quick, with only a marginal advantage in energy use.
21:32Just another Afarensis who lived and died in the African bush.
21:37It's not much of an epitaph, but her species has begun the journey to you and me.
21:44Her hands were, in life, little more than climbing tools.
21:50In generations to come, they'll find a million uses.
21:55They'll search out food for a growing brain, and one day make tools to change the world around them.
22:03And freed from the task of helping her move, the muscles of her chest will help her descendants to speak.
22:12Yes!
22:13How I...
22:17Her adaptation, standing on two feet, opens doors for the future.
22:26She is indeed just an ape, but an ape with potential.
22:33And knowing that her story will end in us, is there anything else we can see in Afarensis that we might one day inherit?
22:46Perhaps.
22:48Is it something like love that keeps this baby clinging to its dead mother's fell?
22:58Is it the beginnings of what we know as grief, that you can hear in the troops' strange calls?
23:08Certainly, there's some behaviour we'd like to think of as human.
23:16It's Lucy's elder daughter.
23:19She's come for the baby.
23:21If she adopts it within the troop, there's a chance it may survive.
23:31For the troop, it's just the death of one member, and they'll quickly adjust and move on.
23:37But to us, Lucy will become hugely important.
23:42In 1974, in Afar, Ethiopia, scientists will dig up her fossilised bones and call her after the song playing on their radio at the time.
23:54Lucy in the sky with diamonds by the Beatles.
24:04And Lucy will unlock the secret story of Afarensis, apes that took the first step towards being us.
24:13But they won't take the next step.
24:16To see that, we'll have to leap forward 40,000 generations to 2 million years before your time, where life on Earth has a brand new face.
24:30It's a critical moment in our story, a crossroads in our evolution.
24:43At this time, there are now several contenders of ape men here in Africa that could be our ancient ancestor.
24:51But which one?
24:58Meet Paranthropus boisei.
25:01Boisei for short.
25:09If you had to pick one species from modern times that they remind you of, it would probably be the gorilla.
25:21This is a full-grown adult male.
25:28And this, an adult female.
25:33He's taller than she is at around four and a half feet.
25:37And he weighs nearly twice as much.
25:40Like gorillas in your time, this difference tells us about how they live.
25:45He's the dominant male of the troop.
25:47His sheer bulk and power holds the rest together.
25:51He alone mates with all females.
25:54And she's not just any female.
25:57She's the most senior one in his harem.
26:00But that position could be under threat.
26:04It's a young female, looking for a new troop to join.
26:08A stranger, with its capacity to upset the balance of power, is always a disturbing sight for a settled troop of apes.
26:21To win herself a place in the group, the newcomer must be accepted by both the dominant male and, to an extent, the other females.
26:34Whatever the potential for trouble, the dominant male is already interested.
26:51He seems keen to add to his harem, regardless of the consequences.
27:06To uncover the next step in our human story, we're going to have to watch the Boise Eye closely.
27:11But we'll have to watch more than just them.
27:15We're also going to have to take a close look at the lives of ape men like these.
27:21Homo habilis.
27:22These odd-looking creatures live alongside Boise Eye at an unusual junction in time.
27:35The Africa of two million years ago is one of the most diverse habitats on Earth.
27:41With creatures both familiar and strange.
27:46Dinophilis, the false sabre-tooth.
27:52The giant elephant-like dinotherium.
27:56The browsing and silotherium.
28:01And unlike anything we can imagine in the 21st century, there are many two-legged ape men.
28:09There's the habilis, impish scavengers.
28:14Rudolfensis, their slightly bigger rivals.
28:19The gorilla-like Boise Eye.
28:22A whole range of upright apes.
28:28Each of them has a different strategy for survival.
28:33And from one, we've inherited our own way of life.
28:37The question is, which one?
28:40Who do you most recognize in yourself?
28:42To find out, we must first ask why, two million years ago, we find so many different ape men.
28:52The answer lies not on Earth, but in space.
28:57We must look to the Sun.
29:01As the Earth orbits the Sun, it's always on a slight angle, a tilt.
29:06It's this that gives us our seasons.
29:10The bigger the tilt, the more severe they'll be.
29:14But the tilt is always changing.
29:18And around three million years before the 21st century, it was getting bigger.
29:22On Earth, the summers got colder.
29:27At the poles, ice made during the winter didn't melt properly during the summer.
29:33Year by year, the polar ice caps grew.
29:36They locked up huge amounts of the planet's water.
29:41The Earth began to dry out.
29:46In East Africa, the changes started millions of years before, with the retreat of the rainforests, intensified.
29:56An alien species took hold.
30:00Grass, which came in many forms.
30:08And with alien plants, came alien animals.
30:14With bizarre adaptations to exploit the new foods.
30:19Like the improbable four stomachs of an eland, that can digest tough grass like a cow does.
30:26Each new animal created new food.
30:32And new creatures evolved to eat it.
30:36And it's food that's the key to the puzzle of why there's such a diversity of ape-men at this time.
30:46Africa offers a huge variety of different things to eat and ways to live.
30:52And all kinds of animals have evolved as a consequence.
30:57From the Ancylotherium to our ape-men.
31:02Take these reeds, for instance.
31:06We can't eat this sort of food.
31:09But there is a species of ape-men around here that can.
31:13The Boisei.
31:14These magnificent creatures have adapted brilliantly to make the most of the foods that surround them.
31:24Powerful muscles in their cheeks.
31:27An enormous jaw.
31:29And back teeth four times the size of our own.
31:32Mean they can eat the toughest vegetation.
31:35Like the roots of these reeds.
31:36Their specialisms make the Boisei very successful.
31:44We are months into an exceptionally long dry season.
31:49And many animals are finding the going hard.
31:52But for this troop, the pickings are easy.
31:54With ample food all around, there's plenty of time left over for any ape-man's favourite pastime.
32:03Sex.
32:09The new female is still hovering around the troop.
32:13Waiting no doubt for a chance to get close to the dominant male.
32:16For the existing queen of the harem, the newcomer could be a real threat.
32:42The dominant male has a simpler view.
32:44A new female isn't a threat.
32:47But a challenge.
32:59Although almost entirely vegetarian, we know from tell-tale signs in their teeth that there's one kind of meat a Boisei can't resist.
33:08Termites.
33:09Doubly irresistible when on the menu of a romantic meal for two.
33:19A twin male for two.
33:20A twin male for two.
33:23A twin male for two.
33:25Grooming is how all apes bond with each other, and the Boisei are no exception.
33:55The newcomer has become a favourite.
34:09Whether she'll prove as popular with the rest of the troop remains to be seen.
34:15So if the Boisei lead comfortable lives with mostly domestic concerns, how are the other
34:21local ape men fairing?
34:28These are the Homo habilis we met earlier.
34:30They're finding the long dry season considerably tougher than their Boisei neighbours.
34:40This is the habilis dominant male, and he's found a bee's nest.
34:45His position as leader depends mainly on his ability to find food.
34:50Though tricky to get at, and not really offering much of a meal, desperation has forced him to
34:55risk a raid.
34:58That's one of the females the dominant male mates with.
35:05For the moment she'll stick with him, but unless the troop finds food soon, it will begin to
35:10break up.
35:17This is a young male, eating his first meal for days.
35:28The truth is, the habilis are struggling.
35:31They don't have the special adaptations of the Boisei.
35:35The Boisei's big teeth and powerful jaws mean they can live off the kind of tough vegetation
35:41left at the end of the dry season.
35:44Without such specialisms, the habilis have had to take a very different tack.
35:49They've developed into the archetypal jack-of-all-trades, inquisitive scavengers prepared to try
35:56anything to survive.
36:00This new way of living is tough, but being inquisitive has given habilis some new tricks.
36:11Because if you're inquisitive, you investigate mysteries, like, why do vultures gather together?
36:19The answer, of course, is that they've spotted food.
36:25An eland has been caught and killed on the savannah.
36:40The carcass is a godsend.
36:42Not only is it food, it's valuable protein and animal fat.
36:47And unlike the Boisei, habilis eat meat.
36:52Normally, the dominant male would approach a carcass warily, particularly one so fresh.
37:02Whoever killed it could still be around.
37:09But today, his hunger and the troops' excitement outweighs any caution.
37:17Though the young male seems quite wary.
37:32Other apemen have also spotted the vultures.
37:39Habilis aren't the only scavengers around.
37:42A rival species, Rudolfensis, has also come for the meat.
37:54Habilis and Rudolfensis are remarkably similar and are frequently driven to fight each other
38:00with food.
38:25It's the dominant male's moment of triumph.
38:27He's led his troop to food and thinks he's successfully defended it.
38:50The troop is distraught.
38:52Not only has it lost the valuable meat, it's now also leaderless.
39:02With no obvious candidate to succeed the dominant male, the habilis have reached their lowest point.
39:09There is little for the troop to do now but wait.
39:13And hope their luck may change.
39:20That annoys the troop was one.
39:22At
39:50I don't know.
40:20The long dry season is at last at an end.
40:34The onset of rain brings relief across the savannah.
40:45The boisei sometimes display when it's raining.
40:55No one knows exactly why.
40:57Perhaps it's out of sheer exhilaration.
41:03Or maybe they just hate getting wet.
41:10But it's common behaviour for apes in your own time.
41:13And sadly for boisei, like modern day gorillas, they're useless at building shelters.
41:22The boisei and the habilis embody two very different approaches to survival.
41:32Habilis are the jack of all trades.
41:34The boisei, the masters of just one.
41:37But which trait will be passed on to future apemen?
41:42Although the boisei's lifestyle is very successful, it's a success only as long as their world doesn't change.
41:50And if there's one thing you can bet on with the weather or the environment, it's that nothing stays the same forever.
41:58Let's take a glimpse into the future.
42:01Over the next several hundred thousand years, the same forces which created the vast range of environments in Africa will continue to shape the continent.
42:20Just as before, new habitats will appear, along with new animals to exploit them.
42:25And old ways of life will die, and old species of animal with them.
42:31Caught up in all this change, the boisei will find themselves in a world they're simply unprepared for.
42:40But for the moment, all that lies in their future.
42:47The dominant male boisei rejoins his harem to find its number increased by one.
43:03The dominant female has taken the newcomer under her wing and subtly shifted the balance of power.
43:16He may well find that he has some making up to do.
43:29Their successful way of life hides the fact that the boisei have put all their evolutionary eggs in one basket.
43:36The trouble with being a specialist in a changing world is that you end up getting left behind.
43:43Perhaps they won't be able to cope with vegetation changes, or new animals will make their lives difficult.
43:50The truth is that these impressive creatures are at an evolutionary dead end.
43:58In a few hundred thousand years, they will be gone.
44:02They are undoubtedly adapted to their surroundings, but they're not adaptable enough to keep up with the changes going on around them.
44:11But the part that Habilis plays in the story of you and me will be very different.
44:24Now the vultures have had their fill, there will be precious little meat left on the carcass for anyone else.
44:38But the Habilis have a secret weapon.
44:42This scavenging, inquisitive lifestyle has made them quick-witted and inventive, and it's led to a real breakthrough.
44:53Habilis are the first creatures on Earth to be able to make stone tools.
44:58It's a hugely important leap forward.
45:01For stone tools, give them access to an amazing range of different foods.
45:12But first they have to be able to get to them.
45:18And that's where Habilis' second secret weapon comes in.
45:25Eating meat has brought Habilis the essential protein and fat to allow the development of their brains.
45:32In fact, Habilis' brains are almost half as big again as those of the Boisei.
45:43Meat has enabled them to grow smarter.
45:46Smart enough to know that you stand a much better chance of scaring off a lion if you work as a team.
45:55Welcome to the new world of ideas.
46:13Although the Eland carcass is almost totally stripped of meat, there is one last meal left, if you can get at it.
46:20Bone marrow, one of the most nutritious foods on the savannah.
46:26Neither lions nor vultures can reach it.
46:28Yet Habilis' new tools seem almost purpose-built for the job.
46:32The troop may also have solved its leadership problem.
46:38The young male's actions in getting food have given him a real status.
46:42It seems likely that he will now take over as the dominant male.
46:56The young male's actions in getting food have given him a real status.
47:00Habilis' jack-of-all-trades way of life gives them a chance of surviving in an ever-changing world.
47:06It's this trait that will live on and be essential in us.
47:11So we've seen in Habilis the next step towards you and me.
47:27By being able to live in different ways instead of being trapped in just one,
47:32they've begun to free themselves from the rules governing all other life on Earth.
47:38So it's Habilis which will dominate Africa in the millennia to come.
47:43Well, you might think so.
47:46But the end of our story has a strange twist.
47:52Round about now, two million years ago,
47:56an ape-man appears in East Africa which does what Habilis does, only better.
48:03And they have something else which means that they could well end up hounding Habilis out of existence.
48:12They are Homo agaster.
48:15And they are the creatures we will meet next on the journey from apes to us.
48:27How is it possible?
48:30How is it possible in a space for them to live in the world?
48:37I am afraid to live in the system.
48:38And they have something else that comes from waxe.
48:43What do they have?
48:46What do they have?
48:48How do they have?
48:50How is it possible in a place?
48:51How is it possible in an era?
48:53And how is it possible in a space for them?
48:55What do they have?
48:56You
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