Full transcript
0:00[Music]
0:05chris great to have you on history here
0:06today
0:07it's a pleasure to be with you now we
0:09are talking at the natural history
0:11museum at the earth sciences library and
0:13are you ready this is the big one the
0:15quick fire story of human evolution well
0:17i'll do my best well then let's get
0:20going let's start with this
0:22this replica right at the end here what
0:24is this what how does this fit into our
0:25story okay so this is a replica
0:29skull of our closest relative it's a
0:31recent chimpanzee there are two species
0:33of chimpanzee so this is one of them and
0:35you can see there that yes it's got all
0:37the same elements in its skeleton that
0:39we've got but they're differently shaped
0:40got a small brain there great big face
0:42pulled forwards and especially these big
0:44interlocking canine teeth
0:46and let's see how that
0:48goes to that and modern homo sapiens now
0:51the first name i've got on my list
0:53forgive me if i butcher the
0:55pronunciation of it is sachreyan
0:58what is this how does this fit into this
1:00yes so philanthropist um so this is a
1:03creature that was living in chad so
1:06what's now you know the northern central
1:08africa uh now mostly desert but six to
1:12seven million years ago this place was
1:14well watered with lakes and rivers and
1:16there were sort of
1:17ape-like creatures living there
1:19saranthas was one of them so fossils
1:21were found
1:22in the early 2000s and there's a skull a
1:25bit squashed but it's a scar that's kind
1:27of chimpanzee size chimpanzee-sized
1:30brain but what's interesting is the
1:31canine teeth are much smaller so it
1:33looks more human and there are also
1:36there's a leg bone and two arm bones of
1:38psalm anthrax and bit of dispute about
1:40those on some interpretations
1:42psychologists looks like it can walk
1:43upright other people doubt that that was
1:46so so a lot we don't know about this
1:48stage so this creature could be close to
1:50our common ancestor with the chimpanzee
1:52which geneticists estimate was about
1:54seven million years ago so it's close to
1:56that common ancestry but whether it's
1:58really on the human line i think is not
2:00yet clear
2:01so then moving on from that that
2:03potential first homonym first human
2:06what's this next skull the one that
2:07we've got on display next
2:09yeah so this is the represents the
2:11australopithecine stage the southern ape
2:14stage of evolution so between about two
2:16and four million years ago
2:18there were creatures living in various
2:20parts of africa
2:22which definitely are on the human line
2:24so their skeletons show that they walked
2:27upright their their hip bones their
2:29thigh bones their feet show that they
2:31could walk upright
2:33but other parts of their skeleton shows
2:35that they if you like hadn't completely
2:37abandoned the trees so their arms their
2:39hand bones their shoulders suggest that
2:41they were still also living in the trees
2:43so on the ground they could walk quite
2:45well on two legs but in the trees they
2:47could climb much better than we can so
2:49an interesting kind of halfway house in
2:51human evolution if you like clearly on
2:53the human line but the brain size is
2:55still ape size uh but the teeth show
2:58human features
3:00and these are creatures which you know
3:02were probably you know heading towards
3:04humanity but still in many ways if we
3:06could look at how they were living how
3:08they appeared they would have looked
3:10very ape-like to us even though they
3:11were walking upright and so how long is
3:13the age of the australopithecine and are
3:15they also using stone tools by then is
3:17that arrived yet yes so stone tools are
3:19in the the archaeological record from
3:22over three million years ago so the
3:24suggestion is that some form of
3:25australopithecine was already making and
3:28using tools and of course they may well
3:30have been using wood materials like wood
3:32and all the evidence has vanished of
3:33that
3:34okay so what follows the age of the
3:36australopithecine so we get into early
3:39homo early humans genus homo
3:42and there are species like homo habilis
3:44and homo rudolphensis
3:47and these were still in africa at this
3:49stage so for the first five billion
3:51years or so that we know of human
3:53evolution is taking place only in africa
3:55so there's homo habilis omar rudolph
3:57rudolph fences these are still
4:00you know eight sized brains or only
4:02slightly bigger walking upright probably
4:04using tools
4:06but
4:06then around two million years ago we get
4:08the appearance of something that is
4:10clearly much more human homo erectus and
4:12this is a representative fossil of homo
4:14erectus
4:16and this one is from china but this
4:18species
4:19is the longest lived human species
4:21lasting for nearly two million years and
4:23the first as far as we know to spread
4:25outside the ancestral homeland of africa
4:27and as you mentioned so these reach as
4:29far as china in the far east that's
4:32right yes so they're found in various
4:34parts of africa and they're also found
4:36in china and indonesia in java where in
4:38fact the first remains were identified
4:40just having that right next to the
4:42australopithecine you can really see the
4:43differences in the cranium shape can't
4:45you there are real different features to
4:47a homoerectus compared to this
4:49predecessor that's right yes so they've
4:51both got a basically more human-like
4:53dentition the teeth but when you look at
4:55the brain size for example it's much
4:57larger the face is smaller
5:00so this is overall much more human like
5:03creature and in the skeleton too it's
5:05lost many of those hang-ons if you like
5:08which still suggested the
5:09australopithecines were spending time in
5:11the trees
5:13okay so moving on from that what follows
5:15in the story after homo erectus well
5:18there are some other species there's
5:20homo anti cecil which is known from
5:22spain about 850 000 years ago
5:25but here we've got a representative of a
5:27very well-known phase homo hardi
5:29begensis or homo rodisiensis
5:32so these were around about 500 000 years
5:35ago and again they are a step forward
5:38from erectus in terms of brain size the
5:40brain size is larger
5:43and these individuals were
5:45known from europe and from asia they're
5:47known from africa and so this is a
5:49widespread species
5:51i used to think it was the common
5:52ancestor of us in the neanderthals i no
5:54longer think that i think this is
5:55actually
5:56a related branch and perhaps even
5:59related to the neanderthal branch so we
6:00don't actually know who our common
6:02ancestor was between us and the
6:04neanderthals and what are some other
6:06types of homonyms that are around at the
6:08time of homo heidelbergensis but before
6:10we really get to homo sapiens
6:12yes so we have obviously the lineages of
6:15other human forms such as
6:17hormonaleddy which is around in south
6:19africa about three hundred thousand
6:20years ago that must have a deep lineage
6:23alongside heidelbergensis and over in
6:25southeast asia we've got
6:27homophoresiensis evolving for
6:29probably at least a million years on the
6:31island of flores and homoluzence it's
6:34evolving for at least a million years
6:36in the philippines area so all of these
6:39different lineages going alongside each
6:41other for a period of time
6:43and so what therefore follows this
6:46type of homonym yes so when we move on
6:49from 500 000 years ago
6:51we see the appearance of
6:53the early neanderthal lineage the early
6:55homo sapiens lunge in africa and over in
6:58the far east we've got the denisoma
7:00lineage originating although we don't
7:01have any fossils that represent that
7:03that stage of evolution in fact we lack
7:06fossils really for the very early sapien
7:08stage in africa for the very early
7:10neanderthal stage in europe and asia and
7:12for the early denison stage but by the
7:15time we get to three or four hundred
7:16thousand years ago we can find fossils
7:18which we can place on these different
7:20lineages all right chris well let's talk
7:22therefore about the neanderthals now so
7:24talk to me about the time frame and the
7:25key features what we know about this
7:28such is this interesting species
7:31yes so this species evolved for several
7:32hundred thousand years in europe and
7:34asia
7:35very close relatives of ours so they've
7:37got large brains as big as ours
7:39sometimes even bigger
7:41and you know distinctive face um still
7:45some features in the skeleton which
7:47relate them back to these earlier humans
7:49so still a robustly built skeleton a big
7:51rib cage maybe right lungs 20
7:54more capacity than we have a wide hip
7:56bone so a very big trunk to the body
7:58extremely muscular a skeleton built to
8:00withstand a very demanding lifestyle so
8:03it begs the question why do we think
8:05this species went extinct and of all
8:07species it was the homo sapiens that are
8:09now the dominant the only homo species
8:12on earth yeah i mean that's a really big
8:14question so why are we the only humans
8:16left so i think that the disappearance
8:18of these other forms of humans was
8:20partly down to environmental factors and
8:22partly down to the spread of homo
8:24sapiens so as homo sapiens spread into
8:26the region of the neanderthals for
8:28example
8:29homo sapiens would have been wanting to
8:31eat the same kind of food materials hunt
8:34the same kinds of animals want to live
8:36in the best cave sites and so on so
8:37there was an economic competition
8:39between these populations
8:41and i think the neanderthals actually
8:42were already low in numbers and
8:44diversity at this time it wouldn't have
8:46taken too much to tip them over the edge
8:48into extinction but of course it wasn't
8:50a complete extinction because we know
8:52there was a bit of inter-breeding before
8:53the neanderthals disappeared so partly
8:55their dna lives on in us and that's true
8:58for denisovans too they disappeared as
9:00well
9:01maybe by 30 000 years ago we don't
9:03really know but their dna also lives on
9:05in us today through ancient
9:06interbreeding that's so amazing so as
9:08you said there and just to repeat in
9:10people today you and i there is dna of
9:13neanderthals and potentially all there
9:15is dna of denisovans too in some people
9:18in the world yes genital dna and even in
9:20africa there was probably ancient
9:22interbreeding with some of these other
9:23forms of humans that were living in
9:24africa now before we really start
9:26wrapping up with this are there any
9:28homonyms homo types from the story of
9:30our evolution that you'd like to
9:32highlight now that you find particularly
9:34fascinating and aren't represented here
9:36well yeah so you know we've learned
9:38about this thing called dragon man in
9:40the last couple of years so there's a
9:41beautiful fossil from harbin in north
9:43eastern china nicknamed dragon man i
9:46think it's a different species
9:47homodaliences so we'd we'd have it here
9:50late in time the foster's over 150 000
9:53years old but it's big brained
9:55very very large skull but a face that is
9:58much more like our own face but a brain
10:01case that is more like sort of the
10:02neonatal brain case so it's a strange
10:04combination of features a distinct line
10:06of evolution it may well be the skull of
10:08a denisoma in fact but we don't know
10:10that yet charles darwin do you think he
10:12was on the right lines therefore
10:14absolutely i mean he said we
10:16probably originated in africa he was a
10:18bit cautious but he said we probably
10:19originated in africa and and he was
10:21rocked about that
10:22now last but certainly not least what do
10:24you think is the future
10:26of human evolution
10:28that's a really difficult one i get
10:30asked that very often and of course
10:31evolution doesn't have a forward look
10:33it's about what works now so predicting
10:36the future is very difficult i can say
10:38that you know we are facing an uncertain
10:40future you know the planet is going to
10:42change more in the next few hundred
10:44years than it's changed in many
10:46thousands of years before so many
10:48challenges to come and let's hope our
10:50species is up to the challenge
10:51absolutely well let's well if only we
10:53had a crystal ball to put at the end of
10:55this row you could have told us the
10:56answer but chris this has been
10:58absolutely brilliant thank you so much
11:00for this quick fire round of human
11:02evolution and thank you so much for
11:04taking the time to come on history hit
11:05it's a pleasure thanks for inviting me
11:08thanks for watching this video on the
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