0:00:03 > 0:00:05Welcome to Prehistoric Autopsy.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09We're at the University of Glasgow, our home for the next three nights.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12We're going on a journey back through millions of years,
0:00:12 > 0:00:14deep into our evolutionary past.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Using just fragmented remains of ancient bones we're going to
0:00:18 > 0:00:21recreate the bodies of three of the most iconic
0:00:21 > 0:00:23members of our prehistoric family.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27We're going to start by rebuilding
0:00:27 > 0:00:29one of our closest prehistoric relatives.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31A Neanderthal.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34We've consulted with leading experts from around the world
0:00:34 > 0:00:37to make our reconstruction as accurate as possible.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41So this is a record of somebody's life from thousands of years ago.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43Exactly.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46We'll see evidence of how they hunted.
0:00:46 > 0:00:47There's a very interesting
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and rather enigmatic puncture mark in the bottom part of this.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52And even of cannibalism.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55The only reason you'd smash into a femur like this
0:00:55 > 0:01:00is to get at that rich fatty marrow inside.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03By rebuilding our ancestors, we'll get a unique insight into
0:01:03 > 0:01:08how they looked, how they lived and how they compare with us.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11And why we ended up alone.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14The only human species on the planet.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17And at the end of each night we will be coming face to face
0:01:17 > 0:01:20with one of our ancient relatives.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22So let's go inside and get started.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38And this is our base for three nights.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42This is where we'll be pulling all of the evidence together.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46Up there we've got our laboratory where we'll be doing demonstrations.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50And scientists will reveal some of the experiments they're doing
0:01:50 > 0:01:55to find out how similar or different our ancient ancestors were to us.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Over there we've got experimental archaeology.
0:01:58 > 0:02:05Where our experts are looking for clues into how our ancestors lived.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09And over here is palaeoartist Viktor Deak. Hello, Viktor.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Hello. How are you?
0:02:11 > 0:02:15He's here to help reveal how you can reconstruct an entire body
0:02:15 > 0:02:18from just a few fragments of bone.
0:02:18 > 0:02:23For the past six months he's been working with a team of model makers
0:02:23 > 0:02:26and using some of the latest research to create
0:02:26 > 0:02:29three of our prehistoric ancestors.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34And here is where we look at the fossils themselves
0:02:34 > 0:02:37and tonight we're looking at a Neanderthal
0:02:37 > 0:02:43and asking the question, why are we still here whilst they went extinct?
0:02:43 > 0:02:49Well, this is our timeline. Here we are over here, 2012.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Homo sapiens, the only species of human on the planet.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56But we don't have to go back very far to find we're sharing
0:02:56 > 0:02:59the planet with one other human species.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01A tiny creature called Homo floresiensis.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Now, they only died out perhaps as recently as 12,000 years ago -
0:03:05 > 0:03:08in evolutionary terms, the blink of an eye.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11And this is Homo floresiensis
0:03:11 > 0:03:14from the island of Flores in Indonesia
0:03:14 > 0:03:16and these were really tiny people.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20They stood just a metre high, that's less than four foot
0:03:20 > 0:03:24and they also had minute brains of about 400ml in size
0:03:24 > 0:03:30and yet we know that these little people made stone tools
0:03:30 > 0:03:34and they hunted and they were on the planet at the same time as us.
0:03:34 > 0:03:35They weren't the only ones,
0:03:35 > 0:03:40there was possibly even one other human species, the Denisovans.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42About 30,000 years ago.
0:03:42 > 0:03:48Here Homo erectus survived as recently as 35,000 years ago
0:03:48 > 0:03:51and finally perhaps one of our most successful
0:03:51 > 0:03:55and best-known prehistoric relatives, Neanderthal.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00They were around until about 30,000 years ago. Now, make no mistake.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Possibly as many as five different species of humans all living on
0:04:04 > 0:04:08the planet, in fact, living all over the planet, at the same time as us.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Tonight we're going to recreate perhaps the most famous of them all,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14Neanderthal.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17And this is our guy. La Ferrassie 1.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22Found in a cave in France in 1909, he was alive 70,000 years ago.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24We've heard of them
0:04:24 > 0:04:28but what were they really like and how did they compare to us?
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Who was stronger and above all else
0:04:31 > 0:04:34why did we survive while they died out?
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Well, to help us answer that question we've got with us tonight
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Dr John Hawkes, an anthropologist from the University of Wisconsin
0:04:40 > 0:04:43who's been studying Neanderthals for decades.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Yeah, and yet it's always exciting for me to see them
0:04:45 > 0:04:48lain out like this where you can see the breadth of evidence that
0:04:48 > 0:04:50you get from a single skeleton.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53These bones are an incredibly accurate copy of the original
0:04:53 > 0:04:55skeleton of La Ferrassie 1.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58How do you really know this is a Neanderthal?
0:04:58 > 0:05:02It looks vaguely similar to a modern human.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06Oh, I don't think so. Look at this.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08This is me, this is my skull.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12This is my actual skull. Look at that, there's a massive difference.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14Yes, you see here's the Neanderthal skull
0:05:14 > 0:05:16and if we look at the skull from the side you can see
0:05:16 > 0:05:19that this Neanderthal is much longer and lower.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Her skull is much more rounded.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24And the thing annoyingly about this specimen that I've observed
0:05:24 > 0:05:27straight away is that it's got better teeth than I have.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30It's got a lot of teeth and that's absolutely brilliant because
0:05:30 > 0:05:33we can actually use that to estimate how old he was when he died.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37So, looking at this, we reckon he was about 40 to 55 years old
0:05:37 > 0:05:39and we know he was male as well.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41If you look at his pelvis you can see this notch,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44the greater sciatic notch, and that's really narrow
0:05:44 > 0:05:47so that's a good indicator that this is a male skeleton.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49And we know how tall he was.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53We can use the length of the long bones to reconstruct the height really accurately.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55This fella stood about 5'6" tall.
0:05:55 > 0:06:02So he was male, 1.6 metres, 5'6" tall, 40 to 50 years old,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05so already, from a cursory look at a few bones,
0:06:05 > 0:06:10we can start to get an idea of what this particular individual was like.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14And our palaeoartist Viktor Deak has been advising our model makers
0:06:14 > 0:06:16and building up the skeleton.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19Now, there some bits of this skeleton that are missing, Viktor.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21So how do we fill in the gaps?
0:06:21 > 0:06:24That's right. We're looking at La Ferrassie 1 right now
0:06:24 > 0:06:28and this is pretty much what is remaining of him,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32although there has been some reconstruction done already.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35The reminder of it comes from Kebara Cave in Israel.
0:06:35 > 0:06:41And that's the thorax, the ribs and the pelvis and some of the spine.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45This is just a virtual skeleton, but a team in America have filled in
0:06:45 > 0:06:49some of the missing parts, making a physical model of the skeleton.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56We had a copy of that composite skeleton delivered
0:06:56 > 0:07:00to our model makers and I went down to meet up with
0:07:00 > 0:07:02Jez Gibson-Harris to help put it together.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06It's going to form the basis of our reconstruction.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09Fantastic. Oh, this is great.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12It looks human but it looks a little bit weird.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Right, what do you want to do? Shall we get him onto the stand?
0:07:15 > 0:07:19That's a good idea, we can start putting him together.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Both of his legs are going to be slightly bent.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30We're not doing him in the kind of boring anatomical position.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33We're doing him as a living Neanderthal.
0:07:37 > 0:07:38So how's that looking, then?
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Does it really look like he's standing on his legs, do you think?
0:07:42 > 0:07:44It looks like there's a lot of weight on it.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49Yeah, I'd really like to get a bit of external rotation
0:07:49 > 0:07:50at this hip joint.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53This is fiddly, isn't it, but I think it's worth it,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56cos if we get this bit right that's our scaffold done.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00And we're ready to start building the muscles on it.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04So, John, George, what do you reckon?
0:08:04 > 0:08:06- I think it's gorgeous. - It's a beautiful reconstruction.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09And it really gives you the impression of the whole body.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11And you can start to see details like the rib cage.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Yeah, he does have this... he has this immense rib cage.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16That's a good pair of lungs in there.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18- That's right.- No waist either.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20It's amazing, isn't it, because now we've gone from
0:08:20 > 0:08:22disarticulated bones laid out on a table
0:08:22 > 0:08:25to something that is starting to look like a person.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28So where did these Neanderthals come from?
0:08:28 > 0:08:34Around 600,000 years ago, it's thought that some of their ancestors,
0:08:34 > 0:08:40Homo heidelbergensis, walked out of Africa and headed for Europe,
0:08:40 > 0:08:46where they eventually evolved into Neanderthals.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Back in Africa, it's thought that the same species
0:08:48 > 0:08:53evolved into Homo sapiens, modern humans.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58About 60,000 years ago, modern humans too headed out of Africa.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02But what happened when we arrived in Europe,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05the home of our evolutionary cousins?
0:09:05 > 0:09:08So what's going on when we meet the Neanderthals?
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Well, we now have the ability to look at Neanderthal genetics
0:09:12 > 0:09:14and, John, this is what you do,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18comparing Neanderthal genomes and comparing them with our genomes.
0:09:18 > 0:09:19Absolutely.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Two years ago the first complete Neanderthal genome was sequenced.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25And now scientists all over Europe are able to extract DNA
0:09:25 > 0:09:27from tiny bits of these ancient bones
0:09:27 > 0:09:29and reconstruct genomes from them.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32In my lab, we're comparing those genomes
0:09:32 > 0:09:34with the genomes of living people all over the world.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36So is there much of a relationship?
0:09:36 > 0:09:39I mean, how close are we to Neanderthals?
0:09:39 > 0:09:41It looks like they're a little more different from us
0:09:41 > 0:09:42than we are from each other.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45They diverged from us in evolutionary terms
0:09:45 > 0:09:47something like 300,000 years ago.
0:09:47 > 0:09:48So they're a different species?
0:09:48 > 0:09:51Well, so then when we do more close comparisons
0:09:51 > 0:09:54we find something that's very interesting.
0:09:54 > 0:09:55When we look at a chart like this,
0:09:55 > 0:09:57we're looking at West African samples
0:09:57 > 0:10:00and we've got about 500 people there.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03And Northern European samples and I've got about 500 there.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05And the further right we are on this graph,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08the more similarities people have with Neanderthals.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10What this is showing us
0:10:10 > 0:10:14is that Northern European samples have substantially more Neanderthal,
0:10:14 > 0:10:16about 3% more, than people who live in Africa.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21A few weeks ago, George and I sent off saliva samples to be analysed
0:10:21 > 0:10:25so our DNA could be compared with the Neanderthal genome,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27- so do you have the results of that? - I do.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31I'm slightly nervous about this, I'm not sure why, but I am.
0:10:31 > 0:10:32I'm nervous about it.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34All of us have a little Neanderthal.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Most people who have ancestry outside Africa
0:10:37 > 0:10:40have something like 2% to 3%, so when we look at your DNA...
0:10:40 > 0:10:44The question is, is George more Neanderthal than I am?
0:10:44 > 0:10:45That's what I want to know.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47Well, here's Alice.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50And you're really at the low end of the European distribution,
0:10:50 > 0:10:52you're about 2.1% Neanderthal,
0:10:52 > 0:10:54if we're going to put a yardstick on it.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56I don't like the way this is going.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58And here's George.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01- Knew it. - George is also on the low end
0:11:01 > 0:11:04and I'm going to add myself to this chart because I know myself.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07You know, I'm about 2.5%, George, you're about 2.6%,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10but by chance we're all sort of on the left side of this distribution.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13My wife is 3% and she lords it over me.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16And this means that somewhere in my ancestry I've got Neanderthals.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Yeah. It's like if you're tracing your genealogy back in time.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23Yes, let's do this, because this is where it gets complicated
0:11:23 > 0:11:26because we've actually got this common ancestor.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31So if I stick this down here. Homo heidelbergensis.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36I'd do this in italics if I could, but I can't.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Homo heidelbergensis. So this is our common ancestor.
0:11:40 > 0:11:47And then, OK, we'll have us up here and Neanderthals over here.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52So couldn't these differences just be down to the fact that
0:11:52 > 0:11:54there's a deep genetic rift here?
0:11:54 > 0:11:55Absolutely.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58When we look at the Africans that's exactly what we're seeing.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01We're seeing the similarities that are retained
0:12:01 > 0:12:02from this ancestral population.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06And when you have a little bit more it's because you've got genes
0:12:06 > 0:12:09that have come straight from that population into you.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12So when you're tracing your family tree back,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15a small fraction of it goes back into this Neanderthal population.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18So it's not just about common ancestors, it's about the fact
0:12:18 > 0:12:20that actually Neanderthals and modern humans
0:12:20 > 0:12:22have inter-bred with each other.
0:12:22 > 0:12:23That's exactly right.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28And it's not...3% doesn't sound like much but 3% is the amount of DNA
0:12:28 > 0:12:31that you got from one of your great-great-great-grandmothers.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35So we know we met and bred with Neanderthals, but ultimately it was
0:12:35 > 0:12:40Homo sapiens that ended up as the only human species on the planet.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Yet for hundreds of thousands of years,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Neanderthals were a successful species in a harsh environment.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51In the winter it could get as cold as minus 30 degrees Celsius.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54But just how tough were they?
0:12:54 > 0:12:56When you go to the lumbar column,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59to the legs, you can see the power of these joints.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03The size of the joint here, the thickness of the leg bone.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07The curvature. You know, this guy is bandy-legged and built.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09Built for strength.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11Some of the other bones are really chunky and robust
0:13:11 > 0:13:14and then the one that really stands out for me is the clavicle.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Look at that, the collar bone here is really slender.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19You know, this is a powerful strut.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21But we see these broken a lot in Neanderthals
0:13:21 > 0:13:24and it's an injury-prone lifestyle that they lead.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27You know, you're looking at people who dealt with large animals
0:13:27 > 0:13:30and that's a dangerous thing to do.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Are there any clues as to how they might have hunted?
0:13:33 > 0:13:36Well, this humerus is kind of flattened and...
0:13:36 > 0:13:38It's kind of angular.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40And I'm going to move over here
0:13:40 > 0:13:44because here we've got Dr Colin Shaw from the University of Cambridge.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47And you've been looking at just this.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49You've been looking at the shape of the shaft of Neanderthal bones
0:13:49 > 0:13:52and trying to understand why it's the shape it is.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54So what have you been doing with this cast here?
0:13:54 > 0:13:56What we do to try and understand the shape
0:13:56 > 0:14:01and how it's formed is you essentially just wrap dental putty
0:14:01 > 0:14:03around the outside and you can get an exact mould of it.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06You scan that and then you can measure properties to understand
0:14:06 > 0:14:08how strong the bone is and the shape of it.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13So you've done the dental putty, do you think it's ready to cut open?
0:14:13 > 0:14:16I think it's quite hard now. Go ahead and cut it off.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18Being really careful not to damage the cast.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21I mean, I know this is a cast of a Neanderthal bone
0:14:21 > 0:14:23but it's still pretty precious.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26Off it comes.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28And in actual fact, what we've done...
0:14:28 > 0:14:30So that's really oval, that's oval.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33What you noticed before is absolutely defined by the mould
0:14:33 > 0:14:36that we've done and it's very much strengthened anterior posteriorly,
0:14:36 > 0:14:38so front to back.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42So when you compare that with modern human humeri,
0:14:42 > 0:14:43it's a really different shape.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Yeah, most modern humans are much more circular.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50So this is a Neanderthal humerus, so that's really oval.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52And this is much more circular.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55So that's more the modern human version that you see.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57So I imagine Neanderthals as being big game hunters,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00using spears to hunt their prey down,
0:15:00 > 0:15:02could this be from throwing spears?
0:15:02 > 0:15:04It's a good question, but probably not.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08The reason being is that we know, when you look at throwing athletes,
0:15:08 > 0:15:10so particularly cricketers that I've worked with,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14and what you see is that the cricketer has a much more circular cross section.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16So, literally, if I cut my arm in half and show it to you
0:15:16 > 0:15:18this is what you'd see.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21You've got muscle, you have fat tissue on the outside and then bone.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23And the bone itself is much more circular.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26This is interesting because it reflects the fact
0:15:26 > 0:15:28that bone changes over the course of our lifetime.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30That if we go to the gym, for instance,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32and our muscles are building up,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34our bones are changing shape on the inside as well.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36Absolutely, absolutely you said it all.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39What you do to a bone through your lifetime causes adaptation,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42if it's strenuous enough and repetitive enough.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44The opposite...so you see this nice circular pattern with
0:15:44 > 0:15:47the cricketers, the opposite is exactly this.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50This is La Ferrassie after we moulded it.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52You see the strengthening in this pattern front to back,
0:15:52 > 0:15:54anterior-posterior.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56Which suggests these bones, these sets of bones,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59are adapted to two very different things.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02So you think Neanderthals weren't throwing, then?
0:16:02 > 0:16:04So from this evidence, no.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08So what were they doing then, they have to be hunting?
0:16:08 > 0:16:11- What were they doing, stabbing their prey?- Some people suggest so.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13So if Neanderthals are stabbing their prey,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16that makes us think of how big that prey might have been
0:16:16 > 0:16:18and, George, that's something you've been tackling.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22Yeah, it's extraordinary when you think of the size of the prey.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25And to find out how they were hunting, earlier this year,
0:16:25 > 0:16:28I went to one of the best Neanderthal hunting grounds in the world.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32Believe it or not, it's in Thetford Forest in Norfolk,
0:16:32 > 0:16:34that's right here on British soil.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42At that time large animals like woolly mammoths roamed here.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47They stood up to 3.4 metres tall, and weighed around six tonnes.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Neanderthals would have needed to have been skilled hunters
0:16:51 > 0:16:55to bring down these massive beasts just by stabbing them.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00So how did they do it?
0:17:00 > 0:17:04It was not too far from here in 2002 that archaeologists made
0:17:04 > 0:17:08an astounding discovery that has been shedding light
0:17:08 > 0:17:12on Neanderthal hunting techniques ever since.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20An ancient swamp once covered the same spot
0:17:20 > 0:17:23as this modern man-made lake.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27And it's here that evidence of a Neanderthal hunting ground was found.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32Professor Danielle Schreeve has spent the past ten years
0:17:32 > 0:17:34researching the site.
0:17:34 > 0:17:3560,000 years ago,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39it's a predominately open, treeless environment.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41So you might have a few stands of pine trees,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45some dwarf birch around, but really we are looking at an open grassland.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47And one that could support huge herds of animals.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51So you've got an open area, large prey. How did they catch it?
0:17:51 > 0:17:55With a lot of skill and organisation, I would say.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59If you imagine animals coming down to the water to drink,
0:17:59 > 0:18:01Neanderthals would have been able to ambush them,
0:18:01 > 0:18:05shepherding them into the swampy environment, tiring them out,
0:18:05 > 0:18:07then moving in for the kill.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Hunting was the way these people survived.
0:18:10 > 0:18:11We're in a relatively high latitude,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14a place where they have to hunt to stay alive.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Danielle has been studying the animal bones found here
0:18:18 > 0:18:21and has made some startling discoveries.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28The bones are kept in the stores of Norfolk Museum.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34So, Danielle, what have we got here?
0:18:34 > 0:18:37We've got an amazing collection of mammalian bones.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39This is the tooth of a woolly mammoth.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41Massively heavy.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45We've got horse, we've got bison, we've got the reindeer.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48How do you tell that they've died at the hands of a hunter
0:18:48 > 0:18:50rather than just old age?
0:18:50 > 0:18:56This is the bottom part of a femur, the thigh bone, of a horse.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58There is a very interesting and rather enigmatic puncture mark
0:18:58 > 0:19:00in the bottom part of this.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Now, that's the knee of the horse there
0:19:02 > 0:19:07so the angle of that looks like it's been thrust in
0:19:07 > 0:19:09behind the knee, at an angle.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12In the back of the knee.
0:19:12 > 0:19:13That would bring you down.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16It's the ideal way to bring down an animal.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19And you can see that the top part is broken.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22That's been smashed, hasn't it? That's been hammered.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26This is something that Neanderthals would have routinely done.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Gone after the marrow cavity to extract bone marrow
0:19:29 > 0:19:32because it's even more nutritious and higher in calories than meat.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36The signs of injury on many of the bones suggest the hunters
0:19:36 > 0:19:40were stabbing their prey at close quarters.
0:19:40 > 0:19:46There is an unusual level of quite horrible pathological damage,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50disease and trauma on the mammoth bones themselves.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53So injured animals who've survived?
0:19:53 > 0:19:58In here, we've got two vertebras that have become fused together
0:19:58 > 0:20:00because of infection.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04We think this is a reflection of these animals surviving
0:20:04 > 0:20:09several failed hunting attempts by Neanderthals.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11When you think about the kinds of techniques
0:20:11 > 0:20:14they would have had to use, up-close hunting,
0:20:14 > 0:20:18it's no surprise really that they had to have several goes.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23It must have taken a lot of bravery to go in
0:20:23 > 0:20:26and stab something the size of a mammoth time and time again.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33It's really interesting to see what those Neanderthals were eating
0:20:33 > 0:20:34and potentially hunting
0:20:34 > 0:20:37and they would have had to be very robust to deal with that.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Oh, absolutely. It's a lifestyle that required incredible strength.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43There is something else when we look at these arm bones.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45They're different, side to side, they're asymmetrical.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48Yeah, when you look at the arm bones you can see really
0:20:48 > 0:20:51visually that the right is larger and more robust than the left.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54So the question is, what were Neanderthals doing
0:20:54 > 0:20:57differently with their right arms compared with their left arms?
0:20:57 > 0:20:59George, can you help me out?
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Well, there are a couple of things that we can try out
0:21:02 > 0:21:03that might offer some clues.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07Now, we've got a fine specimen of a hunter here.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Now, Colin, he's wired up onto a machine,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12what are we hoping to show with this?
0:21:12 > 0:21:14What we're trying to do is test a theory that explains
0:21:14 > 0:21:16the asymmetry they were talking about.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19You need intensity and you need frequency to cause bone change.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22The prevailing theory is that, when you spear thrust,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26that back arm, the right arm, provides the majority of the force
0:21:26 > 0:21:30and the front is simply steering, somewhat like a snooker...pool cue.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34So what we're going to do is measure the muscle activity
0:21:34 > 0:21:35during spear thrusting.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38The key is that the muscles attach onto the bone
0:21:38 > 0:21:40and change their shape.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43It's one of the things that influences bone structure.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48When our hunter here stabs prey, the electrodes here will be activated.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51Well, the muscles will be activated,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53it will measure the energy that it produces.
0:21:53 > 0:21:54We're going to get him to do
0:21:54 > 0:21:57some spearing activities to measure the activity of the muscles,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01that might give us clues as to how the bones are being influenced.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04OK, so you have to be a really fierce hunter. Grrrr.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06We want some serious intensity
0:22:06 > 0:22:08because this thing is either your dinner or your death.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11So get in a nice stance
0:22:11 > 0:22:13and we're going to get you to do three hard stabs.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15So go ahead.
0:22:15 > 0:22:21Nice and again and out. One more. One more time. Excellent, excellent.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24OK, perfect. Have a seat over there.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Now, what we see here exactly is that you'd expect from the theory
0:22:28 > 0:22:30that the right has more activity than the left.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33What we're seeing is exactly the opposite.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35This is the right, this is the left.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38So it's completely the other way round.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Yeah, and the reason for that we think is that
0:22:41 > 0:22:43it's not simply like playing pool.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48It's much more that you have a full body flexing, the hips shift,
0:22:48 > 0:22:53the shoulders shift and your arms go right into the target.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55The ground reaction force comes back along the spear.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58The muscles of the left arm are taking the majority of the load
0:22:58 > 0:23:00and as a result they're far more active.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Which is the opposite way for what you'd expect
0:23:03 > 0:23:06for explaining what we see on the skeleton over there.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09So how come the asymmetrical arm bones,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13if the right arm is not doing as much work as the left?
0:23:13 > 0:23:16It's a wonderful question. Neanderthals live in a cold climate.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19They needed to stay warmer than just their physiology would allow for.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22So clothing might have been part of the equation.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25To produce a hide, to take something like this, a skin,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28and produce a hide that you can construct clothing out of
0:23:28 > 0:23:30takes a great deal of processing.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32It has to be scraped and cleaned.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36You're completely right, it takes approximately eight hours per hide,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39of scraping, that's a great deal of scraping.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41If you remember, you need intensity
0:23:41 > 0:23:43and you need frequency to cause bone change.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45How many hides would you need for one suit?
0:23:45 > 0:23:47Perfect question. You need five to six,
0:23:47 > 0:23:50and each individual needs a new suit per year.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Right, that's a lot of scraping.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54John, you're going to be scraping there.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56So what we want you to do is grab a stone tool.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58This is a side scraper.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00These are the type of things that are found
0:24:00 > 0:24:02predominately in Neanderthal stone tool assemblages.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06So go ahead and give it a scrape for us.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Perfect, and if you keep doing that, I'm going to move over to here.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12Again, this is the right shoulder,
0:24:12 > 0:24:14this is the activity from the right shoulder.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16The one that is active.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19If this type of activity is intense enough and frequent enough
0:24:19 > 0:24:23to cause bone adaptation, then this could explain what we see.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27They would have been doing this for hours and hours and hours.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30The explanation is, if one person was doing it for their family,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33they could remain busy for half a year of scraping.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35It might explain the right side dominance
0:24:35 > 0:24:38and the massive asymmetry you see in Neanderthals.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42It's very clear. Alice, this might be the answer.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45It could be something as mundane as scraping hides all day.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48I really love this idea, I love the fact that
0:24:48 > 0:24:50we think of Neanderthals as big game hunters
0:24:50 > 0:24:53and yet here we are looking at them and saying well, actually,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56what's really shaped their bones is not hunting but making clothes.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59And Colin's also been doing work looking at how
0:24:59 > 0:25:03we can reconstruct muscles based on the size of bones
0:25:03 > 0:25:04and we can say that certainly
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Neanderthals were much more muscly than us.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11And we know from this that they were more muscly in their right arms.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14So, Viktor, are you starting to put muscles on?
0:25:14 > 0:25:17That's what I'm starting to do. Here we go.
0:25:17 > 0:25:18It's early phase.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20Oh, he's really chunky.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22You're just refining the texture of the muscles there.
0:25:22 > 0:25:23Nice big deltoids.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26That's one of the muscles that we've been looking at.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28That looks fantastic.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30When you're reconstructing this, you can't help but think about
0:25:30 > 0:25:35all the things they may have done and what affected them.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39The more questions you ask yourself in reconstructing this,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42the more accurate your final piece will be.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45So you can do his muscles virtually
0:25:45 > 0:25:49but back in our model-maker's studio they've been having to use
0:25:49 > 0:25:54a lot of clay to put the muscles on our life-size Neanderthal model.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59And I went down there to lend a hand.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02While I've got you here,
0:26:02 > 0:26:06you can help me block out, so I can see the extent of the muscles.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09That'll give me a guide to the rest of the body. How does that sound?
0:26:13 > 0:26:18Using the framework of the skeleton, we began to layer on the muscles.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22So this is gluteus medius, and I've just got in the back of my mind
0:26:22 > 0:26:24all of the dissections I've done
0:26:24 > 0:26:28and the size of the muscles that I've seen in those dissections,
0:26:28 > 0:26:33and I'm really going for the thickest, the chunkiest muscles
0:26:33 > 0:26:36that I've ever seen when I've been doing human dissection.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Right. That is a great help, actually.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42Markings on the bones are a clue
0:26:42 > 0:26:46as to how big individual muscles should be.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48You can see how prominent this is.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51And that is where these muscles are attaching,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54so we can see they're on the bone, on the fossil itself,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57that there's a very prominent area of muscle attachment.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59These must have been nice big chunky muscles.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03So we know that we're following the real anatomy.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Neanderthal anatomy may have been well suited to hunting
0:27:08 > 0:27:13and preparing skins, but it seems that isn't all they were doing.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17In fact, new research is suggesting that the Neanderthals may have been
0:27:17 > 0:27:20a little more cultured that we'd previously given them credit for.
0:27:23 > 0:27:30Art. It's one of the things that we think of as unique to our species.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35But in southern Spain a controversial new discovery
0:27:35 > 0:27:38suggests that this may not be the case.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42Archaeologist Joao Zilhao believes he has found what may be
0:27:42 > 0:27:47one of the first examples of Neanderthal art.
0:27:47 > 0:27:52A painted shell from 37,000 years ago.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57You can see on this side a pigment, which you can see there and there.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59So that orange is a pigment, is it?
0:27:59 > 0:28:03This is a paste combining a yellow and red to make a homogenous orange.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07So in order to achieve that you would have had to have taken
0:28:07 > 0:28:10raw red, raw yellow, mix them together and then apply it?
0:28:10 > 0:28:12That's it.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Joao thinks the hole in the middle means it could have been
0:28:15 > 0:28:17used as a pendant.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19The site is 60km from the sea,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22and obviously it did not travel on its own.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Somebody had to carry it all that distance.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29These were people that were passing by,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32took up shelter perhaps one night, and went on.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35One of them was carrying this shell as a pendant probably.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39And it broke, and they threw it away,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42and we were able to recover half of it.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44But why would Neanderthal hunter-gatherers
0:28:44 > 0:28:47start wearing symbols like this?
0:28:47 > 0:28:49If you only meet people whom you know,
0:28:49 > 0:28:53you don't even have to have names for them.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55You know who they are.
0:28:55 > 0:29:01But if all of a sudden you start getting to deal with strangers
0:29:01 > 0:29:03on a frequent basis, people who don't speak your language,
0:29:03 > 0:29:08that's where these codes, these symbols kick in.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12And you can see even in societies of the present
0:29:12 > 0:29:15how body decoration is expressing status.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Who you are, if you are married or unmarried,
0:29:19 > 0:29:23if you are from a certain tribe or a different tribe.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26So do you think this suggests that Neanderthals were essentially
0:29:26 > 0:29:29the same as us culturally, and in their way of thinking?
0:29:29 > 0:29:34Definitely. Neanderthals and their modern human contemporaries
0:29:34 > 0:29:40were much more alike than we have so far thought.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48The idea that Neanderthals had jewellery is contentious.
0:29:48 > 0:29:53But in 2011 Joao made a similar discovery
0:29:53 > 0:29:58at a prehistoric modern human site he's excavated nearby,
0:29:58 > 0:30:02and it raised an even more controversial possibility.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04That's lovely.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07It was found here at this site
0:30:07 > 0:30:10and Enrique there is the man who found it.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16- He was digging in the trench. - Fantastic, what a lovely find.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20The similarities of this modern human ornament compared with
0:30:20 > 0:30:25the Neanderthal one go way beyond its natural appearance.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28The shell is naturally red, but on top of that natural red,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32you can see there, there and here between the ribs,
0:30:32 > 0:30:33this is the remains of painting.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35You can see very well under the microscope.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37You will notice the perforation,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40so that the shell could be used as an ornament.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43- So this shell could have been worn as a pendant?- Probably.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45And it looks as though it's been painted to make it even redder.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Yes. This comes from an early modern human level,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51dated to about 30,000 years ago.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53It's lovely, isn't it?
0:30:53 > 0:30:56In fact, there's no evidence of modern humans in this area
0:30:56 > 0:30:58before 30,000 years ago.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06But the Neanderthal ornament is older than that,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08by 7,000 years.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11This raises the intriguing possibility
0:31:11 > 0:31:13that when modern humans arrived here
0:31:13 > 0:31:17they could have been copying Neanderthals.
0:31:21 > 0:31:22But there is more.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25Because since I made that film with Joao,
0:31:25 > 0:31:29he and some colleagues have published dating
0:31:29 > 0:31:33on this wonderful cave painting from El Castillo cave in Spain.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Now, they haven't dated the hand prints,
0:31:36 > 0:31:41they've dated these red spots and they've found out that
0:31:41 > 0:31:46at least one of these goes back to 41,000 years ago.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49So this makes it the oldest cave painting that we have in Europe.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51And the really intriguing thing about that is,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55while it could have been made by our ancestors, Homo sapiens,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58it could have equally been made by Neanderthals.
0:31:58 > 0:32:04So why is that so important? What's the evolutionary advantage of art?
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Well, art is always something we've thought of as uniquely modern human.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10First of all, it's quite shocking to even consider that
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Neanderthals might have had this capability.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15And it's a really important form of communication.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17I have this theory that it's all about sex
0:32:17 > 0:32:21because if you can perform something really well,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23if you can play an instrument or paint something really nicely,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26decorate something, you get more sex.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28So you think it's come into my cave and see my paintings?
0:32:28 > 0:32:30See my etchings, yeah.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34Art may have been a means of communication for them
0:32:34 > 0:32:37but what about talking, could Neanderthals actually speak?
0:32:37 > 0:32:38It's been an enduring debate,
0:32:38 > 0:32:42whether Neanderthals actually had language
0:32:42 > 0:32:45but I think we can reasonably assume they had language, can't we?
0:32:45 > 0:32:48Yeah, when you look at their lifestyle you have to imagine that
0:32:48 > 0:32:52they're cooperating in a way that really required advanced communication.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Well, we do have one of the little bones that is there on our skeleton
0:32:55 > 0:32:57which I think is the Kebara hyoid bone.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00This little bone is the only one in your body
0:33:00 > 0:33:03that reflects the position of your larynx.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05That tells you something about your voice box.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Right, I've got a voice box over here, I've got a larynx.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11And this is about five times life-size.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14So here is the hyoid bone, which looks massive on this model,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16it's quite small on us.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20You can feel it if you pinch just under your jaw bone, your mandible.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22You can feel something quite hard
0:33:22 > 0:33:24and you can wobble it from side to side.
0:33:24 > 0:33:25That's the hyoid bone.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29It supports the floor of the mouth but it also supports the larynx,
0:33:29 > 0:33:31the voice box hangs down underneath it.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35Well, how do we try to reconstruct all of this soft tissue
0:33:35 > 0:33:36based on just a bone?
0:33:36 > 0:33:38George, are you up there?
0:33:38 > 0:33:42Yes, Alice, I'm right up here with the hyoid bone.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Sandra Martelli is a palaeoanthropologist who's been
0:33:45 > 0:33:49examining Neanderthal hyoid bones and a series of Neanderthal skulls
0:33:49 > 0:33:52with the aim of recreating soft tissue of the vocal tract
0:33:52 > 0:33:56and finding out whether Neanderthals could speak.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00Now, that's a bone that's just floating around in the throat,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02it isn't attached to anything.
0:34:02 > 0:34:03There's no soft tissue,
0:34:03 > 0:34:07how do you go about recreating what's happening?
0:34:07 > 0:34:10That's right, you just recapped that quite nicely.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12This bone doesn't have any bony connection to anything,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15it's just purely held in position by the muscles.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17This is a human one, here's a Neanderthal one,
0:34:17 > 0:34:19from the shape and size
0:34:19 > 0:34:22you couldn't tell whether the Neanderthal could speak.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25So what I've prepared here is a CT scan
0:34:25 > 0:34:27from one of many volunteers that we have.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30Then actually see the actual bones.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34- So here is the hyoid bone right here. - The blue bone is the hyoid bone.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37We can actually use for example the length of the mandible
0:34:37 > 0:34:41and the height of the face to predict in humans
0:34:41 > 0:34:44where this bone should actually go in relationship to the mandible.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47We call this the human model.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Then we can take a CT scan of La Ferrassie
0:34:50 > 0:34:55and we can use this model to actually put the hyoid in position.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59So what you've got here is a best guesstimate
0:34:59 > 0:35:01of where the hyoid bone would sit.
0:35:01 > 0:35:02That's right.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07You might just see that here the hyoid sits in the same distance
0:35:07 > 0:35:10from the mandible as we saw in the human
0:35:10 > 0:35:14but it sits a little bit forward, creating quite a big space here.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17So we've got a pretty good idea of where the hyoid bone
0:35:17 > 0:35:20would have sat in the throat but can we find anything else out?
0:35:20 > 0:35:24Can we work out if the Neanderthals could speak or make a noise?
0:35:24 > 0:35:25Well, if you swap round,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28I've got Anna Barney here, who's an acoustical engineer
0:35:28 > 0:35:31from Southampton University.
0:35:31 > 0:35:32How do we take this further?
0:35:32 > 0:35:35Well, we had the problem still of there being no soft tissue
0:35:35 > 0:35:39of the Neanderthals so what we did is, we took a modern human skull
0:35:39 > 0:35:42and we found some landmarks on that
0:35:42 > 0:35:45and we could find the same landmarks on the Neanderthal skull,
0:35:45 > 0:35:49so we morphed the modern human skull until the landmarks fitted
0:35:49 > 0:35:51over the Neanderthal landmarks.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53Then we took the modern human vocal tract
0:35:53 > 0:35:56and we applied the same rule to stretch and distort that
0:35:56 > 0:35:58so it also fitted into the Neanderthals skull.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00The important sounds are the quantal vowels.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02Those are the vowels ahh, eee and ooh.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05And these are synthesised sounds of what you think a Neanderthal
0:36:05 > 0:36:08would actually have sounded like.
0:36:08 > 0:36:09Yes, based on our modelling,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12this is what we think they would have sounded like.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14- So the first one is the ahh. - COMPUTER BEEPS
0:36:14 > 0:36:16- The eee. - COMPUTER BEEPS
0:36:16 > 0:36:19- And the ooh. - COMPUTER BEEPS
0:36:19 > 0:36:23So the eee and the ohh sound quite like a modern human would
0:36:23 > 0:36:25but the ahh is a little bit different.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28So play them again. Sounds really weird.
0:36:28 > 0:36:29Ahh.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31COMPUTER BEEPS
0:36:31 > 0:36:33COMPUTER BEEPS
0:36:33 > 0:36:36And when we look at languages, some have a lot of vowels,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38some don't have very many, some have only five,
0:36:38 > 0:36:40but they all have ahh, eee and ooh.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43If the Neanderthals could produce an ahh, an eee and a ooh,
0:36:43 > 0:36:45they were well on the way to speaking.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48Well, that is excellent. Alice, what do you think of that?
0:36:48 > 0:36:51I still think we're quite a long way off from actually knowing
0:36:51 > 0:36:55what a Neanderthal sounded like but I know some people have pointed out
0:36:55 > 0:36:58other things that might help us try to establish
0:36:58 > 0:37:00whether Neanderthals could have spoken.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03So, George, we're looking at skulls still.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07And we're actually going to look at one tiny hole
0:37:07 > 0:37:10in the base of the skull and it's here.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15And it's just through there
0:37:15 > 0:37:18and let me just show that on the lipstick camera.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20This little hole just there
0:37:20 > 0:37:23is where a nerve called the hypoglossal nerve comes out.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25And that's the one that supplies the tongue
0:37:25 > 0:37:28and obviously the tongue's really important in speaking.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31We can't really see that on our Neanderthal cast
0:37:31 > 0:37:32but we've got some images.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36I'll go up with the images of the better cast.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39And you can see right here, we've got a skewer going right through
0:37:39 > 0:37:43the hypoglossal canal and of course it's in the same size and location
0:37:43 > 0:37:46as in a human but what's key about this is that it's the same diameter.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49So it's consistent with the idea that
0:37:49 > 0:37:51the nerves innervating the tongue are alike
0:37:51 > 0:37:53between Neanderthals and us.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56This is the idea that the hypoglossal canal is a similar size
0:37:56 > 0:37:57in humans and Neanderthals,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00therefore Neanderthals could probably speak.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03There have been other studies looking at a range of other primates
0:38:03 > 0:38:05and they've actually shown that the hypoglossal canal
0:38:05 > 0:38:08is a similar size in all of them as well and we know
0:38:08 > 0:38:12that monkeys can't speak like us, so we're still none the wiser really.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16This is a real problem, with every piece of anatomy on the hard tissue
0:38:16 > 0:38:19that points to possibly language, there's something to question it.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22With this, it's scaling, with the larynx, it's the absolute position.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26I mean, everything that we try to do to figure out language,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28we come ultimately to a dead end.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31We're going to have to wait for a mummified Neanderthal
0:38:31 > 0:38:34to emerge from the permafrosts of Siberia before we know
0:38:34 > 0:38:36what all this soft tissue anatomy looked like,
0:38:36 > 0:38:39before we know what their tongues and larynxes looked like.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41This debate is going to run and run.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45Until we find a Neanderthal in an ice pack or invent time travel
0:38:45 > 0:38:47we'll never know for sure whether they could speak.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51There seems to be no reason to assume that they couldn't, I think,
0:38:51 > 0:38:53but we do need to move on.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56Is there anything else we can tell from the skull?
0:38:56 > 0:38:58We haven't looked at the teeth in detail yet.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01What's peculiar about these teeth, I think,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03is that the ones at the front are really heavily worn.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06And, John, you've got some wonderful images behind you.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10Yeah, when you take a look at the way these teeth are worn,
0:39:10 > 0:39:13I mean, they're worn right down to almost where they meet the gum,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17but they're also worn in the front teeth in a very bevelled way.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20So is that eating, is that from chewing?
0:39:20 > 0:39:23Yeah, when you look at the way they're worn,
0:39:23 > 0:39:24it's very consistently outwards,
0:39:24 > 0:39:26outwards in the top, outwards in the bottom.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28That's not from chewing,
0:39:28 > 0:39:30this isn't the teeth meeting and making contact,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33this is the teeth being used as tools.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36They're taking their teeth and they're gripping onto things.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38One of the most likely things that they're doing is
0:39:38 > 0:39:43taking probably garments of skins and working them, working them.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47We saw the scraping earlier but that working, working is necessary
0:39:47 > 0:39:52to keep those skins soft and pliable so that you can wear them.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54It's not just the external appearance
0:39:54 > 0:39:56of Neanderthal teeth that are fascinating.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59I went to Grenoble in southern France to see how
0:39:59 > 0:40:03state-of-the-art technology is being used to shed light
0:40:03 > 0:40:06on secrets deep inside Neanderthal teeth.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20This is Europe's largest synchrotron.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22It's a particle accelerator
0:40:22 > 0:40:25but what we are really interested in is not the particles themselves
0:40:25 > 0:40:30but what they produce, because that is incredibly powerful X-rays.
0:40:30 > 0:40:36These X-rays are a thousand billion times stronger than the ones
0:40:36 > 0:40:39produced in a normal hospital X-ray machine.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41They let you see inside any object, like this apple,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44without destroying it,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48creating images at an astonishingly high resolution.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51The way these X-rays are produced is quite extraordinary.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56An electron gun fires electrons out at very high speeds.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58And then they're released into a circuit,
0:40:58 > 0:41:01which is nearly a kilometre in circumference.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04And they are manipulated by magnets as they go, so they oscillate,
0:41:04 > 0:41:09and they end up emitting very powerful X-rays.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Dr Paul Tafforeau is using the synchrotron
0:41:14 > 0:41:16to X-ray Neanderthal teeth.
0:41:16 > 0:41:22The X-ray images reveal the finest details of the internal structure
0:41:22 > 0:41:26of some very rare remains, without destroying them.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31That's beautiful.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38The X-rays reveal growth lines within a tooth.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42They can be counted just like the growth rings in trees.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45They're known as Retzius lines.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Here you can see all the things we call the Retzius lines.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51They are perfectly regular lines.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55In Neanderthals, these occur up to every nine days.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58At an even higher resolution,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01Paul can see the daily growth lines in-between them.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06What you see on the right are the Retzius lines and between them
0:42:06 > 0:42:10you can see the daily lines just here.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13And those are the daily increments and that is fantastic, isn't it?
0:42:16 > 0:42:18How beautiful is that?
0:42:18 > 0:42:20So this is a record of somebody's life
0:42:20 > 0:42:26to the resolution of single days from thousands of years ago.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28Exactly.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31Between the Retzius lines of this individual
0:42:31 > 0:42:34are eight daily growth lines.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38So once you've done that you can go back to your lower resolution,
0:42:38 > 0:42:40count up all the Retzius lines,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43multiply it by that and you've got your age.
0:42:43 > 0:42:44- Correct.- That's Brilliant.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Paul is collaborating with Dr Tanya Smith of Harvard University.
0:42:50 > 0:42:55Using this technique they're able to tell exactly how old
0:42:55 > 0:42:58a Neanderthal child was when it died.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02They're comparing this with previous estimates of age
0:43:02 > 0:43:05based on how well developed the teeth were.
0:43:05 > 0:43:11This could shed light on why they died out and we survived.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15The tooth Paul showed me came from a Neanderthal child
0:43:15 > 0:43:20that was previously though to be up to six years old when it died.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23We were able to use the synchrotron to estimate
0:43:23 > 0:43:25the age at death for this individual.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28We came up with the age of three years old, which was remarkable.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32Does this mean that Neanderthals were effectively growing up
0:43:32 > 0:43:34quicker than modern humans?
0:43:34 > 0:43:35There's variation within populations.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38By and large, though, Neanderthals do show
0:43:38 > 0:43:40a faster period of growth and development.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44Do you think this casts any light on why we are still here today
0:43:44 > 0:43:47and the Neanderthals aren't?
0:43:47 > 0:43:50It's tempting to suggest that something about having this
0:43:50 > 0:43:52prolonged period of growth and development
0:43:52 > 0:43:55was an advantage for us and it's tempting to think
0:43:55 > 0:43:58that that may have something to do with learning and social behaviour.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00You know, we're co-operative breeders.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05We are so successful because we share the burden of raising young,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07and how co-operative were the Neanderthals?
0:44:07 > 0:44:09We don't really know.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17This is such elegant research
0:44:17 > 0:44:20and what it's revealing is truly surprising.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25Neanderthal children grew up much more quickly than our own.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29So there is this fundamental difference in life histories
0:44:29 > 0:44:31that might just have played a role
0:44:31 > 0:44:33in the different fates of our two species.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40It's pretty amazing technology.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42Absolutely. To be able to age it day by day.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44Are their brains growing faster?
0:44:44 > 0:44:47Well, we think that all of them is growing faster.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50So it means, what, that they've got less time to learn.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54It's interesting, because the teeth we can really put that date on.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56With the brain, it's more difficult.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00And what we believe is that the period of development in humans,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03which is long, is related to learning and expanding your brain.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Most animals don't have childhoods like ours, do they, George?
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Absolutely not.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11They grow up and reach a reproductive age very quickly
0:45:11 > 0:45:14so this childhood that we have seems to be all about learning.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16Yeah, it looks that way.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20Of course there are other things that teeth can help to tell us
0:45:20 > 0:45:24and one of those things is what Neanderthal faces would have looked like.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27So let's catch up with Viktor. How are you doing with the face?
0:45:27 > 0:45:29Well, I've worked out the musculature now.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32That's on the actual hard surface reconstruction.
0:45:32 > 0:45:38Now, I'm applying what I did on that job,
0:45:38 > 0:45:40I'm applying it now digitally.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44So you're working in clay but also digitally at the same time?
0:45:44 > 0:45:45Correct.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47And we're getting towards having a Neanderthal face,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49which is so exciting.
0:45:49 > 0:45:50I can see him emerging.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54And Viktor brought his fleshed-out head over from the States
0:45:54 > 0:45:57to our model makers so he could fit it on the body.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04Viktor made the head of La Ferrassie 1 at his base in New York.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09While in the UK the model makers finished muscling up the body.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14After two months of work it was time to put the two together.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20Oh, wow, looking great so far.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25Body fat tissue and everything looks good too.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28I like the structure you've given him, because he looks strong
0:46:28 > 0:46:34but not like he's been pumping iron or anything, but at the same time
0:46:34 > 0:46:39he's definitely not a guy you really want to mess with too much.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48Wow.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Wow! Cool, man!
0:46:51 > 0:46:53That's a mean-looking dude!
0:46:55 > 0:46:57He may look a little mean but what happened to him?
0:46:57 > 0:46:59Why are we here and they're not?
0:46:59 > 0:47:03Well, here's 60,000 years ago
0:47:03 > 0:47:06and Neanderthals had been doing very well indeed.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11Then scroll forward to 48,000 years ago
0:47:11 > 0:47:13and something happened that nearly wiped them out.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16So what was happening in their world then?
0:47:16 > 0:47:18Well, look at this,
0:47:18 > 0:47:21you can see that the climate that they had been experiencing had
0:47:21 > 0:47:25been changing from hot to cold to hot to cold for thousands of years.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28And they'd been coping pretty well.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32Then a sudden spell 48,000 years ago plunged their world
0:47:32 > 0:47:36into one of the coldest periods they'd ever experienced
0:47:36 > 0:47:39and in just a few decades the north Atlantic froze over.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43And with the climate fluctuating like that they must have been
0:47:43 > 0:47:46under enormous pressure and some Neanderthal remains
0:47:46 > 0:47:50found recently in Spain suggest they could have been in big trouble.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00I'm travelling through the mountainous region of Asturias
0:48:00 > 0:48:03in Northern Spain, where 12 years ago
0:48:03 > 0:48:06archaeologists began excavating a particularly gruesome find
0:48:06 > 0:48:08which appeared to re-establish the reputation
0:48:08 > 0:48:12of the Neanderthals as brutes.
0:48:15 > 0:48:20The site is inside a cave known as El Sidron.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25Archaeologist Marco de la Rasilla Vives
0:48:25 > 0:48:28has been leading the excavation here.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36Disappearing down into the bowels of the earth in search of Neanderthals.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46The excavations here have produced the remains of at least 13 Neanderthals,
0:48:46 > 0:48:49some of them adults, some of them children,
0:48:49 > 0:48:55and Marco is taking me to the exact spot where those remains were found.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01The bones appear to have fallen down into the cave
0:49:01 > 0:49:03from a rock shelter on the hillside above.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07Here is the place where we found all the bones and all the lithic tools.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12There's a fissure going right up above me here.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15So this is where the bones have fallen down, then,
0:49:15 > 0:49:18and have collapsed down into this chamber.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20That's it.
0:49:20 > 0:49:22When do you think they date to?
0:49:22 > 0:49:2549,000 years before present.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29- So this is before modern humans arrived in the area.- Sure. Sure.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31It's also the time when climate change
0:49:31 > 0:49:35was hitting the Neanderthals hard and the population crashed.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44The bones from the caves were taken to Madrid
0:49:44 > 0:49:48to the National Museum of Natural Sciences.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54Dr Antonio Rosas and his team are studying
0:49:54 > 0:50:00some 2,000 fragments of bones from 13 skeletons found at El Sidron.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Three of the bones they've looked at so far
0:50:03 > 0:50:07seem to show signs of cannibalism.
0:50:07 > 0:50:08So what's the evidence?
0:50:08 > 0:50:11The most direct evidence is cut marks.
0:50:11 > 0:50:13- And you see...- Oh, yes, absolutely.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17They cut like this, probably in that particular case
0:50:17 > 0:50:20to remove the masseter muscle.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24So this muscle that comes down here and attaches just there.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27Why do you think this is cannibalism?
0:50:27 > 0:50:30If we go to this long bone, you can see here
0:50:30 > 0:50:32that there is some kind of notch,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36this is what we call a percussion mark that has been produced
0:50:36 > 0:50:42by a stone hammer to break the bone and get into the marrow.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45The only reason you would smash into a femur like this
0:50:45 > 0:50:49is to get at that rich fatty marrow inside.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51That's right. That's right.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54At that time the only human species that were living
0:50:54 > 0:50:57in this part of the world were the Neanderthals.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00So this was Neanderthals on Neanderthals.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03It's quite shocking.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08Cannibalism could be a demonstration of love.
0:51:08 > 0:51:10It could be a way of venerating.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14Venerating. For us, it is quite difficult to understand this.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19In our mindset, this has been associated with brutality.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22It's interesting because we're looking at evidence
0:51:22 > 0:51:26of cannibalism but at the moment we don't know if that's a snapshot
0:51:26 > 0:51:30of people in desperation or whether what we're seeing is a glimpse
0:51:30 > 0:51:36into Neanderthal culture and what was quite normal behaviour for them.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40Well, whether it was desperation or veneration,
0:51:40 > 0:51:43the really interesting thing about these bones is not that
0:51:43 > 0:51:46cannibalism was taking place but when it was occurring.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50These bones were dated to 49,000 years ago.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53Right around the time when it got particularly cold.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56But there was something else going on at the same time
0:51:56 > 0:51:59that we just can't discount.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01Another factor came into play. That was us.
0:52:01 > 0:52:06Within a few thousand years of the big freeze,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09modern humans arrived in western Europe.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13The Neanderthal population here had been reduced
0:52:13 > 0:52:16to just a handful of individuals.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19We don't know if we fought with them
0:52:19 > 0:52:22but we do know that we bred with them.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26Within 20,000 years Neanderthals were extinct.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29But their DNA lives on in us.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35Today, most people from outside Africa can trace
0:52:35 > 0:52:38up to 4% of their DNA back to Neanderthals.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43What might that Neanderthal DNA mean for us today?
0:52:43 > 0:52:46What effects might it be having in our genomes?
0:52:46 > 0:52:48Well, it's very difficult to say.
0:52:48 > 0:52:53But I have some results from you two which can shed some light on it.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57So this is a gene on chromosome 16 called WFDC1,
0:52:57 > 0:52:59and it's controlling cell growth.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02We don't know what difference it makes to have different copies of it.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05So this is very early stages at the moment
0:53:05 > 0:53:08but we're starting to understand the implications of having
0:53:08 > 0:53:10some Neanderthal genes in our genome.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13And actually we do know something about Neanderthal genes
0:53:13 > 0:53:15which is very interesting
0:53:15 > 0:53:18and that's that at least some Neanderthals had red hair.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21And that's very useful for Viktor.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25So catching up with Viktor again.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28This is great, so we've actually got hair colour.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31What's great about working in this nature is that it gives you
0:53:31 > 0:53:34the ability to test out different looks, different hair
0:53:34 > 0:53:37and different skin colour, before you commit.
0:53:37 > 0:53:38This is grounded in science.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42OK, it's looking quite artistic but there's science at the base of it.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45With the skin colour you've done really pale skin.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49So this is someone who lived in a northern climate.
0:53:49 > 0:53:50Right, much like us.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52He's really starting to come together.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Now there's one question I want to ask.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57Can we tell how this individual died?
0:53:57 > 0:54:01It's a great question and usually we can't.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05But in this case the skeleton gives us some really interesting clues.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07On the outside of your bones is a membrane.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09And you can see here where it's roughened.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11That membrane was laying down new bone at around the time
0:54:11 > 0:54:13this individual died.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15And it's at the distal end of the tibia,
0:54:15 > 0:54:17it's also on the distal femora.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20The key thing about this is that it's on both sides and symmetrical.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23And actually that is pretty indicative of
0:54:23 > 0:54:24one particular type of disease.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29And it called hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32- And it basically means... - In English, please.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35It basically means you're laying down new bone but you're doing it in
0:54:35 > 0:54:39such a way that we know it's related to lung and sometimes heart disease.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42But it makes it very probable that this individual had either
0:54:42 > 0:54:44a bad lung infection or lung cancer.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48It's one of the very rare cases where we have a fossil where
0:54:48 > 0:54:52we can actually make some indication of the cause of death.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54So from these few bones that we started with
0:54:54 > 0:54:58we've established that Neanderthals were strong, adaptable
0:54:58 > 0:55:01and possibly had an emergent culture and budding language.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05They were well suited to their ice age home and, given that
0:55:05 > 0:55:09they were such a successful species they survived for 350,000 years,
0:55:09 > 0:55:14yet when the crunch came they may simply have been unlucky.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17It is very sad that they're no longer with us but
0:55:17 > 0:55:21we have been able to bring La Ferrassie 1 back to life
0:55:21 > 0:55:24with the help of all of this scientific evidence
0:55:24 > 0:55:28and our amazing model makers.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32We started with a composite skeleton based on La Ferrassie 1
0:55:32 > 0:55:35and other finds, and over nearly three months
0:55:35 > 0:55:38we've carefully been reconstructing him.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40With extraordinary attention to detail,
0:55:40 > 0:55:44the muscles were painstakingly added to rebuild his body.
0:55:44 > 0:55:50His face was recreated using forensic techniques.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54Then the skin and hair were added.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58Now he's finished, and he's here.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01So shall we go and have a look?
0:56:01 > 0:56:02Can't wait.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06This is so exciting. We have literally never seen this before.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Under a sheet. Go on then, Viktor.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10THEY ALL GASP
0:56:11 > 0:56:14Oh, my goodness, he's really lifelike.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16The nose is really prominent.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18That looks fantastic.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21Still trying to get my head around the fact that this guy
0:56:21 > 0:56:24is in my ancestry, and not that far back. John, what do you think?
0:56:24 > 0:56:27Give me a break, you look like twins.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29THEY LAUGH
0:56:29 > 0:56:30Isn't he wonderful?
0:56:30 > 0:56:32This just looks like a living, breathing Neanderthal.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35I'm slightly freaked out by him actually.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37I just think he's going to start moving.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41That is unbelievable. It's uncanny.
0:56:41 > 0:56:42What do you reckon?
0:56:42 > 0:56:46It just has this humanising effect to put the flesh on.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51The challenge is to make something that is different from us
0:56:51 > 0:56:52look different.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55In fact, the details point to great similarity.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59I could just imagine him striding off. Colin, what do you reckon?
0:56:59 > 0:57:01Is he muscly enough?
0:57:01 > 0:57:03He's got to be, but it's really impressive, isn't it?
0:57:03 > 0:57:08It's a case where focusing on bone doesn't give the whole picture.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12Viktor, such a good job. He's absolutely brilliant.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14Thank you. Thank you all.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16Everybody chipped in on this one.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Our investigations tonight have revealed some astonishing insights
0:57:19 > 0:57:23into the life and times of one of our most well-known prehistoric ancestors.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25The Neanderthals.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29We weren't always the only humans alive, in fact, it wasn't inevitable
0:57:29 > 0:57:32that we would end up the only human species on the planet.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35Tomorrow night we're going even further back in time,
0:57:35 > 0:57:411.5 million years, to recreate one of the earliest humans, Homo erectus.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45In America we unearth details of what their world was like
0:57:45 > 0:57:49from evidence found deep below the sea bed.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52It's like being given a history book of earth climate
0:57:52 > 0:57:54and no-one's ripped the pages out.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57I hear about new evidence that suggests Homo erectus
0:57:57 > 0:58:01was far more advanced than previously thought.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03That is a major breakthrough.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07And I went to a dig in Georgia to find out what might have
0:58:07 > 0:58:11given Homo erectus an evolutionary edge.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16So how does this person survive in this environment with no teeth?
0:58:16 > 0:58:20- So join us then as we meet another ancestor.- Goodnight.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22Goodnight.