Planet of the Apemen TV - The Human Spark TV - Tony Robinson TV - Andrew Marr TV - Chris Stringer - William L Strauss & A J E Cave - Russian Bigfoot TV - Horizon TV - Gary Sawyer - Steven Churchill - Neanderthals: Sci-Trek TV - Nova: Decoding Neanderthals TV - Richard Dawkins - Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors TV - Antony Gormley: How Art Began TV - Bettany Hughes TV -
There was a time when we shared this planet with other, very different types of human. By the time our ancestors left Africa 100,000 years ago most of these others had gone extinct. But not all. Other species have made the journey out of Africa before us. Planet of the Apemen: Battle for Earth I, BBC 2011
This is our world. We have shaped it in our image. Made it our own. We are now the only humans in existence. Absolute rulers of the Earth. Planet of the Apemen II: Battle for Earth
Why against the odds did we win the battle of planet Earth? ibid.
32,000 years ago a new species of human was spreading out across Europe. Southern France. The colour of their skin betrayed their African origins. Homo sapiens hadn’t been here very long and there wasn’t very many of them. These people were modern humans. They were our ancestors. As they spread out across our continent they entered the territory of another species – the Neanderthals. ibid.
That physical power was complimented by another vital asset. So as well as having significantly larger bodies Neanderthal had considerably larger brains. Making them a formidable enemy. ibid.
The Neanderthals didn’t survive as a species when we arrived. The Human Spark I: Becoming US, PBS 2010
One group of descendants stayed behind in Africa, but another group headed north ... the Neanderthals. ibid.
A picture of Neanderthal life that seems strikingly similar to the life of their ancestors in Africa. ibid.
Neanderthal children by contrast seem to have grown up more quickly. ibid.
No beads have ever been found at a Neanderthal site. ibid.
Neanderthals: they’d evolved down a different branch of the human family tree. Man on Earth with Tony Robinson: Triumph of the Homo Sapiens, Discovery 2009
One pocket remained in Gibraltar. ibid.
When we got to Europe we discovered we were not alone. Andrew Marr’s History of the World I, BBC 2012
75,956. We probably co-existed with the Neanderthals in Europe for between five and ten thousand years. ibid.
The way Neanderthals are treated in the popular media is very unfair. There were highly evolved humans. Professor Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum
Neanderthals were living in smaller family groups than we were. Professor Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum
Neanderthals cared about each other. Professor Chris Stringer
They were very muscular: short, wide, very stocky, very powerfully built. Professor Chris Stinger
Notwithstanding, if he could be reincarnated and placed in a New York subway – provided that he were bathed, shaved, and dressed in modern clothing – it is doubtful whether he would attract any more attention than some of its other denizens. William L Strauss and A J E Cave, Quarterly Review of Biology 1957
Over the last one hundred and fifty years scientists have been able to piece together a better picture of Neanderthals and what they really might have been like: they were stocky, strong and well adapted to cold weather. Russian Bigfoot
This means Neanderthals may have helped each other in times of sickness or injury ... Neanderthals might have ritually buried their dead. ibid.
When our ancestors first arrived in Europe thirty-five to forty thousand years ago there were people already waiting for them. Another species of human who had been living in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. They were called the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals were as much a part of the human family as we are. Closer to us than any living animal. Horizon: The Day We Learned to Think, BBC 2003
Europe. 80,000 years ago. For countless generations the kingdom of a remarkable and mysterious creature. Neanderthal. A species of human in many ways so similar to us, and yet also very different. Horizon: Neanderthal, BBC 2005
Was Neanderthal the simple-minded brute of legend, or a rival to our own species? And why is it that today we are the only species of human alive? And the Neanderthal is extinct? ibid.
He stood no more than five foot four inches tall. But he had an immensely powerful build. ibid.
82,762. To survive he would have needed a lot of calories. And that meant meat. ibid.
Measuring the volume of our Neanderthal’s brain shows it to be 20% bigger than the average for a modern human. But size isn’t everything. ibid.
He wasn’t the primitive apeman of legend after all. Powerful, adaptive to the cold, and now it appears intelligent. ibid.
In the world of Ice Age Europe he should be invincible. ibid.
Neanderthals faced a crisis of survival. The forests in which they lived were dying out because of the weather. And in this new open landscape they would have found it increasingly difficult to hunt. ibid.
It seems that the very features that made Neanderthal perfectly adapted to the rigours of the Ice Age had also locked him into an evolutionary dead end. ibid.
No complete Neanderthal skeleton has ever been recovered. My dream has always been that I can somehow gather together as many good casts as I can and see if it is feasible, possible, to make a complete skeleton. Gary Sawyer, American Museum of Natural History
Neanderthals had to capture enough calories to stay warm, without at the same time expanding too many calories. Professor Steven Churchill, Duke University
Neanderthals: a separate species of human. A powerful race of creatures who roamed the forests and mountains of Europe and western Asia for two hundred thousand years. Neanderthals: Sci-Trek
What killed off the Neanderthals? ibid.
Thirty thousand years ago something went fatally wrong. ibid.
The demise of the Neanderthal may have been more complex than just the dying off of the species. ibid.
A completion of the first draft of the Neanderthal genome using DNA recovered from several fossils – an initial comparison with the genome of humans found no trace of Neanderthal DNA. ibid.
The Neanderthals survived the harsh conditions in Europe for at least 300,000 years. Then, around 40,000 years ago, a different species arrives on the scene: our species, Homo sapiens. They migrated from Africa. Nova: Decoding Neanderthals, Eden 2013
How did Neanderthals communicate these complex ideas? ibid.
This is the result of all their work: the Neanderthal Genome. ibid.
Neanderthals were genetically closer to Europeans and Asians than they were to Africans. ibid.
Neanderthals had dominated Europe for nearly half a million years. But from the moment our ancestors entered the continent their days were numbered ... The last known refuge of the Neanderthals was here in Gibraltar. They lived their final years in these caves. Archaeologists believe the last Neanderthals died out 24,000 years ago. ibid.
The chairman asked him, [Cardinal George Pell] Did he accept that humans were descended from Apes? And he said yes, from Neanderthals. (We’re not descended from Neanderthals, we’re cousins of Neanderthals, I told him that.) And he said more or less well how can we be cousins if they’re extinct? Richard Dawkins, with Lawrence Krauss, Australian National University June 2017
Gibraltar: An iconic landmark in sight of two continents – Europe and Africa. Bettany Hughes’ Treasures of the World s1e3: Gibraltar
The lost world of the Neanderthals who lived in the 200 caves which honeycomb the Rock. Ever since a groundbreaking discovery was made here back in 1848, Gibraltar has offered a rare glimpse into the lives of our prehistoric forebears. ibid.