Walking with Cavemen episode guide

Episode one: First Ancestors

It's 3.5 million years ago and in East Africa a remarkable species of ape roams the
land. Australopithecus afarensis has taken the first tentative steps towards humanity by
standing and walking on two legs.
Just a few million years previously, Africa was covered, almost edge-to-edge, with dense
rain forest. Our ancestors almost certainly used all four limbs to move and live and hunt in
their tree-top homes. But massive geological turmoil changed their destiny.
The rift valley was forming, and the rain forests dying as Africa dried out - turning the
landscape
into
a
mosaic
of
scattered
trees
and
grass.
In
this
new
environment afarensis found it more efficient to move about on two legs rather than four.
This film follows a close-knit troop of afarensis, and in particular, Lucy and her young
infant. Led by a strong alpha male, there is harmony in their lives. They sleep high in the
trees and spend most of the day foraging for food. But then tragedy strikes. While drinking
from a nearby river, a lone crocodile sneaks in unnoticed and catches the alpha male
unawares.
Now leaderless, a dispute for dominance between the two secondary males unsettles the
troupe. Added to that, a rival troupe invades Lucy's territory. While not uncommon in their
chimp-like lifestyles, the resultant turf war is both violent and extreme and has
devastating consequences.
As the troop's life moves on, 'First Ancestors' shows how although bi-pedalism offers only
slight advantages to the afarensis, it opens the door to an astonishing set of new skills and
abilities that will change the shape of human life on Earth forever.
Australopithecus afarensis:
Meaning: 'Southern Ape of Afar' after the Afar region of Ethiopia.
Lived: 3.9 - 3.0 million years ago.
Range: East Africa.
Diet: Soft fruit, nuts, seeds, tubers and bird eggs.
Size: M: 152cm / 45kg F: 107cm / 28 kg.
Brain Size: 35% the size of a modern brain
Australopithecus afarensis walked upright like a human, but its body proportions were like
those of a chimpanzee. Like chimps, afarensis had a small brain, long, dangly arms, short
legs and a cone-shaped torso with a large belly.

Around 3.2 million years ago, this bipedal ape roamed a mixed habitat of savannah and
woodland beside lakes and floodplains. It foraged for fruit, seeds and nuts and may even
have eaten some meat.
Australopithecus afarensis probably climbed into trees to avoid sabre-toothed cats
likeDinofelis and to sleep in safety at night.
This hominid seems to have lived in social groups of between 20 and 30. These groups
were probably like those of chimpanzees, with dominance hierarchies in which each
individual knows their place. Male afarensis probably cooperated to drive away predators.
Once mature, females may have joined other troops of afarensis.
Lucy was discovered in 1974 by anthropologist Professor Donald Johanson and his student
Tom Gray in northern Ethiopia. They named the skeleton after 'Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds', the Beatles song playing on the radio at the time.
The science of episode one: First Ancestors
Why did we choose to begin our story with afarensis?
Our story begins around 3.5 million years ago in Ethiopia. As one of the first species of
upright walking bipedal apes, we featured Australopithecus afarensis in our opening story
because this is certainly the best-documented early hominid. (Hominid is the name we
give to the upright walking ape-like ancestors of humans.)
The female afarensis known by scientists as Lucy (find AL288-1) has now become a
celebrity fossil. It contains 47 out of 206 bones in a full skeleton, which might not sound
that impressive, but in the world of palaeoanthropology it is outstanding.
We can deduce a fair amount about the group make-up of afarensis from a famous fossil
discovery AL333, known as The First Family. Found by Michael Bush in 1975, this discovery
comprises the remains of at least 13 individuals that were buried in a catastrophic event,
possibly a flood. The group appears to have been related to each other. This collection
provides unique insights into the structure and biology of this species.
How did we model afarensis' behaviour?
The fossil evidence gives us some clues about afarensis' social life, but to help build up a
more complete outline we have tried to model their behaviour on that of chimpanzees,
because they are closely related to early hominids.
Jane Goodall's work at Gombe, Tanzania, is invaluable in outlining the complex political
world of these extraordinary social animals. She has documented chimpanzees'
complicated hierarchies of dominance, display behaviour and male/female relationships.
Our key storyline, the territorial disputes between Lucy's group and a neighbouring troop,
is based largely on actual chimpanzee observations. Goodall writes of one incident where
a group of patrolling chimps encounter a female with an infant. One of the males seized
the stranger, hit and bit her, before stamping on her back. During the fierce assault,

another male seized the infant and charged off through the bushes. In this way the males
of a troop protect food resources for their own females and young.
What do we know about the common ancestor?
Genetic evidence suggests that chimps and upright walking ape ancestors diverged from a
common ancestor between 5 and 7 million years ago. Fossils of this mysterious creature
have never been found, as the dense forest environments that would have been its home
do not preserve fossil remains well. Like living apes that are adapted to living in the forest,
the common ancestor probably walked on its knuckles.
The changing climate and environment
Many experts believe that the key to the creation of the broken, mixed environment of
trees, shrubs and savannah grasslands in Africa in whichafarensis evolved, is the
monsoon. Many millions of years ago, India collided with the continent of Asia, buckling
the surface of the Earth to create the huge mountain range that we call the Himalayas.
This geological event created a monsoon that released vast quantities of rain, drying out
the air. This same air flows across East Africa, and causes rainfall to drop sharply, drying
the rain forests and replacing them with broken scrub and woodland. It is no coincidence
that the monsoon intensified 6-8 million years ago - the time at which the common
ancestor lived.
So why did bipedal apes emerge in this environment?
Paleoanthropologists have advanced many theories over the years as to why quadrapedal
(four-legged) apes began walking upright. One of the most recent, and persuasive,
theories has been suggested by Dr Patricia Kramer of the University of Washington, who
believes that bipedalism was the most energy-efficient way of moving around the broken
landscape that appeared in Africa between 6 and 8 million years ago.
Energy is simply too critical a commodity to waste if you are a primate living a marginal
existence in the African savannah. Its conservation becomes critical. Dr Kramer found that
the short-legged morphology of early bipeds was the most energy-efficient body shape for
covering relatively long daily distances on the ground. Once bipedalism took hold, there
was no looking back.
Episode two: Blood Brothers
The Africa of two million years ago is a crossroads in human evolution. Half a dozen or
more different species of ape-men exist alongside one another. Each of them has exploited
the environment in a different way and has developed their own strategy for survival.
'Blood Brothers' follows the lives of two species, Paranthropus boisei andHomo habilis who
embody two alternative ways of ape-man life. Although heavyset, with distinctive gorillalike faces, the boisei are gentle characters. They live within a strict social structure and are
led by a dominant male whose strength and power holds the group together.
They are adapted brilliantly to the tough conditions in this dry arid land. Their huge teeth,
four times the size of our own, and strong jaws mean they can eat the toughest
vegetation. For them dried tubers and reed roots are rich pickings.

The habilis have taken a different approach to survival. They don't have the specialisms of
the boisei but instead have developed into the archetypal jack-of-all-trades, inquisitive
scavengers prepared to try almost anything to survive. Tough, active, gregarious and
noisy, they are always on the move and always alert to the possibility of a meal. But in the
near drought of the dry season the habilis are struggling. It seems as if their way of life
cannot help them when conditions are tough.
However habilis have a secret weapon. They have come to use brainpower rather than
brawn. They've learnt to work together to scare other predators away from food. They
scavenge for meat and, perhaps most importantly, make basic stone tools - equipping
themselves through their own efforts with the kind of specialist eating equipment
creatures like the boisei have by nature.
But which strategy for survival will win out? Which of these ways of living is still present in
us? As is often the case in our story, nature has a say: Massive geological turmoil means
the habilis and boisei environments continue to change. The boisei's specialisms have
locked them into one way of living, and when their niche no longer exists, neither can
they. But the habilis can adapt to a changing world - their generalist trait lives on in us.
Paranthropus boisei
Meaning: 'Near man of Boise' after Charles Boise, financial patron of the Leakey family.
Lived: 2.3 - 1.2 million years ago.
Range: East Africa (Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya).
Diet: Nuts, tubers, termites, possibly papyrus rhizomes.
Size: M: 137cm / 49kg F: 124cm / 34kg
Brain Size: 39% the size of a modern brain.
This vegetarian apeman had a big, flat face with a massive jaw. It lived at a time when
forests were vanishing from East Africa, creating a shortage of food such as soft fruit.
Paranthropus boisei coped with the shortage by evolving a massive jaw and huge teeth to
chomp tough-to-chew foods such as nuts, roots, seeds and tubers.
These hard, gritty foods were more abundant in the open woodland and grasslands
that boiseicalled home.
Paranthropus boisei may have lived in groups organized in harems, in which one male
mated with many females. Males were easy to spot amongst a harem of females; they
were much more muscular with much bigger faces.
Homo habilis
Meaning: 'Handy man'.
Lived: 2.2 - 1.6 million years ago.

Range: Eastern and southern Africa.

Diet: Omnivorous diet.
Size: M: 131cm / 37kg F: 100cm / 32 kg.
Brain Size: 47% the size of a modern brain.
Homo habilis had a short body and long ape-like arms like the australopithecines. But they
were distinguished from earlier hominids by their big brain (c. 630 cubic centimetres) and
small teeth.
The species evolved in Africa at a time when traditional forest foods like fruit were
becoming scarce forcing animals to seek out new nutritional sources.
Homo habilis ate meat by scavenging from animal carcasses. But snatching meat from
under the noses of fearsome predators like lions was a risky business.
However, Homo habilis had a secret weapon: stone tools. Crude stone implements were
used to smash open animal bones and extract the nutritious bone marrow.
Homo habilis lived in East Africa at the same time as Paranthropus boisei. But they they
occupied different ecological niches and so were not direct competitors. While habilis was
an omnivore, boisei survived on a hard-to-chew vegetarian diet.
The science of episode two: Blood Brothers
Why two million years ago?
We chose to set our next story two million years ago because the fossil evidence indicates
that there were several species of upright-walking hominids around at the same time.
During this period, many different species of animals were experiencing dramatic
changes.
These adaptions happened because the plants in Africa were changing around 3 to 2.8
million years ago. Africa went through a process of drying, causing woodland to shrink
back further and be replaced by grass. This in turn prompted new animals to evolve to
exploit the new food sources, and new predators to evolve to exploit them.
An ice age caused this upheaval.
Ice Age
The creation of the Himalyan mountain range dramatically altered rainfall patterns in East
Africa, drying out Africa over many millions of years. But between 3 and 2.8 million years
ago, changes in the Earths orbit made the seasons more extreme: The summers became
hotter, the winters colder. This caused the polar ice caps to expand, locking up reserves of
water and causing a drop in rainfall, drying Africa still further.
Why boisei?

A whole host of features in their skulls tell us that Paranthropus boisei was a unique
species. They were impressive creatures with dish-shaped faces and enormous molars that
were four times the size of our own. Wear patterns on their tooth enamel show that they
used these big molars to break down hard, gritty food. Chemical analysis of their teeth
shows they must have been eating certain kinds of papyrus and bullrushes.
For all these reasons, it seems that boisei, if not a herbivore, had adapted to strongly
favour a specialist diet of tough vegetation.
In our story, we suggest two reasons that boisei lived in a harem structure with a
dominant male, rather than a more fluid social grouping. Firstly, the skulls of male boisei
have a large saggital crest down their top and back, which is lacking in females. In
modern-day primates, such as gorillas, this phenomenon - called sexual dimorphism - is
usually seen in species where a male mates and protects a select group of females.
The second reason we employ the harem social structure is because it is usually found in
primate species whose food is uniformly distributed, like the tough roots or shoots of
vegetation.
Paranthropus boiseis heavy jaws and teeth allowed them to eat the tough vegetation that
other hominids and primates were not so well adapted to. But when the African
environment changed again, they were too entrenched in their evolutionary niche to keep
up with what was happening around them.
Why habilis?
Although the details of many homininds are argued over by anthropologists, Homo
habilis and its classification is particularly controversial. Many of the habilis fossils that
have been found have been categorised differently by different anthropologists.
One important specimen is OH 7. Found at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, the hand bones
resemble later species of the genus Homo, rather than theaustralopithcines. In another
fossil, OH 24, the skull bones are thin and the brain case is larger than hominid
predecessors. It also has a short, straight face with teeth that show it was an omnivorous
species.
Generalists versus specialists
We know of at least half a dozen hominid species that existed at the same time in Africa,
including a generalist called rudolfensis, which we feature in the film. We centre our story
on boisei and habilis because they are the two best-recorded species at this time.
Oldowan tools
The name Oldowan comes from Olduvai Gorge, where Mary Leakey defined and described
the tool-making industry. The stone tools come from the lowest rock strata at the site,
which are close to two million years old. Although there is no hard and fast proof
that habilis made the earliest Oldowan tools, these tools were found in the same fossil
layers as this hominid. Homo habilis has the delicate hand bones to be able to manipulate
them and the large brain capacity to make and use them. Scientists believe that stone
technology evolved in parallel with the expanding brain and socialisation of Homo.

Episode three: Savage Family

The Africa of two million years ago is a crossroads in human evolution. Half a dozen or
more different species of ape-men exist alongside one another. Each of them has exploited
the environment in a different way and has developed their own survival strategy .
One and a half million years ago, a new breed of ape-man walks the land. In southern
Africa, Homo ergaster has taken the next step to becoming human. They have long,
modern looking noses, which cool air as they breathe.
Their hairless bodies, with millions of tiny sweat glands, mean they don't pant anymore to
control their temperature - they sweat. And, above all, they have big brains - nearly twothirds the size of ours.
Savage Family follows the lives of a close-knit group of ergaster on a hunt and discovers
how they use are their big brains. They are the first ape-men to have our complex
understanding of the natural world, and can recognise and follow the footprints left behind
by many different animals. They are expert toolmakers and use a highly refined stone
hand axe. But the most important things they use are their big brains for understanding
others in their group.
Ergaster live in large social groups and spend their time getting along with each other.
Their society is held together not by a dominant male, but by the bonds of family and
friends. For the first time, hunters will bring back meat to people left behind from a hunt,
using it to forge alliances and reinforce relationships. Their extraordinary social world has
led to a new phenomenon in our human story - couples living together monogamously, at
least for a time.
Their new found social bonds and understanding of the world has equipped them with
skills that enable them to move away from their ancestral home in Africa. Over thousands
of years they spread throughout the Middle East and Asia, reaching as far as China and
are now known in their new Asian home as - Homo erectus.
But for all their sophistication, these ancestors are still very different from us. Jump
forward one million years and they are still around, and so too are their stone axes.
Nothing about their exceptional tool has changed. In a million years they have made no
technological advancements. Compare this with Homo sapiens who have gone from the
Steam Age to the Space Age in under 100 years.
Their brains simply do not work in the flexible way ours do. For them to become like us
requires a major change in thinking. It could be we know what triggered this dramatic
change. Towards the end of ergaster's time there is evidence that they learnt to control
and work with fire as a weapon, for warmth and as a tool.
For the first time in our history the night no longer brought danger, but warmth, security
and time for the mind to wander and perhaps time for the mind to change. Fire certainly
revolutionised the way our ancestors lived - perhaps it did the same for their thoughts.
The science of episode three: Savage Family
First true Homo species: Homo ergaster / Homo erectus

The presumed tool making abilities of habilis were not enough to convince many
anthropologists that they should be named Homo. The species of the genus Homo have
large brains, a more modern skeleton, a significant reduction in tooth and jaw size and,
importantly, culture. Overall, these hominids departed from the ape-like body plan of our
early evolution and were rapidly approaching the body and brain size that characterise
modern humans.
The Kenyan fossil skeleton called 'Nariokotome Boy,' belongs to a species of
early Homo called Homo ergaster. It is the most complete skeleton of an early hominid
found to date. The skeleton was that of an adolescent boy who was tall and thin in body
shape and had already reached a height of 1.5 meters. This species had a narrow pelvis,
which was much more efficient for walking and running than our own.
Naked skin
Professor Peter Wheeler of Liverpool John Moores University has done much work on
thermoregulatory selection pressure on human evolution. His research suggests that
naked skin with highly developed sweat glands enabled ergaster to lose heat by
evaporation at a rate between 10 and 100 times faster than they could using their
respiratory systems alone.
Language
The evidence of fossil brains provides clues that Homo ergaster may have had spoken
language, but this evidence is not very strong. Hence there is controversy as to the extent
to which ergaster would have been able to master language. The throats
of ergaster suggest that they could have articulated a larger range of vowel sounds than
apes. It has been suggested that they would have had a proto-language.
The human eye
Work by Japanese researchers Hiromi Kobayashi and Shiro Kohshima show that the human
eye has exceptional features. Human eyes differ in the following ways from those of apes:
1) The exposed white sclera lacks any pigmentation, and 2) humans posses the largest
ratio of exposed white sclera in the eye outline and 3) the eye outline is extraordinarily
elongated in the horizontal direction. Humans, with their more sophisticated societies,
need to be able to know who they can trust and who they cant. Reading a persons gaze
is crucial for this. Many scientists think that this new eye design evolved at the time
of ergaster.
Acheulean tools
The tools first appeared around 1.4 million years ago, and are found
alongside ergaster remains. It took great skill and strength to master the making of
Acheulean tools. At around a million years ago the tools became dominated by
symmetrical axes called bifaces.
The production team trained the ergaster actors in how to accurately manufacture and
use these stone tools, and they even had to learn how to butcher a real deer carcass with
the stone axes theyd made.
Homo erectus and the exodus from Africa.

The first hominid fossil found outside of Africa was the ergaster Trinil2 type specimen,
known as Java Man. Further discoveries in Java have turned up remains from a total of
about 40 individuals, and an equal number have come from Zhoukoudian in China. It
seems the first humans ventured out of Africa via the Middle East with Oldowan tools close
to two million years ago, but they do not appear to have ventured into Europe. Perhaps
they were prevented in doing so by climate and geography. Instead they dispersed east,
taking a southern route to China and on to the island of Java in South-East Asia. Dr
Geoffrey Pope believes bamboo would have been an important resource for these first
Asians.
Evidence of hominid use of fire
It is important to distinguish between opportunistic use and direct control of fire. Its very
difficult to prove hominid control of fire without a hearth. Archaeologists use clues like
burnt animal bones, charcoal, heat-stained stone tools and baked clay, as well as the
colour of the deposits and the presence of hominid remains, to determine the likelihood
that hominids were involved in or responsible for the fire. But bush fires and lightning
strikes can produce the same effects. This makes determining the earliest use of fire
difficult.
Episode four: The Survivors
Nearly half a million years ago, the most advanced human yet roams Europe. Strong and
powerful, Homo heidelbergensis are fierce hunters, use sophisticated tools and live in
close-knit family groups.
They look and behave in a very human way - yet something is missing. In'The Survivors',
the final programme in the series, we follow three brothers on a hunt. When one brother is
injured his distraught family spend most of the night trying to keep him alive.
Yet in the morning, the hunter is dead and his family have gone, leaving him where he
died. There is no ceremony and no looking back.Heidelbergensis can only see the world as
it is. They cannot, for example, think of a life after death, for they lack the one thing that
makes us human - a modern imagination.
Heidelbergensis are the departure point for the last leg of the journey towards modern
humans. Over 200,000 years they become split into two populations by extremes of
weather and environment and evolve separately into two very different species.
In the North are the Neanderthals, whose physical power and resilience is the key to
surviving in ice age Northern Europe. In one of the most inhospitable environments ever, a
small group of Neanderthal are finding things tough.
The leader's partner is expecting her first child, and the men must travel far to find food. If
they're unsuccessful, the group will have to move on - a perilous journey for the near fullterm mum. In their world, being strong and tough is the key to survival. If the going gets
tough, they just fight back harder.
In the South the other descendants of heidelbergensis, are finding the going even harder.
About 140,000 years ago, Africa is in the grip of a devastating drought, and something
remarkable has happened to the descendants of heidelbergensis who live there. The

combination of environment and chance has bred in them a unique ability that will change
the course of human history.
They have developed a mind capable of imagination. For the first time on E arth there is a
creature capable of understanding and anticipating possibilities, with the gift of abstract
thought. It very possibly saves them from the brink of extinction.
Although the Neanderthals were unbeatable for a quarter of a million years, it will be this
small band of southern survivors, perhaps numbering just a few tens of thousands, who
will come to dominate the world and be known as Homo sapiens.
The science of episode four: The Survivors
Homo heidelbergensis
Homo heidelbergensis is a transitional species. It possesses a range of anatomical features
typical of different species of Homo and is thought to be the predecessor of both
Neanderthals and modern humans. This hominid had a much bigger brain than Homo
erectus, allowing it to plan complicated hunts.
Evidence for the Megaloceros hunting scene we show in the film came from throwingspears found in Schningen, Germany. Although lacking in imagination, it is highly likely
that, like Neanderthals, heidelbergensiswould have had a highly developed social brain
and been able to communicate easily. They would also probably have displayed much the
same sort of emotions as us.
Ice age
Between 700,000 and 800,000 years ago, cycles of climate change became more
extreme. The amplitude of climate swings doubled between cold and warm periods every
100,000 years. Paleoclimatologists call this the mid-Pleistocene revolutions, which created
dramatic variations in temperature.
Ice core evidence shows that at this time Africa was extremely dry. During the glacial
maximum there would have been only tiny patches of forest left in Africa. Huge dust
storms would come and go and, at times, would have been so severe they would have
thrown dust high into the Earths atmosphere. Africa would have been a very inhospitable
place to live.

Neanderthals
One of the most famous Neanderthal fossils was found at La Chapelle-Aux-Saints in
France. It is the nearly complete skeleton of a largely toothless old man. Unfortunately, it
was misinterpreted and came to symbolise the old-fashioned view of Neanderthals as
shuffling, brutish cavemen a complete misrepresentation of their anatomy, gait and
intelligence. The growing consensus is that they were a highly successful species adapted
to life in the cold.
Fossil evidence allows us to reconstruct the tough physical approach to life that the
Neanderthals had. Their skeletons show many examples of traumatic lesions, breaks and

post-traumatic degenerative changes, particularly head and neck damage. They show
exactly the kind of trauma found in the bodies of rodeo riders, and this suggests many
close encounters with large animals.
Modern humans
No agreement exists between palaeoanthropologists on exactly how to recognise ancient
examples of 'modern' humans, morphologically or behaviourally. However, the majority of
the fossil and genetic evidence favours an African origin for modern humans prior to
130,000 years ago. The earliest Homo sapiens skulls, for instance, have been found in
Africa.
Although there are anatomical differences between Neanderthals andHomo sapiens, the
key difference is in their minds, their cognitive thinking - such as making art and jewellery.
Neanderthals saw and interacted with the world in a very different way to us.
Symbolism gave modern humans many advantages. For example the giving and receiving
of gifts would have led to a highly complex social network a web of alliances and
friendships to fall back on. Through items of jewellery given as gifts, people were able to
maintain friendships in their absence.
The bottleneck
The accelerated drying of the Africa environment would have a catastrophic effect on the
anatomically modern humans who lived there. This is born out by the genetic evidence,
which suggests that there was a dramatic population reduction at around this time a
bottleneck. This bottleneck is hard to pin down precisely, but some scientists argue that
the changes which occur in the minds of anatomically-modern humans around this time
had their origins in the squeeze in the population that occurred around 150,000 to
120,000 years ago.
As anatomically modern human populations in Africa shrank, (perhaps to as low as 10,000
individuals) the resilience and resourcefulness of those individuals would have been
tested. Those anatomically modern humans best able to adapt and think their way out of
their predicament would have survived. This concentration of ingenuity could have
resulted in fundamental changes in the minds of the human population.