Dr. Genevieve von Petzinger

They survived till about 250,000 years ago, maybe even longer in Asia.

So very successful, widespread species.

Neck down, they looked like us.

Fully functional, able to run, very similar.

Their brains were a little bit smaller than ours, but already making excellent progress.

They're doing complicated tools.

They're doing really interesting things.

Personally, I actually think they might be where the very earliest graphic marks were made was actually with those guys.

And the reason why I will say that is, again, this is where understanding the family history story is actually really important, which is that so around 700,000 years ago, two groups of Homo erectus went in different directions and never saw each other again.

And so what you see happening is that it's called sort of genetic diffusion.

You know, the group that went this way, certain things in the environment may have nudged certain traits to be more successful, right?

In the other direction, other things might have also nudged.

But they had like the same basic package, if that makes any sense, probably the same cognitive package when they left.

So different, the same toolkits, same things.

And then they would have started to kind of move in their own direction in both locations.

Neanderthals seem to be sort of born, bred, raised in Europe, and our ancestors are from Africa.

So both descendants of Homo erectus, just in different parts of the globe, and a fascinating example of what happens when different environmental conditions shape your upbringing, right?

So this is what's really fascinating to see, too, is that, you know, there's the similarities and there's the differences.

So we've got these guys, they've split off.

And then we have this extraordinary site called Cima de las Huesas in Spain, where we have around 420,000 years ago, the very first example that we know of at the moment in the world, where they're intentionally placing their dead in a pit.