How did we go from ancient apes to the dominant species on Earth? The story of human evolution is one of survival, adaptation, and extinction - stretching back 7 million years.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Henry Gee to unravel the complex origins of humanity. From the first bipedal hominins to the evolutionary leaps that set Homo sapiens apart, together they explore why humans evolved from long-armed tree dwellers to upright walkers and discuss the the advantages that bipedalism gave our ancestors over other species.More from Henry Gee:The Origins of Life on Earth: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Rb4OcjbmsjIHpFemJ7mmOFeathered Dinosaurs: https://open.spotify.com/episode/05wbG2dMp174D10gP30kIjMore on this topic:Homo Erectus: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3MjgWtiENDpVXc5qv77oTyHuman Evolution: Dragon Man: https://open.spotify.com/episode/128XsUffcThVirTghas7OAPresented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on
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It's The Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. Today we're covering the rise of humans. Yep, that's right, human evolution. It's a story that stretches back some 7 million years, one that begins with ancient apes and ends with us, with many different species of early humans emerging and disappearing in between. The story of human evolution is one still shrouded in mystery.
Not only is the fossil record for early humans extremely limited, but so much of it is still debated. Including the all-important question, why did early humans, or hominins, why did they become bipedal? How did they evolve from long-armed tree dwellers to two-legged runners? These radical changes in bodily structure that have occurred over millions of years.
Joining me to talk through this evolution story is a fan favourite of the podcast, Dr Henry G. Henry has been on the podcast before to talk about both the origins of life on Earth and the dinosaurs. Quite a few of you have been clamouring for us to have him back on the show and I'm delighted to announce his return to talk about the fascinating story of the rise of humans.
Henry, welcome back to the podcast. It has been too long. Thank you very much, Tristan. We've done Top 5 Dinosaurs. We've done the wonderful story of the origins of life on Earth. And this feels like another story, the rise of humanity. And Henry, this is a story, I mean, to start with, it takes us back more than 5, 6, 7, 8 million years.
There's a lot of history and ancient history and prehistory to cover here.
Yep, that's right. The human history, well, ancient history, has a very, very long run-up. I mean, recorded history is barely 5,000 years, but this one goes into 98% of human history, which has no written record, and we just pick up from fossils and other scraps of information that we can tell from rock.
And to tell the story of human evolution, as we're going to be covering several million years of history... You mentioned fossils. How rich a record do you have for studying human evolution? Do you have many examples of fossils from millions of years ago surviving?
No, that's the thing about human evolution. The fossils are very uncommon generally, except in certain places. You can count the number of fossils on the fingers of one hand, but the amount of fossils that tell you anything about human origins, you can count on the fingers of one thumb. They are very, very, very tiny, very scarce, mostly teeth like mammals generally.
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