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Around 50,000 years ago,
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in a prehistoric forest of East Asia,
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the first humans arrived from
Africa to live and to hunt.
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Just a few thousand individuals
would become the ancestors
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of all the people of East Asia,
Australia and the Americas.
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This vast land was thought to be empty
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when they took their first
steps here but now it appears
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they were not alone.
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This remote cave in Southwest China
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is the final resting place
of strange unknown humans.
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Their remains had laid
undisturbed for millennia
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until a chance encounter
brought them to light.
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Now, we are faced with
a shocking possibility.
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We may have unearthed
a new species of human.
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- In a way, it's the sort of
thing you wouldn't ask for.
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What we faced here was a discovery
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that challenged everything we understood
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about human evolution.
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These ancient
bones may change forever
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our understanding of where we came from
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and what makes us human.
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On a quiet mountain road in
the Chinese province of Yunnan,
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two men from very different
worlds are on a journey
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back in time.
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Ji Xueping, a Chinese paleontologist
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is traveling with Australian
paleoanthropologist,
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Darren Curnoe.
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They're on their way south
to one of the most important
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archaeological sites in Asia.
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- I've wanted to work
in Asia my whole career.
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I was at Asia these days where
it's an amazing opportunity.
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It's close to Australia that
would help us understand
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the origins of indigenous Australians
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but also Asia in many
ways seem to me to be
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like a blank canvas
particularly with the question
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of the origins of modern humans.
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Asia today has more than half
the world's living population
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but yet we know so little
about their origins
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and their relationship to people
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in other parts of the world.
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In 1989,
mine workers accidentally
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unearthed ancient looking human remains
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at this site in Southern Yunnan.
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They lay alongside bones of red deer
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that once roamed this region.
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Locals soon dubbed the site
Maludong, the Red Deer Cave.
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The mine's closed and the
mysterious bones were moved
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to a nearby museum.
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There, they lay buried
in the volts, unstudied
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for almost 20 years.
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Then in 2007, Ji invited Darren
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to help investigate these fossils.
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They were unlike any he had ever seen.
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They were charred and strange
and included part of a skull
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with holes drilled into both sides.
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- This is the most
complete skull from Maludong
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and it's also the one
that has the most events
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from modification, alteration by humans.
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The entire base of the
skull has been cut off,
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chipped away using stone
tools and then they've used
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another tool to smooth the
edges and to actually polish it.
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To understand
what this skull cut means,
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they called in an expert
in ancient human habits.
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Cultural anthropologist Paul Tacon.
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- Making of skull cups is a
very modern form of behavior
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and the Neanderthals didn't
make skull containers,
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all the other known
examples past and present
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were made from the
skulls of modern humans.
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Sometimes, these were made
for use in ceremonies.
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They sometimes were made
from the skulls of enemies.
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It was a way of insulting your enemy
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by drinking from their skull.
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Besides purposely shaping
the edge of the skull
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to make it into a nice
container, two holes
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were purposely drilled on either side
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but not exactly in the center.
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They're drilled close to
the front of the skull
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where most of the weight is.
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So, the person who fashioned
this was very ingenious.
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They figured out that since
there was more weight here,
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put the holes closer to it,
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it will sit nicely in
the air without spilling.
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For Paul,
this was the handy work
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of a sophisticated modern human,
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but for Darren and Ji,
the anatomy of the bones
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told a different story.
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- When we started to
look at the remains in detail,
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it actually became very unsettling
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because they're just so unusual.
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In many ways they just look so primitive.
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The shape of the eyebrow
bone is really unusual,
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very prominent and the brain
case itself is really low
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and very rounded.
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These look like they should be one or two
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or maybe even 300,000 years old.
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The enigmatic
features of the Red Deer Cave
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fossils post puzzling
questions about human origins
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in this part of the world.
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To date much of the
focus on human evolution
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has been a long way from Maludong,
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across the world in Africa
considered to be the birth place
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of our direct ancestors and
the cradle of all humanity.
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- So the first few million
years of our evolution
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were in Africa with this ape
like two footed creatures
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and they gave rise to Homo erectus.
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Homo erectus is the
first human like creature
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to leave Africa.
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It settled Europe and East
Asia and survived in Asia
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until about half a million years ago.
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And we up here in the
record, the fossil record
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about 200,000 years ago
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modern humans or Homo sapiens
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and the subset of us left
Africa about 80,000 years ago,
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settled the rest of the planet
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and gave rise to all living people.
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The out
of Africa story remains
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the predominant theory for the
origin of all human species.
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- Well, it's overwhelmingly
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an African European story.
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I think it's fair to say
that there's been a bias
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in our work for almost 100
years where most of the work
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has been done in Africa and
Europe or most of the evidence
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has come from those places.
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As our
ancestors colonize the globe,
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they entered unknown territories.
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In Europe, they encountered
the Neanderthals,
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our closest ancient human cousins.
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But most anthropologists
believe that by the time
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modern humans arrived in Asia,
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all previous human species
there had died out.
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Then in 2004 on the island
of Flores in Indonesia,
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scientists discovered fossils
of an ancient creature.
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No more than a meter tall
and with a tiny brain.
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Homo floresiensis revolutionized
the long pound theories
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of human evolution.
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It came to be known as the hobbit.
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- When the hobbit was found, many of us
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just couldn't believe
what was being proposed.
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It was something that look
like human like creatures
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of three million years ago
surviving until 17,000 years ago
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in Indonesia are on a highland
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with sophisticated culture.
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It didn't make any sense.
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- The hobbit really threw
things up in the air
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because that was the first of its kind
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being something really completely
outlandish being found.
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Professor
Bert Roberts was part
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of the original team that
discovered the hobbit.
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- In the recent
past, that was in the last few
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tens of thousands of
years, we thought it was
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much simpler situation.
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There's us Homo sapiens,
there's Neanderthals
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in Western Asia or in Europe
and the rest of the world
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was pretty much empty
of other human species
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and suddenly out of nowhere we
got a brand new type of human
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who's still surviving
until very, very recently
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and yet such an ancient design.
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You think wow, if we can
find this brand new species
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just below the ground today,
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how many are we missing out there?
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Maybe we'll be misidentifying
things in the past.
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Maybe we just haven't been
looking in the right places.
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There are vast expanses
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of unexplored territory across Asia.
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Scientists have barely
scratched the surface
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of what lies beneath.
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In 2008, Darren and Ji
made their first journey
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back to the Red Deer Cave.
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- We didn't really
know how the site was.
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When we started working
here, there were suggestions
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that it could had been
towards the end of the Ice Age
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that there was a very little chance
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that it could have been
considered be older
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and that was an exciting
prospect, exciting opportunity.
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When you start digging a site like this,
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you're aware of the fact that
you're actually the first
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people to be exposing
things from the ground.
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You're the first people
to see these things
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since the people who
actually used the cave
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tens of thousands of years ago.
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And it gives you a real
connection to your ancestors
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to the way that we lived
for millions of years
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in our evolution.
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And there's always the
excitement if you don't know
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what's gonna be revealed
by the next stroke
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of the trail of the brush there.
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And what was revealed
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were layers and layers of ash.
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- This ash is
as fine as you would say
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if the fire was built only last week.
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It's really quite incredible.
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The preservation is just extraordinary
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and you can see pieces of charcoal
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and these are in fact
is actually burnt clay.
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So it's soil that was on top of the fire.
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It was so hot that it's baked it.
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And when we look at the house
we actually find animal bones
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and animal teeth.
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And so they've actually
come in and they have cooked
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particularly deer bones and then
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they butch them on the side.
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So these amazingly thick layers
of ash represent huge fires
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that were being built up
in the cave over a period
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about a thousand years.
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It's probably the deepest
ash sequence or half
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that's been found in China,
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possibly one of the largest in the world.
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The Red Deer Cave
was just beginning to reveal
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fascinating glimpses in
the Stone Age life in China
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and that it all went wrong.
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- My heart sunk when we found
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what we thought was a bit of pottery.
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Pottery is
one of the most enduring
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of manmade materials but it
is a very recent innovation.
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- I was hoping to find a site
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that was tens of thousand years old.
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Maybe a site that might tell
us about the earliest people
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in the area but instead I
thought we'd found a site
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that was only a few thousand years old.
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We were feeling disappointed actually.
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We thought maybe the site was just another
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early farming site that maybe
in fact it wasn't going to be
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the site that might give
us some real insights
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of our understanding of human evolution.
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But the
mystery of the Red Deer Cave
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was far from over.
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Back at the museum, sacks
of fossils collected
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from the original excavation
were pulled out of the coffins.
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Until now they had been long forgotten.
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- We really had
no idea just how many bones
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there were, how rich the site was.
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There were bags and bags of these fossils
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that had been removed,
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that were just waiting to be studied.
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00:14:09,315 --> 00:14:11,917
When Darren
and Ji examined the bones,
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00:14:11,917 --> 00:14:12,998
they were shocked.
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00:14:12,998 --> 00:14:14,530
- I've never seen
a set of human remains
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like this ever before.
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00:14:15,972 --> 00:14:18,483
Every bone that we looked at
had been modified in some ways.
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Some had been cut.
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Some had been burned and
others painted in ochre.
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They've got these
massive fires in the cave
247
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and sometimes they
throw on complete limbs,
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00:14:43,593 --> 00:14:46,425
entire body parts and other
times it was part body,
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sometimes even just the bones themselves.
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When you find evidence for
the burning of human bones,
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00:14:56,027 --> 00:14:58,648
you always think that there
are two possibilities.
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One of those could be cremation
in some sort of ceremony
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associated with burial or death.
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00:15:04,091 --> 00:15:06,092
The other of course is
the very real possibility
255
00:15:06,092 --> 00:15:08,552
that human remains were actually caught.
256
00:15:12,912 --> 00:15:15,233
Could
cannibalism be at the heart
257
00:15:15,233 --> 00:15:17,246
of the Red Deer Cave mystery?
258
00:15:17,246 --> 00:15:22,246
259
00:15:25,945 --> 00:15:29,256
Within the cave's walls
are whispering echoes
260
00:15:29,256 --> 00:15:32,198
of a macabre event and clues
261
00:15:32,198 --> 00:15:34,489
that don't make scientific sense.
262
00:15:41,189 --> 00:15:44,100
The human remains from Red Deer Cave
263
00:15:44,100 --> 00:15:47,602
had become a Stone Age
mystery and this mystery
264
00:15:47,602 --> 00:15:50,493
was about to get a lot more complicated.
265
00:15:56,783 --> 00:16:00,864
In 1996 while moving artifact
from a provincial museum
266
00:16:00,864 --> 00:16:03,845
to its institute, Ji
noticed a curious block
267
00:16:03,845 --> 00:16:05,936
of rock on a shelf.
268
00:16:07,685 --> 00:16:10,227
The rock had been discovered
by a lone geologist
269
00:16:10,227 --> 00:16:13,228
at a place called Longlin, 300 kilometers
270
00:16:13,228 --> 00:16:15,980
northeast of Red Deer Cave.
271
00:16:15,980 --> 00:16:20,062
It had sat on the shelf
unnoticed for three decades.
272
00:16:20,062 --> 00:16:21,994
- Ji said he had something to show me,
273
00:16:21,994 --> 00:16:25,364
a surprise, a little present.
274
00:16:26,854 --> 00:16:31,854
Ji was holding a rock that
had a skull inside it.
275
00:16:45,716 --> 00:16:48,917
I looked at it and thought what is this,
276
00:16:48,917 --> 00:16:50,899
this look like something
that could be hundreds
277
00:16:50,899 --> 00:16:51,941
of thousands of years old.
278
00:16:51,941 --> 00:16:53,264
Why is he showing me this?
279
00:16:53,264 --> 00:16:54,806
What does he wanna do with this?
280
00:17:02,258 --> 00:17:04,629
And that moment actually
changed the course
281
00:17:04,629 --> 00:17:06,279
of our research together.
282
00:17:08,999 --> 00:17:11,510
They had
just unlocked the door
283
00:17:11,510 --> 00:17:15,191
into China's mysterious
collections when Ji discovered
284
00:17:15,191 --> 00:17:18,781
yet another forgotten fossil
from the Longlin site.
285
00:17:29,938 --> 00:17:31,579
- It was a big surprise
because I didn't know
286
00:17:31,579 --> 00:17:34,220
that there was a jaw but also
they've been put together
287
00:17:34,220 --> 00:17:37,611
in such a way that that actually
made an artificial chin,
288
00:17:37,611 --> 00:17:40,043
a fake chin look like a modern human.
289
00:17:40,043 --> 00:17:41,755
And Ji and I studied it really carefully
290
00:17:41,755 --> 00:17:44,486
and we actually found that
the bones fitted together
291
00:17:44,486 --> 00:17:46,087
naturally in quite a different way
292
00:17:46,087 --> 00:17:48,078
and we had a very different looking jaw.
293
00:17:49,087 --> 00:17:51,650
It would take
two years of pain staking
294
00:17:51,650 --> 00:17:55,371
reconstruction but finally
the skull was liberated
295
00:17:55,371 --> 00:17:56,641
from the rock.
296
00:17:56,642 --> 00:17:58,633
It was the weirdest looking
thing I've ever seen.
297
00:18:05,813 --> 00:18:09,196
Darren is convinced it
belongs with the jaw.
298
00:18:09,196 --> 00:18:10,777
- What did I see?
299
00:18:10,777 --> 00:18:12,187
Something I've made up.
300
00:18:17,217 --> 00:18:21,619
I was confused, I was
elated, I was perplexed.
301
00:18:21,619 --> 00:18:26,530
It had this really bizarre mix
of features, unexpected mix.
302
00:18:26,530 --> 00:18:28,642
There were hints of modern human features.
303
00:18:28,642 --> 00:18:32,383
There were these really
ancient looking features.
304
00:18:32,383 --> 00:18:34,743
In my own mind I didn't know
305
00:18:34,743 --> 00:18:36,624
what I was gonna do with this.
306
00:18:38,434 --> 00:18:40,569
This
confusing mix of features
307
00:18:40,569 --> 00:18:42,863
bears a striking
resemblance to those found
308
00:18:42,863 --> 00:18:45,464
in the fossils from Maludong.
309
00:18:45,464 --> 00:18:47,785
- So we thought that
the best way to approach this
310
00:18:47,785 --> 00:18:50,056
given that we thought
they were quite similar
311
00:18:50,056 --> 00:18:52,238
was to have them in the same population,
312
00:18:52,238 --> 00:18:54,271
have them as belonging to the same group.
313
00:18:55,511 --> 00:18:57,623
Now, Darren
and Ji are confronted
314
00:18:57,623 --> 00:19:00,664
with someone or perhaps something
315
00:19:00,664 --> 00:19:03,696
they really did not expect to meet.
316
00:19:03,696 --> 00:19:05,958
They had come face to face
317
00:19:05,958 --> 00:19:08,401
with the Red Deer Cave people.
318
00:19:19,601 --> 00:19:22,413
This primitive looking creature once ran
319
00:19:22,413 --> 00:19:25,486
to the prehistoric forests of Yunnan.
320
00:19:35,624 --> 00:19:39,316
The question is, just how long ago?
321
00:19:40,665 --> 00:19:44,197
- That face, I mean that's not
322
00:19:44,197 --> 00:19:46,727
a modern human face, that
level of projection like that
323
00:19:46,727 --> 00:19:50,908
is what you see in Africa
maybe two million years ago,
324
00:19:50,908 --> 00:19:52,508
one and a half million years ago.
325
00:19:52,508 --> 00:19:53,129
That's not--
326
00:19:53,129 --> 00:19:54,761
To make
sense of these archaic
327
00:19:54,761 --> 00:19:57,302
looking fossils, the
team needed to find out
328
00:19:57,302 --> 00:19:59,061
how old they were.
329
00:20:01,215 --> 00:20:03,346
Luckily within the cavity of the skull
330
00:20:03,346 --> 00:20:05,399
embedded in the rock, they discovered
331
00:20:05,399 --> 00:20:07,479
tiny pieces of charcoal.
332
00:20:09,508 --> 00:20:12,819
These, together with charcoal
remnants of the ancient fires
333
00:20:12,819 --> 00:20:16,781
at the Red Deer Cave was
sent for radiocarbon dating.
334
00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:19,810
- I was sent the dating results
335
00:20:19,810 --> 00:20:22,121
and I didn't believe the numbers.
336
00:20:22,121 --> 00:20:24,280
I got on the phone, I rung
my colleague and I said,
337
00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:26,300
"Are you sure these are right?"
338
00:20:27,270 --> 00:20:29,891
The Maludong
fossils were just 14 1/2
339
00:20:29,891 --> 00:20:32,732
thousand years old and the Longlin skull
340
00:20:32,732 --> 00:20:37,064
was even younger, only 11
1/2 thousand years old.
341
00:20:37,064 --> 00:20:37,884
- I couldn't believe it.
342
00:20:37,884 --> 00:20:39,955
I was absolutely flabbergasted.
343
00:20:39,955 --> 00:20:41,356
In fact, I jumped out of my chair
344
00:20:41,356 --> 00:20:43,017
and I was jumping around
the room like a kid.
345
00:20:58,339 --> 00:21:00,539
This means
that the Red Deer Cave people
346
00:21:00,539 --> 00:21:04,321
were alive at the same
time and in the same place
347
00:21:04,321 --> 00:21:06,802
as modern human hunter gatherers.
348
00:21:08,652 --> 00:21:11,033
- There Red Deer
Cave people are unlike any
349
00:21:11,033 --> 00:21:12,943
modern human we've seen before
350
00:21:12,943 --> 00:21:17,075
whether 150 or 150,000 years old.
351
00:21:17,075 --> 00:21:20,666
This means they're either
very unusual modern humans
352
00:21:20,666 --> 00:21:22,709
or perhaps belong to a different group,
353
00:21:22,709 --> 00:21:25,260
different species but they're not us.
354
00:21:28,150 --> 00:21:30,331
The suggestion
of a new human species
355
00:21:30,331 --> 00:21:32,930
is arguably the boldest statement
356
00:21:32,930 --> 00:21:35,402
an evolutionary scientist can make.
357
00:21:37,412 --> 00:21:41,232
In March 2012, the team take a daring step
358
00:21:41,232 --> 00:21:43,304
to publish this possibility.
359
00:21:44,284 --> 00:21:46,466
Distinctly
odd fossil evidence found--
360
00:21:46,466 --> 00:21:48,367
The so
called Red Deer Cave people
361
00:21:48,367 --> 00:21:50,469
had flat faces with bore noses.
362
00:21:50,469 --> 00:21:51,870
Even though a
computing picture it does--
363
00:21:51,870 --> 00:21:53,342
It wouldn't
be the first discovery
364
00:21:53,342 --> 00:21:55,536
that's led to debate
over whether a scientist
365
00:21:55,536 --> 00:21:56,537
has found a new species.
366
00:21:56,537 --> 00:21:57,807
I'm a little
skeptic about the last one.
367
00:21:57,807 --> 00:21:59,810
But they're
reluctant to call it a new species
368
00:21:59,810 --> 00:22:03,610
just yet and some other
experts have their doubts.
369
00:22:04,641 --> 00:22:06,302
- In a way,
it's the sort of thing
370
00:22:06,302 --> 00:22:09,852
you wouldn't ask for
because it's so challenging,
371
00:22:09,852 --> 00:22:11,734
so confronting.
372
00:22:11,734 --> 00:22:14,145
The fact that they were just
so weird and so young for me
373
00:22:14,145 --> 00:22:19,145
was exciting but I knew
I faced a big challenge
374
00:22:19,227 --> 00:22:22,388
to convince my colleagues the significance
375
00:22:22,388 --> 00:22:23,818
of what we'd found.
376
00:22:26,268 --> 00:22:28,510
In the world
of paleoanthropology,
377
00:22:28,510 --> 00:22:32,111
the same fossils inspire radically
different interpretations
378
00:22:32,111 --> 00:22:35,052
among scientists depending
on which school of thought
379
00:22:35,052 --> 00:22:36,212
they belong to.
380
00:22:37,212 --> 00:22:38,772
It's been called a science
381
00:22:38,772 --> 00:22:42,534
of exquisitely informed speculation.
382
00:22:42,534 --> 00:22:43,744
- Nobody looks at a fossil
383
00:22:43,744 --> 00:22:46,495
with a completely open mind.
384
00:22:46,495 --> 00:22:49,356
I suppose to some extent
also we see what we think.
385
00:22:49,356 --> 00:22:51,637
So, you come to a fossil
and you have an idea
386
00:22:51,637 --> 00:22:53,718
about the way you think
in evolution worked
387
00:22:53,718 --> 00:22:56,061
and the first thing you do
is try and fit that fossil
388
00:22:56,061 --> 00:22:57,721
into your world view.
389
00:22:57,721 --> 00:22:59,393
I think that's human nature.
390
00:23:01,433 --> 00:23:03,034
This is a
science which struggles
391
00:23:03,034 --> 00:23:05,935
with possibly the
biggest questions of all.
392
00:23:05,935 --> 00:23:09,577
Who are we and what makes a modern human?
393
00:23:11,137 --> 00:23:14,097
For the past 30 years, our understanding
394
00:23:14,097 --> 00:23:17,068
of what sets us apart
from other human species
395
00:23:17,068 --> 00:23:18,827
has perhaps been most influenced
396
00:23:18,827 --> 00:23:22,229
by paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer.
397
00:23:22,229 --> 00:23:24,812
- If we look just at
the morphology, for me
398
00:23:24,812 --> 00:23:28,754
everyone alive today share
certain features in the skeleton.
399
00:23:28,754 --> 00:23:31,004
So we have a high and rounded skull.
400
00:23:31,004 --> 00:23:32,595
- When we look at the Longlin skull
401
00:23:32,595 --> 00:23:35,537
and we look at the forehead,
we can see that it does have
402
00:23:35,537 --> 00:23:37,159
some modern human like features.
403
00:23:37,159 --> 00:23:40,900
So, it has a forehead that arcs
backwards, curves backwards.
404
00:23:40,900 --> 00:23:43,241
- We have a small face
tucked under the brain case.
405
00:23:43,241 --> 00:23:46,422
- And the face is actually
quite short like a modern human.
406
00:23:46,422 --> 00:23:48,303
- We have a chin on the lower jaw.
407
00:23:48,303 --> 00:23:49,964
We have a lightly built skeleton.
408
00:23:49,964 --> 00:23:52,505
So these sorts of features
are shared around the planet
409
00:23:52,505 --> 00:23:54,356
and for me they diagnose
410
00:23:54,356 --> 00:23:56,497
what a modern human is anatomically.
411
00:23:56,497 --> 00:23:59,008
- So there are a couple
of modern human features
412
00:23:59,008 --> 00:24:00,420
but then there are all these features
413
00:24:00,420 --> 00:24:02,171
that are really very ancient.
414
00:24:03,161 --> 00:24:05,192
If we have a look at the lower jaw,
415
00:24:05,192 --> 00:24:07,933
this really important feature
that we see in modern humans
416
00:24:07,933 --> 00:24:10,026
have a triangular chin
is actually missing.
417
00:24:10,026 --> 00:24:13,397
We can't see it and the teeth are massive.
418
00:24:13,397 --> 00:24:16,259
On top of that, it also has some unusual,
419
00:24:16,259 --> 00:24:18,720
some unique features that are found only
420
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:20,891
in the Red Deer Cave people.
421
00:24:20,891 --> 00:24:23,463
So it has quite a prominent brow
422
00:24:23,463 --> 00:24:25,906
and the cheeks are incredibly flat
423
00:24:25,906 --> 00:24:28,658
and they flare out to
the sides of the faces,
424
00:24:28,658 --> 00:24:30,600
they curve around the skull.
425
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:32,703
And when we put them together and we see
426
00:24:32,703 --> 00:24:36,535
that it has this massive jaw
that the two jaws together
427
00:24:36,535 --> 00:24:39,659
sit well forward to the face
and that's really unusual.
428
00:24:39,659 --> 00:24:42,652
Certainly for modern human
it's a very ancient feature.
429
00:24:56,964 --> 00:24:58,955
These bones aren't modern
430
00:24:58,955 --> 00:25:03,247
and they're not meant to
be around at that time
431
00:25:03,247 --> 00:25:04,617
but yet they are.
432
00:25:06,597 --> 00:25:10,500
14 1/2 thousand
years ago, Southwest China
433
00:25:10,500 --> 00:25:13,173
was released from the grip of the Ice Age
434
00:25:13,173 --> 00:25:18,173
and filled with lush forested
basins teeming with life.
435
00:25:19,674 --> 00:25:24,064
This was the world of
the Red Deer Cave people.
436
00:25:31,971 --> 00:25:33,871
This was a land of the oldest
437
00:25:33,871 --> 00:25:36,511
and most isolated mountain peaks,
438
00:25:36,511 --> 00:25:40,981
the deepest valleys and the
biggest rivers of all of Asia.
439
00:25:45,051 --> 00:25:48,042
It was a landscape that
had an indelible impact
440
00:25:48,042 --> 00:25:49,222
on its people.
441
00:26:03,842 --> 00:26:06,274
Could this hotspot of human diversity
442
00:26:06,274 --> 00:26:10,863
have given rise to isolated
groups that looks so different?
443
00:26:10,863 --> 00:26:12,913
- What's actually
led to the unusual features
444
00:26:12,913 --> 00:26:15,373
on the Red Deer Cave people
we simply don't know yet
445
00:26:15,373 --> 00:26:17,974
but one possibility is
that it was the development
446
00:26:17,974 --> 00:26:20,784
of a population that was isolated
447
00:26:20,784 --> 00:26:23,033
that had particular
environment conditions,
448
00:26:23,033 --> 00:26:25,541
maybe a particular kind of diet required,
449
00:26:25,541 --> 00:26:28,437
stronger jaw muscles
which modified the face.
450
00:26:28,437 --> 00:26:29,395
That's a possibility.
451
00:26:29,395 --> 00:26:31,870
There could be environmental
features which change
452
00:26:31,870 --> 00:26:34,788
the shape of the skull and on the body.
453
00:26:35,778 --> 00:26:37,654
Could the
Red Deer Cave people
454
00:26:37,654 --> 00:26:40,921
simply be modern humans
who have moved back
455
00:26:40,921 --> 00:26:43,216
into more primitive looking beings
456
00:26:43,216 --> 00:26:45,823
because of something in the water?
457
00:26:45,823 --> 00:26:48,187
- In evolution
we call that a reversal.
458
00:26:48,187 --> 00:26:50,125
Time precedent in human evolution.
459
00:26:50,125 --> 00:26:53,143
There are no other examples
that I can think of,
460
00:26:53,143 --> 00:26:56,228
of any human group that was isolated
461
00:26:56,228 --> 00:26:58,653
for tens of thousands of years and then
462
00:26:58,653 --> 00:27:00,991
suddenly it's anatomy
emerged after that time
463
00:27:00,991 --> 00:27:03,148
to look like ancestors
of hundreds of thousands
464
00:27:03,148 --> 00:27:04,504
of years ago.
465
00:27:04,504 --> 00:27:07,842
In my understanding in my
experience it runs counter
466
00:27:07,842 --> 00:27:09,660
to our understanding
of seven million years
467
00:27:09,660 --> 00:27:10,778
of human evolution.
468
00:27:10,778 --> 00:27:15,778
469
00:27:19,672 --> 00:27:20,981
470
00:27:20,981 --> 00:27:25,981
471
00:27:40,977 --> 00:27:43,788
The problem for me is that
if they're modern human
472
00:27:43,788 --> 00:27:45,667
and they lack so many features,
473
00:27:45,667 --> 00:27:47,415
so many characteristics of modern human.
474
00:27:47,415 --> 00:27:49,390
So if we say okay, maybe they're early,
475
00:27:49,390 --> 00:27:52,137
very early modern human,
very primitive modern human.
476
00:27:52,987 --> 00:27:55,603
If that's the case then why aren't they
477
00:27:55,603 --> 00:27:57,220
100,000 years old?
478
00:27:57,220 --> 00:27:59,245
As Darren
and Ji pondered the puzzle
479
00:27:59,245 --> 00:28:01,361
of the Red Deer Cave people,
480
00:28:01,361 --> 00:28:04,637
other scientists offer
their own explanations.
481
00:28:04,637 --> 00:28:07,702
- Chris Stringer and
other people who suggested
482
00:28:07,702 --> 00:28:09,040
it could be hybrid.
483
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,938
- I think the Red Deer Cave
finds are extremely important.
484
00:28:11,938 --> 00:28:14,535
I don't think they represent
a distinct species from us
485
00:28:14,535 --> 00:28:16,872
but they really do document the variation
486
00:28:16,872 --> 00:28:20,921
in modern human populations
in the last 50,000 years.
487
00:28:20,921 --> 00:28:22,849
Chris
Stringer is the architect
488
00:28:22,849 --> 00:28:26,007
of the out of Africa
theory and firmly believed
489
00:28:26,007 --> 00:28:29,625
that modern humans replaced
all other ancient species
490
00:28:29,625 --> 00:28:31,913
as they migrated across the world.
491
00:28:31,913 --> 00:28:34,010
- My view was we
had a recent African origin
492
00:28:34,010 --> 00:28:38,378
and that could be virtually
100% of the story.
493
00:28:38,378 --> 00:28:40,986
But what we've learned
in the last few years is
494
00:28:40,986 --> 00:28:42,818
that there was indeed some interbreeding
495
00:28:42,818 --> 00:28:45,745
with the Neanderthals, with people over in
496
00:28:45,745 --> 00:28:47,583
the far east called the Denisovans
497
00:28:47,583 --> 00:28:48,909
who we've only really learned about
498
00:28:48,909 --> 00:28:51,286
in the last couple of
years from their DNA.
499
00:28:52,244 --> 00:28:55,612
In 2010
in another remote cave
500
00:28:55,612 --> 00:28:59,237
nestled within the Altay
mountains of Southern Siberia,
501
00:28:59,237 --> 00:29:03,335
ancient DNA was found,
preserved within a finger bone
502
00:29:03,335 --> 00:29:05,022
and a single tooth.
503
00:29:05,943 --> 00:29:09,639
From these tiny fragments,
scientists decoded
504
00:29:09,639 --> 00:29:14,364
the entire genome of a new group
they called the Denisovans.
505
00:29:14,364 --> 00:29:16,977
- Not only we have this
new species Denisovans
506
00:29:16,977 --> 00:29:21,977
in Southern Siberia but the
Denisovan DNA turns up in people
507
00:29:22,252 --> 00:29:25,436
in Melanesia, Papua New
Guinea and areas like that
508
00:29:25,436 --> 00:29:27,084
and appears on Australians.
509
00:29:28,104 --> 00:29:31,036
The fact you've got
Denisovan DNA persisting
510
00:29:31,036 --> 00:29:35,233
in modern day people means
there must have been interaction
511
00:29:35,233 --> 00:29:39,301
between that kind of ancient
human and Homo sapiens
512
00:29:39,301 --> 00:29:42,238
to get it in to our genome
at some point in time.
513
00:29:42,238 --> 00:29:44,633
So the reason why you can have archaic
514
00:29:44,633 --> 00:29:46,818
human surviving in other places too.
515
00:29:47,888 --> 00:29:49,513
- Since we know
there was interbreeding
516
00:29:49,513 --> 00:29:52,320
with ancient humans, perhaps
some of these features
517
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:54,978
are reflecting into breeding in the past.
518
00:29:54,978 --> 00:29:57,535
Maybe in China, the same thing
could have been happening
519
00:29:57,535 --> 00:29:58,983
with the Red Deer Cave people.
520
00:29:58,983 --> 00:30:03,983
521
00:30:06,767 --> 00:30:09,575
In terms of modeling,
have interbreeding happen,
522
00:30:09,575 --> 00:30:11,233
I mean obviously we don't actually know
523
00:30:11,233 --> 00:30:14,359
and it could range all the
way from peaceful encounters
524
00:30:14,359 --> 00:30:16,778
where they traded with each
other and exchange mates.
525
00:30:16,778 --> 00:30:18,365
That's one possibility.
526
00:30:18,365 --> 00:30:21,191
The other extreme is a group
will run after the mates
527
00:30:21,191 --> 00:30:24,294
and they will raid another
area and steal some women.
528
00:30:27,675 --> 00:30:29,718
These encounters
have left their mark
529
00:30:29,718 --> 00:30:33,426
within us today, hidden in our genes.
530
00:30:33,426 --> 00:30:35,221
- There are
suggestions that certainly
531
00:30:35,221 --> 00:30:37,995
in the immune systems,
modern humans have picked up
532
00:30:37,995 --> 00:30:41,500
some of the bits of DNA
from these archaic people.
533
00:30:41,500 --> 00:30:43,997
So imagine modern humans
evolving in Africa
534
00:30:43,997 --> 00:30:46,264
coming into new environments
with new diseases,
535
00:30:46,264 --> 00:30:47,992
new pathogens and so on.
536
00:30:47,992 --> 00:30:50,910
By interbreeding with the locals,
they could get a quick fix
537
00:30:50,910 --> 00:30:53,978
in picking up some of the
immunity which those populations
538
00:30:53,978 --> 00:30:56,856
would have evolved over
hundreds of thousands of years.
539
00:31:02,446 --> 00:31:04,411
Could the
Red Deer Cave people
540
00:31:04,411 --> 00:31:08,969
be hybrid offspring of modern
and ancient human parents?
541
00:31:08,969 --> 00:31:11,854
- Hybrids are
really complicated question.
542
00:31:11,854 --> 00:31:15,618
To diagnose a hybrid, you
need probably to have DNA
543
00:31:15,618 --> 00:31:18,556
from Maludong and Longlin fossil
544
00:31:18,556 --> 00:31:22,012
but also you need DNA from
both of the parent specie.
545
00:31:22,012 --> 00:31:25,307
So, if we assume one is
us, one is modern human.
546
00:31:25,307 --> 00:31:27,266
Who's the other species?
547
00:31:27,266 --> 00:31:30,582
I'm not convinced that
interbreeding has been
548
00:31:30,582 --> 00:31:32,709
unequivocally established.
549
00:31:32,709 --> 00:31:34,687
It's an interesting idea
and I think there are some
550
00:31:34,687 --> 00:31:38,004
compelling, maybe persuasive evidence
551
00:31:38,004 --> 00:31:40,268
but it's far from open and shut.
552
00:31:43,448 --> 00:31:45,737
To try to
untangle the genetic origins
553
00:31:45,737 --> 00:31:49,415
of the Red Deer Cave people,
Darren and Ji send samples
554
00:31:49,415 --> 00:31:52,103
of the burned bones for DNA testing.
555
00:31:54,913 --> 00:31:57,951
Ancient DNA science unlocked the genome
556
00:31:57,951 --> 00:32:00,508
of the Denisovans from
their remains preserved
557
00:32:00,508 --> 00:32:03,082
in an icy corner of Siberia
558
00:32:04,242 --> 00:32:06,249
but the Red Deer Cave fossils
559
00:32:06,249 --> 00:32:08,949
are a different challenge all together.
560
00:32:08,950 --> 00:32:11,275
- Fossil DNA is not easy to work with
561
00:32:11,275 --> 00:32:15,262
because the bones have been
buried for many, many years.
562
00:32:15,262 --> 00:32:18,760
So especially for this
sample, they're very
563
00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:22,962
nice, hot and readily humid
area so those conditions
564
00:32:22,962 --> 00:32:26,330
are not good for ancient DNA storage.
565
00:32:27,990 --> 00:32:30,417
Professor
Su Bing is one of China's
566
00:32:30,417 --> 00:32:31,994
leading geneticists.
567
00:32:33,104 --> 00:32:36,177
A decade ago, he led the
team that mapped the DNA
568
00:32:36,177 --> 00:32:39,295
of over 10,000 living East Asians
569
00:32:39,295 --> 00:32:41,401
in search of their origins.
570
00:32:41,401 --> 00:32:44,005
- From this data, what we saw
571
00:32:44,005 --> 00:32:45,870
is a very simple conclusion.
572
00:32:45,870 --> 00:32:49,538
We all came from Africa, we
all have African ancestors.
573
00:32:55,058 --> 00:32:56,851
But not
all scientists accept
574
00:32:56,851 --> 00:32:58,409
this genetic evidence.
575
00:32:59,698 --> 00:33:01,597
There are those that promote what is known
576
00:33:01,597 --> 00:33:04,254
as multiregional theory.
577
00:33:04,254 --> 00:33:07,113
They believe that instead of
old members of our species
578
00:33:07,113 --> 00:33:09,981
coming out of Africa, some modern humans
579
00:33:09,981 --> 00:33:12,259
evolved out of Asia.
580
00:33:14,659 --> 00:33:17,924
To explore this theory,
Darren and Ji traveled
581
00:33:17,924 --> 00:33:20,490
to nearby Guangxi province.
582
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,795
Here amongst this spectacular
limestone landscape
583
00:33:26,795 --> 00:33:31,795
lies Zhirendong, the mysterious
cave of the Homo sapiens.
584
00:33:35,771 --> 00:33:39,902
In 2007, Professor Jin
Chang-Zhu and his team
585
00:33:39,902 --> 00:33:43,431
unearthed two archaic human teeth here.
586
00:33:47,540 --> 00:33:49,598
A year later, they discovered something
587
00:33:49,598 --> 00:33:51,136
even more remarkable.
588
00:33:59,564 --> 00:34:02,741
The primitive jawbone was
found to have some striking
589
00:34:02,741 --> 00:34:04,659
and unexpected features.
590
00:34:09,176 --> 00:34:12,851
A protruding chin is a
defining modern human feature.
591
00:34:27,117 --> 00:34:29,976
When they dated the fossils,
they found they were over
592
00:34:29,976 --> 00:34:34,976
100,000 years old but
the conventional theory
593
00:34:35,012 --> 00:34:38,792
holds that the earliest modern
humans arrived from Africa
594
00:34:38,792 --> 00:34:41,401
around 50,000 years ago.
595
00:34:41,401 --> 00:34:44,070
This would mean that
modern humans were here
596
00:34:44,070 --> 00:34:48,037
50,000 years before they
were supposed to be.
597
00:35:01,715 --> 00:35:04,673
This is the heart of
the biggest controversy
598
00:35:04,673 --> 00:35:07,120
in the science of human evolution.
599
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,383
The idea that modern day
Chinese are descended
600
00:35:11,383 --> 00:35:15,246
from a separate evolutionary
line to the rest of the world.
601
00:35:15,246 --> 00:35:18,344
- In China, they
believe that the Chinese
602
00:35:18,344 --> 00:35:20,552
Homo erectus fossils are
their direct ancestors
603
00:35:20,552 --> 00:35:22,980
and they can see in their interpretation
604
00:35:22,980 --> 00:35:25,966
a continuative evolution
in terms of morphology
605
00:35:25,966 --> 00:35:28,914
and behavior from a
million years ago through
606
00:35:28,914 --> 00:35:30,982
to present Chinese populations.
607
00:35:48,401 --> 00:35:51,643
I gave a talk there in the 1990s
on the Out of Africa theory
608
00:35:51,643 --> 00:35:53,448
and it didn't go down very
well as you can imagine
609
00:35:53,448 --> 00:35:55,873
and I was told that they
knew they were evolved
610
00:35:55,873 --> 00:35:56,669
from Peking man.
611
00:35:56,669 --> 00:35:58,633
It was almost like an act of faith.
612
00:35:58,633 --> 00:36:01,708
- I think they’ve demonstrated
that modern humans
613
00:36:01,708 --> 00:36:04,595
got to East Asia much earlier
614
00:36:04,595 --> 00:36:07,031
than the genetic evidence would suggest.
615
00:36:07,031 --> 00:36:08,378
- I think that's very important.
616
00:36:25,687 --> 00:36:28,015
Ji believes
that the Zhirendong fossils
617
00:36:28,015 --> 00:36:31,263
are proof that modern humans
in this part of the world
618
00:36:31,263 --> 00:36:34,042
evolved here in East Asia.
619
00:36:38,082 --> 00:36:41,268
Whichever theory prevails,
Darren sees the find
620
00:36:41,268 --> 00:36:43,805
as an important clue as to the identity
621
00:36:43,805 --> 00:36:45,833
of the Red Deer Cave people.
622
00:36:48,113 --> 00:36:51,019
- What's impressed
me about the Zhirendong jaw
623
00:36:51,019 --> 00:36:54,505
is that is does seem to
have a human like chin.
624
00:36:54,505 --> 00:36:55,986
You don't see a human like chin
625
00:36:55,986 --> 00:36:58,099
in the Red Deer Cave people jaws.
626
00:36:58,099 --> 00:37:00,427
The Red Deer Cave people
don't look very modern
627
00:37:00,427 --> 00:37:02,493
in comparison.
628
00:37:02,493 --> 00:37:05,287
I think if Zhirendong do
represent an early modern
629
00:37:05,287 --> 00:37:08,495
population then the Red
Deer Cave people can't be.
630
00:37:10,364 --> 00:37:12,720
But the hunt
for fossil DNA that could
631
00:37:12,720 --> 00:37:15,858
confirm this has been unsuccessful.
632
00:37:15,858 --> 00:37:18,553
- Unfortunately we haven't
got any positive result.
633
00:37:18,553 --> 00:37:20,528
We didn't get any DNA.
634
00:37:21,738 --> 00:37:23,993
- There's very
little biological material
635
00:37:23,993 --> 00:37:27,026
left in the bones and teeth from Maludong.
636
00:37:27,026 --> 00:37:28,744
This is because they've been burned
637
00:37:28,744 --> 00:37:30,751
to such high temperatures.
638
00:37:30,751 --> 00:37:33,606
What it means unfortunately is
that there's really no chance
639
00:37:33,606 --> 00:37:35,407
of getting DNA from them.
640
00:37:39,507 --> 00:37:42,573
Despite the lack
of DNA, Darren is convinced
641
00:37:42,573 --> 00:37:45,399
that the bones speak for themselves.
642
00:37:46,379 --> 00:37:50,261
He's driven to the only conclusion
that makes sense to him.
643
00:37:51,191 --> 00:37:53,818
- After five years of
working on this big puzzle,
644
00:37:53,818 --> 00:37:57,703
this conundrum, losing sleep,
traveling to and from China
645
00:37:57,703 --> 00:37:59,400
to check and recheck.
646
00:38:00,368 --> 00:38:03,540
I placed these fossils into what we know,
647
00:38:03,540 --> 00:38:05,495
what we understand about human evolution.
648
00:38:05,495 --> 00:38:06,881
I just can't see that they're anything
649
00:38:06,881 --> 00:38:08,742
other than a new species.
650
00:38:14,772 --> 00:38:17,397
It's an idea
bound to create shock waves
651
00:38:17,397 --> 00:38:19,511
throughout the scientific world.
652
00:38:20,521 --> 00:38:23,035
- Science is very conservative.
653
00:38:23,035 --> 00:38:28,035
So when people find new things
that don't fit into current
654
00:38:28,242 --> 00:38:32,626
widely held models where they
come up with new theories,
655
00:38:32,626 --> 00:38:35,511
they're challenged, they're ridiculed.
656
00:38:35,511 --> 00:38:37,642
Sometimes their careers suffer.
657
00:38:37,642 --> 00:38:38,999
- As soon as
you make some announcement
658
00:38:38,999 --> 00:38:41,775
that's unexpected, there's
always gonna be detractors.
659
00:38:41,775 --> 00:38:44,691
I mean, why would there be a new species
660
00:38:44,691 --> 00:38:47,240
of human surviving in mainland China
661
00:38:47,240 --> 00:38:49,786
until be on the last Ice Age.
662
00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:06,037
- Yes, it's risky.
663
00:39:06,037 --> 00:39:08,904
Of course it's risky but in a way
664
00:39:10,004 --> 00:39:11,990
if you're gonna be honest
and true to science
665
00:39:11,990 --> 00:39:14,397
then you've got to be
prepared to stand up and say,
666
00:39:14,397 --> 00:39:16,534
"This is how I see the evidence."
667
00:39:17,554 --> 00:39:20,734
It's a challenge to conventional wisdom
668
00:39:20,734 --> 00:39:22,441
but then that's how science progresses,
669
00:39:22,441 --> 00:39:24,968
that's how we improve our
understanding of the world.
670
00:39:24,968 --> 00:39:26,976
In this case our own origins.
671
00:39:35,006 --> 00:39:36,999
Darren and
Ji are preparing to show
672
00:39:36,999 --> 00:39:41,495
the Red Deer Cave fossils to
a scientific heavy weight,
673
00:39:41,495 --> 00:39:44,007
someone whose judgment
could either confirm
674
00:39:44,007 --> 00:39:47,035
or quash their own opinions.
675
00:39:47,035 --> 00:39:50,680
Jeffrey Schwartz is one of the
few scientists in the world
676
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:54,497
to have studied virtually the
entire human fossil record.
677
00:39:54,497 --> 00:39:56,036
- Here professor.
678
00:39:56,036 --> 00:39:57,040
- Wow.
679
00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:00,258
Gosh, the actual things.
680
00:40:13,271 --> 00:40:14,738
Can I touch?
681
00:40:14,738 --> 00:40:16,244
- You're welcome to.
682
00:40:16,244 --> 00:40:18,060
- That will be super.
683
00:40:18,060 --> 00:40:21,444
So you think that surface
has been modified?
684
00:40:21,444 --> 00:40:22,481
- There's some cut marks.
685
00:40:22,481 --> 00:40:23,838
- Right, I see that one,
686
00:40:23,838 --> 00:40:25,377
holes in either side of it.
687
00:40:25,377 --> 00:40:27,830
But then you got to break
and then you have to change
688
00:40:27,830 --> 00:40:31,157
in the plane of the bone and
that's what's diagnostic.
689
00:40:31,157 --> 00:40:33,440
- Here's an occipital fragment
690
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:35,947
and I can't find any muscle marking
691
00:40:35,947 --> 00:40:36,635
on it.
- Nothing.
692
00:40:36,635 --> 00:40:38,662
- Nothing at all.
- Nothing.
693
00:40:40,942 --> 00:40:41,879
- Meet Longlin.
694
00:40:41,879 --> 00:40:43,517
- Oh, there it is.
695
00:40:44,486 --> 00:40:46,782
Okay, so what's interesting
is the shape of the frontal
696
00:40:46,782 --> 00:40:47,559
so different.
697
00:40:47,559 --> 00:40:50,025
One thing that's very
prominent is that you have this
698
00:40:50,025 --> 00:40:52,164
huge muscular tuberosity.
699
00:40:52,164 --> 00:40:55,041
You would actually see some
kind of more verticality.
700
00:40:55,041 --> 00:40:56,275
- That's right, absolutely.
701
00:40:56,275 --> 00:40:58,489
This unusual shielding here in front.
702
00:40:58,489 --> 00:41:00,027
- Yeah, oh I see what you're saying.
703
00:41:00,027 --> 00:41:02,395
There’s only one specimen I know of
704
00:41:02,395 --> 00:41:05,609
where the cheek region
flares out like that
705
00:41:05,609 --> 00:41:10,558
and it's one specimen from about
1.65, 1.7 million years old
706
00:41:10,558 --> 00:41:12,222
from East Africa.
707
00:41:12,222 --> 00:41:16,074
It's one of those unusual things
in the human fossil record
708
00:41:16,074 --> 00:41:19,141
and it certainly isn't like
any living human I studied,
709
00:41:19,141 --> 00:41:21,087
any human skull that I've studied
710
00:41:21,087 --> 00:41:24,165
and I've studied thousands
of them over years.
711
00:41:24,165 --> 00:41:27,621
Certain features of the face here,
712
00:41:27,621 --> 00:41:29,847
you don't see in any living human.
713
00:41:29,847 --> 00:41:31,352
I would call it a different species
714
00:41:31,352 --> 00:41:35,938
but I know that sends off a lot of
715
00:41:35,938 --> 00:41:39,181
alarms and stuff but I think
it's a different thing.
716
00:41:39,181 --> 00:41:40,636
717
00:41:40,636 --> 00:41:42,675
- We agree.
718
00:41:42,675 --> 00:41:43,968
- This is really one of the top
719
00:41:43,968 --> 00:41:46,503
paleontological experiences in my life.
720
00:41:48,973 --> 00:41:50,249
- Fantastic, good.
721
00:41:50,249 --> 00:41:51,715
Fixed our work.
722
00:41:51,715 --> 00:41:55,107
I felt as though this
cloud of doubt that I'd had
723
00:41:55,107 --> 00:41:58,035
about my work, my ideas
for the last five years
724
00:41:58,035 --> 00:42:00,234
to suddenly lifted and then I had actually
725
00:42:00,234 --> 00:42:04,246
for the first time some
real independent support
726
00:42:04,246 --> 00:42:06,264
and verification of what we found.
727
00:42:06,264 --> 00:42:08,050
It was absolutely thrilling.
728
00:42:09,210 --> 00:42:13,885
- The big shot, Jeffrey,
Professor Jeffrey are coming
729
00:42:13,885 --> 00:42:16,531
after today's check.
730
00:42:16,531 --> 00:42:19,947
We don't want to move to another project,
731
00:42:19,947 --> 00:42:21,394
move to another set.
732
00:42:21,394 --> 00:42:23,991
I want to continue because it was daring,
733
00:42:23,991 --> 00:42:25,877
we should continue this research,
734
00:42:25,877 --> 00:42:28,025
more productive in the future.
735
00:42:34,614 --> 00:42:37,320
- So the Red Deer Cave
people could be the youngest
736
00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:41,258
non Homo sapiens that we
found anywhere in the world.
737
00:42:42,247 --> 00:42:44,274
They're also in East Asia which is an area
738
00:42:44,274 --> 00:42:46,110
that we thought was actually uninhabited
739
00:42:46,110 --> 00:42:48,999
by the time modern
humans settled the area.
740
00:42:50,259 --> 00:42:52,577
We've always thought that modern humans,
741
00:42:52,577 --> 00:42:56,502
Neanderthal share a common
ancestor 400,000 years ago.
742
00:42:56,502 --> 00:42:58,720
One of the implications of
the Red Deer Cave people
743
00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:01,688
was that maybe there was
a branching event later on
744
00:43:01,688 --> 00:43:04,583
that in fact maybe a
group batted off the line
745
00:43:04,583 --> 00:43:08,510
that was leading to Homo
sapiens two or 300,000 years ago
746
00:43:08,510 --> 00:43:10,154
and that that group is something like
747
00:43:10,154 --> 00:43:11,762
the Red Deer Cave people,
748
00:43:11,762 --> 00:43:14,809
a group that's almost us but not quite us.
749
00:43:18,119 --> 00:43:20,637
It's an astonishing concept
750
00:43:20,637 --> 00:43:24,428
to imagine a coexistence
of two human groups
751
00:43:24,428 --> 00:43:28,257
that are so similar but also so different.
752
00:43:29,286 --> 00:43:32,793
What would their first
encounter have been like?
753
00:43:33,763 --> 00:43:36,871
This wasn't simply a different tribe.
754
00:43:36,871 --> 00:43:40,507
This was another creature all together.
755
00:43:40,507 --> 00:43:45,507
756
00:43:54,484 --> 00:43:58,523
757
00:44:00,150 --> 00:44:03,235
- What discovery means is that
758
00:44:03,235 --> 00:44:06,247
when modern human left
Africa that it wasn't just
759
00:44:06,247 --> 00:44:08,075
the Neanderthals that they encounter.
760
00:44:08,075 --> 00:44:10,293
In fact they met up with the Denisovans,
761
00:44:10,293 --> 00:44:12,510
they met up with the Red Deer Cave people.
762
00:44:13,900 --> 00:44:17,103
It's not just a scenario
of superior modern humans
763
00:44:17,103 --> 00:44:19,460
leaving Africa and taking over the world.
764
00:44:19,460 --> 00:44:22,038
In fact, they had to fight
for it that it wasn't an easy
765
00:44:22,038 --> 00:44:24,626
process and that they were
very complex interactions
766
00:44:24,626 --> 00:44:25,914
along the way.
767
00:44:26,902 --> 00:44:28,402
There's the possibility I guess
768
00:44:28,402 --> 00:44:29,823
with the Red Deer Cave people.
769
00:44:29,823 --> 00:44:31,744
We interacted with them.
770
00:44:31,744 --> 00:44:33,715
What sorts of interactions were there
771
00:44:33,715 --> 00:44:37,067
is the obvious immediate in
the landscape competition
772
00:44:37,067 --> 00:44:38,149
maybe lead to break with them.
773
00:44:38,149 --> 00:44:40,931
Maybe we inherited aspects of our behavior
774
00:44:40,931 --> 00:44:42,593
and culture from them.
775
00:44:42,593 --> 00:44:45,624
Could that interaction have
shaped our own evolution?
776
00:44:47,464 --> 00:44:49,815
- What's significant about
the Moludong specimens
777
00:44:49,815 --> 00:44:53,906
is they really demonstrated
the existence at the same time
778
00:44:53,906 --> 00:44:57,547
of different species with
our species Homo sapiens.
779
00:44:57,547 --> 00:45:00,098
And then I think the ultimate question is
780
00:45:00,098 --> 00:45:01,069
why did they disappear?
781
00:45:01,069 --> 00:45:02,550
How did they disappear and why
782
00:45:02,550 --> 00:45:04,931
were the only species still around?
783
00:45:06,761 --> 00:45:08,542
There is one clue.
784
00:45:09,452 --> 00:45:13,000
We know the Red Deer Cave
people was still surviving
785
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,236
at the dawn of the greatest revolution
786
00:45:15,236 --> 00:45:17,794
in the history of human kind.
787
00:45:20,864 --> 00:45:22,861
- Beginning about 20,000 years ago,
788
00:45:22,861 --> 00:45:26,369
modern humans began agriculture.
789
00:45:26,369 --> 00:45:31,173
As agriculture developed, it was changing
790
00:45:31,173 --> 00:45:33,391
the people who were engaging in it.
791
00:45:33,391 --> 00:45:36,005
Their rituals, their
relationships to the land,
792
00:45:36,005 --> 00:45:39,422
eventually to even their morphology
793
00:45:39,422 --> 00:45:42,850
but also they began changing
the land through farming.
794
00:45:43,750 --> 00:45:47,745
That may have severely
impacted on remaining groups
795
00:45:47,745 --> 00:45:51,651
of Red Deer Cave people who
were true hunter gatherers.
796
00:45:56,351 --> 00:45:58,460
- The farming
revolution led to a whole
797
00:45:58,460 --> 00:46:01,277
sweet of new diseases being
experienced by people.
798
00:46:01,277 --> 00:46:03,612
It was the beginnings of
the population explosion
799
00:46:03,612 --> 00:46:06,249
that we think about over
the last few thousand years.
800
00:46:07,229 --> 00:46:10,024
Worldwide there were
maybe a handful of people,
801
00:46:10,024 --> 00:46:12,181
several million people
living as hunter gatherers
802
00:46:12,181 --> 00:46:15,608
and in a fairly quick period
of time that double treble
803
00:46:15,608 --> 00:46:17,715
to the point where we've
now got seven billion people
804
00:46:17,715 --> 00:46:19,314
living across the planet.
805
00:46:25,414 --> 00:46:29,187
No other site in the world
has a cave human remains
806
00:46:29,187 --> 00:46:32,634
that are dated to around the
time that farming is beginning
807
00:46:32,634 --> 00:46:35,391
and it does raise the
possibility that the invention
808
00:46:35,391 --> 00:46:39,978
of farming may have bumped
off the Red Deer Cave people.
809
00:46:39,978 --> 00:46:44,978
810
00:47:19,525 --> 00:47:21,701
- If you look
at recent human history
811
00:47:21,701 --> 00:47:24,578
what you see is as the
settlments increase in number
812
00:47:24,578 --> 00:47:29,578
and density of human
warfare to like increases.
813
00:47:30,506 --> 00:47:33,539
And in terms of nature,
we're the only really
814
00:47:33,539 --> 00:47:36,746
bellicose or war engaging species
815
00:47:36,746 --> 00:47:38,756
and it may not be a
pleasant thought to think
816
00:47:38,756 --> 00:47:41,184
that we're the cause of the extinction
817
00:47:41,184 --> 00:47:44,801
of these very recent species
that were our relatives.
818
00:47:46,891 --> 00:47:49,216
Whether
it was shear bad luck
819
00:47:49,216 --> 00:47:52,936
or forces of a different
kind, the Red Deer Cave people
820
00:47:52,936 --> 00:47:55,953
may have been the last
of nature's experiments
821
00:47:55,953 --> 00:47:58,030
before modern humans were left
822
00:47:58,030 --> 00:48:01,097
as the lone surviving human species.
823
00:48:09,827 --> 00:48:13,994
As to the faith of those
individuals found inside the cave,
824
00:48:13,994 --> 00:48:17,331
there are clues hidden
in the charred remains.
825
00:48:19,331 --> 00:48:20,958
- One of the key
questions that we ask
826
00:48:20,958 --> 00:48:25,916
when see burnt human bone
is was it cannibalism?
827
00:48:26,576 --> 00:48:30,096
So we look closely to see
the nature of cut marks
828
00:48:30,096 --> 00:48:32,444
and fracturing and burning.
829
00:48:32,444 --> 00:48:34,871
If we look at this material,
we find that there aren't
830
00:48:34,871 --> 00:48:39,508
many cut marks like you would
expect if the meat was cut off
831
00:48:39,508 --> 00:48:43,035
and after cooking in the fire.
832
00:48:43,035 --> 00:48:45,809
What also is really
unusual that we never see
833
00:48:45,809 --> 00:48:50,167
with cannibalism is that
after the bones were burnt,
834
00:48:50,167 --> 00:48:52,272
they were painted with ochre.
835
00:48:54,241 --> 00:48:57,968
Now, if this had been
simply used for food,
836
00:48:57,968 --> 00:48:59,845
the bones would had been discarded
837
00:48:59,845 --> 00:49:02,772
and we would see burning but not ochre.
838
00:49:02,772 --> 00:49:06,470
But with many of the pieces
from Maludong, we see both.
839
00:49:06,470 --> 00:49:10,766
So, I'm convinced that there
is a form of burial practice
840
00:49:10,766 --> 00:49:13,533
happening rather than cannibalism.
841
00:49:16,094 --> 00:49:18,510
- This is probably
a really special place
842
00:49:18,510 --> 00:49:20,508
for the people who were occupying the cave
843
00:49:20,508 --> 00:49:22,814
and coming here performing ceremonies,
844
00:49:22,814 --> 00:49:24,241
putting large fires.
845
00:49:24,241 --> 00:49:26,659
They were cremating
probably their relatives,
846
00:49:26,659 --> 00:49:29,466
maybe people who are
important in their group.
847
00:49:29,466 --> 00:49:31,603
And then later their bones were cut
848
00:49:31,603 --> 00:49:32,938
and painted with red ochre,
849
00:49:32,938 --> 00:49:34,995
so they had special value to them.
850
00:49:39,265 --> 00:49:41,770
Until now,
modern humans are thought
851
00:49:41,770 --> 00:49:44,984
to be the only species
that have made skull cups
852
00:49:44,984 --> 00:49:47,591
and painted the bones of their dead.
853
00:49:47,591 --> 00:49:50,038
- That's one of
the fascinating aspects
854
00:49:50,038 --> 00:49:53,595
of the archaeology of
Maludong is there are a number
855
00:49:53,595 --> 00:49:55,823
of different forms of what we would call
856
00:49:55,823 --> 00:49:59,160
modern human behavior that
appear to have been practiced
857
00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:01,927
by another species.
858
00:50:01,927 --> 00:50:04,784
These were intelligent
compassionate people
859
00:50:04,784 --> 00:50:08,382
who perform special
rituals for their dead.
860
00:50:08,382 --> 00:50:10,330
They mourned to their dead.
861
00:50:10,330 --> 00:50:14,260
They might even have had a
concept of the afterlife.
862
00:50:14,260 --> 00:50:17,748
These people, whatever species it was.
863
00:50:17,748 --> 00:50:19,524
They were not that different to us
864
00:50:19,524 --> 00:50:22,521
and that tells us we are not unique.
865
00:50:24,971 --> 00:50:26,945
But there is
an alternative explanation
866
00:50:26,945 --> 00:50:30,622
for what happened inside
the Red Deer Cave.
867
00:50:30,622 --> 00:50:33,291
The fossils reveal yet another twist
868
00:50:33,291 --> 00:50:35,497
in this unfolding mystery.
869
00:50:35,497 --> 00:50:38,351
- There is more than one
Hominid on this table.
870
00:50:47,161 --> 00:50:49,248
More than one Hominid for sure.
871
00:50:49,248 --> 00:50:51,065
- What he actually
said was pretty remarkable.
872
00:50:51,065 --> 00:50:52,902
He actually suggested that we may have
873
00:50:52,902 --> 00:50:55,524
three different species in the fossils.
874
00:50:55,524 --> 00:50:59,470
Us, modern humans and then two brand new
875
00:50:59,470 --> 00:51:02,268
previously unknown archaic species.
876
00:51:03,617 --> 00:51:05,951
This would be one of the
only sites that's known
877
00:51:05,951 --> 00:51:08,919
in the world where you
got three distinct groups
878
00:51:08,919 --> 00:51:10,532
using the same place.
879
00:51:12,163 --> 00:51:16,039
- The other conclusion
that can explain this mix
880
00:51:16,039 --> 00:51:19,244
is that it was actually modern humans
881
00:51:19,244 --> 00:51:21,958
engaging in the modern human behavior
882
00:51:21,958 --> 00:51:25,273
with the remains of the
Red Deer Cave people.
883
00:51:26,663 --> 00:51:29,141
Why were modern humans doing this?
884
00:51:29,141 --> 00:51:32,617
What was the relationship
with Red Deer Cave people?
885
00:51:32,617 --> 00:51:35,514
Was it a close one and were they honoring
886
00:51:35,514 --> 00:51:37,672
the dead Red Deer Cave people
887
00:51:37,672 --> 00:51:40,786
or were they driving them to extinction
888
00:51:40,786 --> 00:51:42,763
and purposely killing them.
889
00:51:42,763 --> 00:51:46,480
It is an incredible story no matter
890
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:50,367
which hypothesis we ultimately accept.
891
00:51:51,757 --> 00:51:54,065
We may
never fully understand
892
00:51:54,065 --> 00:51:57,272
what actually happened inside this cave.
893
00:51:57,272 --> 00:52:00,918
All we really know is that
the Red Deer Cave people
894
00:52:00,918 --> 00:52:03,796
were once here and now they are gone.
895
00:52:06,876 --> 00:52:10,053
- For me one of the profound implications
896
00:52:10,053 --> 00:52:13,550
of the Red Deer Cave people
is that here's a group of
897
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:17,444
humans that are us, they're almost us.
898
00:52:17,444 --> 00:52:20,651
They share some characteristics with us.
899
00:52:20,651 --> 00:52:25,026
It forces us to rethink the
space that we've created
900
00:52:25,026 --> 00:52:28,593
for ourselves as humans the
way we've identified ourselves,
901
00:52:28,593 --> 00:52:32,927
the way we think, we interact
with the world is narrowing.
902
00:52:32,927 --> 00:52:36,041
So, it forces us to rethink the concept,
903
00:52:36,041 --> 00:52:40,478
the very basic idea of what
it means to be a human.
904
00:52:40,478 --> 00:52:43,743
It's important philosophically
because it challenges
905
00:52:43,743 --> 00:52:46,160
the concepts that we apply to ourselves,
906
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:48,139
the way we define ourselves,
907
00:52:48,139 --> 00:52:50,507
the way we think about
our place in nature.
908
00:52:50,507 --> 00:52:52,253
I think it alters that.
909
00:53:00,613 --> 00:53:01,143
Hi.
910
00:53:01,143 --> 00:53:01,851
- Hello.
911
00:53:01,851 --> 00:53:02,597
- Darren, hi.
912
00:53:02,597 --> 00:53:03,404
- Hello, Darren.
913
00:53:03,404 --> 00:53:04,234
- Wow.
914
00:53:04,234 --> 00:53:05,381
- I'm Craig. How are you?
915
00:53:05,381 --> 00:53:08,478
- I'm very fine, absolutely stud.
916
00:53:08,478 --> 00:53:09,352
You're real.
917
00:53:09,352 --> 00:53:11,036
- I know.
918
00:53:11,036 --> 00:53:15,413
- My Red Deer Cave person,
you're real.
919
00:53:15,413 --> 00:53:17,756
An amazing thing to see,
920
00:53:17,756 --> 00:53:21,783
the bones feel like come to
life, flesh real in front of me.
921
00:53:21,783 --> 00:53:24,969
There's this new evidence from
China of a distinct group,
922
00:53:24,969 --> 00:53:27,176
probably a new species
living in the landscape,
923
00:53:27,176 --> 00:53:30,273
sharing the landscape
with people just like us.
924
00:53:30,273 --> 00:53:33,310
When you discover new
species, you decide the name
925
00:53:33,310 --> 00:53:36,206
and one of the names that we've
talked about were proposed
926
00:53:36,206 --> 00:53:39,848
with Chinese colleagues is Homo mituanas.
927
00:53:45,838 --> 00:53:50,270
And mituan is actually Chinese
for enigma or great puzzle.
928
00:53:50,270 --> 00:53:52,950
- Mystery.
929
00:53:52,950 --> 00:53:55,267
- So we think of you as our enigma man.
930
00:53:55,267 --> 00:53:57,627
- Enigma man.
931
00:53:59,851 --> 00:54:02,618
We are only just
starting to piece together
932
00:54:02,618 --> 00:54:06,365
this story of millions
of years of our evolution
933
00:54:06,365 --> 00:54:10,364
from fragments of bones and stones.
934
00:54:10,364 --> 00:54:15,244
- Every culture has
creation or origin stories.
935
00:54:15,244 --> 00:54:17,371
What's different here is
that we're weaving a story,
936
00:54:17,371 --> 00:54:20,398
a narrative from scientific evidence.
937
00:54:21,358 --> 00:54:23,800
Everybody cares about where they came from
938
00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:26,227
and the place of humans
in the natural world,
939
00:54:26,227 --> 00:54:28,124
where we fit in the Cosmos.
940
00:54:28,124 --> 00:54:30,519
This is the ultimate story for us.
941
00:54:32,489 --> 00:54:35,485
In the 21st
century, our sense of ourselves
942
00:54:35,485 --> 00:54:38,952
as a superior species
still informs so much
943
00:54:38,952 --> 00:54:41,649
about how we relate to
the world around us.
944
00:54:43,509 --> 00:54:45,836
- It was simple when
it was just the Neanderthals
945
00:54:45,836 --> 00:54:48,224
because we could demonize
them or make them out
946
00:54:48,224 --> 00:54:51,280
to be primitive cavemen, dumb
947
00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:53,606
and we were the smart
ones, we got out of Africa,
948
00:54:53,606 --> 00:54:56,125
we conquered them but it's
not that simple anymore
949
00:54:56,125 --> 00:54:57,273
because there are Denisovans,
950
00:54:57,273 --> 00:54:59,043
there are the Red Deer Cave people.
951
00:54:59,043 --> 00:55:01,103
There's the hobbit.
952
00:55:01,103 --> 00:55:04,994
Suddenly, we're not this
incredibly smart group
953
00:55:04,994 --> 00:55:07,037
that was destined to take over the world.
954
00:55:07,037 --> 00:55:09,038
It's not like that.
955
00:55:09,038 --> 00:55:11,179
The Red
Deer Cave people may be
956
00:55:11,179 --> 00:55:14,330
the closest members of
our diverse human family
957
00:55:14,330 --> 00:55:16,661
to have walked amongst us.
958
00:55:16,661 --> 00:55:19,172
- For most of
the 7 1/2 million years
959
00:55:19,172 --> 00:55:22,213
that we've been evolving,
we've shared the landscape
960
00:55:22,213 --> 00:55:24,114
with other human like creatures.
961
00:55:24,114 --> 00:55:26,085
We competed with them for resources.
962
00:55:26,085 --> 00:55:28,466
We occasionally had sex with them.
963
00:55:28,466 --> 00:55:29,978
Today, that's not the case.
964
00:55:29,978 --> 00:55:34,409
We find ourselves alone but
yet the Red Deer Cave people
965
00:55:34,409 --> 00:55:38,790
show that just 11,000
years ago we weren't alone.
966
00:55:38,790 --> 00:55:40,032
Why is that the case?
967
00:55:40,032 --> 00:55:41,852
This is the ultimate question for us.
968
00:55:41,852 --> 00:55:43,823
Why are we alone today?
969
00:55:44,823 --> 00:55:47,478
Perhaps the
greatest legacy of our long gone
970
00:55:47,478 --> 00:55:51,679
ancient relatives is how they
remind us of our incredibly
971
00:55:51,679 --> 00:55:55,490
good fortune to be here at all.
972
00:55:55,490 --> 00:56:00,490
73606
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