over a lake near the capitals, a city lanark up a lung arca. the island in the mediterranean is renowned as a weigh station for hundreds of thousands of birds. migrating between europe and africa. happens twice a year in spring and autumn. as an unusually mild winter in the region draws to a close, birds are preparing for their long flight to their breeding grounds. in the north of next is our doc film, closing in the missing links, exploring human evolution with a team of researchers. i'm on the any, so stay with us. departure into the unknown. to day. this means flying to a foreign planet. in the 16th century, it meant being a captain and setting sail to discover a route. magellan journey around the world. starts january

19th on d, w. ah, south africa, these hills are known as the cradle of human kind. they tell the story of evolution . nowhere else is so many of our ancestors fossils being discovered. but one mystery remains, when exactly did the 1st humans appear. and what with our lives like, that's what paleo anthropologist josie bra gong wants to find out at the crumb dry archaeological site in south africa. he aims to give a voice to the bones of our ancestors. ah,

ah, paleo anthropologist. josie braga is a wild expert in his field, whether with state of the art laboratory equipment or in the dusty savannah, he is searching for the origin of human kind and the missing piece of the puzzle. in homo sapiens, family tree. god also de las alina it, us was a space allocated to lose you much trailer this general consensus, that all human beings living on the planet to day have their origin in africa around 100000 years ago, in west middle back. also, stuart girls moved from one delta c, but if you go further back around 2000000 years, it's a different story. at least the south on false good humanity,

resolving it up out. we just, we still don't know exactly where the homogeneous emerged and whether it was 2 or more like 3000000 years ago, got idea of us to develop units austell target was here in chrome dry, close to johannesburg. regard aims to solve this mystery. the scientist part of the cradle of human kind and the many fossils in this landscape have revealed the story of evolution. it has been listed as a unesco welled heritage site since 1999 humanities family tree branched off from the great apes. 7000000 years ago. we and our ancestors are descended from that new genus, the hominy. one of those ancestors is osteopathic

us, of whom several skeletons have been found. some of them over 3000000 years old. but about 2000000 years ago this species died out. the transition from osteopathic us to human still counts as a blind spot in evolutionary history. no fossil has yet been found from the period between 3 and 2000000 years ago that will give us any clothes regard became site manager of the crumb dry archaeological site in south africa in 2002 to try and solve the mystery at the time the region was mainly living on its reputation. the last relevant

discovery came from the 19 thirty's. some varies. christopher geological features on top of your for to room in burger things, chrome dry is much bigger than originally assumed. to find new excavation sites, he use his aerial photo grammar tree to carry out 3 d survey by combining this and chemical soil analysis, he plans to track down undiscovered fossils and in the end, the new survey shows that this soil lay, i really does stretch far into the north, from dry is 5 times as large as originally thought.

the search for fossil treasure in the unexplored region begins the teen gathers a large number of samples. nobody has any idea yet how significant the new fines will be. to us as humans, again gather the cell. jeff gets a piece of eye tooth from a prime ada dupree methyl. i'm already in the jaw here, she don't accident even before it's taken out of the ground. it's clear that this is an entire joel back of his that from a home in any. it's extraordinary weiss unix. later

off to cancel cleaning, it becomes clear that this is an almost perfectly preserved lower jaw of a child. it's a small sensation. but does it belong to a human child or an osteopathic us? might it even have originated in the mysterious transition period between the 2 genera? boucher mammals, i know specializes in medical imaging. he makes a computerized model of the jaw to find some ounces. don't drill them to go. the donation was a community domains. if you were using your data to create a model of the jaw of the child of chrome dry with its tooth bugs don't tell, seeks holding. it's extraordinary. absolutely no.

jimmy recess you, i've never seen anything like this in an osteopathic is shawn haralson up. they never have these long central or lateral in sizes hollow to on into lozzo. not for thank. i follow this back. stop my initial impression, question or video? because you look, let's add some more criteria to make sure this is really a human mandible. dick. it actually promote up. what shall me to be up, wife here. me cool. nice. you're fine. i'll give you 2 man team inside the lower jaw have remained unchanged since the death of the child. their shape and position suggests the genus is houma. but from which precise stage of evolution should be the the con, die you lie,

you ness was his trunk. i got up with my digits. what's special about the child of chrome dry is that it combines modern and primitive characteristics in a way we've never seen before. with such old fossils. where the god, you can see very primitive osteopathic is characteristics in this. i tooth to character, look on critic, either goddamn time or down, but then we also have very clear human characteristics. you see also if the child had been at a bit more mature stage of development, we would not have been able to say this sandy beulah anaki that can cause any issues or no apostles thomasville look. or if it cost us right in the fact that it's a small child, gives us some key information. it's also, it's oh sure, we don't yet know what constituted a human from a couple of 1000000 years ago. and i think it was the way they grew up, but to be able to say that with certainty, we have to find more human infants from this period like this one or not on what makes this fine. so valuable is it's early stage of development. but again,

is certain that an immature lower jaw will provide indications of the species. this would not be the case in a fully developed jaw. everything points to the fact that the jaw originated in the transition period between austro lapetrkozi and humans not met, no havoc, no libya. and this is where the problem started with our chrome dry child support and we enjoy some of them. others not so much. i love this one, but it will still be complicated. we have to date the fossil, especially whether it's older or younger than to me and is, yep. so i'm sudden, it's older, but that's not enough. we need proof in for all approved with . everything depends on the fossils age, but neither the dna analysis nor the radio carbon method is able to date such an old fossil. there's only one thing left to try to determine the

age of the soil in which the fossil was found with to do this for a gar put together a team of geologists to look for indications of which iraq the soil, and thus the char, since jaw came from verse the team has to learn about the composition of the soil in the newly dug area. the almost square site is boarded by line stack. do you think that blocks or whether we kind of yes, totally. so then you said it all got completely wet and it will be non effort. i miss ali. yes, definitely water but it's not circulating. you could under the standing water is a bit of a mystery. and as an entire story behind it,

a story from the time this child lived in chrome dry. the secret lies in the stock fontaine caves close to chrome dry. they found little foot in these limestone caves. the most complete skeleton of an australia pickers ever discovered. it took several years to estimate its age. it was 3700000 years old, long blue cell headed up the team at the time. he knew this cave labrons at its history inside out all night and he can go, he can gal deleting one years left so much when i got here we have small passages

that map the creation of the cave to fella. you can see the process that she to say, we're below ground water level, so everything is under water delivered to a pump. the water dripped slowly and gradually dissolves bits of carbonate and magnesium. he wants to live with the sand, and anything that dissolves easily is washed out to little nickie. this is how lab renting granados form medical dozens of kilometers long initially at every levant, or we'll push a phillip. these discoveries from the stack fontaine caves forced the team in crumb dry to think again. the geologists found the same disintegration process in the rocks of both kinds. so the 2 locations seem to be connected under, grabbed the opening to the earth surface has to be a remnant have collapsed corridors. that means that the sighting crumb dry was once an underground cave full trigger and his

team. this is an important realization they want to understand when and how the cave filled up. is this the key to dating the child of chrome? try to an indication of the origin of human kind. sch, alicia mills in the gall, stella does that from then. they said cell where in one auster contains larger halls in the middle at about 30 meters long and 20 meters wide and about 30 meters high. that's exactly the same size as chrome dry,

eval memphis while this is interesting because here we have an unfilled cave. we still have a bald separating us from the surface with a good 10 meters of rock sharika purpose. but we have to imagine the geological changes are making the roof thinner, and at some stage it will open the stones were fallen soil and also animals that we are finding. now, as fossils good will, shall gradually, a pile of rubble will form the whole talis, like in an hour glass, to the same unit. you had the opening of the trap that over thousands of years caches was used to be on the surface. one said that it's a time capsule of what was happening outside at the time you need let me walk the skis, fussy alex, tell you that tireless rises until the opening is clogged again, perhaps due to a collapse. once the whole closes, everything below it becomes fossilized. at the same time style it might grow slowly in the cave. as soon as the whole reopens a 2nd pile of scree forms on top of the fast

in chrome dry, the former cave roof was completely eroded. so the screen that the fossils were embedded in was exposed duncan along to here we have a snapshot of what a quandary must have looked like for 5 or 6000000 years ago before the cave open to the surface of english office. at 1st sight, everything seems to come from one source, but electro magnetic measurements show that there are actually different lands each from a different epoch. the geologist try to date the layer in which the human jaw was found. regard hopes to then be able to estimate the age of the chrome. try child because any fun ha, i'm on the inside of

a bovine gene, but tease to for vale, specializes in animal fossils. he identifies that type and evolutionary stage of the fragments of the bone fragments help date the animal species. this is a fema from what above it? yes. for val thinks this was a small antelope from the same period as the child of chrome dry. but what does that tell us? it's either of what i'm trying to put the puzzled together piece by piece and not from the death of this animal to to day these fines help us understand the ecosystem, the harmony developed within me. the bowwie fossils suggest open all, would it savannah? but that says little about the age of the layer,

since today's antelopes are too similar to their ancestors, 2000000 years ago. to determine the age of the teams, need to find animals whose anatomy has changed more. after a few hours, they find a solid block containing fossilized bones of an unknown animal. for vowed, carefully exposes the sample with a dentist's carter. he has to be very careful not to damage the fossil spotted dauphin. i miss ali bath, brutal one. i thought it might be a feline predator. 100 of after cleaning it. i have the complete gums and saber teeth of a 2000000 year old feline predator. i am again terry only dr. leon,

it's the breakthrough. they were hoping for. this sabre tooth tiger appeared about 3000000 years ago in africa and died out about 2000000 years ago. the layer, the animal gums, and the child's jaw were found in is, in fact, from the transition period between australopithecines, us, and human. but the team has to date it even more precisely. the geologists get to work again. they use a static might from the former cave to measure the time i want a leader leslie, me local nice. if this is these to lag might from from dry, the cradle of human kind is the only one we know we're still in place and it can be backdated earlier. the dose of all the pico, a lady for me. stallard might said formed from drops

containing tiny amounts of uranium over time. the uranium turns to let the ratio of the 2 elements reveals the age of this down. this dialect might, must be between 2 and 2300000 years out. the talis under the style it might, must be older. this proves that the fossils from the talus below the static might are also more than 2000000 years old father indications that the child's jaw comes from the transition period from austro lapetrkozi to human with him on the screen looking office. the call i say rom dry gives us exactly what we were missing and struck fontaine. are you the connecting piece between australopithecines, us, and how many instruct fontaine these layers had been lost due to erosion in chrome?

dr. they are still there. here we can bring together the links between all the stories from the cradle of human kind de, la soul, newcastle, even if it it's a spectacular discovery. the child of chrome dry is the oldest human child ever excavated. an examination of the lower jaw disclose is the age of the 1st humans. it also shows us what differentiated them from. osteopathic us, on tod, do it on milanni. told it was he remarked not on his person. we can count on the fingers of one hand, the number of fines we have from the period before 2 to 3000000 years ago, and never a child awful, but in crumb dry, we have this infant who is showing as to what humans were like. 2000000 years ago, a good poet, anima yamil, denny on a c o similar what it. he knew gum id or offered a fortelli linux user. funny. local boy, we made a 3 d image from the data to compare the lower jaw of

a 2 year old to day with the chrome dro child in baton child dental founder come here a come on the original from tongue. the iconic estrella pisec his child clinic. the tong child was discovered in 1924 in south africa at the time. it was the 1st and only osteopathic us and it didn't generate much interest since it was thought the parcels of children did not provide much information. it's hugely important for brigade, however, as it helps to differentiate modern day humans from earlier jenner. sir libby, you stroller pacific as child in red with chrome dry and blue be actual that's what it looks like. today we met norm procedure, profound popular clamp of it said he tell me, john, jehovah cooper, we can get into about half of the jar, hear him also super to rate the tongue. child really has no chin. it's slanted with more beacon of m a receding chin. to aliyah be being mother da. com are you there? chrome dry child has quite

a vertical profile. very different to this here. when you do the song, not and mosquito, the chin does not receive as strongly as the tongue. 1 may remember luxury, although said this symphony, this area is also less broader. so the us wildly and there is the morphology of the tooth, one digit, which deepest a lot from the australia, whitaker's. i feel like you've damaged it up your bottle, or would we have a series of characteristics here that suggested is closer to a modern day child than to an australia pickers. something where he changes everything. it's much more modern than we thought he was gonna have her aqua sampras, his enemies bassetti on the other. so the criteria that defined what humans are and now our dated marya began walking upright using tools, the large brain routes she knew. now we know that the australopithecines also use tools and walked up right or sick who g settles holidays. the large brain didn't develop until after the 1st humans appeared, laid upon you. luke was open to day, the belief is more that the criteria for becoming human have to do with development

. see by our vision yelling, and with the fossil of this infant. we're able to answer that for the 1st time, foresee the b, b, or boo. upon a point of what i promise it gets through the paleo anthropologists realised that this find will revolutionize their research at prom dry. they hope to find out what originally made humans human. while the 3 d images are being analyzed, the search for more information continues that the chrome dry site. geology provides the researchers with new details. the cave filled up until the talus reached the ceiling. it's possible that predators then moved in the fossils from the talis, will probably their prey. and they tell us about the lives that the 1st humans

finance, or jackie had the mean underneath 2000000 years ago, we were primarily scavengers, benefiting from others, leftovers. it was at the same time we were breaking. it was easy to eat or it has dinner. so it's exciting to find the remains of our ancestors who were pray. it brings up new questions around how we continue to develop them and change them on avery. to find out more about the 1st humans, the researchers look for new fossils. a comparison of the 3 jones of the austro le pisec us to chrome dry, child, and modern day humans alone is not enough to rewrite human history. a comparison is also needed with parent purpose. another home, an ingenious paratroopers means alongside humans and is considered our

close relative. it appears around the same time as the homo genus. there is disagreement about whether it is an australia pickers or descends from the 1st branch or post was discovered in 1938 close to chrome dry. lapointe humor, 80 pony ball hope so compress monday. feel the 1st humans and 1st representatives of the genus are very different from one. another aspect of the parent therapist has spectacular facial features. several with an overdeveloped mastic atory apparatus. there it was vegetarian and specialized in consuming hard plans. contrary to the 1st humans, digital studies suggest that they ate both plans and meet critical his remark. it is all so much made, in fact, that traces of it can be found as a geo chemical signature inside their tables in class and senior chose yoshika antonio. they don't have permission

for god wants to unravel the origins of human kind. to do this, he would have to compare how human children and parents wrappers children developed over 2000000 years ago. the problem is that no parent purpose child has yet been discovered. regard hopes to find one in chrome try he brings a specialist on board to find out where to dig. man tom b in galle, we'll use the latest technology to lead him to the right place. she can predict where the largest number of fossils are to be found. my specific air studies is on the 3 d reconstruction of the site and understanding spatial

patterning using 3 d digitization methods. these are actually the fossils whose coordinates they've collected using the turtle sation and read you have the above ins and, and green. you have the hominids and in yellow we have carnivores. so what we found from our 3 d spatial analysis as that we actually have 4 main classes. cluster one and 2 contained the most fossil. so this is the most dense vision of the site. i challenge, he is very destructive process and part of the discovery is destruction by my focus within my ph. d is to ensure that we can actually preserve data in such a way that future generations can have an image of what it looked like before. it was removed compared to the off i t times, i think now there's a lot more knowledge and awareness of this and

a lot more representation as well. so for me, for example, being a black woman studying this. that is very rare. but we are pioneering and opening spaces for us to know our history and disseminated as well. we're gonna dig swear in gallery locates the highest probability of finding hominy . fossils searchable. so follower muscle defaults to accomplish more. this is a part of a task completely disintegrated or brazil. even more for the walking won't with alterations the ivory goes in all directions. a typical fine that tells us absolutely nothing for super boot. demoya fill the cell until it only shows as the inclination angle of the layout edibles. angie,

come over here of waterloo. i think we have an inside the here that's in the opposite direction to the layer with the parent purpose. we go only a toni bolcom, so we, we live in it. yes, that's clearly north to south. it fits the hypothesis that we have another entrance and another source of material. here we go, can not do much even older, more people. yes. older that indicates a much longer, more complex history. the elephant task is important after all, its position at right angles to the other. fines reveals that it belongs to a different thomas, presumably from another opening in the cave roof. this thomas is partially covered by the one that contains the 1st humans and parentheses, so it's colder. but how old? exactly?

the excitement grows less when you eat. this layer is very rigid loose. the yellow pods are bones. you don't need to know what they are. you have to take them out even in order to get, but it's too hard for the tool will need other tools for that. not only home will you recovering the fossil from the solid ground takes time, but too much air exposure can damage the bones. to avoid this large block said cut up and taken to the step fontaine lebron tre, there. the fossils are extracted. the stern fontaine lab belongs to robin clark,

the discoverer of little foot. he rarely opens his lab, but brigands find awakens his curiosity from you. wow. now i see this piece corresponds to the right maquida of that specimen. so it still needs some preparation. yeah, certainly does, but wow. he says you, this is all ready picking my interest. this doesn't look like a parameter between you, me? yeah. and at the moment in the matrix, not that easy tell we talked about,

but if you look at the pre, if you look at the prima filler, doesn't neglect from yeah. here in the i mean yeah, you're just you know, for the long comparison and also to 50 two's to okay. the roof, the more i look this, the more i feel is it's one of these to the 1st turn now chrome dry. you have to know strong, physically, single, unsure of it. i'm so pleased for you than on your least. i am pleased for the science because this has so much to knowledge of the way these home units were developing and the under different species that exist to do any one time. so well done.

the last fossil brings, the real sensation. prom dry is the only site in the well, that preserves the transition from osteopathic us towards parents hoppers. and man . these are the 3 crucial pieces of the puzzle to unravel the origin of human kind . said osalla particular, you did propose, dude, us, if this australopithecines specimen is very close to the fork in the family trade, also it may be one of the last before paratroopers separated from humans. and what's interesting in from dry is that in the lay with the skull, we found both the oldest parenthesis and the oldest humans. so it really records the moment when the transition happened to find in australia pacific is that lived well before the split or a parent robust long after that is quite interesting. you're more pleasant than most girls. you have the better car, but i'm more interested in the blank page in the history books and the moment when

the species separated. lieberman assessable to 2nd burger knows he's witnessing and historical moment. one that many of his colleagues will envy him, fall north toyota. we are touching our ancestors here and their descendants. we saw no crumb dry. is the time machine. ah, but burger is missing one, his central element. what exactly was the difference between human and parents, roper's children, 2000000 years ago? he's convinced that this is the key to understanding how humans came to be finding another parent purpose baby towards the end of the dig seems unlikely. well, from dry reveal it's last secret. after all, look,

i have the bottom teeth. another row of temperature was he fell progress. so those and yes, i have the in sizes blue apollonia for the 1st time we had coming face to face with the paratroopers baby, or mold a shack washing every time i'm here was like, i hope to find either a human baby or a paratroopers baby, whole cinnamon and leave the ball pope when they build them up again. look on. welcome little parents for persons upon local choice. well, on a lot from this child, when we compare it to which human baby, whose joy we also found emily rid of the piece of joy, is the pinnacle of brick ars whack. at last he can compare a parent purpose baby with the human baby that he found at the beginning.

what can the parent trip his baby tell us about becoming human? welfare this child is the new star of south african paleo anthropology is the 1st parents with his child scull ever discovered world wide. all of them at no cost. was he mostly self with home hall tele toyota. rather using a particle accelerator called a synchrotron. he said, we are creating a 3 dimensional x ray image of the inside of the 2 that you give us with the policy . she's on be the ball. hope she's avima on is these 5 micro meters? thick structures correspond to the enamel that is deposited in a baby in 24 hours. dip was l. mankato similar to the annual rings of trees from the thick of the deposit that the foster, the tooth has grown. the football top we found that the teeth of the small per

anthropocentric, were significantly faster than the teeth of small human financials. it as a general solution abuse you do call. we also saw differences in geochemistry. those of short took the ratio of calcium isotopes and the human and parent therapist teeth. well gave us information about nutrition as the to the former. you were poor. do the former shoulder said this is important because the isotope ratio changes during the transition from lactation to solid food intake or so did it go up also to feedback well fed, skarasettic roasting tooth analysis showed that the parentheses were weaned very early, often more was i don't order any salt, probably shortly, or a few months after birth liquids 0 who humans on the other hand were waned much later than i was not until about age 3. our side is on because we have them all this had implications for social life. since raising a child that was waned, much later required much more effort from the parents and the group than

a child waned early, are smoldered above all, being not a model about develop a correlation between the duration of childhood and social structure can already be observed in great tapes, a connection that may be transferable to the 1st humans sabrina tree and studied the behavior of different primates in the jungle and supports for gar in his analysis. so gather legal. yeah. is of highly guerrillas are weaned much earlier than chimpanzee losolsi longer. ivan wonderful women in the metabolism that focuses on brain development, develop and cognitive skills. like you have acre, russell david, opinionated as he did. they learn to walk and climb later, already from shore. looking with his wife is also very of what have younger than the young chimpanzee clings to its mother's belly and is completely dependent on

her. the same era intercept, foreclosure they have on the home or the community helps to defend the youngest on his own living journey peculiar, hardly a complete young guerrillas on the other hand, could become independent, much earlier than chimpanzees, et cetera. what in any pre, pray, country to what you might think i had that this shortens the learning period to early? isn't you so busy? portia? in washington, d. c. chimpanzees, starting to use tools during a longer learning phase. this takes time and the sport of the big one restaurant was actually cause i'd say when i watch chimpanzees, i feel very close to them why each one, but they're like, part of my family, if i could go to. and if you imagine the 1st humans how they lived together,

when i said it was like this is awesome, did you feel probably more like logan the big difference with humans is that the chimpanzees to was remain the same to this day. one gets from they pass on the knowledge to the next generation, probably more, but there was no progress. no further development of italy, men key from camila. and that's probably the difference which human mistakes uni our culture grew steadily. yes, we perfected our tools get i better digging a hash roaring asher. so primitive humans, childhood was much longer than that of the parents repairs. the analogy to today's great apes allows conclusions to be drawn about how hominy organized their societies. 2000000 years ago. the 1st groups of people seemed to be united by one main goal to protect their offspring.

this makes the group vulnerable, but apparently favors the passing on of knowledge for burger and his colleagues. this is the long sought after key to being human mist whelmed upon complains of hunger sailors. mother, she does you my katie lab and become dry is to prove that humans strategy was the better one was you know, since the paratroopers disappeared 1000000 years ago, when humans on the other hand have evolved in an original way compared to the estrella, pithy goes and paratroopers, the human reproductive strategy means giving birth to offspring their need a lot of energy and attention to develop their brains. this strategy prevail? i did? did you get it allowed us species to populate the entire planet, aka mommy, as descendants of a species that i am convinced from already lived as we do g o. this passes high key v vi, at least as far as the relationship with children was concerned altogether equal

sound. a little oper via did awful burger spectacular finds bring us closer to our ancestors. the fossil malaise show that the secret of our species is the long lactation parent. this evolutionary step is what made the unique development of humans possible paying for time with time. this is the principal of italy's time banks. whether it's for playing cards, manual labor, or guitar lessons. here, everything has the same value. a person's time. focus on europe. in 30 minutes on d, w, ah,

active ingredients derived from nature. pharmaceutical and chemical companies use them to make huge profits. patents protect their research and innovation, but indigenous peoples have been using them for millennia and come away empty handed. does ancient wisdom have no value made in germany? in 90 minutes on d, w. o. and christian. okay, questions about life, the universe and everything? the answer? well then give it here the answer to almost everything. we're documentary series with clever crazy granite ground breaking

questions. can we go into the afterlife? are we kidding? dumber. how can we feed every 1? 42. answer to almost everything. starts january 15 on d, w. ah, this is d w news and these are top stories. the u. s. justice department has appointed a special council to investigate after more classified documents were found at president biden's delaware home. earlier this week, reports emerged that sensitive documents had been found.