just download our app from google play or from the google a, pardon me, apple app store. and we'll give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking news. and coming up next is doc fil, a team of scientists in south africa researching evolution is looking for important clues about our ancestors spicer break for lunch with ah, what people have to say matters to us. ah,

that's why we listened to their stories. sh reporter. every weekend on d w ah, ah, south africa, these hills are known as the cradle of human kind. they tell the story of evolution . no one else has 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 want paleo anthropologist, josie, but i got once 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 cult, also jealous ali sheila, it us resist this allocator trilogy mug trailer. there's general consensus that old human beings living on the planet to day have their origin in africa around 100000 years ago in west back. also, stuart roles moved from one though bessie. but if you go further back around 2000000 years, it's a different story next to the school south on false,

good humanity, resolving about 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 as to the bottom units . austin target was here in chrome dry, close to johannesburg. regard aims to solve this mystery. the site is 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 world 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 this mystery. at the time the region was mainly living on its reputation. the last relevant

discovery came from the 19 thirty's and at 1st regard to finds nothing new, but he doesn't give up. he trusts his instincts and modern technology. what we've been voted using to register some varies christopher jones, you got features on top of your for to rib burger things. chrome dry is much bigger than originally assumed to find new excavations sites. he uses aerial photo grammar tree to carry out 3 d survey. by combining this and chemical soil analysis, he plans to track down undiscovered fossils.

ah, 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 finds will be. to 1000 again. you gather for sale, jam gets a piece of i tooth from a prime. mesa dupree metal. i'm already in the jaw here. she don't like cedar

even before it's taken out of the ground, it's clear that this is an entire joel back. what is that from a home in any it's extraordinary weiss, unix. later off to cancel the 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 answers. lilian,

them to go and their donations are community loans. if you were using your data to create a model of the jaw of the child of comm, dry with its tooth bones don't tell. so 6 hold, you know, it's extraordinary up, sorry, my phone. no. jimmy recess you, i've never seen anything like this in an osteopathic is shawna solution up. they never have these long central or lateral in sizes hollow to on into lozzo. not for thank. i donna, this back stuff. my initial impression, scotland, question or video, because you lost, 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 off your me cool. nice. yeah. i'll give you the men the t 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 so vivid upon the eye you login us with his trunk. i got reminded what's special about the child of crum dry is that it combines modern and primitive characteristics in a way we've never seen before. with such old fossils, you are the god you can see very primitive osteopathic is characteristics in this. i tooth to character. look on critic either got their own 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 see this angela anaki that can cause any issues on my personal financial look. or if it cost us. all right, and the fact that it's a small child gives us some key information, is our center where we don't yet know what constituted a human from

a couple of 1000000 years ago. 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 lavonne. what makes this fine so valuable is its early stage of development. bricker 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 australopithecines, us, and humans. not met nor have ignored libya. and this is where the problem is started with our chrome dry child people 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 2000000 is ships. i'm sudden it's older, but that's not enough. we need proof you for all pusan. 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 god put together a team of geologists to look the indications of which iraq the soil and thus the child's jewel came prom. first, the team has to learn about the composition of the soil in the newly dark area. the almost square site is boarded by line stack. do you think the blocks or whether we have yes,

totally. and then you said it all got completely wet and it had been on i thought, i may say yes, definitely water but it's not circulating 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 stark 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 estimated age. it was 3700000 years old. their home blue cell

headed up the team at the time. he knew this cave labrenz at its history inside out all night and he can go, he can go, they looked him on years left almost all i got here. we have small passages, the math, the creation of the cave to fella you can see the process said she to. so we're below ground water level. so everything is under water. yeah. love to have pump water drip slowly and gradually dissolves bits of carbonate and magnesium. he wants to leave the sand, and anything that dissolves easily is washed out to loser nicki. it's this is how lab renting granados form medical dozens of kilometers long is shown. luther levant or office fill these discoveries from the stock fontaine caves forced the team in crumb dry to think again. the geologists found the same disintegration process in the rocks of both case. so the 2 locations seem to be connected under ground. 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 krom dry to an indication of the origin of human kind. sch

only she knows in the gone stella de settled then he said sell when one oster contains larger holes in the middle. it's about 30 meters long and 20 meters wide and about 30 meters high. that's exactly the same size as calm, dry, eval, memphis one. this is interesting because here we have an unfilled cave. we still have a vault separating us from the surface english. a good 10 meters of rock sharika purpose. so we have to imagine the geological changes are making the roof thinner and at some stage and will open the stones, will fallen soil and also animals that we are finding now was fossil good washer. gradually, a pile of rubble will form called talis, like in an hour glass. to this, i mean actually, the opening is the trap, but over thousands of years catches what used to be on the surface line. it's a time capsule of what was happening outside at the time in the need. let me walk dispossess at least 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. look on the launch here. we have a snapshot of what com drive must have looked like 45 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 layers, 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 cleveland bar on the inside of a buzzard. jom battista 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 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 hominy developed within me. the bowwie fossils suggest open all wooded savannah but that says little about the age of the lions, since today's antelopes are too similar to their ancestors 2000000 years ago. to determine the age, 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, val carefully exposes the sample with a dentist's carter. he has to be very careful not to damage the fossil

which perfectly dauphin army fairly bus route one. i thought it might be a feline predator conjured up after cleaning it. i have the complete gums and saber teeth. of a 2000000 year old feline predator. and 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 austro lapetrkozi and human. but the team has to date it even more precisely. the geologists get to work again. they use a static mite from the former cave to measure the time while alada less telling me, look on lice. 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 and the dice of all the pico, elated for me. stanley mites at 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 taluk might must be between 2 and 2300000 years out. the tanis under the style at night must be older. this proves that the fossils from the thomas below the style might, are also more than 2000000 years out. further indications that the child's jaw comes from the transition period from austro lapetrkozi to human minimal sca knocking off the call,

i say rom dry gives us exactly what we were missing and struck fontaine or you the connecting piece between australopithecines, us and how many instruct fontaine these layers had been mass due to erosion level 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, new restaurant, even if 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 her. do it on milanni told if 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 chrome dry, we have this infant who is showing as what humans were like 2000000 years ago.

could pereta and humor, yamil denny lucille loosened what if he knew from it all fit a bottleneck? he was a 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 a chrome dro child and the tong child an awful look on my hear other come on the good often to the iconic estrella pickers, 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 regard. however, as it helps to differentiate modern day humans from earlier jenner, sir lee, you stroller pacific is child in red, crum dry and blue to be actual. that's what it looks like today. or we might know

procedure profound, popular. quite often. sorry. tell me john. come over cooper, we can get into about half of the jar here. most all super 2 or 8. the tongue child really has no chin. it slanted and with more beacon of my receding chin to al year luby being mother da. com la either chrome dry child has quite a vertical profile. very different than this. here when you do saw not and modesty or the chin does not receive as strongly as the tongue. 1 may remember a luxury, aldo says, this synthesis area is also less broader. so the actual hazeltien and there is the morphology of the tooth, one digit, which differs the light from the australia. pretty good. i feel like you permitted your partner or would we have a series of characteristics here that suggest it is closer to a modern day child? than to an australopithecines sucking plant, he changes everything. it's much more modern than we thought it was because you have rocco sampras, his entities 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

he, lou, now we know that the australia pickers also used tools and walked up right or sick who jesus holipeter the large brain didn't develop until after the 1st humans appeared laid upon his you. luke was open today. 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 fulfilled the b b. or boo apollo. quantify. i'm almost a christian the paleo anthropologists realized that this find will revolutionize their research at chrome 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 toddlers 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 them in underneath 2000000 years ago. we were primarily scavengers, benefiting from others, leftovers. and it was at the same time we were pray that 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 from and change from one avery. to find out more about the 1st humans, the researchers look for new fossils. a comparison of the 3 jones of the osteopathic us, the 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 homogeneous. there is disagreement about whether it is an austro lapetrkozi or descends from one. the 1st branch purpose was discovered in 1938 close to chrome dry. lapointe humor, 80 pony ball hope. so concrete material. the 1st humans and 1st representatives of the genus are very different from one another, but the paratroopers has spectacular facial features. with an overdeveloped mass dig a tory apparatus, though it was vegetarian and specialized in consuming hot plans. contrary to the 1st humans, digital studies suggest that they ate both glance 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 until your did all to promise you regard wants to unravel the origins of human kind. to do this, he would have to compare how human children and parent trip as 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 tomba in july, 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. you saying 3 d, digitization methods. these are actually the fossils whose coordinates have collected using the turtle. satan and red, you have the buffets and in green you have the hominids and in yellow we have convoys. so as we found from our 3 d special analyses 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. archaeology 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 laugh. i take 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. it's very rare, but we are pioneering and opening spaces for us to no our history and disseminated as well. regarding swear. enjoy locates the highest probability of finding prominent fossils . surgical so follow most of the false corporate mol. this is a part of the task completely disintegrated,

or brazil is the muscle div walkie won't, with all to reasons. the ivory goes in all directions. a typical find that tells us absolutely nothing for super boot. demoya feel. the said until it only shows as the inclination angle of the layout intervals angie come over here while the low. i think we have an inside the here that's in the opposite direction to the layer with the parameter bas we go only a troll news. suppose come so we really did it. yes. that's clearly north to south . it fits the hypothesis that we have another entrance as well, and another source of material here we don't, not if you know, you might 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 older, but how old exactly? the excitement groves that's when you push this layer is very risky unless the yellow pods are bones. you don't need to know what they are. you have to take them out even for already, but it's too hard for the tool will need other tools for that. natalie home william, recovering the fossil from the solid ground, takes time. but too much air exposure can damage the bones. to

avoid this large blocks at caught up and taken to the stern, fontaine, lebron train there. the fossils are extracted. the stern fontaine lab belongs to ron clark, the discoverer of little foot. he rarely opens his lab, but brigands find awakens his curiosity. wow. now as this piece corresponds to the right maxine of that specific. so it still needs some preparation. yeah, it certainly does, but wow, this is,

this is already kicking my interest. this doesn't look like a parameter between you me. yeah. and at the moment in the matrix, it will go to that easy to tell, talked about. but if you look at the pre, if you look at the pre mac seller doesn't neglect from yeah. here in the i mean the yeah, you're just you know, for the long comparison and also to 50 two's people can see the roof. the more i look at this, the more i feel is it's one of these to the 1st time now chrome drive, you have to know strong would be the good signal. i'm sure that i'm so pleased for you and on your least i'm pleased for the science because this, this had so much to me knowledge of the way these whole manage were developing. and

the under different species that exist to do any one time. so well down the last fossil brings, the real sensation from dry is the only site in the well, the preserves, the transition from osteopathic us towards parents hoppers and man these other 3 crucial pieces of the puzzle to unravel the origin of humankind, set us on a particular day to propose, dude us, if this australopithecines specimen is very close to the fork in the family tree, also, it may be one of the last before paratroopers separated from humans. and what's so interesting in from dry is that in the lay with the skull, we found both the oldest parentheses and the oldest humans. so it really records

the moment when the transition happened. twice to find in australia, pithy ghost that lived well before the split up boy paratroopers. 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 loom also sibyl c sacramento burger knows he's witnessing and historical moment. one that many of his colleagues will envy him fall or that we lost it. we are touching our ancestors here and their descendants, what we saw no crum dry is the time machine. but burger is missing one essential element. what exactly was the difference between human and parents, repairs children 2000000 years ago? he's convinced that this is the key to understanding how humans came to be finding

another parents from his baby towards the end of the dig seems unlikely. well, from dry reveal its last secret. after all, look, i have the bottom teeth. another row of 10, peter a pro grant, so those and yes, i have the in sizes loo, apollonia for the 1st time. are you coming face to face with a parent or pest baby, or mold a chicago every time i'm here was the coke to find either a human baby or a per anthropic babies. all cinnamon and baby bald hall, poorly beer? no, he fell up again. look on, welcome little parents for persons upon local choice. well on a lot from the child when we compare it to which a human baby,

whose jaw 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 skull ever discovered worldwide. all of them at no cost was mostly self with home hall tele toyota read 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 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. 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 before. yeah, shows it as a general solution. you just feel you do call. we also saw differences in geo chemistry, also sure 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 who ordered a formal order said this is important because the isotope ratio changes during the transition from lactation to solid food intake also need if you're so up always looking back well fed scholars, grierson, tooth analysis showed that the parameter pieces were weaned very early. nothing more was i don't order any sulfur could probably shortly or

a few months after birth liquids, you humans, on the other hand, were waned much later, but not until about age 3. our side is because we've read 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 a group than a child waned early are smoldered about you will be able to multiple develop a correlation between the duration of childhood and social structure can already be observed in great takes 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 gander, migalia of hygiene gorillas are weaned much earlier than chimpanzee elsie longer. ivan wonderful women in the metabolism that focuses on brain development to develop

and cognitive skills. or do you have acre, russell david opinion, capacity coordinates, they learn to walk and climb later early from shore. lucas, with his wife, is also very of what have younger the young chimpanzee clings to its mother's belly and is completely dependent on handle. a fixer, you may have on the home or the community helps to defend the youngest on his entropy. julie, presume there hardly a complete young guerrillas. on the other hand, i could become independent much earlier than chimpanzees, et cetera. wouldn't any pre prager country to what you might think that this shortens their learning period to earn. it isn't useful. busy porsha in watching you see chimpanzees starting to use tools during a longer learning phase. this takes time in the sport,

if the big one restaurant was actually cause i'd say when i watched him pansies, i feel very close to them why each went back to the like part of my family. so i could go to and if you imagine the 1st humans how they lived together, when i said it was like this evil, also some day, probably more like lag on. the big difference with humans is that the chimpanzees to was remain the same to this day. one get home, they pass on the knowledge to the next generation. i say probably more, but there was no progress, no further development of the totally mankey from camila. and that's probably the difference which human mistakes uni our culture grew steadily. yes, we picked up did our tools bit identity during a history warning. asher, so primitive humans childhood was much longer than that of the parent therapists.

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. mister holmes of home on pines, upon qu sylis leather, she did you make a deliberate prom dry? is the proof that humans strategy was the better one or 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 failed to put, the human reproductive strategy means giving birth to offspring. their need

a lot of energy and attention to develop their brains. is strategy prevails. yeah, that's what it allowed us species to populate the entire planet academy as descendants of a species that i am convinced from already lived as we do. the other specialist is high g v, at least as far as the relationship with their children was concerned. alt girls equal sound, a little oper via doleful, where god 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. what making the headlines and what's behind them. dw news africa, the show that pulls the issues shape in the continent. life is slowly getting back to normally where on the streets to give you enough reports on the inside of our

cars, funding was on the ground reporting from across the continent, all the friends stuff, mazda to you in 30 minutes on d, w. o. o christian with question about life, the universe and everything to he knew the answer. well then give it here for the to the answer to almost everything. our documentary series with lever raising and ground breaking on his chance. can we go into the afterlife? are we getting dumber and dumber? how can we feed every one?

questions for the present a future emp heads filled with ideas? so get really for the brain update. 40 to the answer to almost everything starts january 15th on dw. ah, this is dw news live from berlin, air raid sirens, sound and key after a barrage of explosions kits, the ukrainian capital on the battlefield. russia claims to have taken control of a key town in the east ukraine, however, denies that. so the door has fallen.