All language subtitles for Human.2025.S01E03.x265.1080p.Last.Humans.Standing.REPACK-Slartibartfast

LABOURED BREATHING
CRY OF PAIN

GRUNTING

GROANING

BABY CRIES

Around 30,000 years ago,
a child was born into a new and lonely world.

They were the first child to be born onto
a planet in which we were quite alone.

This was the first time in history that
only one species of human walked this Earth.

All the others were now gone.

And in a tale written by the sole survivors,
it's actually quite easy to forget

that we weren't destined
to be the only ones.

And yet here we are.

How this happened is one of the most
poignant chapters in the human story.

And it's one that's etched into the DNA
of every single one of us alive today.

For hundreds of thousands of years,
Homo sapiens evolved in Africa.

60,000 years ago,
one group dispersed into the Middle East...

and continued onwards
as far as Australia.

But our ancestors
didn't stop there.

Another group began to make
their way north into Europe...

where their story continues.

For thousands of years,
Europe had been out of reach to Homo sapiens...

repelled by its icy climate.

But now a shift in conditions opened
up a route into this new realm.

And some of our ancestors
left the familiar behind...

and stepped into the unknown.

We don't really
know why they came.

Was it a romantic notion,
like pure curiosity?

Or was it something much more practical?
Say, the need for food.

Or perhaps it was the same forces
that drive migrants today -

that need for
shelter and safety.

We don't know the
exact routes they took,

but by following rivers, coasts,
or wandering across mountain ranges

like these, they found their
way into this new world.

But not long after these
migrants reached Europe...

they would have encountered
something unexpected.

When they got here,

they would have discovered that
another species had beat them to it.

Two other human species
were widespread at the time.

To the east, from Siberia to Southeast
Asia, lived the mysterious Denisovans,

known only to us from DNA preserved
in a few fossil fragments.

Across lands to the west,
all the way from Russia

to the Atlantic coast of
Europe, were the Neanderthals.

Homo sapiens were
latecomers to Europe.

It had been home to the Neanderthals for
almost 400,000 years before we showed up.

Now these Homo sapiens venturing into
Europe would have met another sort of human.

People who looked a lot like us,
but with obvious differences.

We can only imagine what our
ancestors would have made of them...

when our two cultures -
perhaps just two families...

encountered each other
for the first time.

Neanderthals were close
relatives of Homo sapiens,

but we had evolved along separate
branches of the human family tree.

There's often this belief that
we evolved from Neanderthals,

so we came from Neanderthals.

Actually, that's incorrect.

We shared a common
ancestor with them.

And then,
due to chance and the environment,

we went on these two really
different evolutionary journeys.

So, we evolved - Homo
sapiens - for Africa.

We ended up
taller and leaner.

Now, the Neanderthals evolved for much
cooler, more wooded environments.

So they were shorter - on
average, they were about 5'5 -

they had bigger torsos,
but shorter limbs.

They used a lot
of brute force...

because they were
close-range hunters.

The Neanderthals were masters
of their environment -

they had evolved here for
hundreds of thousands of years -

whereas we turn up and we're immigrants,
we are ill-equipped and unprepared.

If you were going to place a bet
on who would be left standing,

you'd probably bet on the obvious
choice - and it wouldn't be us.

The Neanderthals had found a way
to thrive here for millennia.

Yet in the 19th century, when the first
Neanderthal fossils were unearthed...

we quickly made
assumptions...

that have persisted
ever since.

As a result,
Neanderthals haven't had the best PR.

If somebody calls you a Neanderthal,
it's probably not a compliment.

And that stereotype of Neanderthals has
been with us since the very beginning.

And it kind of suited us to
see ourselves as the pinnacle

of evolution, and them as
these knuckle-dragging ape men.

But partly, that stereotype is
actually just a mistake of science.

Palaeoanthropology at the
time was quite a new science,

and when they came to reconstruct
this one Neanderthal called.

La Chapelle-aux-Saints,
they portrayed it as kind of really

hunched over and knuckle-dragging,
which was just wrong.

This kind of brutish,
hairy Neanderthal,

looking like it's about to attack,
it's incredibly aggressive.

And then Hollywood pick
up this stereotype.

Some of these images
are so ridiculous.

Very monkey-like
Neanderthals.

That impression of
Neanderthals just solidifies.

I personally love
Neanderthals,

and the more we learn about
them, the more we study them,

the more we
discover about them,

the more we realise that this is
actually incredibly incorrect.

This now outdated image of the simple
brutish caveman is finally being replaced...

with a picture of a once
vibrant, thriving culture.

There may be no Neanderthals
left to tell their story...

but thanks to the
traces they left behind,

we can begin to imagine people
who aren't so different from us.

We keep finding things at Neanderthal
sites that really challenge us.

Things like beaded shells
with pigmentation on them,

almost like they're
being used as necklaces.

Eagle talons that have
been polished down.

And then there's my actual favourite,
which is evidence of feathers.

But not just any feathers.

No, the Neanderthals
seem to be really

interested in iridescent feathers
from things like red kites.

And you've got to wonder, why were they
so interested in those particular colours?

And it's presumably
because they're high value.

They're beautiful.

You kind of have an impression of
them as having these incredible

headdresses or maybe cloaks made of
these brilliant, bright feathers.

When you put this all together,
you paint a picture of a Neanderthal, not as this

aggressive creature standing
behind a rock with a massive club,

but actually as these beings very
interested in adorning themselves.

Interested in looking beautiful with
necklaces and gorgeous coloured headdresses.

Suddenly you're looking at beings who
aren't just interested in food and shelter -

they're interested in the way
they are seen by the world.

This - all this - makes
them tangibly human.

For generations, Homo sapiens and
Neanderthals lived near one another.

But how close were we?

For decades, most assumed interbreeding
between our two species didn't happen.

But in the early 2000s,
this was called into question...

with the chance discovery
of fossil fragments...

which revealed humans with a
mysterious mix of features.

It even smells like a fossil.

This, I assume, is Oase 1.

This one is Oase 1.

And that's Oase 2.
Skull. That's Oase 2.

This is quite special
because I've read about them.

I've studied them.

They're hugely significant fossils,
but I've never seen the originals.

I've never been this close to them.
It's... We excavated for two years.

We unearthed, like,
more than 10,000 fossil remains,

mostly cave bear,
but also Oase 2.

And it looks and it is
modern Homo sapiens. Yeah.

But it has some features which
are more like Neanderthal.

Yeah. Like this one.
It's quite clear.

It's a mandible of a modern
human with this chin.

Cos there's a chin.
Yeah, a chin.

Yeah. And Neanderthals
don't have a chin.

Neanderthals' chin
kind of recedes.

But then you see the size
of the molars... Yeah.

Which are really huge.
More a Neanderthal feature.

Modern sapiens,
but with Neanderthal teeth.

Yeah, Oase 2 has the same
hybrid features. Mm-mm.

Like if you look at the face.

You look at that and you do
think that's Homo sapiens.

And then it has these features on
it, which are more Neanderthal.

Like this occipital bun here at the back,
that bulge at the back of the skull here.

Yeah, that's kind of strange.

It's not a Neanderthal,
but it has Neanderthal features,

which prompt us to think about
some sort of interbreeding.

Neanderthal,
Homo sapiens interbreeding.

It was pretty controversial.

People thought it either didn't happen,
because we were too genetically distinct.

People were just not
ready to accept that.

Interbreeding is not
something uncommon in biology.

It happens with
other species.

At that time,
it was somehow taboo.

Around a decade later came a
revolutionary breakthrough.

Advances in genetic analysis
allowed scientists to extract

DNA from ancient fossils...

proving these two species could
- and did - produce offspring.

How did it feel to be proven
right, to be vindicated,

especially over something
so controversial?

We felt relieved. Yeah.

Like, OK.

Now you know.

Yeah,
we were happy to be right.

Yeah.

How many generations ago was
the Neanderthal ancestor?

We now know that
this individual had

a Neanderthal ancestor somewhere
back four to six generations.

One of the great-great-grandparents,
potentially, was a Neanderthal.

Something like that.

You know, people spend their
whole lives - their WHOLE lives -

trying to find a fossil as
significant as this, and...

Wow, it's just amazing.

Since the discovery of Oase 1,
evidence has continued to grow,

proving hybrids like this
were not just possible,

but may have been
relatively common.

We'll never know the full story
of Oase 1 and the other hybrids,

and to be honest,
we'll never know the full circumstances

under which they
were conceived.

For all we know, it could have been
nonconsensual, or it could have

been the result of a
romantic notion like love,

or it might have been the
result of a practical decision

like as part of a
trade agreement.

But whatever it was, what must it have
been like to have been a hybrid child,

to have had a parent or grandparent
or great-great-grandparent,

not just from a different race,
but a completely different species?

Did these children feel like they belonged,
or were they teased and ostracised?

We'll never know,
but what we do know,

because I held Oase 1 in my
hands, is that they existed.

And so somebody loved them,
and somebody was raising them to adulthood.

And so we tangibly know
that the Neanderthals

and the Homo sapiens,
they didn't just meet - they joined.

We now know that,
for a time at least, Homo sapiens

and Neanderthals managed to
live alongside one another.

But a global change would push both
species to the limits of survival.

It's likely Homo sapiens arrived
here during a brief thaw.

And by doing so,
they had walked into a trap.

Europe was plunged
into winter.

Unrecognisable to us today,
it became a barren and hostile world.

Rainfall in some areas fell
to half its modern level.

And much of the
continent became tundra.

A vast, inhospitable plain.

All of a sudden, Homo sapiens were
confronted by a completely different world.

Frozen, relentless,
and utterly unexpected.

There's no way for
them to have known it,

but before the first
Homo sapiens arrived,

most of Europe would have
been in the depths of winter.

Ice sheets like this one would have spread
from here all the way down to Britain.

Homo sapiens
evolved in Africa,

so these conditions would have
been completely shocking to them.

It's currently
minus eight degrees.

I am wearing so many layers,
it's actually ridiculous.

And yet,
I am still completely miserable.

It is so cold,
I can't feel parts of my face.

These families, they were here and they
were trying to keep young children alive.

These conditions would
have been life-threatening.

But while Homo sapiens weren't
adapted for the cold...

Neanderthals had evolved to survive
brutal winters for almost 400,000 years.

They knew where to shelter
and hunt for scarce food.

But survival was also
in their biology.

It's thought they evolved to store
more brown fat than Homo sapiens.

This burns more calories and generates
heat, conserving energy in the cold.

And larger nasal passages
acted like natural radiators...

warming and moistening the icy
air before it reached their lungs.

When the going got tough,
Neanderthals were built to endure.

Without the Neanderthals'
adaptations or knowledge,

these early European Homo
sapiens would have been doing

everything they could
just to cling on.

And yet the bitter cold
was just the beginning.

This glacier is the remnant of
an ice sheet that's incrementally

grown and shrunk
for millennia.

Deep within are clues about the world our
ancestors would have found themselves in.

We're working in mountain
glaciers like Folgefonna

because we can use the evidence
of how the glaciers have changed

in the past to understand how they
behaved in response to climate change.

Many of the places we live in
now, where I live in Bergen,

would have been underneath
a kilometre of ice. Yeah.

I mean, there were times when
Britain was part of that.

The ice sheet came as far
south as about Birmingham.

Birmingham, my own hometown.
There we go!

So, this is where we're
drilling the ice core. Yeah.

So, it's manual drilling?
Yes, exactly.

And there's blades at the bottom
that are cutting through the ice.

How tough is that?
It can be quite hard work. Yeah.

And then we lift it out,
and we bring it over here.

We can see... Look at that.

If we hold it up to the light,
we can see the air bubbles.

So basically, this is
effectively a time capsule. Yes.

And this is young ice
from Folgefonna glacier.

But if this was from Greenland
and it was deep, old ice core,

those air bubbles would tell us about
what the atmosphere was like in the past.

We can look at what we see from
the ice cores in Greenland.

And this shows us
how the climate

changed through that period in
the North Atlantic region. Yeah.

There was a relatively cold but stable
climate from 70,000 to 60,000 years ago.

And then between 60,000
and 30,000 years ago,

the climate in this region jumped
by eight to ten degrees warmer over

maybe one or two decades.
That's quite a lot.

It's huge. It's huge.

And that cycle is repeated
all through that period.

And then it cooled
again and then jumped.

And this carried on.

And we see then a cold,
but slightly more stable,

climate before we then
warm into the present day.

I mean, how do you exist

if the climate changes like
that in such an extreme fashion?

Well, it's very challenging.

It's maybe not even possible
because everything you know

about how to live,
how to raise children,

becomes in 10-20 years... Yeah.
Obsolete... totally changes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Totally changes.

Entire ecosystems collapsed.

Forests became barren plains.

Lakes dried up.

And rivers froze over.

The real enemy wasn't cold.

It was chaos.

As landscapes shifted,
herds of animals disappeared.

And sources of
food grew scarce.

People were driven into
unfamiliar territories

and forced to compete
for what little remained.

It was a brutal
time to be alive.

Imagine what it would be like
for our ancestors to live in this

world where the land of their grandparents
was not the land of their grandchildren.

And when that happens,
intergenerational knowledge -

knowledge that's passed on from
one generation to the next,

that's so important for
survival in these environments -

suddenly that knowledge
isn't actually very useful

because the plants, the animals,
the landscape, it's all different.

To survive, each generation had
to discover the world anew...

roaming further in search of dwindling
resources that might not be there.

Homo sapiens and Neanderthals
would have been forced to find

shelter wherever
they were able to...

seeking refuge in the few
habitable places they could find.

55,000 years ago, the south of France
was still in the thick of the Ice Age.

Yet, compared to the deep
freeze of the north, it was

one of the more bearable places
in an otherwise hostile landscape.

And here at Grotte Mandrin...

archaeologists have spent over three
decades unearthing its secrets...

layer by layer...

revealing a place that was home to
Neanderthals for more than 80,000 years.

Shoes off. Yes. There we go.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

So, what you're seeing here is phases
of occupation over 80,000 years. Yeah.

And because you've got incredible
resolution, you can really hone in on that.

Each layer has preserved
a moment in time.

And from the treasures
buried within,

it's possible to piece together
different chapters of history.

For millennia,
this cave was home to Neanderthals.

But one layer stood out,
containing finely crafted tools.

Small and precise.

Techniques that suggested they were made
not by Neanderthals, but by Homo sapiens.

A suspicion confirmed when the
Earth revealed another treasure.

That then is conclusive evidence
that that layer with those

strange, unusual stone tools is
definitely a Homo sapien layer?

Yes.

These discoveries tell us a story
of one group of Homo sapiens.

Among the first to
come to Europe...

they had ventured into
Neanderthal territory...

seeking refuge in this cave
in the depths of the Ice Age.

When we imagine the past,
we often don't imagine children.

We imagine, well, a man,
a caveman, right? Yeah.

But, actually,
these were cave children. Yeah.

And you imagine what they were
doing, were they playing?

They were playing.

But imagine to have been
born, the first of your people

to turn up there -
and we don't know,

they might have been born
somewhere else - but... Yeah.

It's fascinating.

Wow.

Using advanced dating techniques,
a team were able to uncover

even more precise details about
the people who lived here.

So people were building fires...
Yeah.

The fire created soot that would
end up on the roof. Exactly.

And then bits of the
roof would collapse

and end up in your
archaeological layers? Yes.

It's literally telling you when
they're using this place. Exactly.

By counting the microscopic layers of
soot deposited on the cave ceiling,

the team could tell how
often these people came here.

But what happened to them?

This exceptional site tells the
story of a group of Homo sapiens

pioneers who lived here in
between tens of thousands

of years of
Neanderthal occupation.

But then all traces
of them vanished.

It's one small but very important
chapter in our bigger story.

We don't know what happened to that
particular group of Homo sapiens

from Grotte Mandrin,
but it's likely that their story

reflects what was unfolding
across the continent.

This wave of Homo sapiens was lured
into Europe during a warmer spell.

They were pioneers for sure,
but they were trying to

survive in a brand-new
environment as best as they could,

as best as they knew how, really,
finding temporary places to shelter

before in the blink of an eye moving on - or
worse, dying out completely.

Because that band of Homo
sapiens from Grotte Mandrin

would be the last of our species found
on this continent for thousands of years.

Perhaps unprepared for the
harsh environment they faced,

this early wave of Homo sapiens
in Europe did not survive.

Once again,
and for the next 9,000 years,

it became exclusively
Neanderthal territory.

Neanderthals had survived while
Homo sapiens died out in Europe.

Yet today,
we're the only ones left.

How did our stories
end so differently?

Part of the answer can be found deep
within the forests of northern Spain...

where evidence hints that
the grip of the Ice Age was

taking its toll on
the Neanderthals.

A struggle uncovered in a cave
known as the Tunnel of Bones.

Oh, wow.

So this is the famous El Sidron Cave.
It is, yes.

It's got more character than I was
expecting, actually. Yes.

And how did you find them?

Wow.

Such a diverse group in
terms of individuals...

all found in one spot.

And, you know, when you say that
one of those people had red hair,

it suddenly brings what are just
fossils, really, to life.

It's a cave that's
filled with ghosts.

This was not a natural death.

Cracked skulls and precise
cuts on the bones...

suggest that this was
a brutal massacre.

13 people killed by
another Neanderthal group.

But closer analysis
of their remains...

revealed an even
darker truth.

So what do the bones
actually tell us?

They were really eating these 13 individuals?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So how do we know that this
was cannibalism as opposed to

just straight up murder - or,
for that matter, an animal coming?

So you're looking
for something sharp?

And now, you have a...
Yeah, that's it, let's see.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So, they're focusing on
the areas where there's muscle,

where there's meat, effectively.
That's it.

Yeah. Oh!

Yeah, if you're getting bone marrow...
That's it, yes.

That is an indication of
cannibalism, for sure.

Yes, it is, sure. Yeah.

This murder/cannibalism of
13 members of a family group

isn't the only dark thing
that's happening here.

That's unusual,
that's a congenital anomaly.

So, basically,
you've got an inbred population.

It's painting a
picture, isn't it?

Of those...
those final thousands... Yes.

Thousands of years before they
eventually became extinct.

Yeah, it's a silent killer.
You're right.

The El Sidron bones hint at more
than the suffering of one family.

Because this pattern of
starvation, cannibalism

and violence was
happening across Europe...

this was a species
in free fall.

This is a haunting place.

It's not exactly Neanderthals
in their heyday, is it?

If anything, it's kind of
like the end of days for them.

They've been driven into this evolutionary
cul-de-sac, reduced to eating each other

and having children
with their relatives.

And that inbreeding would have made
them more susceptible to disease.

If, on the evolutionary
timescale,

12:00 midnight represents extinction for
the Neanderthals, this site is past 11:30.

This once resilient
species...

was now reduced to just
a few isolated groups...

turning on one another.

But any chance Neanderthals may
have had of weathering this storm...

was shattered by the
return of another species.

Homo sapiens.

9,000 years after Homo sapiens
had disappeared from Europe,

waves of settlers returned.

A new generation...

who, even though the climate
was as volatile as ever...

were undeterred.

These were survivors,
and they were here to stay.

Some archaeological finds,

their significance is immediately
obvious, but others you don't

necessarily know what you're
looking at until you suddenly do.

And this is a really
good example of this.

This might not seem like a lot,
but actually it represents a massive step forward.

So what you're looking at here is the
imprint, in clay, of weaving.

Now we don't know if
it was intentional -

it might have just been that there
was some material on the floor

and somebody just happened
to throw down some clay,

but they actually think that this
may have been made with nettle.

And you're probably thinking,
Well, nettle, really?

Well, that is probably a
by-product of the modern world

and all the fabrics that we use,
but actually this here is made of

nettle, and this is the woven fabric
that they were able to make from it.

If you can make this,
you can suddenly make better clothing...

and you're able to protect yourself
so much more from the cold.

Maybe those young children in a
cold spell might have survived

a bit better if their
clothing fitted better.

But you can't just think about
weaving as being about clothing,

because if you can weave, suddenly your
nets, your traps, are better.

You're able to get more food.

You're potentially able
to make better shelter.

Whenever we talk about
Palaeolithic technology,

you're probably thinking
about spears or stone tools.

It's always weaponry, right?

Well, actually, this stuff might have
really given them the edge, as well.

It's likely the ability to
make better clothing increased

infant survival,
even in the harshest months.

Each advance, however
small, added up...

giving Homo sapiens the one
thing Neanderthals lacked...

strength in numbers.

The Neanderthals had existed
for over 400,000 years...

developing a rich culture...

and withstanding brutal
conditions for millennia.

But the relentless climate,
dwindling resources...

and another species growing in
strength pushed them to the brink.

But what delivered
the final blow?

How does an entire human species
disappear from the face of the Earth?

Part of the answer may lie
in the smallest of things...

the genes we exchanged in the
form of our hybrid children.

I'm going to try and do a
demo to explain genetics.

So let's see how this goes.

Let's say that these are the Neanderthals,
and these are the Homo sapiens,

and they interbreed.

We don't know where the
hybrid children ended up.

Did they end up with
the Neanderthals,

or did they end up with the Homo sapiens?
So, let's just say, they went back 50-50.

And we see a little Homo sapiens
DNA in the Neanderthal group...

and a little Neanderthal DNA
in the Homo sapiens group.

The Neanderthals lived in
small, isolated populations,

but the Homo sapiens were probably a little
bit better at keeping their kids alive.

And also, importantly,
they were constantly replenishing

from source populations in the Middle
East, Africa, and elsewhere.

Numbers made all
the difference.

As more Homo sapiens migrated into Europe,
Neanderthals were already declining.

So, when the two interbred,
the impact on Neanderthals was far greater.

If you're a huge population,
that interbreeding doesn't have

the same impact as it does on the
much smaller Neanderthal population.

It's already a
little bit interbred.

Perhaps they were simply absorbed
into the larger Homo sapiens

population that just
kept on replenishing.

Over time,
Neanderthal DNA became increasingly

diluted by the much larger
Homo sapiens population.

So, it doesn't actually need to
be this big act of aggression.

It might just be the fact that we were
there, that we were interbreeding with them,

and that we had large
population sizes.

Perhaps that was enough to push
the Neanderthals to extinction.

It was a perfect storm
for Neanderthals.

By around 40,000 years ago,
their gene pool was diminishing...

until only a handful of distinct
Neanderthal populations remained...

hanging on in just a
few isolated enclaves.

We don't know where the last
Neanderthal outpost was.

It was likely a very remote
part of Europe or Asia.

But around 40,000 years
ago, that place probably

acted as a refuge to the
very, very last of their kind.

Archaeologists have pieced together
what may be among the final

moments of Neanderthal
extinction.

Uncovering remains of what could be
the last surviving Neanderthal groups.

Some of that evidence has been discovered
in coastal caves in southern Spain.

We don't know what truly
happened in those final moments,

or who was left at the end.

But there was an ending.

Because after that, our sister species,
who had existed for around 400,000 years...

vanishes from the archaeological
record completely.

It feels like a
moment of loss.

We lost something.

But also...

it's part of the human story.

It's our story.

These were our ancestors.

On the one hand, it's hard not to
be impressed with Homo sapiens.

And if we hadn't have been so
successful, if we hadn't have had

this hunger to innovate, to explore,
would you and I even be here?

And yet, those same things
that make us so remarkable

seem to be damning
to those around us.

This is where this
chain of events ends.

A slow, unwitting war of attrition
against our sister species...

until they simply faded away.

But this wasn't
the only ending.

After the last Neanderthals,
the Denisovans -

the species who once
spanned much of Asia -

may have survived for
another 10,000 years...

until they, too,
were overwhelmed by Homo sapiens.

This story starts with three
species, but it ends with one.

And it's part of a wider pattern
that always goes the same way -

the survival of our species leading
to the demise of everyone else.

Today, these events
have faded from memory.

But it's not quite
the end of the story.

Because we carry a piece
of this history within us.

One of the most striking
revelations over the last few years

is that everybody from outside of Sub-Saharan
Africa has about 2% Neanderthal DNA.

And that DNA is associated with
negative things like Crohn's disease,

but it's also associated
with all kinds of positives,

like being better
adapted to the cold.

And now we know that Denisovan DNA has
been found in Homo sapiens populations.

It's as high as 6%
in the Philippines.

And it's associated with things like being
able to survive better at high altitude.

And if you think about it,
it actually makes perfect sense.

Because when we were leaving
Africa, the Neanderthals

and the Denisovans had already
spent hundreds of thousands of years

adapting and evolving to their
local environments and pathogens.

And so what we were doing by interbreeding
with them was effectively a quick fix.

We were adopting adaptations that
would ultimately aid our survival.

Depending on where you're
from, you'll probably find

traces of Neanderthal or
Denisovan DNA within you...

a genetic echo of the human story connecting
us to this long line of distant ghosts.

2% might not sound like a lot,
but my 2% is different from your 2%.

And collectively,
all of that Neanderthal DNA

that exists within
humans living today

would make up about two-thirds
of the Neanderthal genome.

And so in a very real
sense, Neanderthals

and Denisovans have been
assimilated into our bodies.

And it's just the loveliest
thought, isn't it?

That they live on
and exist within us.

Our planet was once home
to many human species.

Bit by bit, they've all
disappeared, leaving only one...

the inheritors of their DNA.

As the Ice Age reaches
greater extremes,

we step into an
unexplored continent...

where new dangers
lie in wait...

starvation threatens...

and humans have to
fight to survive.