All language subtitles for Human.2025.S01E03.Last.Humans.Standing.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB

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.