All language subtitles for Neanderthal.Apocalypse.Part.2.ALTERNATiVE.CUT.720p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta

They roamed the planet for longer
than modern man...

Neanderthals.

Neanderthals were superb survivors.

They survived
in a treacherous world.

They really dominated
ice-age Europe.

Fearless hunters
who possessed superior strength

and surprisingly advanced tools.

It's perhaps one of the most
efficient technologies

we've ever seen
in the entire Stone Age.

But then suddenly they vanished
and no one knows why.

It's still
one of the most wondrous mysteries.

Was it a clash with modern humans?

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This may be the best case
of a Neanderthal murder victim.

Around the globe
scientists are searching for answers.

This is a modern human
with Neanderthal features.

And they find clues
in unlikely places...

..an ancient volcano site
in southern Italy...

The ground at the moment is rising.

..in the Greenland ice sheet,

far from the grounds
where Neanderthals once settled...

There's a cluster in here...
thin layers.

Mounting evidence
reveals a surprising new theory.

It was not war with modern man
that killed off the Neanderthals.

It was an apocalypse...
That's the ash. That is the ash.

..that might have sealed the fate
of our closest human relatives.

And what happened to them
could easily happen to us.

New archaeological evidence

has upended our vision
of the Neanderthal

as a brutish, unintelligent,
cave dweller.

We're just getting a little glimpse

of the sophistication
that Neanderthals probably had.

Neanderthals, it seems,
were very much like us.

And in one of the world's most remote
and inaccessible fossil sites

archaeologists
have unearthed evidence

of a far greater connection
between our species.

In the Carpathian Mountains
of Romania

a team of archaeologists
is preparing to return

to the site
of a landmark discovery,

a location that proves
modern humans and Neanderthals

once coexisted together peacefully.

The exact location has been withheld

to protect the site
from fossil hunters.

Here in 2002
cavers stumbled on a human jawbone.

This led to a three-year excavation

conducted by a group
of archaeologists

trained in cave exploration.

It's absolutely pristine.

You can study a site

which was completely
new, undisturbed,

which is very, very rare

in the life of a scientist.

The scientists uncovered evidence
that modern humans and Neanderthals

may have inhabited the cave
at the same time.

The team retraces their steps

down dark passageways
and through an underwater river.

As they venture deeper
into the mountain,

the cave walls narrow
and the water rises.

There is no other way in the cave

except this cold, wet place

and very dangerous too.

In the murky waters
they feel their way blindly forward,

drawing on past experience
to guide the way to the other side.

Once through,
they enter a large cavern

with passages to smaller chambers.

The team surveys the area.

Then they head deeper still

towards the chamber that yielded
their greatest discoveries.

But the route is blocked
by high waters

that have flooded the cavern below.

You are in a narrow passage,
absolutely alone.

If you are stuck there somewhere,
there is no way to escape.

(Man calls out and grunts)

So if something happens
you are dead.

Safety concerns force the scientists
to cut this expedition short.

But a decade ago, the team made it
through the precarious passageway

into a remote chamber.

This revealing footage
is from an expedition in 2003,

a mission that paid off.

The team enters a chamber
deep inside the cave

called "the Gallery of Bones".

The floor is covered
with animal bones -

the remnants of bear
and other large mammals

prized by prehistoric hunters.

And I've already taken out
several encased with sediment here.

But scattered among them
are human remains,

mostly small fragments
of fossilised bones,

dating back 40,000 years.

It was absolutely crazy.

We were... I was so excited
about everything around me.

The bones
in good state of preservation...

It's absolutely astonishing
what is in that cave.

On this dig, in a dark corner,
a team member notices something.

That... That looks like
human over there under that.

A fragment of a skull...

It will become part
of a larger landmark discovery.

The skull was really
something shocking,

very special for the history
of humankind.

Now housed at the Institute
of Speleology in Bucharest,

the treasure
is kept under lock and key,

closely monitored by palaeontologist
Silviu Constantin.

When you look at this skull
as a whole,

this is a modern human
with Neanderthal features.

It's that sort of discovery
which happens once in a lifetime.

This skull was recomposed
from 40 pieces.

It took Constantin and his team
three years to reconstruct the skull

and determine the exact features.

It has a long face, which is not
encountered in modern humans.

The teeth are different too.

The size of them is too large

for a modern sapiens.

It is much closer size
of the teeth of a Neanderthal.

And then,
the most telling feature of all...

When you look at the back

you'll find you have
this occipital bar.

This protrusion
shields the occipital lobe,

where visual information
is processed,

the one area where Neanderthal's
brain is larger than our own.

It's not typical for sapiens
but it's typical for Neanderthals.

This may be the missing link,

the link between sapiens
and the Neanderthal.

For Constantin, the possibilities
are tantalising.

Imagine modern humans
having love affairs

with their Neanderthal neighbours.

From this ancient skull
a new image emerges,

that of modern humans and Neanderthal
interbreeding.

It is the catalyst
for ground-breaking discoveries

about the mysteries
of our own origins

and who we are today.

In a Romanian cave scientists unearth
a mysterious skull,

a modern human bearing
distinct traits of Neanderthal.

This raises the question...

Are we somehow related
to Neanderthal?

What are our relationships?

How do we fit in

with the Neanderthals?

To me, it's still one of
the most wondrous mysteries

that we have about our origins,
where we came from.

At the University of Washington

scientists are searching for traces
of Neanderthal in our own DNA.

DNA is this wonderful,
incredible informational molecule.

It's almost like reading a book

where stories of our past
have been written in it.

And the challenge right now

is sometimes interpreting the words
in that book.

Coiled up in our cells,

long strands of DNA molecules
determine and control our traits.

A cell's complete set of DNA
is our genome.

The genome specifies the development
of the body plan,

of the physiology of the organism.

It's what makes humans human

and Neanderthals Neanderthal.

In 2010

scientists mapped
the Neanderthal genome.

And when they compared it
to the genome of modern man

they made a surprising discovery.

Essentially,
everybody outside of Africa

had Neanderthal ancestry.

That number varies a little bit
by population

but probably, per individual,

it's between 1.9 and 2.1 per cent
of the genome.

Within our own cells

the Neanderthals still live on.

We inherited those sequences
directly from hybridisation

and not because of
just shared ancestry

that dates back
to half a million years ago.

The hybridisation or inter-breeding
may date back to 60,000 years ago,

when modern humans
first encountered Neanderthals.

The descendants
of the hybrid offspring spread,

eventually inhabiting
much of the globe,

but like Neanderthals themselves,
never settled in Africa.

It was essentially zero per cent
Neanderthal ancestry within Africa.

Akey and his team
have systematically searched

for parts of our DNA
that we inherited from Neanderthals.

In 2014

they compared DNA
recovered from Neanderthal bones

to the genome
of more than 700 living people.

What's interesting is that
the two per cent of my genome

that I've inherited
from Neanderthals

might be different than the
two per cent that you've inherited.

Adding up the different Neanderthal
genes carried by people today

reveals that much of Neanderthal's
genetic legacy lives on.

Collectively, about 30 per cent
of the Neanderthal genome

can still be found
in individuals today.

But where does our Neanderthal
heritage truly show?

We found about 10 places
in the genome

where we inherited
a beneficial Neanderthal sequence.

And quite strikingly,

many of these regions contain genes
important to hair and skin biology.

One example is a gene
known to influence skin pigmentation.

Among people of European descent,

fair skin is a trait possibly
inherited from the Neanderthal.

So European individuals
at this place in the genome

are more Neanderthal
than they are modern humans.

Straight hair may be another
Neanderthal trait we inherited.

It's clear that something about
hair or skin biology of Neanderthals

was beneficial to our ancestors.

Maybe it helped our ancestors

survive in these
more cold-adapted climates.

But not all traits
passed down from Neanderthal

are necessarily beneficial today.

Some studies suggest that
Neanderthal sequences in Europeans

play an important role in genes
that influence fat biology.

Today, this ancient trait may be
contributing to an obesity epidemic.

But in their ice-age world

this adaptation enabled Neanderthals
to build up fat reserves,

advancing their survival

and perhaps
that of our ancestors as well.

As we spread
into these new environments,

hybridising with Neanderthals

allowed us to pick up
versions of genes and sequences

that were already sort of adapted
to that local environment.

And it was a way for our ancestors

to quickly adapt to these very
different environmental conditions.

But this only adds to the mystery
of Neanderthal's disappearance.

If their genetic adaptations
helped us survive,

why did the Neanderthal perish?

Climatic causes,
population causes...

There could be disease causes.

There could be differences
in the way that you use resources

as a cause.

It really is a mystery
why their disappearance

took the process that it did.

They had a long run
and then they were just gone.

One clue may lie with where modern
humans and Neanderthals lived.

40,000 years ago

modern humans inhabited Africa,
Asia, Europe, even Australia.

Their population had grown
to a few hundred thousand.

Neanderthals never numbered
more than 100,000.

Confined to areas in Europe and Asia,

they were more vulnerable
to regional events.

The Neanderthals succeeded
in that environment.

They evolved
their special adaptations to cold

and they were successful
over time there.

But at the same time
that was a challenging environment.

Is it possible
the environment grew too severe,

too harsh
for even the Neanderthal to bear?

This volcanic lake
near Daun in Germany

contains sediment dating to when
Neanderthals inhabited the region...

a pristine record of the environment
going back over 100,000 years.

Here, paleo-climatologists
from the University of Mainz

bore hundreds of feet
below the surface

to extract sediment core samples.

Each layer,
only a fraction of an inch thick,

is a yearly record of climate
and environment, captured in mud.

TRANSLATION: What is unique
about these core samples

is the fact that there is no oxygen
at the bottom of the lake.

So sediments are undisturbed.

We are able to analyse
layer after layer

and can reconstruct
the climate of a single year.

Three feet of sediment represents
a 1000-year climate record.

Dark layers contain traces
of decayed plant life,

a sign of times
when forests covered the area.

Lighter layers mark colder periods,

when the land became
a barren, frozen expanse.

TRANSLATION:
We see here rapid climate changes...

Warm, then cold.
It changes within 10 years.

The Neanderthal here
lived in a world with open forests

and then it's open steppe.

40,000 years ago

the Neanderthals' world
is rapidly disappearing

as their traditional hunting grounds
turn to hardened permafrost.

And the worst is yet to come.

40,000 years ago

centuries of drastic climate change
have ravaged much of Europe,

turning Neanderthal hunting grounds
into barren fields of icy earth.

To the north, countless Neanderthals
perish from exposure and starvation.

But others turn

to one of Neanderthal's
oldest survival tactics.

They move...

sometimes hundreds of miles away
from their traditional lands.

Far from the protection of caves,

Neanderthals erect tents
fashioned from hides.

Adaptations, survival strategies
and skills

developed over the course
of 300,000 years

see them through the era of
drastic cooling and encroaching ice.

It was a challenging environment.

It was challenging
in terms of climate.

And they were fulfilling
those challenges.

They survived those challenges.

But the centuries of unrelenting
climate change do take their toll.

They deplete
the Neanderthal population

to possibly no more than 20,000,

pushing the species
towards a precarious tipping point.

My suspicion is that
the population of Neanderthals

were probably very highly dispersed
in the landscape

and very, very small.

And this lends you
to the possibility

of chance events affecting you,
even catastrophic events,

a volcanic eruption or a tsunami
if you're on the coast.

These things can really have
a significant impact

when your populations
are that small.

And volcanic eruptions in particular

have changed the course of human
civilisation time and time again.

April 10, 1815.

BOOM!

The eruption of Mount Tambora
on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia

is the largest volcanic event
in recorded history,

killing over 10,000 people
in its immediate vicinity.

The ejected ash and gas circle
the earth and block out the sun.

The following year is known globally
as the year without a summer

causing crops to fail.

Livestock die off.

All told, an estimated 90,000 people
perish worldwide.

Lake Ilopango...

In 535 AD

a volcanic eruption in El Salvador

buried 4000 square miles
in three feet of ash...

stopping all agriculture
for a decade,

nearly wiping out civilisation
in Central America.

But Lake Ilopango or Mount Tambora

are not the only global
volcanic disasters,

nor are they the largest.

Lake Toba, Indonesia...

This is a super-volcano,

one of nature's deadliest killers.

Its placid waters
cover a collapsed caldera

spanning across 440 square miles.

74,000 years ago

molten rock and super-heated gases
expanded.

until the earth's crust could
no longer withstand the pressure.

The blast produces a mushroom cloud
of sulphuric acid and gas

100 times greater
than the Mount Tambora blast.

That catastrophic eruption
changed the climate,

probably wiped out
a lot of populations in that area.

It spreads ash across Asia,

the Arabian peninsula
and even Africa.

India,
over 1000 miles from the blast,

is buried in up to 18 feet of debris.

The Mount Toba eruption
altered the environment

for decades, if not centuries,
to come

with deadly consequences.

You could have a perfectly
genetically fit population,

which could disappear overnight
because of a volcanic eruption.

No matter how fit genetically
they are,

they've gone
and they've gone forever.

Did a volcanic eruption
seal the Neanderthals' fate?

The Greenland ice sheet
may provide the answer.

The ice here forms a frozen vault.

Locked within its layers,
years of ancient climate data.

So we're flying over the mountains.
It's really beautiful.

Accessible by special
air force transporters,

the Summit Camp research centre
sits at an altitude of 10,000 feet,

atop a literal mountain of ice.

Here, scientists like Jim White
drill thousands of feet down

to extract core samples
from deep below.

Imagine that snow never melted.

Imagine that snow just keeps piling
up and piling up and piling up.

In places like Greenland

where we have a metre of snow
per year accumulating,

those records go back
maybe 150, 160,000 years.

That's a long enough
period of time

for us to get a good snapshot

of what the Neanderthal
had to deal with.

When extracted, gases and sediments
trapped in the ice

will paint a vivid picture
of our planet's history.

We measure temperature, things like
the amount of dust that comes in,

the composition of the atmosphere,
how much methane, how much CO2..

So if there's a very large volcano
that goes off,

it puts ash in the atmosphere.

It also puts sulphate
in the atmosphere.

And if some of that sulphate falls,
as it probably will,

in a place like Greenland
or Antarctica,

we're able to go back
and measure that

and say "Yes,
there was a volcano at that time."

Ice cores retrieved
from the Greenland ice sheet

are taken to a deep-freeze storage
thousands of miles away...

the National Ice Core Lab,
in Denver, Colorado.

It houses 60,000 feet
of ice core samples,

waiting to be analysed.

This is the Fort Knox of ice cores.
This is our gold, if you will.

This is the most precious stuff
we have.

Geologist Jim White has secured
access to an ice core sample

from the approximate time
of Neanderthal's disappearance.

So that's the core
from roughly 39,000 years ago?

Yeah.
Okay.

White has been at the forefront
of ice core research since the 1980s.

He knows how to interpret clues
hidden within this frozen history.

So the Neanderthal were alive
when this snow fell,

which is kinda cool
and very interesting.

This time, he's looking
for chemicals and compounds

linked to volcanic eruptions.

Ash, shards of volcanic rock,
sulphur compounds,

all distinct markers of an eruption,

may be trapped within this ice core.

This one has several bands.

There's a couple
of nice thick layers

that may be potentials
for the volcanic event.

Yeah... So you can see
there's a cluster in here.

Thin layers...

And another one right back in here.

The clusters are unusual.

They appear to be dark bands
of microscopic deposits

suspended in the ice.

When we run that in the lab,
we'll watch for that.

That's something interesting.

Back in the lab,
the ice core is melted,

layer after layer.

What actually is happening here
is we're peeling off

week by week, month by month,
year by year, the snow that fell.

And that's then going
into the machine and being measured.

It's like leafing through the pages
of a book one page at a time.

In this particular case,
we're probably looking at...

one year
for every 10 centimetres or so.

So it's a pretty detailed record
that we're getting.

Particles and chemicals
previously trapped in the ice

are isolated and evaluated.

I can imagine that the Neanderthals
would've been very much surprised

by everything they see here,

but probably no more so

than surprised by the fact that we
know what's gonna happen to them.

Finally, the ice reveals
its long-hidden secret...

remnants of a volcanic eruption.

We can see the sulphate
from the eruption.

We don't see ash or anything
in Greenland.

But we see the sulphate.

We know that it occurs
right at that same time

where you have this very sharp
cooling in the ice core

right in here.

A clear indicator
of a massive eruption

with far-reaching consequences.

That was a volcanic event

that was certainly
one of the largest

in the last couple of 100,000 years.

That would've been
a very challenging time to live.

Is this the smoking gun?

Could it finally explain the mystery
of Neanderthal's disappearance?

In the south of Italy

scientists investigate
the possible culprit,

one of the largest volcanos
in the world

and the largest in Europe.

This sleeping giant is known
to have erupted 39,000 years ago.

And it may be waking up again,

threatening the lives of millions
today.

Naples, Italy,
stands on shaky ground.

Mount Vesuvius looms six miles away.

But Vesuvius
is not the greatest threat

to the area's
four million residents.

A much larger, deadlier volcano
rages practically underfoot.

Campi Flegrei...

Europe's largest and most dangerous
volcanic site.

Its caldera is eight miles wide,

most of it hidden under the surface
of the Mediterranean Sea.

This is a super-volcano.

At the volcanology observatory
in Naples

scientists scrutinise every inch
of the raging cauldron.

Tidal gauges measure
the exact level of the seabed,

while seismographs search the ground
for any signs of underground quakes.

Within the caldera

noxious sulphuric gases rise
from cracks in the surface.

In pools, volcanic mud boils...

super-heated to over 300 degrees.

Scientists register
alarming signs of activity.

In the past 30 years

the ground around Campi Flegrei
has risen by more than six feet.

The volcano is so active

it has already forced residents
from their homes.

Follow me.

Sulphur and gas have forced their way
up through the floor

and into the walls.

But the most troubling signs
are further afield.

In the hills nearby Naples

Antonio Costa and Roberto Isaia

are searching for remnants
of the volcano's violent past...

traces of an ancient eruption

that may be linked
to Neanderthal's extinction.

(Speaks Italian)

These cliffs are over 200 feet high.

They're composed of volcanic debris
deposited during a single eruption.

Their height alone points
to the sheer power of this blast.

Ash from this cliff
has been carbon dated

to approximately 39,000 years ago,

the time
of Neanderthal's disappearance

throughout most of the world.

But was this eruption powerful enough
to wipe out the Neanderthal?

I think that an eruption in Italy
could have been significant.

My question then would be...

What is the extent,
the geographical area?

Is it greater
than we've suspected?

The answer may lie in the ash.

Scientists can gauge
the strength of an eruption

by measuring the thickness
of ash layers

in locations far from the volcano.

In Romania,
700 miles away from Campi Flegrei,

geologist Daniel Veres searches
for ash from the ancient eruption...

a clue to the blast's power

and perhaps, the cause
of Neanderthal's extinction.

He's joined by fellow geologist
Ulrich Hambach.

Let me take a sample
and have a closer look.

It's really...
It's much lighter than the loess.

I think it can be volcanic ash, Dan.

Really?
It does.

It has the consistency
of volcanic ash.

Hambach and Veres
are one of several teams

investigating the size and impact
of the Flegrei blast.

This ash may get them
one step closer to the answer.

The thickness of the ash
at this particular spot

is one metre and 10 centimetres
and it's even increasing...

To the left, to the centre
of the depression,

which is at the moment
covered here by the debris.

By measuring the layer's height

they can begin to calculate
the power of the blast.

Here, over 700 miles away,

the volcano dumped four feet of ash
on the region.

I mean,
this is a very unexpected find.

The eruption that created
this particular layer

must have even been
of a very powerful magnitude.

If this is the eruption of the
Phlegraean Fields in southern Italy,

as we suppose it is,

it certainly proves
that that eruption,

which was considered as the largest
in the last 200,000 years,

has been likely even
of higher amplitude than expected.

Veres and Hambach
are not alone in this work.

Throughout the Mediterranean,

up to Russia and into Asia,

scientists have collected
and measured ash

dated to 39,000 years ago.

Samples are sent to the University
of Bayreuth in Germany.

Here, Ulrich Hambach analyses them

to determine if they originated
from the Campi Flegrei eruption.

All volcanic ash
has a specific chemical fingerprint

that is unique to the blast
that deposited it.

Using an electron scanner
and an X-ray beam,

Hambach and his colleagues
create a specific chemical profile

of each sample.

We are really curious

and we hope that the results
will match the eruption in Italy.

The tests reveal the chemical
components of the ash samples.

Each sample has
an identical chemical profile,

a profile that matches
a single eruption...

the Campi Flegrei blast.

It's the same for the sites
we investigated

and it's the same for the sites
colleagues investigated

from Russia down to Libya.

The research shows the
terrifying scale of the blast.

The eruption spread ash
across three continents,

encompassing large swathes
of the territory

where Neanderthal once lived.

Back at the Naples
volcano observatory

Antonio Costa is preparing
a computer simulation

of the Campi Flegrei eruption.

Once complete,

it will reveal exactly what happened
39,000 years ago.

At the observatory in Naples

Antonio Costa and Roberto Isaia
are generating a computer simulation

of the Campi Flegrei eruption
39,000 years ago,

the cataclysm linked
to Neanderthal's extinction.

The simulation reveals
the sheer power of the eruption.

Using this simulation, the scientists
can piece together what happened

39,000 years ago.

The Campi Flegrei volcano
looms above the land.

It will soon come crashing down.

Neanderthals nearby feel the first
signs of an imminent eruption,

a barrage of tremors
emanating from the volcano.

VOLCANO RUMBLES

It's the most powerful eruption
in Europe in the last 200,000 years.

Pyroclastic flows
burst from the volcano...

rampaging over a 40-mile range.

The cascade of gas and molten rock,
superheated to over 1500 degrees,

travels at speeds
approaching 500 miles per hour.

A mushroom cloud of volcanic gas
and fiery debris

rises into the earth's atmosphere.

A thick layer of ash engulfs much
of southern and eastern Europe.

Within days, the cloud spreads
to Central Asia and the Middle East.

But where the modern human population
is spread around the globe,

Neanderthals are confined
to Europe and Central Asia,

the regions most impacted
by the blast.

For most, there is no hope of escape.

The cloud of debris
blocks the sun for weeks.

Ash rains down on an area

that stretches from Russia
to North Africa.

In the ash zone

Neanderthals and modern humans
face a slow and torturous death.

The smothering ash
blocks sunlight and oxygen.

It also contains
high levels of fluorine,

a deadly chemical for plant life.

Many Neanderthal wither away
and slowly die from starvation.

Others develop symptoms
of severe fluorine poisoning -

chronic fatigue, nausea

and eventually death.

The first ones to die
are the children and the elderly.

But deprived of food and light,

even the strong
do not survive for long.

Vast forested lands where
Neanderthals lived for millennia

are now desolate...

inhabited by dying members
of a doomed species.

Across much of Europe

modern humans and Neanderthals
are completely wiped out.

Only Neanderthals on
the outer reaches of their territory

survive.

The place they survive the longest,

the Rock of Gibraltar.

For another 15,000 years
they live on as they always have,

unaware they are the last
of their kind.

So they just carried on living
their day-to-day lives

as best they could.

Gradually their numbers dwindled
and one day they just disappeared.

Leaving behind
their caves and their remains

for our own species to discover...

a species that could face
the same fate.

Today, 39,000 years
after the catastrophic eruption,

Campi Flegrei continues to rage.

Another super-eruption is not likely
to happen any time soon

but if it happens it could decimate
an entire continent.

And volcanologists are on high alert.

And even for those who live
far away from this monster

there's every reason to be alarmed.

This is by no means
the only active super-volcano

or the most dangerous.

Super volcanoes dot the globe,

23 total,

threatening populations
on almost every continent.

And the most powerful of all
is in the United States.

North-west Wyoming.

Yellowstone National Park

spans over 3000 square miles
of pristine wilderness,

untamed wildlife
and unique natural wonders.

The park contains
half of the world's geysers,

one sign of the violent forces
raging beneath the surface.

This is the world's largest
active super-volcano.

Yellowstone has produced
three eruptions

in the last 2.1 million years,

at least two of which would easily
qualify for super-eruption,

and perhaps all three.

Park geologists estimate

that the volcano erupts
every 600 to 800,000 years.

The last time was 640,000 years ago.

Yellowstone is due for another blast.

We know that the magma chamber
is close to a point

at which it could be eruptible.

Based on US geological
survey projections,

an eruption would have
catastrophic consequences.

Searing ash and molten rock
would surge across the land,

destroying everything for miles.

Billions of tons of volcanic debris

would jettison upward
into the atmosphere,

forming a vast cloud of ash.

Carried by the wind,

it would travel over 2000 miles
from the blast zone,

enveloping most of North America
in a coat of ash.

A super-eruption would literally
change the face of North America.

There would be ash accumulations
we couldn't deal with.

There would be infrastructure costs
which would be prohibitively high

so we would have to be very careful,
prioritorise how we rebuilt.

These are
some of the obvious things.

Across the country
crops and livestock would perish,

depriving North America of food.

(Woman talks indistinctly
over radio)

Noxious sulphur compounds
would poison the water supply.

Buried in ash and debris,

roads and infrastructure
would be obliterated,

cutting off the life-line
to major cities on the east coast

and relief for survivors
of the cataclysm.

In a matter of weeks

the world's greatest superpower
would crumble

and the devastation wouldn't be
confined to North America.

Super-eruptions put up
a tremendous amount of material

into the atmosphere.

That could definitely
be felt globally.

Around the world
the sun would appear to dim,

its light diffused by volcanic debris
lingering in the high atmosphere.

It's a precursor to the darkest phase
of the cataclysm -

volcanic winter,

a period of cooling
that can last for years.

Experts believe
a Yellowstone eruption

would result in the devastation
of global agriculture

and lead to severe food shortages
and mass starvation.

It would threaten
the very fabric of civilisation.

It would be a changed planet.

But I think I think
the human endeavour is resilient.

I have great faith in our ability
to survive these kinds of things.

And the chances are
we would live on

for the same reason
our species survived the eruption

that doomed the Neanderthals.

We inhabit
every corner of the globe.

We can withstand a cataclysm
that devastates two continents.

Neanderthals, a species
without our global reach, could not.

They were in the wrong place
at the wrong time.

And one population made it,
which is us.

They did not die out because
they were intellectually inferior.

They lived lives that were very much
like the lives that people live now.

They didn't have some of the ways
that we organise large societies.

But when you look at what they
achieved with those limitations,

it's very human.

They roamed the planet
for 100,000 years longer

than modern humans so far.

Certainly, if there was
a hall of fame of humanity,

the Neanderthals would make
that hall of fame.

In a sense, we owe them our lives.

We should be pretty grateful
to Neanderthals

because they helped us
survive and reproduce

as we migrated out of Africa
into these new environments.

So they played an important role
in human evolution.

And so their legacy lives on
within us.

Perhaps we can say

that we have met the Neanderthals
and they are us.

The Neanderthals reigned
for 300,000 years.

Whether we survive as long
is a big unknown.

I think it's a matter of chance
and like I often say, you know...

if it had gone another way,
we would be Neanderthals now

talking about the extinction
of the other people.

I don't think we'd be able to
recognise the Neanderthals today

if they were out on the street.

Not only would they probably succeed
in modern society,

at some professions they probably
would've been better than even us.

We are the sole human species
on the planet.

But the Neanderthal do live on
in our DNA,

perhaps strengthening our ability

to cope with the challenges
of life on earth

and survive when they could not.

Captions (c) SBS Australia