Origins of us : BBC documentary

This is an amazing scientific documentary, available on Discovery+ App. Released on 2011.

This documentary is about how Human beings evolved over time.

From Monkeys to Apes to the Human Beings we are now.

We were a primate tribes from Savannas of East Africa, how are we now in all parts of world, colonizing all other animals.

It was fascinating to know that we were one of their family, while we chose to make adaptions they haven’t.

While other animals chose to switch to other woods and forest or get extinct, we chose to live and explore to the changing conditions. And this made all the difference.

This is a 3 part series of 50 mins each in Discovery. (Bones, Guts and Brains)

Few insights for you on human journey, which I learnt from this series.

1. We first learnt to stand on 2 limbs. There are many complications for this, but why did we choose to walk on 2 limbs ?
2. We ran and to release heat while running we used sweat. The fur on our skin decreased to allow more sweating and thus cooling our body. We could run faster and more distances with 2 legs.
3. Our Thumb changed, we could now catch anything with one hand. (compare with how Chimpanzees eat fruits)
4. Fire — We understood Fire. Here is when brain developed. Fire helps us keep warm during winter and protection from other animals.
5. Cooking — We started to eat cooked food. Easy to get more calories and less energy for chewing and digestion.
6. Tools & Brain size — We almost ate what lions ate, it is believed because of eating this meat our intelligence increased. But the latest research says our brain size must have increased due to usage of Tools. We needed tools to hunt animals and cut meat. This knowledge helped our brain size increased.
7. Eyes — our eyes changed. We are the only species on earth with visible eye whites. We can easily tell where someone is looking and what he is thinking i.e. we can read their minds through their eyes.
8. Language — though all creatures make sounds. Humans have unique capability to communicate. One can speak a language and it exactly means the same to everyone around them. This level of complex understanding is unique to us.
9. More population: we stayed together in groups. We lived in pairs to help each other. With abundance of more food now (by this time we understood growing specific trees/plants for our food) our population exploded. And with more population, sharing of knowledge to more people happened, different ideas emegered and here we are now with skyscrapers, abundance of food, vehicles for travel etc.
10. This is something Neanderthals couldn’t replicate. Although they were believed to be as intelligent as Humans comparing the brain sizes, they didn’t travel neither didn’t prefer to adapt to new changes in climate, hence got extinct soon.

Other few things in the documentary that might interst you, is regarding

Did we survived on Nuts ?

Why boys try to show off in front of girls? Why is our diet and chimp’s diet preference different (saliva enzymes) etc.?

How do we survive on Vegetarian food?

The documentary answers most questions and we are left with many more new questions now.

I hope this article was interesting to you. Watch full 3 part series of 50 mins each in Discovery to learn more interesting things.