The Secrets of the Oldest Footprints Ever Found

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Images Courtesy of Getty Images

Credits:
Narrated and Directed by
Stephanie Sammann

Written by
Lorraine Boissoneault

Produced, Animated, 3D Art by
Mike Ridolfi

Animated & Illustrated by
Kirtan Patel

Edited by
Dylan Hennessy
David O’Sullivan

Executive Producer
Dave Wiskus

Executive Producer
Brian McManus

Executive Producers
PJ Scott-Blankenship
Trenton Waterson
Graham Haerther

Nebula Creative Directors
Dom Burgess
Simon Buckmaster

Nebula Content Producer
Eric Schneider

Graphic Designer
Simon Buckmaster

Title Design by
Max Moser

Post Production Coordinator
Zara Glaze

Supervising Sound Editor
Graham Haerther

Sound Design
Donovan Bullen

Special Thanks to
Gemma Arnott
Brad Phillipi
Nick Arnott
Bradford Dillon
Brianne Bell

Sources

Taung Child Skull byRadiolabis licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution - Non-Commercial license.

[jaywilliams]

I've been a student of this subject since childhood, and I'm an old lady now and a retired primate caretaker. This is an excellent talk and it's great to see that interest in our human origins and what we are as a species has never died but progressed. Thank you.

[Fantastic_Mr_Fox]

9:36
"one small step for an ape, but a great step towards humanity"
-Neil Armstrongalis, 3 000 000 BC

[earthknight]

It's worth noting that gorillas and chimpanzees knuckle-walk in different ways, indicating that they evolved 3-legged walking independently from each other and that it's not an ancestral trait. This is part of what's been leading more and more people to consider that some level of bipedalism may be the ancestral trait of apes and that we are the only ones who retained it.

[Bezayne]

What I dislike about this video is that it has little to do with its thumbnail. I was specifically interested in a detailed explanation about how modern and very old footprints differ from each other. Instead of that I got a general outlook at human ancestry.

[cubearthx]

The idea that Australopithecus was making tools over 3mil years ago is mind blowing!

[ReuvenHanna]

One small correction to an otherwise great video. 1. Darwin was not silent on the matter. In his book “The Descent of Man” Darwin discusses humans and NS. Evolution was not a new concept in Darwin’s time. In fact, his grandfather published on the topic. The revolutionary aspect presented by Darwin was the mechanism of NS.

[the_whetherman]

The shot of a gorilla punching a termite mound at 13:52 is amazing. Kudos to whomever captured that footage.

[alicethegrinsecatz]

I much appreciate your videos for how easy they're to understand. I'm from East Germany, and so, I was taught by teachers, who had actually studied Russian and had either studied English only as a minor subject without passion or only later had English as a further education, for the most of my school time. Just in the last 3 years, I got a teacher who only studied Russian to be allowed to study English. This is why I'm struggling with English, but some creators like you make it so easy that often when I wanna share it with other people, I stopped for a moment because I'm not sure if they understand it, too. Sometimes, I wanna share it with people who may not understand Englisch, and then, I realize I totally forgot it was English content. Sometimes, I wanna share it with English speaking people, and my first thought is that it would be dumb to share German content. So, try to imagine exactly what I saw and heard, and this is the point when I realize the magic. I remember the complete side, even the advertising at the borders. I remember the text, not in English but in German. I remember the voice in the video, even yours, but they don't speak English in my head, but German. So, I go back, and I am confused by realizing it never was on German. This is every time again when I stop thinking it only could be German because I didn't struggle to understand it, and start thinking I'm not that bad in English as I think. The problem is rather that I built up a barrier every time when I'm forced to speak or understand English because I wanna stay in my comfort zone. I really appreciate this because this is a source of motivation to practice English, which is something I completely missed in my entire school life. I'm on the one hand sad about to have missed so much over these years, but I'm much more happy about to enjoy another cool language and so much more interesting stuff now.
So, thank you so much for your work! 🥹

[someonewhoisgreek]

The fact that modern humans as a species have existed for more than 150, 000 years really puts in perspective the timescale of the progress of evolution. The first civilizations only appeared a couple thousand years ago. For me it is fascinating to think about how we will at some point have become a new different species







I don't understand why so many people got triggered because I said "a couple thousand years ago". I obviously did not mean just 2000 years (look at my damn username lol). So, for all the people that chose do ignore my point and focus on this, let me at least make it clear: The earliest civilization is thought to be Mesopotamia which is estimated to have formed in 5000BC so 7000 thousand years ago. Going back to my point, 7000 is not a lot compared to 150000 years!!


(Pollock, Susan, and Pollock Susan. Ancient mesopotamia. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 1999.)

[DrBernon]

These documentaries are amazing! I've already watched them on nebula, but they are so good I watched this again here on YouTube. With ads and all!

[pedrofromrio]

Evolution is such a fascinating and beautiful subject. The incremental improvement over time is just amazing to watch unfold.

[Bbbuddy]

I’ve seen adults in the Amazon area who have almost never worn shoes, and their feet look much different from my North American feet.

[ian]

This definitely checks out. A lot of what causes foot pain for me is the way that my foot distributes weight very poorly

[jesipohl]

Kevin Hunt does work on ape positional behavioural choices, usually based on cultural practices related to carrying, display, or tool innovation. this can lead to huge differences in hip-leg growth, e.g.

[Samuel_LeBaron]

Why is nobody talking about the visuals in this video? They are absolutely stunning in how everything transitions.

[Miamcoline]

Absolutely excellent video and breakdown of the topic. Never been so clear for me. Excellent plug too.
Little correction though: thats a 200, 000 year difference between those possible footstep dates. Not 20, 000.

[ryanreedgibson]

Your content is a credit to YouTube. Another great video! It explains why my German Shephard becomes more fatigued that me during our walks. I thought it was just due to her less-efficient way of cooling through paw pads, nose, and mouth.

[kori]

0:36 "Gorillas have been taught to use sign language"

yeah, unfortunately not actually. If you look at Koko's "speech" linguistically, they're not structured or complex, just simple words in usually no consistent word order. Most of the communication was a huge deal of interpretation by the researcher, not actual communication by sign language.

[wheelchair_charlie]

Im writing this before seeing the video but I just wanted to say I got giddy when I saw that you were doing one on the oldest footprints and what information you were going to dig up on those amazing prints. I'll come back and edit after I see the video... Always amazed at the info packed into a 15min video! I love all the reasons you gave for why we started standing up since those prints were made and how they were made over 3.5 million years ago!! I feel smarter than I was 15mins ago! ;) Thank you RS!

[danidavis]

Good video - only one very minor correction - the co-discoverer of Lucy was Donald "Johanson", not "Johnson" as stated in the narration. Minor yes, but names are important.