Our Most Mysterious Extinct Cousins

There was a group of hominins, those creatures more closely related to us than to chimpanzees, that did take a different, parallel journey from our ancestors. Our paths ran beside each other - and potentially even crossed at times - but while ours led us here, theirs led to extinction.

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References:

[stupendemysgeographicus]

These divergent branches of the human family tree are what I find most fascinating about human evolution. Modern great apes are known to copy human behaviours when in close proximity, I wonder if they did the same, and vice versa. Maybe the first individual to figure out how to make stone blades wasn’t one of our ancestors, but someone we copied.

[TheStubertos]

I like that you explained how the paleontologists came to their conclusions because so often people say "Research suggests that these animals did this and that" but I usually have no idea how they came to that conclusion!

[Im-Not-a-Dog]

Humans are surprisingly practical creatures, if bugs were bigger, we'd be eating a lot more bugs.

[lh]

I always wonder how many species were wiped out quickly by a single disease rather than slow loss of habitat. That saiga antelope incident was proof of how bad one outbreak could be.

[LimeyLassen]

I was taught in uni that the best way to avoid extinction is to occupy as much land as possible. This is even more important than genetic diversity, or adaptability. It's probability - the bigger the territory, the more likely some holdouts will survive any catastrophe, no matter how deadly it is. And that REALLY HAPPENED to Homo Sapiens during the Toba eruption, which almost wiped us out.

I think about this when we talk about extinct hominid species. They might have been poorly adapted to changing world, but it's also possible that they just had a few bad dice rolls.

[TheMunchkinita]

If you haven't already, I'd love to see an episode about the "water people" who mostly hunt under water, and live in huts on stilts above the water. They're present day humans who can dive lower (with only the help of large rocks to weigh them down) and stay under the water longer (with no breathing apparatuses) than the humans of the rest of the world. If I recall, they've even evolved to have a larger spleen than the rest of us... and that's about all I can remember lol

[RocLobo]

I'd happily pay 5 chocolate bars for a career making discovery like that

[chaoscope]

"Buy me a drink and I'll tell you all about it." 😮🤣🤣🤣

[mendyc]

“C4 plants”
Me: hehe, do they…
“C4 don’t actually explode”
Me:.. oh, never mind

[rogerhinman]

As a former combat engineer, i cannot express how disappointed I am to learn C4 plants don't explode.

[tqxtcts]

The more I learn about humans, the more I realise we almost didn't "happen" as a species and it's honestly amazing we're here now.

[bigguy]

I comment this on a lot of videos in hopes of it being seen, but I discovered this channel in high school, and it absolutely captivated me. I largely credit this content, and the people behind it for showing me the amazing world of evolution, and most importantly, anthropology. I am now an anthropology major who spends her free time auditing ANTH. Lectures I cannot afford (both in finance, and just in my class schedule lol) and my excitement towards the subject grows by the day, and I am just so excited to make my on]win contributions to this study. Thank you all!!!!

[eamonahern]

I've heard someone hypothesise that stone tools were an instinctual behaviour in early homonins like building nests is to birds. This video offers evidence of that.

[Sisteryoda]

I’ve often wished I could take a “train ride through time” (observing only) and watch evolution take place, similar to the movie Lucy.

[Leandro_Montibeler]

I feel like the situation where they may have filled a niche that no longer exists, so we can't understand them might happen more than we realize. How many paleontological mysteries will never be solved because of that?

[IceRoar-hnt]

Incredible how much we still don’t know about our ancient relatives. Every discovery feels like a piece of a forgotten puzzle!

[KRDecade]

“And for the record, C4 plants don’t actually explode”

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined

[maximilienrobespierre]

"Specialist are more likely to go extinct than generalist" is gonna make my day 😅

[ThePauloVJCastilho]

If their diet was similar of that of gorillas, they would drink very little water, compared to other hominids. If your water needs are satisfied almost exclusively by your diet, and you eat things like roots, you are more likely to die of dehydration in a longer drought, since you would take longer to notice the changing environment and move.

[Julienna]

11:04 They are officially called "pomalky" (lit. slowly moving) in Slovak language. "Želvušky" in Czech, which means "little turtles".