Great Transitions: The Origin of Humans — HHMI BioInteractive Video

Which traits distinguish humans from other primates? When and where did these traits evolve? Discover the latest findings on hominid evolution in this classroom-ready biology video.

Paleontologists have studied the fossil record of human evolution just like they have done for other major transitions, including the evolution of tetrapods from fish and the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. In this film, part of the Great Transitions trilogy, Sean Carroll and Tim White focus on the evolution of three traits: larger brains, tool use, and bipedality.

[davidharrison]

It's wild people having to watch this for school. I just binge watch this stuff on youtube for fun so it's awesome schools are making learning entertaining

[Divinerosalia]

Who's here because of online school

[ImmaURq]

this stuff is amazing and fascinating but god, it must be so difficult to say anything definitively about the big picture because it's like putting together a 1000 piece puzzle where 900 of the pieces are hidden and the ones you have are all broken. it's ever changing, it's beautiful and overwhelming.

[leejenkin]

A wealth of new knowledge. As it nears midnight & bedtime, I will sleep dreaming of being a paleontologist. I have the greatest respect for people who put in the long hours, days, weeks, months & years to provide mankind with knowledge of the past.

[TheAussieRod]

My neighbor is definitely not human, although he has all the traits. Is he from a different species?

[Zebred]

What always seems to get overlooked and underappreciated in most of these discussions is that it is very likely our ancestors, since apes, have been making and using tools (mostly bone and wood) - just not making stone tools which according to recent discoveries may go back 3.3 million years.

[michelangelobuonarroti]

I can't imagine a career which requires more patience.

[artofmusic]

Very high-quality video, beautiful work, not too long. Bravo! This is the kind of effective teaching tool that is needed.

[kevinsysyn]

What makes us human is our brain. The evolution of the brain is the key. I'm no scientist but it seems to me the evolution of the brain triggered with emerging from the deep jungle. In the jungle the sense of sight was only useful at very close distance. By the time you saw a predator it was too late. As the jungle shrank eyesight became more useful and the pre-humans began to stand up on to feet to look over tall grass and further.
As they did this they began to "think" about what they saw. They couldn't smell or hear it but they "learned" about what they saw. This led to reason, predicting the movement of a prey or predator. They probably lived largely on insects and seeds easily obtainable. When they saw grass moving abnormally they learned it was a hoard of grasshoppers and they would gorge themselves on them and recognize from a distance a patch of berries or other food sources.
The wider open the plains became the more useful eyesight. The more they used eyesight the more thy used their brain to think about what they saw. The eyes and brain evolved together. In later times they would see quarry, deer for example, and predict where they might intercept them and develop sophisticated hunting strategy. Thinking became more and more useful. Keenest eyesight and biggest brains were the "fittest" and it probably really accelerated compared to pelvises and such.

[barkasz]

Recently a direct ancestor of Lucy was unearthed not far from where Lucy was found by the same Yohannes Haile-Salassie mentioned in this video. Forensic scientists were able to reconstruct its face, making it the earliest human ancestor that we have a good idea of what it looked like. It also appears that australopithecines are not our direct ancestors, but rather a separate lineage closely related to us.

[stephaniepunter]

I followed documentaries and remember the finding of Lucy

[LaramidiaWX]

It's wonderful to be taken through the history of discovery and learn about our shared human history and connection to other species. Thank you!

[goognamgoognw]

WRONG, wrong, wrong. There is no transition from Apes to humans. Humans ARE apes. We did not 'became' human, human is a sub category of apes, not something different from apes.

[followthefleet]

Forgot language! And the evolved location of the human larynx. That's the huge difference between humans and all other living things: Our ability to communicate complex ideas and emotions.

[lilitheden]

I remember being an 11 year old asking my mum to please buy me the book with the strange human like apes in it. Then it was quit difficult to understand but it blew me away. In school we had religion class with God creating everything and here I had this wonderful book that said something totally different. It made me think and go look for other books about fossils. A whole new world opened up for me. I may say that I was a dinosaur enthusiast long before Jurassic Park. I’m so glad that my mother bought that book so many years ago, it changed my way of thinking and made me look with awe at the natural world.

[UpsideDown]

Please stop saying biologists/anthropologists are practicing science because of Darwin. Not True. We do science because of the scientific method. I do not spend a lot of time 'believing' in Darwin. Darwin happened to discover something amazing and significant. But evolution is science based and therefor someone would still have come to that conclusion even if it hadn't been Darwin some years later.

[botas]

Cannot wait to find more about our origins

[movinitwithmel]

I was really moved seeing how excited everyone involved in these discoveries were, even just revisiting the memories of making the discoveries! <3 Great video!

[ulalaFrugilega]

10:30 Millions of years old footprints, ancestors who weren't even using tools, but walked upright through the volcanic mud. I see an adult, a child, and what appears to be some sort of dog!

[wcdeich]

Very well made documentary. Although more recent evidence has shown Australopithecus could make a few simple stone tools.