NOVA Official Website Dawn of Humanity. Dawn of Humanity. PBS Airdate September 1. E Online Your source for entertainment news, celebrities, celeb news, and celebrity gossip. Check out the hottest fashion, photos, movies and TV showsNARRATOR What makes us human Where do we come fromDawn of Humanity. Deep in a South African cave, an astounding discovery reveals clues to what made us human. Premiering online Thursday, September 10 and airing. AOL Radio is powered by humans Great radio is all about unexpected connectionsthe kind that an algorithm cant predict. Pick any station in any of the 30 genres. Ever since Darwin put forward the idea that we evolved from apes, scientists have wondered about those first creatures that left the ape world and crossed into ours. In the last 5. 0 years, fossil finds have filled in some of the many blanks in the story of our evolution, but the bones of our ancestors are few and far between, allowing only glimpses of how we slowly changed, over millions of years, from ape to human. Now, in South Africa, in caves dangerously deep underground, two new species of hominin, our human ancestors, have been found. LEE BERGER University of the Witwatersrand There it was, right there, one of the most spectacular early hominins ever discovered, lying on the surface of a cave. NARRATOR And not just a few bone fragments, CAVER Its everywhere. Watch The Company Online Free HD. NARRATOR here, there are thousands. STEVE CHURCHILL Duke University Its just absolutely incredible, the amount of bone thats coming up. The Cool Starship trope as used in popular culture. The cool ship can be a spaceship that other characters consider a piece of junk. In fact, you get extra. LEE BERGER Beautiful MARINA ELLIOTT Simon Fraser University The first thing that came through my mind was Howard Carters anecdote about opening Tutankhamens tomb. It was Lord Carnarvon in the back saying, you know, What do you see And Carter says, Things, wonderful things. LEE BERGER We have found a most remarkable creature and a most unexpected one. RICK POTTS Smithsonian Institution So, we need a new kind of language to talk about this. NARRATOR These bones could finally bring our past into focus. What story will they tell about how we became human A new light shines at the Dawn of Humanity, right now, on this NOVANational Geographic special. USzdcY/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Watch The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Online The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Full Movie Online' title='Watch The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Online The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Full Movie Online' />The high plains to the northwest of Johannesburg have been called the Cradle of Humankind. In the 1. 93. 0s and 4. Then, for decades, the discoveries seemed to dry up. Watch The Promise Megavideo. It looked like the Cradle of Humankind had little left to offer. LEE BERGER Go get them. Good luck. Happy hunting. NARRATOR But now, from deep caves in the Cradle, come two new discoveries that could reshape the understanding of our ancient past. Watch The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Online The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Full Movie Online' title='Watch The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Online The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Full Movie Online' />CAVER 1 What is it CAVER 2 It has teeth. CAVER 1 Its so solid LEE BERGER There arent just hundreds of bones there are thousands of bones. I had never seen or dreamed of anything like the richness of this site. NARRATOR bones that may end up illuminating a critical million year period in our evolution that has long been a mystery. BRIAN RICHMOND American Museum of Natural History Theres a big gap in the fossil record, with only a few little fragments. NARRATOR The fossil record suggests that in that gap lies the dawn of humanity, the birth of the genus Homo. Its perhaps the least understood and most important episode in our evolution. Before, it was the world of Australopithecus, an ape like creature with a tiny brain. Lucy is the poster child for the Australopiths. She walked upright, but belonged to the world of the apes. VIKTOR DEAK Paleo Artist If I were to see an Australopithecus at the end of a football field, I would probably call the zoo and say, Hey, an ape has escaped. ZERESENAY ALEMSEGED California Academy of Sciences The upper part of the body in Australopithecus is, in general, very apish. Go down, look at the pelvis, very human like. CAROL WARD University of Missouri An Australopithecus is, sort of, like a bipedal ape. If you went back in time and saw them walking around the savannah, you would see animals that stood up and walked like we do, but they wouldve been smaller in body size. Their brains wouldnt have been as big, so their heads wouldve looked smaller. Their jaws and teeth were very large. NARRATOR The fossil record suggests that somewhere between 2 and 3,0. Australopiths evolved into the first recognizably human species Homo erectus. BRIAN RICHMOND They have big brains and small faces, adaptations for using tools. VIKTOR DEAK If I were to see, say, Homo erectus at the other end of a football field, I would probably call 9. Oh, theres a wild man over here, and, you know, somebody should put some clothes on him. NARRATOR So what went on in the transition from the ape like Australopithecus to Homo erectus For years, the only species that filled that gap was a creature called Homo habilis. But so little of it has ever been found, the origins of the genus Homo have remained an enigma. DON JOHANSON Institute of Human Origins The greatest mystery, facing paleoanthropology today is to try to understand how, when, where the transition from Australopithecus to Homo occurred. BRIAN RICHMOND And what we dont know is what happened between Australopithecus and early Homo. Thats one of the big mysteries right now were trying to solve. NARRATOR The prize would be to discover fossil remains that could tell us about that mysterious transition. And now they may have found some. LEE BERGER There, you can see two foot bones in articulation. NARRATOR Emerging from ancient caves in South Africa are fossil finds of astonishing richness, and not just fragments but virtually complete skeletons. STEVE CHURCHILL From the very first block that we had, we had a portion of the mandible, the lower jaw, and we had a collarbone and one of the bones of the forearm. So that was really, really exciting. LEE BERGER Shes in there. PETER SCHMID University of the Witwatersrand We have a skull we have a mandible we have a complete scapula we have a complete clavicle we have a complete arm a complete hand and half of the pelvis, which we can, with reconstruction, make into a whole pelvis. NARRATOR Will these skeletons live up to their promise, offering us a new understanding of the dawn of humanity In August, 2. South African Pedro Boshoff was out of work. He had been a soldier, a prospector, an adventurer and even a part time student of human origins. Now, he wondered if he could earn some money doing what he loves most fossil hunting. PEDRO BOSHOFF Fossil Hunter Towards the end of August, I approached Professor Lee Berger, asking if there would be the possibility of a position at faculty with him. LEE BERGER Pedro Boshoff came into my office and said, You know, I really need work, and I have the same belief as you that there is more out there. NARRATOR Lee Berger started exploring the area of South Africa known as the Cradle of Humankind in the early 1. After 1. 8 years of searching, he had found only a few isolated fossils. All Games All Online Games at Addicting.