1 00:00:05,112 --> 00:00:09,044 This is my story and the beginning of yours. 2 00:00:13,515 --> 00:00:18,731 Who am I? What is happening to me? 3 00:00:24,944 --> 00:00:27,056 It's been such a long time. 4 00:00:29,461 --> 00:00:31,598 I've forgotten my past. 5 00:00:35,623 --> 00:00:39,580 For seven million years I was hidden in the sand. 6 00:00:43,973 --> 00:00:46,440 These humans are trying to help me remember. 7 00:00:48,236 --> 00:00:50,379 To reconstruct my face, 8 00:00:53,704 --> 00:00:58,780 my body, the place I was born. 9 00:00:59,827 --> 00:01:02,242 There was a place with trees and water. 10 00:01:06,404 --> 00:01:08,833 I see glimpses of the past, 11 00:01:10,453 --> 00:01:13,973 danger, my family. 12 00:01:15,584 --> 00:01:17,146 What happened? 13 00:01:20,034 --> 00:01:22,211 I know my name is Toumaï, 14 00:01:22,507 --> 00:01:25,289 and I am your new ancestor. 15 00:01:26,305 --> 00:01:31,135 This is my story and the beginning of yours. 16 00:01:48,149 --> 00:01:51,751 7 million years, it's hard to imagine. 17 00:01:52,354 --> 00:01:56,857 I come from 230.000 generations before you. 18 00:02:02,294 --> 00:02:03,952 What really happened? 19 00:02:07,445 --> 00:02:12,344 I lived with my group, other males, females, little ones. 20 00:02:12,735 --> 00:02:15,202 But danger was ever present. 21 00:02:20,864 --> 00:02:24,632 At any moment death could leap out and snatch us. 22 00:02:28,051 --> 00:02:30,611 The sabre-toothed always attacked the weakest. 23 00:02:31,855 --> 00:02:36,060 I wanted to protect the others, distract the beast. 24 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:39,558 Give them time to get away. 25 00:03:04,295 --> 00:03:07,279 I could've disappeared from the face of the earth forever. 26 00:03:07,527 --> 00:03:11,979 The ground swallowed me up. I became a fossil. 27 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,454 For nearly 7 million years I was forgotten. 28 00:03:15,709 --> 00:03:17,893 And I forgot all about my past. 29 00:03:19,014 --> 00:03:21,326 And then, they found me. 30 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:24,807 They didn't expect to find me here. 31 00:03:25,503 --> 00:03:30,766 For 30 years the world scientists believed that mankind originated in the East of Africa. 32 00:03:32,180 --> 00:03:35,832 I, Toumaï, come from West of the great Rift Valley. 33 00:03:36,235 --> 00:03:39,008 From the Djurab Desert of Northern Chad. 34 00:03:40,224 --> 00:03:44,922 These are the humans who found me, paleontologists from Chad and from France. 35 00:03:46,979 --> 00:03:49,956 They believe I am part of the skull of a hominid. 36 00:03:50,115 --> 00:03:53,120 A cranium nearly 7 million years old. 37 00:03:53,591 --> 00:03:59,688 If it is true, it will turn the previous theories about the origin of man upside down. 38 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,373 This is professor Michel Brunet. 39 00:04:02,757 --> 00:04:07,502 He has long suspected that the theories of the origin of man are incorrect. 40 00:04:07,784 --> 00:04:12,316 20 years ago he set out to explore West of the African Rift Valley. 41 00:04:23,359 --> 00:04:27,903 Michel and his team discovered the first hominid fossil in Central Africa. 42 00:04:28,312 --> 00:04:31,525 The jaw of an australopithecine. He is named Abel, 43 00:04:31,725 --> 00:04:34,414 and he is 3.5 million years old. 44 00:04:35,117 --> 00:04:39,861 Then in 2001, they found me, Toumaï, 45 00:04:40,117 --> 00:04:43,460 I could be the oldest known ancestor of mankind. 46 00:04:44,657 --> 00:04:49,718 The first human being I ever set eyes on was Ahounta Djimdoumalbaye, 47 00:04:50,165 --> 00:04:53,084 one of the Chadian scientists in Michel's team. 48 00:04:56,269 --> 00:05:00,771 When I dug it out, I turned it over and over just looking at it. 49 00:05:02,374 --> 00:05:07,670 And I still didn't realize what it was. Then when I turned it this way up 50 00:05:08,124 --> 00:05:10,962 I saw the two eye-sockets and the nasal cavity. 51 00:05:11,701 --> 00:05:14,575 My heart instantly started beating faster. 52 00:05:14,958 --> 00:05:20,430 For that moment I was by myself and for 15 minutes I was alone with the skull. 53 00:05:21,843 --> 00:05:26,898 I scraped it off and there we had what we'd been looking for. 54 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:30,408 I said, "Look it's a hominid, look at that." 55 00:05:32,626 --> 00:05:35,161 How can he be so sure I'm a hominid? 56 00:05:35,256 --> 00:05:36,584 What is a hominid? 57 00:05:40,287 --> 00:05:45,529 They called me Toumaï, which means "hope of life" in the local goran language. 58 00:05:46,863 --> 00:05:52,123 I picked up the phone and he said, "David, we've got it." 59 00:05:53,117 --> 00:05:55,918 He's a messenger from the very deep past. 60 00:05:56,443 --> 00:06:00,102 The origin of mankind has been pushed twice as far back in time. 61 00:06:11,729 --> 00:06:14,739 Some scientists held to the previous theories. 62 00:06:15,008 --> 00:06:17,191 They doubted that I was the skull of a hominid. 63 00:06:17,681 --> 00:06:20,600 Michel Brunet has set out prove that I am. 64 00:06:22,685 --> 00:06:26,585 First stop, the Synchrotron, an extraordinary machine which generates 65 00:06:26,585 --> 00:06:31,079 an X-ray beam one thousand billion times brighter than conventional X-rays. 66 00:06:32,115 --> 00:06:36,866 It's like a scanner and can produce the precise images of me Michel needs. 67 00:06:39,688 --> 00:06:41,278 There is a problem, you see, 68 00:06:41,515 --> 00:06:45,437 I am an almost complete skull except that my lower jaw is missing. 69 00:06:45,537 --> 00:06:49,591 But I've been squashed down one side and bits of the ground have stuck to me. 70 00:06:52,006 --> 00:06:56,111 The first step in determining what I am is to restore my true shape, 71 00:06:56,211 --> 00:06:59,203 and to work out what is really part of me and what isn't. 72 00:06:59,406 --> 00:07:02,271 What's Toumaï, and what's not Toumaï. 73 00:07:03,923 --> 00:07:09,392 The engineer points out my canine, my two pre-molars, and the three molars. 74 00:07:09,572 --> 00:07:13,760 He seems to find it interesting that each of the two pre-molars has three root canals. 75 00:07:14,427 --> 00:07:16,271 Which is a primitive feature 76 00:07:16,271 --> 00:07:21,154 inherited from the common ancestor shared by chimpanzees and humans. 77 00:07:21,419 --> 00:07:23,901 So, does that mean I'm a bit like both? 78 00:07:28,691 --> 00:07:32,770 Second step, the professor asked another group of specialists 79 00:07:32,770 --> 00:07:34,968 to make a virtual reconstruction of me. 80 00:07:40,656 --> 00:07:43,598 The loaded 500 pictures of me into their computers. 81 00:07:43,798 --> 00:07:49,728 From these pictures, they start to build an image in 3-D which corrects my distortions. 82 00:07:52,913 --> 00:07:55,823 The two scientists, each work separately. 83 00:07:55,923 --> 00:08:00,137 And each made two independent reconstructions using different methods. 84 00:08:00,337 --> 00:08:03,278 In the end, they created four models. 85 00:08:05,746 --> 00:08:11,610 We are now comparing our two independent reconstructions 86 00:08:11,610 --> 00:08:14,788 to see if we converge or differ. 87 00:08:18,021 --> 00:08:23,110 Now Michel can study the results. The four models are strikingly similar. 88 00:08:23,466 --> 00:08:26,424 In particular, they make it possible to determine precisely 89 00:08:26,424 --> 00:08:30,679 how far the flat plane of the back of my cranium, the "nucal plane", 90 00:08:30,743 --> 00:08:32,302 was inclined backwards. 91 00:08:32,597 --> 00:08:36,399 Apparently, hominids and great apes differ in this respect. 92 00:08:36,499 --> 00:08:38,865 So this is an important clue. 93 00:08:39,382 --> 00:08:41,433 They compare me to the great apes. 94 00:08:41,957 --> 00:08:43,623 That's me, in the middle. 95 00:08:50,401 --> 00:08:54,506 Their analysis supports the idea that I am a hominid. 96 00:08:57,432 --> 00:09:00,593 The computer image is turned into a resin cast, 97 00:09:00,810 --> 00:09:04,550 using a machine they call a laser-stereolithograph. 98 00:09:06,607 --> 00:09:10,539 The virtual reconstruction becomes real... solid. 99 00:09:11,946 --> 00:09:15,047 It's a strange sensation to see my own face appear, 100 00:09:15,459 --> 00:09:18,732 gradually emerging from this time machine. 101 00:09:34,255 --> 00:09:36,921 So this is what my proper shape is. 102 00:09:42,479 --> 00:09:47,046 The next step in rebuilding my head is a visit to Elisabeth Daynes' workshop. 103 00:09:48,303 --> 00:09:51,256 She will add muscles and skin to the resin cast of me, 104 00:09:51,356 --> 00:09:55,265 using forensic science techniques to determine how the muscles should go. 105 00:09:55,506 --> 00:09:58,206 Only a few specialists in the world know how to do this. 106 00:09:58,499 --> 00:10:00,976 I'm glad to be in Elisabeth's expert hands. 107 00:10:14,599 --> 00:10:16,892 It looks as though we might be here for some time, 108 00:10:17,495 --> 00:10:20,146 I can't wait to see what I really looked like. 109 00:10:44,378 --> 00:10:46,848 My head seems to be coming along nicely now. 110 00:10:52,343 --> 00:10:54,759 Professor Brunet watches over every stage 111 00:10:54,759 --> 00:10:58,563 and checks that each minute detail is scientifically accurate. 112 00:11:00,563 --> 00:11:03,281 The aim is to have a more pointed canine, 113 00:11:04,413 --> 00:11:07,604 one that would be a bit longer than the others. 114 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:17,696 Of course, putting the eyes in brings the sculpture to life. 115 00:11:20,111 --> 00:11:21,738 That doesn't look bad. 116 00:11:46,898 --> 00:11:48,801 Is that really what I looked like? 117 00:11:54,772 --> 00:11:59,838 For a paleonthologist, for anthropologists, this is the image we have of Toumaï. 118 00:12:01,256 --> 00:12:05,394 That, it may be close to the reality but we don't know, 119 00:12:05,969 --> 00:12:09,674 because we don't know about his hair, his eyes or his nose. 120 00:12:13,046 --> 00:12:18,274 But if we had the chance to bump into Toumaï as we were leaving your studio, 121 00:12:19,792 --> 00:12:24,982 maybe we would find that he wasn't so very different from that. Maybe not. 122 00:12:31,630 --> 00:12:36,356 Scientists never seem to agree about anything, so before going any further 123 00:12:36,356 --> 00:12:40,292 Michel wants to test what he has discovered on another expert. 124 00:12:40,438 --> 00:12:44,158 We set off to see David Pilbeam at the University of Harvard. 125 00:12:45,686 --> 00:12:48,959 - Do you remember this one? - Monsieur Toumaï. 126 00:12:49,352 --> 00:12:50,718 Hello Mr. Pilbeam. 127 00:12:50,727 --> 00:12:53,083 He's a little bit crushed and a little bit distorted. 128 00:12:54,406 --> 00:12:58,476 - Beautiful specimen. - But you have never seen this one. 129 00:12:58,488 --> 00:13:01,999 And the professor shows him the 3-D model of me in resin. 130 00:13:04,233 --> 00:13:06,743 - This is what Zolli and Marcia did? - Yeah. 131 00:13:08,598 --> 00:13:10,662 - Fantastic! - Yeah, good work. 132 00:13:13,842 --> 00:13:15,228 A good biped, I think. 133 00:13:17,787 --> 00:13:21,879 Big surprise. And these enormous brow ridges. 134 00:13:22,985 --> 00:13:25,902 - Clearly a male. - Yeah, clearly a male. 135 00:13:25,902 --> 00:13:29,709 If this is the female, I wouldn't want to meet the male on a dark night. 136 00:13:29,709 --> 00:13:32,663 Of course, I'm a male. I could've told them that. 137 00:13:32,663 --> 00:13:37,027 And this is something completely new. 138 00:14:20,602 --> 00:14:24,772 It's beautiful. He's very handsome. 139 00:14:33,987 --> 00:14:42,087 When we are looking at him now we are looking at the earliest face of humanity. 140 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:44,597 I like his face. 141 00:14:48,368 --> 00:14:53,371 The more you look at it the more you can easily imagine that he's alive. 142 00:14:53,663 --> 00:14:57,474 You can easily imagine he's alive. Yes! 143 00:14:58,061 --> 00:15:02,468 And I'm starting to imagine what my life might have been like. 144 00:15:14,387 --> 00:15:16,707 Did my body look something like this, perhaps? 145 00:15:17,311 --> 00:15:19,282 And what kind of world did I live in? 146 00:15:27,241 --> 00:15:33,043 There are a lot of things I need to know - what can I eat? Where can I hide? 147 00:15:36,771 --> 00:15:38,328 What are these creatures? 148 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:42,025 Who is friend and who is foe? 149 00:16:56,504 --> 00:17:00,644 I don't know. There are some things here that don't seem right. 150 00:17:01,554 --> 00:17:05,544 By letting my imagination run wild, I'm getting ahead of myself. 151 00:17:06,407 --> 00:17:09,028 There are many things Michel still doesn't know about me, 152 00:17:09,533 --> 00:17:12,377 and that we're both impatient to find out. 153 00:17:16,636 --> 00:17:19,156 Having got this far, I'm embarrassed to ask but, 154 00:17:19,252 --> 00:17:21,451 what is a hominid when you get down to it? 155 00:17:22,288 --> 00:17:24,451 What makes a hominid different from an ape? 156 00:17:26,190 --> 00:17:31,032 Apparently, hominids have small canines and walk upright on two feet. 157 00:17:35,623 --> 00:17:38,159 When most animals walk, or primates, 158 00:17:38,459 --> 00:17:42,021 they hold their heads so that the eyes are looking forward. 159 00:17:42,607 --> 00:17:48,035 In addition, the foramen magnum, this hole, is pretty much always perpendicular 160 00:17:48,326 --> 00:17:52,377 to the orientation of the neck. It can only move about 10 degrees. 161 00:17:52,872 --> 00:17:55,752 So if you put Toumaï's head over a chimpanzee's body, 162 00:17:55,882 --> 00:17:57,830 its eyes would always be pointing downwards, 163 00:17:57,830 --> 00:18:00,423 it would have to crane its neck to look forward. 164 00:18:00,994 --> 00:18:03,519 But if you put Toumaï on a human's neck, 165 00:18:04,499 --> 00:18:06,669 because of the orientation of the foramen magnum, 166 00:18:07,089 --> 00:18:08,585 its eyes look forward. 167 00:18:09,645 --> 00:18:11,140 It has to be a biped. 168 00:18:11,217 --> 00:18:14,289 If you draw a line across the opening where my spine meets my head, 169 00:18:14,289 --> 00:18:18,495 and another up to my eye sockets, the angle is larger than a right angle, 170 00:18:18,623 --> 00:18:19,914 as in you humans. 171 00:18:22,585 --> 00:18:25,165 But what other hominid characteristics do I have, 172 00:18:25,243 --> 00:18:28,535 that could show once and for all, beyond any shadow of a doubt, 173 00:18:28,735 --> 00:18:30,641 that I am not an ape? 174 00:18:31,994 --> 00:18:35,614 The two professors sit themselves down in a room with a lot of different skulls. 175 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:39,576 Great apes, chimpanzees and gorillas, and... hominids. 176 00:18:41,192 --> 00:18:44,975 They talk a long time, but this is the gist of it. 177 00:18:45,542 --> 00:18:47,144 - Small canine. - Yes. 178 00:18:47,179 --> 00:18:50,700 My upper canine is small in size, it's worn down at the point 179 00:18:50,700 --> 00:18:53,323 in the same way your human canines tend to do. 180 00:18:53,630 --> 00:18:56,591 My face is shorter and flatter than those of the great apes, 181 00:18:56,691 --> 00:19:01,217 and my brow ridge, which Mr. Pilbeam has so admired, is very pronounced. 182 00:19:02,018 --> 00:19:05,251 Lastly, there is the backward tilt of my nucal plane. 183 00:19:09,547 --> 00:19:11,224 They don't look like African apes. 184 00:19:13,314 --> 00:19:16,845 We must be quite close to the split of chimps and humans. 185 00:19:25,142 --> 00:19:28,639 Michel and David conclude that there can no longer be any doubt, 186 00:19:28,827 --> 00:19:30,882 I really am a hominid! 187 00:19:31,025 --> 00:19:34,535 But I don't understand how they can be sure I'm so old. 188 00:19:34,862 --> 00:19:36,969 Time for another expedition. 189 00:19:40,672 --> 00:19:43,043 Michel sets off to look for more fossils. 190 00:19:43,363 --> 00:19:45,035 For the eleventh year in a row, 191 00:19:45,235 --> 00:19:48,807 his caravan returns to the Djurab desert, in Northern Chad. 192 00:19:48,988 --> 00:19:53,110 For me, it's a chance to revisit the place where I was born. 193 00:19:58,623 --> 00:20:04,191 The jeeps stop at Salal, the last outpost on the edge of the vast, empty Djurab. 194 00:20:04,780 --> 00:20:08,664 It's our last chance to stock up on supplies of water and petrol. 195 00:20:09,005 --> 00:20:11,095 For the humans, these supplies are vital. 196 00:20:11,195 --> 00:20:14,261 Otherwise, they won't be able to survive the desert environment. 197 00:20:14,361 --> 00:20:15,920 They say it's too hostile. 198 00:20:23,410 --> 00:20:24,390 And we're off! 199 00:20:32,205 --> 00:20:33,558 And we've stopped. 200 00:20:37,446 --> 00:20:40,701 I suppose Michel doesn't have the same impatience as I do. 201 00:20:41,141 --> 00:20:43,750 It takes us three whole days to reach our destination. 202 00:20:47,012 --> 00:20:50,071 As soon as they wake in the morning Michel examines me once more, 203 00:20:50,199 --> 00:20:54,517 along with the Chadian paleontologists, Maskaye Taïsso and Likius Andossa. 204 00:20:55,447 --> 00:20:58,492 They have been important members of the expedition team for 10 years, 205 00:20:58,592 --> 00:21:01,737 and the fossils found here will be delivered into their care. 206 00:21:01,818 --> 00:21:06,157 "... c'est simplement une cassure, et par ailleurs, tout le plan nucal 207 00:21:06,257 --> 00:21:07,979 est vraiment très incliné vers l'arrière..." 208 00:21:11,573 --> 00:21:14,153 They're going to start looking near where they found me. 209 00:21:14,336 --> 00:21:19,858 If they find more fossils, these will give more clues about my past, about my age. 210 00:21:20,077 --> 00:21:24,362 Most importantly, they say they're hoping to find the remains of other hominids, 211 00:21:24,511 --> 00:21:26,013 other Toumaïs. 212 00:21:27,517 --> 00:21:33,693 For each fragment of hominid we find, we find thousands of animal fragments. 213 00:21:34,412 --> 00:21:38,801 Oh! So there's not much chance of them finding any other Toumaïs, then. 214 00:21:39,622 --> 00:21:42,808 In fact, I'm amazed they can find anything at all, 215 00:21:42,961 --> 00:21:46,096 with the sand and the wind whirling constantly around us. 216 00:21:48,089 --> 00:21:50,467 To find hominids, you have to look for them. 217 00:21:52,589 --> 00:21:55,020 To begin with, you have to look in the right place, 218 00:21:55,487 --> 00:21:57,386 and then, sooner or later, you find one. 219 00:21:59,460 --> 00:22:02,977 Often the part that takes the most time is finding the right place. 220 00:22:03,684 --> 00:22:06,908 My team and I have already done that, so the hardest bit's over. 221 00:22:07,023 --> 00:22:10,524 If you find one, you can find others. It's like looking for mushrooms. 222 00:22:13,768 --> 00:22:15,900 I couldn't share in Michel's optimism, 223 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,810 they can hardly see their hands in front of their faces, 224 00:22:17,810 --> 00:22:20,093 let alone finding something small in the sand. 225 00:22:20,446 --> 00:22:22,931 But then I heard them say that the wind can actually help, 226 00:22:23,187 --> 00:22:26,955 by exposing fossils which had been completely hidden in previous years. 227 00:22:33,193 --> 00:22:36,108 I noticed that they only find the odd little fragment, 228 00:22:36,586 --> 00:22:40,306 so it really is rare and exceptional to find a fossil like me. 229 00:22:40,717 --> 00:22:42,781 A skull which is almost whole. 230 00:22:46,673 --> 00:22:49,707 This is the type of piece we can pick up here in rough weather. 231 00:22:51,233 --> 00:22:55,761 It's around 10cm long, that's the upper jaw of a large antelope. 232 00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,913 Here, by way of comparison, we have the lower jaw, 233 00:23:00,387 --> 00:23:05,836 the right hand side of a hominid which was found next to Toumaï. 234 00:23:07,894 --> 00:23:12,717 It's not the same individual. Toumaï has a new upper wisdom tooth. 235 00:23:13,295 --> 00:23:15,301 Here the wisdom tooth is very worn. 236 00:23:15,501 --> 00:23:21,547 And we have other remains, which mean that within a very small perimeter 237 00:23:21,847 --> 00:23:24,257 only a few dozen square meters, 238 00:23:25,825 --> 00:23:31,248 there are fragments belonging to at least six different individuals. 239 00:23:32,109 --> 00:23:35,914 That means that here, for the first time, we must have the remains 240 00:23:36,014 --> 00:23:38,530 of the first pre-human family. 241 00:23:43,424 --> 00:23:45,470 So there are other Toumaïs. 242 00:23:46,925 --> 00:23:48,009 But where? 243 00:23:50,123 --> 00:23:52,305 So there are other Toumaïs. 244 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:54,795 But where? 245 00:23:56,338 --> 00:23:57,979 Obviously that's not them. 246 00:24:03,841 --> 00:24:07,371 Other Toumaïs? And Michel thinks that we might have known each other, 247 00:24:07,371 --> 00:24:09,440 that we might have been like a family. 248 00:24:10,214 --> 00:24:11,906 I wonder what it would've been like. 249 00:24:19,526 --> 00:24:21,298 Could it be them? 250 00:24:22,527 --> 00:24:24,050 I think they do look like me. 251 00:24:26,374 --> 00:24:28,137 That one's not quite the same, though. 252 00:24:32,527 --> 00:24:33,615 What should I do? 253 00:24:34,216 --> 00:24:37,288 Should I let them see me? Or maybe better not? 254 00:24:39,330 --> 00:24:40,294 Too late. 255 00:25:09,501 --> 00:25:14,065 I understand now. The smaller one is a female. 256 00:25:16,900 --> 00:25:20,094 Yes, she's definitely different. 257 00:25:26,390 --> 00:25:30,252 With much regret I'm forced to leave my daydream and come back to earth. 258 00:25:30,542 --> 00:25:33,329 The searchers in the desert have made some finds. 259 00:25:37,032 --> 00:25:41,467 But that's the thing. Apparently, it wasn't a desert when I lived here. 260 00:25:41,818 --> 00:25:44,347 This is what Philippe Duringer has found out. 261 00:25:44,609 --> 00:25:48,675 Philippe is a geologist. He has discovered traces or plant life, 262 00:25:48,875 --> 00:25:51,966 and is working out how the climate evolved long ago. 263 00:25:52,206 --> 00:25:55,757 He has concluded that this area was once a lakeside. 264 00:25:56,310 --> 00:25:59,270 And probably resembled a place called the Okavango. 265 00:26:18,493 --> 00:26:21,446 The Okavango river has this peculiar characteristic, 266 00:26:21,546 --> 00:26:23,807 it never flows into a sea or an ocean. 267 00:26:24,148 --> 00:26:28,333 In Botswana, its waters spread out over the sandy planes of the Kalahari desert 268 00:26:28,333 --> 00:26:29,977 and form a vast delta. 269 00:26:30,862 --> 00:26:32,935 It is made up of a succession of shallow lakes, 270 00:26:33,035 --> 00:26:36,348 water courses lined with forests, and wooded savannah. 271 00:26:38,672 --> 00:26:43,599 We travel to the Okavango to find out whether it does resemble the place I used to live. 272 00:26:44,268 --> 00:26:47,365 By studying the right type of habitat and the creatures in it, 273 00:26:47,565 --> 00:26:51,474 Michel can judge more clearly how I lived, what I ate, 274 00:26:51,574 --> 00:26:53,877 what threats there were to my survival. 275 00:27:01,956 --> 00:27:05,907 Guides who know the area well, are going to help us find what we are looking for. 276 00:27:12,057 --> 00:27:16,186 Many scientists believe that the early hominids started to walk upright 277 00:27:16,186 --> 00:27:18,032 because their habitat had changed. 278 00:27:18,469 --> 00:27:22,201 Instead of living in forests, they were adapting to the open savannah. 279 00:27:23,118 --> 00:27:25,787 Michel thinks that the story is more complicated, 280 00:27:26,087 --> 00:27:28,384 and that I lived in a wooded environment. 281 00:27:28,825 --> 00:27:31,334 But, can we find an environment like that? 282 00:27:31,517 --> 00:27:35,151 One which would give me protection and provide me with the right types of food. 283 00:27:56,915 --> 00:28:02,517 This is certainly a pleasant place, though I am not sure all the locals are friendly. 284 00:28:06,422 --> 00:28:09,015 That's better. Back to civilization. 285 00:28:09,362 --> 00:28:12,554 This is professor Jaeger, and he's borrowed me for a while 286 00:28:12,554 --> 00:28:13,773 to have a look at my teeth. 287 00:28:17,123 --> 00:28:20,410 That's one of the most important features of this canine, 288 00:28:22,193 --> 00:28:24,911 it is nearly flat in the side that's used. 289 00:28:27,901 --> 00:28:31,431 So it clearly didn't operate at all like the tooth of a great ape, 290 00:28:32,396 --> 00:28:35,551 of an orangutan, a chimp or a gorilla. 291 00:28:37,674 --> 00:28:40,180 The way Toumaï's teeth are worn down 292 00:28:40,580 --> 00:28:44,288 shows that they must have been used to a considerable extent, 293 00:28:44,573 --> 00:28:46,371 for crushing and grinding. 294 00:28:49,041 --> 00:28:52,503 So even the kind of teeth I have show that I am not an ape. 295 00:28:54,876 --> 00:28:58,480 Professor Jaeger takes a tiny sample of enamel from my teeth. 296 00:28:59,402 --> 00:29:03,459 When acid is added, carbon dioxide will be released. 297 00:29:04,095 --> 00:29:07,180 The carbon component has been locked up for millions of years. 298 00:29:08,048 --> 00:29:11,739 From this, he will be able to find out more about what food I ate. 299 00:29:15,908 --> 00:29:18,499 He discovered that I ate all sorts of things, 300 00:29:19,099 --> 00:29:23,850 fruit, nuts, new leaves, young shoots, termites, roots, tubers. 301 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:26,989 Food which came from a wooded environment. 302 00:29:38,010 --> 00:29:41,177 But having a varied diet is easier said than done. 303 00:29:42,180 --> 00:29:45,177 It is, as you might say, a tough nut to crack. 304 00:30:39,374 --> 00:30:42,206 Given what I can see around me now, in the Okavango, 305 00:30:43,241 --> 00:30:45,338 it can't have been that easy to find food. 306 00:30:46,185 --> 00:30:48,747 When there was nothing left to eat in our patch of woodland, 307 00:30:49,047 --> 00:30:50,951 we would've had to cross the savannah. 308 00:30:51,124 --> 00:30:53,733 To reach a forest where we could forage a bit more. 309 00:30:54,727 --> 00:30:56,975 But that meant taking a terrible risk. 310 00:30:57,637 --> 00:31:01,278 Out there, there's no shelter, and there may be predators about. 311 00:31:01,977 --> 00:31:04,110 Now we know what Toumaï ate, 312 00:31:04,954 --> 00:31:06,550 but what ate Toumaï? 313 00:31:32,213 --> 00:31:34,485 Why are the birds flying around in circles? 314 00:31:35,644 --> 00:31:36,576 What does that mean? 315 00:33:31,178 --> 00:33:32,539 That was a close shave. 316 00:33:33,027 --> 00:33:36,738 But we're all so hungry and we can't bring down large animals ourselves. 317 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:39,437 We have to take advantage of any food we can get. 318 00:33:47,117 --> 00:33:51,291 When we were in Chad, I saw the others find enormous bones, 319 00:33:51,407 --> 00:33:53,789 and I think they might have come from the same animals. 320 00:33:54,766 --> 00:33:57,517 Michel says some of the bones belong to ancestors 321 00:33:57,517 --> 00:33:59,785 of the creatures we see today in the Okavango. 322 00:34:04,107 --> 00:34:07,436 That's a rather primitive species of elephant we call "anancus". 323 00:34:09,153 --> 00:34:10,615 You don't find very many. 324 00:34:12,402 --> 00:34:15,536 That's rather an important specimen because it will give us a reference point. 325 00:34:20,741 --> 00:34:22,709 That's a Euthecodon mandible, 326 00:34:22,967 --> 00:34:26,055 a crocodile already identified at a lot of African sites. 327 00:34:26,907 --> 00:34:31,329 And which we know existed between about 9 and 2 million years ago. 328 00:34:32,117 --> 00:34:35,157 These fragments are important because they show that they were not only 329 00:34:35,157 --> 00:34:39,335 backwaters or swamps here, but also running water with lots of fish, 330 00:34:39,435 --> 00:34:41,791 lots of potential prey species. 331 00:34:46,297 --> 00:34:47,769 After taking them out of the ground, 332 00:34:48,009 --> 00:34:51,963 the scientists protect the best animal fossils from my era in plaster. 333 00:34:52,354 --> 00:34:55,236 They are very important for determining my age. 334 00:35:01,237 --> 00:35:05,980 That's how we came to the evaluation of Toumaï's age as around 7 million years. 335 00:35:06,986 --> 00:35:08,867 Brunet knew we would find a hominid. 336 00:35:09,088 --> 00:35:11,603 And I knew that if we found one, it would be old. 337 00:35:13,225 --> 00:35:14,911 7 million years. 338 00:35:15,607 --> 00:35:18,922 That means I'm the earliest hominid known so far. 339 00:35:21,722 --> 00:35:23,608 I must say I don't feel that old. 340 00:35:35,514 --> 00:35:41,161 It's a humerus of a machairodont, those big cats with upper canines like sabres. 341 00:35:41,878 --> 00:35:43,290 It's much bigger than a tiger. 342 00:35:43,643 --> 00:35:47,285 That's a beast which weighed over 400kg at least. 343 00:35:50,464 --> 00:35:52,291 He was the boss around here. 344 00:35:54,380 --> 00:35:59,023 Back in the Okavango, Michel is still trying to identify some prime hominid habitat. 345 00:35:59,346 --> 00:36:04,192 A place where I, and those like me, could've thrived and raised healthy offspring. 346 00:36:26,844 --> 00:36:32,632 They are one, two, three, four, five. Not so bad. 347 00:36:33,306 --> 00:36:37,102 I guess if the vervet monkeys can live here then, so could Toumaï. 348 00:36:38,594 --> 00:36:41,879 So that's why, at the time, it's a nice place for baboon. 349 00:36:43,887 --> 00:36:46,379 Palm trees. So is the other lot. 350 00:36:47,435 --> 00:36:50,534 In a very small place. So it's not so bad. 351 00:36:50,764 --> 00:36:53,858 Yes. This does look like a lovely place. 352 00:36:54,525 --> 00:36:57,310 Now I can really let my imagination run wild. 353 00:36:58,196 --> 00:37:02,754 I know life could not always have been easy, but there must have been some nice times. 354 00:37:05,369 --> 00:37:09,974 The scientists believe we may have lived in groups similar to those of chimpanzees. 355 00:37:10,531 --> 00:37:14,519 Groups of at least six members, both females and males, 356 00:37:15,414 --> 00:37:17,512 headed by a dominant male. 357 00:38:47,599 --> 00:38:50,135 If Michel only knew what goes on in my mind. 358 00:38:51,510 --> 00:38:52,907 I like this story. 359 00:38:54,021 --> 00:38:59,806 Now I'm head of the group, and it seems that soon I might have some descendents. 360 00:39:10,942 --> 00:39:14,987 Michel never leaves me in peace for a moment. We're back on the road again 361 00:39:14,987 --> 00:39:18,392 and sometimes I'm forced to travel in the most terrible conditions. 362 00:39:18,752 --> 00:39:22,615 But then, I am a scientific phenomenon, and lots of people want to see me. 363 00:39:25,613 --> 00:39:28,573 Until Michel's team found Abel and then me, 364 00:39:28,773 --> 00:39:32,723 all the great hominid fossil discoveries took place in the East of Africa. 365 00:39:32,996 --> 00:39:36,357 There they found fossils that are just a little younger than me. 366 00:39:36,653 --> 00:39:39,198 At least, only a million years or so younger. 367 00:39:39,298 --> 00:39:40,896 There was Orrorin, in Kenya, 368 00:39:41,094 --> 00:39:44,156 and there were several ardipithecus finds in Ethiopia. 369 00:39:50,649 --> 00:39:53,548 Many of these important hominid fossils are held here, 370 00:39:53,651 --> 00:39:56,046 at the National Museum of Ethiopia. 371 00:39:57,082 --> 00:40:00,104 I understand that Michel wants to introduce me to one of them. 372 00:40:00,624 --> 00:40:02,317 Ardipithecus kadabba. 373 00:40:02,883 --> 00:40:08,101 He's 5.8 million years old, the most ancient hominid fossil of Ethiopia. 374 00:40:08,503 --> 00:40:12,711 I think the secret aim of this journey is to see if we might be, somehow, related. 375 00:40:13,335 --> 00:40:15,970 And the interesting thing is that the one from Chad... 376 00:40:15,970 --> 00:40:18,660 That's professor Tim White, of the University of California. 377 00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:21,589 A world expert in human evolution. 378 00:40:24,774 --> 00:40:28,385 The two scientists are joined by Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, 379 00:40:28,385 --> 00:40:30,653 who discovered Ardipithecus kadabba. 380 00:40:32,385 --> 00:40:36,321 Professor White compares the teeth of Ardipithecus with those of my species, 381 00:40:36,421 --> 00:40:39,194 and notes that we both have a very similar jaw structure. 382 00:40:41,513 --> 00:40:45,878 He even goes so far as to say that I could be the ancestor of Ardipithecus. 383 00:40:46,569 --> 00:40:49,495 This could be a vital clue, implying that hominids 384 00:40:49,495 --> 00:40:52,759 may have gradually migrated from West to East Africa. 385 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:55,612 But Michel seems to have some reservations. 386 00:40:58,274 --> 00:41:01,660 For me, it's too early to answer. 387 00:41:02,869 --> 00:41:08,860 I have not enough. You have not enough. We have not enough. It's too early. 388 00:41:10,695 --> 00:41:13,193 The scientists have a new surprise for me. 389 00:41:13,493 --> 00:41:16,947 They're going to introduce me to another important figure. 390 00:41:21,130 --> 00:41:23,307 Ici, Herto, 391 00:41:24,186 --> 00:41:27,569 155 to 160.000 years old, 392 00:41:28,131 --> 00:41:33,181 the earliest homo-sapiens, the direct ancestor of modern humans. 393 00:41:33,372 --> 00:41:36,923 So we have, in terms of our understanding of human evolution, 394 00:41:37,667 --> 00:41:41,640 we have an understanding at the beginning and at the end of the story. 395 00:41:42,300 --> 00:41:47,327 That's a wonderful moment, to have on the same table 396 00:41:47,527 --> 00:41:51,619 the earliest sapiens and the earliest hominid. 397 00:41:51,819 --> 00:41:57,209 We have not only these end points, but we have literally thousands of fossils 398 00:41:57,309 --> 00:42:01,002 in the middle, like this one from the Lucy species, 399 00:42:01,202 --> 00:42:08,367 a jaw that is incontrovertibly not an ape, and also, not a human. 400 00:42:08,875 --> 00:42:10,850 it is something in between. 401 00:42:13,180 --> 00:42:17,624 Toumaï is obviously not a human being. A human ancestor, yes. 402 00:42:17,911 --> 00:42:22,805 Because we know the features of its face, particularly its teeth. 403 00:42:23,175 --> 00:42:24,226 Its base of cranium. 404 00:42:25,182 --> 00:42:29,468 It looks like it's on our evolutionary line but right near the base 405 00:42:30,210 --> 00:42:34,618 of the line that would ultimately lead to things like Herto in Ethiopia. 406 00:42:48,667 --> 00:42:53,477 While in Addis Ababa, Michel pays a visit to someone important: 407 00:42:54,995 --> 00:42:55,899 Lucy. 408 00:42:56,955 --> 00:43:01,476 A small female Australopithecus, discovered 30 years ago. 409 00:43:02,758 --> 00:43:07,534 For many years, she was the oldest known ancestor of mankind. 410 00:43:08,938 --> 00:43:11,350 Now, all that has changed. 411 00:43:13,519 --> 00:43:16,693 For Michel, Lucy is an important symbol, 412 00:43:17,437 --> 00:43:22,319 because she is situated halfway between you and me on the evolutionary scale. 413 00:43:22,891 --> 00:43:29,337 Since she is 3.2 million years old, she is slightly closer to you, than she is to me. 414 00:43:37,140 --> 00:43:41,948 I'm a hominid. Official name: Sahelanthropus Tchadensis, 415 00:43:42,148 --> 00:43:44,123 alias, Toumaï. 416 00:43:44,970 --> 00:43:49,823 I'm nearly 7 million years old, a new species of pre-human being. 417 00:43:50,323 --> 00:43:54,161 The closest known to the split between chimpanzees and humans. 418 00:43:54,730 --> 00:43:57,128 I am mankind's new ancestor. 419 00:43:59,458 --> 00:44:01,594 Today there is a new being in the world. 420 00:44:01,994 --> 00:44:04,748 A miniature one, a baby Toumaï. 421 00:44:27,319 --> 00:44:29,495 I am the ancestor of mankind. 422 00:44:30,989 --> 00:44:34,935 So, did Lucy, and all the Australopithecines, descend from me, 423 00:44:35,035 --> 00:44:36,617 or from a creature like me? 424 00:44:42,093 --> 00:44:46,040 After 350,000 generations, did we give birth to you... 425 00:44:47,359 --> 00:44:48,454 Homo Sapiens? 426 00:45:20,936 --> 00:45:26,810 Did my kind, 7 million years ago, have any consciousness of what we were? 427 00:45:28,592 --> 00:45:33,827 Of all the wise people I've met, none has been able to answer this question. 428 00:45:59,973 --> 00:46:04,190 I wanted to save them. I tried to distract the beast. 429 00:46:04,475 --> 00:46:06,067 To give them time to get away. 430 00:46:07,891 --> 00:46:09,755 I started to run as fast as I could. 431 00:46:34,188 --> 00:46:38,044 My name is Toumaï. I am your new ancestor. 432 00:46:39,517 --> 00:46:44,140 This is the end of my story, and the beginning of yours. Edit this page (you have permission) Edit this page (if you have permission) | Report spam Google Docs -- Web word processing, presentations and spreadsheets.