Catch up TV

Series 1: 2. Into the Unknown

Following early Homo sapiens's ancestors as they step out of Africa and venture into the wider world, heading into areas inhabited by other human species.\n\nAround 60,000 years ago, a small group of Homo sapiens migrated into the Middle East. Recent DNA discoveries reveal that every human alive today whose origins are from outside Africa is a descendant of this group. In just a few thousand years, they spread across the globe.\n\nPaleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi visits the rainforests of Sri Lanka and discovers how Homo sapiens became the only human species to make the unforgiving jungle its home, using innovative techniques like hunting monkeys with arrowheads made from monkey bones. On the Indonesian island of Flores, she finds out about another human species, the tiny Homo floresiensis, and asks how our ancestors became the first human species to make the 60,000 mile journey across open ocean to Australia.

Source: BBC 2