| The Survivors | ||||||||||||
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| Previous episode Savage Family |
Following episode Dangerous Seas | |||||||||||
The final episode of Walking with Cavemen talks about the last stages of human evolution.
Summary[]
Full synopsis[]
It starts with a trio of Homo heidelbergensis hunting a Megaloceros. One of the H. heidelbergensis gets hurt in the process, and though the rest of the tribe, his family, cares deeply for him while he is still alive, they leave him behind once he is dead - H. heidelbergensis still lacked imagination.
Then the episode talks about how H. heidelbergensis split into two branches - the European Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons (played by live actors without any makeup). The Survivors deal with the Neanderthals first, showing how they were adapted to live in Ice Age Europe, how very resilient and physically powerful they were, but they still lack imagination, as their ancestors did.
Cro-Magnons, on the other hand, developed ingenuity, as shown by a hollow ostrich egg converted into a water flask. Consequently, when the Ice Age began to wane and the Cro-Magnons moved north, they displaced the Neanderthals and drove them to extinction (though there are other theories).
The episode ends with Robert Winston showing a Cro-Magnon baby and telling the audience that this is essentially a modern human baby and that the journey of human evolution is complete.
Creatures []
400 Thousand Years Ago (Southern England)[]
140 Thousand Years Ago (France)[]
- Neanderthal
- Mountain Hare (live acted)
- Woolly Mammoth
140 Thousand Years Ago (Southern Africa) []
- Homo Sapiens Idaltu
- Lizard (live acted)
- Beetle (live acted)
- Snake (live acted)
30 Thousand Years Ago (Southern Europe)[]
Trivia[]
Gallery[]
Errors/Scientific inaccuracies[]
Broadcast[]
Original airdate[]
- 23 April 2003 19.00 BBC Four
Repeat[]
- 24 April 2003 20.30 BBC One Postponed from 17 April