By 3 News online staff
Models created for a new BBC documentary show what our ancient ancestors probably would have looked like.
Constructed using replicas of real bones, and padded out with modelling clay, silicon and fibreglass, the three figures are the most lifelike representations of what our prehistoric relatives looked like, according to the producers of BBC2 show Prehistoric Autopsy.
"You can tell a lot about a skeleton, if you know how to read it," executive producer Jane Aldous told The Daily Mail.
"Hopefully this is a novel and fresh way of making evolutionary programming which will attract more people to it and make it more accessible."
The three models show how Australopithecus Afarensis, Homo Erectus and Neanderthal man would have looked.
Australopithecus dates back 3.2 million years, was short and hairy and able to walk on two legs. Erectus was the first Homo species to shed its body hair, and there's new evidence that Neandarthal man spent more time making clothes than hunting prey.
"By piecing together how these three moved, how they looked and how similar they were to us today I think we've gained a better understanding not only of our family history but what it means to be human," says historian Prof Alice Roberts.
"I love the fact that we think of Neanderthals as big game hunters and yet here we are looking at them and saying well actually what's really shaped their bones is not hunting but making clothes."
Researchers for the show based their conclusion on a 70,000-year-old skeleton which had a substantially larger right arm than left.
"Neanderthals lived in a cold climate. They needed to stay warmer than just their physiology would allow for," says anthropologist Colin Shaw.
"To produce a hide takes a great deal of processing: it takes approximately eight hours of scraping per hide, you need five to six hides and each individual needs a new suit per year.
"If one person was doing it for their family they could remain busy scraping for half a year. That might explain the right side dominance and the massive asymmetry you see in Neanderthals."
It's also believed they stabbed their prey – usually mammoths – instead of throwing spears.
3 News
source: newshub archive
