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Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Alan Davies, Rebecca Wragg Sykes and Tori Herridge to learn about our much misunderstood, early human cousins, the Neanderthals

The Neanderthals

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by hominids Alan Davies, Neanderthal expert and author Rebecca Wragg Sykes, and paleontologist and woolly mammoth expert Tori Herridge and learn just how misunderstood our ancestors have been. The image of the lumbering, ape like, simple, grunting Neanderthal has been turned on its head with the discovery that we are far more related to Neanderthals then we ever thought possible. Nearly all Europeans will have around 2% Neanderthal DNA, and the revelation of widespread interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans has turned the idea of our exceptionalism on its head. It seems that what defines us may have defined the Neanderthals as well, and we are not so different after all.

Producer: Alexandra Feachem

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39 minutes

Last on

Sat 27 Mar 2021 19:15

Broadcasts

  • Mon 25 Jan 2021 16:30
  • Sat 27 Mar 2021 19:15

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