Origins of Us: Human Anatomy and Evolution
Clinical anatomist, author and broadcaster Alice Roberts gave her lecture as part of the Darwin Day celebrations, with a focus on the anatomy and evolution of humans as a species.
We are all members of a very special species. Whilst our anatomy and physiology is undoubtedly that of an ape, we have done things that no other ape can do, and become the most successful ape on the planet.
Today, our global population numbers almost seven billion; we survive and thrive everywhere from the tropics to the Arctic.
So just what is it that makes us so special? In some ways we are so similar to our closest cousins, chimpanzees, but it's also clear that we are a world apart. But we can understand ourselves,
how we got to where we are today, by going back into our deep past, to the time when we were just another African ape. And then tracing the small changes that over time, and unpredictably, led to us becoming human.
The answers to the question of 'what makes us human?' lie buried in the ground in the form of fossils and traces of our ancestors, but also lie deep within the form and function of our bodies.'
| Origins of Us: Human Anatomy and Evolution |
| Related Links |
| Origins of Us This is a BBC documentary series presented by Dr. Alice Roberts, showing how we evolved away from our ape cousins to become the adaptable, successful species we are today. |
| Prehistoric Autopsy This is a BBC documentary series presented by Professor Alice Roberts and Dr. George McGavin, taking us on an evolutionary journey to meet three of our ancient ancestors - Neanderthals, Homo Erectus, and Lucy. |
| Walking with Cavemen This is a four-part BBC documentary series narrated by Robert Winston, about the story of human evolution from Australopithecus afarensis to Homo sapiens. |
| Becoming Human: Unearthing Our Earliest Ancestors This is a three-part NOVA's documentary series investigating the recent discoveries transforming our understanding of our human origins. |
| Origins of Genus Homo This explores evidence bearing on the emergence of our genus, focusing on possible antecedents to Homo, changes in diet and body form as Australopithecus evolved toward Homo, ancient species within the genus, and evolutionary processes. |
| Behaviorally Modern Humans: The Origin of Us One of the enduring questions of human origins is when, where and how we Behaviorally Modern Humans emerged and why and how we eventually replaced all the other human-like species. |
| The Upright Ape: Bipedalism and Human Origins Why are we the only two-legged creature to develop an exclusively upright gait? And what did it mean to the development of the human species? |