First Man

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25 million years ago,

a new species appeared on earth:

the great apes.

Among them was one family

with extraordinary abilities.

They were our distant ancestors.

Through evolution they gave rise to new,

more advanced species.

They ventured far and wide and invented hunting,

power, tools, love,

and soon war.

They competed with the great beasts,

conquered the planet, adapted to every climate.

They became us, Homo sapiens,

modern man.

Where and when did our lineage begin?

Who was the first of us?

What is that quality that makes us human?

The difference that sets us

apart from other animals?

Thanks to the latest scientific discoveries,

we are about to take a journey

into the depths of time

to find out which of our ancestors took

the decisive step

and gave birth to the first man.

Our family story begins 25 million years ago

at at time of intense global warming,

with the vast Tethys Ocean fragmenting

and closing off in the near east,

humid forests spread north from Africa.

Our distant ancestors followed the forest

and rapidly populated the ancient world.

They ruled the canopy, a

hundred different species.

Gigantopithecus,

Ramapithecus, Sivapithecus,

stretched from Europe to modern-day China.

This is the age of the planet of the apes.

Which of these great primates

is our common ancestor?

The Mediterranean coast 13 million years ago

in modern-day Spain.

A humid tropical forest.

Here lives a creature with exceptional abilities.

This acrobat is Pierolapithecus.

The animal kingdom has never seen such a marvel.

This great ape is the origin

of our family, but how?

What makes him our great grandfather?

We are only beginning to understand.

Pierola lives in the trees

and mainly eats fruit.

He is too heavy to walk on the branches,

so he hangs.

Though he does sometimes end up on two feet.

He can walk.

Contrary to common belief,

the ability to walk upright wasn't developed

on the ground, but up in the branches.

Bipedalism was not man's invention, but the apes.

This Pierola is a young male.

He left his family several days ago.

He now faces a difficult task:

being adopted by a new group.

And he's just discovered one.

His fate will be decided here.

But each group has its own territory

and intruders are rarely welcome.

A young female and her infant.

Mothers are especially weary.

Not easy to approach.

Up there, there is an older female.

Much easier to make contact.

A large male, clearly a dominant alpha male.

He seems calm,

but it is far too dangerous to approach.

To be accepted, he must first be noticed.

A tense moment.

Has the young female picked up his scent?

She's the most beautiful Pierola he's ever seen.

It seems to be going all right.

But there's another story with the alpha male.

He could kill him.

But for now it's just physical intimidation.

The young male's first attempt ends in failure.

But his mood provokes an unexpected reaction.

Our ancestors possessed a new quality

previously unknown in the animal kingdom.

Something shared by a very few species.

Empathy.

Understanding the emotions of others.

Even extraordinary, they are affected by

the feelings of others.

Sympathy.

It's happening to the older female.

She feels the distress of the young male

and it makes her anxious.

She must act.

She wants to find out more about him.

Empathy is a powerful force.

It is the thing that allows us to live

in a society today.

Why does he need to be adopted by strangers?

It relates to the social structure of Pierolas.

The females never leave the group while

the males are forced to leave in adolescence.

What do the old female's gestures mean?

Will he be able to stay?

Not yet.

The young male keeps his distance.

He needs to sleep.

Most mammals only sleep for

a few minutes at a time.

Not Pierolas.

In terms of sleeping, they are revolutionaries.

The Pierolas have come up with

an extraordinary invention.

They build nests in the treetops.

But it takes a long time to learn

how to build a nest,

and the only way to learn is from mother.

They young male always slept in his mother's nest.

He still doesn't know how to make his own.

Up here, Pierolas are protected from predators,

and their leaf mats stop them from falling.

They can sleep all night without fear.

Long restorative nights.

Thanks to the miracle of sleep,

Pierolas improve their mental faculties.

Sleep allows our brains to sort information.

Not all of it received during the day is useful.

Our brain puts some in the trash

and stores the essential part in our memory.

All that while we sleep.

Remarkable.

Pierolas have passed this down to us.

Without this invention,

we could never have become humans.

This morning the group have come down

to the forest floor.

The young male followed them.

He wants to make contact with the group again.

Pierolas love the sweet taste of fruit,

but they have an advantage over other species.

Their stomachs can digest all sorts of food.

Well, they still have their favorites.

There they are.

The young male has made his choice

and will approach the older female.

Out of all the different foods in the forest,

some are highly poisonous.

How do they know what is

edible and what is poisonous?

For Pierolas the answer is sharing experiences.

The mother teaches her young how to choose,

how to pick.

This knowledge is passed from

generation to generation.

The beginning of a culture.

The older female can have a new contact.

Like all Pierolas, the young

male knows how to give gifts.

Figs.

Will she accept them?

It's a good sign.

Now he can begin the conversation.

The language of the Pierolas

mainly consists of grooming.

Grooming and caresses say far more than words.

But touching females in the group risks

angering the alpha male.

The females defend the young

male against the alpha.

Their numbers make them stronger.

The alpha must back down.

Among Pierolas, the females have the power.

The young male has taken an important step.

He has become the old female's favorite.

Now it's the female's turn to caress.

But this seems like more than caressing.

What exactly does she want?

The young male has no experience of pleasure.

To relax the atmosphere,

Pierolas have invented a totally new behavior.

Laughing.

This development which resolves conflicts

is not a human invention, but an inheritance.

Our ancestors lived in an earthly paradise.

Fruits in abundance, fresh

water available everywhere,

and in all seasons.

The only real dangers are the predators

that roam the floor of the great forest.

To detect them, Pierolas read

the signs of the forest.

They have a deep understanding

of their environment.

The cry of a bird alerts them.

The alarm sounds.

A tiger.

They have a different call for each predator.

That means the alert is lifted.

They can go back now.

Pierolas live in a golden age for the great apes,

but this period of prosperity cannot last.

Great upheaval is on the horizon.

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