Prehistoric Autopsy
Film cover
GenreDocumentary film
Directed byNatalie Humphreys
(creative director)
Narrated byGeorge McGavin
Alice Roberts
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodesThree one-hour episodes
Production
ProducersJane Aldous
(executive producer);
Graeme Thomson
(series producer)
CinematographyVic Kusin
Phil Piotrowsky
EditorsPaul Conti
John Steventon
John Wilson
Running time3 h (180 min)
Production companyBBC
Original release
NetworkBBC
Release22 October 2012 (2012-10-22)

Prehistoric Autopsy is a 2012 British television documentary film series shown in three one-hour episodes on BBC Two. The series is about human evolution and is narrated by biologist George McGavin and anatomist Alice Roberts. Graeme Thomson is the series producer and Jane Aldous is the executive producer.[1][2]

Episodes

No. Episode Original air date
1"Neanderthal" 22 October 2012 (2012-10-22)
Neanderthal hominids were a species of archaic humans in the genus Homo that dates possibly to 600,000 years ago, but more likely to 250,000 years ago, and went extinct about 40,000 years ago.[3][4][5][6] This episode presents an attempt to reconstruct the way Neanderthals looked, based on available fossil evidence, especially those related to 70,000 year-old La Ferrassie 1.
2"Homo erectus" 23 October 2012 (2012-10-23)
Homo erectus hominids were a species of extinct humans in the genus Homo that dates to 1.9 million years ago and went extinct as recently as 35,000 years ago.[7] This episode presents an attempt to reconstruct the way Homo erectus looked, based on available fossil evidence, especially those related to 1.6 million-year-old Nariokotome Boy.
3"Lucy" 24 October 2012 (2012-10-24)
Lucy is an example of Australopithecus afarensis, a hominin in the genus Australopithecus that dates to 3.9 million years ago and went extinct about 2.9 million years ago.[8] This episode presents an attempt to reconstruct the way Australopithecus afarensis looked, based on available fossil evidence, especially those related to 3.2 million-year-old Lucy.

Participants

The documentary film series is narrated by George McGavin and Alice Roberts and includes the following participants (alphabetized by last name):

See also

References

  1. ^ Staff (22 October 2012). "Prehistoric Autopsy". BBC. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  2. ^ Staff (2017). "Prehistoric Autopsy". IMDb. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  3. ^ Dorey, Fran (30 October 2015). "Homo Neanderthalensis - The Neanderthals". Australian Museum. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  4. ^ Gibbons, John (11 August 2015). "Why Did Neanderthals Go Extinct?". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  5. ^ Rincon, Paul (13 September 2006). "Neanderthals' 'last rock refuge'". BBC News. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  6. ^ Finlayson C, Pacheco FG, Rodríguez-Vidal J, et al. (October 2006). "Late survival of Neanderthals at the southernmost extreme of Europe". Nature. 443 (7113): 850–853. Bibcode:2006Natur.443..850F. doi:10.1038/nature05195. PMID 16971951. S2CID 4411186.
  7. ^ Staff (6 July 2011). "Scientists Show That Modern Humans Never Co-Existed With Homo Erectus". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  8. ^ Prins, Harald E. L; Walrath, Dana; McBride, Bunny (2007). Evolution And Prehistory: The Human Challenge, by William A. Haviland, Harald E. L. Prins, Dana Walrath, Bunny McBride. ISBN 9780495381907.

External links

Neanderthal
Human evolution
Prehistoric technology
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Categories