29-04-2025
BBC to mark major TV first with new show's 'mind-boggling' historical discovery
BBC Two's upcoming five-part science show Human will reveal the 'mind-boggling' evidence which proves that the human race is actually a third older than we thought
'Mind-boggling' evidence which proves Homo sapiens have roamed the earth for 300,000 years - rather than the previously believed 200,000 - is to be shown on TV for the first time. The bombshell news is delivered by paleoanthropologist presenter Ella Al-Shamahi, who travels to a dig in Morocco for her upcoming BBC2 series Human.
In the show, she explains how breakthroughs in DNA technology have helped expert to date the remarkable new fossil evidence. 'With each new find the evidence grew - these were not some other species but Homo sapiens, with hints of an earlier ancestor. It wasn't until archaeologists were able to more accurately date the remains that the final piece of the puzzle fell into place.
'That is mind-boggling, because we thought our species was only about 200,000 years old. What these fossils tell us is that our species, Homo sapiens, is 100,000 years older than we thought. We are a third older than we realised.'
In the show Ella is shown holding a skull, to explain: 'This fossil went from being enigmatic to being one of the most important fossils in our whole field.'
Speaking at a BBC Science event this week, she said the finds had come after 'a revolution in ancient DNA' in the past decade or so. 'There's been lots of breakthroughs - we think we've found a second hobbit species - and this fantastical world hasn't really been put on television in that time.'
The series, which airs later this summer, also pushes back on the idea that humanity started in east Africa. 'This is in Morocco. They date it and realise it's on the journey to become Homo sapien - when you look at it, its face looks Homo sapien but it's brain-case doesn't. So what it suggests is that it wasn't east Africa that was the cradle of civilisation, it was the whole of Africa that was the mothership - and that these populations were interacting.
"They call it the pan-Africa theory and it's absolutely fascinating and very new, so it felt like just the right time to be doing this series.'
BBC factual boss Jack Bootle agreed: 'To a general viewer that is all new - we've certainly never put it in a British science show before.'
The five-parter looks at how we are the only remaining human species left, despite remains of many more having been discovered. Using a combination of archaeology, travelogue and reconstruction to tell the story of modern humans, Ella questions what happened to the ones which no longer exist - leaving us to become the most dominant species on the planet.
