Ape to Man

It is natural for children to ask "where do I come from", a question all parents face with some degree of trepidation. This innocent query is merely an outgrowth of a question that has faced mankind for the duration of our species. How did man come to be? This seems simple enough but no question has divided men quite the way this one has. There are two main camps, first, creationist, those that believe that God created man as written in the book of Genesis. Second, there are the evolutionists, those that feel that man descended from the ape. This conflict came to the public eye in 1925 in the now famous Scopes trial featured in the classic drama, Inherit the Wind. Now, the History channel focuses its unblinking eye upon the controversy with Ape to Man. This latest feature focuses on the discoveries and theories that have caused one segment of the science of biology to become the center of a battle that stands in courts even today.

Using the style that has made the History Channel one of the best cable channels they tell the story by switching between reenactments of events presumed to have happened long ago and the scientists that takes fragments of bone or fossils to piece together what occurred back at the dawn of man. The first scene happens some 40,000 years ago. A man clad in rough animal skins is killed by others of his kind at the entrance to a cave. The place is now known as the Neander Valley of Germany in the year 1856. Men are digging for lime stone, vital to the local economy as part of chemical manufacture. A worker comes across a skull; it appears that it may be human and thinking it may be a murder victim they show it to their foreman. From there the bones found their way to a naturalist, Johann Karl Fuhlrott who collaborated with Hermann Schaafhausen and the pair jointly announced the discovery ushering in the science of paleoanthropology.

As more and more scientist became enticed by the new field of paleanthropology it became evident that the Holy Grail for these new researchers would be the transitional creature mid way between ape and man, the missing link in evolution. While Fuhlrott had hoped that his Neanderthal man would fit the bill but this creature was more a man with some ape-like characteristics than something different than man or ape. The Neanderthal was estimated to have been some 3,000 generations or 40,000 years in the past. Believing that such a missing link would best be located where primitive man coexisted with apes the focus moved from Europe to the South East Asia, specifically Sumatra. It was here in 1889 that Eugene Du Bois set out to find the missing link that would prove for once and for all that man descended from the ape. After many disappointing months of nothing he moves his search to the island of Java. In 1891 he is brought part of a fossilized skull. It did not match any known ape and was definitely not from a modern human so he compared to the Neanderthal man. His discovery would turn out to be vastly older, on the order of 500,000 to 1,000,000 years old. When a complete leg bone is then found Du Bois can not make the pieces fit his model of what the missing link should look like so he changes the model and sends in a paper for consideration. He called the creature, Pithecanthropus erectus, up-right walking ape man. Unfortunately, much doubt was cast upon the finding since a complete skeleton was never located.

This would not be the only false hope in this quest for the missing link. In 1912 and English scientist, Charles Dawson gathered noted colleagues to uncover Eoanthropus dawsoni, the Piltdown man. The skull matched all expectations of what the missing link should have. It had the large brain of man with the jaw of an ape. Many years later the discovery was proven to be a hoax, made up of part of a medieval man with the bones of a chimpanzee.

Also included is an examination the work of Dr. Leslie Aiello on the interrelationship between the physical modifications that differentiates species and the impact of climatic changes. Most of her work centered on changes in the brain and cognition in hominids. She strove to show that what really mattered in the changes in the early proto-humans was the brain and how it related to the world around it. As the climate of early Europe changed, growing warmer, the culture of these hominids altered to develop various coping mechanisms. Dr. Aiello altered the focus of the development of the human species from the purely physical to the growth of the mind and how early man was able to perceive and control his environment.

Not only does this program show the advances made by the dedicated people that dug for the bones, it details the changes in how the criteria for ancestors of man would be considered. Everything from the gate used while walking to the use of tools are now considered, not just crude measurements of the size of bones. The scientists now take into account the social habits of the primitive creatures, how they related to each other and the origins of human societies. All of this now combines to try to present a full picture of man thousands of generations ago.

As for the quality of this presentation, it’s from the History Channel, little more has to be said to ensure the best production possible was placed into this program. The reenactments of primitive man and the early scientists that searched for his remains were fascinating. Each one of these segments is like a mini movie, engrossing and educational. The usual talking head experts were able to present the explanations in such a way as to hold the interest of the audience. The History Channel typically engages experts that are not only knowable but able to share their excitement in the field with others. No matter what side of the creationism/evolution debate you are on this is an excellent program to view. It is informative and entertaining, just what you would expect from the History Channel.

Posted 7/11/05