Hi Kat,

I wached it a little more closely last night, and enjoyed more than the other night. From a layman's perspective, they did a great job of placing the various fossil discoveries in relation to eachother.

Let me see if I've got the theory right:

+- 3M years ago, Lucy was the first bipedal chimp-like human ancestor.

Various "branches" of Ape-Human like ancestors descended from Lucy, sometimes two or more branches living in the same time period, some branches "dead ends".

800k years ago, Homo Erectus (Java Man), a tool user, spread from Africa, throughout Europe and Asia.

50-80k years ago, Neanderthals, descendants of Homo Erectus, lived in Europe.

40k years ago, Homo Sapiens, a separate species also descended from Homo Erectus, migrated in to Europe from Africa in a "second wave", encountered and wiped out Neanderthal.



Some other theories or ideas I've heard that were not discussed on the program:

Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals inter-bred, and Neanderthal wasn't necessarily wiped out by Homo Sapiens.

Some very early human descendants originated in Australia or Asia, not Africa.

How much controversy is there today on these issues?

Peski
"Marge, don’t discourage the boy! Weaseling out of something is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals. Except the weasel." - Homer Simpson