Homo sapiens once shared the world with several other kinds of humans. So why are we the only human species left?
This video explores what happened to Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, Homo naledi, and other human relatives. Their disappearances were probably not one dramatic extinction event, but a complicated mixture of climate change, small populations, competition, isolation, disease, interbreeding, and bad luck.
You’ll also learn why human evolution looks less like a tidy march toward us and more like a badly managed family tree — and how some supposedly extinct humans still survive in our DNA.
Which other human species would you most like archaeologists to discover more about? Let us know in the comments.
Chapters:
00:00 A building full of human species
00:52 The badly managed human family tree
01:25 Homo erectus and Homo naledi
02:42 Neanderthals and Denisovans
03:39 The small humans of Southeast Asia
05:00 Competition without a prehistoric war
05:39 Why small populations disappear
06:31 Climate, culture, technology, and disease
07:37 Extinction through interbreeding
08:27 Why Homo sapiens survived
09:11 The last occupied room
#HumanEvolution #Prehistory #Anthropology
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