Cornell Video

Since the time of separation of the evolutionary lines of apes and humans about 5 million years ago, some fossil specimens of the skeletal remains of our earliest ancestors have been preserved and discovered. Putting together the pieces of the puzzle of human biological history is the task of paleontologists, geologists and anthropologists.

In this room we explore how these scientists can reconstruct the past from their studies of the geological contexts in which fossils are found, the dating of the specimens, their comparative anatomy with extinct and living species of our taxonomic order, the Primates, and the lifeways and behavior patterns of the first members of the human family within the Primates.

By looking at reproductions and pictures of this fossil record, including representations of pre-human Primate species, we learn about our prehistoric beginnings among those populations of first two million years of our evolution, as identified as Ardipithecus, Australopithecus and the earliest members assigned to our own genus- Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis.

This video is part 12 of 13 in the Human Paleontology series.