Back to Show
Eons
Our Most Mysterious Extinct Cousins
Season 6
Episode 12
There was a group of hominins, those creatures more closely related to us than to chimpanzees, that did take a different, parallel journey from our ancestors. Our paths ran beside each other - and potentially even crossed at times - but while ours led us here, theirs led to extinction. What happened to Paranthropus and what can their fate tell us about our past?
Support Provided By

9:34
We’re taking a look towards the deep future. After all, the story is far from over.

7:59
When did we start practicing medicine in its varied, complex forms?

9:11
For some, the rise of venomous elapid snakes was an almost apocalyptic catastrophe.

12:07
When you only have fossils, how do you know if a dinosaur is female or male?

11:57
What are animal-like fossils doing in rocks a billion years old?

8:42
Exoskeleton fragments may have allowed microbes to sail the ocean and change the world.

10:45
Fire only exists only on Earth because fire can’t exist without life.

7:09
Turns out bats didn’t give us butterflies and we should be thanking bees and beans.

8:58
Graptolites show us how unpredictable the Silurian period really could be.

9:05
How can we figure out when we first started wearing clothes?

7:50
From an evolutionary perspective, is bigger always better?

9:14
How did ants take over the world?