National Geographic: Mysteries of Mankind Page #2
- Year:
- 1988
- 993 Views
a fossil tell little
about how the creature actually lived.
But perhaps the behavior
Charles Darwin wrote that we are most
closely related to the African apes.
But at that time no one knew how
closely or to which species.
a most unlikely source
the test tubes of molecular biologists.
Twenty years ago Dr. Vincent Sarich
and his colleagues at the University
of California
were among a small group of scientists
dating evolution with molecules
and test tubes instead of fossils.
Sarich's group compared a blood
protein in 13 species of primates,
including humans,
and charted when each had diverged
from a common ancestor.
from those obtained from fossils.
Among the great apes,
beginning millions of years ago,
the line that led to orangutans
from a common ancestor.
The evidence suggests gorillas
were next.
According to Sarich,
chimpanzees and man
may have diverged as recently as four
Such a recent divergence
was almost impossible
for many scientists to accept.
Laymen were equally reluctant
to listen.
There is still a very strong
resistance to looking
at human beings in an evolutionary
context, especially behavioral.
Because we want to
retain a separateness.
We don't want to see ourselves
as having any non-human
in our ancestry.
There are significant differences
between us.
We are essentially hairless
Oh, he likes the beard.
We are habitually upright walkers,
we have a much larger brain,
and we have the gift
of spoken language.
But genetically humans and
chimpanzees are 99% identical.
Chimps may even be more closely related
to us than they are to gorillas.
In 1960 Louis Leakey,
with uncanny intuition,
sent a young woman into the field
to study chimpanzees.
Jane Goodall's 27-year old study has
become a classic
and confirms Leakey's conviction that
chimps have much to teach us
about the behavior of early humans.
Understanding of chimp behavior today
helps us to understand the way in which
our early ancestors may have lived.
Because I think it makes sense
to say any behavior shared
by the modern chimpanzee
and the modern human
was probably present
in the common ancestor.
And if it was present in the common
ancestor, therefore in early man.
A mechanical leopard was instrumental
in an experiment
with chimpanzees conducted
by scientists
from the University of Amsterdam.
Anthropologists have
long puzzled over how
our ancestors defended
themselves against predators.
How could such small creatures,
not yet intelligent enough to make
stone weapons, have possibly survived?
Translation
Translate and read this script in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"National Geographic: Mysteries of Mankind" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/national_geographic:_mysteries_of_mankind_14554>.
Discuss this script with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In