Available online
Description
The programme looks at the way in which fossil finds are excavated, cleaned, interpreted and fitted into an existing evolutionary framework. It concentrates particularly on skulls of Homo erectus, ...Petralona man, and Neanderthal man. The programme was recorded in Somerset in an old Pleistocene site. Dr. Peter Andrews and Dr. Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London discuss the site and the fossils they have found. Finally, Dr. Stringer looks at Petralona man, a fossil hominid found in Greece and thought to be the original "Greek Neanderthal", but later found to be of intermediate nature between Homo erectus and Neanderthal man.
The programme looks at the way in which fossil finds are excavated, cleaned, interpreted and fitted into an existing evolutionary framework. It concentrates particularly on skulls of Homo erectus, ...Petralona man, and Neanderthal man. The programme was recorded in Somerset in an old Pleistocene site. Dr. Peter Andrews and Dr. Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London discuss the site and the fossils they have found. Finally, Dr. Stringer looks at Petralona man, a fossil hominid found in Greece and thought to be the original "Greek Neanderthal", but later found to be of intermediate nature between Homo erectus and Neanderthal man.
| Module code and title: | S101, Science: a foundation course |
|---|---|
| Item code: | S101; 20 |
| First transmission date: | 24-07-1979 |
| Published: | 1979 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:24:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Denis Gartside |
| Contributors: | Peter Andrews; Neil Chalmers; Richard Leakey; Chris String |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Carbon dating; Homo erectus; Petralona |
| Subject terms: | Fossils; Neanderthals |
| Footage description: | Artist impression of a group of paleolithic cave dwellers. Neil Chalmers, at a limestone quarry in Somerset, introduces the programme. He explains, briefly, how fossils are deposited and how one goes about finding them. Interview with Richard Leakey in an aircraft over Kenya. He explains how he came to be interested in this area as a site for his excavation. Occasional aerial shots of the landscape while he talks. Over panning shots of the limestone quarry in Somerset, Chalmers points out the site of an ancient cave being excavated there for paleolithic human remains around 400,000 years old. Peter Andrews, leader of the quarry dig, goes into some detail on how this particular site is being excavated. Shots of some of the excavation techniques while he talks. He goes on, briefly, to list some of the fossils recovered there. Artist impression of a cave bear and a sabre toothed tiger. The processes of cleaning and reconstructing fossils, both on site and in the laboratory, are shown. Commentary by Neil Chalmers and Peter Andrews. Over shots of a fossil sample undergoing Carbon -14 dating at the British Museum Carbon Dating laboratory, Neil Chalmers describes this method for dating organic fossils. Commentary by Neil Chalmers, over shots of the area around Petralona, Greece and of shots of the Petralona skull, and a Neanderthal skull, outlines the controversy over dating the Petralona skull. He points out the diagnostic features which allow an interpretation of the find to be made. Chris Stringer, British Museum (Natural History) examines the three skulls and explains the criteria he used to classify the Petralona skull as belong to an individual intermediate between Neanderthal and Homo-erectus. X - ray photographs of the three skulls also help to illustrate his points. Stringer lists two methods for dating fossils, uranium-thorium and thermoluminescence, which can be used when the carbon-14 method has reached its limit. He explains how the thermoluminescence method allowed him to date the Petralona skull at over 250,000 years old. Shots of a sample being dated by this method as he talks. Neil Chalmers sums up the programme. |
| Master spool number: | 6HT/72864 |
| Production number: | FOUS020H |
| Videofinder number: | 1195 |
| Available to public: | no |
