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Hello, when we, Hermos Appiens, emerged around 300,000 years ago, we followed an ancestor

who had thrived on Earth for up to two million years.

This was Hermo erectus, upright man, who spread from Africa to Asia and whose fossilized

remains were found in 1891 on the island of Java.

These people adapted to different habitats, ate varied foods, lived in groups, had stamina

to outrun their prey, and if we imagine ourselves superior to them so far, we could perhaps

make a dire note to reassess that once we'd been on the Earth as long as they were.

We'd need to discuss Hermo erectus, our Peter King God, the director of the Natural History

Museum of Denmark and Professor of Evolutionary History at the University of Copenhagen,

Jersey Jordan, senior researcher in human evolution, and naturalist biodiversity center

and professor of human evolution at Master's at University, and Mark Muslim, professor

of Earth System Science at University College London.

Mark Muslim, before we set off, could you give us a timeline from say 66 million years

ago when the meteorite landed in the Bay of Mexico and when Hermo erectus appeared?

Well, as you said, Melvin, all of this started with a big bang.

We had the Mietri Impact in Mexico and what that did was wipe out the non-avian dinosaurs.

They'd ruled the Earth for 120 million years and what it did was clear the way for mammals

...