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Apes

The first video took place 3.5 million years ago in East Africa where a species of ape lives. Australopithecus afarensis had taken the first steps towards humanity - and could stand and walk on two legs.
A few million years before, Africa was covered, almost edge-to-edge, with thick rain forest. Our ancestors used all four limbs to move, live and hunt. But immense environmental chaos, changes their future.

The rift valley was forming, and the rainforests dying, as Africa dried out - turning the landscape into an assortment of scattered trees and grass. In this new environment afarensis found it more efficient to move about not on four legs but on two.

This film follows a group of afarensis, and in particular, Lucy and her young newborn. Led by a strong male, there is harmony in their lives. They sleep high in the trees and spend most of the day searching for food. But while drinking from a river, a crocodile sneaks in unnoticed and catches the unsuspecting alpha male.

Now ...

Posted by: Kelly G Hess

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