Darwinium masillae

Our series attempts to locate when and where we transitioned into truly modern human beings — the elusive spark, if you will, that allowed us, here on our own tiny branch on the tree of life, to behave the way we do with all our various abilities and features. Part of this quest involves closely examining our direct ancient lineage, as well as our near and not-so-near cousins. Of course evolutionary history is filled with groups that split into various descendant lines as well as those that hit dead ends and fizzled out. These ancient family trees are pieced together through the fossil record. Looking at the various branches on these trees is one way scientists try to figure out the relationships between various animal ancestors and us.

Recent publications about a fossil called Ida provide the latest example of a creature that seems to have lived at one of those branching points where one group of animals was evolving into a recognizably different one. People in the media have jumped all over this beautifully preserved 47-million-year-old fossil, with some even calling it a “missing link.” Of course, there’s never a single missing link in the huge web of animal evolution, but it does appear that Ida, or Darwinium masillae, was a mammal who shared characteristics with the prosimians (such as lemurs) and also with anthropoids (such as monkeys and apes). Keep in mind, there’s a long, long time — and lots of evolution! — between when Ida lived and when our own species appeared on earth maybe 200,000 years ago.

What do you think of all the media hoopla about Ida and what she means?

• Research article: “Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology“
• Associated Press: “Early Skeleton Sheds Light on Primate Evolution“
• CNN: “Scientists Piece Together Human Ancestry“
• The Independent (UK): “The Big Question: Is ‘Ida’ really the missing link between humans and animals?“

Watch Hauser explain to Alan Alda his concept of humaniqueness – and how we can draw on a multitude of talents to solve a problem, whereas other species are limited to just a few.

When Amanda Henry went through airport security in Washington on her way to Boston she made the inspector nervous when her bag revealed dental instruments – apparently the security officer hates going to the dentist. The officer may have been even more freaked out if she knew the teeth Amanda was on her way to clean with her dental picks belonged to a 100,000-year-old.

A very famous 100,000-year-old at that – at least in archeological circles. The teeth are still all neatly in place in a skull now at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University [tons of images here], where it has resided in secure climate-controlled storage since it was unearthed in the 1930s from a cave in Mount Carmel, in present-day Israel. We had met the skull the day before, when Dan Lieberman had arranged for it to be brought out of storage and introduced to Alan.

Known as Skhul 5, the skull is the oldest known human with almost modern features, and so plays a pivotal role in our story. He poses the central puzzle we’re trying to get to the bottom of: people looked like us apparently long before they started behaving like us – at least according to the commonly accepted view that the modern human mind – with what we are calling the Human Spark – didn’t evolve until tens of thousands of years after the owner of the Skhul skull and his like lived in the Middle East – most likely alongside, or at least at the same time as, their cousins the Neanderthals.

The Human Spark camera rolls while Amanda demonstrates her dental scraping techniques to Alan. Photo: Maggie Villiger

As we’d just been learning from Alison Brooks, it’s now looking increasingly likely that the Human Spark in fact started to glimmer much earlier in Africa, perhaps even before the ancestors of Skhul 5 made their way north. So archeologists would love to know as much as possible about how Skhul 5 lived. It was Alison who told us about Amanda, a student of hers at George Washington University, who – armed with her dental picks – was going to demonstrate to Alan how she’s figuring out what Skhul 5 ate.

After carefully removing the skull from its padded box, Amanda showed us how she very, very gently scrapes dental plaque from the skull’s molars (much more gently than your oral hygienist cleans yours).  Plaque, she explained, is the perfect material to preserve microfossils from the plants Skhul 5 ate – starch grains and tiny silica bodies called phytoliths that Amanda will be able to identify under the microscope and tell what plants they came from.

Amanda’s care in her scraping wasn’t only because, as she reminded us, the skull is priceless, but also because, “I have to leave some plaque behind in case somebody comes up with a different way for studying it in the future.”

Alan wanted to know if she poked around in his teeth, could she find out what he’s eaten.

Amanda: Well it depends, how good are you at brushing and flossing?

Alan: Oh just great, yes.

Amanda: I’ve actually done some experiments where you eat whatever you normally eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At the end of the day , you take one of these dental picks…

Alan: And you could say what the person had eaten?

Amanda: Some of it, sure.

Alan: No kidding.

Amanda: It’s quite easy. It’s not just in the plaque. It’s in any of the pellical, basically the scum that builds up on your teeth. As that hardens into plaque then it’s more permanently kept on your teeth. I don’t know, actually, how far back I’d be able to tell what you ate, whether I could just tell this morning what you had for breakfast, or what you had three weeks ago.

Fortunately for Amanda, and despite the astonishingly good shape of Skhul 5’s teeth, he lived a good long time before the invention of dental floss, so she has high hopes of discovering what he ate 100,000 years ago.

Alan summed up the reaction of all of us: “Astonishing.”

- Graham Chedd

Larry Engel films Alan Alda with Dan Lieberman and a VERY old skull at Harvard’s Peabody Museum. Photo by Maggie Villiger

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Can a Yalie survive a film shoot at Harvard?

What’s it like to film at Harvard or MIT, two of the most prestigious universities in the United States, if not the world? First of all, we know that there are a lot of really, really smart people here. Thinkers, researchers. So that’s a challenge in and of itself. But for a Yalie, it’s even harder. Okay, so I was at Yale way back in the late 60s and early 70s (during the Vietnam War protests and the Black Panthers in New Haven — interesting time — Google it!) so by now I should be over any sense of competition with Harvard, but alas I discover that The Game (keep Googling, but please come back) still compels me to be somewhat suspicious as we start production here.

Regardless of my slight unease, Cambridge is a beautiful city and Harvard’s campus a classic. Trees and green lawns — well-manicured of course — quads and ivy-covered buildings. Within these halls sit some really fascinating professors and investigators. Between Harvard and MIT, over the next few days Alan will sit down with eight researchers and their associates, and go for a “spin” in an fMRI machine (the big magnet!) Indeed the topics of conversations are far-ranging — from Stone Age tools to Theory of Mind to biomechanics — all in our continued effort to uncover the human spark.

Where to begin? Well, parking is always a challenge around any college campus and Harvard is no exception. It always takes an inordinate amount of time to unload gear, load into the building that we’re working in, and get the cars parked.

Larry sets up his shot to illustrate how human feet have evolved to withstand the impacts of running. Photo by Maggie Villiger

We start in the Peabody Museum and one of the first researchers we pay a visit to is Professor Dan Lieberman.  He looks at biomechanics — namely how we, and other animals, use our bodies to move through the world. He’s done research on running for many years. He argues that we humans evolved to become the best long-distance runners on earth. While we cannot out-sprint many animals, we can outlast them all — and that creates a real advantage for us.  Instead of attacking prey up close and personal (and thereby putting ourselves in peril), all we have to do is run our prey to exhaustion, then dispatch it. This change in hunting strategy may have been one of the “sparks” that we’re searching for. It may have pushed people toward more cooperative behavior, thus building closer bonds among us.

But what got me excited was that Dan has discovered that we’re really meant to run barefoot, not in soft cushy sneakers.  In fact, he tells Alan that running barefoot is around 15% more efficient than what we normally do. Dan takes to the treadmill to talk with Alan (Dan can run and talk at the same time frighteningly easily) and demonstrate how our bodies have evolved to support bipedal running, from the way our necks are connected to our heads to the way our hips are shaped differently than other primates’. The latter may have led to babies being born less developed (in order to pass from the womb through a narrower passage between the hips) and therefore in need of a longer growing cycle outside the womb.

But Dan also runs not quite barefoot. In fact, I’m intrigued with his non-sneakers. They have a rubber sole, but it’s very thin. No padding at all. A stretch fabric over the foot and a Velcro strap to hold it secure, really just protection for the skin on your soles. The coolest part is that it looks like a glove for your foot — each toe fits into its own little chamber.

Larry Engel outfitted in his new favorite shooting attire. Check out his feet.

I try one on and instantly like it. I like walking around barefoot anyway at home, and realize that these might come in handy, well “footy,” for filming. Here’s why: When you have the camera on your shoulder you usually want to minimize shakiness and create as smooth movement while walking as you can. One of my techniques is to use short steps and try to think of each joint in my body as a mini-gyroscope that helps separate my body’s movement from the camera’s. I also use sneakers with good soles and cushion. Now I wonder if maybe filming barefoot might not be better, at least for interiors. So in the next scene I take sneakers off and really like the way I can feel the floor and absorb the shocks of walking better!

Much to my wife’s chagrin (she knows I like gadgets), I order a pair.  I start training in them for outdoor and long-term use. Dan warned me that it takes some getting used to because you put different pressure on your joints and especially your calves. He recommends that I start with just two minutes of additional treadmill work a day in them. He also says that using them should help relieve knee pain and swelling, and back aches. Hmm. Well after a few days of taking them on the treadmill, I agree with him — my calves ache. On the other hand, my knees and back don’t.

I now shoot as often as I can with them. Maybe it’ll turn into a trend in the industry; who knows.

- Larry Engel
Director and Director of Photography