The Humans That Lived Before Us

As more and more fossil ancestors have been found, our genus has become more and more inclusive, incorporating more members that look less like us, Homo sapiens. By getting to know these other hominins--the ones who came before us--we can start to answer some big questions about what it essentially means to be human.

Season 2 Episode 10 Length 11:52 Premiere: 02/08/19

Recent Episodes

The Fiery Rise of Flowering Plants

S8 E11 Length 10:45 Premiere Date 02/10/26

When Ancient Weeds Fooled Us

S8 E10 Length 11:37 Premiere Date 01/27/26

How Brawn Led to Brains

S8 E9 Length 12:14 Premiere Date 01/13/26

When a Tiny Land Bridge Triggered an Ice Age

S8 E8 Length 10:27 Premiere Date 12/17/25

What Was Greenland Like When it Was Green

S8 E7 Length 09:07 Premiere Date 12/02/25

How Chewing May Have Beat Extinction

S8 E6 Length 09:35 Premiere Date 11/18/25

Specials

When Dinosaurs Threw Up A Mystery

Length 09:15 Premiere Date 07/22/25

Did Dinosaurs' Extinction Give Us Fruit?

Length 10:47 Premiere Date 07/15/25

Why Paleontologists Can’t Stop Fighting About Spinosaurus

Length 08:37 Premiere Date 07/01/25

The Dinosaurs Too Big To Be Dinosaurs

Length 12:22 Premiere Date 06/17/25

Season 2 Episodes

Show Episodes

Show Clips & Previews

Were These Monsters Inspired by Fossils? (ASL)

S2 E59 Length 12:18 Premiere Date 10/29/19

When Giant Lemurs Ruled Madagascar (ASL)

S2 E58 Length 10:09 Premiere Date 09/25/19

When We Took Over the World

S2 E57 Length 11:47 Premiere Date 05/14/19

The Ghostly Origins of the Big Cats

S2 E56 Length 07:32 Premiere Date 05/31/19

When Penguins Went From The Sky To The Sea

S2 E55 Length 10:33 Premiere Date 03/26/20

When the Sahara Was Green

S2 E54 Length 07:50 Premiere Date 03/26/20

How a Hot Planet Created the World's Biggest Snake

S2 E53 Length 07:45 Premiere Date 03/09/20

When the Rainforests Collapsed

S2 E52 Length 07:40 Premiere Date 02/21/20

A Short Tale About Diplodocus' Long Neck

S2 E51 Length 09:18 Premiere Date 02/21/20

How South America Made the Marsupials

S2 E50 Length 09:51 Premiere Date 02/20/20

The Giant Dinosaur That Was Missing a Body

S2 E49 Length 12:00 Premiere Date 01/30/20

The Neanderthals That Taught Us About Humanity

S2 E48 Length 09:09 Premiere Date 01/23/20

That Time the Mediterranean Sea Disappeared

S2 E47 Length 11:10 Premiere Date 01/21/20

The Fuzzy Origins of the Giant Panda

S2 E46 Length 08:20 Premiere Date 12/19/19

The Forgotten Story of the Beardogs

S2 E45 Length 09:37 Premiere Date 12/19/19

Why Male Mammoths Lost the Game (w/ TierZoo!)

S2 E44 Length 11:02 Premiere Date 12/19/19

When Giant Hypercarnivores Prowled Africa

S2 E43 Length 09:17 Premiere Date 12/19/19

How We Domesticated Cats (Twice)

S2 E42 Length 07:47 Premiere Date 11/08/19

Were These Monsters Inspired by Fossils?

S2 E41 Length 12:18 Premiere Date 11/06/19

When Hobbits Were Real

S2 E40 Length 09:10 Premiere Date 11/06/19

The Case of the Dinosaur Egg Thief

S2 E39 Length 07:28 Premiere Date 11/06/19

When Antarctica Was Green

S2 E38 Length 11:03 Premiere Date 11/06/19

When Giant Lemurs Ruled Madagascar

S2 E37 Length 10:09 Premiere Date 11/06/19

How Pterosaurs Got Their Wings

S2 E36 Length 08:33 Premiere Date 11/06/19

When Bats Took Flight

S2 E35 Length 11:09 Premiere Date 10/24/19

The Raptor That Made Us Rethink Dinosaurs

S2 E34 Length 08:35 Premiere Date 10/24/19

The Missing Link That Wasn’t

S2 E33 Length 09:54 Premiere Date 10/24/19

Was This Dinosaur a Cannibal?

S2 E32 Length 10:37 Premiere Date 10/24/19

When Giant Deer Roamed Eurasia

S2 E31 Length 06:53 Premiere Date 08/13/19

How Earth's First, Unkillable Animals Saved the World

S2 E30 Length 10:12 Premiere Date 08/11/19

How Volcanoes Froze the Earth...Twice

S2 E29 Length 10:29 Premiere Date 08/11/19

When We Met Other Human Species

S2 E28 Length 12:56 Premiere Date 08/11/19

When Ichthyosaurs Led a Revolution in the Seas

S2 E27 Length 09:38 Premiere Date 06/25/19

When the Synapsids Struck Back

S2 E26 Length 10:10 Premiere Date 06/19/19

How Evolution Works (And How We Figured It Out)

S2 E25 Length 12:09 Premiere Date 06/13/19

The Hellacious Lives of the "Hell Pigs"

S2 E24 Length 07:17 Premiere Date 06/13/19

The History of Climate Cycles (and the Woolly Rhino)

S2 E23 Length 13:14 Premiere Date 06/03/19

The Croc That Ran on Hooves

S2 E22 Length 08:41 Premiere Date 05/01/19

The Mystery Behind the Biggest Bears of All Time

S2 E19 Length 10:41 Premiere Date 04/25/19

When We Tamed Fire

S2 E18 Length 11:46 Premiere Date 04/25/19

When Giant Scorpions Swarmed the Seas

S2 E17 Length 11:38 Premiere Date 04/04/19

When We First Made Tools

S2 E16 Length 09:08 Premiere Date 04/01/19

The Giant Bird That Got Lost in Time

S2 E15 Length 08:33 Premiere Date 03/12/19

The Island of Huge Hamsters and Giant Owls

S2 E14 Length 11:41 Premiere Date 03/12/19

How 7,000 Years of Epic Floods Changed the World

S2 E13 Length 09:28 Premiere Date 03/01/19

The Evolution of the Heart (A Love Story)

S2 E12 Length 09:00 Premiere Date 02/14/19

The Island of Shrinking Mammoths

S2 E11 Length 11:20 Premiere Date 02/11/19