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- [Francisco] For a long time,
fables are all we imagined of Neanderthals,
our closest genetic cousins.
And strange ideas began to develop
about who Neanderthals really were.
The folklore is that they wore little clothing,
made grunting sounds, and were feeble-minded and aggressive.
These ideas were based on pure imagination, not fact.
And so, Neanderthals exist
as fleeting images of simple cavemen.
Like cartoons, they resemble half naked caricatures
of our most primitive, least interesting selves.
(gentle music)
Dare we imagine that they were capable
of building lives that also had love, craft, music, and art?
They certainly were successful at life in Europe.
They lived there for almost 300,000 years,
something that we may not be able to match.
And out of these imagined
and extremely simplistic images,
we have decided that we know
what they and their lives were like.
But are these ideas correct?
Can we really know how Neanderthals looked,
dressed, and acted?
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First, there's the problem of time scale.
Thinking about the past,
we can imagine a few thousand years back.
But the beings we call Neanderthals
lived hundreds of thousands of years
before our most distant imagination,
and went extinct 30 to 40,000 years ago.
There is no memory of this time
and of these people.
They left almost nothing, except their bones,
marks, and some objects.
(gentle upbeat music)
We are looking at the popular view of Neanderthals
as cave people wearing animal skins.
We don't know that this is how they looked.
Recent evidence has uncovered
the presence of woven strings,
so they could have worn elaborate costumes,
for example, none of which would have survived
after eons of weather exposure.
So is this a real Neanderthal,
or a merely a modern imagination of one?
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Look closely at your screen.
What we see here is what, until the 19th century,
we knew of our distant past.
Like a black sheet of paper with no clues,
no timeline, it remained that way until 1856,
when the first Neanderthal fossil was found,
the first evidence of a distinct, archaic human relative.
And then, something emerged in 1974,
40% of a skeleton of a creature that,
like us, walked on two legs,
but was much older, having lived about 3 million years ago.
The skull belonged to a species of human ancestor
that roamed the landscapes of South Africa,
and is known as Australopithecus africanus.
These beings were small,
their heads were about the size of a grapefruit.
The lower half of their faces was pushed forward,
as is true of present day monkeys.
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But monkeys have brow ridges that this creature lacked.
In that sense, it seemed more human,
even millions of years ago.
There are problems classifying primates
that are non-human, like apes and chimps,
along with species that were human-like.
Unfortunately, science doesn't help with language,
since these differences have names
that sound almost exactly the same.
The big category is that of hominids,
which includes all great apes,
humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans,
as well as their ancestors.
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Under this umbrella is a smaller group,
the hominins, which pertains only to humans
and their closest extinct relatives.
But the difference between hominids
and hominins can be subtle.
A chimpanzee's skull shows a small brain case
and a very large jaw for eating and chewing.
But the Australopithecus afarensis,
perhaps the first hominin to walk upright,
has a smaller eyebrow ridge and larger eyes.
The teeth are also human-like.
Modern humans' jaws are much smaller
in proportion to their brain size,
which now takes up the largest area in the skull.
From these small differences,
we can begin to understand human evolution
from fossils and bones back in time.
In fact, even though Australopithecus afarensis
lived 3 million years ago, it wasn't the oldest pre-human.
It's just one in a long line of beings
who walked upright millions of years ago,
and they are all connected to ourselves.
This is what the ancestors to humans
were thought to look like in the 1700s
because no other upright species
was discovered before the mid 1800s.
Neanderthals, which evolved 400,000 years ago,
looked nothing like this.
Our evolutionary lineage is a much more interesting story.
Admittedly, our ancient past is a jigsaw puzzle
with many missing pieces.
To organize the clues, we turn to paleoanthropology,
the field that studies the origins
and evolution of humans and their ancestors
through fossils, artifacts, and other evidence.
This can bring Neanderthal questions to life.
We have learned of our ancestors
from relatively few skulls, skeletons, and stones,
and so our account, like their history,
is incomplete and fragmentary.
But it's a start.
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First, we need a timeline, not in centuries,
but in millions of years, in order to allow us
to understand the succession of these ancestral species
that led to the evolution of ourselves
as the latest version of upright beings on this planet.
As our timeline reaches into the past,
we turn back the clock on earth
one, two, three million years ago, and more,
until we arrive at the earliest known time
at which upright beings appear on earth,
just about seven million years ago.
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The prevailing view is that it all began here,
in a north central part of what is today
the African continent.
It was here that the first hominin emerged,
on two legs, making tools,
living distinct to other apes and monkeys.
This is Sahelanthropus tchadensis,
the first of many species on the genetic road
to us modern humans.
We know that despite a small brain
and highly protruding brow ridge like some apes have,
he walked upright and made his life on the ground,
rather than up in the trees.
The discovery of this species was followed
by another significant find,
Australopithecus anamensis,
who lived two million years later,
about four million years ago.
Its fossils have been discovered
at several sites in Kenya and Ethiopia.
It had a large, protruding face with a robust jaw
and a brain size similar to that of modern chimpanzees.
And with smaller canine teeth compared to apes,
he probably lived on a diet of harder,
tougher foods like nuts and seeds.
Living in a similar region of Africa
but a million years later still
appears Australopithecus afarensis,
who lived about 3 to 4 million years ago.
Afarensis could be a direct ancestor
to the family that includes us, Homo sapiens.
Its footprints were recorded
in wet volcanic ash three and a half million years ago,
and so we know how it walked.
It is also the precursor of Australopithecus africanus.
Africanus was a kind of bridge
between earlier and later human species.
He had some primitive traits:
a small brain, long arms,
and curved fingers that suggest he could climb trees.
But he also had more advanced features,
like a rounder skull and a flatter face,
making him look more human.
His brain was bigger than that of afarensis,
the species before him,
showing a step forward in intelligence.
His hips and legs show that he could walk upright,
but he probably still spent time in the trees.
We don't know exactly where he lived,
but he gives us early clues about the shift
from ape-like ancestors to early humans.
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Not every lineage led successfully to us, Homo sapiens.
Consider Paranthropus aethiopicus,
which lived with africanus,
but which showed none of his more human like qualities.
It's a fact of evolution that several subspecies
can follow parallel but unrelated genetic branches.
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Almost a million years later came sediba in Southern Africa.
Where its predecessor had massive jaws and molars,
sediba has smaller teeth and jaws,
which strongly indicates it was living on a broader diet.
Sediba's pelvis and hands also looked more human-like.
It seems to have become capable
of fine motor skills and possibly tool use.
Having a broader diet
also seems to have helped its evolution,
as it probably became interested in eating other animals.
In all of this, there is a change
in the way sediba sees the world.
It starts to seem more and more human than ape in nature.
(gentle music)
About a half million years later, in East Africa,
a new species appeared, Homo rudolfensis.
Its brain was 60% larger,
a tremendous leap in just half a million years.
Perhaps it came from other subspecies
that have not yet been found.
Rudolfensis was also fully adapted
for walking and running, with human-like body proportions.
And so, it came down to the ground to eat,
developed a terrestrial life and abandoned its home
in the trees, unlike its ancestors.
Rudolfensis came from the Australopithecus genus,
a line that died out, but not before it gave rise
to the lineage that became us humans.
And that happened with someone we've seen before:
Australopithecus afarensis, who walked upright like us
but still had a small brain and long arms for climbing.
Over time, their upright posture
and tool-use instincts paved the way
for the first human-like beings.
And so, starting about two and a half million years ago,
the Homo line begins to show smaller teeth, a flatter face
and underneath the still-evident receding forehead,
there is nevertheless an enormous increase
in brain capacity, which grows quickly
with each successive subspecies.
In this genetic line, Homo habilis became
the earliest known species in the genus.
Habilis is special in evolutionary history.
He had a significantly larger brain,
about twice the size of its predecessors.
As the first to make tools for cutting,
scraping, and processing meat and plants,
he earned the name "handy man."
And these clever advancements
were passed down to future hominins,
such as Homo erectus, one of the longest-lived
and most successful hominin species.
This being was even more special,
marking many milestones in human evolution.
It represents the first hominin to exhibit
truly modern human-like body proportions,
to expand widely beyond Africa,
and to show advanced technological and social traits.
With a tall, lean body made for long-distance walking
and running, like that of modern humans,
he leaves Africa and, never returning,
traveled not only to Europe but as far as Asia,
and even Indonesia.
Evidence from sites in China and South Africa
suggests that he may have controlled fire for warmth,
protection, and the ability to cook food.
He lived from approximately
1.9 million to 110,000 years ago,
a truly long-lasting species.
Erectus was unique in every way,
and he was likely smart enough
to have reflected on his own abilities.
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Later, around 700,000 years ago,
Homo heidelbergensis, a true transitional species, appears.
With a brain reaching up to twice the size of Homo erectus,
it was a step closer to modern humans.
Its higher, more rounded skull explains
the more advanced tools and weapons that it used,
including wooden spears for hunting.
He showed early signs of complex skills,
including the use of fire to survive harsher climates.
It is from this ancestral group
that two primary lineages may have emerged.
One stayed in Africa and evolved into modern humans,
as Homo sapiens.
The other left Africa 700,000 years ago
and evolved into Neanderthals in Europe and Western Asia.
This is why Neanderthals and modern humans
resemble each other so closely.
(gentle upbeat music)
We know that heidelbergensis was found
across a vast range of land, and at some point,
the evolutionary pace seems to accelerate.
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Once outside Africa, the population
that became Neanderthals adapted
to the colder climates of Europe and Western Asia.
Over hundreds of thousands of years,
they developed distinct physical
and cultural traits suited to their environment.
Meanwhile, the population that remained in Africa
evolved into Homo sapiens,
characterized by increasing brain size
and technological advancements.
While Neanderthals evolved in Europe
and modern humans evolved in Africa,
they re-encountered one another much later,
during the migrations of modern humans
out of Africa around 80,000 years ago.
These interactions included interbreeding,
leaving genetic traces of Neanderthals
in modern human populations outside Africa.
Two species, two stories, that of modern humans
and that of Neanderthals, which remain a mystery.
We know what their bones looked like,
but not how they dressed, how they spoke,
how they lived, or how they died.
Yet science has recently revealed
much about Neanderthals, and it is entirely surprising.
What we have learned about this species
has shattered the ideas that we had about them
as dumb and primitive cave people.
Like ourselves, they were far from that.
And like ourselves, Neanderthals come at the end
of a long line of hominins, we have met only a few of them.
(gentle upbeat music)
Both ourselves and Neanderthals enjoyed the genetic
and physical advantages of this evolutionary process.
We both coexisted for thousands of years in Europe.
It is tempting to imagine
that maybe they could have taken our place in modernity.
We just don't know why they didn't continue
to prevail throughout Europe, and Asia, whereas we did.
Perhaps, however, it is because,
out of all our evolutionary ancestors,
we are the only subspecies that can change
our environment rather than merely adapt to it.
(gentle upbeat music)
Yet, perhaps we will never know the mysteries
of our ancestors, how they emerged,
what they thought, how they evolved.
It seems this is our destiny in the great circle of life.
Perhaps the technology that has has allowed us
to outlive the Neanderthals and thrive
until the present day will be
what threatens our very existence tomorrow.
Will we too disappear in time?
(gentle upbeat music)
(wind blowing)
1856, a summer day in a beautiful valley
in Germany where workers digging out minerals
from a quarry on a hillside discover a cave
with what appear to be parts of a human skeleton.
The bones were at first confused
with those of a modern human.
No one had ever seen a Neanderthal before.
And since the importance
of this discovery was not understood,
quarry work continued until by 1900,
the hill that had held this Neanderthal's body
for 40,000 years disappeared entirely.
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This is a drawing of what what it looked like,
made in the 19th century.
This quarry is now gone.
So by way of introduction, it is ironic that the site
where the first Neanderthal was discovered is itself lost.
At the base of the hill is the Dussel River,
which during any of the Ice Ages that passed
when Neanderthals lived, must have been higher,
near the mouth of this cavern.
Today the cavern lies 60 feet above the river
and 100 feet below the countryside.
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Although the cavern went unnoticed
for thousands of years, it wasn't hidden,
and could easily have been explored.
One can only guess how easily it could have been found,
but also, how likely it is that this great site
might have been missed entirely,
as the workers in the quarry stripped down
the side of the hill layer by layer
without thinking of what lay behind
and beneath their tools.
In fact, the Feldhofer site
set off a chain of successive discoveries
of Neanderthal bones and artifacts,
cave after cave from Western Europe
all the way to Central Asia.
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But the body in the cave
would not likely have been remarkable.
The important fact is that Neanderthals,
we later learned, lived in caves,
although not exclusively within them.
It seems they preferred the comfort,
perhaps even the secrecy
of this most natural of nature's wombs.
Among bones and other fragments,
the Feldhofer discovery included a partial skullcap.
It had unusual features that at first,
as in two other Neanderthal sites,
went completely unrecognized.
An amateur scholar examined this cranial fragment
and noticed some odd features
not found in the physiology of modern humans.
The first of these was an unusual set of brow ridges,
which were thick and stuck out a little too prominently.
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Also unusual for a normal human skull
was the forehead, which was sharply sloped backward
over a low, elongated braincase.
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And even more unusual was the proportion
of the very large eye sockets for the skull,
and must have held eyeballs that seemed abnormally large.
Altogether this was not the skull of a normal human.
Suspicion began to grow
that this was a different species entirely.
The remains were not of an anatomically modern human,
but rather of an adult male, estimated to have lived
approximately 40 to 60,000 years earlier.
Antiquity was the watchword 100 years ago,
as new discoveries revealed a distant past
beyond what anyone had imagined.
Books with the title abounded,
including this one by Arthur Keith,
a British anthropologist who studied ancient humans
by focusing on their anatomy.
Or this one by British geologist Charles Lyell,
who in the 1860s was the first to focus on Neanderthals.
In analyzing the anatomy of extinct hominins,
Lyell and Keith went beyond Charles Darwin,
whose classic book, "The Origin of Species,"
had only guessed that we humans evolved
from earlier hominins.
Here now was actual evidence of Darwin's theory.
When Neanderthals were found,
it was instantly obvious that this was a more powerful,
more muscular kind of human with differences
in the neck, the forehead, the jaw,
the eyes, and the back of the skull.
But this drawing from Keith's book
was wrong regarding the actual size proportion
between these two beings.
At first glance, the skulls of Neanderthals
and Homo sapiens seem similar in size.
But look closer, and key differences emerge.
The Neanderthal skull, robust and elongated,
is nearly 16% larger in volume than our own.
A modern human skull can almost fit inside it.
The contrasts can be dramatic.
Here is Keith's drawing of a Neanderthal skull
next to a modern skull.
He measured the back of the Neanderthal skull
to the bridge of its nose
and found it was roughly 200 millimeters in length.
It would seem similar in size
to the head of Homo sapiens, a modern human.
But in fact, the modern skull would be smaller.
It is is only 170 millimeters long,
and the Neanderthal skull was also 15% taller
than a modern skull.
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Superimposing one skull upon the other,
it was surprising to find that Neanderthals' brains
were actually larger than our own.
But these differences weren't just cosmetic.
Homo sapiens developed a more compact design
for endurance and adaptability,
and Neanderthals evolved for power.
Their skulls housed heavier jaw muscles and larger brains.
What we don't know is how different
these brains were from ours.
Did they see the world as we do?
Did they think like we do?
Did they speak like we do?
After the passing of tens of thousands of years,
too little about Neanderthal life and ways is known.
But the best information we have about Neanderthals
came from somewhere unexpected, right inside their own DNA.
(wind blowing)
Our story goes from Africa
to the vast expanses of Europe and Asia,
where Neanderthals made their home.
(gentle upbeat music)
The earliest Europeans come from waves
of ancient wanderers from Africa,
where the first humans emerged and branched out.
Homo erectus ventured across Eastern Asia.
Later, Homo heidelbergensis migrated north and west,
and 400,000 years ago became Neanderthals
adapted to the cold, harsh landscapes of Ice Age Europe.
And so, the Neanderthal story begins with settlements
of a new genetic strand of upright humans
in the northwest of Europe 400,000 years ago.
From areas of what is today Portugal,
they went to the western edge of Asia 130,000 years ago,
and for an amazingly long time,
the entire European continent was their land and home.
Meanwhile, our own species, Homo sapiens,
born in Africa some 300,000 years ago,
began a journey of astonishing ambition,
one that would ultimately span the entire globe.
They left Africa by heading north to Europe,
around 45 to 50,000 years ago,
where they encountered Neanderthals,
who had been living there for more than 300,000 years.
And but a few thousand years later,
Neanderthals disappeared.
That's how their story ends,
but what must their first encounter
with Homo sapiens have been like?
Perhaps it was a sunny summer morning,
or a blustery fall day, but at some point,
a fateful gaze took place.
It would have marked the first time
that a Neanderthal and a Homo sapiens would,
in astonishment, have gazed upon each other.
When two species first encounter each other,
at least one of them can feel threatened.
This first moment must have resulted in a chase,
and between the stronger, fearless Neanderthal
and the weaker but faster Homo sapiens,
we can be sure of who ran away from whom.
But however that first meeting turned out,
it proved that extinction begins with a look.
(gentle music)
We don't know why Neanderthals died away so suddenly,
but we know that before their demise,
they mated with Homo sapiens,
and seem to have formed mixed groups
and families composed of hybrids of both species.
(gentle music)
In fact, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals mated
and had children for many generations,
primarily 47,000 years ago,
and we know that because their DNA is inside ours.
(gentle music)
Our DNA is a complex structure
containing detailed information of our physiology,
and even as elements evolve and change through mutations,
information can be preserved in our bones
long after our death.
Our DNA also preserves information from our ancestors.
And so, even though Neanderthals disappeared
40,000 years ago, they are still among us.
The planet today has 8 billion inhabitants,
almost all of whom have DNA from Neanderthal precursors.
Astonishingly, this is more people
than the total number of Neanderthals
in their 360,000 year history.
Neanderthal life centered on small communities
or enclaves that lived nomadically.
They built no cities, roadways, or large scale systems,
but instead kept moving and adapting
to many kinds of environments
across the continents of Europe and Asia.
Today our living conditions have changed.
We rely on modern societies to control disease,
environmental extremes, and limit our risk
in finding food and sustenance.
But we still carry genetic traits
from a different world,
and we have recently learned much more
about this link to our past.
(gentle music)
In 2010, the Neanderthal genome project
at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
in Germany successfully sequenced
all three billion bases that make up
the complete genome of a Neanderthals,
making it possible to understand
much more about Neanderthal biology and physiology,
and the similarities with modern humans.
The research revealed that Neanderthals
and modern humans had a common ancestor
who lived around 600,000 years ago.
Non-African humans today inherited
1-2% of their DNA from Neanderthals,
including genes for several health related conditions.
For this pioneering physiological research,
Dr. Svante Paabo, the project's principal investigator,
was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2022.
(gentle music)
Neanderthal DNA is 99.7% identical to modern human DNA.
There are only a few small physical
and cognitive distinctions between us and them.
Looking at how Neanderthal genetics differ from our own,
we find several genes in human DNA
that tell an intriguing story.
Genetics research found that certain Neanderthal genes
persist in modern humans today
and influence our immune responses,
skin, hair, and metabolic traits.
Some Neanderthal-derived genes
are linked to health issues such as autoimmune diseases,
type 2 diabetes, and even nicotine addiction.
It appears diabetes could be an adaptation
to survive starvation.
But how does genetic information
become preserved and shared?
This is a strand of DNA coiled
into a tight spiral called a chromosome.
It acts like an instruction manual
for making proteins and controlling
how our bodies grow, heal, and function.
The X chromosome carries information
about how we develop and reproduce.
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Humans inherit 23 chromosomes from each parent,
for a total of 46 chromosomes, or 23 pairs.
Only 1 of the 23 pairs is a sex chromosome.
Every person gets one chromosome
from their mother and one from their father in each pair.
This is why we inherit traits from both parents.
DNA in chromosomes is inside every cell,
and growth happens when cells divide.
But cell division is slightly different each time.
DNA of the father and the mother
are selectively joined into a new strand
that inherits only some features from each parent,
rather than all features from both.
The 23 chromosomes of human DNA
live as loose strings within each cell.
But when the time comes for the cell to divide,
the 23 chromosomes begin to arrange themselves
along the middle of the cell.
At a certain moment, the chromosomes are arranged
such that when the cell divides in two,
each newly formed cell retains a complete copy
of all 23 chromosomes.
(gentle music)
As the cell divides, the DNA strands break apart,
never to meet again.
And now both cells have the same genetic information
to multiply and to continue life.
Of course, this is how Neanderthals reproduced as well.
But for this cellular reproduction to take place,
every position of every chromosome
must be copied with exact accuracy.
In the human genome, 6.4 billion base pairs
will be copied to every cell each time a cell divides.
So, over time, changes are introduced
into the DNA sequence, which then multiplies with them.
These changes, called mutations,
often affect our similarity to
and difference from our closest genetic relatives.
Some mutations that help the organism survive
in its environment are passed down to future generations,
but many can work against survival for the host
and are eliminated when the species becomes extinct.
Much of what we know about Neanderthals
comes from DNA extracted from their bones
that were found in caves,
where their last moments of life were spent.
And although we don't know what Neanderthals looked like,
we don't even know their skin color,
we can look into their DNA for hints
about how different they were from us.
(gentle music)
Neanderthals evolved
from the same direct ancestor as we did,
and so, in most respects, they were similar to us.
But there were also major differences,
and these seem to have helped them survive
in the harshest of climates with little food.
Recent discoveries of genetic mutations
in Neanderthal DNA show curious differences
from the DNA of us modern humans.
Let's look a four of these differences.
(gentle upbeat music)
One such difference between us
and Neanderthals was found in a gene
that influences language use.
Technically called FOXP2,
this gene has a complex template,
and is known as the speech gene.
How did it alter Neanderthal behavior?
Using an online tool that predicts
the 3D structure of proteins from gene sequences.
We can now see the shape of the FOXP2 gene.
Recent research found that in Neanderthals,
this gene might have been expressed differently.
FOXP2 could be indirectly connected to writing skills,
which it appears Neanderthals did not have,
and reduced speech.
It is likely that their language behavior
might have been different than ours,
since this gene affects vocal communication
and motor control.
We have not found any writings made by Neanderthals,
although objects, including cave walls,
have markings and designs
that no earlier ancestor of humans made.
But how far the Neanderthal ability
to think abstractly and express ideas went,
beyond mere sounds, we just don't know.
(gentle upbeat music)
Another gene called OXTR
plays a significant role affecting empathy,
trust, and social bonding.
But it is also linked to a series of psychiatric conditions.
Studies between modern human and Neanderthal DNA
found variations in the OXTR gene
that may indicate different behavior patterns
between us and them.
(gentle music)
Oxytocin is produced by the hypothalamus,
the brain's control center for important behaviors
such as eating, sleeping, reproduction,
stress responses, and emotional reactions.
It coordinates activity between the nervous
and endocrine systems, ensuring survival
and proper physiological functioning.
The hypothalamus contains a high density
of these important OXTR oxytocin receptors.
Well balanced, socially adaptive behavior depends on them.
Oxytocin is so important that many studies show
that when it is out of balance in the body,
many psychiatric problems occur.
These studies involve hundreds of subjects
with Asian and also European lineage,
both male and female, and across many age groups.
The most consistent research findings indicate
a connection between oxytocin and empathy or depression.
And again, this was most often found
in Caucasians and other non-Africans,
which is to say persons with Neanderthal lineage.
Perhaps they carry the Neanderthal version of the OXTR gene.
Does oxytocin help create
a kind of Neanderthal personality in people
with European genetic lineage?
It has helped shape how Neanderthals
and modern humans formed relationships.
Three sites in the OXTR gene show similar evolution
in modern humans and bonobos,
an ape species known for high levels
of social tolerance and empathy.
But this human-specific variation
is missing in Neanderthal DNA,
pointing to differences in their social behavior.
Neanderthals likely preferred small,
tight-knit units focused on the group itself
rather than on individuals.
While modern humans used cooperation
to manage stress and resolve conflicts,
Neanderthals would feel greater reactions to threats,
sometimes preferring conflict over compromise.
This genetic difference is probably responsible
for the way that Neanderthals related to one another,
and conflict, as much as cooperation,
may have been seen as an adequate way to solve problems.
But of course, we will never know for sure.
With this genetic variation,
it seems even more unbelievable that Neanderthals
and humans were ever able to get along.
We now know they had generations
of hybrid children together,
part human and part Neanderthal.
But what this family dynamic looked like, we can only guess.
(gentle music)
(wind blowing)
It's dark, the surroundings are unknown.
You are out on a night hunt.
As a modern day human, relying on natural moonlight,
this is what you see.
Colors are mostly reduced to a single shade of blue.
This is how human eyes work in the dark.
In this light, and with our vision,
things can hide out there.
Humans can survive in this environment,
but they cannot thrive.
We invented lights, roadways and tools
to adapt the environment to our limitations.
We had to.
Many nocturnal creatures can see better in the dark
than we can, but their eyes are too sensitive
to work well during sunlight hours.
But a Neanderthal's eyes are bigger,
and he has a genetic advantage.
(upbeat music)
He can see more in less light.
He doesn't change the environment
because of his inabilities, because frankly,
he doesn't have to.
After hundreds of thousands of years,
Neanderthal eyes can see better at night than we ever will.
But how?
Neanderthals had larger eyes than we did,
which would allow more light to enter.
Larger eyes mean better low-light vision
for cold winters and longer nights.
But they also carried a genetic variation
related to color vision,
especially with dark light that appears blue.
The back of the eye has many tiny cells
called photoreceptors.
They capture and magnify light signals
all through the retina, in the rear of the eyeball.
Neanderthal eyes saw less color than our eyes do,
but they magnified blue light,
and could thus see better in low light conditions
without losing daylight vision.
(upbeat music)
In the shadows where we saw darkness,
Neanderthals saw detail, nature's own night vision,
a valuable advantage for a species
that survived for more than 300,000 years.
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And finally, the fourth major genetic variation
between us and Neanderthals, our closest genetic cousins.
In the human body, sensations are felt
through electrochemical signals
carried inside elongated cells called neurons.
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Neurons connect to other cells at synapses,
gaps between two cells where signals are transmitted.
And as the body sends a signal,
it must pass through the neuron's membrane
by means of ions, groups of atoms
that have an electric charge.
The cell has gatekeepers called ion channels
that open to allow certain molecules to enter.
Ions that enter can have different functions,
including triggering sensations of pleasure or pain.
How much a cell's ion channels open or close
depends on genetic instructions from our DNA.
When ion channels allow few ions into the cell,
the body feels less sensation.
And when the ion channels
allow many more ions into the cell,
the body receives more sensation signals.
(gentle upbeat music)
One of the key ion channels for nerves
in the human body is called NaV 1.7,
and it regulates the intensity of sensitivity in neurons,
particularly in relation to the sensation of pain.
This protein sits at the tip of our nerve endings
and initiates a sense of pain when we hurt ourselves.
In fact, there is a class of drugs
called Nav1.7 inhibitors for the treatment of chronic pain.
They work by reducing the signals
that pass through this ion channel in cells.
Hugo Zeberg, a Swedish physician,
studied ion channels in Neanderthal DNA
and found three genetic variants unique to Neanderthals.
These were in nerve endings and signaled pain sensation
based on how long the channels remained open.
Zeberg compared how signals
flowed through ion channels in modern humans
versus how they behave in cells
that have Neanderthal DNA and its genetic variation.
A brief electrical stimulus was applied to cells
with human DNA to test how many sodium channels
remained open, allowing signals to pass.
This is a measure of nerve sensitivity.
Zeberg's team then carried out the same test
on a version of a cell
carrying the Neanderthals' gene variations.
The Neanderthal variants, shown in the red response lines,
allowed more ions into the cell,
which means that the same stimulus
would register more pain and for a longer time
in the Neanderthal body than modern humans
would normally feel.
To determine the effect of this mutation in modern humans,
the team looked at the genetic data
of people who volunteered medical information
to the UK Biobank, a massive database
which contains health statistics
for 500,000 British residents.
This genetic Neanderthal pain variant
was found in a little less than 1% of this population,
which had filled out a questionnaire
that asked about many kinds of experience
and sensation with pain in many parts of the body.
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The answers provided by each person
were then ranked on an intensity scale
from less likely to report pain, to more like to report it.
This scale included responses from persons
who had the Neanderthal genetic variation
for pain sensitivity as well as other persons
who did not have the Neanderthal mutation.
The 1,327 men and women who had inherited
the Neanderthal mutations had reported
significantly more pain than individuals
without the Neanderthal mutations.
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It was evident that
even after hundreds of thousands of years,
Neanderthal pain sensitivity
had been passed down to modern humans,
and the study found that carriers
of the Neanderthal genetic variant
experience the same level of pain
to that of someone eight years older than themselves.
(gentle upbeat music)
This contradicts popular ideas
of Neanderthals as an insensitive species.
If they felt more pain than we might,
one can only wonder what life must have been for them,
living as they did through not one but four ice ages,
where the global temperature fluctuated
more than twelve degrees each time.
But what possible advantage could come
with heightened sensitivity to pain?
A heightened pain response might have allowed
Neanderthals to recognize injuries or illnesses quickly,
and help them avoid worsening injuries
by resting or seeking protection sooner,
increasing their chances of survival.
This could encourage more cautious behavior,
reducing the risk of severe injuries
from hunting large animals,
using tools, or navigating dangerous landscapes.
Acute pain might serve as a clear signal
to others of physical vulnerability,
reducing expectations for injured individuals
to contribute to tasks like hunting
or gathering until they have recovered.
This would help group survival
by shifting responsibilities and allowing better recovery.
While greater pain sensitivity
might seem like a disadvantage, for Neanderthals,
it could have been a critical survival mechanism,
promoting caution, fostering social bonds,
and ensuring swift responses to injury or other hazards.
But this, despite what science has told us about them,
and ourselves, is something we can only guess.
(gentle upbeat music)
At last we come to the final question of our investigation:
did Neanderthals make art and music?
Did they practice crafts?
Did they believe in an afterlife?
Everywhere Neanderthals lived,
something creative was left behind, but was it art?
Perhaps we shouldn't ask whether they made art,
but rather what we expect art
to look like in the first place.
Their ideas might have differed from ours.
What is visual art?
Traditionally, art has been determined by figurative rules,
which say that anything drawn, painted or sculpted
must resemble something that
we are already familiar with and should recognize.
(gentle upbeat music)
Since much of what has been put on cave walls
and other objects by Neanderthals is not figurative,
some have argued that these marks are not art,
because they are not figurative.
They do not depict anything we recognize as familiar,
as we are used to seeing in our world.
For a long time, for many centuries and all over the globe,
art was defined by images of stylized
but recognizable figures.
Until, that is, abstract art came along in the 20th century.
Then everything changed.
Of course, in modern times,
artists have gone beyond figurative art
in favor of expression that is completely abstract,
bearing no resemblance to the familiar world.
The fact that marks, lines, dots,
and patterns are part of abstract art today
does not mean that artists have stopped making art.
Instead, they are showing us
that an expanded view of art is possible,
and that figurative creations are not the only kind of art.
With abstraction, the question
of what a modern work of art means loses value.
It makes no sense.
(upbeat music)
Without an answer about what something is depicting,
we are left only with the fact that the artist
intended to make something,
and the existence of the work is what matters.
It is separated from the world.
It has no context.
And while it is obvious that Neanderthals
intended to show something,
figurative pictures were not interesting to them.
So, Neanderthal art was abstract, but unlike modern art,
but it is not separated from its world.
It has a context.
It meant something to them, which is not for us to know.
Actually, understanding the context
of Neanderthal art requires a vision
of at least some of the places where it happened.
This is Google Earth taking us into one such site,
known as La Cueva del Castillo, in the north of Spain,
a region where numerous ancient caves have been found.
A simple map does not convey
the kind of land where Neanderthals made their home.
We again see, as we did in Feldhofer Cave
in Germany where the first Neanderthal was found,
a cave entrance high above ground,
accessible only with some effort.
There were no roads or cars to get there.
Our ancestors would have to have almost crawled uphill.
There is of course another perspective,
approaching from the North,
we descend onto a seashore,
whose face has been unchanged for hundreds of millennia.
Even today, it is obvious that
almost immediately as the water ends, elevation begins.
(gentle music)
And in one of these hills,
there is a cave with strange art on its walls.
It has red dots that were dated
back to the time of Neanderthals.
But it also has other designs,
and we don't know when they were made.
Perhaps they were made after Neanderthals left.
All the designs appear to fit together;
were they made at the same time?
We cannot know.
But I think they could all have been made by Neanderthals.
But science cannot tell us,
and so, we will need to go down,
look, and decide for ourselves.
Far below the surface, a world of marvel and mystery awaits.
The geological formation of the space
seems tailor made from one of the weirdest dreams possible.
And here, Neanderthals set out to make enigmatic art.
One kind of drawing that comes into view
in this gallery is long and enclosed,
almost taking the form of a ship or boat,
or some other kind of container.
It is painted repeatedly throughout this cave.
It would almost always consist
of three sections or chambers.
And in even the simplest versions of these forms,
the sections were cut in half
on the horizontal from right to left,
carving out six enclosed spaces inside the shape,
which is always curved.
In this other instance,
the rightmost of the three segments
appears to be double lined,
almost as if intended to be reinforced.
And as is typical of other caves,
Neanderthals often repeated patterns and shapes,
as if these had a familiar meaning to them.
They are abstract to us, but not to them.
Here we again see three chambers.
And below these, a kind of reinforcement,
or second line with many very small chambers underneath.
(gentle music)
What this entire image signified is a mystery,
but it clearly shows a special arrangement of some kind.
Something was being organized
within or around whatever this shape is.
The unusual shape of the cave
and its irregular walls didn't prevent Neanderthals
from thinking about order.
For elsewhere again, this same shape reappears.
Again, we see it divided
into the same three sections along its width.
(gentle music)
As with the previous image,
this one also has a kind of reinforced double line
along the chambers away from the center.
Yet the middle section was drawn
without that double line on either top or bottom.
(gentle music)
And to add to the symmetry, and the mystery,
the same double lines at the lower side of the image
are divided into nine small sections on each side.
(gentle music)
The final enigma is the appearance
of a parade of dots near and around
these kinds of shapes that we shall soon encounter.
But by now, the pattern of these shapes can be easily seen.
Here is another with the same three sections
that the other shapes contained.
(gentle music)
Also familiar is the horizontal line
crossing the chambers from left to right.
(gentle music)
And again, nine hard-to-paint small boxes
or enclosures are marked out on each side of the shape.
(gentle music)
Turning our perspective, we can more clearly see the dots
that were painted around this object.
(gentle music)
Is this an image of a boat over dots representing water?
Or is this an enclosure for people,
symbolized by four rows of dots,
traveling around a structure of some kind?
And if so, could this be a gate for entry and exit?
(gentle music)
And what about this?
Again, four rows of dots, tracing the hint
of an enclosed shape, but this time, without lines
The figure bulges out in opposite directions,
expanding toward the bottom, as we see it.
Why does it bulge out?
(gentle music)
And the dots follow wavy lines around those bulges.
Almost as if the bulge
were visibly pushing them out from the center.
Is this shape intended to suggest
the importance of the vital center, like a nucleus?
We should remember that no axis
or perspective is necessarily the right one
for reading these images.
These shapes don't provide reading instructions
of any kind and can be interpreted
from any direction or axis.
(gentle music)
Is this the orientation that Neanderthals intended
for viewing this creation?
Or perhaps this one instead?
The irregularity of the shape
seems to suggest that it is describing
something in motion, and from this angle,
it appears to be approaching.
(gentle music)
But when it is oriented in this way again,
it looks like a container, perhaps a ship.
And this is almost exactly the pattern
outlined by the front of the previous image
we had imagined as a ship as well.
(gentle music)
Here they are superimposed over one another.
Let's look at that again.
(gentle music)
The earlier image appears different in size and orientation,
and here is how both images were drawn on the cave wall.
Each is near the other, but in their existing angles,
they seem unrelated,
until we rotate one image and place it atop the other.
Clearly, both images share the same unusual shape.
(gentle music)
But are we any closer to identifying
what the objects painted here are depicting?
And just when it seems it couldn't get any harder
to figure the meaning of these shapes,
another angle emerges.
For here, we encounter the biggest question mark of all,
and it comes in the form of two shapes
that have been interposed together,
each an obvious copy of that ship-like object
that we have been seeing until now.
The most logical idea is that this is an encampment,
perhaps the structure for people living together in spaces.
But why is there an internal wall
that would prevent passage inside the structure?
And on the opposite side, three walls?
We also know that Neanderthals
made their sleeping quarters
deep inside their encampments, not near outer walls,
so these small areas would not make sense
as a map of sleeping chambers.
The mystery of one shape is deep enough,
but when two versions of the same image
are placed at cross-angles over each other,
our intrigue over the meaning here is heightened even more.
But we will leave this rabbit hole for the moment.
Another creative mystery awaits.
(gentle flute music)
After the Neanderthal art on those walls,
we might think that the only place
for more evidence of Neanderthal art is in other caves.
Perhaps, but it seems Neanderthals
were doing more than painting.
It appears they also made music.
(gentle flute music)
In 1995, a small object was discovered in a Slovenian cave.
(gentle flute music)
It had been made from the bone of a young bear,
and had four holes arranged perfectly along a straight line.
When air was blown through it, it produced musical sounds.
It became known as the Divje Babe flute.
It was found near where its owners had kept a fire.
It was dated to the Middle Paleolithic,
between 35,000 and 50,000 years ago,
so this flute would have been played by Neanderthals.
(gentle flute music)
This is Slovenian flautist Katinka Dimaroska,
who has been playing the Divje Babe
almost since it was found not far from her own home.
(gentle flute music)
At first sight, it doesn't look like much,
and some believe that it's just a bone
that happened to have suffered random tooth marks
made by some scavenging animal.
(gentle flute music)
This view is in line with the belief
that Neanderthals were too primitive
to have made or used even this simple musical instrument.
But as we can hear, its simplicity belies
the remarkable range of expression
that can be produced with it.
Clearly these sounds could have been used as a call,
or to mimic an animal in order to attract it,
or, dare we imagine, for Neanderthals' own enjoyment.
(gentle flute music)
Still the controversy over whether these holes
are tooth marks or not is worth considering.
After all, many predators were around 50,000 years ago.
A tooth bearing down onto bone
is certain to make a violent entry.
But that is not the story that these holes tell.
Close examination of the perimeter
of the holes shows something unusual:
evidence of careful cutting.
A cut made with a sharp instrument
marks a smooth but decisive line around the holes,
in an outward angle as if to accommodate a finger tip.
(gentle flute music)
And this cut can be seen in other holes.
Sharpness and smoothness,
rather than the rough impact
of a tooth is what this contour reveals.
(gentle flute music)
And the chance of three holes
being smoothly cut round by a set of bite marks
is almost impossible to accept.
(gentle flute music)
There can be no doubt that these holes
were carefully cut with an intentional distance
and alignment to each other.
(gentle flute music)
How this must have resonated in caves and valleys
is probably exactly why it was shaped as it was.
(gentle flute music)
Experts have stumbled on many other ancient flutes
that are accepted as valid musical instruments
dating back thousands of years.
Although not made by Neanderthals,
they share a similar design and function.
(gentle flute music)
For example, this one, discovered during the excavation
of a site in southern Germany.
The dig retrieved material dated
between 33,500 and 37,000 years old,
and some deep layers dating back to as much as 43,000 years.
Of a site in southern Germany.
But, as with the Divje Babe flute,
this flute has holes that are perfectly aligned
along its length, and gradually filed in
so that a fingertip can cover them comfortably.
It was used by early Homo sapiens,
and is tied to the first waves of modern humans in Europe.
There's no controversy here.
But the Neanderthal flute is disputed.
Still, we know so little about Neanderthals
that we imagine they walked around
with pelts scarcely covering their bodies,
an extreme time of multiple ice ages.
(gentle flute music)
They couldn't have survived freezing temperatures
with limbs exposed.
Something is missing in that picture.
Perhaps they had something that's right in front of us
and we never imagined it.
What if they wove their clothing?
The challenge is finding something as delicate as thread.
Almost no organic material
except for bone will survive exposed more than 500 years.
So, 1000 years later,
there would be no trace of thread.
It would have decomposed and been absorbed
back into the earth.
The Neanderthal timescale goes back more than 40,000 years.
It is only by a miracle that any trace
of such material could have survived.
(gentle flute music)
And yet, this emerged.
(gentle flute music) (tense music)
In 2020, at Abris du Maras,
a site where Neanderthal tools and artifacts were uncovered,
researchers found what appeared
to be remnants of handmade cord or string.
A close look revealed fibers twisting around each other.
Of course, this is not necessarily unique.
In nature, vines have strands
that weave around each other for greater tensile strength.
More unusual though was the presence
of a single thicker base strand
or stem that extends in a straight line
with thinner strands weaving around it.
And the way in which the strands are arranged
appears as if they were mounted atop of one another
deliberately, rather than having grown together.
But this wasn't the entire story.
The discovery came with another twist.
(gentle flute music) (upbeat music)
Bruce Hardy and his team
from Kenyon College showed direct evidence
of Neanderthal construction and use of fibers,
a skill that was previously thought
impossible for this species.
The story uncovered by this account is remarkable.
The discovery took place
in the Ardeche valley of southeastern France,
where nestled along the banks of a tributary
of the Rhone River lies Abri du Maras,
a Paleolithic rock shelter.
(gentle flute music) (tense music)
As with the Feldhofer cave
where the first Neanderthal bones were found,
or Cueva de el Castillo, where we saw the cave art,
this site is slightly elevated along a sloping hill.
(gentle flute music) (tense music)
At that site, here is what Hardy and his team found.
This unassuming stone flake,
a typical tool used by Neanderthals,
was found three meters below the surface.
But it carried a secret.
Attached to its underside, still embedded in sediment,
was a fragment of ancient string,
meticulously twisted from plant fibers,
and indisputably crafted by Neanderthal hands.
(gentle flute music) (tense music)
Magnified under advanced microscopes,
the fragment tells its story.
Three strands, each s-twisted,
spun clockwise from the fibers of conifer bark
are then tied together with a z-twist, counterclockwise.
(gentle flute music) (tense music)
This level of complexity reveals
not only technical knowledge but conceptual understanding
of tension and torque, and counting sequences.
This is not instinct.
This is design.
(gentle music)
And so, closer still, we see the cord's anatomy:
layers moving in one direction,
with each fiber strand maintaining a uniform twist.
(gentle music)
But suddenly a new strand appears above the others.
This one is seen wrapping in the opposite direction
to keep the entire cord from unraveling.
This is not a pattern found in nature.
(gentle music)
And on another flake found within the same layer
we see untwisted fibers, perhaps remnants in mid-process.
Here, the task was interrupted,
the threads were not yet spun.
It is as if time itself paused,
leaving behind a still-life
of Neanderthal craftsmanship partway through.
This is evidence that the twisted cord is not natural.
Why would natural strands
be lying loosely without a central stem?
But nearby, here is the pattern again,
coils in unison around a central strand.
This is workable string in the making,
and the presence of multiple examples
found at this site shows
that this was not a rare occurrence.
Neanderthals didn't just wear animal pelts,
they sewed their clothing, like we do today.
But could nature have made this?
Three twists exist in nature,
the vine of the liana, the wisteria,
and a coiled banana leaf.
All are simple, one-directional twists.
But the Neanderthal string,
with its counter twist on the outside,
particularly when loose strands
were found nearby, is unique.
It can only be a constructed object
with one possible purpose.
(gentle flute music)
Sadly, no textiles would have survived
100,000 years, or even 50,000, or even 5,000.
But if Neanderthals had only worn animal skins,
they would not have done well in the extreme cold
and hot temperatures of their age.
And this, like the discovered flute,
gives us a special vantage into the lives
of a species whose brain size was actually larger than ours.
(gentle flute music) (gentle upbeat music)
And so we come full circle,
back to our point of departure,
here at the Neander valley
where the first Neanderthal was recognized
as a separate species from ourselves.
But our journey isn't finished just yet.
There's time for one more reflection,
one more question, one more discovery,
not concerning Neanderthal life
but rather death and what they may have known
about their place in the universe.
(gentle upbeat music)
Our final discovery happens in another cave,
this one at La Ferrassie, in southwest France.
And on another piece of evidence
marked by Neanderthal hands.
(gentle upbeat music)
This time, the marks that Neanderthals made
appear on a large stone.
It is a limestone slab that was arranged
over the resting place of a Neanderthal child
who died more than 60,000 years ago.
This is a sketch is of that stone slab,
so that certain marks, scooped out of the stone,
become clearer to us.
The marks were made by Neanderthal parents,
or someone in the child's clan.
(gentle upbeat music)
It hardly appears like something meaningful
or fitting for what was clearly
the unexpected death of a young member of the group.
The only remarkable thing about this slab
are the notched marks on it.
They seem arranged in some intentional way.
It brings up the question of what humans think about
in the death of someone.
In many cultures, it is a sense that their spirit
will return to some place beyond Earth.
Perhaps up to the sky.
Could the Neanderthals too
have looked up and felt this connection?
Through the Hubble Space Telescope,
this is the sharpest image we have of the Pleiades,
a prominent star cluster located
in the constellation Taurus,
about 440 light-years away from Earth.
It is visible in the Northern Hemisphere,
where Neanderthals lived.
In the sky of thousands of years ago,
it would have been this clear to anyone looking up
and reflecting on its points of light.
From any perspective, it could be turned
depending on the observer's axis.
But here, we rotate it 23.45 degrees,
which is the axial rotation of the earth around the sun.
Neanderthal eyes would have looked upon the sky as we do,
and theirs would have been infinitely clearer one.
Did they feel a connection to the heavens, like we often do?
After a time, its brightest stars
could be remembered and marked on stone,
perhaps as the place where a lost young soul
is meant to go after its brief life
on our planet comes to its end.
To the question of whether the marks had some meaning,
it is helpful to know that they faced
not upward for the visitor,
but down toward the body itself,
seemingly so that as its soul awoke,
it would face the map that shows it where to go next.
Was it a guide for his spirit?
(gentle upbeat music)
And so, beyond a few remnants and bones,
what do we really know about Neanderthal life and death?
(gentle upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
(vocalist singing)
At the southernmost point of Spain,
facing the Mediterranean Sea lies Gibraltar,
a large rocky formation that rises steadily
until it drops dramatically into the sea.
(upbeat music)
As far as we know, this is the last known address
for Neanderthals.
What remained of the race came to live
in a hiding point behind the Rock of Gibraltar.
It seems they were pushed out of Europe,
the domain they once dominated,
year after year, millennium after millennium,
probably by Homo sapiens,
until they huddled in a cave almost hidden from view.
(vocalist singing) (upbeat music)
Quietly they remained here until 40,000 years ago.
They would have used a stretch of land
that extended for some distance in front of the cave.
But it seems they knew their time was over,
and retreated here in a final, quiet act.
(upbeat music)
This is it, Gorham's Cave, that's the name it has today.
Surely they called it something else.
But this is the last gasp, the final moment,
the end of the line for a powerful race of beings
who disappeared after taking up residence among these caves,
and were never to be seen again.
(upbeat music)
Except of course, as ancient echoes,
somewhere, genetically, within us.
(upbeat music)
(vocalist singing) (upbeat music continues)
(vocalist singing continues) (upbeat music continues)