First Born

Who were the apes that took the first faltering steps towards being human? At a remote place called Taung on the edge of the Kalahari Desert was found the skull of a three-year-old child who had died millions of years ago. Known as Taung Child, this infant was a member of a long-vanished species who could walk upright – they straddled the boundary between ape and man. But they were tiny and weak. How did they survive?This episode reconstructs how they used their brains to compete with other animals, charts the emergence of the 'killer ape' theory, and how the key to success was the split between vegetarians and meat-eaters.