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Decoding Neanderthals Preview

Shared DNA reveals a deep connection with our long-vanished human cousins.

Aired 12/06/2012 | Rating NR

NOVA

Decoding Neanderthals Preview

Preview: Season 40 Episode 2 | 30sVideo has Closed Captions

Shared DNA reveals a deep connection with our long-vanished human cousins.

Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans—people physically identical to us today—left their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundred of thousands of years.

Aired 12/06/2012 | Rating NR

National Corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Carlisle Companies. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the NOVA Science Trust, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS viewers.

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A Neanderthal Burial

Video has Closed Captions

Scientists think a posed body alongside a panther paw are evidence of Neanderthal rites. (2m 16s)

Neanderthal Superglue

Video has Closed Captions

This “superglue” suggests Neanderthals weren’t as primitive as once thought. (2m 58s)

Scanning the Dead

Video has Closed Captions

Virtual autopsies give coroners incredibly detailed and telling images of victims’ bodies. (2m 10s)

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National Corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Carlisle Companies. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the NOVA Science Trust, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS viewers.

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