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Episode 7.1 · 15 min

How Primates and Apes Evolved

How did the primate body—and eventually the ape body—come together after the dinosaurs disappeared? This episode follows the family from Purgatorius in Montana through gripping feet, forward-facing eyes, colour vision, tailless apes and slow lives, showing how these traits appeared on different branches before the population that would divide into chimpanzees, bonobos and humans.

Watch this film on YouTube ↗

Visual credits

6 sources

Sources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.

  • Purgatorius tooth outlines (Figure 2 adaptation)

    Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla, Stephen G. B. Chester, William A. Clemens, Jason R. Moore, Courtney J. Sprain, Brody T. Hovatter, William S. Mitchell, Wade W. Mans, Roland Mundil and Paul R. Renne

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Tooth silhouettes extracted and simplified into animated schematic outlines; interior details redrawn and layout changed.

    © 2021 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society.

  • PALEOMAP PaleoDEM v2 — 35 million years ago

    Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky M. Wright

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Elevation grid rendered into shaded-relief maps and used for coastline tracing and gap measurements; original colours, labels and animation added.

  • PALEOMAP PaleoDEM v2 — 40 million years ago

    Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky M. Wright

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Elevation grid rendered into shaded-relief maps with original colours, labels, transitions and animation.

  • PALEOMAP PaleoDEM v2 — 45 million years ago

    Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky M. Wright

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Elevation grid rendered into a shaded-relief map with original colours, labels and animation.

  • PALEOMAP PaleoDEM v2 — 55 million years ago

    Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky M. Wright

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Elevation grid rendered into a shaded-relief map with original colours, labels and animation.

  • Natural Earth 1:10m land — Caribbean coastlines

    Tom Patterson, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso and Natural Earth contributors

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Caribbean coastline geometry extracted and rendered as outlines with original labels and animation.

Stock footage

74 items

Licensed stock footage used in this film, with each item’s creator and source page.

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

  1. Wilson Mantilla 2021, figure 2 ↗
  2. Oldest known euarchontan tarsals ↗
  3. Southernmost occurrence of Purgatorius ↗
  4. Grasping Primate Origins ↗
  5. The Central Role of Small Vertical Substrates ↗
  6. Powerful or non-powerful? ↗
  7. New fossils of Teilhardina brandti ↗
  8. CC BY PLOS article ↗
  9. Genomic and phenotypic evidence support visual and olfactory shifts ↗
  10. Kuderna et al. 2023 ↗
  11. Williams, Kay and Kirk 2010 ↗
  12. Chaimanee et al. 2012 ↗
  13. Jaeger et al. 2010 Libya ↗
  14. New late middle Eocene anthropoids from Dur At-Talah ↗
  15. A parapithecid stem anthropoid of African origin in South America ↗
  16. An eosimiid primate of South Asian affinities in Western Amazonia ↗
  17. Evolution and selection of trichromatic vision ↗
  18. Melin et al. 2017 field experiment ↗
  19. Stevens 2013 ↗
  20. Almécija et al. 2021 ↗
  21. Ruff 2003 ↗
  22. 2025 taxonomy revision ↗
  23. Xia 2024 ↗
  24. Russo 2016 ↗
  25. MacLatchy et al. 2023 ↗
  26. Peppe et al. 2023 ↗
  27. Al-Ashqar et al. 2026 ↗
  28. Böhme 2024 Buronius article ↗
  29. long-tailed macaque ↗
  30. fox ↗
  31. Reproduction and Breeding of Nonhuman Primates ↗
  32. Pontzer et al. 2014 ↗
  33. DeCasien, Williams & Higham 2017 ↗
  34. Grabowski et al. 2023 ↗
  35. Hirsch et al. 2024 ↗
  36. Simons et al. 2007 ↗
  37. Leonard & Robertson 1992 ↗
  38. Yoo et al. 2025, Complete sequencing of ape genomes ↗
  39. d'Oliveira Coelho et al. 2026 ↗
  40. Moorjani et al. 2016 ↗
  41. Langergraber 2012 ↗
  42. Bonnefille 2010 ↗
  43. Uno et al. 2016 ↗
  44. Pugh 2025 ↗
  45. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(03)00012-0 ↗
  46. Human Origins Today / ape origins lecture ↗
  47. FameLab colour-vision talk ↗
  48. Hutchison and Archibald 1986, regional turtles ↗
  49. Fastovsky 1987, depositional environments ↗
  50. USGS Tullock stratigraphic references ↗
  51. Claytor et al. 2022, early post-impact mammalian faunas, author PDF ↗
  52. Chester's own account of the ankle research ↗
  53. McGuire fauna thesis ↗
  54. MorphoSource ↗
  55. Rise and Reign of Primates ↗
  56. https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-0182(86)90133-1 ↗
  57. University of Hawaii-hosted copy ↗
  58. Max Planck ↗
  59. Bloch et al. 2007 skeleton study ↗
  60. Boyer et al., Hands of early primates ↗
  61. Kirk et al. 2003 comment ↗
  62. Bloch/Boyer response ↗
  63. Boyer's publication page ↗
  64. indexed abstract ↗
  65. Heesy 2008, orbital convergence comparative test ↗
  66. Barton 2004, binocularity and brain evolution ↗
  67. dos Reis et al. 2018, clock/calibration sensitivity ↗
  68. Springer et al. 2012 supermatrix ↗
  69. GanglabSnnu/OR_identify ↗
  70. Perelman 2011 ↗
  71. Seiffert et al. 2005 Biretia ↗
  72. Tabuce et al. 2009 reassessment ↗
  73. authors' laboratory summary and linked HAL deposit ↗
  74. Aegyptopithecus skull, Zurich ↗
  75. Censky, Hodge and Dudley 1998 ↗
  76. Censky's Carnegie Museum account ↗
  77. Paleolab ↗
  78. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aegyptopithecus_skull_(University_of_Zurich)-1.JPG ↗
  79. https://bookcafe.yuntsg.com/ueditor/jsp/upload/file/20200429/1588142327657019135.pdf ↗
  80. Kawamura 2016, genetic and field evidence ↗
  81. Dominy and Lucas 2001 ↗
  82. Melin and colleagues' howler study ↗
  83. Birch 2012 ↗
  84. Jordan et al. 2010 ↗
  85. bioRxiv 2020.03.23.003855 ↗
  86. Melin 2017 ↗
  87. Melin et al. 2007 ↗
  88. Hiramatsu et al. 2008 ↗
  89. CVRL ↗
  90. Brettel, Viénot and Mollon 1997 ↗
  91. Machado, Oliveira and Fernandes 2009 ↗
  92. analysis repository ↗
  93. Stevens et al. 2013 ↗
  94. fossil calibration assessment ↗
  95. McNulty et al., DOI 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.009 ↗
  96. McNulty, Begun & Kelley 2025, The Alpha-Taxonomy of Ekembo ↗
  97. Lovejoy et al. 2016 ↗
  98. Proconsul skeleton reconstitution, Zurich ↗
  99. Xia et al. 2024 ↗
  100. Xia laboratory ↗
  101. NHM researcher account ↗
  102. Science News interviews ↗
  103. Miocene apes video ↗
  104. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proconsul_skeleton_reconstitution_(University_of_Zurich).JPG ↗
  105. Ji et al. 2022, The earliest hylobatid from the Late Miocene of China ↗
  106. full HTML ↗
  107. University of Toronto ↗
  108. Böhme et al. 2019 ↗
  109. Williams et al. 2020, Reevaluating bipedalism in Danuvius ↗
  110. Agustí, Sanz de Siria & Garcés 2003 ↗
  111. Furió et al. 2014 ↗
  112. Casanovas-Vilar et al. 2025 ↗
  113. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301002.g001 ↗
  114. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301002.g002 ↗
  115. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301002.g003 ↗
  116. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301002.g004 ↗
  117. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00091-5 ↗
  118. rhesus ↗
  119. Reitsema et al. 2016 ↗
  120. Harris 1979 ↗
  121. later GPS field study ↗
  122. Snodgrass et al. 2009 ↗
  123. Herculano-Houzel 2011 ↗
  124. Potharlanka et al. 2025 ↗
  125. Walker et al. 1983 ↗
  126. Olivier et al. 2024 ↗
  127. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7241638 ↗
  128. Langergraber et al. 2012 ↗
  129. Pugh, Strain & Gilbert 2025 ↗
  130. Williams et al. 2023 ↗
  131. Kunimatsu et al. 2007 ↗
  132. McBrearty & Jablonski 2005 ↗
  133. https://github.com/priyamoorjani/Molecular-clock_figures-and-data/blob/master/Figure4.R ↗
  134. Male gibbon webm ↗
  135. Wild orangutan, Borneo webm ↗
  136. 96K8H2F ↗
  137. FGHGEEN ↗
  138. 82JPS2K ↗
  139. NXGQ8J6 ↗
  140. CS6NNY2 ↗
  141. PDZK894 ↗
  142. QW5ZE3H ↗
  143. 46STZN9 ↗
  144. PL7YJKR ↗
  145. YCH2QJ4 ↗
  146. H2LUGM8 ↗
  147. XTZQYER ↗
  148. AVUEX54 ↗
  149. BGSX4RD ↗
  150. 8B8DTP9 ↗
  151. W7KNGHH ↗
  152. YL6AUKT ↗
  153. G3GGWWL ↗
  154. 2CPZT9G ↗
  155. 95GZM8E ↗
  156. N26S6VE ↗
  157. Scotese & Wright 2018 portal ↗
  158. CSV v2 archive ↗
  159. licence ↗
  160. technical report ↗
  161. 0.1° product ↗
  162. Zenodo 14537923 ↗
  163. Gv4ORk0E4VE ↗

Music

  • Original score
    AgentHouse · Project-made score (From Cosmos to Civilization score catalog v4 with bespoke opening and closing)
    Impulse responses: Detmold University of Music SRIR database, CC BY 4.0.
Footage and image usage

Credits and usage times retained from the published edition or its production credit record. Where present, times identify visual appearances, not documentary chapters. Source and licence corrections are listed in the visual credits above.

  • Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky M. Wright - source: Original source ↗
  • Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla, Stephen G. B. Chester, William A. Clemens, Jason R. Moore, Courtney J. Sprain, Brody T. Hovatter, William S. Mitchell, Wade W. Mans, Roland Mundil and Paul R. Renne - source: Original source ↗
  • Tom Patterson, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso and Natural Earth contributors - source: Original source ↗
  • Original animations and figures created by this channel.
  • ABeautifulWorld — 13:04-13:11
  • AlexTraveler — 4:52-4:57, 11:30-11:37
  • artush — 14:49-14:56
  • BlackBoxGuild — 0:43-0:50, 0:50-0:54, 0:54-0:58, 1:19-1:27, 2:01-2:04, 2:04-2:06, 5:03-5:10, 5:58-6:03, 6:03-6:14, 6:19-6:24, 7:42-7:50, 8:32-8:39, 8:50-8:57, 9:23-9:32, 10:07-10:19, 11:02-11:12, 11:16-11:26, 12:48-12:54, 13:28-13:33, 13:33-13:38, 13:38-13:41, 13:41-13:47, 13:47-13:52, 13:52-13:59, 14:56-15:06, 14:09-14:13
  • Christopher R. Scotese and Nicky M. Wright — 5:23-5:37, 6:37-6:48, 6:48-6:55, 6:55-7:06, 7:17-7:28
  • ColorGradingPro — 9:08-9:12
  • cookelma — 9:59-10:03
  • duckdivetales — 14:32-14:35
  • EcoSound — 9:52-9:59
  • Elzio_Studio — 9:32-9:40
  • FrameStock — 7:10-7:17, 10:19-10:25
  • goinyk — 5:47-5:50
  • Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla, Stephen G. B. Chester, William A. Clemens, Jason R. Moore, Courtney J. Sprain, Brody T. Hovatter, William S. Mitchell, Wade W. Mans, Roland Mundil and Paul R. Renne — 2:33-2:39, 2:39-2:44
  • Hubzway — 9:19-9:23
  • IvanMel — 8:39-8:50
  • JBFProd — 12:44-12:48
  • kitreel — 11:50-11:56
  • kobirulislamkk — 12:04-12:11
  • Kokhanchikov — 6:24-6:32
  • luxiico — 1:07-1:13
  • MatthewWilliams-Ellis — 2:06-2:10, 8:18-8:24, 9:12-9:19
  • MikkoVideos — 0:58-1:01, 14:09-14:13
  • Molishka — 1:01-1:07, 5:10-5:16, 14:09-14:13
  • NashMotions — 15:06-15:17
  • Pro-Studio — 0:40-0:42, 7:06-7:10
  • ronib1979 — 12:11-12:17
  • RoStVision — 8:57-9:08
  • sergiostock — 13:00-13:04
  • Shaiith — 14:13-14:17
  • skrip169 — 6:32-6:37
  • slowmotiongli — 4:57-5:03, 11:37-11:50, 11:56-12:01
  • sqofield — 12:01-12:04
  • Tom Patterson, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso and Natural Earth contributors — 8:04-8:18
  • TravelTelly — 1:13-1:19, 6:14-6:19, 9:40-9:52, 14:42-14:49
  • trucic — 12:54-13:00
  • westend61 — 10:03-10:07
  • Wildlife-Stock — 11:26-11:30
  • wildlifeandnaturestudios — 2:10-2:22
  • Xtrahive — 8:24-8:32, 14:26-14:32
  • xtrekx — 0:42-0:43
  • Xtremelevel — 0:39-0:40
  • YB_x — 7:28-7:34
  • zmei116 — 12:28-12:44

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →