04/06/2012

How Homo sapiens Became Masters of the Planet

The first Homo sapiens appeared on the planet some 200,000 years ago. But even though they looked fully human, they didn’t act fully human until they began creating symbolic art, some 100,000 years later. Paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall discusses those human origins in his book Masters of the Planet.

Segment Guests

Ian Tattersall

Ian Tattersall is curator emeritus of the division of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, New York.