National Geographic - Dr. Leakey and the Dawn of Man (1966)

Take a spectacular journey. It starts right here… A set of teeth almost two million years old are unearthed in the Olduvai Gorge, East Africa. Has Dr. Louis Leakey at last discovered a clue to earliest man? Or is that creature which he calls Zinjanthropus too primitive to be human? Unsatisfied, Dr. Leakey continues searching, and finally his efforts are rewarded.
The Origin of Humans as seen by Dr. Louis Leakey. The exciting time travel back 2 million years to find the first human was started by Dr. Leakey and his wife Mary. In July 1959, in the so-called 'The Grand Canyon of Evolution' in Olduvai Gorge, East Africa, they succeeded in finding the first human using simple stone tools.
30 years after organizing the first excavation team, this amazing discovery, which started with two human bones, was completed by excavating nearly 400 fossil bones over 19 days and revealing the skull of an 18-year-old male. This was a human from 1.76 million years ago, three times older than the previously excavated Neanderthal, and it was a great feat that changed the conventional wisdom that Asia was the 'birthplace of humanity.' This program, produced few years before Dr. Leakey's death in 1972, contains the great lives of two anthropologists who were devoted to uncovering the mystery of the origin of humans lost in time.
Where did humans come from? This question about our origins has been asked since ancient times. However, even today, when humans have advanced science and technology, we still do not have a clear answer to this question.
When Darwin's theory of evolution was announced, the idea that humans descended from apes and that by tracing their origins further and further, all life on Earth would end up in a single life form that was born in the primordial sea was considered heretical and against religious teachings. However, over time, this idea was found to be correct and became common. Scientists continued to research the origins of humans, and to this day, it is clear that humans originated in Africa. One scientist who made a major contribution to the search for the origins of humans was Dr. Louis Leakey. "Dr. Leakey and the Dawn of Man" traces famous anthropologist through decades of work at Olduvai Gorge (Africa), culminates in landmark human skull discovery.
Dr. Leakey spent his life pursuing the origins of humans, bringing about many new discoveries. This film documents the facts uncovered by Dr. Leakey and his colleagues and his life dedicated to the African land.