- Title: Equinox: The Last Neandertal?
- Date: 29th September 1996
- Summary: Neaderthals first appeared around two hundred and thirty thousand years ago and survived for than two hundred thousand years before suddenly dying out. The scientific community is split over the reason for this and the outcome will have implications for all mankind and may even define once and for all who we really are.
- Description:Equinox: The Last Neandertal (sic.) Historically,Neanderthal man and Cro-Magons have been pigeon-holed separately. Neanderthal was the brutish,uncultured,club-wielding thug and Cro-Magnon was the deluxe model that came along much later. But history proves that the two shared an incubation period of 10,000 years and controversial new theories suggest that,far from being oblivious of each other's existence,they were intimately acquainted. Equinox travels to America and Europe,Africa and the crucible of the Middle East to investigate two polar theories of man's evolution. Geneticist Mark Stoneking advances the theory that man hails from one common ancestor,that Neanderthal man didn't disappear into extinction but still exists inside every one of us. In the process he uncovers compelling DNA evidence that throws the biggest spanner in the evolutionary works since the Ice Age.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Inca Production In Association With Discovery Channel
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:29/09/1996
- Rights:Worldwide
- Decade: 1990s