Paleontologist Aubrey Jane Roberts may have the best job ever—climbing mountains in search of marine fossils. | National Geographic Science

It's long been believed that modern humans followed a relatively straight path of evolutionary progress. But discoveries of new bone fragments and fossils around the world, alongside breakthroughs in DNA analysis, reveal a much more complex picture. Paleontologists now believe that early Homo sapiens shared the Earth and mated with a surprising variety of previously unknown human species. In this timelapse, paleoartist John Gurche meticulously constructs a model of a recently discovered hominin—

What makes a fossil? What are the different types? What makes amber fossils so special... and what causes bone to become rock? Expand your knowledge of these windows into our past world – in four minutes. | National Geographic UK