That conclusion was a hit. Just look at movies such as the original Planet of the Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey (both 1968), which cashed in on killer ape theory. ‘I’m interested in the brutal and violent nature of man,’ confirmed director Stanley Kubrick in an interview, ‘because it’s a true picture of him.’30 Not until many years later did scientists realise that the forensic remains of Australopithecus africanus pointed in an altogether different direction. The bones, experts now agree, were damaged not by other hominins (wielding stones, tusks, or horns), but by predators. So, too, the
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