May 2010 : the discovery by German and French palaeontologists of a new hominid species. An investigation into the existence of this “intra-terrestrial” plunges us into a profusion of scientific, philosophical and moral questions.
The beginning of 2010 was full of surprises for those interested in Man’s origins.
The discovery of Denisova man and the revelation of interbreeding between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals by researchers at the Max Planck University are decisive scientific developments that have called whole areas of knowledge into question. But this is the very nature of science, which advances via the validation and challenging of hypotheses.
Even more difficult to believe has been the discovery of Homo Orcus, a hominid currently living in the big forests of Europe. Although previously recorded in 1998 by Delson and Flinkenstein, German palaeontologists from the University of Heidelberg, their claims were never taken seriously. It’s been a shock for the scientific community, and triggered a major philosophical upheaval.
Nothing of this kind has been dreamed of since Copernicus and Galileo.
The investigation into Homo Orcus is led by leading specialists in the field, anthropologists, geneticists from INSERM and the CNRS, philosophers and Jesuit theologians. Their expertise helps us to accept the unimaginable. This film also leads us to the heart of the habitat of Homo Orcus, into the forests, in the company of local people with some occasionally alarming tales to tell.