This book introduces, through the lens of biological anthropology, how hominins have evolved and survived since first appearing on Earth long ago — approached in both a brain-science and archaeological way. The previous series, Human Exploration Report, followed Aure's exploration team as they lived among humans and observed them, showing why humans think, perceive, and behave the way we do today. Through this, readers got a taste of the essence of brain science, little by little. This newly planned series, Human Exploration Report, aims to introduce readers to the field of 'biological anthropology' — or, to be more precise, 'paleo-neuro-biological anthropology.' In other words, rather than focusing only on humans today, this series unpacks what kind of brains hominins had hundreds, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years ago, and how they evolved and survived on Earth, using both brain science and archaeology. It also introduces readers to a field of study that uses biological principles to imagine and reconstruct humanity's past. The name of this field may sound difficult, complicated, and intimidating, but through it, we're actually uncovering fascinating answers about how humans lived tens of thousands of years ago. If Human Exploration Report was 'a brain science project for children,' then this new series, Human Exploration Report, is a project that introduces 'the brain science of Homo sapiens' to readers for the very first time. History truly is a remarkably scientific subject — and we hope even children who love history will enjoy this series! While Human Exploration Report was a book that children who love brain science and science in general could immerse themselves in, this new series adds history into the mix, making it a book that even history-loving children can enjoy. History is often thought of as a humanities subject, quite distant from science, but in truth, history is an incredibly scientific discipline. To understand how our ancestors lived, we must imagine and reconstruct their lives using only small fragments of historical evidence and clues — and for that reconstruction to be convincing, a scientific approach is absolutely essential. That's why biological anthropology can be considered the very essence of science, perhaps more so than any other field. This series was created with the hope that readers can experience a taste of that scientific essence. The ancestors depicted and described in this book are not absolute truth or fact. Just as we infer 'this is likely how humans lived' based on small clues like remaining bone fragments, skull shapes, and the ruins and artifacts they left behind, this book is structured much like a modern forensic team tracking down a culprit using only the clues left at a crime scene. In that sense, we hope all our young readers can become anthropology detectives, imagining and picturing their ancient ancestors in their minds. To understand how humanity built today's vast civilization, and what sets us apart from other great apes, an understanding of biological anthropology is essential. Why should children be introduced not only to brain science, but also to a field that sounds as challenging as biological anthropology? When we study what scientists have recently discovered about the differences between humans and other great apes, we find some truly astonishing things about humanity. Very young great apes — orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas — aren't all that different from two- or three-year-old human children. Scientists have discovered that these young apes are highly intelligent and capable of many of the same clever behaviors we are. So how did we come to build such an enormous intellectual civilization and enjoy life in a complex modern society, while they remain in a primitive state? And why did other hominins like Homo neanderthalensis, Homo erectus, and Homo habilis fail to survive and go extinct? To find clues to these questions, we need to examine how the brains of ancient Homo sapiens differed from those of great apes, and how they differed from other now-extinct hominins. And when we look closely, it turns out brain size wasn't the key factor. Having a larger skull or greater brain volume wasn't what mattered most, either.