Life on Earth

Background to the origins of life on Earth and with the evidence of fossils, how some of today's living creatures can trace their ancestry back through the eons to those earliest of times.

The continuing story of the evolution of life on earth explores the earliest sea living invertebrates.

Explores the first land living plants and insects, the problems they faced and how they overcame them.

Examines the symbiosis between plants and insects together with how some insects have become super-organisms.

Tracing the evolution of fish leading to today's immense variety and ability to occupy remarkable environments.

The evolution of life continues with some fish moving on to the land and becoming amphibians.

The rise and evolution of reptiles including the history of dinosaurs.

The evolution of birds from their first reptilian ancestors to the immense variety of species we know today.

Tracing the early evolution of mammals that rose to prominence following the extinction of the dinosaurs and concentrating on today's egg laying mammals (monotremes) and marsupials.

The evolution of mammals continues with the focus on some placental species including emphasis on bats, whales and dolphins.

A study into those mammals that became herbivores and their colonisation over many parts of the world. Also examines their main predators and defense strategies.

Continues the mammal theme, by focusing on primates. Beginning with the lemurs of Madagascar, then describing the differences between old world and new world monkeys and concluding with a study of gorillas and chimpanzees.

Tracing the evolution of the human species from African ape to the prodigious colonization of the entire earth and the impact upon the planet both now and in the future.