Behind Russias Frozen Curtain • 2015

49:57

Our body is a true time machine. It is a mirror of the history of the living world. If an engineer today had to fabricate the ideal human, he would most likely not design us the way we are currently made. He would go to the most logical, the most efficient, the most rational; and when you look closely, this is not always what characterizes us.

S1E1 • The Secret History of our Evolution • 2018 • Nature

58:40

In Snowball, Chris Packham tells the story of the astonishing moment in Earth’s distant past, when almost the entire planet froze – a glistening ‘Snowball Earth’ in the dark void of space. With ice wrapped around the planet to the equator, the chances of life surviving hang in the balance. Earth’s terrifying journey into the deep freeze started with fire, not ice. 800 million years ago, long before the age of the dinosaurs, before there was even animal life, the giant supercontinent Rodinia broke up. Earth’s vast powerful tectonic forces ripped the land apart, kicking off a series of events that resulted in huge amounts of carbon dioxide being sucked from the atmosphere and sending global temperatures plummeting. This plunge into the deep freeze couldn’t have come at a worse time. The very first forms of complex life - the ancestors to the amazing life we see around us today - were evolving but, as the planet froze to the equator, it looked like their days were numbered. Happily, Chris discovers that after 50 million years locked in ice, volcanic eruptions drove a great thaw. Life broke free from the ice and soon made a giant leap, from the microscopic, to the first animals big enough to see and touch.

S1E2 • Earth: One Planet, Many Lives • 2023 • Nature

20:57

Narwhals are the unicorns of the sea, but what is the point of those tusks? What could swallow 50-foot trees in seconds? What animal has changed the face of Yellowstone?

S1E17 • Nature's Strangest Mysteries: Solved • 2019 • Nature

42:56

Once life arrived in the Galapagos, it exploded into unique and spectacular forms. David Attenborough investigates the driving forces behind such evolutionary innovations. We learn that life must be able to adapt quickly in these ever-changing volcanic landscapes. It has resulted in species found nowhere else in the world, such as giant whale sharks and marine iguanas that can spit sea-salt from their noses, dandelion seeds that grow into tree-sized plants and spiders that can blend perfectly into the darkness. Adaptation has been the key to survival in these islands so far, but the story of life in the Galapagos doesn’t end here. The catalyst that triggers these explosions of life remains in place.

S1E2 • Galapagos with David Attenborough • 2010 • Nature

55:35

Five hundred million years ago, our previously eyeless distant ancestral creatures suddenly developed eyes, thereby marking a dramatic leap in evolution. What enabled our ancestors to suddenly evolve with eyes has been a long-unresolved great mystery in the history of our life. Now, scientists are close to cracking the mystery of the amazing story of the birth of our eyes, using cutting-edge DNA research. Travel back to a super realistic prehistoric world recreated by CGI to witness the astonishing story behind the birth of our eyes.

S1E1 • Leaps in Evolution • 2016 • Nature

59:10

Abandoned in a rainforest in Gabon and greeted by circumcisers in Kenya, Simon's journey gets underway.

S1E1 • Equator with Simon Reeve • Nature