Life on Earth
Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough is a BBC nature documentary series about a study of the evolution of life on the planet. The series consists of thirteen episodes and begins with David Attenborough's opening narration: "There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world.
Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive. This is the story of how a few of them came to be as they are." The first episode is devoted to illustrating the diversity and origins of life on Earth. And then through the next 12 episodes the series looks at the evolution of living creatures including
the sea-living creatures, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, primates and humans.
Episode 06 - Invasion of the Land. This episode describes the move from water to land. The fish that did so may have been forced to because of drought, or chose to in search of food.
Either way, they eventually evolved into amphibians. Such creatures needed two things: limbs for mobility and lungs to breathe. The coelacanth is shown as a fish with bony fins that could have developed into legs,
and the lungfish is able to absorb gaseous oxygen. However, evidence of an animal that possessed both is presented in the 450 million-year-old fossilised remains of a fish called a eusthenopteron.
(from wikipedia.org)
| Episode 06 - Invasion of the Land |
Go to Life on Earth Home or watch other episodes: