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David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities

David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities is a documentary series featuring some of nature's evolutionary anomalies and how these curious animals continue to baffle and fascinate. The series consists of five episodes, each of which focuses on two animal species linked together by an evolutionary anomaly: 1) the giraffe's super-elongated neck and the chameleon's extra-long tongue; 2) the duck-billed platypus and the male Midwife Toad; 3) the naked mole rat and the elephant; 4) the tusk of the narwhal and the shells of snails; and 5) the zebra's stripes and the wings of the butterfly.

Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5

Episode 1 - Stretched to the Limit
This episode focuses on the giraffe's super-elongated neck and the chameleon's extra-long tongue, looking at how they have evolved these extraordinarily-stretched features.

Episode 2 - A Curious Hoax
When early explorers brought the first specimen of a duck-billed platypus to England in 1799, it was considered so bizarre it was deemed a hoax. Similarly, the midwife toad became the centre of a scientific storm in the 1920s that led to accusations of fakery.

Episode 3 - Young Wrinklies
This episode encounters two species with very wrinkly skin, where nature has tinkered with the aging process to different effect: the naked mole rat and the elephant.

Episode 4 - A Curious Twist
The single spiral tusk of the narwhal inspiration for tales of unicorns and the myriad variations on the twist of the snail shell have delighted and fascinated naturalists and artists since the dawn of civilization.

Episode 5 - Seeing the Pattern
This episode looks at two examples of animal patterns that have bedazzled and baffled science for a long time, and uses modern tools to unlock their secrets: Zebra stripes and the wings of the butterfly.