David Attenborough looks at the evidence for the evolutionary development of the vertebrate jaw, with explanation by Dr James Sulikowski.
The development of the jaw improved the ability to collect food, and those that lacked it, with a few exceptions like the lamprey, died out. But in order to collect food, you have to find it and that led to an improvement in swimming.
The ability of the vertebrates to adapt to breathing air and laying their eggs out of water, led to dinosaur domination for millions of years.
But the reptiles still had to overcome a second challenge – how to lay their eggs out of water.
Juramaia is possibly the earliest creature known to give birth to live young. Marsupials and Placentals produce live young by very different methods.
Most mammals are known as placentals where the embryo is kept in the womb and fed and shielded by the placenta.
Professor Per Ahlberg helps David Attenborough uncover evidence of the vertebrate transition to land at Lake Fuxian in Poland.
At Zachelmie, Poland are a number of significant fossil sites with tantalizing glimpses of how life moved from sea to land.
Anchiornis is, perhaps, the first dinosaur with discernable feathers to provide rudimentary flight abilities. It is believed to have been gliding flight.
It wasn’t capable of flapping flight but, at 160 million years old, it’s now the earliest creature we know to have used feathers to fly.
Professor Zhe-Xi Luo examines the fossil evidence for heightened mammalian senses in Hadrocodium.
The mammals found a niche for themselves not so much in space as in time – at night, when the reptiles are not active.
Super-Sized mammals or Megafauna evolved very rapidly to adapt to diminishing tree-cover as the vast forests receded.
The giant Paraceratherium was the largest mammal to ever walk on Earth and may have been preyed upon by Malfelis Badwaterensis the big, bad cat from the badlands.
The Platypus and Echidna are among the few mammals that lay eggs and this restricts the mother to remaining with her offspring.
The mammals began to favour milk over egg yolk as a way to nourish their young. And that is because milk has one key advantage. It’s on tap, and that means that none of it need go to waste.
Mammals evolved, nocturnally, from early reptiles. Wang Tao studies fossil evidence from the Yannan Province to seek evidence.
As such, Hadrocodium holds a key position in the evolutionary story of the backboned animals, the vertebrates.
Dr Ted Daeschler and his team on Ellesmere island discover the fossil of Tiktaalik, the earliest evidence of a limbed creature.
The Coelacanth was the first contender for an ancestor of limbed creatures but was discounted after the discovery of Tiktaalik.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.