Full transcript
0:03we are the most complex creature on this
0:06planet a big brain two-legged mammal
0:10we've risen from the raw materials of
0:12the earth to dominate and shape
0:17it wind the clock backwards and the
0:20story of how we got to be us is a puzzle
0:23that defies all
0:25logic through nearly 4 billion years of
0:28evolutionary twists and turns
0:32disaster
0:33strike Predators threaten to wipe us
0:37out from rodent to
0:40reptile we Face Extinction at every
0:44turn from the land into the water
0:47fighting to survive every step of the
0:54way from fish to worm back to the very
0:57first Spark of life
1:01to a single simple
1:06cell this is the most extraordinary
1:08improbable story ever told the story of
1:13mankind
1:17[Music]
1:25Rising 4 billion years ago a ball of
1:28rock and dust spins in the Frozen vacuum
1:31of
1:37space this isn't
1:40Mars or
1:46Venus this hell is
1:52Earth this seething lifeless mass of
1:54molten lava will become home to nearly 9
1:57million living species
2:09but generating life from this will take
2:11a chain of events that defies the laws
2:13of
2:16probability there are many theories
2:19nobody knows exactly how or where life
2:23began but it couldn't happen without
2:28water
2:33experts believe asteroids or comets
2:35delivered it
2:42here the water is churning with
2:44chemicals and organic
2:53compounds lightning strikes the chemical
2:56suit at the right place and the right
2:59time
3:01billions of volts of electricity trigger
3:03a chain of improbable
3:06coincidences the chemicals atoms join up
3:09in a precise sequence creating a bundle
3:13of genetic
3:17material these fragile genes don't stand
3:19a chance in this extreme
3:21[Music]
3:24environment but luck strikes again a
3:27blob of oily material engulfes s SLE
3:30chain to create the first ever
3:35cell now the genes send out messages
3:39chemical
3:41instructions and 3.5 billion years ago
3:45they do something
3:47extraordinary they copy themselves and
3:50the cell to create a perfect
3:53clone this is the very first living
3:57thing every human every animal every bug
4:02every plant can trace its Origins to
4:05this single
4:08cell the genes tell each cell to
4:10reproduce guaranteeing their survival as
4:13they pass from one generation to the
4:16next for 2 billion years the only living
4:20things are simple single cells but a
4:23random accident changes
4:25everything two cells merge their gen
4:31combined the merge cell clones itself
4:35its Offspring contains genes from not
4:37one but two cells two
4:40parents we call this accident
4:44sex sex introduces
4:49[Music]
4:54variation occasionally things go wrong
4:57as the cells reproduce genes get deleted
5:00duplicated these cells are
5:04mutants mutations pile up differences
5:07increase until the cells become so
5:10different they're separate species the
5:13Tree of Life branches out into billions
5:15of species but only one will lead to
5:22us mutating and diversifying spreading
5:26out through the oceans getting bigger
5:29more
5:30complex until our ancestor is a 3-in
5:33long water
5:38worm This Is Us 550 million years
5:49ago mutations create distinct male and
5:52female
5:53Sexes we produce more offspring passing
5:56on more
5:58genes
6:01Mars and Venus Boy Meets Girl it all
6:05starts
6:09here but finding a partner is almost
6:12impossible when every living thing is
6:19blind in this sea of Darkness the
6:22ability to see will give us a critical
6:27Advantage Nature's most perfect
6:29Innovation begins to take shape a
6:32handful of skin cells
6:34mutate now we can tell dark from light
6:38find more prey Dodge more Predators we
6:42live longer and produce more offspring
6:46soon creatures with light sensitive
6:48cells dominate the
6:50population over countless Generations
6:54more mutations refine the
6:56cells this is natural selection in
6:59action
7:00the process that allows every living
7:02thing to adapt to the world and that
7:05gives our ancestor
7:07[Music]
7:22eyes we can see and everything we can
7:25see is descended from that first single
7:28cell
7:33but we need to make sense of what we're
7:37seeing behind our eyes a tiny collection
7:40of nerve cells cluster together they're
7:43no bigger than a pin
7:45head one day this will be Nature's most
7:48complex and mysterious
7:51organ 521 million years ago this is the
7:55very first
7:58brain with we are a fish-like creature
8:00called Milo
8:03conia our brain can make simple
8:05decisions process basic
8:09[Music]
8:12information but we can't outwit or
8:16outrun
8:19this anoma larus the great white of the
8:23ancient
8:25oceans our odds of Extinction are far
8:28higher than than
8:38survival of all the species that have
8:40ever lived 99% of them are
8:50extinct but a lucky role of the genetic
8:53dice helps Milo toughen
8:58up
9:09your jaws your teeth they exist because
9:13over 400 million years ago we Face the
9:16wrath of a primeval
9:18monster jaws and teeth mean more food
9:21and a bigger stronger
9:24body until 375 million years ago we're a
9:29foot long armored
9:44fish we look
9:48Invincible but we're
9:56not now the choice is simp simple get
9:59out of his way or
10:08[Music]
10:13die we're safe in the shallow water or
10:17are
10:18we the water's stagnant there's not
10:21enough
10:23oxygen starved of oxygen cells shut
10:26down toxic carbon dioxide side saturates
10:30the blood we can't go
10:32back we can't stay here there's only one
10:36place left for us to
10:47go it takes over 3 billion years for our
10:51ancestor to evolve from a single cell to
10:54a foot long armored
10:57fish now now our future looks
11:02bleak but natural selection throws us a
11:08Lifeline over millions of years
11:10thousands of generations our body adapts
11:13until we do something no fish has done
11:16before breathe
11:25air the air travels into a new organ
11:29a
11:31lung take a breath and remember it's
11:35because a monster fish chased our
11:37ancestor into the stagnant water forcing
11:40them to breathe
11:44air we're in ichio
11:46stega we can breathe air or water
11:50closing off our windpipe to switch
11:52between lungs and gills today our gills
11:55are gone but the mechanism remains
11:59and sometimes it spasms giving us the
12:06hiccups 365 million years
12:10ago we stick our head out of the
12:16water there's a swamp behind us Paradise
12:21ahead the choice is simple but the
12:24consequences are
12:27immense we pull ourselves out of the
12:31water and change the course of
12:40history this is the moment we leave the
12:43water for a new life on
12:46land but all this food comes at a
12:57price
12:59the fierce Sun dries out our
13:03skin the hard terrain tears at our soft
13:09feet iioa is a fish out of
13:15water we dodged Extinction in a stagnant
13:19swamp only to slam straight into another
13:22deadly
13:23[Music]
13:27environment countless creatures
13:30perish but natural selection helps our
13:33ancestor
13:35[Music]
13:38adapt thicker skin protects us from the
13:42[Music]
13:45Sun and tough claws that will one day
13:48become our fingernails help us move
13:50across the rough
13:53terrain until we're
13:57cineria we've we've adapted to life on
14:00land but our eggs
14:02haven't they need a tough shell to stop
14:04them drying out in the
14:08sun the problem is males can't fertilize
14:11an egg through a tough shell but they
14:14can fertilize it before the shell forms
14:17inside the female's
14:20body sex as we know it starts
14:26here the result is a masterpiece of
14:29Evolution an egg in a tough shell with
14:32all the nutrients the embryo needs
14:34sealed
14:40inside sex is the best way to increase
14:43genetic variety and keep our species
14:46[Music]
14:50alive thanks to sex 340 million years
14:54ago cineria becomes the first of our
14:57ancestors to live in entirely on
15:03land it's a new world different from
15:06anything we've experienced up to now we
15:09breathe air support our own weight and
15:13wrestle with an onslaught of new smells
15:16sounds
15:19sights bombarded with information our
15:23brains
15:26evolve we're smart and we need to be
15:31from that first creature to set foot on
15:33land millions of species have
15:37evolved more competitors mean less food
15:40to go
15:49round a mutation gives us bigger more
15:52powerful jaw muscles it's a critical
15:55Advantage we can eat more food faster
16:03and it
16:05[Music]
16:11shows we're varanops a slab of pure meat
16:15eating
16:22power this little creature is a
16:25protorosaurus
16:26once a competitor
16:29now he's
16:39pre with Veron Ops for an ancestor our
16:43success seems
16:45[Music]
16:50certain but our story is a roller
16:53coaster ride and there's a big dip
16:57coming
17:11250 million years ago thousands of miles
17:14away in Siberia the Earth tears itself
17:21apart a giant plume of magma surges up
17:25from deep inside the planet molten rock
17:28oozes through cracks in the Earth's
17:30crust covering an area the size of the
17:33United States under a layer a th000 ft
17:37deep and it continues for half a million
17:42years trillions of tons of noxious
17:45carbon dioxide tra the sun's heat inside
17:48the
17:51atmosphere temp temperatures soar to
17:53over
17:54100° plants the plant eaters and event
17:58eventually the meat eaters
18:00perish 95% of all species
18:04die only a tiny handful hang
18:09on among them us and another species
18:15that will one day become the
18:20dinosaurs as the fight for survival
18:22winds down the battle for Supremacy
18:27begins
18:3330 million years since volcanic
18:35eruptions wiped out 95% of all living
18:44things when the eruption struck we look
18:48like a large
18:50lizard now we're a cat-sized creature
18:53covered in fur called
18:57tinon
18:59imagine you've survived the apocalypse
19:02and today is the day it's finally safe
19:05to venture out of
19:07hiding you discover you're not
19:13alone the last thing you want to see is
19:17a
19:22dinosaur a 5T tall
19:27herrerasaurus
19:28she evolved from one of the small
19:30reptiles that survived the mass
19:33extinction her ancestors adapted faster
19:36than ours putting the dinosaurs ahead in
19:38the game and leaving us playing
19:42[Music]
19:44catchup this one's fast strong and
19:51[Music]
19:57hungry
20:16we're staring down the barrel of an
20:18evolutionary
20:21gun Our Only Hope natural
20:27selection
20:30over millions of years we get smaller so
20:33we're harder to
20:35catch we become
20:37nocturnal making us harder to
20:40see we're cold and
20:42scared tiny muscles around the base of
20:45each hair contract making our fur stand
20:48on end trapping air as insulation that's
20:52why today when we're cold or startled we
20:55get
20:57goosebumps
21:05our senses sharpened so we can see hear
21:08and smell a dinosaur before a dinosaur
21:12sees
21:21us inside our brain a new structure
21:24evolves the
21:26neocortex the of complex thought that
21:30allows us to analyze a situation and
21:33respond it will one day give us the
21:36power to imagine create and
21:41communicate 66 million years ago we're
21:45badon a 2-in long shrew likee creature
21:49living on our wits in the ancient
21:51forests of
21:53Montana Humanity's future depends on
21:55badon Sharp senses
21:58and supercharged brain if these fail we
22:02may never
22:24[Applause]
22:26exist
22:34the dinosaurs may be the best thing that
22:36ever happened to
22:40us thanks to them we have powerful
22:42senses and Brilliant
22:45brains without them we could still be
22:48laying
22:53eggs to protect our Offspring from
22:55Hungry dinosaurs we evolved to give
22:58birth to live
23:03young instead of leaving them to fend
23:05for themselves we nurture them with
23:10milk sweat glands evolve to become
23:13mamory
23:16glands it's a major milestone in our
23:19journey from cell to human the birth of
23:22a new kind of
23:23animal one that will Branch out into
23:26more than 4,000 species
23:29from the smallest mouse to the largest
23:31whale to
23:34us the mammals have
23:39arrived the dinosaurs help shape who we
23:45are but we lost the battle for
23:55Supremacy the dinosaurs rain for over
23:59165 million
24:00years nothing can stop them or so it
24:18seems
24:19Montana 65 million years ago an asteroid
24:24strikes 1,800 mil away off Mexico's
24:27Yucatan
24:36Peninsula a small rat-like mammal is
24:39about to face the fight of his life lose
24:43and humans may never
24:48exist pulverized Rock and dust engulf
24:52the entire
24:56planet
25:05[Music]
25:16the only way out is to
25:26dig
25:29smoke and Ash from the fires block out
25:31the sun temperatures plummet vegetation
25:38dies the local disaster becomes a global
25:42catastrophe for the
25:44dinosaurs it's a disaster they're big
25:48creatures with big appetites and now
25:52that's a big
25:56problem
26:00as the Mighty Fall the small rise to the
26:05top bugs Tough Enough To Survive the
26:09worst catastrophe gorge on the dead and
26:14decaying and they make the perfect
26:18snack next time you're about to squash a
26:21bug remember that we wouldn't be here
26:24without
26:26them 64 million years ago our buge
26:30eating ancestor is purgatorius just
26:33under 6 in long this little creature and
26:36the rest of his mammal family are the
26:38unlikely inheritors of the dinosaurs
26:41Crown mammals become the dominant
26:44animals on
26:47land they spread out across the newly
26:50formed
26:55continents our future rests on their
26:58tiny
27:01shoulders From the Ashes of Destruction
27:04new life begins to
27:10sprout 60 million years ago fruit ripens
27:14on the
27:16[Music]
27:18trees packed full of nutrients the more
27:22fruit we eat the longer we live we leave
27:26Solid ground for new life in the
27:36trees a new world Demands a new
27:40body we've come a long way from that
27:43first single cell now at last we're
27:47beginning to glimpse a family
27:49[Music]
27:51resemblance we're Alti at laus one of
27:54the first members of a new group of
27:56mammals
27:58the
28:01[Music]
28:07primates by 56 million years ago we've
28:11adapted to our
28:14[Music]
28:23world but that world is about to change
28:26again
28:32over 10 million years extreme
28:35temperature shifts ravage the
28:41forests forests get smaller food gets
28:45harder to
28:47reach natural selection intervenes
28:54again our tail shrinks back to the base
28:57face of the spine where it stays as the
29:01coxics a reminder of our days spent
29:03leaping through the
29:10trees instead of Leaping we
29:14stretch our arms grow long and
29:22flexible changing temperatures changed
29:24our ancestors and us
29:28forever but the planet's not finished
29:32yet deep underground the African and
29:35Arabian plates pull apart the land
29:38between them drops to form the East
29:41African Rift
29:43Valley along its Edge a 3 and 1 12,000
29:47mm long mountain chain Rises
29:49[Music]
29:51up rains from the Indian Ocean once
29:54watered all of Africa now the mountains
29:57blocked their
30:01path the trees get even further apart
30:05the food harder to
30:08reach we're
30:10starving
30:12desperate 4.4 million years ago the will
30:16to survive that's driven us from a
30:18single cell in the ocean to a complex
30:21primate in the forests of Africa is
30:24about to make us do something
30:26extraordinary
30:28something no primate has ever done
30:42before after 3 billion years of
30:45evolution we hit an evolutionary dead
30:50end we're arpus
30:52ramidus 4 ft tall at 80 lb with a brain
30:57the size of an
31:01orange our dense rainforest home has
31:04become patchy
31:10Forest we can stand on branches Move
31:14Along
31:15them but to reach more food we need to
31:19let
31:20[Music]
31:26go
31:29[Music]
31:38[Music]
31:414.4 million years
31:43ago these are our first steps on two
31:49legs walking takes us to the food and
31:53leaves our hands free to pick it it
31:55catches on
31:57fast arpus is smart enough to copy and
32:02learn walking gets passed from parent to
32:06child over the next 1.2 million years
32:09our body evolves so that we can walk
32:11further and
32:13[Music]
32:18faster finding shelter a mate and food
32:22gets easier but childbirth gets harder
32:27with a narrower pelvis giving birth to a
32:29fully developed infant becomes
32:34impossible babies have to come out early
32:37when their heads are smaller and they're
32:39barely
32:40developed that's why we are one of the
32:42few species to spend years caring for
32:44our Offspring protecting them feeding
32:47them and keeping them out of
32:51[Music]
32:54trouble 3.2 million years ago we're an
32:59australopith our brain is the size of a
33:01grapefruit and we walk on two legs all
33:04the
33:14[Music]
33:25time
33:36we got lucky the lion has already
33:40eaten this
33:42time we can't outrun our Predators the
33:46only way to survive is to outthink them
33:50the smarter we get the longer we
33:53live natural selection promotes the
33:55mutations that improve impr our brain
33:58power like weaker jaw
34:02muscles released from the muscles vice
34:04likee grip the brain is free to grow it
34:08doubles in
34:15size 2.3 million years ago this is homo
34:21habis also known as
34:25handyman walking on two legs with a big
34:28brain we're the first of an entirely new
34:31type of
34:32creature we're the first
34:35man we bigger stronger and hungrier than
34:40ever
34:41before there's food out there but it's
34:45more likely to eat us before we can eat
34:53it we're a
34:55scavenger
34:57working alone we eat whatever we can
35:25find
35:29The Edge is razor
35:36sharp we have just made the very first
35:43tool armed with this we will change the
35:55world
35:58East Africa 2.3 million years ago after
36:02over 3 billion years of evolution we
36:05take our fate into our own
36:07hands we are the first species to make
36:11tools in this hostile environment we
36:14need every Advantage we can get we must
36:17fight off Predators
36:20starvation and our own
36:25relatives
36:29[Applause]
36:37[Music]
36:48there's no meat left it looks like we're
36:51going hungry
36:55again but there's bone marrow locked
36:58inside packed with
37:01energy the tool is the key to a whole
37:03new way of life we'll use it to grow
37:06crops build cities and travel into space
37:11our thumbs become stronger hold a cup
37:15pick up a pen we can do this because 2
37:19million years ago tool use changed our
37:22bodies and the course of
37:24evolution we've pieced together our
37:26ancestors story from their
37:28bones but from the vastness of Africa
37:32all the bones of our early human
37:34ancestors ever found would fit into the
37:37back of a
37:38pickup less than one bone in a billion
37:41becomes a fossil factor in the chances
37:44of finding those bones across millions
37:46of square miles and it's
37:49clear most of what has lived has been
37:52lost our family tree is a giant puzzle
37:56with most of the pieces
38:00missing but 1.8 million years ago a
38:04piece falls into place and we find a new
38:06species on the scene Homo
38:10erectus until this point we were
38:13scavengers but now we're
38:20hunters and we've learned how to work
38:22with other members of our
38:25species
38:33[Music]
38:37The Hunt is
38:40on the Impala can run fast but we can
38:44run
38:45further low shoulders and long torsos
38:48stabilize
38:49us powerful buttock muscles contract
38:52expand and push us
38:55forwards
38:58[Music]
39:01sweat stops us from
39:12overheating covered in fur the Impala is
39:25exhausted
39:37fire it Sparks an idea that will make
39:41our
39:42ancestors
39:55human War warmth light safety is Within
40:07Reach Nature's power is in our
40:12[Music]
40:24hands protected from the Terrors of the
40:27dark our extended family gather
40:31round by working together these earliest
40:34families get food more often so we live
40:40longer this is the advantage of family
40:43life the reason most of us live as we do
40:55today
40:58meat is too precious to
41:03[Music]
41:06waste and cooked meat is easier to
41:12chew the powerful MERS used to chew
41:15tough raw food Retreat back into the
41:17gums where they'll stay as our wisdom
41:20teeth 35% of us never even grow them a
41:25sign that they may be evolving out of
41:28existence with less energy spent on
41:30chewing our ancestors have energy to
41:33spare the brain increases to the size of
41:36a softball 50% larger than before the
41:40invention of
41:41cooking erectus is the cleverest most
41:44Cooperative ancestor to date but with
41:48several adult males in an extended
41:50family rivalries are
41:54inevitable communicate and will live
42:05longer natural selection kicks in our
42:08tongue changes shape and moves down our
42:11throat carrying the linic with it
42:14allowing us to form different shapes in
42:16our mouths making different sounds and
42:20ultimately
42:23words speech is our greatest tool it's
42:26the last piece of the puzzle that turns
42:28our ancestors
42:30into
42:32US 200,000 years ago after a 3.3 billion
42:37year battle for survival we've
42:41arrived we are Homo sapiens meaning wise
42:46men pound for pound we have the largest
42:50brain of any creature on earth armed
42:53with tools speech and Superior
42:55intelligence we spread out across every
42:58continent we evolve and adapt to new
43:01environments new challenges until we
43:04become the Undisputed masters of the
43:06world