Eons
Take a journey through the history of life on Earth.
Eons: Life and Death on Pangea Official Trailer
S9 Ep1 | 30s
The Permian began with the formation of a supercontinent and ended in the biggest extinction ever.
How The Formation of Pangea Changed The World | Life and Death on Pangea
S9 Ep1 | 25m 37s
Seed plants and amniotes adapt to dry climates, helping them thrive on Pangea in the Permian Period.
How Eating Plants Shaped Life on Land | Life and Death on Pangea
S9 Ep2 | 25m 37s
The first herbivorous vertebrates evolve on the side of the amniote family tree leading to mammals.
The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Reef | Life and Death on Pangea
S9 Ep3 | 25m 37s
An extinction in the Middle Permian decimates life, from a fossil reef to our ancient relatives.
A Tale of Tusks and Saber Teeth | Life and Death on Pangea
S9 Ep4 | 25m 37s
The first saber-teeth and tusks evolve in the Late Permian and our ancestors, the cynodonts, appear.
That Time Almost Everything Died | Life and Death on Pangea
S9 Ep5 | 25m 37s
An apocalypse ended the Permian Period 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 80% of species.
Who Survived the Great Dying – and Why | Life and Death on Pangea
S9 Ep6 | 26m 6s
Life begins to rebound after the destruction of the mass extinction ending the Permian Period.
How Earth’s Smallest Life Caused its Biggest Death
S9 Ep7 | 9m 29s
For millions of years after the Great Dying microbes ruled the Earth.
How Tetrapods Took to the Trees
S9 Ep8 | 10m 44s
During the Permian Period many tetrapods, or four-limbed vertebrates, took to life in the trees.
When Sails Were All the Rage
S9 Ep9 | 7m 54s
Around 300 million years ago sails were all the rage, but we're still not sure what they were for.
The Age of Mutant Plants
S9 Ep10 | 11m 6s
What about the Great Dying caused a global age of mutant plants?
The Golden Age of Sharks
S8 Ep2 | 12m 40s
Why did sharks get so incredibly diverse and odd during the Golden Age?
Crawling Out Of The Water Was An Evolutionary Accident
S8 Ep4 | 8m 19s
Fish evolved terrestrial traits to...stay fish?
How We Figured Out an Asteroid Killed the Dinosaurs
S8 Ep5 | 10m 43s
Where the space rock came from 66 million years ago that crashed and killed the dinosaurs.
How Chewing May Have Beat Extinction
S8 Ep6 | 9m 35s
Tiny mammals and a group of lizard-like reptiles shared a trait that helped them survive extinction.
What Was Greenland Like When it Was Green
S8 Ep7 | 9m 7s
How we might borrow genes from that ancient past of Greenland to help us adapt to the future.
How Brawn Led to Brains
S8 Ep9 | 12m 14s
Brains and brawn aren’t opposites—they’ve been linked far longer than we might think.
When Ancient Weeds Fooled Us
S8 Ep10 | 11m 37s
Ancient weeds mimicked crops, tricking farmers into domesticating friends—and enemies—by mistake.
The Fiery Rise of Flowering Plants
S8 Ep11 | 10m 45s
For flowering plants to take over, they first helped burn the old world—and then put the fires out.
Sensitive Teeth? Blame This Fish
S8 Ep12 | 11m 8s
Why are our teeth so sensitive? The answer originates in the armored skin of ancient fish.
Did Ancient Storms Kill These Pterosaurs?
S8 Ep13 | 10m 5s
500+ pterosaur fossils found at Solnhofen may be hiding a dark secret distorting our view of them.
Does The World's Most Famous Dinosaur Have The Wrong Name?
S8 Ep14 | 12m 32s
Was the T-Rex given the wrong name?
When the Earth Had Supermountains
S8 Ep15 | 9m 34s
Only twice in Earth's history have supermountains risen, and both times reshaped life forever.
Why Do Humans Age Fast?
S8 Ep16 | 8m 27s
Long-extinct dinosaurs may still haunt us—possibly driving us to age faster than any vertebrate.
When Fish (Finally) Conquered the Deep Sea
S8 Ep17 | 9m 48s
Why did vertebrates conquer both the land and the air before the depths of the sea?
Did These Mammoths Dig Their Own Grave?
S8 Ep18 | 7m 44s
5,700 years ago, woolly mammoths crossed a remote tundra island off Alaska.
We Can't Remember What Giant Sloths Were Like
S8 Ep19 | 11m 45s
What did ancient people once know about these bizarre megafauna that we’ve since forgotten?
Did These Feathered Wings Evolve to Be Scary?
S8 Ep20 | 10m 16s
The mystery of what non-flying dinosaurs were doing with their feathered wings has a new hypothesis.
How A Geological Event Created The Ultimate Cat
S8 Ep21 | 9m 11s
How did Homotherium evolve to be so successful? The answer may lie in the rise of the Tibetan plate.
The Mystery of South America's False Horses
S7 Ep2 | 9m 45s
How did the "false horse," Thoatherium, and its relatives survive?
Where Did the Moon Come From?
S7 Ep5 | 10m 50s
Where did our moon come from? The origin is even stranger than you may imagine.
What Happened To The Other Mesozoic Mammals?
S7 Ep8 | 12m 28s
Learn about the complicated the history of mammals and their disappearance.
How Animals Got Butts
S7 Ep9 | 12m 10s
Did you know the evolution of the butthole was a major breakthrough in animal development?
When the Amazon Flowed Backwards
S7 Ep10 | 11m 25s
What did life look like when the Amazon watershed flowed backwards?
How Asteroids Set the Stage for Life on Earth
S7 Ep12 | 10m 38s
We may have planet-shattering asteroids...
The Mystery of the Cretaceous Pompeii
S7 Ep13 | 10m 39s
When you take a deeper look at Pompeii, a different story could be told about the final moments.
Webs vs wings: The arms race of the air
S7 Ep17 | 8m 10s
How did the competition of spiders vs insects drive them both into the air?
When Red Pandas Roamed North America
S7 Ep18 | 9m 41s
How did a relative of the red panda end up in North America?
Why The Giraffe Got Its Neck
S6 Ep1 | 9m 1s
The giraffe's neck as made us reconsider our understanding of how evolution really works.
We Helped Make Mosquitoes A Problem
S6 Ep2 | 8m 10s
About 6,000 years ago, a lone female mosquito buzzed through the lush savannah in Africa.
Did a Tsunami Swallow Part of Europe?
S6 Ep3 | 8m 3s
What happened to the piece of prime prehistoric real estate known as Doggerland?
That Time The Ocean Lost (Almost) All Its Oxygen
S6 Ep4 | 9m 31s
This is how our planet rescued itself from extreme conditions in the Cretaceous Period.
Do Thunderbeasts Prove Giant Animals Are Inevitable?
S6 Ep6 | 7m 50s
From an evolutionary perspective, is bigger always better?
When Did We Stop Being Naked?
S6 Ep7 | 9m 5s
How can we figure out when we first started wearing clothes?
The Huge Extinctions We Are Just Now Discovering
S6 Ep8 | 8m 58s
Graptolites show us how unpredictable the Silurian period really could be.
Beans & Bees (Not Bats) Gave Us Butterflies
S6 Ep9 | 7m 9s
Turns out bats didn’t give us butterflies and we should be thanking bees and beans.
Why Only Earth Has Fire
S6 Ep10 | 10m 45s
Fire only exists only on Earth because fire can’t exist without life.
How Ancient Microbes Rode Bug Bits Out to Sea
S6 Ep11 | 8m 42s
Exoskeleton fragments may have allowed microbes to sail the ocean and change the world.
Our Most Mysterious Extinct Cousins
S6 Ep12 | 9m 41s
Paranthropus lived alongside our ancestors. If we are still here, why aren’t they?
Animals Are Older Than We Thought
S6 Ep13 | 11m 57s
What are animal-like fossils doing in rocks a billion years old?
Why Is It So Hard to Tell the Sex of a Dinosaur?
S6 Ep14 | 12m 7s
When you only have fossils, how do you know if a dinosaur is female or male?
How Snake Venom Sparked An Evolutionary Arms Race
S6 Ep15 | 9m 11s
For some, the rise of venomous elapid snakes was an almost apocalyptic catastrophe.
What Was The Earliest Surgery?
S6 Ep16 | 7m 59s
When did we start practicing medicine in its varied, complex forms?
What Will Earth Be Like 300 Million Years From Now?
S6 Ep17 | 9m 34s
We’re taking a look towards the deep future. After all, the story is far from over.
The Hazy Evolution of Cannabis
S6 Ep18 | 10m 18s
How did such a strange plant like cannabis come to be in the first place?
No Single Cradle of Humankind
S6 Ep19 | 10m 46s
Maybe there wasn’t just one so-called "cradle of humankind"?
The Second Time Sponges Took Over The World
S6 Ep20 | 8m 4s
Learn about how researchers have discovered a piece of a weird, but critical, time in the deep past…
When The Atlantic Ripped Open A Supercontinent
S6 Ep21 | 10m 21s
Did you know volcanoes created the Atlantic Ocean that we know today?
Where Did Water Come From?
S5 Ep1 | 10m 17s
We think our water came from unlikely sources: meteorites, space dust, and even the sun.
Our Ancient Relative That Said 'No Thanks' To Life On Land
S5 Ep2 | 8m 59s
While some fishapods were crawling out of water, others were diving right back in.
Darwin Missed An Example of Evolution Right Under His Nose
S5 Ep3 | 8m 53s
Charles Darwin encountered a tiny fox-like creature during his famous voyage.
Are We All Actually Archaea?
S5 Ep4 | 8m 21s
In recent years, Archaea's connection to us has been pretty huge and surprising.
How Plate Tectonics Gave Us Seahorses
S5 Ep5 | 7m 20s
Seahorses are one of the ocean's worst swimmers but their origin story is great.
We Met Neandertals Way Earlier Than We Thought
S5 Ep6 | 7m 28s
We focus on the DNA we got from our Neanderthals.
When A Marsupial Became An Apex Predator
S5 Ep7 | 10m 4s
In Australia, evolution built a family of deadly predators.
How Did Our Most Famous Ancestor Really Die?
S5 Ep8 | 7m 20s
The answer is part of a decades-long debate.
These Creatures Were Darwin's Greatest Enemy
S5 Ep9 | 9m 58s
Beneath their shell, the crustaceans hold an evolutionary mystery.
Could Neanderthals Use Symbolism?
S5 Ep11 | 8m 9s
We explore what we have in common with our ancient cousins.
These Fossils Were Supposed To Be Impossible
S5 Ep12 | 9m 26s
Hidden in rocks may have animal kingdom’s oldest known predator.
The Mystery Of The Mashed-Up Dinosaurs
S5 Ep13 | 7m 23s
Hidden in rocks may have animal kingdom’s oldest known predator.
How a Mass Extinction Changed Our Brains
S5 Ep14 | 10m 42s
Our brains actually shrank relative to our bodies in evolution.
That Time the American West Blew Up
S5 Ep15 | 9m 57s
How is it possible to have cataclysmic eruptions without any real cataclysm?
The Hidden Genes That Make Us Human
S5 Ep16 | 9m 11s
Some of the most important genes were once considered genomic junk.
Nautiloids Thrived For 500 Million Years Until They Appeared
S5 Ep17 | 9m 54s
A new group of predators began to hunt nautiloids
When Plants Doubled Their DNA
S5 Ep19 | 8m 52s
For plants in times of great stress and ecological upheaval, the more DNA the better
It's Becoming Very Clear That Birds Are Not Normal
S5 Ep20 | 8m 40s
From an evolutionary perspective, who really has the stranger wings?
The Invisible Barrier Keeping Two Worlds Apart
S5 Ep21 | 8m 3s
In between two islands of Indonesia, there’s a line that is both real and not real.
A Natural History of Mars
S5 Ep22 | 11m 3s
Another epic planetary saga has also been unfolding right next door.
Did These Giant Sloths Poop Themselves to Death?
S4 Ep1 | 10m 1s
Find out if Sloths Really Did Poop Themselves to Death.
The Traits That Spawned the Age of Mammals
S4 Ep2 | 7m 44s
Some Mammal Traits Show Up a Lot Earlier and in Things That Weren’t Mammals at All.
The Island of the Last Surviving Mammoths
S4 Ep3 | 8m 6s
The very last mammoths that ever lived experienced what’s known as a mutational meltdown.
Where Are All the Medium-Sized Dinosaurs?
S4 Ep4 | 11m 1s
Learn More about the Very Rare Medium-Sized Dinosaurs.
How the Starfish Got Its Arms
S4 Ep5 | 10m 53s
The Story of How the Starfish Got its Arms Reminds us that Animals have Deep Histories.
The Creature That Stumped Darwin
S4 Ep6 | 6m 46s
The Toxodon fossils help reveal the mystery surrounding evolution.
How a Supervolcano Ignited an Evolutionary Debate
S4 Ep8 | 9m 59s
Discover the effects of the Toba supervolcano.
How a Mass Extinction Event Created the Amazon
S4 Ep9 | 7m 55s
The history of how the Amazon's revolution began in just one day.
When Mammals Only Went Out At Night
S4 Ep10 | 11m 9s
Scientists discover dinosaurs and tiny mammals' sleep habits are different than thought.
How Ancient Whales May Have Changed the Deep Ocean
S4 Ep11 | 10m 5s
Here's how the evolution of ocean-going whales affected deep-ocean communities.
How Dinosaurs Coupled Up
S4 Ep12 | 7m 49s
We learn about Dinosaur mating behavior from fossil records.
When It Was Too Hot for Leaves
S4 Ep13 | 10m 11s
For the first 80 million years of plants' existence, leaves didn't exist. Here's why.
Why The Paleo Diet Couldn't Save The Neanderthals
S4 Ep14 | 9m 17s
Here's why these skilled toolmakers, hunters, and foragers' population disappeared.
The 40 Million-Year-Old Ecosystem In Your Mouth
S4 Ep15 | 8m 14s
Dental calculus is the only part of your body that actually fossilizes while you're alive!
How Our Deadliest Parasite Turned To The Dark Side
S4 Ep17 | 8m 6s
Around 10,000 years ago, a parasite made a huge leap and found its way to a new host: Us.
Primates vs Snakes (An Evolutionary Arms Race)
S4 Ep18 | 7m 53s
The Snake Detection Hypothesis is deeply embedded in primates, including us.
Did Eating Insects Shrink These Dinos?
S4 Ep19 | 10m 21s
Dinosaurs were not just carnivores or herbivores; they were occasional omnivore too.
How Vertebrates Got Teeth… And Lost Them Again
S4 Ep20 | 8m 52s
Here's why teeth would go on to disappear in some groups of vertebrate.
How Horses Went From Food To Friends
S4 Ep21 | 6m 32s
With evidence from from art, archaeology, and ancient DNA, we put together horses history.
Why We Only Have Ten Toes (It's a Long Story)
S4 Ep22 | 9m 12s
We learn why all mammals today, from humans to bats, have five fingers or fewer.
When a Giant Pterosaur Ruled the European Islands
S4 Ep23 | 8m 50s
The giant pterosaur's occupied the empty Hateg Island.
The Sudden Rise of the First Colossal Animal
S4 Ep24 | 8m 44s
A truly enormous ichthyosaur reached its size within just a few million years.
The Extreme Hyenas That Didn't Last
S4 Ep25 | 7m 50s
Only a few million years ago, Hyenas lived very different lives from what we know today.
How the Smallest Animal Got So Simple
S4 Ep26 | 6m 52s
This tiny, simple animal, the Myxozoans, evolved from something bigger and more complex.
Why Sour May Be The Oldest Taste
S4 Ep27 | 7m 2s
Sour used to be the taste of danger. But, now its role has reversed.
The Ancient Human Species With A Missing Body
S4 Ep28 | 7m 56s
Would it really be impossible for us to reconstruct their morphology?
When Ants Domesticated Fungi
S4 Ep29 | 9m 5s
Ants have been farming for 60 million years! We explore how, when and why they started.
The Curious Case of the Cave Lion
S4 Ep30 | 8m 9s
Large feline roamed Eurasia and Its fossils have been found across the continent.
Is This The Oldest Dad In The Fossil Record?
S4 Ep31 | 6m 37s
Diictodon used burrows to breed and a male parent may have stayed behind to feed it.
We Can “Bring Back” The Woolly Mammoth. Should We?
S4 Ep32 | 6m 40s
We may have found the blueprints for building them ourselves.
Something Has Been Making This Mark For 500 Million Years
S4 Ep33 | 9m 42s
Paleodictyon, a hexagonal-patterned fossil, is a bit of a mystery. What could it be?
Giant Viruses Blur The Line Between Alive and Not
S4 Ep34 | 9m 19s
In 2003, microbiologists made this huge discovery.
When Giant Millipedes Reigned
S4 Ep35 | 7m 2s
Let's explore how and why this millipede became this big!
How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles
S4 Ep36 | 12m 34s
The epic saga of Los Angeles' natural history is still visible and even striking.
Why Does Caffeine Exist?
S4 Ep37 | 8m 29s
It started with the production of one specific molecule and its ability to evolve.
Did An Ancient Pathogen Reshape Our Cells?
S4 Ep38 | 7m 40s
There is one group of mammals that doesn’t have alpha-gal catarrhine primates.
How Whale Evolution Kind Of Sucked
S4 Ep39 | 9m 49s
We explore the origin of the Mystacodon, what we know today as baleen whales.
The Fungi That Turned Ants Into Zombies
S4 Ep40 | 8m 13s
This fungus was actually manipulating ants’ and forcing strange movements.
How Dogs (Eventually) Became Our Best Friends
S3 Ep2 | 9m 21s
It took thousands of years of interactions to develop our deep bond with dogs.
When a Billion Years Disappeared
S3 Ep3 | 11m 9s
Some rocks below the Great Unconformity are 1.2 billion years older than those above it.
The Risky Paleo Diets of Our Ancestors
S3 Ep4 | 7m 59s
Part of a secret to our success as a species has been our early experimentation with food.
How the Andes Mountains Might Have Killed a Bunch of Whales
S3 Ep5 | 8m 27s
Cerro Ballena has over 40 skeletons of marine mammals from the Late Miocene Epoch.
How Plants Caused the First Mass Extinction
S3 Ep6 | 9m 31s
The arrival of plants on land would eventually help cause a massive extinction event.
The Two Viruses That We’ve Had For Millions of Years
S3 Ep7 | 9m 11s
The two viruses that we’ve had for millions of years.
How We Identified One of Earth’s Earliest Animals
S3 Ep8 | 10m 44s
The key to solving the puzzle of Precambrian life was a tiny bit of fossilized fat.
When Dinosaur Look-Alikes Ruled the Earth
S3 Ep9 | 7m 23s
These animals truly ruled the Earth, becoming both abundant and diverse.
When Dinosaurs Chilled in the Arctic
S3 Ep11 | 9m 20s
How were they able to survive in this harsh environment?
The Story of the Dino Stampede
S3 Ep13 | 10m 43s
To try to solve the puzzle of Lark Quarry, experts have turned to paleoichnology.
The Biggest Frog that Ever Lived
S3 Ep14 | 7m 5s
Untangling the origins of Beelzebufo -- the giant frog that lived alongside the dinosaurs.
The Dinosaur Who Was Buried at Sea
S3 Ep15 | 12m 11s
Nobody had ever found a specimen like Borealopelta before.
How We Figured Out Fermentation
S3 Ep16 | 9m 20s
Fermented foods opened up a whole new nutritional landscape for us.
The Oddest Couple in the Fossil Record
S3 Ep17 | 8m 48s
How did Thrinaxodon and Broomistega become entombed together?
How Ancient Art Captured Australian Megafauna
S3 Ep18 | 9m 43s
What if the rock art drawings of strange animals really existed?
The Sea Monster from the Andes
S3 Ep19 | 6m 27s
How did this giant marine reptile end up high in the Andes Mountains?
Why Did These Ancient Gophers Have Horns?
S3 Ep20 | 8m 23s
The horns probably had a purpose - one that rodents would likely benefit from today.
What Happened To Primates In North America?
S3 Ep21 | 8m 54s
Our primate family tree actually originated here!
How Ankylosaurs Got Their Clubs
S3 Ep23 | 7m 52s
We’ve only started to get to the bottom of how clubs worked and how it developed.
Why Do Things Keep Evolving Into Crabs?
S3 Ep24 | 6m 46s
What is it about the crab’s form that makes it so evolutionarily successful?
How Plankton Created A Bizarre Giant of the Seas
S3 Ep25 | 8m 48s
Aegirocassis may have been the biggest animal in the Early Ordovician.
The Rise and Fall of the Tallest Mammal to Walk the Earth
S3 Ep26 | 7m 53s
It arose from rhino ancestors, but Paraceratherium took a different evolutionary path.
How Humans Lost Their Fur
S3 Ep27 | 11m 27s
This small change in our appearance has helped shape the evolution of our entire lineage.
When Lizards Took Over the World
S3 Ep28 | 8m 29s
This is Lizards' Fascinating And Competitive History.
The Triassic Reptile With "Two Faces"
S3 Ep30 | 10m 11s
History Of This Two-faced Creature And What It Can Teach Us About Mass Extinction.
The Bear-Sized Beaver That Couldn’t Build A Dam
S3 Ep31 | 7m 32s
Today's Beavers Are Pretty Special And Here's Why.
The Genes We Lost Along the Way
S3 Ep36 | 12m 1s
This is the journey of our DNA through Time and Space.
Our Bizarre, Possibly Venomous, Relative
S3 Ep37 | 8m 11s
Explore The Story Of Venomous Mammals, Both Living And Extinct.
How Worm Holes Ended Wormworld
S3 Ep38 | 9m 42s
How the Ancient Wormworld Met its Fate by its Own Design.
How Humans Became (Mostly) Right-Handed
S3 Ep39 | 8m 36s
Learn Why Being Right-handed May Have Deep Evolutionary Roots In Our Lineage.
How Chilis Got Spicy (and Why We Love the Burn)
S3 Ep40 | 9m 32s
Learn about the History and Evolution of the Red (and other) Hot Chilli Peppers.
How To Survive the Little Ice Age
S3 Ep42 | 10m
How did the Nunalleq village manage to survive and prosper during the Little Ice Age?
How Weasels Got Skinny
S3 Ep44 | 9m 1s
Find Out Why and How Weasels Push the Limits on What is Metabolically Possible.
When Birds Stopped Flying
S2 Ep2 | 7m 14s
For birds that can't fly, how did Ratites end up all over the world?
When Camels Roamed North America
S2 Ep3 | 9m 45s
Camels' origins story begins in an environment you’d never expect: a rainforest.
How Sloths Went From the Seas to the Trees
S2 Ep4 | 11m 45s
The story of sloths is one of astounding ecological variability.
When Apes Conquered Europe
S2 Ep6 | 8m 8s
Today, apes live only in Africa and Asia but this wasn't always the case.
Why Megalodon (Definitely) Went Extinct
S2 Ep7 | 10m 45s
What happened to the largest shark in history?
When Humans Were Prey
S2 Ep8 | 9m 21s
Not too long ago, our early human ancestors were under threat of attack from predators.
How 7,000 Years of Epic Floods Changed the World
S2 Ep13 | 9m 28s
How 7,000 Years of Epic Floods Changed the World
The Island of Huge Hamsters and Giant Owls
S2 Ep14 | 11m 41s
The Island of Huge Hamsters and Giant Owls
The Giant Bird That Got Lost in Time
S2 Ep15 | 8m 33s
The California condor is the biggest flying bird in N. America since the Pleistocene Epoch
When Giant Scorpions Swarmed the Seas
S2 Ep17 | 11m 38s
Sea scorpions thrived for 200 million years, coming in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
When We Tamed Fire
S2 Ep18 | 11m 46s
The ability to make and use fire has fundamentally changed the arc of our evolution.
The Mystery Behind the Biggest Bears of All Time
S2 Ep19 | 10m 41s
The Mystery Behind the Biggest Bears of All Time
The History of Climate Cycles (and the Woolly Rhino)
S2 Ep23 | 13m 14s
The History of Climate Cycles (and the Woolly Rhino) Explain
How Evolution Works (And How We Figured It Out)
S2 Ep25 | 12m 9s
We’ll try to explain how evolution actually works and how we came to understand it.
When the Synapsids Struck Back
S2 Ep26 | 10m 10s
Our world is the way it is because of the time when the synapsids struck back.
When Ichthyosaurs Led a Revolution in the Seas
S2 Ep27 | 9m 38s
When Ihthyosaurs led a revolution in the seas.
When We Met Other Human Species
S2 Ep28 | 12m 56s
We all belong to the only group of hominins on the planet today. But we weren’t alone.
How Earth's First, Unkillable Animals Saved the World
S2 Ep30 | 10m 12s
How Earth's First, Unkillable Animals Saved the World
When Giant Deer Roamed Eurasia
S2 Ep31 | 6m 53s
Megaloceros was one of the largest members of the deer family ever to walk the Earth.
The Missing Link That Wasn’t
S2 Ep33 | 9m 54s
There is no missing link in our lineage, because that’s not how evolution works.
When Giant Lemurs Ruled Madagascar
S2 Ep37 | 10m 9s
Just a few thousand years ago, the island of Madagascar was inhabited by giant lemurs.
When Giant Hypercarnivores Prowled Africa
S2 Ep43 | 9m 17s
Hyaenodonts gave the world some of its largest terrestrial carnivorous mammals ever known.
Why Male Mammoths Lost the Game (w/ TierZoo!)
S2 Ep44 | 11m 2s
Why do most remains of mammoths found in the fossil record turn out to be male?
The Forgotten Story of the Beardogs
S2 Ep45 | 9m 37s
Beardogs are key to understanding an important branch of the mammal family tree.
That Time the Mediterranean Sea Disappeared
S2 Ep47 | 11m 10s
How could a body of water as big as the Mediterranean just...disappear?
The Neanderthals That Taught Us About Humanity
S2 Ep48 | 9m 9s
Neanderthals actually behaved -- and likely thought and felt -- a lot like we do.
The Giant Dinosaur That Was Missing a Body
S2 Ep49 | 12m
Other than its bizarre arms, very little material from this dinosaur had been found.
How South America Made the Marsupials
S2 Ep50 | 9m 51s
Throughout the Cenozoic Era marsupials flourished all over South America.
A Short Tale About Diplodocus' Long Neck
S2 Ep51 | 9m 18s
Long necks gave sauropods an advantage when it came to food, but not in the way you think.
When the Rainforests Collapsed
S2 Ep52 | 7m 40s
If it weren't for the collapse, our ancestors might never have made it out of the swamps.
How a Hot Planet Created the World's Biggest Snake
S2 Ep53 | 7m 45s
The greatest snake that the world ever saw was made possible by a warming planet.
When the Sahara Was Green
S2 Ep54 | 7m 50s
The climate of the Sahara was completely different thousands of years ago.
The Ghostly Origins of the Big Cats
S2 Ep56 | 7m 32s
Scientists have recently discovered a major clue about the origins of the big cats.
When Giant Lemurs Ruled Madagascar (ASL)
S2 Ep58 | 10m 9s
Just a few thousand years ago, Madagascar was inhabited by giant lemurs.
Were These Monsters Inspired by Fossils? (ASL)
S2 Ep59 | 12m 18s
Is it possible that monsters that populate our legends were influenced by the fossil record?
The Trouble With Trilobites
S1 Ep1 | 6m 46s
Trilobites are famous not just because they were so beautifully functional..
When Did the First Flower Bloom?
S1 Ep2 | 4m 21s
During the Cretaceous Period, dinosaurs were more diverse, more fierce, and more strange.
The Tully Monster & Other Problematic Creatures
S1 Ep3 | 4m 1s
There are animals in the fossil record that challenge some of our most basic ideas..
Stegosaurs: Tiny Brains & Thagomizers
S1 Ep4 | 4m 49s
If you take it as a given that extinct dinosaurs were all weird and wonderful, then you go
What Colors Were Dinosaurs?
S1 Ep5 | 5m 2s
We know a lot about dinosaurs but there’s one question that has plagued paleontologists..
The Story of Saberteeth
S1 Ep6 | 5m 26s
Smilodon was a fearsome Ice Age cat, the size of a modern-day tiger.
That Time Oxygen Almost Killed Everything
S1 Ep7 | 4m 45s
What if we told you that there was a time when oxygen almost wiped out all life on Earth?
The Biggest Thing That Ever Flew
S1 Ep8 | 4m 27s
Today, we’re familiar with two types of flying vertebrates -- birds and bats.
Dimetrodon: Our Most Unlikely Ancestor
S1 Ep9 | 5m 21s
Take a close look and you might see a little bit of yourself.
The Extinction That Never Happened
S1 Ep10 | 7m 36s
Natural history is full of living things that were long thought to have gone extinct only
The Strange Case of the Buzzsaw Jaws
S1 Ep11 | 3m 54s
A 270-million-year-old sea creature called Helicoprion that once swam the seas.
History's Most Powerful Plants
S1 Ep13 | 5m 20s
Fossil fuels are made from the remains of extinct organisms.
How Did Dinosaurs Get So Huge?
S1 Ep14 | 5m 42s
Creatures as tall as a five-story buildings shook the Earth.
When The Earth Was Purple
S1 Ep15 | 5m 37s
But imagine a time when the Earth looked a little … purple.
Living Fossils' Aren't Really a Thing
S1 Ep16 | 5m 5s
Even the most ancient-looking organisms show us that evolution is always at work.
An Illustrated History of Dinosaurs
S1 Ep18 | 12m 20s
Our image of dinosaurs has been constantly changing since naturalists started studying the
A Brief History of Geologic Time
S1 Ep19 | 12m 8s
Geologists have been able to identify crucial episodes in life’s history.
The Facts About Dinosaurs & Feathers
S1 Ep21 | 10m 1s
Dinosaurs have been found with some sort of fluff or even full-on plumage.
The Last Time the Globe Warmed
S1 Ep22 | 9m 54s
Imagine an enormous, lush rainforest teeming with life...in the Arctic.
What Happened to the World's Greatest Ape?
S1 Ep23 | 7m 1s
Gigantopithecus is the greatest great-ape that ever was.
When Giant Fungi Ruled
S1 Ep24 | 6m 37s
An unlikely group of pioneers ultimately made life on land possible -- the fungi.
How Two Microbes Changed History
S1 Ep25 | 7m 39s
More than two billion years ago, a tiny living thing started to live inside another thing.
The Time Terror Birds Invaded
S1 Ep26 | 5m 32s
5 million years ago, a predator made its way onto the coastal plains of North America.
Untangling the Devil's Corkscrew
S1 Ep27 | 6m 11s
In the late 1800s, paleontologists in Nebraska found huge coils of hardened sand.
The Great Snake Debate
S1 Ep28 | 6m 28s
90 million years ago, an ancient snake known as Najash had...legs.
The Whole Saga of the Supercontinents
S1 Ep29 | 8m 40s
So if we want to know how we got here, we have to understand how "here" got here.
From the Cambrian Explosion to the Great Dying
S1 Ep30 | 10m 28s
The Paleozoic Era is one of the most chaotic times in Earth's history. Find out why!
The Other Explosion You Should Know About
S1 Ep32 | 6m 25s
The Sudden burst of diversity that marked the dawn of truly complex life on our planet.
How the Turtle Got Its Shell
S1 Ep33 | 8m 29s
Where did turtles come from? And how did the they get their shells?
What a Dinosaur Looks Like Under a Microscope
S1 Ep34 | 8m 9s
What has been observed and learned from putting dinosaur bones under a microscope.
The Most Useful Fossils In The World
S1 Ep35 | 5m 49s
Mysterious fossils can be used to tell time in the deep past.
Inside the Dinosaur Library
S1 Ep36 | 7m 19s
We talk to Amy Atwater, Collections Manager at the Museum of the Rockies.
What Was the Ancestor of Everything?
S1 Ep37 | 11m 6s
The search for our origins go back to a single common ancestor.
How the Squid Lost Its Shell
S1 Ep38 | 8m 5s
Ancestors of cephalopods all had shells until it proved to be their biggest weakness.
How the Chalicothere Split In Two
S1 Ep39 | 7m 3s
How did two of the same kind of animal end up looking so different?
The Age of Reptiles in Three Acts
S1 Ep40 | 10m 45s
Reptiles in time grew to become some of the largest forms of life ever to exist on earth.
The Weird, Watery Tale of Spinosaurus
S1 Ep41 | 7m 28s
In 1912, a fossil collector discovered the world’s only known semi-aquatic dinosaur.
From the Fall of Dinos to the Rise of Humans
S1 Ep42 | 12m 34s
The Cenozoic marks the rise of organisms that look a lot like us.
That Time It Rained for Two Million Years
S1 Ep43 | 7m 31s
234 million years ago, the climate suddenly changed for the wetter.
Why Triassic Animals Were Just the Weirdest
S1 Ep44 | 9m 7s
Why the Triassic was full of creatures that look a lot like other, more modern species.
Where Did Viruses Come From?
S1 Ep45 | 7m 29s
Where did viruses come from and how did they evolve? Are viruses alive?
When Fish First Breathed Air
S1 Ep46 | 8m 40s
Before a group of fish could live on dry land, they acquired the ability to breathe air.
How the T-Rex Lost Its Arms
S1 Ep47 | 6m 54s
Tyrannosaurus rex had tiny arms. How did this happen, and why did it keep them?
FAQs From Our First Year
S1 Ep48 | 9m 20s
To celebrate our first anniversary together, we’d like to answer some of your questions.
When Insects First Flew
S1 Ep49 | 8m 38s
Insects were the first animals to fly. Scientists are still working on how it happened.
The Mystery of the Eocene’s Lethal Lake
S1 Ep50 | 7m 59s
In the 1800s, miners found beautifully preserved fossils of animals from the Eocene.
When Fish Wore Armor
S1 Ep51 | 9m 37s
420 million years ago, some fish wore armor – and it may have served a surprising purpose.
When Birds Had Teeth
S1 Ep52 | 11m 29s
How did Archaeopteryx relate to today’s birds? Its teeth provide a major clue.
How Horses Took Over North America (Twice)
S1 Ep53 | 9m 8s
Horses vanished from North America for 10,000 years until a mammal brought them back.
How a Supervolcano Made the Cenozoic’s Coolest Fossils
S1 Ep54 | 9m 15s
Yellowstone contains some of North America's most amazing fossil deposits.
The Rise and Fall of the Bone-Crushing Dogs
S1 Ep55 | 8m 29s
What happened to the biggest dogs that ever lived?
Life, Sex & Death Among the Dire Wolves
S1 Ep56 | 9m 15s
Dire wolves were real! Their remains taught us a lot about how they lived.
When We First Walked
S1 Ep57 | 10m 56s
Human ancestors were already walking 3.6 million years ago. But who was first to walk?
Did Raptorex Really Exist?
S1 Ep58 | 12m 27s
Is LH PV18 a Tarbosaurus bataar? Or a different theropod named Raptorex kriegsteini?
Can We Get DNA From Fossils?
S1 Ep59 | 11m 22s
Scientists have been working for decades to unlock the genetic secrets of the past.
When Giant Amphibians Reigned
S1 Ep60 | 9m 51s
A look at when Temnospondyls Amphibians existed for 210 million years
Your Place in the Primate Family Tree
S1 Ep61 | 11m 35s
How did we get from a mouse-sized creature that looked more like a squirrel to you?
The Two People We're All Related To
S1 Ep62 | 8m 44s
Two humans managed to pass on a very small fraction of their genomes to all of us.
The Dinosaurs Too Big To Be Dinosaurs
12m 22s
How did sauropods, uniquely large land animals, actually live, with their anatomy and physiology pus
Why Paleontologists Can’t Stop Fighting About Spinosaurus
8m 37s
What does it mean to be a “semi-aquatic” dinosaur?
Did Dinosaurs' Extinction Give Us Fruit?
10m 47s
One of the most surprising effects of the cascade of changes was...fruit?
Eons: Life and Death in Pangea Official Trailer
30s
The Permian began with the formation of a supercontinent and ended in the biggest extinction ever.
Eons: Life and Death on Pangea Official Trailer
30s
The Permian began with the formation of a supercontinent and ended in the biggest extinction ever.
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