# The History of Earth   Full Documentary HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAzAjU224_k

[00:14] The earth, as far as we know, it's the only home to life in the universe.
[00:19] So what makes our planets so special?
[00:29] To find answers we must travel back in time.
[00:33] See the first humans walk the earth.
[00:40] Ride each colliding continent.
[00:44] Face killer dinosaurs.
[00:52] Dive into oceans full of bizarre life-forms.
[00:56] Feel the bitter chill of global ice ages.
[00:59] And experience the fury of cosmic missile attacks.
[01:12] By traveling back in time we can piece.
[01:15] Together our planet's incredible story.
[01:17] And discover why all of this and all of us are here.
[01:35] [Music]
[01:42] The journey starts almost 5 billion years ago.
[01:48] There's no sign of Earth just yet.
[01:51] [Music]
[01:54] Only the Sun, a newborn star surrounded by dust.
[02:05] The Earth has informed yet.
[02:18] But through time, gravity pulls the dust into tiny rocks.
[02:38] To our surprise, something as complex as a planet is made from nothing more than dust and rocks.
[02:49] Over millions of years, gravity pulls these rocks together to form the Earth, one of at least a hundred planets circling the Sun.
[03:03] [Music]
[03:30] But four and a half billion years ago, Earth looks more like hell back home.
[03:37] [Music]
[03:41] Up close, the temperature is over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
[03:45] There's no air, just carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapor.
[03:53] It's so hot and toxic that if we got any closer, we'd be incinerated and suffocated in seconds.
[04:12] This newborn planet is a boiling ball of liquid rock.
[04:24] An endless ocean of lava.
[04:37] A young planet, Coffea, is heading straight for her.
[04:44] The size of Mars, it travels nearly ten miles per second, 20 times faster than a bullet.
[04:53] [Music]
[05:01] The intruder's gravity distorts the Earth's surface.
[05:04] [Music]
[05:32] The blastwave races around the planet.
[05:34] It's as though.
[05:38] Both young planets turn to liquid.
[05:50] Trillions of tons of debris blast out into space.
[06:05] [Music]
[06:12] But over the course of a thousand years, gravity turns the rubble into a ring of red-hot dust and rock that circles the Earth.
[06:24] [Music]
[06:28] From this ring, a ball falls over 2,000 miles wide.
[06:41] It's the birth of our Moon.
[06:44] [Music]
[06:51] But it's much closer than the moon today.
[06:55] Just fourteen thousand miles away.
[06:57] Instead of a quarter of a million miles.
[07:03] [Music]
[07:17] The Sun rises over a cooling earth and sets just three hours later.
[07:27] The earth is spinning so fast that an entire day lasts six hours.
[07:30] The days may pass quickly, but the earth changes slowly too.
[07:41] Understand the making of our planet, we need to fast forward through millions of units.
[08:12] 3.9 billion years ago, a hail of meteorites attacked the earth, its debris leftover from the solar system's formation.
[08:32] Inside the meteorites are crystals that look like grains of salt.
[08:39] And inside the crystals on my new.
[08:42] Droplets of water.
[08:46] [Applause]
[08:51] These deadly missiles could contain the vital ingredient for life on earth.
[09:11] Only a small amount of water exists inside each meteorite, but as they bombard the earth for over 20 million years, pools of water grown.
[09:25] Your score remains molten, but its surface has cooled enough to form a crust.
[09:30] The air is around 170 degrees.
[09:35] [Music]
[09:38] In the future, there's a chance we could swallow this very water, every sip, every.
[09:45] Puddle every drop of water in every ocean is billions of years old.
[09:54] And it may have traveled millions of miles to reach us carry inside a media.
[10:03] The earth looks more familiar, but it's still a dangerous place.
[10:11] Winds are faster than the most destructive hurricanes today.
[10:16] It's a mega storm.
[10:17] We're jumped by the planets graphic rotation.
[10:22] [Music]
[10:31] The moon is so close to Earth that it's gravity was overwhelmed, creating huge tides that race across the planet circuits.
[10:46] [Music]
[11:13] But over time the moon moves away, the waves calm down, and the planet spins slower.
[11:22] [Music]
[11:25] 700 million years after the planet's birth, life-giving water covers its surface and scattered throughout are tiny islands.
[11:45] They seem to have appeared from nowhere.
[11:51] So how did they get here?
[12:00] Molten rock bursts through the Earth's crust.
[12:02] It rises up through the ocean.
[12:09] Over time the lava cools, forming a volcanic island.
[12:19] In the future these islands will join together to form the first continents.
[12:27] Earth now has water and land.
[12:32] It's beginning to look like the planet we call home.
[12:34] But the atmosphere is still toxic and the temperature is scorching.
[12:42] Life here is impossible since the.
[12:56] Planets formation media's had been pummeling Earth.
[13:01] But now, 3.8 billion years ago, the assault enters a violent new things.
[13:10] Some things disturb the orbits of these meteorites.
[13:17] In addition to water, the media's carry something else.
[13:27] [Music]
[13:31] As they dissolve, the meteorites release millions carbon and primitive proteins made of amino acids are transported from outer space to the bottom of the ocean.
[13:45] [Music]
[13:50] Thousands of feet below the waves, it is dark and close to freezing.
[13:55] [Music]
[14:12] But a dramatic illusion is taking shape.
[14:19] Underwater chimneys spewing hot liquid.
[14:28] Sea water seeps down into the earth through cracks in the crust, collecting minerals and gases along the way.
[14:36] This potent mixture is released back out into the ocean, building these chimneys.
[14:48] Combined with the minerals and chemicals from the meteorites, the water becomes a chemical soup.
[14:53] It's impossible to know how or where, but somehow these chemicals come together to create life.
[15:07] The water is now full of microscopic organisms.
[15:10] These single-celled bacteria are the.
[15:14] Earliest forms of life on Earth.
[15:19] [Music]
[15:21] This is a defining moment in the making of the planet.
[15:29] Microscopic life sound away.
[15:34] [Music]
[15:42] For hundreds of millions of years, nothing changes.
[15:47] [Music]
[15:50] The only life is single-celled bacteria.
[15:55] [Music]
[16:03] To find more complex life, we need to fast forward to 3.5 billion years ago and a shallow ocean.
[16:24] These look like rocks or even plants growing out of the c-pen.
[16:30] [Music]
[16:34] Each mound is a colony of living bacteria called a stromatolite.
[16:40] [Music]
[16:44] These bacteria turns sunlight into food, a process called photosynthesis.
[16:47] It uses the power of sunlight to transform carbon dioxide and water into glucose, a simple form of sugar.
[17:00] [Music]
[17:14] And this magical transformation releases a byproduct, a gas called oxygen.
[17:27] Underwater, the stromatolites slowly fill the oceans with oxygen.
[17:30] The oxygen then turns traces of iron into rust, which fall to the ocean floor to form deposits of iron-rich rock.
[17:45] It's this mineral that will one day be used to build bridges, ships, and skyscrapers.
[17:56] [Music]
[18:05] Above the waves, the oxygen transforms the atmosphere.
[18:08] These stromatolites are creating the most important element for life on Earth.
[18:14] Without them, virtually every living thing wouldn't exist.
[18:24] [Music]
[18:29] Over the next two billion years, oxygen levels continue to rise.
[18:33] And as the planet spins, it slows, and the days get longer, lasting at least 16 hours.
[18:49] [Music]
[18:53] Three billion years after the planet's birth, there's still no complex life, no plants, no dinosaurs, no humans.
[19:05] But the Earth has something unlike any other planet in this solar system: a force with the power to change everything.
[19:13] One and a half billion years ago, the Earth is a beautiful blue ball dotted with volcanic islands.
[19:29] Over.
[19:34] Millions of years, a mysterious force rearranges these islands hidden beneath the ocean.
[19:41] The Earth's crust breaks into vast plates.
[19:44] But even deeper, the Earth's core is so hot that it generates movement in the rock beneath the crust.
[19:56] These movements push and pull the plates around the globe, carrying the oceans and islands with them.
[20:03] Millions of years raced by.
[20:08] Our planet is alive and changing.
[20:15] Over 400 million years, a vast new supercontinent takes shape.
[20:19] It's called Rodinia.
[20:24] [Music]
[20:29] In the shallow waters surrounding Rodinia, stromatolites work their magic.
[20:34] For more than two billion years pumping oxygen into the atmosphere, the temperature is 85 degrees and the days are 18 hours long.
[20:49] [Music]
[20:56] But this planet looks more like Mars than Earth.
[21:05] To find life, we must fast-forward through time.
[21:15] [Music]
[21:21] Washington State, 750 million years ago, a force deep inside the planet rips the crust to pieces.
[21:33] It's as though the world is breaking.
[21:35] apart and there's only one force
[21:39] powerful enough to do this heat
[21:44] it escapes from the Earth's molten core
[21:48] stretching and weakened crust inch by
[21:53] inch year by year the great
[21:56] supercontinent is splitting in two
[22:00] [Music]
[22:01] [Applause]
[22:06] [Music]
[22:37] the intense geological activity spawns a
[22:41] mass of volcanoes they pump carbon
[22:44] dioxide into the atmosphere
[23:04] the carbon dioxide mixes with water and
[23:07] creates acid rain
[23:20] when the consonant to applaud many rocks
[23:24] were exposed
[23:25] [Music]
[23:29] these rocks absorb the acid rain
[23:32] including its carbon dioxide vast
[23:36] quantities of co2 are absorbed out of
[23:39] the atmosphere
[23:46] [Music]
[23:48] now there's not enough carbon dioxide in
[23:51] the air to trap the sun's heat around
[23:54] the planet in just a few thousand years
[23:59] the temperature plummets to around minus
[24:02] 60 degrees
[24:05] this frozen wasteland is southern
[24:08] Australia 650 million years ago
[24:13] it's the start of what some scientists
[24:16] called snowball earth a period they
[24:20] believed to be the longest coldest ice
[24:23] age ever to grip the planet
[24:30] a vast wall of ice lose thousands of t5
[24:37] and it's unstoppable
[24:41] the more ice there is the more sunlight
[24:43] it reflects away from the planet and the
[24:46] faster the ice spreads
[24:50] nearby is a second ice sheet just as
[24:54] high the two sheets spread away from the
[24:57] poles toward each other to meet f.viia
[25:00] quake
[25:24] now an ice sheet up to ten thousand feet
[25:28] thick covers the entire play
[25:34] earth first began as a molten ball of
[25:37] fire now it's a frozen ball of ice
[25:42] [Music]
[25:45] virtually all the sun's light and warm
[25:49] reflects back into space
[25:51] [Music]
[26:01] and it seems as though nothing not even
[26:03] the Sun can rescue the planet now
[26:06] [Music]
[26:19] 615 million years ago ice in tombs the
[26:23] planet for 15 million years the earth is
[26:28] a vast frozen snowball but it can't last
[26:34] forever
[26:35] something must release the earth from
[26:37] this frozen prison and when it does who
[26:42] knows whether life has survived beneath
[26:44] the ice the surface is frozen but the
[26:49] core is still hotter than the Sun
[26:51] surface
[26:59] volcanoes have been erupting since the
[27:01] world began to freeze but up until now
[27:04] even their heat and power made no impact
[27:08] on the ice
[27:13] volcanoes pump out billions of tons of
[27:16] carbon dioxide
[27:19] before the big freeze the Earth's rocks
[27:22] absorb most of the co2 but now with the
[27:28] rocks smothered in ice there's nothing
[27:31] to absorb the gas so it fills the
[27:34] atmosphere
[27:43] like a blanket it traps the sun's warmth
[27:46] around the play allowing the
[27:48] temperatures to rise now after 15
[27:53] million years the ice begins to melt
[28:21] it's thought that during snowball earth
[28:23] the ice pushed the crust down but now as
[28:27] it melts the crust bounces up creating
[28:31] tissues and weak spots
[28:33] and more volcanoes
[28:42] the volcano's released more carbon
[28:44] dioxide and push the temperature up even
[28:47] higher the Milt gathers momentum and
[28:55] oxygen levels rise
[28:59] through a series of chemical reactions
[29:01] the ice has created oxygen while the
[29:06] planet was frozen the sun's ultraviolet
[29:09] rays reacted with water molecules in the
[29:12] ice to produce hydrogen peroxide a
[29:16] chemical rich in oxygen
[29:21] [Music]
[29:29] now as the ice melts the hydrogen
[29:33] peroxide breaks down and releases
[29:36] massive amounts of oxygen the earth is
[29:48] waking up and it's a very different
[29:51] place
[30:30] 600 million years ago the atmosphere is
[30:34] warmer like a summer day and the days
[30:39] are about 22 hours long
[30:44] [Music]
[30:48] and all this water and it's the perfect
[30:53] recipe for life before snowball earth
[31:01] primitive bacteria emerged in the oceans
[31:05] but surely they couldn't have survived
[31:08] an ice age 75 times longer than the
[31:12] entire span of human history if
[31:16] something has survived then life may be
[31:19] found where it was last seen in the
[31:22] oceans
[31:25] [Music]
[31:27] now 540 million years ago in an ocean
[31:32] full of oxygen those primitive bacteria
[31:35] have evolved a handful must have clung
[31:40] on through the big freeze there are
[31:43] plants scattered on the seafloor
[31:46] [Music]
[31:49] and something else
[31:53] [Music]
[31:54] what looks like an armored slug takes up
[31:58] residence
[31:58] it's called relax eeeh a new generation
[32:04] of complex multi-celled organisms the
[32:08] earth enters one of the most dynamic
[32:10] periods in its history the Cambrian
[32:13] explosion increased oxygen levels allow
[32:19] creatures to grow larger and develop
[32:22] bony skeletons there are worms sponges
[32:33] and these trilobite
[32:36] distant relatives of insects lobsters
[32:39] even scorpions
[32:43] [Music]
[32:50] life in the oceans blossoms from
[32:57] microscopic bacteria to monsters
[33:09] [Music]
[33:11] this is anomalocaris nearly two feet
[33:16] long it has large eyes razor-sharp teeth
[33:22] and grasping limbs
[33:27] [Music]
[33:42] all it has to do is take its pick
[33:49] [Music]
[33:55] the trial of I can't write itself it's
[33:58] soft bellies exposed
[34:06] [Music]
[34:16] also found in the sea is pacaya only an
[34:20] inch and a half long they may be the
[34:23] first organism with a spine
[34:26] [Music]
[34:30] over millions of years this simple
[34:34] structure will evolve into the spine
[34:36] that keeps us standing
[34:46] [Music]
[34:57] expecting to find life in ruins the
[35:00] oceans are in fact full of life
[35:06] the trilobite scavenge monsters prowl
[35:10] and we're creatures began to take on
[35:14] familiar forms beneath the waves there
[35:21] are already tens of thousands of plant
[35:24] and animal species the advance of life
[35:28] seems unstoppable
[35:30] [Music]
[35:31] [Applause]
[35:45] [Music]
[35:47] 460 million years ago the plates have
[35:50] been moving again a new continent now
[35:55] exists Gondwana
[36:00] it's 90 degrees and oxygen levels are
[36:03] close to what they are today
[36:08] the land should be covered with plants
[36:11] and crawling with creatures but there's
[36:14] not much here besides a few patches of
[36:17] algae
[36:17] [Music]
[36:27] there's only one explanation
[36:35] the son
[36:39] it blasts the surface with deadly
[36:42] radiation so the complex life in the
[36:47] ocean doesn't stand a chance on land but
[36:55] 30 miles up where the Rays enter the
[36:57] Earth's atmosphere
[36:58] something is happening when oxygen meets
[37:05] the sun's radiation it turns into
[37:07] another kind of gas called ozone
[37:13] this gas forms a blanket around the
[37:16] planet and absorbs the lethal radiation
[37:21] over 120 million years the ozone layer
[37:25] gets sticky and prevents more and more
[37:28] radiation from reaching the Earth's
[37:30] surface without this layer life on land
[37:34] simply wouldn't exist now shielded from
[37:38] radiation life takes off small mossy
[37:47] lumps are the first land plants
[37:52] they pump out even more oxygen levels
[37:57] saw
[37:58] [Music]
[38:07] 375 million years ago a new species
[38:11] lives in the water swimming
[38:18] [Music]
[38:26] it's a strange fish called Tiktaalik
[38:33] [Music]
[38:52] it uses its neck to raise itself up
[38:56] [Music]
[39:11] and it's fins function its legs allowing
[39:19] it to move out of the water
[39:33] this is one of the most important
[39:36] moments in the making of our plant over
[39:41] 15 million years creatures like these of
[39:44] all they grow stronger limbs and spend
[39:49] more time out of the water where plant
[39:52] life is exploded until 360 million years
[39:58] ago their relatives called tetrapods
[40:01] make the land their home from tetrapods
[40:05] four-legged vertebrates evolved into
[40:08] dinosaurs birds mammals and eventually
[40:13] humans there are mosses and ferns
[40:20] everywhere some at least a hundred feet
[40:24] tall a seed is carried by the wind until
[40:36] now
[40:36] plants reproduced using spores
[40:39] single-cell particles that need plenty
[40:42] of water to grow
[40:43] [Music]
[40:46] but this seed is miles from water this
[40:53] embryonic plant has its own food and
[40:55] water supply unlike a spore this seed
[41:00] can survive far from water for months
[41:03] even years
[41:11] [Applause]
[41:19] the humble seed spreads life across the
[41:21] plan and each tree and plant pumps out
[41:25] even more oxygen
[41:27] [Applause]
[41:31] [Music]
[41:41] it's an environment very much like today
[41:44] [Music]
[42:02] the planet has come a long way from a
[42:05] lump of burning rock and dust to a blue
[42:09] and green world bursting with life
[42:18] there are now fish plants and this
[42:29] the try can fly
[42:33] it's called mega Nura
[42:37] this insect is the size of an eagle what
[42:42] were once legs have evolved into wings
[42:45] extending the dragonflies hunting
[42:47] territory over a vast area there are
[42:55] also millipedes and spiders down there
[43:02] [Music]
[43:04] these creatures called arthropods were
[43:08] among the first to set foot on land
[43:10] hundreds of millions of years ago they
[43:14] look almost identical to the bugs that
[43:16] invade our homes today except for one
[43:19] big difference like the mega Noura
[43:22] they're monsters it's a world full of
[43:27] giants where millipedes are six feet
[43:30] long and scorpions are the size of
[43:33] wolves
[43:34] [Music]
[43:37] this is because the oxygen level is much
[43:41] higher than it is today which allows
[43:43] their respiratory systems to be more
[43:45] efficient fuelling their bodies to grow
[43:48] larger
[43:49] [Applause]
[43:55] [Music]
[43:59] so far animals have been laying their
[44:02] eggs in the water but a lizard-like
[44:07] creature called the high/low Namas
[44:09] prefers lay its eggs contain all the
[44:14] water and nutrients that the developing
[44:17] fetus needs the babies grow in their own
[44:20] self-contained pond the egg is a major
[44:24] evolutionary breakthrough allowing
[44:29] animals to leave the water behind and
[44:31] conquer left
[44:32] [Music]
[44:45] this baby Hyland almost leads the
[44:48] advance
[44:48] [Music]
[44:52] as a new creature the rep talked
[44:55] [Music]
[45:10] inevitably with life comes death dead
[45:16] plant matter builds up and decays into
[45:18] dense soggy layers over hundreds of
[45:23] millions of years rocks cover these
[45:25] layers and heat from the Earth's core
[45:28] and pressure from the overlying rocks
[45:30] transform these layers into scenes of :
[45:35] each lump of coal burned today is made
[45:39] of plants that died 300 million years
[45:43] ago
[45:43] [Music]
[45:55] amidst the decay hidden from sight life
[45:59] is stirred soon seeds will germinate
[46:03] plants will grow and this wasteland will
[46:06] live again life seems to have conquered
[46:10] the planet but will at last
[46:14] [Music]
[46:29] a herd of creatures graze the Siberian
[46:32] Plains and they are big
[46:42] [Music]
[46:45] evolution takes a huge leap forward
[46:48] small lizards are now giant reptiles
[46:53] these scooter saws are distant relatives
[46:57] of turtles
[46:59] [Music]
[47:03] if these plant eaters look tough the
[47:07] carnivores must be seriously mean like
[47:16] this worgen opposite a perfectly
[47:20] engineered prehistoric killing machine
[47:35] [Music]
[47:41] the gorgonopsids saber teeth wound the
[47:44] SCOOTER saw
[47:45] [Music]
[47:56] the predator watches as its prey grows
[47:59] weak from blood loss
[48:02] but before it can make its final move
[48:09] something strange happens
[48:12] the ground gets hot
[48:17] [Music]
[48:22] enormous pressure builds beneath the
[48:24] surface and lava spews into the air
[48:46] [Music]
[48:57] but the llama isn't from one single
[49:00] volcano the entire landscape is erupted
[49:06] it's a flood basalt eruption a massive
[49:10] plume of mantle rises up from deep
[49:13] inside the earth and pushes molten rock
[49:16] out through fissures in the Earth's
[49:18] crust
[49:20] [Music]
[49:24] the lush paradise is now a lifeless hell
[49:27] the SCOOTER sauce and the gorgonopsids
[49:30] are dead
[49:33] they're the first casualties in the
[49:36] greatest mass extinction the world has
[49:38] ever seen the Permian extinction
[49:50] [Music]
[49:52] on the other side of the continent
[49:55] Gondwana nothing's changed yet
[50:09] it appears to be snowing but the
[50:12] temperature is about 70 degrees
[50:16] it's actually ash fall out from the
[50:19] eruptions some 10,000 miles away
[50:27] the ash burns and suffocates the animals
[50:31] killing them around the world
[50:45] sulfur dioxide from the eruptions fills
[50:49] the atmosphere
[50:51] as it rains the gas turns to sulfuric
[50:55] acid and burns everything it falls on
[51:02] what was a local disaster has now turned
[51:06] global
[51:20] the Siberian eruptions increase the
[51:23] Earth's carbon dioxide levels the
[51:26] atmosphere gets harder water evaporates
[51:30] and vegetation dies
[51:45] around the world life on land is being
[51:49] wiped out and life in the oceans has
[51:54] also been compromised the waters turned
[51:59] pink
[52:07] plants trilobites and predators
[52:09] disappear
[52:11] [Music]
[52:19] a new hotter atmosphere heated the
[52:23] oceans and stripped them of oxygen
[52:26] now this pink algae is one of the few
[52:29] life-forms that can survive in the
[52:32] stagnant water the Siberian eruptions
[52:36] transform the entire planet nothing not
[52:40] even the deepest ocean floor is beyond
[52:42] their reach
[52:44] [Music]
[52:52] bubbles of methane gas escape from
[52:55] beneath the seabed
[53:01] methane is a greenhouse gas at least 20
[53:05] times deadlier than common dioxide until
[53:10] now the gas has been frozen but as the
[53:13] sea temperature rises it begins to melt
[53:19] [Music]
[53:31] released into the atmosphere
[53:33] this powerful gas pushes up temperatures
[53:36] even further it's now almost 105 degrees
[53:42] 11 degrees hotter than before the
[53:45] Siberian eruptions creatures that
[53:52] survived the initial destruction now
[53:55] face a new in deadly environment few
[53:59] will live it's been 500 thousand years
[54:05] since the eruptions first began and all
[54:08] this time the lavas been pouring out by
[54:13] now it covers an area the size of the
[54:16] United States with a layer of molten
[54:18] rock nearly four miles deep
[54:26] 95% of the species are gone
[54:32] a few survived by eating anything they
[54:35] can find
[54:36] and living in burrows underground
[54:43] but everything else is dead
[54:49] 250 million years ago the earth reverts
[54:53] back to an almost lifeless planet but
[54:57] that's about to change again
[55:01] [Music]
[55:06] it's been 50 million years since
[55:08] virtually all life on Earth was wiped
[55:11] out and the planet has been transformed
[55:19] it's now 200 million years ago and just
[55:24] one supercontinent Pangea stretches from
[55:27] pole to pole
[55:35] after the trauma of the mass extinction
[55:38] the planet heals temperatures stabilize
[55:43] the acid rain neutralizes and vegetation
[55:47] returns with 95% of all life on Earth
[55:52] wiped out the field opens for a new
[55:56] species to emerge one that will dominate
[56:00] the planet like no other
[56:09] the dinosaurs these are called Amazon's
[56:16] like all dinos they evolved from the
[56:19] reptiles that survived the Permian
[56:22] extinction at 15 feet tall their size
[56:28] makes them slow and vulnerable nearby is
[56:41] the Dilophosaurus
[56:47] [Applause]
[56:48] it's small
[56:54] and fast
[57:02] [Applause]
[57:17] the AMA Soros is too big a meal for one
[57:20] Dilophosaurus but not for too
[57:23] [Music]
[57:38] the dinosaurs have repopulated the earth
[57:42] but no species contain this Restless
[57:46] volatile planet
[57:53] the Earth's crust is thinning it's
[57:56] releasing lava and shaking with
[57:58] earthquakes as it being stretched by
[58:01] some unseen force
[58:09] it's also happening here what will
[58:11] become North America's eastern seaboard
[58:23] the Earth's plates are on the move again
[58:28] 190 million years ago the great
[58:30] supercontinent of pangaea tears apart
[58:38] a vast slab of land breaks away creating
[58:42] a chasm it fills with a new ocean called
[58:46] the tea 'this / what will one day be the
[58:49] Middle East
[58:57] currents push nutrients up into the
[59:00] coastal waters and the nutrients attract
[59:06] fish in the millions but again with so
[59:16] much life also comes death
[59:19] [Music]
[59:21] dead fish and plankton carp at the ocean
[59:25] floor over the next 10 million years
[59:30] layers of rock will bury and heat the
[59:33] dead creatures ancient fish and plankton
[59:37] will become oil
[59:40] [Music]
[59:55] every gallon of gas in our cars every
[59:59] piece of plastic on the platen paint all
[01:00:02] our walls the carpet under our feet even
[01:00:06] the soap we wash with almost all
[01:00:09] originated in this way
[01:00:11] [Music]
[01:00:24] 180 million years ago the North American
[01:00:27] plate is still moving away from the
[01:00:30] European an Asian plate
[01:00:39] it's shifting about one inch each year
[01:00:42] the same speed at which our fingernails
[01:00:44] grow
[01:00:48] but fast-forward 35 million years and a
[01:00:52] new ocean forms as well as new
[01:00:55] continents the United States breaks away
[01:01:01] from Africa
[01:01:05] the world as we know it takes shape the
[01:01:09] chasm between the two continents builds
[01:01:11] creating the Atlantic Ocean
[01:01:14] [Music]
[01:01:21] and in the middle lives of all cake
[01:01:26] [Music]
[01:01:29] like before currents deep beneath the
[01:01:32] earth's crust move the plates again
[01:01:48] [Music]
[01:01:54] the entire seafloor tears in to and is
[01:01:58] pushed up into a ridge of mountains and
[01:02:00] volcanoes
[01:02:04] it grows higher than the Himalayas and
[01:02:07] longer than the rocket's the water here
[01:02:11] is hot as molten lava forces its way out
[01:02:16] from deep inside the earth
[01:02:22] as the lava cools it creates a new range
[01:02:25] of volcanic mountains and a new ocean
[01:02:28] floor
[01:02:32] Pangaea breaks apart and our world
[01:02:35] rearranges again
[01:02:37] [Music]
[01:02:55] it's this geological activity that makes
[01:02:59] the earth Restless creative and unique
[01:03:02] and every time the planet reinvents
[01:03:07] itself its inhabitants adapt and evolve
[01:03:19] like the ichthyosaurus their reptile
[01:03:26] ancestors lived on land but as the
[01:03:28] planet changed so did these animals they
[01:03:32] grew fins and moved into the newly
[01:03:34] formed Atlantic Ocean
[01:03:41] this one it's 20 feet long and can
[01:03:44] travel at a quick 25 miles an hour
[01:03:54] it's the ocean's fastest creature and
[01:03:57] most efficient predator it rules the
[01:04:00] oceans for 50 million years
[01:04:04] [Music]
[01:04:18] but now there's a new contender
[01:04:31] [Music]
[01:04:37] playas aw
[01:04:42] longer than a bus and as heavy as a
[01:04:45] truck its jaws are eight times more
[01:04:49] powerful than a great white shocks with
[01:04:52] teeth 12 inches long
[01:04:54] [Music]
[01:05:08] the earth and its inhabitants have
[01:05:11] changed beyond recognition this was once
[01:05:14] solid ground now it's the Atlantic Ocean
[01:05:20] the very spot where amasau is raised and
[01:05:23] the lava source stopped their prey the
[01:05:27] dinosaurs world may be different but
[01:05:29] they're as dominant as ever they appear
[01:05:33] invincible
[01:05:34] [Music]
[01:05:44] they're one of the planet's most
[01:05:46] successful species they've survived
[01:05:50] volcanic eruptions earthquakes and
[01:05:53] entire continents splitting apart the
[01:05:58] dinosaurs have thrived for 165 million
[01:06:02] years
[01:06:08] a number of mammals have also survived
[01:06:12] like this shrew like out
[01:06:15] [Music]
[01:06:21] they're praying to the dinosaurs and so
[01:06:24] they live in trees or underground and
[01:06:26] venture out only at night mammals pose
[01:06:32] no threat to the dinosaurs
[01:06:40] nothing on earth can challenge their
[01:06:43] dominance nothing on earth a large piece
[01:07:04] of space rock heads toward earth
[01:07:13] this asteroid is at least 6 miles across
[01:07:17] and traveling over 40,000 miles an hour
[01:07:21] he's bigger than Mount Everest
[01:07:24] [Music]
[01:07:28] [Applause]
[01:07:28] [Music]
[01:07:31] and heads straight for the Gulf of
[01:07:33] Mexico
[01:07:45] it travels so fast that its impact would
[01:07:49] be missed in a blink of an eye
[01:07:53] [Music]
[01:07:56] a split-second changes the world forever
[01:08:07] and impact the asteroids back edge
[01:08:10] stands at 35,000 feet
[01:08:30] it strikes with such immense force that
[01:08:33] it destroys everything it hits
[01:08:52] the asteroid itself instantly vaporizes
[01:08:58] [Applause]
[01:09:01] unleashing the energy of millions of
[01:09:04] nuclear weapons
[01:09:11] nowhere is safe with debris flying
[01:09:14] everywhere
[01:09:20] debris as big as entire city blocks
[01:09:23] circled the earth
[01:09:40] the blastwave races out from the impact
[01:09:43] zone like shrapnel from an exploding
[01:09:46] bomb
[01:10:22] minutes after impact hundreds of miles
[01:10:25] from where the asteroid struck the earth
[01:10:28] is under attack
[01:10:36] boulders rained down
[01:10:43] [Music]
[01:10:44] earthquakes shake the ground
[01:10:47] [Music]
[01:10:51] and tsunamis batter the coasts
[01:11:07] but fianc law has only just begun the
[01:11:12] plume of molten rock and dust spreads
[01:11:15] out and engulfs the planet
[01:11:18] the entire sky acts like a giant lamp
[01:11:27] heating the Earth's surface to over 500
[01:11:30] degrees vegetation spontaneously ignites
[01:11:47] even months after the impact smoke and
[01:11:50] ash still block out the sun's rays and
[01:11:55] with less sunlight plants don and the
[01:11:59] animals stop
[01:12:16] sixty-five million years ago the impact
[01:12:19] has blasted stoned and burnt the
[01:12:22] dinosaurs
[01:12:30] they're 165 million year reign is over
[01:12:43] but the dinosaurs demise brings
[01:12:46] opportunity for another species a mammal
[01:12:55] [Music]
[01:12:58] by living underground mammals have
[01:13:01] avoided the heat and fires and by eating
[01:13:05] anything
[01:13:06] they thrive while more selective eaters
[01:13:09] stop
[01:13:13] [Music]
[01:13:14] they are the unlikely inheritors of the
[01:13:17] dinosaurs crowd and as one story ends
[01:13:29] another begins
[01:13:31] with the dinosaurs out of the way our
[01:13:34] ancestors may now have a chance at life
[01:13:41] [Music]
[01:13:56] the dinosaurs are long dead the planet
[01:14:01] is peaceful in this new world our mammal
[01:14:10] ancestors are evolving
[01:14:13] [Music]
[01:14:21] [Applause]
[01:14:23] 47 million years ago this lake in what
[01:14:27] will one day be Germany is the perfect
[01:14:30] place to spot them
[01:14:31] [Music]
[01:14:47] unlike early enamels its eyes and brain
[01:14:51] are bigger
[01:14:52] [Music]
[01:14:54] this is Darwinian assaleh or EDA she
[01:15:00] looks nothing like humans but fossil
[01:15:03] evidence today indicates that these
[01:15:05] creatures might evolve into monkeys apes
[01:15:08] and eventually humans looking back
[01:15:17] through 47 million years of evolution
[01:15:19] might reveal one of our earliest known
[01:15:22] ancestors the lake sits on a volcanic
[01:15:29] crater it belches out noxious gas that
[01:15:36] eventually kills either
[01:15:38] [Music]
[01:15:47] the lake preserves her in its
[01:15:49] oxygen-depleted depths one day when the
[01:15:56] water is gone and EDA's fossil is found
[01:16:00] [Music]
[01:16:01] this primitive primate could help piece
[01:16:05] together the beginning of our own story
[01:16:07] the story of human life
[01:16:15] we're closer to understanding how
[01:16:17] everything we've seen from ocean
[01:16:20] bacteria through walking fish and
[01:16:23] subterranean rodents leads to us and to
[01:16:28] understanding how our planet was made 47
[01:16:36] million years ago the atmosphere is much
[01:16:39] like today
[01:16:45] the temperature is 75 degrees and the
[01:16:49] day lasts just under 24 hours the earth
[01:16:54] is now almost identical to the planet we
[01:16:57] call home
[01:16:59] almost
[01:17:01] [Music]
[01:17:16] the Earth's plates are on the move again
[01:17:23] India moves north toward Asia
[01:17:26] [Music]
[01:17:40] the Indian and Asian plates are locked
[01:17:43] in a titanic struggle
[01:17:46] [Music]
[01:17:52] and neither plate is winning
[01:17:58] as they buckle the ocean floor contorts
[01:18:01] upward along a 1500 mile line
[01:18:12] a vast mountain range rises up over
[01:18:16] 27,000 feet
[01:18:27] [Music]
[01:18:38] these are the Himalayas
[01:18:40] [Music]
[01:18:51] and the highest melton of all Mount
[01:18:54] Everest
[01:18:54] [Music]
[01:19:02] it's summit reaches up into the Earth's
[01:19:04] Jetstream the same altitude where planes
[01:19:07] fly
[01:19:20] [Music]
[01:19:32] when the snow on the peaks melts it
[01:19:35] feeds rivers like the Ganges Indus
[01:19:38] yellow and Yangtze
[01:19:41] [Music]
[01:19:41] [Applause]
[01:19:42] [Music]
[01:19:46] the Himalayas are like a vast water
[01:19:49] tower one day their rivers will supply
[01:19:52] water for almost half the world's
[01:19:54] population
[01:19:57] [Music]
[01:20:10] 20 million years ago this is our planet
[01:20:16] with every continent and every ocean as
[01:20:19] we know it
[01:20:23] [Music]
[01:20:25] except one thing is still missing the
[01:20:29] human race
[01:20:31] [Music]
[01:20:35] and for humans to evolve something needs
[01:20:39] to change
[01:20:42] [Music]
[01:20:57] along the African coast a great rift
[01:21:00] opens up it stretches nearly 4,000 miles
[01:21:14] [Music]
[01:21:19] with mountains growing along its edge
[01:21:22] [Music]
[01:21:40] this ape-like creature may stay in these
[01:21:43] trees forever but its world is changing
[01:21:49] the growing mountains act like a wall
[01:21:52] prohibiting moisture from the Indian
[01:21:54] Ocean from passing over the land it's
[01:21:59] getting hotter and drier
[01:22:03] the lush rainforest becomes an arid
[01:22:06] savanna the new hotter climate changes
[01:22:12] the creatures habitat forcing them to
[01:22:14] search further for food soon they stop
[01:22:18] dragging their knuckles like Apes and
[01:22:21] begin to stand and walk on two feet it's
[01:22:27] the most important step in the human
[01:22:30] story
[01:22:35] this mountain range could be the reason
[01:22:38] humans walk on two feet
[01:22:48] the random movement of two plates may
[01:22:51] have kick-started a chain of events that
[01:22:53] leads to the first humans
[01:22:55] [Music]
[01:23:08] a man and child a scene very much like
[01:23:15] today but it's one and a half million
[01:23:18] years ago they are an early species of
[01:23:23] human called Homo erectus and these are
[01:23:29] the first footprints like our own
[01:23:32] [Music]
[01:23:35] civilizations past and present everyone
[01:23:39] that's ever lived the greatest
[01:23:41] inventions the most brilliant ideas
[01:23:45] human history in all its complexity and
[01:23:49] splendor begins here and now
[01:23:53] [Music]
[01:23:56] [Applause]
[01:23:58] [Music]
[01:24:09] the climate changes again 70,000 years
[01:24:14] ago sea levels fall and the gap between
[01:24:18] Africa and Arabia shrinks to just 8
[01:24:22] miles the Red Sea is now narrow and
[01:24:30] shallow enough for a small group to
[01:24:33] cross out of Africa there another later
[01:24:39] species of human called Homo sapiens
[01:24:45] [Music]
[01:24:59] scientists believe that the entire world
[01:25:02] beyond Africa was populated from
[01:25:05] descendants of these 200 individuals
[01:25:11] over time our ancestors multiply and
[01:25:15] spread out to India on to Asia
[01:25:22] and into Europe
[01:25:33] [Music]
[01:25:35] but while humans head north a giant wall
[01:25:39] of ice travels south
[01:25:43] [Music]
[01:25:47] Europe 40,000 years ago Homo sapiens
[01:25:52] arrived only to find a world that's
[01:25:55] quickly changing it should be the height
[01:25:59] of summer but it's getting colder the
[01:26:02] plants are frostbitten and the rivers of
[01:26:05] frozen natural changes in the Earth's
[01:26:10] orbit co2 levels and the flow of warm
[01:26:13] water around the planet conspired to
[01:26:16] lower the earth's temperature the earth
[01:26:19] and its inhabitants enter an Ice Age
[01:26:22] glaciers as high as skyscrapers creep
[01:26:27] over the northern hemisphere about a
[01:26:29] foot every day slow and powerful they
[01:26:35] sculpt the landscape gouging out great
[01:26:38] depressions
[01:26:41] the planet will never look the same
[01:26:43] again
[01:26:48] now around 20,000 years ago they grind
[01:26:52] to a halt
[01:26:55] much of the northern hemisphere is
[01:26:57] covered by ice sheets up to one and a
[01:27:00] half miles thick
[01:27:01] [Music]
[01:27:09] with trillions of gallons of water
[01:27:11] locked up as ice sea levels fall
[01:27:15] [Music]
[01:27:18] a strip of land emerges from the ocean
[01:27:21] between Siberia and Alaska it's a bridge
[01:27:30] between two vast continents a gateway
[01:27:35] that takes humans from Asia to a new
[01:27:38] world the Americas they're the last
[01:27:44] great continents to be colonized the
[01:27:47] last great human migration and the first
[01:27:51] Americans
[01:27:57] [Music]
[01:28:04] now 14,000 years ago the changes that
[01:28:08] trigger the ice age reverse as the ice
[01:28:13] retreats it reveals a very different
[01:28:16] northern hemisphere the huge depressions
[01:28:20] that the glaciers create fill with water
[01:28:23] to become North America's Great Lakes
[01:28:40] 6,000 years ago the ice retreats back to
[01:28:44] the poles toward the Arctic and
[01:28:46] Antarctic
[01:28:47] [Music]
[01:29:04] after a four and a half billion years on
[01:29:07] a we're finally home this is our world
[01:29:14] our time
[01:29:18] the planets incredible story helps us
[01:29:21] understand how and why everything around
[01:29:24] us is here today
[01:29:27] [Music]
[01:29:32] from the skies above to water the
[01:29:41] essential ingredient for life
[01:29:45] [Music]
[01:29:47] to the ground beneath our feet
[01:29:49] [Music]
[01:29:56] and finally life
[01:29:58] [Music]
[01:30:01] a chain of catastrophes and coincidences
[01:30:05] creating a spectacular result each
[01:30:10] triumph and disaster is a step leading
[01:30:14] to here
[01:30:16] to each and every one of us right now
[01:30:23] but the Earth's story isn't over
[01:30:29] this journey is only half the story a
[01:30:32] lot more is yet to come the earth will
[01:30:39] live for at least another 4.5 billion
[01:30:42] years
[01:30:43] [Music]
[01:30:53] more wonders more terrors and more
[01:30:58] strange creatures lie ahead for our
[01:31:01] restless and creative planet
[01:31:07] the next chapter of a story is still to
[01:31:11] be written
[01:31:13] [Music]