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A 9,500-year-old burial in Cyprus represents some of the oldest known evidence of the early relationship between humans and cats. But when did this close relationship between humans and cats start? Part of the "Eons" series.
(Source: DCMP)
This episode explores the timing of when dogs first became domesticated. Most scientists agree that it took thousands of years to develop the deep bond between humans and dogs. Part of the "Eons" series.
Do animals change their behavior when humans hike through the forest or move next door? Scientists looking to answer this question are relying on webcams. They are hoping to gather data to pinpoint adaptations in animal behavior related to human interaction.
At the University of Montana, Ken Dial researches the mechanics of bird flight. He studies young birds that are learning to fly, and he hopes his experiments will provide new evidence for how flight might have evolved.
Throughout the Cenozoic Era, marsupials and their metatherian relatives flourished all over South America, filling all kinds of ecological niches and radiating into forms that still thrive on other continents. Part of the “Eons” series.
Part of "The Living Oceans" series. Captures the mysteries of venomous marine creatures, such as nudibranchs, sea anemones, jellyfish, moray eels, and scorpionfish. Although these creatures can be fearsome predators, their defensive behaviors are also illustrated to highlight the predator/prey relationship that is a fact of life in marine environments.
The bobtail squid is no bigger than a walnut and is a tasty mouthful for predators in the coastal waters of Hawaii. However, the species continues to thrive in these waters in part because of its symbiotic relationship with a bioluminescent bacteria, which renders the squid virtually invisible to predators. Part of the "I Contain Multitudes" series.
Towering gypsum dunes span hundreds of square miles in New Mexico's White Sands National Monument, and hundreds of animal species thrive in this unique ecosystem. The lizards living in White Sands National Monument have attracted biologists from the University of California, Berkeley. The lizards are undergoing adaptation and speciation on an extraordinarily rapid timescale. Part of the “Science Nation” series.
Part of the "Branches on the Tree of Life" series. Explores the structure, life cycles, ecology, classification, and evolutionary relationships of four major lines of fungi: Chytrids, Zygomycetes (various molds), Ascomycetes (yeasts, cup fungi, and most lichens), and Basidiomycetes (rusts and mushrooms). Emphasizes adaptations and reproductive mechanisms.
About 59 million years ago, the largest animal lurking in the ancient forests of Colombia by far was a Titanoboa. It’s only been in the past few years that scientists have put together the many pieces of this puzzling creature, but it turns out that the greatest snake that the world ever saw was made possible by a warming planet. Part of the "Eons" series.
Dengue virus, which causes the infectious disease dengue fever, is estimated to infect more than 400 million people every year. It is usually transmitted through mosquitoes. Scientists working to eradicate the disease have discovered that dengue virus is not able to replicate in mosquitoes infected with a bacteria called Wolbachia. The researchers developed a plan to release infected mosquitoes into the wild so that Wolbachia can spread throughout the mosquito population. Part of the "I Contain Multitudes" series.
Part of the "Branches on the Tree of Life" series. Phylum Mollusca is the second most diverse phylum of animals, with over 100,000 known species. First examined are the basic characteristics of the phylum-a soft body, muscular foot, mantle cavity with gill, and hard calcified shell. Studies the four most familiar classes of molluscs (chitons, gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods) in depth, viewing structure, life history, adaptations, and ecological interactions.
The beewolf is a digger wasp that preys on honey bees. A beewolf mother stings a honey bee and deposits an egg on the bee’s paralyzed body. When the beewolf larva hatches, it can feed on the honey bee. Scientists discovered that the beewolf’s antennae are packed with bacteria called Streptomyces, which produce a variety of antibiotic substances. The beewolf spreads the antibiotic-producing bacteria on the cocoon in which the larva develops. In this way, the larva is protected from being infected by harmful bacteria and fungi. Part of the "I Contain Multitudes" series.
In 1928, a physician named Alexander Fleming observed that a mold in one of his Petri dishes was killing the bacteria he was trying to grow. This strain of mold led to one of the most significant medical discoveries in history: the antibiotic penicillin. Antibiotics soon became lifesavers. However, even back then, Fleming knew that bacteria could become resistant to penicillin. This video describes how widespread use of antibiotics in medicine, agriculture, and household products can lead to the evolution of microbes that are resistant to multiple antibiotics. Part of the "I Contain Multitudes" series.
In some parts of the world, there is an intimate connection between the infectious parasitic disease "malaria" and the genetic disease "sickle-cell anemia." A keenly observant young man named Tony Allison, working in East Africa in the 1950s, first noticed the connection and assembled the pieces of the puzzle. His story stands as the first and one of the best understood examples of natural selection, where the selective agent, adaptive mutation, and molecule involved are known-and this is in humans to boot. The protection against malaria by the sickle-cell mutation shows how evolution does not necessarily result in the best solution imaginable but proceeds by whatever means are available.
Part of the "Life in Aquatic Environments" series. Places many of the organisms into an ecological perspective of hydras, planarians, annelids, aquatic insects, rotifers, protists, and all other organisms that provide food for fish and other vertebrates. Observes adaptations for planktonic life in daphnia and other cladocerans, copepods, rotifers, and planktonic algae. Explores bacterial decomposition, recycling of materials, adaptations for bottom life, and ecological relationships in the bottom community. Takes an underwater look at the highly specialized organisms that live in rapids, under rock communities, and in slower waters. Investigates adaptations for life in temporary wetland environments.
The rock pocket mouse is a living example of Darwin’s process of natural selection. Not only is evolution happening right now everywhere around us, but adaptive changes can occur in a population with remarkable speed. This speed is essential if you’re a desert mouse living in an environment where a volcanic eruption can reverse selective pressure in nearly an instant. The film features Dr. Michael Nachman, whose work in the field and in the lab has quantified the selective pressure of predators and identified the genes involved in adaptation. In a complete story, from ecosystem to molecules, pocket mice show us how random changes in the genome can take many paths to the same adaptation—a colored coat that hides them from predators.
After Charles Darwin first visited the island archipelago of Galapagos in 1839, it took him another twenty years to decipher that the scene he'd witnessed was the most perfectly preserved biodiversity on the planet. His theory of evolution, published 150 years ago, pulled back the curtain on a debate that had been simmering for years, and still percolates. Today Darwin would be surprised by the tourist mecca Galapagos has become--200,000 visitors a year, 40,000 permanent residents. The impact on the most unique collection of endemic wildlife in the world has been heavy. Too many people are bringing too many of their ways (and invasive species) from the outside world that are threatening the future of this one-of-a-kind place. What would Darwin think of how Galapagos has evolved in the twenty-first century?
