Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates

David Attenborough has spent his career marvelling at the beauty and variety of animal life on Earth, constantly in awe of the incredible diversity of creatures that have evolved from just a handful of ancient life forms. Now, with newly discovered fossil sites and advances in scientific research, David can piece together biological clues from animals alive today, to make the extraordinary connections that explain how the incredible range of creatures on Earth came to be. In this series David explores the most spectacular wildlife from around the world. He reveals what the mating displays of the bird of paradise can tell us about the first feathered reptiles, how the ancestors of today s predatory sharks triggered the rise of animals on to land, and how the herding and flocking behaviours of birds and mammals may have originated in prehistoric reptiles. On an eye-opening journey that combines captivating CGI graphics with groundbreaking natural history footage, David also reveals some fascinating truths about our own human biology, and uncovers some of the amazing ways that our bodies today still bare the traces of this epic evolutionary story. (BBC)