BBC Life On Earth Disc 1: The Infinite Variety (1979)

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David Attenborough travels back through time to find the earliest evidence of life on this planet and traces its development in the oceans of the world into a myriad of simple forms and ultimately the great reefs of coral. They were the first signs to be visible from space indicating that life had started on Planet Earth.
Peter's DVD rating: 4.0 stars
A young David Attenborough summarizes fellow Englishman Charles Darwin's revolutionary ideas to explain the diversity of life on earth by natural selection: evolution. Some of the material is a little dated. For example, he says that birds "have been here much longer" than mammals, and calls Green Algae "plants". Most biologists today recognize that birds evolved later than mammals, and put Green Algae in the Protista kingdom, if not in a kingdom of their own. Also the DNA replication animation does not show Okazaki fragments. A visual highlight of this episode is the eerie interference light formed from the beating cilia of Comb Jellies. I believe this series of DVDs is available only in Region 2 PAL format; I bought my copy in London, at Harrod's.
05:10Galapagos: Flightless Cormorant 05:35 Marine Iguana 06:25 Galapagos Tortoise
13:20Grand Canyon: Fossil lizard tracks 15:00 Fossil worm trails 18:30Lake Superior: Fossil algae filaments in churt
22:40Life begins: DNA 26:00Yellowstone: Cyanobacteria release Oxygen and excrete lime, forming stromatolites (Shark Bay, Australia:) 29:30Protists: Euglena ?
32:40Conjugating Paramecium ? 33:00Sexual reproduction: Eggs and Sperm 34:30 Ciliates
35:40 Volvox 36:10 Sponges 38:35 Comb Jelly
40:30 Jellyfish medusa 41:30 Jellyfish polyp budding off a medusa 44:45 Jellyfish fossil in sandstone (Flinders Ranges, Australia)
46:15 Portuguese Man-of-War 48:45 Sea Pen 49:15 Dead Man's Fingers : a soft coral
50:00 Green Algae in corals.      
Nannopterum harrisi
05:10 Flightless Cormorant 		Amblyrhynchus cristatus
05:35 Marine Iguana 		Geochelone elephantopus
06:25 Galapagos Tortoise
LIZARD
13:20 Fossil lizard tracks 		WORM
15:00 Fossil worm trails 		ALGAE
18:30 Fossil algae filaments
DNA
22:40 DNA 		Cyanobacteria
26:00 Cyanobacteria release Oxygen		 STROMATOLITES
26:00 stromatolites
Euglena
29:30 Euglena ?		 Paramecium
32:40 Paramecium ?		 SEXUAL
33:00 Eggs and Sperm
Ciliata
34:30 Ciliates 		Volvox
35:40 Volvox 		Porifera
36:10 Sponges
Ctenophora
38:35 Comb Jelly 		Scyphozoa
40:30 Jellyfish medusa		 Scyphozoa
41:30 Jellyfish polyp
Scyphozoa
44:45 Jellyfish fossil		 Physalia physalis
46:15 Portuguese Man-of-War 		Pennatulacea
48:45 Sea Pen
Alcyonium digitatum
49:15 Dead Man's Fingers 		Chlorophyta
50:00 Green Algae 		 

Index Jan 19, 2006 CC BY 4.0 Peter Chen 2.0