The History of Earth (HD - 720P)

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

Channel: Science For the Win

Views: 4,494,785

Rating: 4.6851645 out of 5

Keywords: dinosaurs, chemistry, biology, talent, science, ps4, atheist, geology, dawkins, wwe, astronomy, debate, atheism, education, hitchens, perry, reason, history, cosmos, evolution

Id: RQm6N60bneo

Length: 91min 28sec (5488 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 05 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/Fugustatement]

Ugh, the narration of some American documentaries is terrible. I lasted about 30 seconds before shutting it down