Original air date: 27 September 2013
The outline shows how the programme unfolds
Selected sequences
The making of the mammalian ear
The pre-mammalian ear (left) having the three bones, coloured in red, green, and blue as separate. In mammalian ears (right) these have formed a three-bone arrangement, the middle ear that can detect higher-pitched frequencies (14’40-15’05).
Megafauna: an evolutionary arms’ race, it payed to be bigger
Those tiny mammals scampering about in the undergrowth had produced giants like the giant sloth (above, 50’50) and the mammoth (bottom, 52′).
The only super predator managing to wipe out almost all the megafauna on earth, after they managed to survive the ice ages.
This super predator had a broad pelvis, enabling it to stand upright and a super large braincase. This super predator, as the specimens of the snapshot suggest, was human beings (54’15) who used their brain case to deadly use learning how to make weapons. How Attenborough presented this to viewers was obviously meant to have them realise it by themselves before he would confirm their conclusion.