How Did Life Recover From The First Mass Extinction?

Researched and Written by Leila Battison
Narrated and Edited by David Kelly
Art by Khail Kupsky
Thumbnail Art and Art by Ettore Mazza
If you like our videos, check out Leila's youtube channel:
/ @somethingincredible
Music from Epidemic Sound and Artlist.
Image credits:
Mimoperadectes By Jorge González - Horovitz I, Martin T, Bloch J, Ladevèze S, Kurz C, et al. (2009) Cranial Anatomy of the Earliest Marsupials and the Origin of Opossums. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8278. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008278.g006, CC BY 2.5, commons.wikime...
Snowball Earth Oleg Kuznetsov - 3depix - 3depix.com/, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommon..., via Wikimedia Commons
Cyanobacteria By CSIRO, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikime...
Oviraptor By Jordi Payà from Barcelona, Catalonia - IMG_1215&039;Uploaded by FunkMonk, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikime...
Oviraptor skull By Jaime A. Headden - qilong.wordpre..., CC BY 3.0, commons.wikime...
Megazostrodon Reconstruction By Theklan - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Coryphodon By Jonathan Chen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Amoeba By Cymothoa exigua - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
University of Bonn Electorial Building By I, Der Wolf im Wald, CC BY-SA 2.5, commons.wikime...
Poppelsdorfer Alle By Itamar Medeiros - Imported from 500px (archived version) by the Archive Team. (detail page), CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Chloroplasts visible in the cells of Bryum capillare By Des_Callaghan - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Liverwort_chloroplasts By Smith609 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Oxpecker on Impala By Charles James Sharp - Self-photographed, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Oxpecker on mammal By Prosthetic Head - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Yellow-billed oxpecker on a wildebeest By Lip Kee Yap from Singapore, Republic of Singapore - Yellow-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus africanus), CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikime...
A disruptively patterned white-spotted puffer being cleaned by a conspicuously coloured Hawaiian cleaner wrasse. By Brocken Inaglory - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Remora By RyanSomma - originally uploaded to Flickr as Common Remora, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikime...
Nurse shark with remoras Duncan Wright (User:Sabine's Sunbird), CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons..., via Wikimedia Commons
Chlorophyll Cells By Kristian Peters -- Fabelfroh - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Amobe By Picturepest - Amöbe? 400x, 12my - Fokalebene 1, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikime...
Chrondocyte By Robert M. Hunt - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
A fluorescent image of an endothelial cell.
By IP69.226.103.13 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Cellular universe By Annaleida - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Human Cheek Cells stained with Methylene Blue under 400x magnification By Fritzmann2002 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Cèl·lules de la mucosa bucal. By Pere López Brosa, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Dolly the sheep By Paul Hudson from United Kingdom - National Museum of Scotland, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikime...
black widow By Ken-ichi Ueda - www.inaturalis..., CC BY 4.0, commons.wikime...
Cell division by 42 By Egelberg - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Spermatozoa By Vasin-ks - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Meosis By Doc. RNDr. Josef Reischig, CSc. - Author&039;s archive, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Mitochondrion By Kelvinsong; modified by Sowlos - Own work based on: Mitochondrion mini.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...

[@HistoryoftheEarth]

Thanks for watching, and for pointing out some timeline issues regarding the evolution of birds. Perhaps not clear enough with our analogy - apologies! *References* eos.org/articles/how-did-life-recover-after-earths-worst-ever-mass-extinction evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/massextinct_04 evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_52 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9841/ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1578724/ apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a514565.pdf#page=23 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2933680/ dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3353945/Browne_Botany.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

[@6z0]

Nice!

[@rsmania01]

Thanks!

[@edgeeffect]

"To err is human".... to pin a comment owning up is "scientific AF"

[@catchaslug9634]

Thanks for the clarification. The sources are great, it might be useful to add directly in the description for future videos.

[@HistoryoftheEarth]

We have in the previous videos, just ran out of characters on this one.

[@JB-yb4wn]

You have to admire the dedication of the cameraman who stuck around to film all this.

[@NikD7]

In Germany we call it Beispielbilder.

[@nottreblinka4119]

I bet he has more power than the Queen

[@josephrion3514]

So this joke has only 20 likes but it will propegate for sure.

[@VeteranVandal]

When you take a time machine just to get a shot.

[@elhombredeoro955]

@@nottreblinka4119 ??? How about Chelmno or Sobibor???

[@stanettiels7367]

Remember when the History Channel used to do great documentaries like these? Now we get Pawn Stars and Storage Wars. Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[@TimRosborough]

I was totally shocked by a History Channel presentation I once saw about the history of life. They were saying things that their audience would like but that in no way reflected what science could possibly know about dinosaurs. "The mother dinosaur feels such-and-such about their baby dino," and other complete nonsense. I had to turn it off and have never returned since then.

[@stanettiels7367]

@@TimRosborough The History Channel is a disgrace to history. It should itself, become history.

[@Prettywhite4awhiteguy]

Don't forget Ancient Aliens...no historical facts about that show

[@NiffirgkcaJ]

@@stanettiels7367 nice pun~

[@xziggiez]

yo pawn stars and american pickers are good shows no cap

[@GelidGanef]

The writing in these is spectacular, jumping billions of years in time without ever feeling disjointed, and always just at the right moment to prevent boredom. I'm so glad I found this channel.

[@QueenlySweetpea]

Just to prevent anymore boredom once you run out, there's another amazing video called " There are no Forests on Planet Earth " a real eye-opener ..

[@GelidGanef]

@@QueenlySweetpea I actually saw that one years ago, or a version of it. I didn't realize it was starting to get kinda popular on youtube again. That is a fun watch, still one of my favorite conspiracy theories.

[@Tht1Gy]

Difference of opinion: While I enjoyed the information, I found it very "disjointed". I found it distracting, (... and this from someone with ADHD.)

[@bigedslobotomy]

I’m a retired respiratory therapist, and we know that oxygen is toxic to the body in general, and to the lungs specifically (because they’re the only organ besides the skin directly exposed to it). BUT the advantages of an aerobic metabolism are so great, the body can justify the effort to bring to bear antioxidants to slow the corrosive effects of oxygen on us. Even so, after a lifetime of breathing oxygen, our lungs so suffer from it, as our antioxidants deteriorate as we age.

[@EvillAnime]

Without those oxidizing effects our metabolism would be very slow, thanks to it we have so much intelligence

[@peeperleviathan2839]

If we find a way too repair the antioxidants would it be possible to extend a life by decades or even centuries?

[@EvillAnime]

@@peeperleviathan2839 no because most people ingest enough antioxidants

[@steveo3831]

I’m glad you have retired.

[@EvillAnime]

@@steveo3831 well you shouldn't be glad because he said something that's actually true that you didn't know about and have no idea about. so shut up

[@dday1412]

This should win awards. Content, style, format, production, editing, music...

[@phil_leoui]

The Emmy!

[@mikemurphy5898]

It says the first extinction event. Wasn't the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs the most recent mass extinction event, and something like number #7 to date, on earth?

[@JDKDKDLDKDKDKDKKKDERYY]

​@Eastern fence Lizard call me an asshole, but if we talk about "life" as a whole, we're doing something good rn. I mean, isnt there the hypothesis that life will die out when all carbon is trapped inside the earth? And we're getting carbon out of it... also the evolutionary radiation after we're gone would be fascinating to watch. again, maybe im missing something here, i just dont get why we always think about animals on a species-level. why should i care more if the last wholly rhino dies than if any other rhino dies?

[@reddirtroots5992]

My thoughts exactly! 👍

[@josiek5989]

@@JDKDKDLDKDKDKDKKKDERYY Read about the carbon cycle. oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/carbon-cycle.html. As long as we have plate tectonics and volcanos, carbon will be recycled.

[@Jacob-yg7lz]

Damn you went from "Oxygen could've killed us all" to "Oxygen is still probably going to kill us all, it's just normal"

[@Kruegernator123]

Optimistic nihilism

[@Dan-uf2vh]

most lineages die, sexual reproduction mixes that variability so that over time mistakes are weeded out; so there you have it: all lines end, while new lines form, the process repeats

[@vaszgul736]

now we wait for scientists to regenerate the telomeres on our dna damaged by oxygen or to genetically engineer new life that isn't effected by it

[@Dan-uf2vh]

@@vaszgul736 it's the epigenome more than our DNA; still, it would be nice to fix serious mistakes that have accumulated, like a defunct vitamin C and weakened removal of urea; it shouldn't take more than 30-40 years before repairs outpace aging and 70 years before we can have any body we choose

[@Jacob-yg7lz]

@@vaszgul736 If immortality was invented in my lifetime I could die happy.

[@draddams]

Love the old school documentary format. No human interest angle, just knowledge in my brain. Perfect.

[@katiebland7985]

Just to join your sentiments and have a moan! So many science (and history) programmes that feel we can only digest the information if there’s a comedian along for the ride to keep our attention!

[@mst4309]

The fact that oxygen is basically the killer of all life on Earth, EVER, hit me harder than I expected. Now my spine feels tense.

[@jonathansturm4163]

It always amuses me when people quote Rachel Carson: “Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species - man - acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world.” She obviously didn’t know about the evolution of photosynthesis...

[@helmaschine1885]

It's still toxic in too high concentrations. It can also create free radicals which can destroy cells...so oxygen still wants to kill us all. :) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity

[@djjimmaster8261]

It's amazing that the thing we need to live is the thing that will eventually cause our demise

[@wavydavy9816]

@@djjimmaster8261 I'm upping my cigarette intake and only shallow breathing from now on in order to minimise my oxygen intake 👍

[@thewildcardperson]

Oxygen is why we die of old age are cells each time they split and multiply get oxygenated more to the point by the time we're 80-100 they cane multiply without dying Many species don't have this problem and are biologically immortal spark crocodiles and jellyfish and good examples And yes we're working on it I read that we could be living up to 200 years very soon

[@pastlife960]

Birds had already evolved well before the KT extinction. By the end of the Cretaceous they were actually much more successful than the pterosaurs, outcompeting all but the giant Azhdarchids like Quetzalcoatlus. However, even then, only two orders of birds survived the extinction event. Their population was absolutely decimated, but, luckily, they were the only group of dinosaurs to just about cling on.

[@fraserhenderson7839]

A note: decimation was a severe martial punishment inflicted upon insubordinate or erring Roman military cohorts. As the name suggests, a commander ordered the offending group to stand in a line, then picked a man from the first 10 men in line and ordered his execution and that of every tenth man in the line by the surviving members of the cohort, thus reducing the cohort by 1/10th and causing exquisite terror and anxiety to be inflicted upon the survivors . Therefore decimation would not be a significant existential threat for most well established life forms.

[@SenorTucano]

Azdarchids - Cretaceous death storks!

[@pastlife960]

@@fraserhenderson7839 I think you could probably guess that I was using the word colloquially, and not literally. I’m well aware that the asteroid did not wipe out exactly one tenth of the population. Giant space rocks generally don’t abide by Ancient Roman punishments. I’m not an idiot, and don’t make me out to look like one. A note for you: being a nitpicky, pedantic commenter/person doesn’t make you look smart, just makes you look like an arsehole. I should know because I used to be exactly like that. I wouldn’t recommend continuing like this. It won’t win you many friends irl.

[@pastlife960]

@@SenorTucano Easily some of the freakiest and most incredible animals ever!

[@jichaelmorgan3796]

@@pastlife960 I took it as a snapple fact, not as a criticism of your usage. I had no idea, so I'm glad he posted it.

[@tjs200]

The "life finds a way" trope should always be proceeded with "eventually..." every time I've heard this phrase used when talking about the history of life there's always like an omitted 'few million years' where life was stuck and had a hard time recovering until, eventually, life found a way. but it often escapes our perception that evolution and adaptation can take a very, very long time

[@PeazChess]

What is a long time when you have eternity? If eternity exists, which it clearly does, then immortality also exists, because there has to be an observer of eternity for it to be true. which means time doesn't exist. So what is a really long time? Life finds a way because it has no other choice. Life is eternal. Think about when the planet formed. Were there any "life" on earth yet? Some would say no, but here we are. It just goes to show that we have no idea that we are immortal. Life finds a way because it has to, it can never cease to exist. Another thing to think about. If this universe came into existence from a supermassive explosion, then how are we even alive?

[@kylezo]

that is the entire point of the trope. dinosaurs manage to find a way back to survival after 65 million years in Jurassic park and that's the entire reason he said it. it's not mentioned because it's implied....

[@YourFaulty]

well, the fact that life is there to struggle at all already demonstrates the reality of the phrase. Sure, almost everything died, but life is "finding a way" to just barely cling on until it can eventually recover and diversify

[@katiebland7985]

Not sure I agree - the concept of geological time spans is emphasised repeatedly. The point I guess is the contrast between our ‘blink of an eye’ existence and the existence of the planet we inhabit.

[@FloozieOne]

Oh lord, I stumbled on one of your episodes just as I was heading off to bed. It is now 8 am I haven't yet made it to the mattress. Your stuff is so great, I am learning so much and your presentation is perfect. Nice mellow voice, no horrible music or doom and gloom. That's just the way life is. Thanks for the (very long) evening.

[@denniscole5105]

History of the universe is great too if you want another sleepless night

[@rosiehawtrey]

Love the surname.

[@windows10acc]

you love the surname because you hate lord@@rosiehawtrey

[@memomorph5375]

Ancient micro plants: (start using photosynthesis) Every other microbe: dude what the hell

[@alexneigh7089]

They did not have a unicellular Greta Thunberg to stop that oxidation madness.

[@2sudonim]

They weren't plants. They weren't even eukaryotes. They were a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria after their blue-green color.

[@octobsession3061]

Basically they couldn't handle the neutron style

[@philwomack6841]

I've learnt more in the last 30 mins than I have all week. The channel goes from strength to strength

[@anthonyappleyard5688]

He talked about mitochondria and chloroplasts. There was a third: a sort of spirochaete-like organism that undulated like an eel to swim, joined in. It stuck one end into its host cell and fed. And by swimming it could push or pull the host cell to where the feeding or other survival conditions were better. That is, it hired itself out as an outboard motor. Thus it became the first cilium or flagellum Another part of it became the centriole or centrosome.. It had to keep track of cell division, so that it could divide along with its cell, and so it made and provided the mitotic spindle system, which let the cell have more than one chromosome, and let those chromosomes all duplicate and one copy of each go all at the same time into each daughter nucleus at cell division.

[@katiebland7985]

That’s fascinating - I presume you are an evolutionary biologist?

[@octavianova1300]

just a small correction: the fires described at the beginning wouldn't consume grasslands, since grasses only arose in the cenozoic.

[@SadisticSenpai61]

Newer evidence shows that grasses evolved 66 million years ago. There was a paper published in 2005 where they made that discovery. It's been repeatedly verified since then by other studies and papers.

[@SenorTucano]

@@SadisticSenpai61 that’s still post Mesozoic

[@SadisticSenpai61]

@@SenorTucano The KT extinction event was 65 mya. Grasses evolved 66 mya. Therefore, there would have been grasses present and grassland ecosystems are also likely.

[@SenorTucano]

@@SadisticSenpai61 grasses didn’t become a significant part of the biosphere until the Miocene

[@gtc239]

@@SadisticSenpai61 Actually earliest evidence of grasses are in Albian which is in EARLY CRETACEOUS and that's from evidence of grass microfossil of grass from hadrosaurid fossil of China, so grasses are older than 66 Million years old. academic.oup.com/nsr/article/5/5/721/4769666

[@khenricx]

Me : Come on, say it ! Him : "They became the mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cells" Me : Yeaaaaah !

[@vast634]

They are called "Midichlorians" in Star Wars.

[@chazzwozzio]

I was like "Yay he said the meme"

[@itsprodigit]

@@chazzwozzio it’s an actual thing they teach you in schools

[@michaljanovsky8966]

yass!

[@caty863]

If we take a FCEV car as an analogy, mitochondria is the motor, and chroloplast is the fuel cell. So, no, mitochondria is not the powerhouse; it's the motor. The powerhouse is the chroloplast.

[@ayanantachowdhury9105]

You got to admire the storytelling and the effort that went behind creating this script - a script that describes highly complex mechanisms in an easy-to-understand language for laymen to comprehend. Respect 🙏

[@The_CGA]

I feel like it might’ve been worthy to include Nick Lane’s argument about the genomic efficiency of mitochondria-that having specialized bubbles in the cytosol for respiration, each with their own genome and machinery-frees up the central genome of the eukaryote to do more innnovating and carry more information for defense. The biggest 1mm e. Coli still can’t have any more complex a genome than the the smallest rickettsia-because they have to carry so many whole copies of their genome simply to respirate. In this way, the mystery of the nucleus almost unlocks itself: with so much extra carrying capacity and an ability to support so much more cytoplasm, forming a nucleus becomes a “why not?” Evolutionary pressure rather than a “why TF would you do that in the first place?” Kind of question.

[@parallaxnick637]

Love the video, but slight quibble: birds were already flying by the time the dinos died out.

[@Tinil0]

As well put together this series is, EVERY SINGLE VIDEO I have had quibbles with the science. Like, I dont want to dog on something everyone loves, but it should've been edited better. There hasn't been anything like SUPER egregious but getting small things wrong constantly just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

[@drury2d8]

Still better than what the pastors proclaim

[@harrietharlow9929]

I thought birds are feathered therapod dinosaurs. And you're right. Birds were airborne by the time of the K-T extinction. But I still really like this series.

[@Ranstone]

Most people still believe the myth that birds came from dinosaurs, instead of archosaurs, so maybe there's the source of confusion.

[@Musketeer009]

@@Ranstone Er No. Birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic. Dinosaurs ( and crocodiles (and their kin)) evolved from Archosaurs.

[@Markfr0mCanada]

Watching videos like this makes the "great filters" theory on why there's been no contact with alien life make a lot of sense. How many alien worlds might not have faced Earth's crises and therefore gotten stuck at something equivalent to bacteria, not fixing what isn't broken? How many others had extinction events which were just that little bit deadlier and ended life entirely?

[@tysonstrickland8208]

My thoughts exactly. I thought the same thing and there's been so many different rare events to get us to be the intelligent technologically advanced life, like we are today. I don't have a list, but after watching and reading so much about the history of our planet, I get a sense that advanced life is probably fairly rare. I'm not to setting down to do a highly researched post, but if someone did make a list of all the very random, rare and not at all guaranteed outcomes it took to get for bacteria to us, I think the list would be pretty long. I think that just the list from first mammal to us would be long. A lot of things had to go right, even once you have life, to get it to evolve towards hyper intelligence (compared to most species). Just most animals absolutely don't need our level of intelligence in their evolution. It's too big a jump. Mostly it's "be able to run faster/jump higher/hide better" and some more complex things, but it's a small movement in intelligence. Even if you do get extreme intelligence, like with dolphins and some aquatic life, they're underwater. They can't use fire or create high technology. They have fins for movement, so they can't hold something to manipulate it. They can't write down on a sea shelf: "hey guys, if you're reading this, turn back, Jim just got ate by an Orca and we think more of them are around. Signed JT Dolphin on 12/31/2021" (or whatever dolphins would write, much less write down a theory of gravity or quantum physics). It just seems like there's a lot of bottlenecks and just other things the organisms would tend to evolve towards that serve their immediate needs better. That's just my observations though🤷‍♂

[@judsonwall8615]

@@tysonstrickland8208 I agree that intelligent life takes innumerable and extremely lucky factors to come together. But, consider the fact that there are approximately 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 other suns out there in the universe. 90% of them have life-sustaining potential and another 40% of those probably have a rocky planet like earth in or around its Goldie Locks zone. If even .001% of those suns created life, that would be something like 20,000,000,000,000,000,000 solar systems with primitive life. If even .001% of those survived the early fits and a mass extinction, that would be 2,000,000,000,000,000 planets. And if even .001% of those planets went on to make more complex life, that would be 200,000,000,000 (billion) planets with complex organisms. Finally, let’s say .0001% of those developed some form of intelligent life. That’s 2 million planets out there with advanced, intelligent life. My guess: there’s a hell of a lot more than a couple million planets with intelligent life out there. I think it’s almost certain that there are billions of planets in the universe with intelligent life, all of them looking out to the stars, also asking “Are we alone?” The sad thing is, it’s probably impossible that any of them will ever find each other in the vastness of space and the forces of physics holding us in our microscopic little section of space.

[@greenl7661]

Not really, it's the opposite. How do you propose to make oxidization event and following ice age worse? It got as bad as it gets. Yet life persevered. Crisis isn't necessary to facilitate anything, as long as new adaptation gets the organism an advantage it will multiply. Also most of the mutations likely happened multiple times over millions of years, not a singular lucky coincidence that just spread everywhere on a first try. In latest views it seems almost a given that RNA sporadically assembles quite easily in primordial soup, and all the development up to light absorption follows suit. Somewhat big possible filters are multicellular life and emergence of society. On the physics side while intergalactic travel is fools errand, interstellar is very much physically possible, although it could be understanding that intelligent species might find the prospect of spending their lives for a one way trip a bit unintelligent. Then again if we do push it forward then synthetic life is likely, so where the hell are our robot overlords? There's really no good explanation at all, that's what makes Fermi paradox so fascinating. Also important to note is the sheer speed of how quickly humans developed civilization, about 250k years give or take, depending where you want to make a cut. We do assume that we are first civilization on earth, but frankly we can't say with certainty, if we are then that does show at least some trouble getting here.

[@pom791]

@@tysonstrickland8208 You underestimate cetaceans ability to communicate and their development of complex language. They did not evolve fingers to write down messages on the sea floor because its more efficient to take advantage of the sound transmission of water. Considering their relative brain size how else could they have managed to stick around for as long as they have.

[@FerrowTheFox]

I'm absolutely in love with this series. The tone, pacing and scale are all reminiscent of Carl Sagan's cosmos series on which I grew up, motivating me to become a scientist as well. So although I already know pretty much everything these vidos cover, the style and narration which truly bring those bygone eras to life are really a treat. Hopefully this series inspires others to take up the torch of science as well. A little nitpick though, the aves were already an established and successful class of theropod dinosaurs befor the K-T extinction event.

[@jonathansturm4163]

Oddly, when I commenced my tertiary study of biology in 1969, the symbiosis between bacteria to make the first eukaryotes was being promoted by Lyn Margulis (Carl Sagan’s wife). Her symbiogenesis was deprecated by my teachers. When I returned to academe more than 30 years later, her ideas were part of the Received View.

[@drivenhome3257]

@@jonathansturm4163 What school deprecated theories, studies, controlled experiments and above all imagination and wonder? I hope they're out of business!

[@suelane3628]

@@drivenhome3257 Lyn's hypothesis was only accepted after then advent of DNA sequencing. I love her books. Apart from academic pride of the older generation of scientists, the other problem with Lyn's hypothesis is that pro-karyotes don't engulf their source of food. Here, the more recent discovery of the Asgard Archaea shows some species with filaments. Maybe they were able to trap the oxygen breathing eubacteria and absorb their energy enabling the cells to grow bigger and eventually fuse leading to endosymbiosis. The Asgard are the closest relatives of Eukaryotes.

[@lamegoldfish6736]

The quality of this channel rivals " Nova" by PBS. The folks working on this channel know what they are doing. It has scrupulous research, incredible science fact with beautiful production, much like 'Nova'.

[@douglashenri5017]

Just checking youtube, new video from History of the Earth posted 22 seconds ago. Hell yeah.

[@OzJd-2023]

Probably the most amazing , valuable and encompassing documentary I have come across on YOUTube. Summarising key events and concepts so well together.

[@meowcat64]

Interesting how such intense extinction events have consistently made life stronger.

[@nativeam25]

& it will happen with people too

[@Poliostasis]

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

[@astrobiojoe7283]

Only the hardiest, extremest or strangest survive...sometimes.

[@Joasoze]

This is the argument of The Shadows in Babylon 5 😆

[@lewisham]

Are mammals stronger than dinosaurs? Not really, just different.

[@lauriesoper4056]

Thank you, Leila, for reviving my erstwhile euphoria when I first stumbled on an old hardcover copy of Lynn Margulis' Microcosmos while vacationing in Grey Wolf's lodge in Temagami one afternoon while trying to escape the hordes of mosquitoes. And again when I happened upon Symbiotic Planet. The tingling on both of my ears I shall never forget. It was like being transported into another world, reading the private diary of Planet Earth. Our legacy of magical, unrelenting self-healing and transformation.

[@lunaeek9130]

Wow this was by far one of the best episodes to date! Thank you!

[@exidy-yt]

Fantastic documentary, the only concern I had was pointed out and adressed already, so nothing else I can say but GREAT JOB, these docs are consistently educational and entertaining at the same time. In this era of dumbed down crap on TV and sadly far too much of the web, it's so refreshing to see good new work being done.

[@bbirda1287]

Splendiferous! That Dolly the Sheep fact hit me like a phone book to the face, wow. (Kids, a phone book is a printed...nvm)

[@jip230]

Keep dropping this excellent edu-tainment (educational and entertaining) content. May you get to 100K subscribers soon! You all deserve it

[@Doggieman1111]

What I've realized with all your videos is that, once life starts on a planet, it's really difficult -- if not impossible -- to wipe it out completely.

[@greenl7661]

It is impossible, you'd have to wipe the planet essentially, we're not talking asteroid, but at least a moon.

[@sapiense-science-cerveau]

@@greenl7661 Seems like live could have been around the Late Heavy Bombardment occured, melting the outer crust virtualy everywhere. If there we discover living things deep in the crust that couldn't share a common ancestor with all the known life on earth, then that would mean that if life appeared prior to the LHB, it could have made it through a "floor is lava" Earth

[@Subzer039]

Remember that time you said fluffy nut-eaters? Good times.

[@PeteKellyHistory]

I said the same thing when I watched the draft hahaha

[@christosvoskresye]

He said that while showing the fossil of a lineage -- maybe a therizinosaur? -- that did not continue past the extinction event.

[@NeilMcIntoshHarlequeen]

The very best of creatures.

[@SenorTucano]

2:12

[@stanettiels7367]

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[@bonniegachiengu1686]

Your sound design is epic. I'd watch this videos for a hundred times without getting tired of the sound. Thanks for your hard work.

[@kenchesnut4425]

Best show on the" tube"..keep em coming...MUCH LUV FROM N.AUGUSTA S.C

[@MarcusAgrippa390]

Aiken sc here Small world! And I agree with you on that

[@CaseyLane925]

My thoughts exactly, from Rock Hill SC👊🏼

[@kenchesnut4425]

@@MarcusAgrippa390 right behind Gary's hamburger ..peace

[@Paroxsym-OX]

@@MarcusAgrippa390 Real small world! Also Aiken, SC :D

[@countfrankfritter]

I have watched this Documentary a few times and It still holds me Enthralled. A complete and Beautiful work of Art and Genius. I feel utterly humble when I Immerse myself within the folds of it's fabric, emerging into A much more relevant and Incredible WORLD. Thank you so much for this Epic.

[@agnesstrzykowska4300]

You teach more in half an hour than 4 semesters of biology, history and geography combined in most secondary schools! ♥️

[@rentedthug]

But you will remember majority of the info from the semesters, and a minority from this.

[@jjohansen86]

One other small, unimportant quibble: at the K-T extinction event, there were no grasslands to burn, as grasses only came into being about 55 million years ago.

[@liberalrationalist8905]

Nope. That's when grass was first discovered in the geophysical record. Turns out grass has been discovered in dino-poo, putting the evolutionary start further back.

[@rondoclark45]

When I was getting my degree in biology 20 years ago that was the state of our knowledge on it, and I only found out about the update within the last couple of years. It can be hard to keep with everything. One big criticism I do have is that the narrator depicts the evolution of feathers (and birds, really) as having taken place after the KT extinction. That is demonstrably not true, we know that feathers evolved 10s of millions of years before that.

[@peterdrieen6852]

@@rondoclark45 The avians mastered flight long before the extinction of pterosaurs, they just expanded from their niche and diversified afterwards.

[@Merle1987]

Now this is what I've needed to know my whole life!

[@badartgallery9322]

Same.

[@aldrinmilespartosa1578]

This channel is my sleeping channel. Not that the topic is boring, but the narrator has such a calm and smooth voice, it makes it easier to get sleep.

[@ActualBottleman]

It's interesting to me that as a child, hell even as a teenager I believed that dinosaurs existed for a brief little blip and then boom the extinction events that wiped them out. It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that they existed for probably 3 or 400 times the length of the whole sum of human existence and just lived their lives before they were gone. They were here, reproduced, ate and breathed for millions of years.

[@Ahonya666]

And they still are here. Any bird is technically a dinosaur

[@prmomaths757]

Modern civilization of humans would collapse after 3000/4000 years and all the technological advancements would be lost.

[@oesypum]

A very astute programme pulling together various scientific disciplines, and presenting it as an understandable whole. Thank you.

[@samanvayasrivastava559]

How can anyone dislike any video from this channel. I love this channel, thank you for sharing such wonderful, engaging and knowledge filled content.

[@Laserblade]

Personally, I thought this was excellent. I emerge from watching this with a greater understanding of my world. The editing and presentation are first class. Thank you for that! Interesting how the sciences eventually tie together, geology begat biology, a living skin on this planet that feeds on itself. Astrophysics is the root, everything else is a derivative. (Leila is a poet at heart)

[@ongeri]

Can't wait for the Cambrian explosion episode

[@Anton4353f]

Thank you so much History of Earth team, your dedication to research and presentation makes viewing your videos a journey of discovery of the human condition.

[@Tight_Conduct]

I’ve very much been looking forward to this one!

[@judsonwall8615]

The Intro you guys made, with the spinning globe changing to reflect the changing earth, and that simple but powerful music, literally gives me chills. Whoever designed it is a genius.

[@Alexander_D_Shaffer]

This channel is so incredible. I'm blown away by something in every video. Keep up the great work!

[@QueenlySweetpea]

There's another amazing video called " There are no Forests on Planet Earth " a real eye-opener ..

[@Ahonya666]

I love watching these kind of videos. It never gets me tired hearing it told a different way. A topic I didn't heard a lot about is about all the times the Earth snowballed

[@hailgiratinathetruegod7564]

The analogy with the birds doesn't work. Birds allready evolved in to their modern forms in the late cretaceous. coexsting with pterosaurs and dinosaurs in many fimilar forms of extinct bird groups , with even the start of many modern groups. Infact did birds outcompeated many of the smaler pterosaur families.

[@Dimitri88888888]

yes but they were stuck in that small niche. They were FINALLY able to COMPLETELY and utterly take over AFTER the pterosaurs died out. It is a bit like bats today. They exist but they don't dominate over birds. They are all in weak and small niches.

[@chrystals.4376]

@@Dimitri88888888 It’s still bad history regardless because Avians already could fly before the asteroid hit, not lots of people get the wrong idea about bird evolution. Misinformation is misinformation.

[@Dimitri88888888]

@@chrystals.4376 It is like accidental misleading more then anything else. So I agree they could of been more specific to make sure there is no misinterpretation over what really happened between the dinosaurs and pterosaurs. I wouldn't really call it misinformation tho cause he didn't lie he just wasn't specific enough and left out information about the switch of dominance.

[@sega_kid4288]

Bats are the most diverse and widespread of all mammalian groups after rodents. The sky has been friendly to birds and bats alike

[@Dimitri88888888]

@@sega_kid4288 they are still not the dominant species of flying large animals. Diversity and dominance are 2 very separate things.

[@S.Sparrow]

Found your page today and I want to say to the team who put this video together, great job! L. Battison, you are a wonderful writer and clearly a top tier researcher as well. D. Kelly, I very much enjoy your narration and the editing that went into making this video as smooth and entertaining as it is must have been quite a few hours of work. K. Kupsky and E Mazza, thank you so much for the amazing art, your skills and talents are very evident, please keep doing what you do! To the whole team, thank you so much for this video and this channel; KZbin has not been making it any easier to find good quality, informative, and entertaining videos.

[@McCucumber]

Life uh finds a way.

[@drivenhome3257]

To funny, I actually had to go look it up, but yep, the "uh" is in there. LOL

[@Ricardo-gv1zq]

Gotta love Jeff Glodblum

[@erictrudel1164]

Thanks again for another great documentary. I never realized the role of oxygen in aging and the role of sex to prevent the damage made by oxygen to make sure our offsprings don't get all the damage we accumulated over our lives. The balance it creates between mutation and keeping DNA pristine is quite awesome. Just enough change to evolve and still keep functioning DNA.

[@Hunpecked]

I'm no expert, but I understand there's a different view: that sexual reproduction and the rapid genetic variation it produces enables species to adapt to their environment, especially diseases and parasites. Microbes and parasitic organisms generally have much faster life cycles than their prey and so can out-evolve them. By reproducing sexually, the prey shuffle their own genomes in each generation, resulting in diversity that allows at least some to resist infection/infestation.

[@rb3872]

@@Hunpecked and it results in having many different geno- and phenotypes within a population, making the population much more adaptable when confronted by sudden changes in environment. But all those things don't exclude one another, they all contribute to the wonderful thing that is evolution.

[@4AfterTheFact]

If you're not a professional narrator/voiceover artist, you should be! These videos are fantastic, keep up the great work

[@rb3872]

Despite some minor errors, the narration and the script (this time by Leila) of your vids is so neatly done, I always get a little bit excited when a new vid is out. There is but a handful of channels on youtube which give me the same feeling. I think I will support one of your channels in the near future through patreon.

[@The1belal]

This is the most comprehensive explanation I've witnessed. So much great science crammed into 27 minutes - WONDERFUL !!

[@davidnewland2461]

Perhaps thanks to the internet American public school attendees can learn real biology.

[@The1belal]

@@davidnewland2461 ...yes, maybe...?

[@MrBucidart]

Leila, Outstanding work, and David and Khail, Thank you very much ... History at it's finest ..

[@Basieeee]

I just came across this channel a few days ago, I'm really happy I did, your channel is going to be big I can feel it. I love all the geography knowledge.

[@johngraves6878]

Superb script voiceover music and graphics produce a documentary home run. Wow.

[@saltpan8005]

I worked for many years in Death Valley National Park. Not sure if you're ever going to consider branching off and covering any other geological areas. If so this would be an interesting place to research. I really enjoy your videos.

[@Dragon.7722]

What a great channel. Nice writing, narration and setting of theme with the pictures and music. Very well done.

[@TheLacedaemonian300]

The punctuation in 'Punctuated equilibrium' is truly the force that creates great change.

[@pastlife960]

Punctuated equilibrium is a myth

[@MountainFisher]

@@pastlife960 It was Stephen J. Gould's theory to account for what the fossil record mostly shows and that is stasis where a life form just hangs around for a couple million years and then disappears with other new life forms just appearing in the fossil record with no evolution ever found for them. As he put it, it is the big secret of paleontology. Just like there is no evolution of any pre-life or pre-biotic soup, two different prokaryote bacteria just appeared in the fossil record about 3.5 billion years ago. There are some who date the formations in Greenland and Australia earlier to near 4 billion years though.

[@brittneystreeter493]

This is by far the best you tube channel I’ve ever watched! Everything about these videos is perfect! The narrator, the script, the visuals! I’m seriously blown away! 💜

[@ImInDaSkies]

i remember when this happened

[@FitzpatrickEmmett]

Those were the good old days. You could leave your door unlocked back then, couldn't you... because it didn't exist.

[@falkjanen5050]

@@FitzpatrickEmmett It were more polite times too. Nobody was offensive or got offended... because nobody had a brain.

[@jenaosborne4558]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIWynKeend2onac

[@Dimitri88888888]

@@sirmounted8499 ?

[@sirmounted8499]

@@Dimitri88888888 ?

[@BaalFridge]

I s2g this video got me subscribed at 3 minutes when I realised this is an actual youtube channel and not an upload of a TV documentary! Also don't think you can get away with casually calling dinosaurs terrible lizards without getting a chuckle out of me.

[@alinamadlaina]

I looove your videos! I’m so happy I came across your channel

[@davidlafleche1142]

To answer the question, Everything came off Noah's Ark, and repopulated Earth.

[@jankoncsol6457]

What an absolutely mind-blowing video! This should be required viewing at schools.

[@peaguas629]

Thank you very much, kind sir, for this amazing awaited video

[@rolandasjepsas5950]

This is something you would see on BBC, just all the principles explained better without random people being involved into various game tasks to illustrate one or another process. Brilliant videos!

[@maiven77]

I've been waiting very impatiently for the next upload, these are just so good!

[@checkout5017]

This is my new favourite KZbin channel. I cant wait to see what more is to come. I hope when we've gone over the history of the earth we could perhaps look into its future or even the history of other planets!

[@HansLemurson]

I'd never heard of the "Oxidative Stress" theory of the development of sexual reproduction.

[@katalinjuhasz641]

MÉG EGY CSOMO DOLOG VAN AMIRÖL NEM HALLOTTÁL...

[@Azqabat]

That is seriously mindblowing. It's like there was, or perhaps still is, an eternal struggle - darkness living near the hot fumes, and the light, living on the surface. Both had their reasons to deter each other. For one, there was not enough space near the fumes, so they resorted to light. Other could be furious at them for releasing toxic oxygen, depriving everyone of desired elements. At some point, darkness, angry at light for producing too much of destructive oxygen, consumed and destroyed the light. And then one time, she let the light live inside her. Mutual benefit. To exist longer in toxic, destructive oxygen surrounding. Beautifully ironic. The very thing which keeps us alive, is slowly dissolving us.

[@cypher20]

dude, you will blow up for sure, keep making such awesome content :)

[@themiltonman]

Another great video. What a collaboration this has been. Ms. Battison should be duly recognized as a leader and the future of popular science in digital forums considering everything she is doing.

[@account0199]

That was highly above average!

[@gabrieldesmarais3394]

Got my blanket and my popcorn and I am ready to watch a movie... a movie where I know the end, but not the twists nor the consequences of it. I am ready to relax and watch a movie about beauty, about the beauty of life itself.

[@6z0]

Amazing quality video like usual!

[@ChannelRandomMy]

There's a poetic element to this video, amazing, didn't want it to end.

[@joshuapatrick682]

Biology posits a theory that ultimately complex and intelligent life cannot exist without oxygen, because in its absence asexual reproduction (cloning) is all that is required. But in a reality as mind blowingly big as our universe, is it feasible that intelligence wouldn’t have found another route?

[@eightmilesupwind9030]

OMG, Leila Battison, you do come out with a bang. Wow. These videos blew me away. The quality is as good as, if not better than, if not much better than, the best of the best from the BBC. Kudos to you and your team. THANK YOU!!!

[@elcotera8042]

Wow, amazing video, the narration was perfect

[@michellephilip6989]

Just found this channel yesterday and in the middle of binge watching but I'm bloody impressed so far!! 👏👏👍👍

[@FriedrichVonSpietz]

16:34 There it is! He said the line!

[@mstaway]

Your series is very impressive. This episode is one of my favorites. Thanks for your great efforts put into combining science, lucidity of language, good camera work and fine art work.

[@davidwright7193]

Now outdated. The predation model doesn’t fit with the biology of the Asgard archeota. The symbiotic relationship between the proto-eukaryotic cell and its supporting bacteria is much more complex

[@iamnotamused317]

Well, this is a you-tube video. And exploring the symbiotic relationship between the proto-eukaryotic cell and its supporting bacteria would take a heck of a lot longer than just a couple videos. Although, if they were available it would make for some good education.

[@moriahgamesdev]

Why did you say that. I looked into it a bit and read the phrase 'integrated archaeal-bacterial syntrophic consortium'. Now I need to lie down.

[@echoscope4278]

Yeah they make it all sound so damn easy. 🙄

[@viacheslavredkin7030]

It's so amusing to switch the attention for 19th century laboratory to the processes finished billions of years ago. Extraordinary pleasure! Thank you

[@lightwishatnight]

I'm baffled by the amount of production and love you have poured over this video. Kudos and congratulations;do please set up a patreon or another source of support. KZbin is infamous for taking the revenue of this type of well crafted works. (So much greed) Cheers!

[@deanlawson6880]

Very beautifully done, and narrated!! Very nicely done!! Thank you for this!

[@americannomadnews5370]

this video makes me wonder what would happen if a guy with a time machine took a gallon of modern seawater back and dumped it in that sterile ocean after the oxygen event and the warming from the resultant ice age.

[@SadisticSenpai61]

The bacteria and phytoplankton in that gallon of seawater are adapted to the current ocean (well, mostly - humans are working to change that constantly). So the vast majority of what's present in that seawater would probably die. But some would survive if they could still get the nutrients they need to survive. I think phytoplankton (being photosynthetic) would probably have the best chance at surviving. I suppose it would depend on just how specific of an environment they require. We could probably actually set up a lab experiment testing that fairly easily. Get some sterile water, pump in the gasses for the atmosphere, provide the approximate amount of sunlight, dump in your gallon of seawater, and sit back and watch.

[@robinchesterfield42]

That's an interesting idea for a sci-fi story! Hmmm....

[@caroleannekerr708]

Absolutely fascinating that humans are totally unaware what is happening beneath our feet. Thank you

[@johnseo5525]

Thanks!

[@markmarco2880]

This video is an extraordinary education in itself. Up! Up!

[@paubakero]

Very good work and writing! I have only one point to raise: as far as my knowledge goes, sexual reproduction is not an answer to Oxygen, but an adaptation to overcome the infeasibility of lateral gene transfer in Eukariotes. For evolution to work properly, 'good' genes that appeared independently must be brought together, as good mutations are extemely rare. Prokariotes can do just fine with lateral gene transfer. In fact, it is a disadvantage to Eukariotes that reproduction can only take place within the same species, as they can't receive good genes from other species, which a lot of bacteria can. Oxygen can form free radicals that damage DNA, but that's a completely separate issue. In fact, some Eukariote organisms are biologically immortal (even some animals), and there is no reason why a pairing of gametes should undo any genetic damage that free radicals had provoked. But there is a relationship with Oxygen and Eukariotes: the key point is that mitochondria use it to generate energy by 'burning' sugars.

[@dawidcham]

I'd have to agree, sex to avoid oxygen damage doesn't make sense statistically. I'm more convinced by the 'red queen' hypothesis where sex is all about out-evolving parasites.

[@vojake100]

Nature is scary and fascinating at the same time. Life can be really fraile but resilient at the same time. How could we have possibly got here from non-living matter? Respect mother Earth, mother Nature, and appreciate life.

[@rsmania01]

Time to watch this amazing masterpiece

[@incognito3620]

Brilliant, clear and concise illustration of Earth and it’s transformations. It is a wonder.

[@robertbluestein7800]

Really well done. Your mastery of English makes your narration between Sir Richard Attenborough snd Allistsire Cooke with the mystery of Carl Sagan. Those are some of the greatest names in science and history. The objective is to make a ten year old inspired to study. My admiration for you is off the chart

[@lxathu]

If it's amateur, it's the most professional one I've seen. Undeservedly underestimated.