David Attenborough's Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates

David Attenborough embarks on a remarkable 500 million-year journey revealing the extraordinary group of animals that dominate our world, and how their evolution defines our human bodies.

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Created By
Status	Ended
Original Name	David Attenborough's Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates
First Air Date	September 20, 2013
Last Air Date	September 27, 2013
Seasons	1
Episodes	2
Episode Runtime	1h 0min
Language	English
Original Language	English
Production Countries	—
Production Companies	Atlantic Productions KCTS Television Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Networks	BBC Two

S01E02

Dawn of the Mammals

David Attenborough embarks on an epic 500-million-year journey to unravel the incredible rise of the vertebrates. The evolution of animals with backbones is one of the greatest stories in natural history. To tell this story, David presents explosive new fossil evidence from China, a region he has long dreamt of exploring and the frontier of modern paleontological research. He reveals how vertebrates came to be the dominant form of animal life, and why humans are the heirs to a magnificent evolutionary heritage. This episode reveals how mammals developed from tiny nocturnal forest dwellers to the dominant form of life on the planet following the death of the dinosaurs. David explains how the meteoric rise of mammals led to an astounding diversity of life and laid the foundations for the ascent of man.

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