* Ape Man: The Story of Human Evolution (1994)

Based on interviews with leading scientists working all over the world, Ape Man explores the story of our evolution, and of the people who have devoted their lives to discovering the truth about our origins. There have been many species of human-like creatures in the past. Now, all but Homo sapiens are extinct. If we can understand the past, we may be able to understand why we are the way we are today. And perhaps we can find clues to our future.

The incredible story of human evolution comes to life through the latest breakthroughs, interviews with scientists and anthropologists, and computer simulations. Hosted by Walter Cronkite, and filmed on location in Africa, APE MAN is the definitive account of how humans evolved from primates to become the dominant species on earth. From the extinction of the dinosaurs to the invention of fire, from the development of language to the link between furry ancestors and modern man, this vivid journey tells a towering story.

Part 1: The Human Puzzle
Compared to other species, human beings have been on earth for a very short time. For millions of years, dinosaurs dominated. Then came an evolutionary upheaval-- the continents shifted, the climate changed, and the ape emerged. In Africa, our primal ancestors began to make huge biological leaps forward. But what mysterious phenomenon allowed humans to branch off from the ape?

Part 2: Giant Strides
Once humans learned to walk upright, they began to take giant developmental strides away from their animal relatives. They invented tools, which provided the edge in the search for food. The awesome power of fire came next, then the evolutionary grand prize-- the human brain.


Part 3: All in the Mind
As the human brain evolved, early man gained an incredible evolutionary advantage-- the power of language. It brought humans closer together and led to a higher form of creativity. Cave paintings, sculpture, and decorative tools sprung from man's hand. Today, the human mind still drives the species-- but is that enough to guarantee survival on the evolutionary tree?


Part 4: Science and Fiction
While evolutionists and creationists debate the origin of the species, an intense controversy rages within the scientific community itself. Why is science so obsessed with the purity of our origins? Can it affect the fate of our species? In a sobering look at our place in the natural order, leading evolutionists risk a glimpse into the future of the human being.

* Your Inner Fish (2014)

Your Inner Fish reveals a startling truth: Hidden within the human body is a story of life on Earth. This scientific adventure story takes viewers from Ethiopia to the Arctic Circle on a hunt for the many ways that our animal ancestors shaped our anatomical destiny. Come face-to-face with your "inner fish" in this completely new take on the human body: You'll never look at yourself in quite the same way again!

Your Inner Fish
Paleobiologist Neil Shubin uncovers the answers in this new look at human evolution. Using fossils, embryos and genes, he reveals how our bodies are the legacy of ancient fish, reptiles and primates.

Your Inner Reptile
"Your Inner Reptile" traces our hair, skin, teeth, jaws and sense of hearing back to reptilian ancestors — from ferocious beasts that ruled the Earth to a little shrew-like animal that lived 195 million years ago.

Your Inner Monkey
Your Inner Monkey" tracks our hands, feet, color vision, spine and upright gait to our primate and hominid progenitors, who also passed on perhaps the most important legacy of all: a path to the human brain.

* Rise of Animals - Triumph of the Vertebrates (2013)

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.

Part 1: From the Seas to the Skies
This episode details the origins of the vertebrates, which lie in the primitive fish that once swam in ancient seas. Remarkable advances allowed them to make the radical move onto land, and then take to the skies with the advent of flight. Brand new discoveries of fossils - ancient and living - combined with stunning CGI enable David to chart their unexpected journey out of the water to populate all corners of the globe.

Part 2: Dawn of the Mammals
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.

* Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (2009)

David Attenborough asks three key questions: how and why did Darwin come up with his theory of evolution? Why do we think he was right? And why is it more important now than ever before?

David starts his journey in Darwin's home at Down House in Kent, where Darwin worried and puzzled over the origins of life. David goes back to his roots in Leicestershire, where he hunted for fossils as a child, and where another schoolboy unearthed a significant find in the 1950s. And he revisits Cambridge University, where both he and Darwin studied, and where many years later the DNA double helix was discovered, providing the foundations for genetics.

At the end of his journey in the Natural History Museum in London, David concludes that Darwin's great insight revolutionised the way in which we see the world. We now understand why there are so many different species, and why they are distributed in the way they are. But above all, Darwin has shown us that we are not set apart from the natural world, and do not have dominion over it. We are subject to its laws and processes, as are all other animals on earth to which, indeed, we are related.

* Attenborough's Natural Curiosities (2013)

A five part series in which Sir David Attenborough shines the spotlight on some of nature's evolutionary anomalies and how these curious animals continue to baffle and fascinate. Attenborough turns away from the kind of widescreen wildlife that often sweeps across our screens and adopts a more zoomed-in approach. As you'd expect, it's exemplary broadcasting. What the series lacks in lush landscapes and beauty shots, it more than makes up for with extraordinary stats. It's the best kind of educational television.

Part 1: Stretched to the Limit

David explores nature's evolutionary anomalies and examines two creatures whose stretched features have given them an edge in the natural world. The chameleon has an extra-long tongue that helps it catch prey and the giraffe's neck is so long it is easily able to reach the tops of trees for food.

Part 2: A Curious Hoax

David Attenborough highlights the curiosities that have led to accusations of forgery, but have ultimately helped assist the rethinking of evolution. When early explorers brought the first specimen of a duck-billed platypus to England in 1799, it was considered so bizarre it was deemed a hoax. Similarly, the midwife toad became the centre of a scientific storm in the 1920s that led to accusations of fakery.

Part 3: Young Wrinklies

David Attenborough encounters two species with wrinkly skin, where nature has tinkered with the aging process to different effect. The mole rat retains its looks while growing old and the elephant looks old from birth. Both creatures live relatively long lives.

Part 4: A Curious Twist

The single spiral tusk of the narwhal inspiration for tales of unicorns and the myriad variations on the twist of the snail shell have delighted and fascinated naturalists and artists since the dawn of civilization

Part 5: Seeing the Pattern

Zebra stripes vary subtly between the different species but there is one group of animals that has evolved colourful patterns of seemingly infinite variety, the butterflies. In this episode David looks at two examples of animal patterns that have bedazzled and baffled science for a long time, and uses modern tools to unlock their secrets.