Via stints as reptiles, rodents and fish with feet, the evolution of humans is as meandering as it is extraordinary. Reminiscent of a similar sequence from Carl Sagan’s iconic TV series Cosmos (1980), this short animation traces human evolutionary history back 550 million years to a small, primitive fish known as Metaspriggina, believed to be an early ancestor of all living vertebrates. The result is an enlightening overview, not only of our own curious lineage, but of the unpredictable turns that evolution can take for all species.
Human to fish, and back again: a brisk walk through our evolutionary history
Director: Jurian Möller
Website: EVO
21 February 2019

videoHuman evolution
Why did our sea-dwelling ancestors leap to land? It might have been the view
4 minutes

videoEvolution
Watch as the whale becomes itself: slowly, slowly, from land to sea, through deep time
10 minutes

videoHuman evolution
Last hominin standing – charting our rise and the fall of our closest relatives
6 minutes

videoEvolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes

videoAnthropology
Although his story is a mystery, the Lion Man forever binds us to our prehistoric past
2 minutes

videoHistory of science
In 1938, a fish thought extinct for 65 million years resurfaced, nearly unchanged
7 minutes


