Summary: 160 million years ago, a massive lava flow in China's Junggar Basin resulted in an eerily preserved "community" akin to the ruins of Pompeii-in this case, not a scene of human domesticity but a spectacular dinosaur graveyard. This program explores the site and evokes one of the most exciting questions in paleontology: how and why did dinosaurs become gigantic? Viewers are shown specimens from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Did the ancestors of the human race go through a crucial semi-aquatic phase? This balanced program examines the latest evidence that water played a major role in human evolution and assesses how it stands up to the traditional Savanna Theory proposed by Darwin. Preeminent critics and adherents of the Aquatic Ape Theory discuss such key points as humans' unique diving reflex and voluntary breath...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Is the key theory about how we evolved from apes based on mistaken evidence? Since 1974, the 3.2-million-year-old fossil dubbed "Lucy" has been considered humankind's prime ancestor. Now, a fossil recently unearthed in Kenya by distinguished paleontologist Dr. Meave Leakey is rewriting the theories. This program examines the implications of Flat-Faced Man, a bipedal hominid just as old as Lucy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This program provides arguments in favor of continental drift and the one-time existence of a supercontinent, shows how isolation can give rise to different species and how species develop in response to their environments, and explains clines and suggests the reason for their existence. After viewing the program, students should understand the significance of the continental drift theory, the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Nearly everything we know of dinosaurs comes from bones and teeth-usually the only body parts durable enough to fossilize. This program highlights the scientific rewards resulting from a 1999 discovery of a virtually intact dinosaur mummy. Viewers will learn about the conditions that preserved the 67-million-year-old hadrosaur specimen as well as exciting details of what the creature looked...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The demise of the dinosaurs remains a mystery. One theory is that a violent series of volcanic eruptions led to periodic mass extinctions of animal life throughout the Cretaceous period. Viewers follow scientists as they trace the evidence deep into the earth's core of molten metal and learn why these deadly eruptions were so vital to the progress of evolution.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: All other life forms except humans exist to propagate themselves and pass on their genes; humans alone work to other ends. In this lecture, Richard Dawkins distinguishes between the result of eons of natural selection which has resulted in, say, a bird's tail, whose purpose is to enable the bird to fly-purpose with a survival value-and deliberate design, like an airplane's tail. Dawkins shows...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: When paleontologist Per Ahlberg discovered a strange fossil overlooked for decades at a museum in Latvia, he knew he was onto something. In this astounding program, Ahlberg and Jenny Clack, of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology; Ted Daeschler, of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences; and Keith Thomson, of the Oxford University Museum, reexamine the evolution of the first...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Since Darwin's day, explanations for the causation of evolution have come and gone, Lamarckism, mutationism, and the existence of a built-in mechanism driving to perfection all dismissed for lack of evidence and the proofs of molecular biology. Ernst Mayr examines and evaluates the modifications and adaptations to Darwin's theory of natural selection, to determine whether the resulting...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Sir Andrew Huxley-grandson of Darwin's great defender, Thomas Huxley-describes Darwin's motivations, discoveries, and search for a logical theory to explain his observations of both geological and biological evidence in South America, focusing on Darwin's importance as the first to present strong, scientific evidence for descent with modification and to posit a plausible mechanism for its...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Distinguished evolutionary biologists among the auditors of the foregoing lectures take on not only Luther Sutherland
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: In the 17th century, an Irish bishop judged the year of Earth's creation to be 4004 BC. Although laughable by modern scientific standards, James Ussher's calculation was among the first rigorous attempts to comprehend the vastness of geological history. This program opens a window into time frames that dwarf human life spans-evoking the insignificance of civilization in comparison to the age of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Since Charles Darwin formulated his theory of natural selection, our view of the world has changed. Although Darwin's theory itself has "evolved," scientists agree that living species slowly but surely diverged from common ancestors. This program begins with a segment on fossils, one of the most convincing proofs of evolution. It then retraces the major steps of evolution as they were uncovered...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: This program presents fossil evidence for the evolution of reptiles and amphibians; explains the reasoning processes scientists must use when no direct evidence is available for examination; illustrates field techniques for collecting fragile fossils for transportation to the laboratory, where examination can take place under controlled conditions; and traces the evolution of some modern...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Allan Wilson, a groundbreaking researcher and a lightning rod for controversy, revolutionized science and galvanized the scientific community through his quantitative biochemical approach to the history of evolution. Drawing upon the insights and recollections of those who knew Wilson best, this program-narrated by paleoanthropologist Tim White, codiscoverer of the hominid "Lucy"-correlates...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Curiosity is often the driving force behind great discoveries. In this program, Friedemann Schrenk teams up with Meave Leakey to examine fossil specimens recovered at Lake Turkana, Lothagam, and Kanapoi, where they discuss the relationships between Australopithicus afarensis, A. boisei, and Homo habilis. Dr. Schrenk also visits the Nairobi Museum, the Anatomical Institute in Dar es Salaam, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This program zeroes in on the mystery of exactly how life began on Earth. Join the hunt for hardy microbes that flourish in the most unlikely places: inside rocks in a mine shaft two miles down, inside a cave dripping with acid as strong as a car battery's, and in noxious gas bubbles erupting from the Pacific Ocean floor. The survival of these tough microorganisms suggests they may be related...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
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Summary: He was a philosopher, paleontologist, Jesuit priest-and far more than the sum of these disparate labels. Illuminating the life and work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, this program examines his origins, his difficulties with Catholic orthodoxy, and his legacy as a major contributor to the "living Earth" theory. Interviewing scientists and religious leaders influenced by Teilhard, the program...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program shows the process of sedimentation, which has preserved those life forms extant at the time the rock was formed and-most strikingly where the Colorado River has cut through the Grand Canyon-exposes a veritable history of life on earth; presents the stratified evidence that simple organisms populated the earth first, followed by increasingly complex forms; demonstrates modern...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008