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Changing Seas
Sponges: Oldest Creatures in the Sea?
Season 8
Episode 801
Recent DNA research has cast doubt on the theory that sponges were the first animals to branch off the “Animal Tree of Life,” a kind of family tree for all living and extinct animals on earth. Recently, some scientists are suggesting that ctenophores, also known as comb jellies, are an older lineage.
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27:02
Scientists spend a month in the Galapagos Islands to conduct research.
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26:54
The world’s largest known aggregation of whale sharks occurs just off the coast of Cancun.
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29:33
Scientists work to identify and link a devastating coral disease to a human pathogen.
