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Eons
How Blood Evolved (Many Times)
Season 2
Episode 9
Blood is one of the most revolutionary features in our evolutionary history. Over hundreds of millions of years, the way in which blood does its job has changed over and over again. As a result, we animals have our familiar red blood. But also blue blood. And purple, and green, and even white.
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Around 300 million years ago sails were all the rage, but we're still not sure what they were for.
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During the Permian Period many tetrapods, or four-limbed vertebrates, took to life in the trees.
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For millions of years after the Great Dying microbes ruled the Earth.
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Life begins to rebound after the destruction of the mass extinction ending the Permian Period.
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An apocalypse ended the Permian Period 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 80% of species.
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The first saber-teeth and tusks evolve in the Late Permian and our ancestors, the cynodonts, appear.
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An extinction in the Middle Permian decimates life, from a fossil reef to our ancient relatives.
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The first herbivorous vertebrates evolve on the side of the amniote family tree leading to mammals.
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Seed plants and amniotes adapt to dry climates, helping them thrive on Pangea in the Permian Period.
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The mystery of what non-flying dinosaurs were doing with their feathered wings has a new hypothesis.