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Eons
How Earth's First, Unkillable Animals Saved the World
Season 2
Episode 30
They have survived every catastrophe and every mass extinction event that nature has thrown at them. And by being the little, filter-feeding, water-cleaning creatures that they are, sponges may have saved the world.
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7:44
5,700 years ago, woolly mammoths crossed a remote tundra island off Alaska.
9:48
Why did vertebrates conquer both the land and the air before the depths of the sea?
8:27
Long-extinct dinosaurs may still haunt us—possibly driving us to age faster than any vertebrate.
9:34
Only twice in Earth's history have supermountains risen, and both times reshaped life forever.
10:05
500+ pterosaur fossils found at Solnhofen may be hiding a dark secret distorting our view of them.
11:08
Why are our teeth so sensitive? The answer originates in the armored skin of ancient fish.
10:45
For flowering plants to take over, they first helped burn the old world—and then put the fires out.
11:37
Ancient weeds mimicked crops, tricking farmers into domesticating friends—and enemies—by mistake.
12:14
Brains and brawn aren’t opposites—they’ve been linked far longer than we might think.
9:35
Tiny mammals and a group of lizard-like reptiles shared a trait that helped them survive extinction.