Up Next
Back to Show
Eons
How We Identified One of Earth’s Earliest Animals
Season 3
Episode 8
Scientists had no idea what type of organisms the life forms of the Ediacaran were—lichen, colonies of bacteria, fungi or something else. It turns out, the key to solving the puzzle of Precambrian life was a tiny bit of fossilized fat.
Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By
10:42
Our brains actually shrank relative to our bodies in evolution.
7:23
Hidden in rocks may have animal kingdom’s oldest known predator.
9:26
Hidden in rocks may have animal kingdom’s oldest known predator.
8:09
We explore what we have in common with our ancient cousins.
9:19
We have become the ultimate niche builders.
9:58
Beneath their shell, the crustaceans hold an evolutionary mystery.
7:20
The answer is part of a decades-long debate.
10:04
In Australia, evolution built a family of deadly predators.
7:28
We focus on the DNA we got from our Neanderthals.
7:20
Seahorses are one of the ocean's worst swimmers but their origin story is great.
8:21
In recent years, Archaea's connection to us has been pretty huge and surprising.
8:53
Charles Darwin encountered a tiny fox-like creature during his famous voyage.