NFB - Miracle Planet HD (2005) HD Part 5 Survival of the Fittest

Miracle Planet is a five-part series that recounts the profound and gripping story of Earth's mysterious evolution. Narrated by Christopher Plummer, it reveals the surprising role that sheer chance has played in the development of life. Over its more than 4-billion-year history, Earth has been home to repeated violent climatic changes, which have caused mass extinctions. And yet, life has survived. In fact, these same catastrophes that devastated life on Earth also helped bring about its evolution from the simplest microbes to the complexity and diversity that is found on the planet today. Filmed around the world and based upon the most recent scientific findings, Miracle Planet combines location footage and interviews with leading scientists, along with computer animation, to depict the cataclysmic events that have shaped our planet and all of the life-forms within it. The five standard episodes depict the evolution of life on Earth in perspective with our place in the universe. The entire 5-hour series Miracle Planet aired on Discovery Channel in Canada on April 22, 2005 as an Earth Day special. It is a remake of the 1989 series produced by NHK and KCTS.

A National Film Board of Canada and NHK Japan co-production with Tele Images International, Telepool International in association with Discovery Channel Canada and The Science Channel.

Part 5 Survival of the Fittest

The human race is here today because of its ability to adapt. Our ancestors, the earliest mammals, survived low oxygen levels. Later primates developed sharp eyesight and hands that could clasp for nocturnal life in trees. And about six million years ago, fossil evidence in Africa tells us, some primates may have begun to walk upright, perhaps because they were forced out of the trees and into grasslands. Living on Earth truly was Survival of the Fittest. Episode 5 of Miracle Planet walks us down the incredible evolutionary pathway that has brought humans to their dominant position on the planet and openly questions our role in the future development of life on earth.

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