Life on Earth | |
---|---|
Genre | Nature documentary |
Presented by | David Attenborough |
Composer | Edward Williams |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 13 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Christopher Parsons |
Producers |
|
Running time | 55 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network | BBC Two |
Release | 16 January 10 April 1979 | –
Related | |
The Living Planet |
Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough is a British television natural history series made by the BBC in association with Warner Bros. Television and Reiner Moritz Productions. It was transmitted in the UK from 16 January 1979.
During the course of the series presenter David Attenborough, following the format established by Kenneth Clark's Civilisation and Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man (both series which he designed and produced as director of BBC2), travels the globe in order to trace the story of the evolution of life on the planet. Like the earlier series, it was divided into 13 programmes (each of around 55 minutes' duration). The executive producer was Christopher Parsons and the music was composed by Edward Williams.
At a cost of exceeding £1 million ($1.2 million), it was an immense project that involved filming over 100 locations around the world and took three years in the making by a team of 30 people with the help of more than 500 scientists. [1] [2] Highly acclaimed as a milestone in the history of British wildlife television, it established Attenborough as not only the foremost television naturalist, but also an iconic figure in British cultural life. [2] It is the first in Attenborough's Life series of programmes and was followed by The Living Planet (1984).
Several special filming techniques were devised to obtain some of the footage of rare and elusive animals. One cameraman spent hundreds of hours waiting for the fleeting moment when a Darwin's frog, which incubates its young in its mouth, finally spat them out. Another built a replica of a mole rat burrow in a horizontally mounted wheel, so that as the mole rat ran along the tunnel, the wheel could be spun to keep the animal adjacent to the camera. To illustrate the motion of bats' wings in flight, a slow-motion sequence was filmed in a wind tunnel. The series was also the first to include footage of a live (although dying) coelacanth.
The cameramen took advantage of improved film stock to produce some of the sharpest and most colourful wildlife footage that had been seen to date.
The programmes also pioneered a style of presentation whereby David Attenborough would begin describing a certain species' behaviour in one location, before cutting to another to complete his illustration. Continuity was maintained, despite such sequences being filmed several months and thousands of miles apart.
The best remembered sequence occurs in the twelfth episode, when Attenborough encounters a group of mountain gorillas in Dian Fossey's sanctuary in Rwanda. The primates had become used to humans through years of being studied by researchers. Attenborough originally intended merely to get close enough to narrate a piece about the apes' use of the opposable thumb, but as he advanced on all fours toward the area where they were feeding, he suddenly found himself face to face with an adult female. Discarding his scripted speech, he turned to camera and delivered a whispered ad lib:
There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than with any other animal I know. Their sight, their hearing, their sense of smell are so similar to ours that they see the world in much the same way as we do. We live in the same sort of social groups with largely permanent family relationships. They walk around on the ground as we do, though they are immensely more powerful than we are. So if there were ever a possibility of escaping the human condition and living imaginatively in another creature's world, it must be with the gorilla. The male is an enormously powerful creature but he only uses his strength when he is protecting his family and it is very rare that there is violence within the group. So it seems really very unfair that man should have chosen the gorilla to symbolise everything that is aggressive and violent, when that is the one thing that the gorilla is not—and that we are.
When Attenborough returned to the site the next day, the female and two young gorillas began to groom and play with him. In his memoirs, Attenborough describes this as "one of the most exciting encounters of my life". He subsequently discovered, to his chagrin, that only a few seconds had been recorded: the cameraman was running low on film and wanted to save it for the planned description of the opposable thumb. [3]
In 1999 viewers of Channel 4 voting for the 100 Greatest TV Moments placed the gorilla sequence at number 12—ranking it ahead of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and the wedding of Charles and Diana.
The series attracted a weighted average of 15 million viewers in the UK, an exceptionally high figure for a BBC documentary back in the late 1970s. [4] It was also a major international success, being sold to over 100 territories and watched by an estimated audience of 500 million people worldwide. [4] [5] [6] However, Life on Earth did not generate the same revenue for the BBC as later Attenborough series because the corporation signed away the American and European rights to their co-production partners, Warner Bros. and Reiner Moritz. [7]
It was nominated for four BAFTA TV awards and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Documentary Series. [8] In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Life on Earth was placed 32nd.
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "The Infinite Variety" | 16 January 1979 | |
The episode begins in the South American rainforest whose rich variety of life forms is used to illustrate the sheer number of different
species. Since many are dependent on others for food or means of reproduction, David Attenborough argues that they could not all have appeared at once. He sets out to discover which came first, and the reasons for such diversity. He starts by explaining the theories of
Charles Darwin and the process of
natural selection, using the
giant tortoises of the
Galápagos Islands (where Darwin voyaged on
HMS Beagle) as an example.
Fossils provide evidence of the earliest life, and Attenborough travels a vertical mile into the
Grand Canyon in search of them. By the time he reaches the
Colorado River bed, the geological
strata are 2,000 million years old—yet there are no fossils. However, the "right rocks" are found on the shores of
Lake Superior in Canada, where wafer-thin slices of
flint, called chert, reveal filaments of primitive
algae. Also, the
micro-organisms that flourish at
Yellowstone Park in
Wyoming appear to be identical to the Earth's oldest fossils. The evolution of single-celled creatures, from simple
cyanophytes to more complex
ciliates, and then from multi-celled
sponges and
jellyfish to the many variations of
coral and its associated
polyps, is discussed in detail. The fossilised remains of jellyfish are shown within the
Flinders Ranges of Australia, and are estimated to be 652 million years old. | |||
2 | "Building Bodies" | 23 January 1979 | |
The next programme explores the various sea-living
invertebrates. In
Morocco, the
limestones are 600 million years old, and contain many invertebrate fossils. They fall broadly into three categories:
shells,
crinoids and segmented shells. The evolution of shelled creatures is demonstrated with the
flatworm, which eventually changed its body shape when burrowing became a necessity for either food or safety. It then evolved shielded tentacles and the casings eventually enveloped the entire body: these creatures are the
brachiopods. The most successful shelled animals are the
molluscs, of which there are some 80,000 different species. Some are single-shelled such as the
cowrie, while others are
bivalves that include the
scallop and the
giant clam. One species that has remained unchanged for millions of years is the
nautilus: it features flotation chambers within its shell, which in turn formed the basis for the
ammonites. Crinoids are illustrated by
sea lilies,
starfish and
sea urchins on the
Great Barrier Reef. Segmented worms developed to enable sustained burrowing, and well-preserved fossils are found in the
Rocky Mountains of
British Columbia. These developed into
trilobites and
crustaceans, and the
horseshoe crab is shown nesting in vast numbers on
Delaware Bay. While the
robber crab breeds in the sea, it is in all other respects a land animal and Attenborough uses it to exemplify the next evolutionary step. | |||
3 | "The First Forests" | 30 January 1979 | |
This instalment examines the earliest land vegetation and
insects. The first
plants, being devoid of stems, mainly comprised
mosses and
liverworts. Using both
sexual and
asexual methods of reproduction, they proliferated. Descended from segmented sea creatures,
millipedes were among the first to take advantage of such a habitat and were quickly followed by other species. Without water to carry
eggs, bodily contact between the sexes was now necessary. This was problematical for some hunters, such as
spiders and
scorpions, who developed courtship rituals to ensure that the female didn't eat the male. Over time, the plants' cell walls strengthened and they grew taller.
Ferns and
horsetails were among the first such species. Insects then evolved wings to avoid climbing and the
dragonfly (which once had a wingspan of 60 centimetres) is one of the most successful. The elaborate wingbeats of the
damselfly are shown slowed down 120 times. Some plants, like the
cycad enlisted the insects to transport
pollen, while others, like the
conifer, spread
spores. Over a third of forests contain conifers and the giant
sequoia of
California is the largest living organism of any kind: it grows to a height of 112 metres. The conifer secretes
resin to repair its trunk, and this survives as
amber. Within it, insect specimens have been found that are 200 million years old. In fact, at this time, every insect known today was already in existence. | |||
4 | "The Swarming Hordes" | 6 February 1979 | |
This episode details the relationship between
flowers and insects. There are some one million classified species of insect, and two or three times as many that are yet to be labelled. Around 300 million years ago, plants began to enlist insects to help with their reproduction, and they did so with flowers. Although the
magnolia, for instance, contains male and female cells,
pollination from another plant is preferable as it ensures greater variation and thus evolution. Flowers advertise themselves by either scent or display. Some evolved to produce sweet-smelling
nectar and in turn, several insects developed their mouth parts into feeding tubes in order to reach it. However, to ensure that pollination occurs, some species—such as the
orchid—have highly complicated mechanisms that must be negotiated first. Others, such as the
yucca and its visiting
moths, are dependent on one another. Hunters, such as the
mantis, are
camouflaged to match the flowers and leaves visited by their prey. Since an insect's skin is
chitinous, it has to shed it periodically in order to grow, and the
caterpillar, its
chrysalis or
cocoon and resulting
butterfly or moth is one of the more complex examples.
Termites,
ants and some
bees and
wasps overcame any limitations of size by grouping together and forming
superorganisms. The green tree ants of south-east Asia are shown to display the most extraordinary co-operation when building their nests. | |||
5 | "Conquest of the Waters" | 13 February 1979 | |
This programme looks at the
evolution of fish. They have developed a multitude of shapes, sizes and methods of propulsion and navigation. The sea squirt, the
lancelet and the
lamprey are given as examples of the earliest, simplest types. Then, about 400 million years ago, the first backboned fish appeared. The
Kimberley Ranges of Western Australia are, in fact, the remnants of a
coral reef and the ancient seabed. There, Attenborough discovers fossils of the earliest fish to have developed jaws. These evolved into two shapes of creature with
cartilaginous skeletons: wide ones (like
rays and
skates) and long ones (like
sharks). However, it is the fully boned species that were most successful, and spread from the oceans to rivers and lakes. To adapt to these environments, they had by now acquired
gills for breathing, a
lateral line to detect movement and a
swim bladder to aid buoyancy. Coral reefs contain the greatest variety of species, many of which are conspicuously coloured to ward off predators or attract mates. Their habitat, with its many hiding places within easy reach, allows them to remain so visible. However, the open ocean offers no such refuge, so there is safety in numbers—both hunters and hunted swim in shoals and have streamlined bodies for pursuit or escape. Most species that live below the
thermocline, in the freezing depths of the ocean, have never been filmed, and these are largely represented by still photographs. | |||
6 | "Invasion of the Land" | 20 February 1979 | |
The next instalment describes the move from water to land. The fish that did so may have been forced to because of
drought, or chose to in search of food. Either way, they eventually evolved into
amphibians. Such creatures needed two things: limbs for mobility and lungs to breathe. The
coelacanth is shown as a fish with bony fins that could have developed into legs, and the
lungfish is able to absorb gaseous
oxygen. However, evidence of an animal that possessed both is presented in the 450-million-year-old fossilised remains of a fish called a
eusthenopteron. Three groups of amphibians are explored. The caecilians have abandoned legs altogether to aid burrowing,
newts and
salamanders need to return to the water to allow their skins to breathe, but it is
frogs and
toads that have been the most successful. Attenborough handles a
goliath frog, the largest of the species, to demonstrate its characteristics. Their webbed feet form parachutes that turn them into "dazzling athletes", and some can leap over 15 metres—100 times their body length. In addition, their
vocal sacs ensure that mating calls can be heard from up to a mile away.
Poison dart frogs deter predators by means of
venom, and one such example could kill a human. Various methods of breeding are examined, including laying eggs in rivers, depositing them in other damp habitats for safety or, as with the
Brazilian
pipa, embedding them within the skin of the parent itself. | |||
7 | "Victors of the Dry Land" | 27 February 1979 | |
This episode is devoted to the evolution of
reptiles. They are not as restricted as their amphibian ancestors, since they can survive in the hottest climates. The reason is their scaly, practically watertight skin. The
scales protect the body from wear and tear and in the case of some species of
lizard, such as the Australian thorny devil, serve to protect from attack. The horned
iguana from the
West Indies is also one of the most heavily armoured. The skin is rich in
pigment cells, which provide effective means of camouflage, and the
chameleon is a well-known example.
Temperature control is important to reptiles: they cannot generate body heat internally or sweat to keep cool. Therefore, they rely on the
sun and areas of shade. The reptiles were the first
vertebrates for whom internal
fertilisation was essential, so they developed the watertight egg, which hatches fully formed young. The age of the
dinosaurs is explored, and Attenborough surmises that it may have been
climate change that led to their abrupt demise. Those that survived were water-dwellers, and the bull
Nile crocodile is the largest reptile alive today.
Snakes evolved when burrowing lizards lost their legs but returned above ground. The
boa,
puff adder and
sidewinder demonstrate methods of locomotion, the
egg-eating snake has an extreme example of a hinged jaw, and the lethal
diamondback rattlesnake is described as the most efficient at despatching its prey. | |||
8 | "Lords of the Air" | 6 March 1979 | |
This programme focuses on
birds. The
feather is key to everything that is crucial about a bird: it is both its
aerofoil and its insulator. The earliest feathers were found on a fossilised
Archaeopteryx skeleton in
Bavaria. However, it had claws on its
wings and there is only one species alive today that does so: the
hoatzin, whose chicks possess them for about a week or so. Nevertheless, it serves to illustrate the probable movement of its ancestor. It may have taken to the trees to avoid predators, and over time, its bony, reptilian tail was replaced by feathers and its heavy jaw evolved into a
keratin beak. Beaks come in a variety of shapes depending on a bird's feeding habits: examples given include the pouched bill of a
pelican, the hooked beak of the
vulture and the elongated mouth of the
hummingbird. Attenborough hails the
tern as one of the most graceful flyers and the
albatross as a skilled glider. The
swift is shown as one of the fastest: it can fly at 170 km/h. Birds communicate through display and/or song, and the elaborate courtship rituals of
New Guinea's
birds-of-paradise are shown. All birds lay eggs, and the range of different nesting sites and parenting skills is explored. Finally, Attenborough visits
Gibraltar to observe
migratory birds. These rely on
thermals when flying overland and use height to conserve energy when crossing oceans. It is estimated that some 5,000 million southbound birds cross the
Mediterranean Sea each autumn. | |||
9 | "The Rise of the Mammals" | 13 March 1979 | |
This instalment is the first of several to concentrate on
mammals. The
platypus and the
echidna are the only mammals that lay eggs (in much the same manner of reptiles), and it is from such animals that others in the group evolved. Since mammals have
warm blood and most have dense
fur, they can hunt at night when temperatures drop. It is for this reason that they became more successful than their reptile ancestors, who needed to heat themselves externally. Much of the programme is devoted to
marsupials (whose young are partially formed at birth) of which fossils have been found in the
Americas dating back 60 million years. However, because of
continental drift, this kind of mammal flourished in Australia. Examples shown include the
quoll, the
Tasmanian devil, the
koala, the
wombat and the largest marsupial, the
red kangaroo. The
thylacine was similar to a
wolf but is now thought to be extinct. In 1969, bones of creatures such as a 3-metre-tall
kangaroo and a ferocious
marsupial lion were found in a cave in
Naracoorte,
South Australia. The reason for these animals' extinction is, once again, thought to be
climate change. Finally, Attenborough describes the most prolific mammals—those that originated in the
Northern Hemisphere and give birth to fully formed young. He states, "The
placenta and the
womb between them provide a degree of safety and a continuity of sustenance which is unparalleled in the animal world." | |||
10 | "Theme and Variations" | 20 March 1979 | |
This episode continues the study of mammals, and particularly those whose young gestate inside their bodies. Attenborough asks why these have become so varied and tries to discover the common theme that links them. Examples of primitive mammals that are still alive today include the
treeshrew, the
desman and the
star-nosed mole. Insect eaters vary enormously from the
aardvark,
giant anteater and
pangolin to those to which much of this programme is devoted: the
bats, of which there are nearly 1,000 different species. These took to flying at night, and it is possible that they evolved from treeshrews that jumped from tree to tree, in much the same way as a
flying squirrel. Most bats use
sonar to hunt and navigate, and
ultrasound to communicate. However, some of their prey, such as the
lacewing and
tiger moth, have developed techniques to confuse and evade them. Aquatic mammals superseded sea-going reptiles such as the
plesiosaur. The
whales' immense size is related to the retention of body heat. The dinosaurs' growth was limited by the strength of their bones but the whales only rely on water to support their weight, and so have been able to grow into the world's largest animals. Some of those shown include
humpbacks,
narwhals,
killer whales and
dolphins. The latter use
echolocation in much the same way as bats, and Attenborough observes one finding objects in the water even after it has been blindfolded. | |||
11 | "The Hunters and Hunted" | 27 March 1979 | |
This programme surveys mammal
herbivores and their predators. The herbivores began to populate the forests when the dinosaurs disappeared, and many took to gathering food at night. To prepare for winter, some store it in vast quantities, some
hibernate and others make do as best they can. However, the
carnivores joined them, and when a drying climate triggered the spread of
grass, they followed their prey out on to the
plains. Grass is not easily digestible and most animals that eat it have to regurgitate it and
chew the cud. Out in the open, the leaf-eaters had to develop means of protection. A few species turned into burrowers: examples include the
blind mole-rat, which is completely underground, and the
prairie dog, which is not. The
capybara—the largest rodent—spends much of its time in the water. Those that evolved long legs and hooves, such as the
zebra and
impala, seek safety in speed, while larger creatures, such as the
rhinoceros, rely on their armoured hides. The
elephant is the world's largest land animal and is virtually invulnerable.
Cheetahs and
lions are attracted by those that herd in large numbers, like
wildebeest. The cheetah uses its considerable speed while the heavier lion is a social predator, mostly using co-operation and stealth to capture its victims, and its methods are explored in detail. Meanwhile, a pack hunter, such as the
hyena, has immense stamina and will eventually wear down its quarry, easing the kill. | |||
12 | "Life in the Trees" | 3 April 1979 | |
The penultimate instalment investigates the
primates, whose defining characteristics are forward-facing eyes for judging distance, and gripping hands with which to grasp branches, manipulate food and groom one another. The programme begins in
Madagascar, home to the
lemurs, of which there are some 20 different types. Two examples are the
sifaka, which is a specialised jumper, and the
indri, which has a well-developed voice. Away from Madagascar, the only lemur relatives to have survived are nocturnal, such as the
bushbaby, the
potto and the
loris. The others were supplanted by the
monkeys and a primitive species that still exists is the smallest, the
marmoset. However, Attenborough selects the
squirrel monkey as being typical of the group.
Howler monkeys demonstrate why they are so named—their chorus is said to the loudest of any mammal—and their
prehensile tails illustrate their agility. However, such tails are not characteristic of monkeys that inhabit Africa and many of them, such as
vervets and
baboons, are just as happy on the ground. Others have moved elsewhere, and the
macaques of Koshima in Japan have learned to wash their food before eating. Most
apes have taken to swinging from trees, and their feet are just as versatile as their hands. They include the
orangutan, the
gibbon, the
chimpanzee and the primate with whom Attenborough has arguably his most famous encounter, the
mountain gorilla. | |||
13 | "The Compulsive Communicators" | 10 April 1979 | |
The final episode deals with the evolution of the most widespread and dominant species on Earth:
humans. The story begins in Africa, where, some 10 million years ago, apes descended from the trees and ventured out into the open grasslands in search of food. They slowly adapted to the habitat and grew in size. Their acute sense of vision led to them standing erect to spot predators, leaving their hands free to bear weapons. In addition, the primitive apemen (
Anthropopithecus) also had stones that were chipped into cutting tools. Slowly, they grew taller and more upright, and their stone implements became ever more elaborate. Furthermore, animal hunting expeditions required a degree of co-operation to achieve a successful outcome. Therefore, Attenborough argues, such foresight, teamwork and planning must have meant some skill at communication.
Homo erectus gradually spread from Africa and reached Europe some 800,000 years ago, where a drop in temperature led to him inhabiting
caves. Such creatures evolved further and learned to use flint for weapons, animal skins for clothing, and fire for warmth and preparing food. Their brains became fully formed and, using the walls of their caves as a canvas, they painted and eventually learned to write. Homo sapiens had arrived. However, Attenborough warns, just because humans have achieved so much in such a comparatively short period of time, it may not mean that they will be around forever. |
A shortened series, using the footage and commentary from the original, was aired in 1997, edited down to three episodes: early life forms, plants, insects, and amphibians in the first; fish, birds and reptiles in the second; and mammals in the third.
The series is available in the UK for Regions 2 and 4 as a four-disc DVD set (BBCDVD1233, released 1 September 2003) and as part of The Life Collection. In 2012 the series was released as a four-disc Blu-ray set (released 12 November 2012).
A hardback book, Life on Earth by David Attenborough, was published in 1979 and became a worldwide bestseller. Its cover image of a Panamanian red-eyed tree frog, was taken by Attenborough himself, [9] became an instantly recognisable emblem of the series. It is currently out of print.
A revised and updated edition of the book was published in 2018 to favourable reviews. Most if not all of the images in the 2018 edition are new, but the text remains substantially the same as the original.
Edward Williams' avant-garde score matched the innovative production techniques of the television series. Williams used a traditional chamber music ensemble of ( harp, flute, clarinet, strings and percussion) combined with electronic sounds. The pieces were crafted scene-by-scene to synchronise with and complement the imagery on screen: in one sequence examining the flight of birds, the instrumentation mirrors each new creature's appearance. The sounds were processed through an early British synthesiser, the EMS VCS 3, to create its evocative sound.
"I started using the filters and voltage control of the VCS 3 on conventionally created classical sounds by the orchestra. It made possible all sorts of marvellous explorations of new sounds which could then be made into music."
— Edward Williams, speaking in 2009
The score was never intended to be released commercially, but Williams had 100 copies pressed as gifts for the musicians involved. One of these LPs found its way into the hands of Jonny Trunk, owner of independent label Trunk Records, who negotiated the licence from the BBC. The soundtrack was finally released on 2 November 2009. [9]
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