The end of the Cretaceous reshaped life on Earth, with the asteroid impact that wiped out more than 70% of species leaving a world where mammals could rapidly diversify. This clip from BBC’s Evolution episode "The Bat" follows that turning point to the emergence of early bats, including Icaronycteris, whose elongated fingers formed wings and whose specialized ear structures suggest that echolocation was already developing.
The combination of flight and echolocation allowed bats to exploit an entirely new environment, hunting for food in the night sky and eventually spreading across almost every continent. The video also connects the bat’s remarkable adaptations to features shared by all mammals, including jaws, complex teeth, a through gut, and specialized middle-ear bones, highlighting the deep evolutionary connections between bats, humans, and other mammals.
What evolutionary changes allowed the horse to become one of the animal kingdom’s great runners? This lesson for ages 11–18 explores the evolutionary changes that transformed movement, helping organisms become faster, more efficient, and better suited to their environments.
The BBC video clips from Evolution Episode 5: "The Horse" trace the development of movement in the animal kingdom, the evolution of the hoof, and the ways humans have shaped horses through selective breeding. Consider how structures such as muscles, tendons, leg bones, and hooves work together — and why certain traits can become more common when they provide an advantage.
Through observation, prediction, sequencing, and evidence-based activities, you'll examine the roles of environmental change, natural selection, and human intervention in shaping evolutionary outcomes. Then bring these forces together to explain how millions of years of change, followed by thousands of years of selective breeding, produced the modern horse.
In Hair as Insulation, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod explores the role that human hair plays as insulation for the skin, focusing on how hair helps regulate body temperature in response to cold. Understand the physiological mechanisms that cause goosebumps and how mammals like polar bears use their dense fur to survive in extreme cold. Through understanding these biological processes, gain insight into the relationship between hair, insulation, and body temperature regulation. This video is excerpted from Secrets of Skin, a documentary series exploring the natural history of the body’s largest organ.
In Why We Love Baby Animals, host Harith Iskander explores the science behind the overwhelming urge humans feel to squeeze or cuddle baby animals. This feeling, known as cute aggression, is an evolutionary response. The brain releases dopamine, making us feel happy and protective when we see something cute. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Got Science?, a science magazine series that explores and explains science in everyday life.
The article "Birds and Reptiles Cry Tears Like Humans" from BBC's Science Focus explains how the tears of birds and reptiles contain similar chemical compositions to human tears. Scientists hope this research will lead to improved treatments for eye conditions and offer new insights into evolutionary biology.
The history of the horse is closely intertwined with our own, and its DNA preserves evidence of how that relationship changed. In this clip from BBC’s Evolution episode "The Horse," scientists examine ancient horse DNA to trace how wild horse populations changed as humans began to domesticate and selectively breed them.
Genetic evidence reveals changes associated with traits such as docility and a body shape better suited to carrying humans. Over generations, human choices favored these characteristics, helping transform wild horses into the domestic horse and demonstrating how selective breeding can influence the course of evolution.
Kenya’s freshwater fish face extreme changes as seasonal waters recede, but the African lungfish has adaptations that allow it to survive in shallow, oxygen-poor pools. This clip from BBC’s Evolution episode "The Elephant" follows the lungfish’s ability to breathe air and use its fleshy fins to move, offering a glimpse into the evolutionary transition from life in water to life on land.
The video traces this transition through ancient fish such as Eusthenopteron, whose features foreshadowed the limbs and lungs of early land vertebrates. These adaptations established the tetrapod body plan — the four-limbed blueprint shared by elephants, humans, birds, whales, and countless other animals, despite the remarkable ways evolution has modified it for different environments.
In The Role of Fingertips, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod presents the remarkable sensitivity of our fingertips and how this feature enables humans and animals to interact with their environment. See how mechanoreceptors detect textures and transmit information to the brain. Through innovative experiments, such as artificial fingertips used in robotics, understand the power and complexity of touch. This video is excerpted from Secrets of Skin, a documentary series exploring the natural history of the body’s largest organ.
In Fabulous Feathers, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod explores the feathers of birds and how they help them to fly. Learn how feathers are primarily made of keratin, a fibrous protein also found in human hair and nails. Feathers are lightweight yet strong and stiff, which allows birds to soar. Discover the unique structure of feathers, with parts such as the vane, barbs, and rachis working together to create the shape and function needed for flight. This video is excerpted from Secrets of Skin, a documentary series exploring the natural history of the body’s largest organ.
In Microscopic Creatures on Your Skin, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod introduces some microscopic creatures known as skin mites. Scientists demonstrate how to collect skin samples from a person’s forehead using superglue and examine them under a microscope to find these organisms. The video explores how skin mites live on human skin, particularly on areas like the forehead and cheeks, and how magnification reveals these tiny creatures in great detail. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Secrets of Skin, a documentary series exploring the natural history of the body's largest organ.
In Octopus Evolution, ecologist David Scheel describes the journey through the unique evolutionary history of octopuses, showing how these incredible creatures took a completely separate path from other life forms. In his class at Alaska Pacific University, he explains how, over half a billion years ago, octopuses and humans might have shared a common ancestor — but since then, octopuses developed their own specialized brain, heart, and eyes! This video is excerpted from BBC’s Natural World: The Octopus in My House, a remarkable series about a professor and the extraordinary relationship he develops with an octopus when he invites it to live in his home.
Dive into Got Science?, the BBC’s magazine-style series exploring the surprising science behind everyday experiences. Each clip starts with a question about something familiar — from fear and attraction to pests and animal behavior — then digs into the biology, psychology, evolution, and other science that can help explain what’s really going on.
Explore why bedbugs are so difficult to eliminate, investigate the lightning-fast reactions that make flies such skilled escape artists, and discover how our brains and bodies respond to everything from adorable animals to frightening films.
Look beyond the obvious, examine the evidence, and ask: What does the science say?
The end of the Cretaceous reshaped life on Earth, with the asteroid impact that wiped out more than 70% of species leaving a world where mammals could rapidly diversify. This clip from BBC’s Evolution episode "The Bat" follows that turning point to the emergence of early bats, including Icaronycteris, whose elongated fingers formed wings and whose specialized ear structures suggest that echolocation was already developing.
The combination of flight and echolocation allowed bats to exploit an entirely new environment, hunting for food in the night sky and eventually spreading across almost every continent. The video also connects the bat’s remarkable adaptations to features shared by all mammals, including jaws, complex teeth, a through gut, and specialized middle-ear bones, highlighting the deep evolutionary connections between bats, humans, and other mammals.
What evolutionary changes allowed the horse to become one of the animal kingdom’s great runners? This lesson for ages 11–18 explores the evolutionary changes that transformed movement, helping organisms become faster, more efficient, and better suited to their environments.
The BBC video clips from Evolution Episode 5: "The Horse" trace the development of movement in the animal kingdom, the evolution of the hoof, and the ways humans have shaped horses through selective breeding. Consider how structures such as muscles, tendons, leg bones, and hooves work together — and why certain traits can become more common when they provide an advantage.
Through observation, prediction, sequencing, and evidence-based activities, you'll examine the roles of environmental change, natural selection, and human intervention in shaping evolutionary outcomes. Then bring these forces together to explain how millions of years of change, followed by thousands of years of selective breeding, produced the modern horse.
In Hair as Insulation, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod explores the role that human hair plays as insulation for the skin, focusing on how hair helps regulate body temperature in response to cold. Understand the physiological mechanisms that cause goosebumps and how mammals like polar bears use their dense fur to survive in extreme cold. Through understanding these biological processes, gain insight into the relationship between hair, insulation, and body temperature regulation. This video is excerpted from Secrets of Skin, a documentary series exploring the natural history of the body’s largest organ.
In Why We Love Baby Animals, host Harith Iskander explores the science behind the overwhelming urge humans feel to squeeze or cuddle baby animals. This feeling, known as cute aggression, is an evolutionary response. The brain releases dopamine, making us feel happy and protective when we see something cute. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Got Science?, a science magazine series that explores and explains science in everyday life.
The article "Birds and Reptiles Cry Tears Like Humans" from BBC's Science Focus explains how the tears of birds and reptiles contain similar chemical compositions to human tears. Scientists hope this research will lead to improved treatments for eye conditions and offer new insights into evolutionary biology.
The history of the horse is closely intertwined with our own, and its DNA preserves evidence of how that relationship changed. In this clip from BBC’s Evolution episode "The Horse," scientists examine ancient horse DNA to trace how wild horse populations changed as humans began to domesticate and selectively breed them.
Genetic evidence reveals changes associated with traits such as docility and a body shape better suited to carrying humans. Over generations, human choices favored these characteristics, helping transform wild horses into the domestic horse and demonstrating how selective breeding can influence the course of evolution.
Kenya’s freshwater fish face extreme changes as seasonal waters recede, but the African lungfish has adaptations that allow it to survive in shallow, oxygen-poor pools. This clip from BBC’s Evolution episode "The Elephant" follows the lungfish’s ability to breathe air and use its fleshy fins to move, offering a glimpse into the evolutionary transition from life in water to life on land.
The video traces this transition through ancient fish such as Eusthenopteron, whose features foreshadowed the limbs and lungs of early land vertebrates. These adaptations established the tetrapod body plan — the four-limbed blueprint shared by elephants, humans, birds, whales, and countless other animals, despite the remarkable ways evolution has modified it for different environments.
In The Role of Fingertips, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod presents the remarkable sensitivity of our fingertips and how this feature enables humans and animals to interact with their environment. See how mechanoreceptors detect textures and transmit information to the brain. Through innovative experiments, such as artificial fingertips used in robotics, understand the power and complexity of touch. This video is excerpted from Secrets of Skin, a documentary series exploring the natural history of the body’s largest organ.
In Fabulous Feathers, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod explores the feathers of birds and how they help them to fly. Learn how feathers are primarily made of keratin, a fibrous protein also found in human hair and nails. Feathers are lightweight yet strong and stiff, which allows birds to soar. Discover the unique structure of feathers, with parts such as the vane, barbs, and rachis working together to create the shape and function needed for flight. This video is excerpted from Secrets of Skin, a documentary series exploring the natural history of the body’s largest organ.
In Microscopic Creatures on Your Skin, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod introduces some microscopic creatures known as skin mites. Scientists demonstrate how to collect skin samples from a person’s forehead using superglue and examine them under a microscope to find these organisms. The video explores how skin mites live on human skin, particularly on areas like the forehead and cheeks, and how magnification reveals these tiny creatures in great detail. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Secrets of Skin, a documentary series exploring the natural history of the body's largest organ.
In Octopus Evolution, ecologist David Scheel describes the journey through the unique evolutionary history of octopuses, showing how these incredible creatures took a completely separate path from other life forms. In his class at Alaska Pacific University, he explains how, over half a billion years ago, octopuses and humans might have shared a common ancestor — but since then, octopuses developed their own specialized brain, heart, and eyes! This video is excerpted from BBC’s Natural World: The Octopus in My House, a remarkable series about a professor and the extraordinary relationship he develops with an octopus when he invites it to live in his home.
Dive into Got Science?, the BBC’s magazine-style series exploring the surprising science behind everyday experiences. Each clip starts with a question about something familiar — from fear and attraction to pests and animal behavior — then digs into the biology, psychology, evolution, and other science that can help explain what’s really going on.
Explore why bedbugs are so difficult to eliminate, investigate the lightning-fast reactions that make flies such skilled escape artists, and discover how our brains and bodies respond to everything from adorable animals to frightening films.
Look beyond the obvious, examine the evidence, and ask: What does the science say?