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Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life Page #6
- Year:
- 2009
- 59 min
- 7,704 Views
lizards and crocodiles.
And, of course, they included the group
that, back then,
came to dominate the land...
the dinosaurs.
a great disaster overtook the Earth.
Whatever its cause, a great proportion
of animals were exterminated.
All the dinosaurs disappeared,
except for one branch
whose scales had become
modified into feathers.
They were the birds.
While they spread through the skies,
a small, seemingly insignificant,
group of survivors began to increase
in numbers on the ground beneath.
These creatures differed
from their competitors
in that their bodies were warm
and insulated with coats of fur.
They were the first mammals.
With much of the land left vacant
after the great catastrophe,
they now had their chance.
Their warm, insulated bodies
enabled them to be active at all times,
at night as well as during the day.
And in all places,
from the Arctic to the tropics,
in water as well as on land,
on grassy plains and up in the trees.
There can be no doubt about
our close relationship
to these chimpanzees.
Our bodies are so similar.
The proportions of our limbs
or our faces may differ,
but otherwise we are
very, very similar.
The arrangement of our internal organs,
the chemistry of our blood,
the way our bodies work,
all these are almost identical.
Indeed, we are as closely related
to chimpanzees
and the rest of the apes and monkeys,
as say, lions are to tigers
and to the rest of the cat family.
Suddenly, an image from our remote past
comes vividly to light,
the time when our distant ancestors,
in order to keep up
with the changing environment,
had to wade and keep their heads
above water in order to find food.
That crucial moment
when our far distant ancestors
took the step away from being apes
and a step towards humanity.
The Natural History Museum is one of
the most important museums of its kind
in the world.
Richard Owen brought it into existence,
but, over a century later,
discoveries from
many branches of science
have shown that his belief
but always remain exactly the same
was mistaken.
It was Charles Darwin's profound
insights that have proved to be true.
And now, to mark
the 200th anniversary of his birth,
from its out-of-the-way location
in the main hall.
Darwin's great insight revolutionised
the way in which we see the world.
We now understand
why there are so many different species.
Why they are distributed
in the way they are around the world.
And why their bodies and our bodies
are shaped in the way that they are.
Because we understand
that bacteria evolve,
we can devise methods of dealing
with the diseases they cause.
And because we can disentangle
the complex relationships
between animals and plants
in a natural community,
we can foresee some of the consequences
when we start to interfere
with those communities.
But above all, Darwin has shown us
that we are not apart
from the natural world.
We do not have dominion over it.
We are subject to its laws and processes
as are all other animals on Earth
to which indeed we are related.
(HE CHUCKLES)
For your Tree Of Life poster,
and to find out more
about Charles Darwin
and Open University
programmes on the BBC, call -
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