National Geographic: Adventures in Time Page #2

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to their young.

Those who die do not.

Every creature is a history book

of genetic code.

These living ghosts are the product

of all the life

and death moments endured

by all the generations before them.

"An ancient species related

to both antelopes and pigs

the water chevrotain has been feeding

on flowers

fruit and fungi here

for over twenty million years.

All that time predator and prey

have been evolving together

Honing skills and strategies

that make them well-matched

in the game of survival...

Under sharp-eyed surveillance

the chevrotain submerges again.

She is completely at home here.

She doesn't swim but simply walks

on the bottom

just like a little hippo.

Her huge eyes are open wide

but she sees rather poorly - probably

much as a human does underwater...

Keeping her belly close to the ground

to avoid being lifted by the flow

she simply walks away from danger...

four feet below the surface."

In the most extreme environments

we find the most astonishing adaptations.

Forbidding deserts call for new tools

for survival.

Out-maneuvered by a hungry coyote

this creature seems ready

to accept its fate.

But the horned lizard

has evolved a surprising solution

to a desperate dilemma.

"The swelling below his eye is not a wound

it's the lizard's last defense.

Squirted from a specialized tear duct

a stream of blood is aimed

at the coyote's face.

The blood is laced with substances

that are so distasteful the coyote

wants nothing more to do with the lizard."

Here on the barren ice floes of the Arctic

it's hard to imagine any creature -

much less a thousand pound brute -

finding sustenance.

But the polar bear is a resourceful

predator with infinite patience.

"The seal is safe for the moment

but each new trip to the surface

to breathe could end in another ambush.

It's an over-sized game of cat and mouse."

Mammals thrive by capitalizing

on a key innovation

rarely found in reptiles: parental care.

They are capable of bonding

mother to child, parent to parent

to herd, pod or pack.

But as youth gives way to maturity

animals demonstrate other important

capabilities as well...

Many of these battles are to seize

the most critical moment in animal time:

the moment their genes are passed to

the next generation.

The next chapter in the Book of Life

began with creatures that could grasp

- not only branches

- but complex ideas as well.

It is here, among the primates,

that we begin to see ourselves.

"We know that the earliest stage

of human evolution happened in a habitat

just like this, East African woodland

that's got open areas...

onto which our ancestors eventually

moved and adapted to.

So to be able to study hunting here

is the best way to give us some kind of

window onto the earliest origins of

meat eating in our own ancestors four

or more million years ago.

As colobus monkeys are pursued

by a band of chimpanzees

we witness the terrifying tenacity of

both predator and prey.

"As the chimps climb up the colobus

retreat to the highest branches,

too slender to bear the chimps' weight.

The male colobus stand their ground

against chimps up to four times their size.

They will even take the offensive

momentarily driving the chimps back.

Holding his tail out of the chimp's reach

this male buys precious time for

the escape of the females and young.

With chimps climbing everywhere

one monkey leaps into the arms of death.

Even a rear attack by the defending

colobus cannot save him."

Resourceful, sociable, intelligent

the chimpanzee has been content to

remain in the forest for millions of years.

Only occasionally do they wander out

into open areas.

But one related species -

the ancestors of early humans -

left the forest for good...

and the world was changed forever.

Genetically, all humans, no matter

what their heritage are 99.9% identical.

It is not what we are, but who we are,

what we learn, believe and create

that determines our group identity.

And that identity often determines

our relationship with time.

In many places, time seems

to have accelerated at a maddening pace.

In other societies, though time is like

an easy traveling companion,

as one moves through life

in the eternal "now".

In the highlands of Papua New Guinea,

lives a remote society with their own

understanding of time.

"For thousands of years,

this Stone Age group had been hidden

from the outside world.

As time and exposure worked their changes

on most other peoples

Hagahai culture remained more

or less the same.

A living secret deep in the highlands

of Papua New Guinea.

Possibly the last unknown group on earth."

Carol Jenkins, a medical anthropologist,

began working with the Hagahai

helping them cope with malaria

and other diseases

that threatened their very existence.

She found their concept

of time fascinating.

"Their sense of time is much more like

what people say

of the Australian aborigine time

the dreaming that is it's always the same

it goes over and over again

it's a connection

in an almost mystical sense

between the ancestors and today.

Much of human culture is anchored

in our traditions

and often, these traditions are linked

to our sense of time.

Everywhere, we commemorate rights

of passage

and shared beliefs that

mark our voyage through life...

and we celebrate them

in the language of music and dance.

Like it or not,

much of our precious time

on this planet is consumed by work.

The sheer diversity of labor

reflects the vast scale

and scope of the human experience.

On the Indian subcontinent

much work is still done by hand.

Here north of Mumbai

mostly barefoot workers disassemble

giant steel ships,

reducing them to scrap.

The work is dangerous

the rewards are meager

but to make a living they persist.

But all work in India

is not this punishing.

In sheer numbers

India has the world's largest middle class.

The country's railways are a lifeline

for all of India's one billion people

crossing not only vast distances

but bridging diverse cultures.

Over one and a half million workers

keep the trains running on schedule.

In many ways, the railway has become

the country's grand

and reliable time keeper.

"At Borivli Station fifteen men

have been meeting up for ten years.

They call themselves the '8:54 Group'

and every morning they stake out

strategic spots along the platform.

With speed and luck

they can claim a few seats that

they'll share between them.

They have only thirty seconds

before the train pulls out again

and consider their daily ritual

like a workout at the gym."

Very few of us choose to risk our lives

on a regular basis.

For those who take up hazardous

occupations the excitement, danger

and rush of adrenaline can be addicting.

"When does a job become a mission?

A career become a quest?

How do you face each day at work

when you know it could be your last?"

"Who was Al? Al was our friend.

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