Was life triggered by some event, like lightning hitting a pond full of amino acids? Earth was teeming with life billions of years before the dinosaurs existed. Single-celled organisms inundated the oceans, and the soil swarmed with living creatures. Where did it all come from, and how do you go from a single-celled organism to a trillion-celled organism like Man? Cutting-edge science is testing out answers about life's origins and how life can be created on new worlds--or even our own.

The story of a century-and-a-half of tireless research that led humans to discover their ape-like origins. In this 2-hour special, we review several stories of discovery, each a crucial turning point in the understanding of our pre-historical past. Our heroes are the men and women who uncovered the clues, often after backbreaking and obsessive labor in some of Earth's most hostile environments. Their stories are told with dramatic reconstructions and tantalizing glimpses of the lives of ancestral humans they uncovered, together with newspaper headlines, news reports and archive footage, and expert interviews. In the course of this enthralling journey, we uncover stunning facts, wild theories, and compelling conclusions unearthed by pioneering investigators of human origins. This is the story of how 150 years of sweat and toil brought our extraordinary origins into the light.

It is a mystery 4.5 billion years in the making: how has our planet transformed, and why? New clues are being discovered not in volcanoes or canyons, but inside each of us. From a case of hiccups to the sensation of deja vu to how we throw a football, quirks of the human body and mind all trace back to enormous transformations on Earth, millions and even billions of years in the past. Inside us are the keys to asteroid impacts, global mass extinctions, and shifting continents...ultimately revealing the epic story of Earth's past--and our own.

A rapid-fire history of our world, from the beginning of time as we know it to present day. This two-hour CGI-driven special delves into the key turning points: the formation of earth, emergence of life, spread of man, and the growth of civilization--and reveals their surprising connections to our world today.

Was life triggered by some event, like lightning hitting a pond full of amino acids? Earth was teeming with life billions of years before the dinosaurs existed. Single-celled organisms inundated the oceans, and the soil swarmed with living creatures. Where did it all come from, and how do you go from a single-celled organism to a trillion-celled organism like Man? Cutting-edge science is testing out answers about life's origins and how life can be created on new worlds--or even our own.

The story of a century-and-a-half of tireless research that led humans to discover their ape-like origins. In this 2-hour special, we review several stories of discovery, each a crucial turning point in the understanding of our pre-historical past. Our heroes are the men and women who uncovered the clues, often after backbreaking and obsessive labor in some of Earth's most hostile environments. Their stories are told with dramatic reconstructions and tantalizing glimpses of the lives of ancestral humans they uncovered, together with newspaper headlines, news reports and archive footage, and expert interviews. In the course of this enthralling journey, we uncover stunning facts, wild theories, and compelling conclusions unearthed by pioneering investigators of human origins. This is the story of how 150 years of sweat and toil brought our extraordinary origins into the light.

It is a mystery 4.5 billion years in the making: how has our planet transformed, and why? New clues are being discovered not in volcanoes or canyons, but inside each of us. From a case of hiccups to the sensation of deja vu to how we throw a football, quirks of the human body and mind all trace back to enormous transformations on Earth, millions and even billions of years in the past. Inside us are the keys to asteroid impacts, global mass extinctions, and shifting continents...ultimately revealing the epic story of Earth's past--and our own.

A rapid-fire history of our world, from the beginning of time as we know it to present day. This two-hour CGI-driven special delves into the key turning points: the formation of earth, emergence of life, spread of man, and the growth of civilization--and reveals their surprising connections to our world today.

Was life triggered by some event, like lightning hitting a pond full of amino acids? Earth was teeming with life billions of years before the dinosaurs existed. Single-celled organisms inundated the oceans, and the soil swarmed with living creatures. Where did it all come from, and how do you go from a single-celled organism to a trillion-celled organism like Man? Cutting-edge science is testing out answers about life's origins and how life can be created on new worlds--or even our own.

The story of a century-and-a-half of tireless research that led humans to discover their ape-like origins. In this 2-hour special, we review several stories of discovery, each a crucial turning point in the understanding of our pre-historical past. Our heroes are the men and women who uncovered the clues, often after backbreaking and obsessive labor in some of Earth's most hostile environments. Their stories are told with dramatic reconstructions and tantalizing glimpses of the lives of ancestral humans they uncovered, together with newspaper headlines, news reports and archive footage, and expert interviews. In the course of this enthralling journey, we uncover stunning facts, wild theories, and compelling conclusions unearthed by pioneering investigators of human origins. This is the story of how 150 years of sweat and toil brought our extraordinary origins into the light.

It is a mystery 4.5 billion years in the making: how has our planet transformed, and why? New clues are being discovered not in volcanoes or canyons, but inside each of us. From a case of hiccups to the sensation of deja vu to how we throw a football, quirks of the human body and mind all trace back to enormous transformations on Earth, millions and even billions of years in the past. Inside us are the keys to asteroid impacts, global mass extinctions, and shifting continents...ultimately revealing the epic story of Earth's past--and our own.

A rapid-fire history of our world, from the beginning of time as we know it to present day. This two-hour CGI-driven special delves into the key turning points: the formation of earth, emergence of life, spread of man, and the growth of civilization--and reveals their surprising connections to our world today.