Tracking the First Animals on Earth
What were the first animals on the Earth? Zoologist Matthew Cobb explores the origins and early evolution of the animal kingdom.
What were the earliest animals on Earth? The origin of the animal kingdom is one of the most mysterious chapters in the evolution of life on Earth. Our animal ancestors appeared and began to diversify about half a billion years ago. What might they have looked like, and which creatures alive today can be traced to these primordial times? Answers are beginning to come with new techniques for both studying ancient fossils and for reading evolutionary history from the DNA of animals alive today. Zoologist Professor Matthew Cobb explores the latest discoveries and controversies with the researchers on the trail of the Earth鈥檚 first animals.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker
Picture: Artists impression of Dickinsonia, Credit: Nasa
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What did the ancestor of all animals look like?
Duration: 01:14
Broadcasts
- Mon 29 Oct 2018 20:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview & Europe and the Middle East only
- Mon 29 Oct 2018 21:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Australasia & East Asia only
- Tue 30 Oct 2018 05:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Online, UK DAB/Freeview & Europe and the Middle East only
- Tue 30 Oct 2018 06:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Americas and the Caribbean, South Asia & Australasia only
- Tue 30 Oct 2018 07:32GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa & East Asia only
- Tue 30 Oct 2018 11:32GMT大象传媒 World Service West and Central Africa
- Tue 30 Oct 2018 15:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Australasia
- Tue 30 Oct 2018 18:32GMT大象传媒 World Service South Asia, East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Mon 5 Nov 2018 00:32GMT大象传媒 World Service
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