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00:00For 160 million years, the dinosaurs ruled this world, while living in their shadows
00:14was a group of animals which couldn't have been more different.
00:18These were our ancestors, small furry creatures called mammals,
00:23clinging to safety wherever they could.
00:30But the mammals' time would come.
00:3465 million years ago, volcanic activity started to poison the atmosphere.
00:41The last dinosaurs were already living on a sick planet,
00:46when their nemesis arrived from space.
00:52A meteor 10 kilometers wide slammed into Earth to mark the end of the reign of dinosaurs.
01:0065 million years ago.
01:03This series is about what happened next.
01:18The survivors of the extinction all had one thing in common, their size.
01:22Nearly every animal over 10 kilograms had been wiped out, leaving a world of little creatures.
01:32Among them were the mammals.
01:34In Walking with Beasts, you will witness how mammals left behind these small beginnings and took over the world.
01:41In the course of 20 million years, mammals got more and more successful until they were the biggest, fiercest and most spectacular animals on the planet.
01:59Whatever the climate, whatever the habitat, mammals made it their own.
02:03Their great strength was their ability to adapt.
02:08They grew to gigantic sizes.
02:12They evolved into powerful killers, like the famous saber-toothed cats.
02:19And they even laid claim to the oceans.
02:24Then, around 4 million years ago, came mankind's own origins, in a type of ape that came down from the trees and walked upright.
02:33Our story of this epic time finishes just 30,000 years ago, with the ice ages, when our planet turned cold and our ancestors hunted in the realm of the mammoth.
02:44The
03:02It is a time called the Eocene, and Earth has healed itself from the ravages of the massive
03:32meteor strike.
03:34Much has changed since the time of the dinosaurs.
03:37It is far hotter now, and lush tropical rainforest has sprung up on every continent from the Arctic
03:43to Antarctica.
03:45In this flowering New Eden, meteors no longer present as much of a threat.
04:01Under the forest canopy thrives a menagerie of weird and wonderful creatures.
04:05Here, the rule of scaly reptiles is a distant memory.
04:09The animals that dominate now are covered in feathers or fur.
04:14Mammals have adapted well to the New World, and there is a staggering variety of them,
04:18but they are still small, and as before, live under the shadow of bigger, deadlier animals.
04:25Let's face it.
04:44The dinosaurs might be long gone, but they left the world a vicious legacy.
05:14Their direct descendants are the birds.
05:20For the first and only time in its history, birds rule the earth.
05:44This is the story of just 24 hours in one part of the Eocene's mysterious global forest,
06:00in an area that will one day become Germany.
06:03It is dawn, and at the base of a fig tree, one animal has already had its first brush with death.
06:10This is a female Leptictitium.
06:20She is a metre long and a common sight in the forests of 50 million years ago.
06:24Her kind have survived virtually unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs.
06:30Life, though, is scarcely any easier now.
06:32This is still a perilous world where she must live fast and will probably die young.
06:38A typical mammal, she looks after her offspring until they are old enough to fend for themselves.
06:46But with so many predators about, today is a bad day for her litter to leave the nest.
06:52She, however, has to feed, whatever the risk.
06:56She only has a short window of opportunity to do so, and that window is fading fast.
07:01The cool early morning is an ideal time to catch the frogs, lizards and insects she feeds on.
07:10Being cold-blooded, they have yet to warm up and are still sluggish.
07:16She, however, is warm-blooded and fast-moving 24 hours a day.
07:20This is one of the mammals' ancient advantages.
07:29Also, to help track down her prey, she has an incredibly acute sense of hearing
07:34and a distinctive, super-sensitive nose that can twitch to locate food among the leaf litter.
07:49And she is agile enough to catch even flying insects.
07:53The best morning hunting lasts only an hour or two, and time is ticking.
08:07She must keep moving to find more.
08:12At this time in Europe's history, Germany is at the centre of much volcanic activity.
08:17And this whole patch of forest is riddled with geothermal springs.
08:21In places, these form seething mud pools.
08:32Boiling water, poisonous gas and earthquakes are ever-present threats
08:36that the animals have learnt to live with.
08:39But not every hazard here is so easy to ignore.
08:43As the sun gets higher, the daylight creatures are becoming active,
08:46and that brings out the forest's more menacing side.
08:52The birds.
08:55They are the top predators in this weird forest.
08:59This is the largest, Gastornis.
09:02A half-ton pile of muscle and feathers as tall as a grown man.
09:06This is a female, and for the last two months her whole life has revolved around the one egg in her nest,
09:17now only hours from hatching.
09:19She is fiercely territorial, and when another Gastornis gets too close,
09:24she moves to protect her nest.
09:29Since the Great Extinction, birds have been a success like mammals.
09:35But what is more, they have got big.
09:38Big enough to take over the role of the predatory dinosaurs.
09:41The two giants clash, the small mammal escapes.
09:55There are echoes here of a bygone age.
09:58The Leptictidium needs a lot of food for her size.
10:17Like all mammals, this is the price she pays for a warm-blooded metabolism.
10:27There is usually plenty of prey down by the lakeside, but this morning there is only trouble.
10:32There is a newcomer down by the lake.
10:48Stirring in the morning's early rays is an Ambulocetus,
10:52a bizarre beast that has swum up the river from the nearby coast.
11:00He is a predator.
11:02He is a predator.
11:07Her hunting is interrupted once again.
11:09She must move on, and quickly.
11:19The three-meter-long carnivore waddles awkwardly towards the lake.
11:23Although his ancestors hunted on land,
11:26Ambulocetus has evolved to be far more at home in the water.
11:33In fact, his descendants will take this to a greater extreme.
11:39You are looking at the very earliest form of whale.
11:43Ambulocetus, in fact, means walking whale.
11:46With another ten million years of evolution, the limbs will become flippers and the tail will become a fluke.
11:54His style of swimming already has the look of a whale or a dolphin.
11:57His body moves up and down, and not side to side like the fishes or crocodiles he shares the water with.
12:06He is the most powerful predator in this lake.
12:10But he is far from safe here.
12:14There is a hidden peril.
12:17Huge quantities of volcanic gas are trapped in the lake bed.
12:23If enough of this gas were to escape at one time, it would suffocate the animals for miles around.
12:29The lake is a time bomb.
12:33But the Ambulocetus thinks he has found the ideal spot for practicing his deadly speciality.
12:47Ambush.
12:50A propaleatherium, an early form of horse, presents the day's first good chance of a kill.
13:04This time the Ambulocetus fails, but the day is long and he will try again and again.
13:32For the Leptictidium, the forest is now too dangerous and the time for hunting is over.
13:45The mother returns to the safety of her nest.
13:48She has not done well this morning, and it is vital her next hunting trip is more successful.
13:54She will sleep now until the evening, when hunting will be easier,
13:59and the low light will help her evade the sharp-eyed birds.
14:11Noon, and temperatures climb above 30 degrees.
14:14The only movement is the Gastornis chick, starting to break free from the egg.
14:23Not far away, the Leptictidium family are still in their nest.
14:27But in their sleep, they are totally defenseless against one particular predator.
14:32Ants.
14:46Giant, carnivorous ants.
14:51This is the largest species of ant ever.
14:56They are on the lookout for prey, any creature that can't get away in time.
15:13This is the vanguard of an ominous killing machine.
15:16Behind them is an army of half a million others, marching through the forest, stripping its prey to the bone.
15:29The ants have their next victim.
15:31They žil too much soups.
15:35Let go, they can't be stabilized.
15:37They can distinguish themselves especially if there are traps
15:41on the ground as their nukees.
15:43These two bombardiers are in their cancelation.
15:46The first jump is open and see that they got off at.
15:52They kids get the poop, so if they can get it touch the麻 the cockroach!
15:55Mid-afternoon and the propaleatherium are busy foraging for grapes from the forest floor.
16:25By modern standards these primitive horses are tiny, but this is how horses started out, small forest dwelling animals.
16:34At this stage they are not much bigger than cats and have yet to even develop hooves, having instead four hoof-like toes.
16:44In a forest where every tree could hide a predator, the horses live on a knife edge, ready to spring with the slightest sound.
16:56In a forest where they are, the horses live on a tree, the horses live on a tree, the horses live on a tree, the horses live on a tree.
17:08The horses live on a tree, the horses live on a tree and the horses live on a tree, the horses live on a tree.
17:24As the light drops before sunset, the leptictidium stirs from her nest.
17:39It's time to hunt again.
17:45But first she must clear away escape paths around the tree.
17:49This will give her a slightly better chance of outrunning any predators she meets.
17:54And every little bit counts.
17:58Her young are eager to join her this evening.
18:01Until now she has managed to keep them safe from the dangers of the forest by suckling them in the nest.
18:07But there comes a time for all mammals when they can no longer rely on their mother's milk.
18:24The young must now learn to find food for themselves and their only hope is to follow their mother's example.
18:33These are important lessons.
18:35By smelling the insect she has caught, they can recognise what is safe to eat.
18:39However, their chances of survival are slim.
18:45Most won't make it to adulthood.
18:47As dusk approaches, the predators are still out in numbers.
18:59The ambulocetus has yet to make a kill today and is preparing another ambush near the shore of the lake.
19:04Although he has no ears, he listens for approaching prey by putting his jaw to the ground and detecting vibrations.
19:13It is the same mechanism that allows him to hear underwater.
19:15If any animal strays too close, he'll be waiting.
19:45The propaleatherium appear less alert than usual.
19:57Throughout the afternoon they have continued to eat the fermenting grapes off the ground.
20:02They contain only the smallest amount of alcohol, but it is enough to dull their usually sharp senses.
20:15This is a bad time to get careless.
20:45The leptictidium scurried to safety.
21:13Just.
21:15This is a world where birds eat horses.
21:45At dusk, the gastornis returns to her nest.
21:55Only now does she discover the fate of her offspring.
21:57The biggest predator here, humbled by the smallest.
22:11Her size forces her to nest on the ground, and now she has paid the price.
22:18Months of dedication wasted.
22:20Despite everything, this evening the leptictidium have fed well, and all the young have survived their first outing.
22:38The night is usually a safe time for them.
22:40Tonight will be different.
22:43After a day of slumber, this nocturnal god Inosha is stirring.
22:59This is a type of primate, a new group of mammals that specialize in living in trees.
23:19Primates possess keen vision and amazingly dextrous hands, which not only help them to move among the branches, but also to wheedle out their favorite insects, even when they're beneath the bark.
23:33They are inventive and resourceful animals, and although these god Inosha are solitary, primates have a sociable future.
23:42Among their descendants, in millions of years' time, will be a hairless type of ape, called man.
23:53At the lakeside, the ambulocetus is still maintaining his patient vigil, waiting for prey.
24:07At night, a whole different cast of animals comes down to the water's edge.
24:12And eventually, a small predator chooses the wrong bit of lake to drink from.
24:42The ambulocetus' killing technique is simple.
24:46His vice-like jaws hold the struggling prey until it drowns.
24:51The dark hours go gymnast.
24:52The dark hours go Dazu.
24:53The dark hours go for a moment.
24:54The sortir of the grave.
24:58The marriage is complex.
25:00Theceeds of the nightman.
25:00The early part of the earthquake.
25:05The dark hours go into the hospital.
25:20The dark hours go by and some of the Godinotia are becoming less solitary.
25:27Copulation among these primates is all part of the normal rhythm of the night.
25:35But this is not a normal night.
25:50An earth tremor. These are common here, but this one is bigger than normal.
26:04The gas at the bottom of the lake is suddenly shaken free, releasing a deadly cloud of carbon dioxide.
26:20Driven by the wind, the gas sweeps through the forest undergrowth, suffocating every animal in its path.
26:38Driven by the wind, the gas sweeps through the forest undergrowth, suffocating every animal in its path.
26:50The day has come full circle. The poisonous cloud has cleared, leaving a trail of corpses.
27:20The Leptictidium, however, was lucky.
27:27She and her litter escaped death, only because their nest lay away from the path of the deadly gas.
27:33But her struggle to survive never stops.
27:37It's time to hunt again.
27:38Once more, the Ambulocetus is lying in her path.
27:48But she instinctively knows he is dead.
27:51Today, the Leptictidium is the survivor.
27:54But ironically, the future holds a different outcome for these mammals.
27:57The Leptictidium and her kind are destined to become extinct when this hot, wet world gets cooler and drier and the world's forests start to disappear.
28:07Ambulocetus is the one with the big future.
28:11He is the ancestor of the whales, the most magnificent dynasty of mammals.
28:16And mammals are about to take over the world.
28:19Next time, we move forward 15 million years to when the descendants of the Ambulocetus become the true masters of the oceans.
28:32On land, too, mammals shrug off their small beginnings to evolve into the largest and fiercest animals on the planet.
28:43The Leptictidium and Hercules
28:56The Leptictidium and Hercules
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