PBS
Why Do Things Keep Evolving Into Crabs?
For some reason, animals keep evolving into things that look like crabs, independently, over and over again. What is it about the crab’s form that makes it so evolutionarily successful that non-crabs are apparently jealous of it?
PBS
The Traits That Spawned the Age of Mammals
Lots of the traits we think of as defining us as mammals show up pretty early, during the time of the dinosaurs. And, in some cases, they show up a lot earlier and in things that weren’t mammals at all.
PBS
When Crocs Thrived in the Seas
While dinosaurs were dominating the land, the metriorhynchids were thriving in the seas. But taking that plunge wasn’t easy because it takes a very special set of traits to fully dedicate yourself to life at sea.
PBS
When a Giant Pterosaur Ruled the European Islands
The ecological niche of apex predators was empty on Hateg Island, waiting to be occupied by something large, mobile, and powerful enough to fill it.
PBS
The Reign of the Hell Ants
This ancient species had the same six legs and segmented body that we’d recognize from an ant today. But it also had a huge, scythe-like jaw and a horn coming out of its head. This bizarre predator belonged to a group known as “hell...
PBS
The Mystery Of The Mashed-Up Dinosaurs
How the therizinosaurs lived and evolved ended up being just as weird as their mixed-up anatomy.
PBS
How Pterosaurs Got Their Wings
When pterosaurs first took flight, you could say that it marked the beginning of the end for the winged reptiles. Because, strangely enough, the power of flight -- and the changes that it led to -- may have ultimately led to their downfall.
PBS
How Pollination Got Going Twice
The world of the Jurassic was a lot like ours - similar interactions between plants and insects were happening, but the players have changed over time. Because it looks like pollination by insects actually got going twice.
PBS
A Short Tale About Diplodocus' Long Neck
Long necks gave sauropods a huge advantage when it came to food, but not in the way you think. And this benefit would allow them to become the biggest terrestrial animals of all time!
PBS
How Vertebrates Got Teeth... And Lost Them Again
As revolutionary as teeth were, they would go on to disappear in some groups of vertebrates. But why?
PBS
How Plate Tectonics Gave Us Seahorses
How did seahorses — one of the ocean’s worst swimmers — spread around the globe? And where did they come from in the first place?
PBS
When Mammals Only Went Out At Night
For decades, scientists believed dinosaurs were diurnal and tiny mammals were nocturnal. But as researchers have uncovered more mammalian fossils and studied the biology of different dinosaur species, they’ve found some surprising results.
PBS
The Sudden Rise of the First Colossal Animal
A truly enormous ichthyosaur around the size of a modern sperm whale, reached its size within just a few million years of taking to the water - a blink of an eye in evolutionary time.
PBS
How South America Made the Marsupials
Throughout the Cenozoic Era -- the era we’re in now -- marsupials and their metatherian relatives flourished all over South America, filling all kinds of ecological niches and radiating into forms that still thrive on other continents.
Be Smart
The Impossible Hugeness of Deep Time
Humans have a hard time with really big numbers, especially when it comes to DEEP TIME. The history of the Earth took a lot longer than you think, trust me. But I’m here to help you put it in perspective. With some string.
SciShow
A Brief History of Life: When Life Exploded
Right at the beginning of the Paleozoic, there was a huge explosion of more complex life. And that’s when things started to get really interesting. This is our second installment on the history of life, but you can watch in any order you...
SciShow
The Bizarre World of Living Color | Compilation
Nature is full of all kinds of beautiful color, and there is plenty of weird science there too! Here's a showcase of a few of our episodes all about coloration.
SciShow
Where Are All the Tiny Dinosaurs
What was the smallest non-avian dinosaur, and why were there so few tiny dinos running around the Mesozoic?
SciShow
A Brief History of Life on Earth: The Full Series
From the Archean Eon to the Holocene Epoch, check out this SciShow mini-series for a primer about life on earth.
SciShow
A Brief History of Life: Dinosaur Time!
The Great Dying hit life hard, but the species that survived took over the planet and diversified into many interesting forms, including the dinosaurs!
SciShow
The Birds That Lived in The Age of Dinosaurs
While we know that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, we don't think much about the ones that lived alongside them, and they are a hot topic amongst paleontologists today.
SciShow
A Brief History of Life: Rise of the Humans
With the non-avian dinosaurs extinct, it was time for mammals to take over. Finally, in the tiniest sliver of the history of life, humans emerge.
PBS
When Birds Had Teeth
Experts are still arguing over whether Archaeopteryx was a true bird, or a paravian dinosaur, or some other kind of dino. But regardless of what side you're on, how did this fascinating, bird-like animal relate to today's birds? It turns...