1A. INTRODUCTION
The Earth is very old. More than four billion years old. So old that it’s almost impossible to grasp the number of years—or the generations of animals that have lived upon the planet.
1B. Turn back the hands of time. Experience some of the strangest animals that have ever lived, and discover the processes and environments that shaped them.
1C. Logo
(With fast, backward-moving clock and Bizarre Beasts Past and Present title/Logo,
7B. Show of Hands (Fantastic Fish)
Compare the parts of a fossil fish, a person, and a dolphin.
A fossil lobefin fish fin, a human arm, and a dolphin flipper look different, but they share important similarities. These similarities show that all these animals are related. Fish evolved into a group of four-footed animals called tetrapods, which includes mammals, reptiles, birds, and amphibians.
[With designs of the color coded bones of each animal limb ]
14A. Terror Birds (Bizarre Birds)
Predatory birds filled an empty niche.
At the end of the Cretaceous Period, dinosaurs had gone extinct. There was a vacancy at the top of the food chain. Seizing the opportunity, some birds grew huge to fill the empty niche. Large flightless birds like Diatryma (die-at-RYE-ma) became the top predators, even hunting ancestors of the modern horse such as Hyracotherium (high-RACK-oh-THEER-ee-um).
[With Diatryma flesh model 6ft tall]