How did life storm the beaches and dominate planet Earth? Ancient Australian fossils offer clues. While the oceans were teeming, the world above the waves remained an almost lifeless wasteland -- until the Silurian period, when the conquest of the land began. Host Richard Smith introduces Earth's forgotten pioneers: the scuttling arthropod armies that invaded the shores and the waves of green revolutionaries whose battle for the light pushed plant life across the face of a barren continent. (Part 2 of 4)

How did life storm the beaches and dominate planet Earth? Ancient Australian fossils offer clues. While the oceans were teeming, the world above the waves remained an almost lifeless wasteland -- until the Silurian period, when the conquest of the land began. Host Richard Smith introduces Earth's forgotten pioneers: the scuttling arthropod armies that invaded the shores and the waves of green revolutionaries whose battle for the light pushed plant life across the face of a barren continent. (Part 2 of 4)

Of all the continents on Earth, none preserves a more spectacular story of its origins than Australia. NOVA's mini-series takes viewers on a rollicking adventure from the birth of the Earth to the emergence of the world we know today. With help from high-energy host and scientist Richard Smith, we meet titanic dinosaurs and giant kangaroos, sea monsters and prehistoric crustaceans, disappearing mountains and deadly asteroids. This is the untold story of the Land Down Under, the one island continent that has got it all. Host Richard Smith comes face-to-face with the previously unknown reptilian rulers of prehistoric Australia. NOVA resurrects the giants that stalked the land and discovers that some of them were among the largest ever to have walked the Earth. Others were some of the most dangerous. In the dry desert heart, scientists unearth an ancient inland ocean, full of sea monsters.

Of all the continents on Earth, none preserves a more spectacular story of its origins than Australia. NOVA's mini-series takes viewers on a rollicking adventure from the birth of the Earth to the emergence of the world we know today. With help from high-energy host and scientist Richard Smith, we meet titanic dinosaurs and giant kangaroos, sea monsters and prehistoric crustaceans, disappearing mountains and deadly asteroids. This is the untold story of the Land Down Under, the one island continent that has got it all. Host Richard Smith comes face-to-face with the previously unknown reptilian rulers of prehistoric Australia. NOVA resurrects the giants that stalked the land and discovers that some of them were among the largest ever to have walked the Earth. Others were some of the most dangerous. In the dry desert heart, scientists unearth an ancient inland ocean, full of sea monsters.

With help from high-energy host and scientist Richard Smith, we meet titanic dinosaurs and giant kangaroos, sea monsters and prehistoric crustaceans. (Part 4 of 4)

With help from high-energy host and scientist Richard Smith, we meet titanic dinosaurs and giant kangaroos, sea monsters and prehistoric crustaceans. (Part 4 of 4)

How did the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids of Giza with only copper hand tools and none of today's construction and surveying equipment? Who were the thousands of laborers who raised the stones? Were they slaves or volunteers, and how were they housed, fed, and organized? Here is the latest evidence from the groundbreaking research of archaeologists Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass as well as French archaeologist Pierre Tallet, whose team found the world's oldest writing on papyrus.

How did the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids of Giza with only copper hand tools and none of today's construction and surveying equipment? Who were the thousands of laborers who raised the stones? Were they slaves or volunteers, and how were they housed, fed, and organized? Here is the latest evidence from the groundbreaking research of archaeologists Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass as well as French archaeologist Pierre Tallet, whose team found the world's oldest writing on papyrus.

Did humans ever really succeed in domesticating the cat? Can science tell us more about a relationship that predates history?

Did humans ever really succeed in domesticating the cat? Can science tell us more about a relationship that predates history?

Did humans ever really succeed in domesticating the cat? Can science tell us more about a relationship that predates history?

How humans tamed the fearsome canine over tens of thousands of years.