DVD BBC Life On Earth Disc 1: The First Forests (1979)

BBC Life On Earth Disc 1: The First Forests (1979)

Some four hundred million years ago, tiny moss-like together with segmented creatures such as millipedes began to emerge from the waters to colonize the land. The plants, deprived of the support of water, had to develop woody stems to stand upright and reach the light. The animals had to find ways of transferring sex cells from one another without help of water - and that was a hazardous business.

Peter's DVD rating: 4.5 stars

David Attenborough traces the adaptation of life to a terrestrial environment. He continues his annoying habit of avoiding the use of important terms; how much would it hurt to state that the "branching tubes" and "pores" that a millipede uses to breathe are called trachea and spiracles? And why not just tell us that those spore-bearing structures on ferns are called sori? Some more nitpicks: scorpions do not have "claws" but pedipalps. The best scenes are the various arthropods mating: watch for the transfer of the sperm packet. The last 5 minutes focus on the different ways insects beat their wings.

5:20	Liverwort	6:45	Liverwort fertilization	8:10	Moss capsule
8:45	Millipede	10:30	Scorpion	11:25	Jumping Spider
13:45	Millipedes mating	14:40	Scorpions mating	17:25	Jumping Spiders mating
19:10	Wolf Spiders mating	21:30	Moss stem cross section	23:10	Clubmoss fossil stem cross section (Wales)
23:45	Horsetail	24:20	Tree Ferns	25:15	Fern sori
27:00	Fern fertilization	28:10	Bristletail	28:30	Silverfish
29:00	Dragonfly molting	32:25	Dragonfly wing beat	35:00	Cycad pollen cone
35:35	Cycad sperm swimming	36:15	Conifer fossil (Petrified Forest, Arizona)	38:40	Conifer pollen cone
41:30	Amber	45:40	Lacewing wing beat	45:50	Caddisfly wing beat
46:00	Bee wing beat	46:35	Beetle wing beat	47:30	Chafer wing beat
48:10	Hoverfly mating in air	48:50	Cranefly wing beat , using halteres as stabilizers	49:45	Hoverfly wing beat , using halteres.
51:30	Flowering Plants

5:20 Liverwort	6:45 Liverwort fertilization	8:10 Moss capsule
8:45 Millipede	10:30 Scorpion	11:25 Jumping Spider
13:45 Millipedes mating	14:40 Scorpions mating	17:25 Jumping Spiders mating
19:10 Wolf Spiders mating	21:30 Moss stem	23:10 Clubmoss fossil stem
23:45 Horsetail	24:20 Ferns	25:15 Fern sori
27:00 Fern fertilization	28:10 Bristletail	28:30 Silverfish
29:00 Dragonfly molting	32:25 Dragonfly wing beat	35:00 Cycad pollen cone
35:35 Cycad sperm swimming	36:15 Conifer fossil	38:40 Conifer pollen cone
41:30 Amber	45:40 Lacewing wing beat	45:50 Caddisfly wing beat
46:00 Bee wing beat	46:35 Beetle wing beat	47:30 Chafer wing beat
48:10 Hoverfly mating in air	48:50 Cranefly wing beat	49:45 Hoverfly wing beat
51:30 Flowering Plants


Index	Jan 07, 2006	Peter Chen