And then a boy from
my very own school,
just a few years after I left it,
00:04:12
made an astounding discovery.
00:04:15
00:04:16 Against all the predictions
of scientific know-alls,
00:04:19
he found a fossil in these
ancient Leicestershire rocks.
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And this is it.
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It's called and is known
around the world as Charnia,
00:04:32
after the forest
in which it was discovered.
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But what is it?
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Is it animal or plant?
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The fact is
it comes from such a remote period
00:04:42
that the distinction between those
two forms of life was not yet clear.
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But one thing is certain.
00:04:49
It clearly was alive.
00:04:51
00:04:53 Charnia was a marine organism,
part of an ancient community
00:04:57
of living things that lived in
darkness at the bottom of an ocean.
00:05:02
That much we do know.
00:05:05
But what was this strange creature?
00:05:08
When did it first appear?
00:05:11
And how is it related
to modern animals?
00:05:14
The answers to these questions
are only now beginning to emerge.
00:05:18
00:05:21 There were further finds
in Charnwood forest, like this disk,
00:05:26
which was probably the holdfast
00:05:28
which secured the frond of Charnia
to the sea floor.
00:05:32
And then people began to look in
rocks of this great age
00:05:37
all around the world.
00:05:39
And lo and behold they discovered
a whole range of fossils
00:05:43
that enable us now to put together
in extraordinary detail
00:05:48
the first chapters
in the history of life.
00:05:51
That all happened
a very long time ago.
00:05:56
Imagine travelling back
through time.
00:06:00
00:06:09 Humans have been around for
two million years.
00:06:15
The dinosaurs were wiped out
65 million years ago.
00:06:21
00:06:28 Charnia is more than eight times
older than the oldest dinosaur.
00:06:32
It lived
about 560 million years ago.
00:06:36
00:06:39 But compared with the age of
life itself, that's nothing.
00:06:44
Before Charnia
and other complex organisms existed,
00:06:48
the only living things
were microscopic single cells.
00:06:53
They first appeared about
three and a half billion years ago
00:06:57
when the Earth
was a very different place.
00:07:00
00:07:05 The early continents
were still forming.
00:07:07
00:07:10 The days were a mere six hours long,
because at that time
00:07:14
the Earth was spinning much faster
on its axis than it does today.
00:07:19
00:07:29 The land was
dominated by volcanoes -
00:07:33
hostile and lifeless.