we can deduce how animals
acquired bodies that move,
00:01:47
eyes that saw and mouths that ate.
00:01:52
00:01:55 And we can understand
how those first organisms
00:01:59
laid the foundations for modern
animals as we know them today.
00:02:03
00:02:05 Hello, old boy. How are you?
00:02:07
'Including you and me.'
00:02:10
00:02:20 My 40,000 mile journey begins
very close to home, in Britain.
00:02:25
00:02:26 This is the Charnwood Forest
in Leicestershire
in the middle of England.
00:02:32
As a schoolboy, I grew up near here.
00:02:35
And in these rocks,
a discovery was made
00:02:38
that transformed our understanding
00:02:41
of that mystery of mysteries,
the origin of life.
00:02:45
00:02:50 The history of life can be
thought of as a many-branched tree,
00:02:55
with all the species alive today
00:02:57
related to common ancestors
down near the base.
00:03:00
00:03:02 The five kingdoms of life, the main
branches, were established early on.
00:03:08
Bacteria.
00:03:11
Protists - amoeba-like creatures.
00:03:14
00:03:16 Fungi.
00:03:18
00:03:19 Plants.
00:03:23
And animals. That for me is the
most fascinating question of all.
00:03:28
How and when did they first appear?
00:03:33
The answers
are only now beginning to emerge -
00:03:36
and some of the first clues
came from here in Charnwood Forest.
00:03:41
00:03:42 I was a passionate fossil collector.
00:03:46
But I never came to look for them
in this part of Charnwood,
00:03:50
because the rocks here are
among the most ancient in the world.
00:03:54
Around 600 million years old,
in fact.
00:03:56
And every geologist knew or
at least was convinced that rocks of
00:04:01
such extreme age couldn't possibly
contain fossils of any kind.