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| | | Frontiers explores new ideas in science, meeting the researchers who see the world through fresh eyes and challenge existing theories - as well as hearing from their critics. Many such developments create new ethical and moral questions and Frontiers is not afraid to consider these.
radioscience@bbc.co.uk | | | | | LISTEN AGAIN 30 min | | | |
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|  | | | | "Frontiers has taken me to some extraordinary places - physically and intellectually. We've hunted fundamental particles in a Canadian nickel mine, heard how all Chinese folk have perfect pitch and seen how the New World was once populated by Monster Wombats and Mega-Wolves. What fascinates me about this series, though, is the scientists themselves creatively reaching into the mists of unexplored fields, sometimes coming up with some frankly wacky ideas that turn out to be sensible and revolutionary. It's sharp end science at the very apex."
Peter Evans
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Leaving the Sea
Evidence from the fossil record tells us that life on Earth began in the sea. But just how and when did it crawl up onto land and what were the first terrestrial animals like? In this week's Frontiers, Peter Evans tracks down these hardy little beasts, whose footprints have been discovered in the ancient sandstones of Ontario in Canada.
Fossilised tracks in the sand, dating back 500 million years, offer the earliest evidence so far of animals coming onto land for the first time. No one's sure what they would have looked like but imagine a foot-long, armour-plated woodlouse and you won't be too far off the mark. So how did these first terrestrial creatures move about and what sort of environment was waiting for them? And now that we know what came up from the deep and when, the questions remains - why? Did they jump or were they pushed?
Join Peter Evans as he follows the trail of Earth's earliest land inhabitants as they ventured into undiscovered country.
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RELATED LINKS
Ontario First Footstep Fossils
Nature magazine:
Oldest fossil footprints
Robert MacNaugton paper:
First Steps on Land
Euthycarcinoids
BBC Science
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