80% of plant species on Earth have flowers. ibid.
Although the milkweed has paid a heavy price, in the end it used the Monarch [butterfly] to gets its way. ibid.
To ensure it gets pollinated Heliconia has made the hummingbird its prisoner. ibid.
Plants need to spread their seeds as far away as possible. ibid.
But there is one that has a design that enables it to travel greater distances than all the others. This is Alsomitra. Its football-sized pod is packed full with hundreds of extraordinary seeds: each is an almost aerodynamically perfect glider that can be supported by even the slightest breeze. ibid.
Of the forty million or so seeds a cactus produces in its lifetime the chances are that only one will develop into a plant that outlives its parent. ibid.
The dragon’s blood tree: the key to their success lies in their bizarre shape ... The mist condenses on the skyward pointed waxy leaves. The droplets run down to the centre of the trunk and down to its roots. ibid.
Plants can not only cope with being poisoned, parched and scorched but they also survive being frozen. ibid.
But the most successful type of flowering is one that makes up 20% of all plant life on the planet: grass. There are ten thousand different species. ibid.
In the great tree of life one branch of mammals have a particular fascination for us, for we belong to it: Primates. David Attenborough, Life X: Primates
Primates can solve difficult problems. Develop thoughts and ideas. And build long-lasting relationships. But most importantly primates remember what they learn during their lives. ibid.
Volcanoes: many of them are still active. And in a region called Hell’s Valley some snow monkeys have found the perfect winter resort. A thermal spa where the water temperature is a blissful 41° Centigrade. ibid.
Gorillas live in stable family groups with just a single leader – a silver-backed male. ibid.
Good communication is one of the hallmarks of primate society. ibid.
Most primates have excellent colour vision. ibid.
Smell is of particular importance to the primates that live in Madagascar: the lemurs. ibid.
Orangs look after their children longer than any other primate except ourselves. ibid.
Brown-tufted capuchins combine manual dexterity with considerable intelligence. And they have learned to use tools: hammer-stones with which to open palm-nuts. Some of the stones are nearly half the weight of the monkey. Without tools opening these nuts would be an impossible task. Tool-using was a major breakthrough in primate evolution. ibid.
If chimpanzees haven’t learnt particular skills by the age of eight they never seem able to acquire them. ibid.
Chimpanzees can show great kindness and compassion. Sharing. Experimenting. Empathy. Planning. Intelligence. Teaching. And learning. Behaviour so characteristic of us higher primates. We are the most inventive and innovative of all primates. Just one branch of a large and extended family. A family which has refined the ability to develop and pass on individual learning to the next generation ... A family with which we share so much. ibid.
And it was this increase in oxygen that was the key to the rise of the animal kingdom. David Attenborough’s First Life 1/2, BBC 2010
There was about to be an explosion of life that would be the foundation for complex animals. ibid.
The group – the Arthropods – were the great pioneers. They were the first big predators. They had eyes, legs and hard external skeletons ... They were the first to crawl out of water to conquer the land and air. David Attenborough’s First Life 2/2
The Cambrian ... 542 million years ago. During the next ten to twenty million years animals increased in numbers, in diversity, in size, than ever before. ibid.
The Burgess Shales: where a rich seem of fossils documents the Cambrian explosion in astonishing detail. ibid.
Moroccan trilobites are big business these days ... Trilobites were the first animals to see clearly. ibid.
Giant millipede – about four and a half feet long. ibid.
The golden age of the giant Arthropods was not to last. ibid.
Insects alone make up at least 80% of all animal species. ibid.
Life originated in the ocean. After an immense period of time some creatures managed to crawl up on to the land. Those animals may seem to us to be very remote, strange, even fantastic. But all of us alive today owe our very existence to them. ibid.
Studies about gigantic birds had been circulating in Europe since the thirteenth century. David Attenborough and the Giant Egg, BBC 2011
The Elephant Bird: beyond the legends what do we know of it? ibid.
It is estimated that the Elephant Bird weighed half a ton ... The heaviest bird that ever existed. And of course it was flightless. ibid.
Eggs were a huge source of nourishment. ibid.
Over one third of our planet is frozen. And yet the icy worlds of the Arctic and Antarctic are as alien to most of us as the surface of another planet. They are places of superlatives, from ice caps that hold nearly 80% of our planet’s fresh water to frozen forests that encircle the entire globe. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet I, BBC 2011
Arctic: there’s no sun here at all for half the year. ibid.
And yet the greatest challenge to life here is not the cold but the extreme swings between the seasons. ibid.
Now is a race to breed before the sun departs. ibid.
Short-tailed shearwaters have travelled ten thousand miles from Australia to be here. Eighteen million visitors darken the skies, the largest gathering of sea-birds on the planet. Humpback whales have come all the way from the Equator to feed in these rich polar waters. ibid.
The good times will be very short. ibid.
Greenland: the fastest flowing glacier on our planet moving as much as forty metres a day. ibid.
Wolves: these in northern Canada are the largest and most powerful in the world. ibid.
An unbroken belt of forest that stretches seven miles around our planet and contains one third of all the trees on Earth. ibid.
Penguins are found only in the southern hemisphere. ibid.
Over forty million penguins take to the southern ocean to feed. They’re joined by thousands of whales. ibid.
This melt halves the size of Antarctica. ibid.
The cold allows animals [e.g. jellyfish] to grow very slowly and become giants. ibid.
Only 1% of Antarctica is free of ice. ibid.
Antarctica: Three miles thick in places and imprisons 70% of the world’s fresh water. ibid.
The sun is absent for up to half a year in the polar regions. When it returns at the beginning of spring its warmth will transform this magical ice-world. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet II: Spring
Some penguins turn to a life of crime. ibid.
These katabatic winds are stronger than any hurricane. They are the coldest and the most ferocious on the planet. ibid.
A female polar bear emerges from her den beneath the snow … Three young cubs. ibid.
The elephant seals have arrived. ibid.
Albatross: the largest wingspan in the world. ibid.
Summer’s riches will not last. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet III: Summer
Times are harder for the wolves here in the high Arctic. ibid.
There are three hundred million tons of krill in the Southern ocean. ibid.
There are no land-based predators in Antarctica. ibid.
Early autumn in the Canadian Arctic and polar bears are gathering on the coastal strip waiting for the sea to freeze. David Attenborough, Frozen Planet IV: Autumn
Belugas: the white whales of the north. ibid.
Vast sea-bird colonies are the jewels of the Arctic. ibid.
Millions of summer visitors are beginning to return south. ibid.
It’s surprising just how sociable polar bears can be. ibid.
Autumn can be a particularly savage and unpredictable time. ibid.
Bizarrely, it’s now that the Emperor penguins arrive, just as all the other penguins have left. ibid.
Newly formed pairs promenade together. ibid.
The females start the long journey back to the sea. ibid.