Educational Media Reviews Online

The saga of life that growing a planet continues is elaborated in this film by the story of the evolution of flowering plants. The DVD starts in New Caledonia, which provides a hint of what life was like prior to the development of flowers: rain forests consisting almost entirely of conifers and ferns. The Cretaceous-Paleogene catastrophe of 65 million years ago resulted in worldwide changes in plants and animals that caused a huge and rapid change in evolution: flowering plants, primates with hands, and the evolution of cones in primates’ and insects’ eyes that could see three colors, allowing them to develop cravings and preferences for fruits with more than two colors and sweet taste. This process, once established in the tempo that is typical of evolution, made it gradually surer that newly-evolved primates and bees, for instance, among others, would opt for fruits with pollen. This evolutionary selection would mean pollination of those plants likely to advance human civilization and the ability of our species to feed itself most efficiently.

The intimate interaction of plants and animals, especially humankind, is wonderfully related and illustrated in this series in a visually appealing way. Highly recommended for high school level and higher as well as general audiences with some knowledge of basic biology and ecology and an interest in and appreciation for the life sciences.