Chris Packham, in his new series Evolution, holds a replica skull of Dorudon atrox, an ancient relative of dolphinsBBC Studios/Freddie Claire
In Evolution, an ambitious new five-part programme, broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham fleshes out the evolutionary backstories of five beloved animals. From elephants to ostriches, he takes us all the way back to the last universal common ancestor of all life on Earth and, with the help of CGI, introduces us to pivotal ancestors along the way.
He spoke to New Scientist about how he hopes that powerful new science and great CGI can help us move on from just loving nature to truly taking care of it.
Penny Sarchet: Chris, congratulations on the new show. What drew you to this project and the subject of evolution?
Chris Packham: We like a challenge, basically. We’d risen to that challenge with our previous series Earth, looking at enormous time spans and inconceivable events. To take something that big, that complex, and make it comprehensible was a challenge, and Earth was very popular. I think people were able to take a lot from it. So, evolution – again, something perceived to take a long time and to be inordinately complex – was something we thought we would rise to.
