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Chapter 1: The Rules of Life

Episode number: 1

Overview: Evolution. Competition. Mass extinction. Three fundamental rules have driven the rise and fall of life on Earth for over four billion years.

Chapter 2: The First Frontier

Episode number: 2

Overview: For billions of years, land on Earth was uninhabitable. But in the seas, predation allowed species to thrive before — and after — two mass extinctions.

Chapter 3: Invaders of the Land

Episode number: 3

Overview: Sprawling moss, towering trees, flying insects, limbed amphibians: Early species vied for domination as the land went from hostile to hospitable.

Chapter 4: In Cold Blood

Episode number: 4

Overview: After Earth's third mass extinction, mammals' surviving ancestors ruled the supercontinent Pangea. But lizards soon ushered in the age of reptiles.

Chapter 5: In the Shadow of Giants

Episode number: 5

Overview: The formation of continents with varied environments allowed for an explosion of biodiversity — and turbo-charged the evolution of mighty dinosaurs.

Chapter 6: Out of the Ashes

Episode number: 6

Overview: The dinosaurs met their end with a cataclysmic asteroid impact. Rising from the ashes, birds reinvented themselves into a dynasty 10,000 species strong.

Chapter 7: Inheriting the Earth

Episode number: 7

Overview: Emerging from the dinosaurs' shadows, mammals went from underdogs to global power, with game-changing adaptations that would conquer land, air and sea.

Chapter 8: Age of Ice and Fire

Episode number: 8

Overview: As the Ice Age thawed, humans rose above the rest. But the possibility of a sixth mass extinction now looms: Has our ingenuity caused our downfall?