Life on ancient Earth

Walk with the dinosaurs and beasts recreated in some of the BBC's best-loved series, unearth the world's ancient secrets in some long-unseen gems from the archive and uncover the dramatic story of life on Earth.

BBC Nature opens up the prehistoric realms, following evolutionary paths from long-extinct ancestors to today's living species, for example elephants and humans.

Explore the extraordinary history of planet Earth: how it would have looked and what life was like. Discover how mass extinctions wiped out vast swathes of living things, find out what caused them and wonder at how life on our planet has managed to cling on through the devastation.

  • Tyrannosaurs

    Mighty dinosaurs and top predators of the Cretaceous period.

    Tyrannosaurs

  • Spinosaurus

    At 17 metres long Spinosaurus was the biggest killer on earth.

  • Terminator pigs

    Mammals that spent a lot of time fighting with their own kind.

    Terminator pigs

  • Feats of engineering

    The largest sauropod dinosaurs weighed close to 100 tonnes.

    Feats of engineering

  • Predator X

    The most powerful marine reptile ever discovered.

  • Great grazers

    The titans of the Jurassic kept the fern-filled prairies clear.

  • Cambrian period

    Explore life as it was 500 million years ago.

    Cambrian period

Explore prehistoric life