Episodes from Life on Earth broadcast in 1981

9/13. The mammals have proved to be one of the most adaptable products of evolution. Their ancestry can be traced back nearly 200 million years to the beginning of the dinosaur era.

8/13. Man has yet to invent anything that, weight for weight, is as strong as the feather.

7/13. Reptiles were the first backboned creatures to solve the problems of becoming land-lubbers.

6/13. Evolution reached one of its most crucial stages, some 350 million years ago, when fishes crawled from water on to the land and became amphibians.

5/13. There are over 30,000 species of fish - more than in any other group of backboned animals.

4/13. The number of insect species runs into millions; a single termite colony may consist of a million individuals; a locust swarm even a million million.

3/13. For most of Earth's history there was no life on land. But over 400 million years ago some tiny plants began an invasion from the water, closely followed by the first animals - the ancestors of millipedes and insects.

2/13. Bright blue starfish, crimson feather stars, shell-less snails in designs as extravagant as any Paris fashion show, shrimps of every colour, others that are transparent - just a sample of the animal wonders to be found in a small area of the Great Barrier Reef.

1/13. David Attenborough traces the stages of life on earth in a series of 13 progs abt the evolution of life from primitive cells to the plants and animals which exist now.