Why the Evolutionary Epic Matters: Crash Course Big History #203

Today we're talking about evolution–basically the history of all life on Earth. The thing is, why are we talking about this. Well, the story of life, all the way back to single celled microbes billions of years ago, is all part of our human story. An important facet of the story of life is the story of death. This episode will look at the various mass extinctions along the way, and we'll also talk about the sixth mass extinction, which is going on now, and is kind of driven by humans. Sorry everybody.

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Mark, Les Aker, Bob Kunz, mark austin, William McGraw, Jeffrey Thompson, Ruth Perez, Jason A Saslow, Shawn Arnold, Eric Prestemon, Malcolm Callis, Steve Marshall, Advait Shinde, Rachel Bright, Khaled El Shalakany, Sam Hickman, Ian Dundore, Asif Ahmed, Tim Curwick, Ken Penttinen, Dominic Dos Santos, Caleb Weeks, Frantic Gonzalez, Kathrin Janßen, Nathan Taylor, Yana Leonor, Andrei Krishkevich, Brian Thomas Gossett, Chris Peters, Kathy & Tim Philip, Mayumi Maeda, Eric Kitchen, SR Foxley, Tom Trval, Andrea Bareis, Moritz Schmidt, Jessica Wode, Daniel Baulig, Jirat
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"We have the ability to reflect and to change our behaviour."

Yeah, I need a reliable source for that.

[thejtotti]

This video is so freaking important. Big history needs to be taught in every high school.

[AlexDWing]

She's so cute while telling us we are fucked.

[Rhaifha]

Climate change is us sitting on a self destruct button. A: 'Oh look! We're sitting on a self destruct button'
B: 'Indeed, lets start the countdown'
C: 'Nah, we're not pushing it far enough for a self destruct, we'll be fine'
D: 'Hmm, what button? There is no button!!! *jumps on it*'
E: 'We could try to.. you know.. get off it?'

[dacedebeer]

This new series is looking beatiful! The content is as always top notch! Congrats on the great work!

[Wkumar]

This is why science is so important. Not only does it teach us about our world it also teaches us about OUR place in this world. To ignore the lessons we have learned since the scientific revolution would be a determent to our species and our world.

[benwilcock]

I love the Earth, everything on it and everyone but I can't help thinking how actually screwed we are. The answer to the Fermi paradox is obvious: there are so many things that could kill us as well as ourselves.

[TheRickerX]

Thanks CrashCourse, as if I didn't feel misanthropic enough... :(

[Onychoprion]

The thing that scares me most about climate change is reaching the runaway greenhouse bit. A mere major mass extinction is recoverable; the Earth has a good billion years of life-support left before the sun makes surface life difficult if not impossible. Plenty of time to re-evolve complexity. But if we trigger a runaway event, and the Earth becomes Venus' twin, that won't happen. :(

[Blackacre]

Comments section: Bill Wurtz jokes and (correctly) bashing on creationists. Never change, youtube. Never change

[ireallyhatemakingupnamesfo]

But how do you protect your biodiversity, from criminals?




Hire a samurai

[justalittledangerous]

The dinosaurs blazer is absolutely fabulous

[richardbloodworth]

More hosting by Emily Graslie please: she's great!

[cody]

Watching things like this is so empowering. It truly shows you who we are on this rock, in the middle of a mindbogglingly huge universe.

[eastcoastj]

Hold onto your hats, folks. The flat-earthers, creationists and climate change deniers are coming. They've just recently learned how to use electronics with their opposable thumbs.

[ggritmon]

WHAT!? You can't just drop a new episode after 17 months like it's just another episode. This episode is awesome, but you gotta tell us if there'll be more.

[adamfitch]

Fantastic video, but there were a few inaccuracies that are worth mentioning.

Stegosaurus, featured in the Cretaceous-Paleogene Mass Extinction image, is a strictly late Jurassic taxon, not a late Cretaceous one, and thus it wasn't extant at the time of the Cretaceous-Paleogene Mass Extinction.
In addition, Dimetrodon, which was featured in the Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction image, has a "taxonomic lifespan" spanning from about 295 million years ago to about 272 million years ago, but the Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction happens roughly 20 million years later, around 252 million years ago.

Hope this helps!

[remigagnon]

Great video again from the Crash Course team. Just as a complement, some specific aspects of mass extinctions not developed in the video can be interesting to explore. For example, hypothesis like the Shiva or the Toba hypothesis are marginal aspects but interesting as a potential causal or contributing effect of mass extinction probabilities (Shiva) or relatively recent activity of super volcano like Yellowstone (Toba) and the effect on Human evolution. Like the Stegosorus prints wear by Emily!

[JordanBeagle]

4:02 *There's something alive in the ocean*

[CrankyPantss]

Always plenty to think about. Good job, Emily.