Short Films

Featured Short Films

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  Animated Short

  Animated Life: Pangea

  (07 min 36 sec) The story of Alfred Wegener, who came up with the idea that continents once formed a single landmass and had drifted apart. 
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  Short Film

  Popped Secret

  (17 min 51 sec) Where did corn come from? Genetic and archeological data point to what may seem like an unlikely ancestor: a wild Mexican grass called teosinte.
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  Short Film

  Great Transitions: The Origin of Birds

  (18 min 59 sec) In the second film of the Great Transitions trilogy, paleontologist Julia Clarke takes us on a journey to uncover the evidence that birds descended from dinosaurs.
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  Short Film

  Great Transitions: The Origin of Humans

  (19 min 44 sec) Which traits distinguish humans from other primates? When and where did these traits evolve? Analysis of the major fossil finds from Africa, dating back to 4.4 million years ago, provides answers to these questions and reveals the history of our evolutionary origins.
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  Short Film

  The Origin of Tetrapods

  (17 min 11 sec) One of the most exciting discoveries in the long history of fossil exploration is Tiktaalik, a creature with a mix of features common to fish and four-legged animals, or tetrapods.
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  Short Film

  The Guide: A Biologist in Gorongosa

  (34 min 22 sec) Set against the restoration of war-torn Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, The Guide tells the story of a young man from the local community who discovers a passion for science after meeting world-renowned biologist E.O. Wilson. 
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  Short Film

  The Day the Mesozoic Died

  (33 min 43 sec) The disappearance of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period posed one of the greatest, long-standing scientific mysteries. This three-act film tells the story of the extraordinary detective work that solved it. 
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  Short Film

  The Making of a Theory

  (30 min 51 sec) The epic voyages of Darwin and Wallace led each to independently discover the natural origin of species and to formulate the theory of evolution by natural selection.
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  Short Film

  The Beak of the Finch

  (15 min 54 sec) Four decades of research on finch species that live only on the Galápagos Islands illuminate how species form and multiply. 
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  Short Film

  Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree

  (17 min 45 sec) In the Caribbean islands, adaptation to several common habitats has led to a large adaptive radiation with interesting examples of convergent evolution.
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  Short Film

  The Double Helix

  (16 min 53 sec) The Double Helix is the story of the scientists and evidence involved in one of the most important scientific quests of the 20th century: the discovery of the structure of DNA.
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  Short Film

  Natural Selection and Adaptation

  (10 min 25 sec) The rock pocket mouse is a living example of Darwin’s process of natural selection.
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  Short Film

  Got Lactase?

  (14 min 52 sec) Follow human geneticist Spencer Wells, Director of the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society, as he tracks down the genetic changes associated with the ability to digest lactose as adults.
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  Short Film

  Natural Selection in Humans

  (14 min 03 sec) In some parts of the world, there is an intimate connection between the infectious parasitic disease malaria and the genetic disease sickle cell anemia.
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  Short Film

  The Making of the Fittest: The Birth and Death of Genes

  (13 min 10 sec) Scientists have pieced together the evolutionary history of the Antarctic icefish. The icefish makes an excellent case study for genetic evolution as both the gain and loss of genes have led to key adaptations.
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  Short Film

  The Making of the Fittest: Evolving Switches, Evolving Bodies

  (15 min 27 sec) After the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago, populations of marine stickleback fish became stranded in freshwater lakes dotted throughout the Northern Hemisphere in places like Alaska and British Columbia. These fish have adapted to a freshwater environment drastically different than the ocean.