National Geographic: Adventures in Time Page #2

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eight, nine..."

"...and then three over there... twelve.

Twelve eggs... All right."

You know this is really a great

fossil find

because it's one of the rare instances

where we can capture a little bit

of behavior

that's 80 million years old.

Here we have a- a sort of a day

in the life or

or the death of a- of a creature

of a dinosaur

in association with something

it did during its life.

This one was fossilized where it dropped

and it happened to drop right on top

of its own nest.

"She didn't just drop there.

The good mother oviraptor was sitting

on the nest.

They probably brought food

to their nest as birds do.

And the good mother tended her eggs.

Like a bird,

she prodded them into a circle.

The fearsome carnivore

of the Gobi was parenting."

Then, with remarkable swiftness the age

of dinosaurs was over.

What happened exactly remains a mystery.

Many scientists believe an asteroid

perhaps six miles wide slammed into Earth

and helped snuff out the masters

of the world.

"From our perspective, of course,

this mass extinction event

is not a big problem

because we're part

of the group that survived...

and started evolving into bats and

and large hoofed animals

and lions and tigers and bears."

With the great reptiles gone, smaller

but more adaptable creatures took over.

Each learned to succeed in its own way.

Some rely on speed and powerful jaws.

Others, strength and a thick skin.

But no matter how adaptable a species

may be - in the savage struggle

between life and death,

there is but one simple rule:

Those who survive pass their traits

to their young.

Those who die do not.

Every creature is a history book

of genetic code.

These living ghosts are the product

of all the life

and death moments endured

by all the generations before them.

"An ancient species related

to both antelopes and pigs

the water chevrotain has been feeding

on flowers

fruit and fungi here

for over twenty million years.

All that time predator and prey

have been evolving together

Honing skills and strategies

that make them well-matched

in the game of survival...

Under sharp-eyed surveillance

the chevrotain submerges again.

She is completely at home here.

She doesn't swim but simply walks

on the bottom

just like a little hippo.

Her huge eyes are open wide

but she sees rather poorly - probably

much as a human does underwater...

Keeping her belly close to the ground

to avoid being lifted by the flow

she simply walks away from danger...

four feet below the surface."

In the most extreme environments

we find the most astonishing adaptations.

Forbidding deserts call for new tools

for survival.

Out-maneuvered by a hungry coyote

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