Our strange rock itself can also be lethal. We tend to think of Earth as our life support but it's not there to support us at all. It's a place that's violent, that's beautiful, that's crazy, that's intense. Mother Nature is a serial killer. We wouldn't be here without mass suicide and events so devastating it makes the extinction of the dinosaurs looks like a tea party. There have been 5 mass extinctions on the planet and 99.9 percent of all species that have ever lived are gone.
Explore the story of how life on Earth has evolved, becoming lethal for life to thrive.

We sure lucked out with Planet Earth. Blue skies, rolling hills, water everywhere. But our home didn't come like this out of the box. Earth was a real fixer-upper, and it took some seriously hard work to build this paradise. Nearly four billion years of renovation. Some tiny, some huge, to make this house a home. Creatures on Earth don't just live and die. They actually change the world around them.
The story of how for nearly 4 billion years, microbes, plants and animals have emerged and sculpted the planet's surface and atmosphere in the strangest of ways.

Episode 3 delves into how life began on a roiling, violent Earth and explores the story behind Victor Goldschmidt, the man who found the first clues to life's beginnings on our planet. Neil deGrasse Tyson takes viewers on a journey through space and time to witness the tenacity and creativity of life on Earth and the prospects of life throughout the universe.

Genetic breakthroughs have shed light on how life evolves in real-time. From filling in the missing links to creating a new species, in the last 50 years scientists have solved some of the biggest mysteries of evolution. In this episode, we look at revolutionary discoveries that shook the world and may shape our future.

In the second episode, Dreadnoughtus males compete for the right to mate. Lizards are hunted by Velociraptor among a group of sleeping Tarbosaurus. A Mononykus forages for termites and investigates new food options after a brief rainstorm. Several types of dinosaurs congregate around a watering hole in Mongolia.
Above the deserts of North Africa, aerial combat ensues as male Barbaridactylus pterosaurs fight for the attention of females below. A herd of Secernosaurus brave the harsh gypsum dunes in search of nourishment.

In the third episode, a Velociraptor hunts pterosaurs on a cliffside by a waterfall. A battle-scarred Tyrannosaurus nurses his wounds and encounters a newcomer. With its feathered body and duck bill, the eight-ton Deinocheirus wades through an Asian wetland in search of relief from pesky biting flies.
A female Quetzalcoatlus builds and guards her nest. A mother Masiakasaurus and her family hunt crabs. Elasmosaurs enter an estuary in search of fish.