Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00 Hello friends, a large part of the history of the earth is revealed thanks to deep research on fossils.
00:06 Scientists have been able to dive into the past and present of creatures to discover that some species have lived for millions of years without evolving.
00:13 Animal kingdom remains animated thanks to its oldest creatures still alive. And now, let's go!
00:19 The Eureka Martialis ant, 120 million years
00:23 The Eureka Martialis ant is a terrestrial creature and one of the oldest animal species on our planet.
00:29 Unfortunately, they are unattainable and unknown to humans, even if they have been present all this time.
00:35 Scientists only discovered them in 2008 and the last specimen of their species to have been observed dates back to 1923.
00:43 This led researchers to believe that they were no longer among us.
00:46 Martialis did not only represent a new species of ant, but a whole new genus and a subfamily that already existed about 120 million years ago.
00:54 This species of ant is nicknamed the "Mars ant" because of its strange characteristics, such as its size.
01:01 It is so unique that scientists have classified it in its own subfamily.
01:05 Their discovery suggests that there is a multitude of species of great importance on the evolutionary level.
01:11 Little is known about the biology and behavior of Martialis.
01:15 Analyses have since been carried out on this animal to reveal new truths.
01:20 Let's hope that more details will be discovered.
01:23 The lizard shark, 150 million years old
01:26 The lizard shark is the oldest species of shark on Earth.
01:29 Despite its 150 million years of existence, this species of shark is less evolved than most modern animals.
01:35 Its body is a combination of shark and eel.
01:38 These marine creatures live at the bottom of the ocean and are sometimes accidentally captured.
01:42 They are rarely encountered by humans, which has led everyone to believe that they no longer exist.
01:47 This deep-sea resident lives between 120 and 1,280 meters under the surface of the water.
01:54 Although this animal swims in the depths of the sea, it is named after its gills.
01:59 Its first pair of gills extends over its throat, while other sharks have separate gills.
02:04 In total, it has six pairs of gills with fringed edges.
02:08 And its open mouth reveals more than 300 teeth carefully aligned on 25 ridges.
02:13 Do not worry, it is unlikely that you will meet them.
02:17 The sturgeon, 200 million years old
02:20 The sturgeon is a generic term for all species of the species that existed 200 million years ago.
02:26 Despite their ancient age, they are in critical danger of extinction due to the activities of human predators.
02:32 This animal is sinned for its eggs, which are used in the manufacture of caviar.
02:37 Caviar is made up of a pair of eggs from mature females.
02:41 They reach their maturity slowly.
02:43 But hunting, pollution and pollution on their habitat threaten their existence.
02:47 The good news is that they can produce millions of eggs in a short time.
02:51 Unfortunately, only a few of these eggs survive, because humans devour them without remorse.
02:55 The International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, indicates that more than half of sturgeon species are in critical danger of extinction, the Chinese variant being the most threatened.
03:06 Sturgeons have bone plates that cover their heads and five rows of similar plates on their bodies.
03:12 Their toothless mouths are preceded by four sensitive tactile excrements that they drag on the bottom in search of smaller fish.
03:20 They are found in the rivers of Ukraine, Russia and some parts of North America.
03:25 The young multiply until they reach maturity, after which their growth slows down for several years.
03:30 The Tetra shrimp, 220 million years old
03:33 Although they have existed for more than 220 million years, the Tetra shrimp are classified as endangered species.
03:40 Could this threat make them disappear soon?
03:43 Certainly not.
03:44 In 2010, scientists discovered why this animal continues to survive despite terrible living conditions.
03:50 After this revelation, scientists are convinced that they could have more in nature and that their extinction would not happen immediately.
03:57 These amazing animals have an interesting life cycle.
04:00 When their temporary marks are dried, their eggs go into dormancy and patiently wait for the rain.
04:05 When the sea is full, they hatch and develop exponentially before the sea dries up again.
04:11 These eggs have adapted to terrible living conditions and can survive for many decades without dying.
04:17 This means that even if the seas dry up before an adult breathes them, everything is not lost.
04:22 And the cycle continues every time the sea is full.
04:25 The Tetra shrimp are found in the New Forest, in southern England, and near the Solway First, in England.
04:32 The Tetra shrimp, 360 million years old
04:35 Tetra shrimp are disturbing parasites with circular mouth holes filled with dozens of pointed teeth,
04:41 used to feed on their high fish and suck their blood.
04:45 It's pretty scary, isn't it?
04:47 Well, you hope they disappear and never come back.
04:50 You have to go back a long way, to the Paleozoic era.
04:53 When scientists discovered Tetra shrimp fossils, 360 million years old,
04:58 they did some research to see if they had similarities with current creatures.
05:03 And here they are, they were essentially the same as those that live today.
05:06 As a result, the Tetra shrimp is ranked among the oldest predators on the planet.
05:10 What is even more exciting about these animals is the esteem in which scientists hold them.
05:15 Ecologists say they play an essential role in maintaining the health of rivers.
05:20 Medical researchers say the animal can heal itself after a serious nervous lesion.
05:25 To add to these discoveries, evolution biologists say
05:28 they were among the first animals with a vertebral column to evolve.
05:32 As a result, they carry essential information about their origins.
05:37 The Tetra shrimp have no jaws, their mouths are a constantly open ring filled with teeth with a strange look.
05:43 The jellyfish, 505 million years old
05:46 Jellyfish, these floating translucid creatures, lived at a time when terrestrial animals did not yet exist.
05:52 They lived about 505 million years ago, an almost unimaginable age for us humans.
05:58 This means that they are twice as old as we initially thought.
06:02 In 2007, scientists from the University of Kansas discovered new fossil evidence dating back half a billion years.
06:08 That's nearly 200 million years more than the oldest fossil known.
06:12 These discoveries have radically changed our understanding of jellyfish evolution
06:16 and their place in the history of the Earth.
06:19 It is therefore accurate to say that jellyfish are without question among the oldest animals to have traveled the surface of the Earth.
06:26 These bell-shaped creatures that have haunted the oceans since immemorial times
06:30 have a very particular trait that has allowed this animal to survive against all odds.
06:34 They are in fact theoretically immortal.
06:36 The process of trans-differentiation by which the jellyfish Turritopsis dornii
06:42 transforms from an adult species into a polyp young every time it is threatened is truly fascinating.
06:48 And that's not all, they repeat this life cycle from old age to youth again and again, especially in the event of an emergency.
06:54 Scientists wondered how they managed to survive for millions of years
06:58 until they discovered this ability somewhere in the 1990s,
07:02 which gave rise to new perspectives on aging and species survival.
07:07 Coelacanth, 360 million years
07:11 We all thought that the Coelacanth was extinct, until we realized that it was not.
07:16 They just didn't want to be known.
07:19 Millions of years have passed and nothing has been heard about them until 1938,
07:24 when scientists dug deeper.
07:26 They found a similar fish and studied its characteristics to realize that they were identical to that of the old fish.
07:33 However, they have evolved to the point of crawling out of the water and becoming the first terrestrial vertebrates.
07:38 In fact, researchers even sequenced the genome of the Coelacanth for the first time.
07:43 Understanding their plan allows us to know how and why they evolved to become what they are today.
07:48 We thought that the Coelacanth were the ancestors of the tetrapods,
07:52 but recent analyses have shown that pulmonary fish were more closely related to tetrapods.
07:58 They keep their notochord, filled with oil, which serves as a vertebral column in many vertebrates.
08:05 This notochord is replaced by the vertebral column as the embryo develops.
08:10 The brain of this creature occupies only 1.5% of its cranial cavity,
08:15 while the rest of the cranial box is filled with fat.
08:18 The horsehair crab, 445 million years old.
08:23 Horsehair crabs are one of the most famous living fossils,
08:26 having lived unchanged for more than 445 million years.
08:30 In 2008, a group of Canadian scientists discovered a new horsehair crab fossil,
08:35 although this animal has already been classified as one of the oldest on Earth.
08:40 The new fossil was over 100 million years older than the previous ones.
08:45 What is even more exciting is that it has striking similarities with all the previous fossils observed.
08:51 The name "horsehair crab" comes from the shape of their head, which looks like a horsehair.
08:56 The head is the most important part of the body because it houses a large part of the biological and nervous organs.
09:01 The head houses the brain, glands and nervous system.
09:04 It also serves as protection for their extended body.
09:07 These unique crabs have nine eyes spread out around their body and several light receivers near the tail.
09:13 The two largest eyes help find their partner,
09:16 while the others are light receivers used to detect movements and changes in the moon's light.
09:22 The Nautilus, 500 million years old.
09:27 Nautiluses have lived for half a billion years.
09:30 They have not undergone any reinitialization or restart,
09:33 as they have managed to survive all the massive extinctions that threaten our planet.
09:38 They can also be described as one of the fiercest species of the animal kingdom.
09:41 Because of their resistance to extinction, despite many years of survival,
09:45 they now run the risk of disappearing because of the attraction to shells for humans.
09:49 Humans collect their shells because of their unique spiral shape and use them for decoration.
09:55 In addition, they have been overused in recent years to the point that there is only a handful left.
10:00 In the past, we could catch hundreds in a day,
10:03 but today we can only find five after a whole day of research.
10:08 Nautiluses are distant cousins of the dry and calm species.
10:11 Their timelessness has earned them the title of living fossil.
10:14 Recent observations indicate that there is more to discover about this creature than it seems.
10:19 The sponge, 800 million years old.
10:22 It is difficult to determine how long sponges have existed,
10:26 but scientists are convinced that they have lived for more than 760 million years.
10:30 Apart from bacteria and microorganisms, they are ranked among the oldest living creatures on Earth.
10:35 The oldest proof of a marine sponge dates back to 760 million years.
10:39 It was found between ancient rocks until it was finally discovered.
10:43 This discovery broke the previous record of the oldest marine sponge, 635 million years old.
10:50 We are convinced that older fossils remain to be discovered.
10:54 However, scientists have ruled out the possibility, at least for the moment,
10:57 that claims about ancient fossilized life forms like this one arouse controversy.
11:03 This is due to the fact that ancient creatures could be similar to those we know today,
11:07 but perhaps a little different.
11:09 To describe this creature, a scientist has declared that it looked like something,
11:14 like a raw hut, a unsculpted test hidden between ancient rocks.
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