Airdate: Rise of the Continents

ABC premieres a new BBC nature doco series, Rise of the Continents, next week -oddly on a Tuesday rather than the traditional Sunday night (this weekend there is a 1 hr post-election News bulletin).

Across the Earth there are traces of a mysterious land unlike anything seen today – a supercontinent that split apart to create our world. This is the story of how life, land and time came together to create the extraordinary diversity of the seven continents. 250 million years ago, the Earth looked like something from another solar system. The continents we know today were concentrated into a single giant landmass – Pangaea – surrounded by Panthalassa, an immense ocean.

But about 200 million years ago, this supercontinent started to break apart: new ocean basins were forming, mountains rocketed skywards and over millions of years, seven new landmasses were created from the remnants of the old, each one unique – our continents.

Today, each continent has its own distinctive character, rich with its own resources – and teeming with diverse life forms. But just how did fossilised whales appear in the Sahara desert and what role did the breakup of the supercontinent play in the evolution of the dinosaurs? Piecing together clues from across the globe and using cutting edge CGI, Rise of the Continents puts the giant jigsaw puzzle of Pangaea back together; uncovering the turbulent story of each continent and revealing why each one is completely unique.

8:30pm Tuesday ABC1.