Category Archives: Video

Why do fossils matter?

Why do fossils matter? In the simplest explanation, fossils are one of the strongest lines of evidence for evolution. Fossils allow us to examine the rich diversity of ancient life that lived on our planet millions and millions of years before the arrival of modern humans.  We can understand how life evolved, observe invertebrate transitions, and contribute to our tree of life, placing a magnifying glass on the evolutionary history of all Earth’s biodiversity.

I found an interesting video created by Ethan Cowgill that briefly explains why fossils matter in a cinematic storytelling manner. Ethan runs a channel on YouTube called The Living Past.  It’s always inspiring when discovering those who are positively impacted by science so much, that they must share that science seduction with the world. Thank you Ethan.

200,000 Years of Human Population in 6 Minutes

The visualization team at the American Museum of Natural History created a video that compresses 200,000 years of the Earth’s human population down to 6 minutes.

The video is a visual teaching tool that allows one to grasp big picture concepts in a small, digestible format. It depicts the human population evolving from 1 million to 1 billion within a span of 200,000 years, and from 1 billion to 7 billion within the short period of 200 years.

As of 2017, the Earth’s human population is currently at 7.5 billion with the United Nations projecting world population to rise at 10 billion by the year 2056.