NOVA — S33E11 — Jewel of the Earth

00:00:01 Amber...

00:02:58 This extraordinary substance has fascinated me

00:04:57 : I'll show you.

00:07:21 But amber preserves creatures in a quite different fashion.

00:09:17 so they must have valued it for some other reason.

00:12:06 But what brought the big boom in amber

00:13:43 So what do I...

00:14:58 ATTENBOROUGH The midge looks as though it took off from its twig

00:16:42 ATTENBOROUGH: But the last animal she found was the most surprising.

00:18:00 or even a whole continent?

00:20:00 until they discovered these.

00:22:11 and even identified some of the flowers

00:23:55 that she had enemies.

00:26:48 and, remarkably, she is carrying a tadpole on her back.

00:29:57 high up in such trees as these?

00:33:14 This wasp proves that the forest had figs,

00:35:40 Take this, for example.

00:37:39 They are honeypot ants, whose workers have become jars

00:39:35 And sometimes... they fall.

00:41:35 As researchers started finding even smaller internal details

00:43:31 electrified the scientific community.

00:45:17 but that's what a new team,

00:47:12 were of contaminate DNA.

00:49:28 exactly how some things looked tens of millions of years ago.