Conquest of the Skies with David Attenborough - 'Rivals'
British iTunes Chart Performance

• Release date: 09 Mar 2015
• Chart debut: #58 (02 Jan 2024)
• Highest Position: #58 (02 Jan 2024)
• Most recent chart position: #58 (02 Jan 2024)
• Days on UK TV Episodes Chart: 2

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UK TV Episodes chart performance history for Rivals

in his search for the origins of flying animals david charts the rise of new larger creatures extinct reptiles that flew on wings of skin dinosaurs that sprouted feathers to become the ancestors of birds and gliding mammals that emerged...

...a life in the trees to dominate the night skies as bats he begins in the jungles of borneo where he is winched on ropes high into some of the tallest trees in the rainforest to see a group of extraordinary gliding animals the harlequin tree frog with webbed feet that act as parachutes; the draco lizard with simple wings built from a set of splayed ribs; and the colugo a tree-living relative of the primates with a huge sail-like membrane stretched between its arms legs and tail these creatures give us a glimpse of the evolutionary steps that over 200 million years ago led to the first large flying animals – the winged reptiles known as pterosaurs the pterosaurs’ membranous wings supported by one elongated finger enabled them to hunt for insects in the skies stunning cgi brings these long-extinct creatures back to life and reveals their flying skills to search for the origins of the second group of large flying animals to evolve david heads to china were he examines recently discovered fossils of dinosaurs buried in volcanic ash over 125 million years ago they reveal a remarkable story the evolution of the first feathers feathers began as primitive hair-like strands then developed into the more complex surfaces we see on birds today it’s thought that these first feathers were not used in flight but for insulation and then for display – perhaps waved around to attract a mate as a peacock uses feathers today it was only later that these display feathers were hi-jacked for a new purpose – to build lightweight remarkably adaptable wings this revolutionary change in function led ultimately to the arrival of those masters of the air the birds in a dramatic scene filmed on the waters of loch lomond in scotland david comes within touching distance of a small flock of whooper swans in majestic flight at such close quarters he can decode the mechanics of bird flight and observe how remarkably effective birds’ wings are at propelling them through the air finally back in borneo david finds the last group of flyers to emerge on our planet the bats one of the largest species of bats – pteropus vampyrus – is a native of borneo with a wingspan of over a metre filmed in glorious slow motion it reveals how bats evolved four elongated fingers to stretch out a membrane of skin and so form their distinctive wings he examines the some of the oldest evidence for bats – a fossil over 50 million years old – the remains of a bat which even at such an early stage in their history already had the elongated fingers so crucial to bat flight