Evolution: life in the Piacenzian Age (late Pliocene, Cenozoic)

'Walking with Beasts' is a dramatization of life in the Cenozoic, focused mainly on the evolution of mammals. "Broadcast in 2001, it told the story of life on Earth from the death of the dinosaurs to the dawn of the age of man" (BBC, 2001¹). The fourth episode ('Next of Kin') is centered on the Piacenzian Age. (See also Wikipedia, 2011².)

Time: Piacenzian Age (3.2 million years ago), late Pliocene Epoch, in the Cenozoic Era.
Setting: grasslands in the Great Rift Valley in northeastern Africa.
Main species featured in the episode:

Australopithecus, hominids, an ancestral relative of modern humans, yet a genus nowadays extinct.
Dinofelis, a sabre-toothed cat, a genus nowadays extinct.
Deinotherium, an ancestral relative of modern elephants, yet a genus nowadays extinct.
Ancylotherium, a genus nowadays extinct.

(Video 1/3 embedded from YouTube on 25 October 2011)

(Video 2/3 embedded from YouTube on 25 October 2011)

(Video 3/3 embedded from YouTube on 25 October 2011)

Editor

Jose D PEREZGONZALEZ (2011). Massey University, Turitea Campus, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand. (JDPerezgonzalez).

Want to know more?

'Walking with beasts' TV series: Both the BBC, in the UK, and ABC, in Australia, offer more information about the making of the series.
Wikipedia - Geologic history of Earth: The following Wikipedia pages offer more information about the Piacenzian Age, the Pliocene Epoch, and the Cenozoic Era.
Wikipedia - Walking with beasts: This Wikipedia page offers more information about the series and companion book.