Five times in the history of our planet, life has been almost completely wiped out. The greatest mass extinction event of all time occurred around 250 million years ago. The Earth came very close to belonging to microbes again. But certain species survived the mass extinction. But evolution did its job and life returned again: with new ideas and new species. Two important products of evolution have so far survived all catastrophes: the egg and sex. What is the secret of their success? Most species that have ever existed have eventually become extinct. Will humans meet the same fate? Richard Dawkins, probably the most famous evolutionary biologist of our time, believes mankind is a rare exception: a species that will never die out.
WRITER: Claudia Ruby DIRECTOR: Carsten Gutschmidt, Claudia Ruby CAMERA: Jens Boeck (BVK), Joachim Seck, Sebastian Grau, Dieter Stürmer, Steffen Bohn EDITOR: Fabian Wienke MUSIC: Paul Rabiger COMMISSIONING EDITOR: Ricarda Schlosshan (ZDF), Friederike Haedecke (ZDF)
