The Future is Wild [1x03] The Vanished Sea.txt

{109}{200}Imagine a world, millions|of years in the future.
{332}{377}A world where evolution
{377}{472}has written a new chapter|in the story of life.
{731}{843}The world is inhabited by|very strange creatures,
{843}{919}like nothing the Earth has ever seen.
{1772}{1908}the FUTURE is WILD
{1997}{2132}5 million years from now...|THE VANISHED SEA
{2155}{2230}Five million years in the future
{2236}{2323}and the planet is in|the grip of another ice age.
{2345}{2428}Yet this isn't ice or snow,
{2440}{2467}it's salt,
{2486}{2553}covering a hot, parched desert.
{2626}{2678}But there is life here.
{2730}{2763}Cryptiles:
{2772}{2877}half metre long lizards that|sprint over the burning salt.
{3034}{3182}These harsh, salt flats are|2000 metres below sea level,
{3201}{3314}they are all that is left of|the sparkling clear blue waters
{3314}{3359}of the Mediterranean.
{3471}{3565}But how can a whole sea just disappear?
{3571}{3679}What happened to turn the holiday|paradise of the Mediterranean
{3679}{3734}into a salt desert?
{3837}{3918}An ice age climate is very dry,
{3918}{3972}which makes water evaporate
{3972}{4026}and sea levels fall.
{4078}{4145}But it takes more than|a change in climate
{4145}{4228}to make the Mediterranean dry out.
{4286}{4336}In five million years' time,
{4336}{4417}the geography of the Earth|will have changed
{4417}{4503}when Africa will have|pushed up against Europe
{4526}{4595}and closed the Straits of Gibraltar.
{4608}{4665}As the continents collide,
{4665}{4748}the Mediterranean is cut off|from the Atlantic
{4748}{4844}and it becomes|a closed, land-locked sea.
{4921}{5003}The water evaporated in the dry climate,
{5003}{5101}and with no water flowing in|from the Atlantic to replace it,
{5101}{5187}the Mediterranean simply vanished,
{5187}{5261}leaving just a few deep basins.
{5279}{5355}The Mediterranean will dry out
{5355}{5462}until it becomes one vast salt pan.
{5509}{5623}There will be small lakes|of hypersaline water
{5635}{5718}left behind, the only water|in the Mediterranean.
{5725}{5857}But the old holiday islands of|Cyprus and Malta and Crete
{5857}{5996}will stand up as small mountains|in the middle of this sea of salt.
{6065}{6144}No shelter and no water,
{6158}{6212}just the relentless Sun.
{6254}{6317}But if anything can survive out here,
{6317}{6359}lizards can.
{6391}{6463}These cryptiles, like many lizards,
{6463}{6525}are tough and drought resistant.
{6531}{6612}So they are already suited|to life on the salt flats.
{6637}{6695}Well in five million years|the Mediterranean
{6695}{6765}will be a very different|environment than it is today
{6775}{6894}and very few animals will have actually|adapted purely for that new environment.
{6893}{7000}The cryptiles is a great example|one animal that is testing the water.
{7000}{7078}It is part of way there, but it is|not all of the way there yet.
{7138}{7266}Lizards in general are good|surviving in hot, dry places.
{7325}{7387}Today, the Lake Eyre dragon
{7387}{7489}lives on the vast salt flats|of Australia's Lake Eyre,
{7504}{7619}a dry salt pan covering|10,000 square kilometres.
{7721}{7784}Lake Eyre dragons eat ants.
{7827}{7956}Insects are the only other creatures|that can survive in a salt desert like this.
{8129}{8198}The lizards stand on their heels,
{8198}{8272}keeping their toes of the hot surface.
{8407}{8482}At over 2 million square kilometres,
{8482}{8632}the Mediterranean salt flats are|some 200 times as big as Lake Eyre.
{8674}{8745}But cryptiles don't just live here,
{8751}{8875}they also carry out their courtship on|the old Mediterranean sea bed.
{8894}{8941}The males compete
{8941}{9020}to show off the biggest|and brightest crest
{9149}{9180}and the female
{9180}{9248}invites the best looking|male to follow her
{9248}{9314}in a courtship dash over the salt.
{9428}{9464}If he keeps up with her,
{9464}{9503}she will let him mate,
{9518}{9625}but for the female her problems|are only just beginning.
{9704}{9768}Now one of the biggest problems|about living in this environment
{9768}{9834}that it is very, very salty environment,
{9834}{9914}is that if you are a lizard there|is nowhere to lay your eggs.
{9914}{9970}If you dig a hole in|the salt and lay them,
{9970}{10036}they will just shrivel up, all the water|will be taken out of them
{10036}{10086}and they will be dead very quickly.
{10092}{10153}So the females had to move away
{10153}{10266}to find places where there is soil|in order to deposit their eggs.
{10272}{10333}This is a time when they|are in the greatest danger
{10333}{10413}because they are very well adapted|for living on the open salt plain:
{10413}{10521}their colour, their shape|everything is for salt plain life.
{10524}{10563}When they go on to the soil
{10563}{10625}this is when they stand|out like a sore thumb.
{10625}{10713}This is when they are open|to be eaten by predators.
{10774}{10909}So a female has to leaving the safety|of the salt flats to lay her eggs.
{10993}{11120}She heads for the old Mediterranean|islands that rise out of the salt.
{11138}{11314}These are mountains of bare rock worn into|a broken, cracked pavement known as cast.
{11417}{11461}Running across the cast
{11461}{11561}there are deep cracks|and crevasses called grykes.
{11753}{11857}Although many of the cracks|are only a few centimetres wide,
{11857}{11948}some of them go down|two or three metres.
{12099}{12174}Ideal places to lay eggs.
{12249}{12351}The narrowest cracks are far|too tight for a predator.
{12400}{12471}And there is a predator here
{12471}{12528}that uses the bigger cracks
{12528}{12600}as secret highways across the cast.
{12627}{12737}The cryptile's eggs are safe in|the bottom of the narrow gryke.
{12948}{13027}It is not the eggs that are in danger,
{13027}{13084}but the cryptiles herself.
{13099}{13134}From a grychen.
{13379}{13452}The cryptiles has|the advantage of speed,
{13452}{13503}so the grychen will go hungry.
{13717}{13847}Grychens live only on these isolated|bare mountains and rocky plateaus.
{13861}{13952}They are about 20 centimetres|tall at the shoulder,
{13952}{14073}with a sinewy body, small enough to|wriggle through crevasses in the rock.
{14213}{14312}But it's ancestor had|a very different lifestyle,
{14321}{14384}living in the tops of trees.
{14478}{14586}Today, Europe's natural|vegetation is forest
{14586}{14667}and it is said if humans|hadn't cleared the trees,
{14667}{14753}a squirrel could run|from Spain to Greece
{14753}{14806}without ever touching the ground,
{14879}{14936}but it would be followed all the way
{14936}{14983}by a pine martin,
{14994}{15054}the ancestor of the grychen.
{15131}{15219}Pine martins are fast, agile predators
{15219}{15286}that spend most of their|time in the branches.
{15514}{15590}Their bodies are flexible and subtle
{15590}{15660}and they have a superb sense of balance.
{16183}{16259}But five million years in the future
{16259}{16305}in the ice age climate,
{16305}{16389}trees will be a rare sight in Europe.
{16499}{16579}Grychen have evolved in|only five million years.
{16580}{16675}It's not that different from|the pine martin it evolved from
{16675}{16751}but the climate has dried,|the trees have gone.
{16769}{16873}Pine martins had long back legs to|help them leap through the trees
{16873}{16951}and tails they would use to|help them maintain balance.
{16988}{17033}But grychens are different,
{17039}{17084}they have longer legs
{17084}{17142}so they can run along the grykes,
{17171}{17238}and as grychens no longer climb trees,
{17238}{17348}they don't need their ancestors|long tail for balance.
{17427}{17489}Their bodies have elongated,
{17489}{17583}so they can squeeze through|the narrow crevasses in the rocks.
{17675}{17758}Grychens also have dagger-like teeth.
{17775}{17858}They need them to bring|down their favourite prey.
{17933}{18020}Small, delicate looking pigs:
{18032}{18060}scrophers.
{18251}{18328}Scrophers can't run as fast as cryptiles
{18328}{18397}so they are easier for|the grychen to catch.
{18614}{18707}Especially the tender, young pigs.
{19107}{19190}But the big adult males are aggressive.
{19339}{19393}Too aggressive for the grychen.
{19660}{19716}We are five million years in the future,
{19716}{19796}and scrophers are descendents|of the wild boar
{19796}{19880}that used to roam over much|of Europe and Asia.
{19906}{20051}Today, wild boars live in rich forests|that still cover much of Europe
{20051}{20167}and they are found in many of the countries|surrounding today's Mediterranean.
{20279}{20368}The adults are big, heavyset animals
{20368}{20447}that can weigh more than 100 kg.
{20524}{20593}They have sturdy, strong legs
{20594}{20672}for moving across the soft forest floor.
{20769}{20952}And they root around in the deep woodland|soil for insects, worms, tubers, funghi.
{20958}{21086}Their sensitive, flexible snouts|unearth anything that is edible.
{21213}{21280}They live in tight-knit family groups
{21280}{21360}of a few adult females with their young
{21360}{21410}and a few juveniles.
{21542}{21599}Despite being at home in the forest,
{21599}{21696}wild boar are just the kind of|animals that would survive
{21696}{21766}when their forest home disappears.
{21893}{21929}In the future
{21929}{22013}they have had to adapt to|living on bare limestone,
{22013}{22084}and they had to do it|relatively quickly,
{22084}{22131}as the climate changed.
{22175}{22277}The landscapes the scropher lives in|has been created very rapidly
{22277}{22356}perhaps in a few tens|of thousands of years.
{22356}{22436}But the scropher has managed to|adapt to live in this landscape
{22436}{22505}because pigs are highly adaptable,
{22505}{22591}are gener...