Your Inner Reptile

The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada, is home not only to the world's largest tides, but also to some incredibly important fossils. Paleontologist Neil Shubin describes one particularly striking specimen from these cliffs: an animal in the midst of the reptile-to-mammal transition.

The molars, incisors and canines that fill your mouth have a deep evolutionary history. Join paleontologists Roger Smith and Neil Shubin as they trace the history of your teeth back to fearsome beasts that lived over 200 million years ago.

Our ears are much more sensitive than those of most reptiles, due to the tiniest bones in the human body. But where did these bones come from? Evolutionary biologists Karen Sears and Neil Shubin show us evidence of their connection to the bones of ancient reptilian jaws.

"Your Inner Reptile" traces our hair, skin, teeth, jaws and sense of hearing back to reptilian ancestors — from ferocious beasts that ruled the Earth to a little shrew-like animal that lived 195 million years ago.