Evolution, pieces of the puzzle

O for origin

Directed by

Yannick Mahé

Written by

Gilles Macagno

Produced by

Centre national de la recherche scientifique - CNDP

Animation, France, 2008, 8 min

4 billion years ago, asteroids, large blocks of ice and rocks racing through the solar system combined into planets. Our heroine Piccolina, a water molecule inside a frozen meteorite, lands on our planet. As ice melts, H2O molecules like Piccolina become liquid water, the elixir of life.

In water, Piccolina meets molecules of all sorts, linking, combining and getting more and more complex. Piccolina and complex molecules get trapped inside membrane made of fatty molecules. Thus evolves the first cell, the beginning of life...

Darwin on the evolution trail

Directed by

Yannick Mahé

Written by

Yannick Mahé

Produced by

SCEREN, CNDP, CRDP

Animation, France, 2009, 10 min

Curious by nature, the young Charles Darwin embarks on a voyage around the world as naturalist aboard the Beagle. At the time he did not knew that it was to be the beginning of a sensational scientific breakthrough. For five years he collects, observes and annotates everything he discovers in the other continents. Back in England, he continues to work tirelessly on his extensive collections and finally, 20 years later, he publishes the fruit of his work: "On the Origin of Species” - the volume which enables us to explain the emergence and the extinction of species by natural selection.

This animation film shows the observations and thoughts of Darwin, an extraordinary figure, whose theories challenged generally accepted wisdom.

Evolution, pieces of the puzzle

Directed by

Lionel Daneau

Written by

Francis Duranthon, Michelle Antoine, Lionel Daneau

Produced by

Institut Royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique

Animation, Belgium, 2008, 11 min

What is it that makes a cat recognizable as a cat, rather than, say, a penguin? Every single living organism is in fact the result of a long evolutionary history, during which the traits that characterize its current appearance gradually emerged. Each one is thus the outcome of a grand evolutionary mosaic.

The film offers a great dive into the history of life. Starting out from the first cells, we will follow the apparition of some of the characteristic traits of six living organisms (the penguin, the chestnut tree, man, the cuttlefish, the urchin, and the ladybird) chosen at random in the plethora of biodiversity.

Under the direction of the penguin, promoted on this occasion to the rank of narrator, this animated film tells the story of these six organisms. Four billion years of evolution are reviewed, with humour but with scientific correctness.

Debate with :

• Yannick Mahé, director
• Alexandre Alié, PhD student, University Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris VI, Evolution and Development Department
• Michèle Antoine, Natural Sciences Museum of Brussels

Know more

Offical website: O as origin