It was Austrian ethologist Karl von Frisch who unlocked the secrets of bee behavior in the early 20th century. This creature is the earliest common ancestor we've yet found, a physical connection we share with almost every animal on Earth. When it lived, 550 million years ago, the species was microscopic. In the Palace of Life, 'Cosmos' host Neil deGrasse Tyson encounters Saccorhytus coronarius.

The world Tyson describes is an alien one giant mushrooms tower over trees that only grew a few feet tall, and insects ruled the skies, undisturbed by other winged creatures. 20 on Tyson's ' cosmic calendar,' where the Big Bang marks New Year's Day).

Insects are as much a part of the Earth's history as the earth itself The 'great Ordovician biodiversity event,' when our world began to change as plants and insects left the sea and began to make the land their home, occurred approximately 480 million years ago (or Dec. Each grain of pollen has been'sculpted differently by evolution - each a novel strategy for survival, sharpened by vast expanses of time, ' Tyson says. Insects in general have played an instrumental role in the development of the natural world, mostly by spreading pollen. Humans have actually already made 'first contact' with other intelligent life that communicates through equations and a symbolic language, Tyson points out: bees.

If we find extraterrestrial intelligent life, will we be communicating with them in a language that resembles a computer programming language, built on the binary code? 'First contact' with intelligent life (on Earth) 'The symbolic language of the scientist, mathematician and engineer avoid those things that are lost in translation from one culture to another,' Tyson says, explaining that this type of language is more precise and less open to misinterpretation. Here, he moves into its largest, most ancient realm, to walk among the life at the bottom of the sea.

'Cosmos' host Neil deGrasse Tyson enters the Palace of Life, an imaginary place of ancient towers hidden by the mists of time and enshrouded in myth.

Cosmos a spacetime odyssey episode 7