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When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time

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They are the most iconic animals on Earth—whales and birds of prey, ferocious crocodiles and magnificent elephants. To see them is to marvel—and to ask a surprisingly challenging question: Where did these amazing creatures come from?  When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time  takes us on a global adventure to find the answer. Starting today, with awe-inspiring animals from Vancouver to Madagascar, we travel millions of years into the past to unravel their ancient stories. Each of these iconic creatures has an extraordinary lineage—a story full of twists and turns, punctuated by dramatic events in Earth’s history. Along the way we’ll meet an extraordinary cast of ancient characters, from tiny elephants to crocs that would dwarf any reptile alive today to a whale ancestor that walked on four legs.

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Discover the evolutionary secrets of some of the world’s most majestic creatures. More

Discover the evolutionary secrets of some of the world’s most majestic creatures. From voracious crocodiles and acrobatic birds to stupendous whales and majestic elephants, WHEN WHALES WALKED follows top scientists from around the world on a global adventure as they follow clues from the fossil record and change what we thought we knew about the evolution of iconic beasts.

A Shining Red Production in association with Twin Cities Public Television, Inc.

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#WhenWhalesWalked

Discover the evolutionary secrets of some of the world’s most majestic creatures. More

Discover the evolutionary secrets of some of the world’s most majestic creatures. From voracious crocodiles and acrobatic birds to stupendous whales and majestic elephants, WHEN WHALES WALKED follows top scientists from around the world on a global adventure as they follow clues from the fossil record and change what we thought we knew about the evolution of iconic beasts.

A Shining Red Production in association with Twin Cities Public Television, Inc.

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When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time

Discover the evolutionary secrets of some of the world’s most majestic creatures. From voracious crocodiles and acrobatic birds to stupendous whales and majestic elephants, WHEN WHALES WALKED follows top scientists from around the world on a global adventure as they follow clues from the fossil record and change what we thought we knew about the evolution of iconic beasts.

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When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time

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When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time

When whales walked: journeys in deep time | trailer.

Discover the evolutionary secrets of some of the world’s most majestic creatures. From voracious crocodiles and acrobatic birds to stupendous whales and majestic elephants, WHEN WHALES WALKED follows top scientists on a global adventure as they follow clues from the fossil record and change what we thought we knew about the evolution of iconic beasts.

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Discover the evolutionary secrets of some of the world’s most majestic creatures. From voracious crocodiles and acrobatic birds to stupendous whales and majestic elephants, WHEN WHALES WALKED follows top scientists from around the world on a global adventure as they follow clues from the fossil record and change what we thought we knew about the evolution of iconic beasts.

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When Whales Walked: Journeys In Deep Time

Thursday, June 16, 2022 at 8 p.m. on KPBS 2 / Watch now with KPBS Passport!

—Join Top Scientists on a Global Adventure to Unlock the Evolutionary Secrets of Four Iconic Creatures—

Created in a first-ever partnership between PBS and Smithsonian Channel, “When Whales Walked: Journeys In Deep Time” is a two-hour film tracing the epic origin stories of some of the world’s most spectacular creatures. From Abu Dhabi to Argentina, Kenya to China, the program takes viewers on a global adventure as top scientists investigate clues from the fossil record and use 21st-century technology to unlock the evolutionary secrets of crocodiles , birds , whales and elephants .

Using innovative storytelling techniques, 3D graphics and CGI to bring ancient beasts to life, “When Whales Walked” offers surprising insights into the evolution of these magnificent animals, exploding myths about the path these species took over millions of years.

Evoking awe and wonder, “When Whales Walked” contains startling revelations about the ancient ancestors of animals still alive today. The film is narrated by actor Lee Pace ("Guardians of the Galaxy," "The Hobbit").

One early croc relative was built like a greyhound, ancient whales really did walk on four legs and the earliest ancestor of the elephant was the size of a rabbit.

Birds arose from feathered dinosaurs — in fact, they are dinosaurs — and went on to colonize the natural world as well as the urban spaces created by humans.

But the end of the story has yet to be written, and the film sounds an alarm about the dangers each of these survivors faces. Exploring the mystery and majesty of these amazing animals, “When Whales Walked” reminds us that their future lies in the hands of humans.

“‘When Whales Walked: Journeys In Deep Time’ dives deep into the fascinating origins of some of the world’s most incredible creatures,” said Bill Gardner, Vice President, PBS Programming and Development . “By exploring the latest scientific discoveries, we bring millions of years of natural history alive in some very unexpected ways. As America’s home for documentary film and the market leaders in science and natural history content, we’re thrilled to partner with an institution like the Smithsonian to showcase these spectacular new breakthroughs in evolutionary history.”

“When we marvel at the wonders of the natural world, like an elephant’s trunk or the size of a blue whale, we rarely ask, ‘Where did that come from?’ It turns out, scientists are finding some truly extraordinary answers,” said Charles Poe, SVP of Production, Smithsonian Channel . “This film will introduce viewers to the surprising ancestors of animals we know and love. We’re very excited to be launching our first partnership with PBS to take viewers on an utterly unique journey to the deep past.”

“‘When Whales Walked: Journeys In Deep Time’ takes us to the frontiers of science,” said Michael Rosenfeld, Vice President of National Production for Twin Cities PBS , who originated the project. “It shows how researchers are using not just paleontology, but genetics, climate science and ecology to fill in the gaps in the story of life. And it’s not just a story of the past—these discoveries carry important lessons for today and even the future.”

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Produced by Twin Cities PBS and Shining Red Productions for PBS and Smithsonian Channel . Michael Rosenfeld is executive producer for Twin Cities PBS. Bill Gardner is executive in charge for PBS. Executive producers for Smithsonian Channel are Charles Poe and David Royle.

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When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time

A deep dive into the evolutionary history of whales, elephants, crocodiles and birds. A deep dive into the evolutionary history of whales, elephants, crocodiles and birds. A deep dive into the evolutionary history of whales, elephants, crocodiles and birds.

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Critic’s Spotlight

With the Help of Whales, a Choreographer Falls Into an Abyss

Mayfield Brooks explores grief and decomposition in the hull of a 19th-century cargo ship.

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By Gia Kourlas

Photographs and Video by Simbarashe Cha

• Published June 19, 2024 Updated June 20, 2024

Whales, Black bodies, the ocean, climate change, protest movements — over the past few years, they have all made their way into work by Mayfield Brooks, a choreographer, dancer and vocalist.

The latest setting for Brooks’s ever-evolving dance project is a majestic one: the Tall Ship Wavertree, the last iron-hulled, three-masted cargo ship in the world. Built in 1885 and docked at Pier 16, the Wavertree extends about the length of a football field.

This week, as part of the River to River Festival , Brooks (who uses they/them pronouns) finishes their whale journey with two works: “Whale Fall Abyss,” a dance performance on the ship, which is part of the South Street Seaport Museum; and “Whale Fall Reckoning,” a companion installation at a gallery — a former munitions room storage space — on Governors Island.

In “Abyss,” Brooks, wearing white, performs a compass dance — named for its circular choreography — on one end of the ship while Camilo Restrepo, in a long, swirling mint skirt that trails to the deck, is poised on a high platform, his torso undulating in what Brooks calls a spine dance. Under an American flag rippling in the breeze, Restrepo looks a little like the Statue of Liberty. Eventually Brooks, now in the same skirt, makes their way to him and they conjoin for an extended spine duet. Slowly they mesh into each other, one cradling the other in grief. It’s like their bodies are melting.

This comes back to Brooks’s original point of departure: the act of decomposing, or a whale fall. After a whale dies, it sinks to the ocean floor where its carcass supplies nutrients to deepwater creatures. It becomes the ocean’s food.

In “Abyss,” Brooks — who began the project during the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests — looks at how death and decay go beyond the body. “How do I surrender to this ongoing decomposition process, this ongoing regeneration through the whale fall, this ongoing space of decay?” they said. “That to me is maybe the foundation of the work.”

For this iteration, Brooks has made a zine , in which they write, “I grieve and I decompose this grief daily.”

We are all creatures on earth; we all decompose. And here, on the Wavertree, so does Brooks’s whale fall project, which begin as an experimental dance film in 2021. That sense of disintegration happens in the work’s conclusion, in the ship’s cargo hold, where Brooks is joined by Dorothy Carlos on the electric cello. In this final section, a haunting combination of music and dance, Brooks calls up ghosts and ancestors from whalers and slave ships. Extended sounds emanate from their body that feel as deep as the ocean floor.

Brooks’s presence — otherworldly and raw — takes on a penetrating, guttural sadness in the vast cargo hold where they are seen, at first, from a distance. In a way, Brooks’s idea of a decomposing dance happens before your eyes as Brooks and Carlos gradually lower the volume until their sounds and notes feel like whispers.

The performance is “almost becoming the whale fall,” Brooks said. “It’s like this decomposed dance and vocal performance. There are no words. The movement is confined to smaller spaces or our bodies actually become the whale in a sense. And the sound score is more and more ephemeral and less legible.”

Over the past few years, Brooks has noted some analogies between the bodies of whales and the bodies of Black people. “I was looking at the slave ship and I was looking at the whaling ship, and what I noticed was that of course with the slave ship, the cargo is the African bodies,” Brooks said. “But in the whaling ship, that’s where they store the blubber.”

This, Brooks said, “is the entanglement. This is how slavery and the use of Black bodies as property intersected with the whaling industry.”

They see the ocean as “the womb of the earth” and something that needs protection, ideas that will shape their next project. These days, Brooks said, ship strikes are one of the biggest causes of whale deaths. And there is also the heaviness of the present moment. How it resonates in Brooks’s body comes down to the spine.

“I see connections with the way the whale dances and the way the body can move through water with the spine,” Brooks said. “What is there to reclaim within this heaviness? And with the dancing and with the sounds, for me, it’s about this kind of resonance with water. It’s memory. It’s the way that the spine can move and can sustain dance or a movement or swimming, which to me is, you know, dance.”

Gia Kourlas is the dance critic for The Times. She writes reviews, essays and feature articles and works on a range of stories. More about Gia Kourlas

Simbarashe Cha is a Times photographer and visual columnist documenting style and fashion around the world. More about Simbarashe Cha

Stepping Into the World of Dance

The choreographer and dancer Mayfield Brooks explores grief and decomposition  in the hull of a 19th-century cargo ship.

New York City Ballet wrapped up its 75th anniversary celebration at Lincoln Center this spring with a look to the future. But it didn’t always speak to it .

Mira Nadon, the rising New York City Ballet principal, is coming off her best season yet. And it’s only the beginning .

As Ballet Tech, a tuition-free public school in New York, prepares for its Joyce season, Dionne Figgins teaches the students  to see the big picture of their art form.

Tamara Rojo, the San Francisco Ballet company’s new artistic director, has a vision of ballet as for the people — all the people — with dances that reflect our world .

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Whale-watching excursions off Rio de Janeiro’s coast begin captivating tourists

Famous for its beaches and vibrant parties in the summer, Rio de Janeiro has a new attraction for the winter: humpback whales. Between June and November, humpback whales migrate to Brazilian waters to breed. Some 25,000 humpback whales make a 2,500-mile journey from feeding areas in Antarctica to northeast Brazil. (AP video/Mario Lobão)

A humpback whale breaches off the coast of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Thursday, June 20, 2024. The whale-watching season has begun for tourists taking part in expeditions to get close to the humpback whales coming from Antarctica in search of warm waters to breed and have their babies. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

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Tourists and journalists participate in a tour to see humpback whales off the coast of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Thursday, June 20, 2024. The whale-watching season has begun for tourists taking part in expeditions to get close to the humpback whales coming from Antarctica in search of warm waters to breed and have their babies. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

A bottlenose dolphin swims off the coast of Niteroi during a whale-watching tour in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Thursday, June 20, 2024. The whale-watching season has begun for tourists taking part in expeditions to get close to the humpback whales coming from Antarctica in search of warm waters to breed and have their babies. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

A humpback whale’s tale flips above the water off the coast of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Thursday, June 20, 2024. The whale-watching season has begun for tourists taking part in expeditions to get close to the humpback whales coming from Antarctica in search of warm waters to breed and have their babies. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Bottlenose dolphins swim off the coast of Niteroi during a whale-watching tour in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Thursday, June 20, 2024. The whale-watching season has begun for tourists taking part in expeditions to get close to the humpback whales coming from Antarctica in search of warm waters to breed and have their babies. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Famous for its beaches and vibrant parties in the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, Rio de Janeiro now has an attraction for winter: humpback whales.

The tourism agency of Niteroi, Rio’s sister city across the Guanabara Bay, on Thursday launched a whale-watching program that enables tourists to closely observe the mammoth mammals.

Between June and November, humpback whales migrate to Brazilian waters to breed. Around 25,000 humpback whales make a 2,500-mile (4,000-kilometer) journey from feeding areas in Antarctica to northeast Brazil. Most concentrate in the Abrolhos region, an area of coral reefs off the coast of Bahia and Espirito Santo states known for featuring the greatest marine biodiversity in the South Atlantic.

The whale-watching program is a joint initiative by the municipality of Niteroi and researchers from conservation initiative Amigos da Jubarte (Friends of the Humpback Whale), which also conducts scientific research during the tours.

“Tourism can be a tool for the protection of species,” André Bento, president of Niteroi’s tourism agency, told The Associated Press on an outing on Thursday. “I don’t think anyone who gets on this boat comes off the same way, right?”

Tourists and journalists participate in a tour to see humpback whales off the coast of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

That’s certainly true for Romina Gomes, a 49-year-old doctor from Rio, who was left awestruck after spotting five whales and four dolphins.

“Captivating, passionate, enchanting,” she said. ”I couldn’t have predicted such wonder, such beauty. The magnitude, the grace of a 40-ton animal that moves and dances with such lightness.”

As for the dolphins, they swam deftly alongside her boat and played in its wake.

The expedition set off from the Niteroi Yacht Club, and new boarding locations may be used as whale-watching tourism develops, said Thiago Ferrari, Amigos da Jubarte’s director. Researchers have spotted, on average, five whales per cruise, he said.

“Besides that, we have spotted different species of dolphins, turtles and numerous seabird species,” Ferrari added, saying that success depends on wind and sea conditions.

Each trip lasts about six hours, costing 550 Brazilian reais ($100) on weekdays and 600 reais on weekends. The guides follow federal environmental regulations that require vessels to stay at least 100 meters (328 feet ) from the whales, and for a maximum of 30 minutes. That time limit is halved if a calf is present.

“This period is sensitive, and these norms are important not just for the animals, but also for us, for our safety,” said Luan Amaral, a 27-year-old researcher on the project.

Gabriela Sá Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america