A titanic collision between India and Asia created the tallest mountain range on earth and forced up the vast Tibetan plateau -- often described as "The Roof of the World." Only those creatures that could adapt to hostile alpine conditions survived in the highest ecosystems on Earth. Mutation and evolution combined to create a cast of rugged mountaineers with unique anatomy and behaviour that enables them to thrive at the very limits of life on our planet.

Costa Rica is the most biodiverse country in the world for its size. It is a great evolutionary melting pot resulting from the migration of animals from North and South America when a great land bridge joined the two continents 3 million years ago.

An amazing array of plants and animals survives in the Namib, the world's oldest desert. They've had fifty million years to evolve cunning ways to cope with the heat and harvest water from the fog that often blankets this unique coastal desert.

India's Western Ghats are a lush, jungle refuge in an otherwise parched landscape. They intercept most of the summer monsoon rain, creating a home for wide range of iconic animals and weird mutants all adapted to make the most of the monsoon rains.

Borneo: a strange place of mutant creatures and plants seen nowhere else on Earth. Pygmy forest mammals, weird co-evolved partnerships between plants and animals, the world's rarest ape and incredible gliders, occupy these 130 million year old jungles.

Africa's Albertine Rift immense geological forces have created a huge variety of landscapes and transformed the climate. The unique residents of this evolutionary hotspot have been shaped by the Rift and evolved bizarre and unusual ways to survive.