Secrets of Skin

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Professor Ben Garrod explores how skin has allowed vertebrates to conquer the planet.

Featuring groundbreaking new science, experiments and leading scientists from a variety of disciplines, the series unravels the natural history of the body's largest organ.

BBC Four HD

Ben Garrod

Reema Lorford

Doug Mackay-Hope

Emma Fry

Secrets of Skin: Series 1: Communication

Communication

Series 1

BBC Four - Secrets of Skin, Series 1, Communication

Why are male mandrill faces red and blue? How are birds' feathers so colourful? 

Professor Ben Garrod explores how skin has evolved remarkable ways to enable animals to communicate with each other, from vibrant displays of colour to skin pouches to amplify sound.

Why are male mandrill faces (big bold primates from West Africa) red and blue? How are birds' feathers so colourful? What do ringtail lemurs do to talk to one another? Their skin holds the key. As Professor Ben Garrod explores how animals communicate with one another, he uncovers a myriad more wonderful ways.

Skin has evolved in some remarkable ways to enable animals to communicate with each other, from vibrant displays of colour to skin pouches to amplify sound. Ben shows how animals have evolved to use skin to make themselves heard loud and clear. Birds are notable for their use of coloured feathers to attract mates, show status and as displays of aggression. But, as Ben discovers, long before birds evolved their unrivalled use of colour, it is now believed that their ancestors, the dinosaurs, could well have been using colour to communicate. Ben also uncovers how one species of fish communicates using electricity, and a common British bird has been secretly communicating for years, without us ever knowing.

Secrets of Skin: Series 1

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Professor Ben Garrod explores how skin has allowed vertebrates to conquer the planet. 

Professor Ben Garrod tells the story of how skin, the largest organ in all vertebrates, has allowed them to conquer the planet. 

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Secrets of Skin

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