WEBVTT

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Over 200 million years ago
and the dinosaurs took

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their first steps out of the marshes and
rose to rule the earth. They were watching.

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And the giant ancestors of these damsel
flies through over ancient swamps.

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They were already here.

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While countless other species
have risen failed become.

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The turtle has survived.

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It is the oldest living reptile on earth.

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It\'s not by chance the
turtle is still around.

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But because it is a tough
adaptable creature.

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The successful outcome of a
long evolutionary process.

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This is a painted turtle.

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It can live as long as 30 years

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And of all the North American turtles
it is the only one that ranges across

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a continent from east to
west and north to south.

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As summer slips away in
Southern Quebec autumn arrives

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with a few last lingering
days of sun and warmth.

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The painted turtles in this pond or close
to the northern limit of the range.

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Here where winter will
last six long months.

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They soak up the last
bit of the sun\'s warmth

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As flocks of geese make their long journey

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south the painted turtle
takes her final breath.

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Making her own journey for survival
down to the bottom of the pond.

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Looking for a suitable
place to spend the winter.

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Like many other reptiles the turtle
will survive the frigid temperatures

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Entering torpor a kind of hibernation where
her body temperature drops close to 0.

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And her heartbeat slows down
until it\'s barely perceptible.

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She finds a spot and settles in neither
eating nor breathing through the winter.

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Absorbing what little oxygen she
needs directly from the water.

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While she waits out the ice and
cold on the bottom of the pond.

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The baby turtles or in the summer before
have not yet left their nest in the ground.

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They lie there beneath
a shallow covering of

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Earth perfectly hatched and ready to move.
But waiting.

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Because of a remarkable adaptation the
baby turtles can almost totally freeze.

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Their heart stopped beating
their blood ceases to flow.

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With life in them reduced
to a faint murmur.

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They lie in the nest waiting for Earth\'s
turnings to bring winter to an end

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As for this female she may have to move
several times on the floor of her pond.

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Temporarily digging into the mud
to escape the descending ice.

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Life goes on. While the turtle is suspended
under the layers of snow and ice

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It\'s not hunger but the light of
the sun and the gradual warming of

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the water that wake the turtle and eventually
draw her to the surface of the pond

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Stiff and sluggish from
the long winter\'s cold.

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This painted turtle heads
for a prime basking spot.

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Basking is not just a pleasant
way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

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For a turtle it is essential

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It\'s thick dark shell is

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a wonderful solar collector warming the
turtle and speeding up its metabolism.

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So it can feed digest
grow mate and lay eggs.

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In the next few months of warmth.

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The stress of hibernation
does take its toll.

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Each string turtles and
marriage only to die

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shortly after with no sign
of injury or disease.

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There are vastly different
reproductive strategies in the pond.

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Unlike the turtle and the
short-lived would frog is

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an explosive breeder
producing thousands of eggs.

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It\'s developed rapidly so
that some may survive.

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The turtle on the other hand Millie
only to a 100 eggs and the lifetime.

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So the survival of at least a
couple to adulthood is vital.

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The first hatchlings has emerged
from the darkness of the nest.

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There\'s no parent to teach this baby
turtle everything it needs to know.

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It knows already as messages of millions
of years run through its tiny brain.

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The first impulse is to find safety.

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Little hatchlings may face a journey
of hundreds of meters taking

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several days all the while exposed to hangry
predators before it finally finds water

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The hatchlings emerge
at the same time after

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the spring rains have loosen the soil
and the sun has warmed the Earth.

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Its determination suggests
some inner purpose.

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Some genetic imprint.

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We can only try to imagine

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The turtle hatchlings reaches the pond
but it is far from being out of danger.

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This snapping turtle Lang patiently an ambush
wouldn\'t hesitate to eat a hatchlings.

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Other predators seek other prey.

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The young tadpoles trying to break
free of the egg masses that

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protected them and not be as
lucky as the hatchlings turtle.

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As leeches and salamanders come to feed.

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Within a few short weeks of emerging from

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the winter ice courtship among
Painted Turtles has begun.

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With smaller mail in patient
pursuit of the larger female.

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The male can be distinguished
by the exceptionally long claws

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on his four feet and by a long thick town.

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Though the clause may appear
to be meant for fighting.

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In fact they are used as part of a
graceful and tender courtship ritual.

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Following a chase that can last hours.

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The female turns into the shallows
where the male heads her off and

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comes toward her face-to-face
vibrating his long clause.

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He slides forward and strokes for head
and neck with the backs of his claws.

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As she\'s suspended in the water beforehand.

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If the female is not
interested she will keep

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moving until he tires of
the pursuit and looks

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If she is interested she will sink to

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the bottom where the male mounts
her and mating takes place.

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While the turtle cycle of
reproduction has just begun

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Birds who share this pond
it is well underway.

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To be ready for the migration
south in the fall.

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These baby red winged blackbirds will
need to be fed from morning till night.

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Thereby about him are oreal forages.

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Unlike the turtle hatchlings these chicks
will be totally helpless for several weeks

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With the mating complete the turtles
returned to their favorite pastime.

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When it comes to Basking painted turtles are
among the champions of the turtle world.

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Alternating periods of swimming
and feeding with periods

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of basking in the sun all
through the hot summer days.

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Turtles can\'t generate heat
internally from eating.

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So they rely on external sources
to speed up their metabolism.

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Every little bit of exposure helps.

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Even the scales they shed our
loosened by the warmth of the sun.

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I cite among turtles is
apparently quite keen

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Total range of color perception
is close to that of humans.

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Like all aquatic turtles the windpipe is

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located on the floor of the
mouth behind the tongue.

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It can be closed off by a valve to allow
swelling underwater without flooding.

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The lungs.

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Painted turtles

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are omnivorous surviving on
algae and other aquatic plants

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as well as insects larva
small frogs and carrying.

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It is late June the time has come for

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the female turtles to leave the
pond and find a nesting place.

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Turtles are Swift and powerful swimmers.

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And in the water there is
little for them to fear.

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But on land it is a different matter.

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They\'re slow and awkward
pace makes them vulnerable.

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It\'s not uncommon to see a turtle would
choose edges on her shell for missing foot

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like this one. Remarkably
even if maternal loses

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a leg it won\'t lead to death because

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it\'s blood coagulates quickly
allowing you to carry on.

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Whatever the risks at this time of year
the female painted turtle will face them.

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The warmest days are beginning.

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The next three months we\'ll
be the most favorable

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for baby turtles to develop in their eggs.

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The ideal nesting site is an open
spot with loose soil easy to dig

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And exposed to the sun to
make the ground softer and

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easier to excavate the female turtle will wet
the soil with water stored in her bladder.

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She will lay somewhere between

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five and a dozen eggs and trusting
them to the earth for care.

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Every night during the nesting
season the predators come hunting.

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A skunk had close to the
earth shifts and sniffs

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searching every inch of the ground for
the nest it knows are there somewhere

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Someone else beat him to it this time.

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Perhaps another skunk perhaps
her raccoon feasting

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on the eggs and leaving the
torn and twisted shells behind.

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This will be the fate of many of the
eggs that will get laid the season.

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But those that do survive will be
enough to maintain the population.

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If the last 200 million
years or anything to go by.

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Another female has left the safety
of the pond to lay her eggs.

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With great gentleness and dexterity

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She arranges the freshly laid eggs just so
in her nest relying on her sense of touch.

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She never sees the eggs she lays.

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Her task is complete for this year.

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And the female returns to the water
considerably lighter than when she left.

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There is no way of knowing what if any

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thought she harbors of the
eggs she has left behind.

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Beneath the warm summer rains
in their shell bound worlds.

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The embryos will develop and grow

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As the end of August approaches the
protective shells starts to become a prison.

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With the egg tooth on its upper lip

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the restless hatchlings opens
a tiny slave in the shell.

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Just as it controls so
much else in their lives.

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The heat of the sun will
ultimately decide whether

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the hatchlings that
emerges is male or female

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depending on the temperature
and the nest during

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incubation males if it was
cool females if it was warm

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In warmer climates these
hatching twins would

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probably make the short journey
to the surface immediately.

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This far north it will remain here in
the nest over the winter to emerge in

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the spring just like the hatchlings from
last season and every season before that

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Stretching back for millions of years

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through all that time the
painted turtle has survived

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relatively unchanged in ponds
and wetlands like this one.

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But the world around us changed

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only a short distance from here
eight lanes of traffic law by.

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And for the first time the turtle survival
depends on the whims of another species.

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In fact we humans are merely a blink in the
history of life on this planet. The turtles

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Or a long slow stair.

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They watched dinosaurs come and go.

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Landmasses rise and fall.

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Sa species that we cannot even imagine.

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Evolve thrive and die out.

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From deepen some Swamp they may
watch the last human vanish.

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And then Blink and turn away

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three