How and why has this life developed? What were the great explosions of biodiversity that launched the living world? And what are the Earth-crunching crises that nearly ended it all? Palaeontologists from Victoria University of Wellington and GNS Science will explore these questions, whilst looking at our own stunning fossil record found on the wobbly nugget of rock known as Aotearoa that sits atop the drowned continent of Zealandia.