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Nigel Marven.
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A time-traveling zoologist,
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and a man who has had his fair share
of close scrapes with dinosaurs.
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But the Earth has witnessed
more terrible monsters than these.
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What Nigel is about to learn about prehistory
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is that no matter how bad things get on land,
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the one thing you should never, ever do
is get in the water.
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In this adventure, Nigel will travel
back and forth through prehistory
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to visit seven different time zones
and dive in the seven deadliest seas ever.
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Each sea he visits
will be more dangerous than the last.
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With bigger, nastier predators.
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Creatures it's hard to believe
once lived on this planet.
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And of course, he's saving the worst...
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..till last.
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Nigel's first stop
in this perilous navigation through time
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is a period called the Ordovician.
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To get back there from the 21st century,
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you have to go unbelievably far back in time.
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Back before the Ice Age.
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Before the first humans.
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Before even the dinosaurs.
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The Ordovician is a mind-boggling
450 million years ago,
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so far back that plants have yet to evolve.
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It's a world ruled by creepy-crawlies,
and fantastically unsuited to humankind.
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The atmosphere at this time, it's atrocious.
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Much less oxygen and much more
carbon dioxide than I'm used to.
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Without this special air mix,
I'd really feel sick and get bad headaches.
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Just look around and you can see
why the atmosphere is so different.
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There's no life at all on the land.
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There's no insects in the air,
there's not even worms in the ground.
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And most crucially of all, there's no plants.
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There's not a speck of green.
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The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
is not absorbed by them,
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and they're not boosting the atmosphere
with oxygen.
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But it's a different story out there in the sea.
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There's been life there
for hundreds of millions of years.
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And you can take it from me,
evolution has produced some real monsters.
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And now it was time to find one.
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First, some bait.
In the Ordovician, that's the easy bit.
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With no land animals to scavenge the beach,
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anything the sea spits up just lies here rotting.
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An armor-plated fish.
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Now, into shallow water,
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to flush out an unpleasant little critter
that I was going to be seeing a lot of.
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A sea scorpion.
One of the most grotesque of predators.
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Look at that, look at the tail curling.
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That's how they get their name,
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but there's no venom in there,
like their namesakes on the land.
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You've got to be careful
of those formidable pincers.
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The scorpion gave me a graphic demonstration
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of just how formidable its claws are.
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It literally shredded the bait at my feet
before moving on to bigger prey.
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Argh!
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Are you all right, Nigel?
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Slashed my leg.
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That's another scar for the collection.
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As I found out, those sea scorpions
are pretty fearsome.
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But there's much bigger sea monsters -
sea scorpions are not the top predators.
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But to see the real big ones, I need
a little more than a fish on a stick.
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I'm gonna try with this.
Looks like a giant woodlouse.
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It's a Trilobite.
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There's no relatives of this in the 21st century,
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and there's up to 15,000 species.
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They range in size from
a millimeter in length to this big one.
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This is about as big as they get,
and I need one like this,
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because I'm gonna use this
like a fisherman with a fly,
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and I'm going to try
to attract a much bigger catch.
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And all I need to do
is to insert this camera into the carcass.
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Now, if you're squeamish look away now,
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'cause what I've got to do
is pop out the eye of this Trilobite.
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Here we go. Ugh!
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There's so many surprises here.
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The sun's setting, the evening's come
and it's been so quick the day's flown by.
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That's 'cause I forgot, in Ordovician times
the Earth's spinning much faster
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and that means that it's a 21-hour day,
not 24 hours,
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so a watch like this is useless here.
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Look at that. It's gonna be dark very soon
and we can't do anything more today.
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Anything you do, you try to...
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I'm hoping to dive with a sea monster.
There's a special air mix in here.
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If I breathed Ordovician air at pressure
under the water, I'd become unconscious,
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so this is crucial for me.
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I also need this. This is a bit before its time.
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It's a bite-proof shark suit
and sharks haven't evolved yet,
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but I'm hoping this will protect me
from those vicious sea scorpions.
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The bigger predators would be in deep water,
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so I ventured out into the middle of the bay.
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Doesn't look very appetizing,
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but for the predators around here,
this should be a tasty snack.
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And I'm hoping that camera
is gonna catch the moment
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when a monstrous predator
tries to snaffle this up.
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There's something - something approaching.
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It's a sea scorpion.
They obviously like Trilobites.
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Let go!
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It was late afternoon before I got a decent bite.
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There's something interesting there,
and it is much bigger than a sea scorpion.
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It's taken the camera.
That's the end of the Trilobite cam.
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I have got to see what that is.
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I don't know what's happened here,
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but if I follow the line
I should be able to find the predator.
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The camera's not at the end,
which means the predator isn't far away.
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This is intriguing.
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I don't know what's going on.
why they're all gathering.
103
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But first there was one sea scorpion,
then another, then another, then another.
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Now they are all around me, a carpet
of them moving along the sea floor.
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They're whizzing past my head,
they're all heading in one direction.
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And there it is. It's an Orthocone!
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That is the biggest predator that
the world has seen up until this time.
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He's sensed me here.
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Hear my heart hammering.
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I don't want to be grabbed by those tentacles,
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but those simple eyes,
they should shun the light.
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So all I can do is start flashing my light,
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and maybe that will discourage him.
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00:12:09,933 --> 00:12:13,198
And now he's gone. I can't...see where he is.
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There's still the sea scorpions there.
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Ah!
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There's the Orthocone, and it's spotted
one of the sea scorpions.
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They're dragged to the mouth,
where there's a beak.
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I can actually hear it under the water,
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hear the crunching as the sea scorpions
are crushed by the beak.
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These Orthocones probably spend
a lot of time in deep water.
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Light doesn't penetrate well down there,
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so the eyes don't work well
and they rely on another sense.
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They will actually smell out their prey
and then crush them to bits.
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The Orthocone, that really is
the top predator of Ordovician times.
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It's not swimming very fast.
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I can catch up.
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Oh, yes!
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Right up to the tip of the shell,
it's a wonderful texture.
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I am hitching a ride on the back of an Orthocone.
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Hey!
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As it got gloomier, I realized the Orthocone
was dragging me deeper.
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Time to get off.
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Thanks, Orthocone, thanks for the ride.
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Ah!
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Argh!
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This is what they were doing.
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I saw them in the shallows,
moving to the shore.
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This is a mass spawning.
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It's a full moon at the moment,
this is the highest tide.
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They're laying their eggs in the sand,
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and when the next high tide comes,
in a month,
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the young larvae will hatch
and be taken back out to sea.
144
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Some of these sea scorpions
are gonna stay here until the eggs hatch.
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Fossils have been found with baby sea
scorpions in the stomachs of big ones.
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They wait here and feed on the babies
as they hatch on the next high tide.
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The Ordovician, then, isn't exactly a picnic.
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Anywhere the air gives you a headache
and you can't swim without chain mail
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probably isn't going to take off
as a holiday destinationI
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But prehistory has worse still to offer.
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The next deadly sea is the Triassic.
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To get there, Nigel has to travel
halfway back to the 21st century,
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to 230 million years BC.
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It's a time when reptiles
are taking over the oceans
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and the first dinosaurs are only just appearing.
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(SCREECHES)
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The Triassic is a crucial time for marine life.
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Something new's happened.
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The fish or mammals are not
the most ferocious animals out there.
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This sea is dominated by a group
that used to just live on the land - reptiles.
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Reptiles dominate everywhere right now.
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Winged reptiles, the Pterosaurs, rule the skies.
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And the future lords of the land,
the dinosaurs, have just evolved.
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But they're not much to look at yet.
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Of course,
I was here to explore life in the sea,
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home to the largest Triassic reptiles
of them all.
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(HOWLING)
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Fortunately, sea reptiles are easy to spot,
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because they have to come up for air.
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My first sighting was a Nothosaur.
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The Nothosaurs could be nippy.
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but there's bigger reptiles
that could kill a person.
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This is my insurance, an electric prod.
If they come close, it should deter them.
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There's not just one Nothosaur,
there's a pair of them.
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They're inquisitive, coming
closer and closer, they're so curious.
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I'm the first human that they've seen.
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You don't know how they're gonna react.
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I'm glad I've got this electric prod
in case they become just too inquisitive.
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But at the moment they're just curious,
circling around me.
180
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They've got a mouthful of teeth
like razors - interlocking.
181
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They seem to be the perfect fish trap,
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and they certainly move fast enough
to catch the fish that are around here.
183
00:18:22,305 --> 00:18:24,296
Ha hah! Wow!
184
00:18:26,109 --> 00:18:29,272
There's one coming close.
I'm gonna try something.
185
00:18:29,446 --> 00:18:34,179
Like with alligators, there is
only one safe way to hold a Nothosaur,
186
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and that's round the jaws.
187
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Wa-hey!
188
00:18:39,789 --> 00:18:43,281
A prehistoric ride with a Nothosaur.
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They can close those jaws with tremendous force,
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00:18:49,499 --> 00:18:52,935
but the muscles that open them are really weak.
191
00:18:53,870 --> 00:18:58,807
But Nothosaurs, like all sea reptiles,
have to go up to the surface to breath.
192
00:18:58,975 --> 00:19:00,806
I can't hold him for too long.
193
00:19:00,977 --> 00:19:02,968
I'm gonna let him go now.
194
00:19:03,146 --> 00:19:05,137
Go on, boy, off you go.
195
00:19:14,424 --> 00:19:16,415
Hiding here, this isn't dangerous,
196
00:19:17,027 --> 00:19:21,259
but it's surely one of the most
preposterous reptiles ever.
197
00:19:21,431 --> 00:19:23,422
Tanystropheus.
198
00:19:25,201 --> 00:19:29,797
Great long neck, great long tail,
there's hardly any body at all.
199
00:19:29,973 --> 00:19:33,568
That long neck is perfect for an ambush predator.
200
00:19:34,644 --> 00:19:38,273
What it probably does
is sweep that neck through the water,
201
00:19:38,448 --> 00:19:40,746
sweep it through a shoal of fish.
202
00:19:48,725 --> 00:19:49,987
Ah!
203
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(BAYING)
204
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Dropped its tail.
205
00:20:00,103 --> 00:20:03,436
Like when I was a little kid catching lizards.
206
00:20:03,606 --> 00:20:07,235
They do this as well,
and this is an insurance policy.
207
00:20:07,410 --> 00:20:09,378
If they're attacked,
208
00:20:09,546 --> 00:20:14,176
the predator's distracted by the tail
and the creature can escape.
209
00:20:14,351 --> 00:20:18,287
He'll grow the tail again
and it shouldn't do him much harm.
210
00:20:18,455 --> 00:20:20,218
He's swimming perfectly.
211
00:20:20,390 --> 00:20:24,554
Golly, this tail, it's spasming so much.
212
00:20:24,728 --> 00:20:26,389
I can hardly hold onto it.
213
00:20:27,397 --> 00:20:30,127
Wow! Where did that come from?
214
00:20:32,869 --> 00:20:35,167
I think it's a Cymbospondylus.
215
00:20:35,905 --> 00:20:40,239
One of that great group
of marine reptiles, the Ichthyosaurs.
216
00:20:40,410 --> 00:20:43,140
He's a primitive member of the group.
217
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,844
They'll evolve into a whole variety of forms.
218
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They'll be around
for about another hundred million years.
219
00:20:54,424 --> 00:20:56,824
But he's coming a bit too close.
220
00:21:01,131 --> 00:21:04,396
And that slow movement, that's deceiving.
221
00:21:04,567 --> 00:21:09,630
With one lash of that tail, they can
have really great bursts of speed.
222
00:21:16,312 --> 00:21:19,748
My heart's hammering.
That lunge was a warning shot.
223
00:21:19,916 --> 00:21:23,010
That's really upped the ante on this dive.
224
00:21:23,820 --> 00:21:26,186
I need the electric prod now.
225
00:21:26,356 --> 00:21:28,347
And he's coming again!
226
00:21:30,527 --> 00:21:33,963
He's coming in again, and I'm gonna use it.
227
00:21:44,073 --> 00:21:46,803
What a spectacular reptile!
228
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Two seas down, five to go.
229
00:22:02,358 --> 00:22:06,658
The next encounter
takes Nigel back deeper into the past,
230
00:22:06,830 --> 00:22:09,890
to meet the armored fish of the Devonian,
231
00:22:10,066 --> 00:22:14,002
predators that are quite literally as hard as nails.
232
00:22:21,377 --> 00:22:24,574
I use the time map
to get my head round where I've been.
233
00:22:24,747 --> 00:22:26,647
These spans of time are immense.
234
00:22:26,816 --> 00:22:32,652
My first adventure, I went all the way
back in time 450 million years ago,
235
00:22:32,822 --> 00:22:35,620
to ride an Orthocone
and tussle with sea scorpions.
236
00:22:35,792 --> 00:22:40,092
My second dive was 230 million years
before the present day.
237
00:22:40,263 --> 00:22:43,232
That was with those bizarre sea reptiles.
238
00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:47,258
We're now here, 360 million years ago.
239
00:22:47,437 --> 00:22:50,429
Welcome to the age of giant armored fish.
240
00:23:05,855 --> 00:23:07,846
Unbelievable!
241
00:23:09,158 --> 00:23:12,821
- How was the dive, Mike?
- Oh, outstanding.
242
00:23:12,996 --> 00:23:15,328
It came so close!
243
00:23:15,498 --> 00:23:17,625
I'll get this in the machine.
244
00:23:20,403 --> 00:23:24,464
Mike did a reconnaissance dive,
just to see what was around.
245
00:23:24,641 --> 00:23:28,202
From what he says,
we've struck gold on the first dive.
246
00:23:28,378 --> 00:23:30,608
Exactly what we came here for.
247
00:23:31,881 --> 00:23:36,784
Ah, look at that. That's it.
Can't be anything else. A Dunkleosteus.
248
00:23:36,953 --> 00:23:38,648
Well done, Mike!
249
00:23:38,821 --> 00:23:42,621
- What was it like? That's a Leviathan.
- My heart was in my mouth.
250
00:23:42,792 --> 00:23:47,252
- It just took my breath away.
- That thing is over 30 feet long.
251
00:23:47,564 --> 00:23:50,829
Four or five tonnes,
as much as two or three elephants.
252
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,560
Let's pause it, have a look at this.
253
00:23:53,803 --> 00:23:58,536
What a fearsome head! This shows
the classic features of Dunkleosteus.
254
00:23:58,708 --> 00:24:02,940
Armor plating on the front of the body,
up to two inches thick.
255
00:24:03,112 --> 00:24:07,242
Those aren't teeth.
Those are extensions of the jaw bones.
256
00:24:07,417 --> 00:24:12,582
They're for shearing through prey. It has
to punch through other armored fish.
257
00:24:12,755 --> 00:24:17,351
Those jaws are backed up by powerful
muscles at the back of the neck there.
258
00:24:17,527 --> 00:24:21,156
And this is exciting, it's gonna be my turn next.
259
00:24:21,331 --> 00:24:25,631
We're gonna find out
how powerful those jaws actually are.
260
00:24:29,606 --> 00:24:34,600
Our plan was to hand-feed a Dunkleosteus
and my job was to get the bait.
261
00:24:43,286 --> 00:24:46,847
Meanwhile, the crew was building a cage
for my protection.
262
00:24:47,023 --> 00:24:49,014
But why was it round?
263
00:24:49,192 --> 00:24:52,025
In the same way
that a dog can't bite a beach ball,
264
00:24:52,195 --> 00:24:56,495
we hoped the jaws of the Dunkleosteus
would slide off these bars.
265
00:25:03,272 --> 00:25:05,672
This could be good. It's a big tug.
266
00:25:07,043 --> 00:25:10,911
Fortunately, there's plenty of life
in the sea in the Devonian.
267
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:15,176
On land, there are
no creatures bigger than a centipede.
268
00:25:15,485 --> 00:25:16,816
This is a placoderm.
269
00:25:16,986 --> 00:25:19,921
It's Greek for ''armor plating''.
You can see why.
270
00:25:20,089 --> 00:25:22,717
This is in the same family as Dunkleosteus,
271
00:25:22,892 --> 00:25:25,360
and for a naturalist, this is a privilege.
272
00:25:25,528 --> 00:25:28,861
These fish were only around for 50 million years.
273
00:25:29,032 --> 00:25:32,763
There's nothing like this around
in the 21st century.
274
00:25:32,935 --> 00:25:36,996
I've a bet on with the crew
that the Dunkleosteus will slice through the bait,
275
00:25:37,173 --> 00:25:40,165
if it's actually wrapped in chain mail.
276
00:25:46,783 --> 00:25:50,048
This is where you feel at your most vulnerable,
277
00:25:50,219 --> 00:25:54,315
swimming into the cage
with a great chunk of bait.
278
00:25:56,392 --> 00:25:58,257
I'm in now.
279
00:25:58,428 --> 00:26:03,923
It will take a few minutes for the trail
of the smell to bring in the predators.
280
00:26:04,967 --> 00:26:09,461
And fingers crossed,
we'll be able to see Dunkleosteus.
281
00:26:13,710 --> 00:26:15,302
Look what's arrived.
282
00:26:15,478 --> 00:26:18,936
This must be
the most preposterous shark ever.
283
00:26:19,148 --> 00:26:21,207
Look at that fin on the back.
284
00:26:21,384 --> 00:26:26,185
Scientists call it the ironing board shark,
and you can see why.
285
00:26:26,355 --> 00:26:30,553
Must be a male; only the males
had that bizarre dorsal fin.
286
00:26:30,727 --> 00:26:34,527
Probably to help mating,
probably to display to females,
287
00:26:34,697 --> 00:26:38,189
maybe used in courtship battles between males.
288
00:26:40,636 --> 00:26:44,504
And these are some of the first sharks
ever to evolve.
289
00:26:45,274 --> 00:26:48,539
And this is great for me, I am such a shark fan.
290
00:26:49,445 --> 00:26:51,436
But that is surreal.
291
00:26:58,387 --> 00:27:00,651
He's been spooked by something.
292
00:27:01,491 --> 00:27:03,482
Here's a Dunkleosteus.
293
00:27:03,726 --> 00:27:06,786
He must have smelled the bait.
This is what we came for.
294
00:27:06,963 --> 00:27:09,693
And it's coming straight towards us.
295
00:27:10,533 --> 00:27:16,369
See that really thick protective armor
on the head there, over two inches thick.
296
00:27:16,539 --> 00:27:19,872
The first third of the body is covered with that.
297
00:27:20,042 --> 00:27:26,174
These fish have got these massive jaws
with big sharp shears sticking out.
298
00:27:26,516 --> 00:27:30,282
They slice them together,
just like scissors working.
299
00:27:30,453 --> 00:27:33,513
The action of slicing them together
keeps them sharp,
300
00:27:33,689 --> 00:27:36,954
and with that they can cut through anything.
301
00:27:39,695 --> 00:27:42,186
Let's see if I can win my bet.
302
00:27:49,806 --> 00:27:51,797
Come on!
303
00:27:53,176 --> 00:27:55,303
This is no fisherman's tale.
304
00:27:56,379 --> 00:27:58,370
This is a real monster.
305
00:28:02,852 --> 00:28:05,412
This is getting a little scary now.
306
00:28:09,892 --> 00:28:13,919
This is getting serious.
He really ran at the cage then.
307
00:28:19,435 --> 00:28:21,869
He's coming again and he's fast!
26496
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