All language subtitles for Attenborough.And.The.Sea.Dragon.(2019).1080p.WEB-DL

The remains of a dragon
have just been discovered

in the cliffs on the
South Coast of England.

It was an enormous marine reptile
that ruled the seas at the same time

as the dinosaurs ruled the land.

Scientifically,
it's called an ichthyosaur.

The bones are so well-preserved, it
may be able to give us new insights

into the lives of these
remarkable creatures.

Together with a team of scientists,
we will reconstruct the skeleton

and compare it to
animals alive today.

We'll try to understand how it looked
and how it survived in the open ocean.

Could this be a completely
new species of ichthyosaur?

Our search for
evidence will lead us

into an intriguing forensic
investigation into how it died.

I think you're lookin' at a 200
million-year-old murder mystery.

Solving that mystery will throw light on the
extraordinary world of the Jurassic ocean.

ATTENBOROUGH AND THE SEA DRAGON

The story of this extraordinary
dragon starts here in Dorset,

on the South Coast of England, one of the
most important geological sites in the world:

the Jurassic Coast.

It stretches for almost 100
miles from Devon to Dorset.

And it was here that the early
geologists first collected evidence

that, once, the world was
ruled by monstrous reptiles,

quite unlike anything
alive on Earth today.

Evidence of creatures that
existed all that time ago

can still be found
on these beaches.

Fossil collectors have been coming
here for, literally, centuries

and these rapidly eroding cliffs

are providing them with a continuous
supply of exciting things to find.

I started looking for
fossils when I was a boy

and I've never lost the feeling
of excitement and anticipation

of what one might discover.

The commonest fossils here are
coiled shells called ammonites

and you can find them
all over the place.

There's one here on this boulder.

You can see the whorls there, but
it's mostly been worn away by the sea.

But sometimes, if you're lucky,
you can find nodules like this

and, if you look at them, you can see
there's the edge there of an ammonite

and, if I hit it... I'd better
put on protective glasses.

If I hit it, it should...

How about that?

What a find!

Ammonites, in fact, are quite common on
this beach, but, every now and again,

something truly rare and
spectacular is found here,

and quite often by this man, one of
the most skilled fossil hunters I know.

Chris Moore has been collecting
fossils here for more than 30 years.

Recently, he came across a boulder which,
he thought, might contain something unusual.

Back in his workshop, he exposed a mosaic
of small, beautifully preserved bones

which he knew straightaway were the front
fins, the paddles, of an ichthyosaur.

But they were unlike any
he had ever seen before.

I still collect fossils.

I even have the remains
of an ichthyosaur,

a small one,
of a kind that's relatively common.

This was collected by Chris
about 10 years ago in Dorset.

I never found anything
as beautiful as this.

It's got jaws and it's got
teeth and it's got paddles.

And Dorset was the very first place where
they found a really complete skeleton

of one of these creatures.
This is a picture of it,

published for the very
first time in 1814.

People thought it was some kind
of monster, but what was it?

They thought it was a kind of
cross between a reptile and a fish,

so they called it an ichthyosaur,
a "fish lizard,"

or "sea dragon."

Since that time, many fossil
fragments of ichthyosaurs

have been discovered on
the Jurassic Coast...

but complete skeletons
are very rare.

The particular one that Chris has
just found is significantly different

from any that's ever
been found here before.

Chris shows me where he believes the
rest of the ichthyosaur's body is:

in the cliff, above the part of the
beach where he found the paddles.

It's in a limestone layer
near the top of the cliff

and, to reach it, Chris will
have to remove tons of clay.

In Jurassic times,
sea covered all this area.

On its floor,
sediments washed down from the land

turned into layers of
shales and limestone.

The land rose, the sea retreated, and,
now, in the rocks, you can find the remains

of the creatures that once
lived in those ancient waters.

As well as the remains of ammonites, there
are the bones of fish, such as sharks.

But the top predators at this
time were reptiles, ichthyosaurs.

They dominated the seas for
more than 150 million years.

After getting permission to dig,
the team clamber down the cliff,

to the particular layer where the rest of
our ichthyosaur skeleton should be lying.

I'm gonna need at least another meter
'cause I need to drop down to the next bit.

It's dangerous work: These cliffs
occasionally collapse without warning.

To make sure that they don't
damage any of the fossils,

the team do all the
digging by hand.

There's just loads of roots.

Tons of clay have to be removed before
they even reach the layer of limestone

where they hope the rest
of the bones still lie.

Hooray!

It was on this very same coastline,
more than 200 years ago,

that the first complete skeleton
of an ichthyosaur was discovered.

It was found by a self-taught fossil
hunter called Mary Anning in 1811.

It was then, that the popular name sea dragon
was given to these prehistoric monsters.

Scientists speculated on how they
lived and artists tried to imagine

what they must have looked
like and how they behaved.

Back at the cliff face,
Chris and his team are hard at it,

but,
they haven't found any more bones.

This is a massive piece, tomb stone.
- Right, ready.

Chris is convinced that the skeleton
to which the paddles belonged

must be somewhere here,
and they check every rock.

Beautiful shale.

Lovely.
- Anything interesting? - Moment of truth.

Nothing.
- Just push it off. - Yeah.

Is there anything showing?
- Nothin' obvious.

Gosh, that's hard work.

I hope there's something here.
I almost don't want to look.

There's a bone. - Loads of bones
going all the way. There's bone there.

There's something here.
- No, it's all the way along.

At long last,
the team's efforts are rewarded.

We've got some bones here!
- Yeah. Loads here.

There's loads of bones.
- Fantastic.

What's this? Is that a vertebrae?

But the bones are not in the position
the team had expected to find them.

Instead of lying across
the face of the cliff,

the skeleton seems to
be bending back into it.

We're gonna have to go down through there.
- It means much more work.

And, to make matters worse,
a storm is brewing.

The rain's just starting, but, I think
we've got to make a bit of a run for it.

Rough seas and heavy
downpours can cause landslips,

which could easily destroy any
chance of retrieving the bones.

It was after just such a storm
that Chris found the front limbs,

the paddles, of our sea dragon.

They convinced him that the
fossil was something special.

You can see why when you
compare them to the paddles

of the kind of ichthyosaur
that's usually found here.

This is an adult and this is
the paddle of this creature

and,
if you compare it to this one...

It's huge. Yeah.

I've never seen anything quite like it.
- There are half a dozen rows of digits there

and how many there?
- I think there's at least 9 or 10, crossways,

and, obviously, you know,
many more in length.

So it's getting on for
twice the number of digits.

And the whole shape of the fin is completely
different. - Quite, quite different.

And must be new, therefore? - I think so.
I've never seen anything quite like it.

How exciting. It's extremely rare

to find a new species of
ichthyosaur, these days.

Only nine have been discovered
here in the last 200 years.

But, can these strange
paddles tell us something

about how this odd
ichthyosaur lived?

To try and find out, we're going to
construct a three-dimensional model.

To do that, we first need
to have the paddles scanned.

To create an image, this cutting-edge
scanner takes thousands of X-ray projections

through the fossil,
in cross sections, as it rotates.

It's not long before
the first images appear.

That's amazing. It's really clear.

You can even see the bones
laying underneath the paddle.

At the moment, we're just
doing one section. - Yeah.

We're going to do more multiple scans down
the specimen and build it all back together

into a three-dimensional volume.

The scans of the paddles are
sent to Bristol University.

Here, scientists can isolate
the image of each bone

within the rock and
then assemble them

to create a detailed,
three-dimensional model.

The team is particularly excited
by the shape and structure

of these paddles,
and I've come to find out why.

We've got a complete paddle here,
taken from the bones itself,

fully reconstructed, rearticulated,
so this is as close as we can get

to what it would've looked like. We
can actually start using this paddle

to try and tell us what
species it might've been.

Because of the size of the paddle and the
way that some of these bones articulate

with each other, it's different
to other Ichthyosaurus

and so,
this could be a new species.

That would be great.
- It would be jolly exciting.

We won't know for sure until
we find the rest of the body.

But can the paddles tell us something
about the way in which this creature swam?

There are a lot of bones in this paddle,
which would've been good for holding steady

and also for allowing it to
be maneuverable in the water.

There would've been cartilage around that,
wouldn't there, somewhere or other? - Yes.

All of the gaps between the bones
would've been filled in with cartilage

and even further around the paddle
itself, giving it a paddle-like shape,

giving it a cross section
a bit like an aero foil,

so that it could cut
straight through the water.

Could they fold them in to the side?
- Probably not.

Looking at the muscles and where they attach,
it suggests these are moving up and down,

helping it to turn very quickly or
keeping it on the straight and narrow

when it wants to be
a little more sedate.

The shape of the paddles
and the way they moved

seems very like the way an animal
alive today uses its paddles.

That animal usually lives in tropical
waters, like these in the Caribbean.

The sea here is warm,
with temperatures much like

they would've been in
Jurassic times around Britain.

And the animal in
question is the dolphin.

Dolphins, of course, are mammals,
not reptiles, like ichthyosaurs.

Nonetheless, the two groups have
bodies shaped in very similar ways.

The front fins, or paddles, of both
would've helped to steady themselves

as they turn and cut
through the water.

And both have similar dorsal fins.

So, although they lived
200 million years apart,

dolphins and ichthyosaurs share
many physical characteristics

and that's because they
evolved in similar ways,

as a response to a
similar environment.

Like dolphins, ichthyosaurs evolved from
ancestors that had once lived on land.

As they became adapted to life in
water, they lost the ability to walk.

Their bodies became more streamlined
and their forelimbs turned into paddles,

to help them swim.

But ichthyosaurs do differ from
dolphins in two striking ways.

Dolphins have tails that
are flattened horizontally

and they drive themselves forward
by beating their tails up and down.

But we know, from their fossils,
that ichthyosaur tails

were flattened vertically,
like those of sharks,

so they must've swum in the same sort of way:
by sweeping their tails from side to side.

Ichthyosaurs, unlike dolphins,
also had back paddles.

They, too, would've helped
stabilize them as they swam.

And what's more, the paddles of our
ichthyosaur are particularly large and long,

rather like those of the
oceanic whitetip shark.

That shape helps the whitetip
to cruise for long distances

with very little expenditure of
energy in their search for food.

So, it could be that our ichthyosaur
was also a long-distance traveler

and only an infrequent visitor
to the Lyme Regis seas.

Which could be why no one has ever
found one of these here before.

Back at the dig site,
the rain has stopped, at last.

The team must try to extract
the rest of the dragon's body

before worse weather arrives.

That's how hard the rock is. It's
actually smashed the end off the chisel.

So you can see what
we're dealing with.

At last, they find signs of
the rest of the skeleton.

Lots and lots of bone in there.
- Yeah. - Ribs and all sorts of stuff.

And there's another,
particularly exciting discovery.

I think it's skin.
- It's a skin?! - Yeah, look. - Really?

They've found signs of fossilized skin.
- Rare isn't it? - Yeah, very rare.

The blocks that contain bones and skin
can't be thrown down like the other rocks.

They must be carefully
strapped up and gently lowered.

So, first block down, few more to go, but
if they go like that, I'll be very pleased.

Two weeks after they started work, I
go down again to check on progress.

Chris shows me what
they've already collected.

So, lots over here, with a bit of a wash.
- Well, I can see something there.

That's more obvious, yes.
- Yeah.

Here, you can see,
glinting in the sunlight,

sections through the backbone,
the vertebrae column.

And these are the ribs that are
still attached to the vertebrae.

And these are the neurals
that come off the backbone.

The spines off the top of the back?
- Yeah. Yeah.

But they've actually got skin preserved
on them. - No, really? - Yeah.

Can you see that here?
- Well, that's the very black.

You can see it on the impression as well.
- This is great news!

But something puzzles me. Would the head
have been on this side or that side?

Most likely here,
in this next slab.

And it's not there?
- Not so far - Boy.

How many more tons to go?

Only a few.

Once the blocks are down on the beach, team
remove as much excess limestone as possible

to make them lighter.

Even then, they're extremely heavy,
so to get them back to Lyme Regis,

they're loaded onto a pontoon
and towed back by boat.

So, for the first time
in 200 million years

our strange ichthyosaur once
again takes to the water.

The dig may be over, but the
investigation is only just beginning.

Now the work becomes more delicate,
involving not sledgehammers,

but small vibrating chisels that chip
off the limestone in tiny flakes.

It's detailed work that will
take months to complete.

Day after day and week after week,
Chris and his team

work patiently to expose
more of the skeleton.

And, as they do so, the bones
reveal something very intriguing.

I've come down to Chris's
workshop to take a look.

It's a bit of a squeeze
past the plesiosaur.

It really is an Aladdin's cave.

After weeks of work, Chris has
exposed the backbones and ribs.

So this is it so far.
- Gosh.

And, in doing so,
he's made a startling discovery.

It looks like it's been attacked.
- Gosh.

There's breakages all through the
rib cage. If you follow one rib,

you go along here, down to here,
then this piece corresponds to this

which then goes over to here, so...
- There, yeah.

One rib is now broken
into three pieces.

How extraordinary.
But what's happened here?

Here the vertebrae column has
been actually pulled away.

I'm fairly positive
it was done in life.

And the paddles, the flippers have been
ripped off. - Where would they go?

But they're in a very odd position,
aren't they?

I mean, they're pointing
in the wrong direction.

They should be, basically, in this
position and facing the other way up,

and they've been ripped
off and turned over.

Gosh. Well, where was the head?
- The head should be here.

That's the very last vertebrae.
- Back of the neck? - Yeah.

So the head's been torn off and
there's no evidence, there's no teeth

or pieces of bone;
it's completely gone.

So it's a murder?
- Yes. - Really?

Yeah, I think it was killed. - Did this
predator crunch the head, do you think?

Who knows, you know?
It's 200 million years ago,

so it's a bit of guess work,
really, isn't it?

So it's a murder story
without a complete body yet?

To find out more, we need to
reveal the rest of the skeleton.

So it's all hands on deck.

They've even roped me in.

This is more difficult
than it looks.

Very good.

Could you start on 3 days a week?

Is it alright? - It's good, yeah.
- I haven't gone too close to the bone?

No, no.
- That's a relief.

But what of the missing head?

If it was been ripped off,
Chris thinks he might

still be able to find it
somewhere on the beach.

So, at every opportunity he scours the
area where the first block was found.

The best time to look is after a storm when
a strong sea has moved sand and shingle

and perhaps revealed
the rocks beneath.

To try and deduce just how
our Ichthyosaur met its fate,

we've sent images of the fossil
to someone who specializes

in investigating the cause of
death in pre-historic animals.

You sent me some photographs, and I
had a look at some of these breaks.

First of all I noticed this here...
if you look you can just see

this bulbous piece on the rib here. This
is where the rib has healed after a break

and the animal's gone
on to live another day.

This animal's had a little
bit of a bad start in life.

Yes. - If you look down here
and especially this one if you look.

This fracture here mirrors
that fracture there

and then we can see a whole line of
fractures where there's no new bone growth.

Something has actually
crushed this rib cage.

So look here at these neural spines
- these are absolutely perfect...

and then from here... they're
broken all the way down to here...

this is the last one that's broken
and then here they're perfect again.

So there to there is damaged,

on the ribs there to there
is damaged and here, too,

and also on some of these belly
ribs. So I think there's a bite

which goes right across here.
That probably reflects

the width of the skull of the animal
that bit it. - Yes. Yep, yeah.

Yeah so it came in across here almost...
- Somewhere like that yeah.

There was a massive bite;
it caused catastrophic injury,

and remember the rib
cage is protecting lungs.

This was an air-breathing marine animal
so once this rib cage is punctured,

and the lungs are punctured,
this animal is dead.

It can't breathe and also it's going to
sink straight down to the seafloor as well.

It's quite likely that the
animal that killed this animal,

presumably it was looking for food,
it didn't get to eat it.

No, I think it just killed it. It didn't
eat it or else it wouldn't be so intact.

So this probably all took
place in the surface water.

But as soon as it had done this
injury, this thing just sank

like a stone straight down to the sea
floor and then it was lost to the animal

that was trying to eat it.

So it looks as if Chris's
attack theory might be right.

But what type of creature
could possibly have inflicted

so much damage to our sea dragon?

A rather unusual fossil in Chris's
collection might give us a clue.

This is fossilized
ichthyosaur droppings

called a coprolite, and what
makes it particularly interesting

is that within this piece of dung,
you can see fish scales.

So that shows that ichthyosaurs were
fish eaters, but more than that...

this one is even more interesting.

Because in this piece of dung

are teeth, ichthyosaur teeth...

so the animal that produced this
was almost certainly a cannibal.

It ate other ichthyosaur species.

Could it be that our dragon was
killed by one of its own kind?

To find out more, I've come to the Natural
History Museum of Stuttgart in Germany.

Here they have one of
the most impressive

and varied collections of
ichthyosaurs in the world.

They came in all shapes and sizes.

But of all the ichthyosaurs that
existed 200 million years ago

there was one which was
particularly fearsome.

This is Temnodontosaurus, one of the biggest
of the sea dragons so far discovered.

They grew up to 10 meters long, and
individual bones have been discovered

which suggest that they could
grow even bigger than that.

The remains of these
terrifying sea monsters

were discovered in a quarry
just outside Stuttgart.

These are the biggest complete
Temnodontosaurus fossils ever found.

This huge predator had the
largest eye known of any animal

which would have given it
extremely acute eyesight.

Not only that,
but the eye was surrounded

by a ring of scutes...
bony plates...

to protect it from the
water pressure at depth.

So,
with eyes the size of footballs,

this monster was able to hunt at
all depths of the Jurassic ocean.

It also had rows of sharp teeth

that would have allowed it
to rip apart almost anything.

These teeth are shaped like blades.
Well-suited for cutting into flesh.

And here's another specimen
of Temnodontosaurus

that is proof positive that
it really was a hunter.

Here is its stomach
and inside its stomach

you can see these tiny,
little circular bones

which are the backbones, the
vertebrae, of a baby ichthyosaur.

So we now know that Temnodontosaurus
could devour young ichthyosaurs,

but would one have been capable of
eating an adult ichthyosaur like ours?

Fossils of Temnodontosaurus have
been found in other regions,

including the Jurassic Coast.

So this monster could
well be our prime suspect.

To build our case further,
we're going to analyze

another specimen of the same species
that was found on the Jurassic Coast.

This is the skull of
a Temnodontosaurus,

and as you can see, it's huge.

This specimen was found by Mary Anning
on the Dorset Coast in the 19th century,

and we are hoping that we may be able
to use it with the latest techniques

to tell us just how powerful
these great jaws could be.

So, for the first time ever,
our team of scientists

are going to attempt to calculate the
bite strength of a Temnodontosaurus.

The first step is
to scan the skull.

These scans will help the team to not only
reconstruct the Temnodontosaurus' skull,

but also work out the
size of its jaw muscles.

They can then assess the power
of this huge predator's bite,

and see if it was strong
enough to kill our ichthyosaur.

Temnodontosaurs are unusual in that they had
huge sharp teeth for cutting through flesh.

But how did other
ichthyosaurs catch their prey?

To get a clue I've come to see
a modern day predator in action.

That is a gharial
crocodile from Indonesia.

Its jaws, as you can see, are not wide
and flat like an African crocodile

but long and thin, and because of that shape
there's very little resistance to the water

so they can snatch fish,
which they do very effectively.

They're very formidable
animals indeed.

Ichthyosaurs must have fed
in much the same way as that.

Their jaws were very similar
to those of the gharial.

Simple studs to grip the prey.

No need to chew it, because the jaws
at the back were quite big enough

to enable the animal to swallow their
prey whole. Just as the gharial does.

So it's likely that our
ichthyosaur had teeth and jaws

specially adapted to catch
small slippery fish and squid

just like a gharial crocodile.

Back in Lyme Regis, the work on the
bones has taken a dramatic turn.

Chris has found that there is fossilized
skin over nearly the whole skeleton.

It seems to be virtually
covering the whole thing.

It's rare to find any sign whatever of
skin on fossils, let alone so much of it.

Fiann Smithwick,
an expert on fossilized skin,

has come to take a sample back to his lab.
- We can look and see

if there's any evidence of the
original pigment preserved in the skin.

It's a lovely piece.
- That's really good, that'll be perfect.

Fiann hopes that this
remarkably preserved sample

might tell us what the skin looked
like and even what color it was.

At the University of Bristol, he places
a tiny sample of the fossilized skin

in a machine that coats its surface
with minute particles of gold.

They will reflect the rays of
a scanning electron microscope.

It's astonishing that you can actually see
the remains of skin on such an ancient fossil.

But this microscope can also magnify its
structure tens of thousands of times.

Here we have exceptional level of
preservation of the skin of our ichthyosaur,

despite being 200 million years old. So the
structures we're looking at here are around

half a micrometer across. And a micro
meter is one millionth of a meter,

and you see here these little granules
and these are preserved melanosomes.

Now, melanosomes contain the pigment
that you have in mammal hair,

in bird feathers and reptile skin,
and the abundance of them

and the distribution of them can tell us about
the overall color patterns of the animal.

So having a high abundance
means you're likely to be darker

and having a low abundance means
you're likely to be lighter.

This area has come from the back. There's
a large abundance of these melanosomes,

there's a lot of pigment here
and when we look at samples

that have come from the bottom of
the animal we don't see this pigment

in this level of abundance. So it
most likely had a much darker back

than it did a belly and this
conforms to a type of color pattern

known as countershading
in modern animals.

You can see countershading in lots of sea
animals today, great white sharks for example.

Both predators and prey
are colored in this way.

It makes it more difficult to
see both from above and below.

So this is the first time that
we've actually seen evidence

of a counter-shaded
pattern in an ichthyosaur.

So that really is a step forward

in our knowledge of these creatures?
- It is, and it can tell us a huge amount

about the way the animal might have lived.
- Just by looking at that picture.

Just from looking at these melanosomes.
- Great.

Today, counter-shaded animals tend to live
in open water where there's good visibility.

Ichthyosaurs also lived in the open
seas, so being camouflaged in this way

would have been very
valuable to them.

The latest scientific research
suggests that counter-shading

might also protect
against ultra violet light

and even help to regulate
body temperature.

As an air-breathing creature, our
ichthyosaur would have had to spend much time

near the surface, so counter-shading could
have been a benefit for that reason as well.

There are,
of course many marine reptiles

still living in the oceans today.
Like turtles.

The biggest of them
is the leatherback,

whose ancestors in fact were around
at the same time as the ichthyosaurs.

Today they come ashore to nest in
many places, including the Caribbean.

This huge leatherback
turtle is laying her eggs.

She's hauled her way up from
the sea, and dug a hole,

and now she's depositing
about 100 of them.

She'll then fill in the hole and then
work her way down, back to the sea.

It's clearly a very
laborious process.

And that's the challenge facing all
reptiles that live in the sea...

having to come onto
land to lay eggs.

Ichthyosaurs were reptiles
and they lived in the sea,

but they were so well
adapted to a life at sea

that they gave birth to live young.

And that would have saved the sea dragons
making the dangerous journey onto land.

There is remarkable evidence
that ichthyosaurs gave birth

to live young in the
Stuttgart museum.

And here is a truly extraordinary,
beautiful, almost poignant fossil.

Proof positive that ichthyosaurs
gave birth to live young.

Here is the baby just at the moment
as it's leaving the birth canal.

It comes out tail first and
as soon as it was freed,

it would have risen to the
surface to take its first breath,

but something happened before
that did and here is the proof.

Whatever it was,
death must have been instant.

So ichthyosaurs gave birth to live
babies just as many sharks do today.

After several weeks of research,
the team at Bristol University

have managed to reconstruct the
skull of the Temnodontosaurus

so that they can analyze
the power of its jaws.

How do you assess the strength
of this animal's bite?

Well the first thing that we need to know
is the volume of muscle that could fit

into the back of the skull. So the muscles
are attaching round here and there are also,

there's a group of muscles that
are attaching further forward here,

and if we know how much muscle
volume there is we can estimate

how much force that muscle can generate.
- And what did you discover?

We found out that our upper
estimate of bite force

was around 30,000 Newtons, and to
put that in a modern day context,

that's twice as powerful as the largest
saltwater crocodile that's been measured.

Twice as powerful?
- Yes. - So that's enormous. Yeah.

Yes,
it's a very powerful bite force.

So, this must have been the animal

with the most powerful
bite of its time, must it?

Yes. That's absolutely right...
Of its time, it would have been.

Not only did it have a powerful bite,
its jaw-closing muscles also attach

quite close to the jaw joint.
Now normally in animals

where that happens they have quite
a fast, but less forceful bite,

but the fact that this animal is actually
so big means that it has a fast bite,

but also by virtue of its sheer size
it also has a powerful bite too.

So it basically has the
best of both worlds.

So this was the king of the Jurassic sea?
- Or queen... - Sorry.

Yeah.

So it seems very likely that
temnodontosaurus was strong enough

not only to kill our sea dragon,
but to rip its head clean off.

It must have been a
terrifying battle.

Our investigations have given us a pretty
good idea of how our sea dragon died.

But can the reconstruction
work carried out

at Bristol University tell
us more about its life?

All the blocks containing the
fossil have now been scanned.

With those scans,
the team were able to separate

the individual bones and
then put them back together

to create a 3D image of the ichthyosaur's
body before it was attacked.

They've added a head based on
estimates of other ichthyosaur species.

That's magnificent.
- This is the whole animal,

and we estimate that it may have been
up to round about 41/2 meters long.

Is that bigger than most in their line?
- Yes, this is certainly bigger

than most of the ichthyosaurs
that we see at Lyme Regis.

Looks huge; looks amazing.
- Here are the forelimbs, right at the front,

and we've got hindlimbs here and,
at the back, we've got a tail bend.

This is supported by the backbone, which
extends along the whole length of the body.

But that bend is natural, isn't it?
- Yes. - That's not a break.

That gives strength to the
lower element of the tail

for driving it forward.
- Yes. Much like a shark.

The tail bend is the main
propulsive organ of the animal.

So could this be a new species? - Yes.
These pieces of evidence together suggest

that it is going to be a new
species and it's jolly exciting.

They don't come along every day.
- Historic. - Yes.

This is wonderful news: a sighting
by Chris on the beach in Lyme Regis

has led to the discovery of
a new species of ichthyosaur,

adding to our knowledge of
these fascinating creatures.

It's extraordinary how much you can
discover from one single fossil.

Digital reconstruction has
allowed us to rebuild this animal

to reveal how it looked
and how it moved.

We've discovered for the first time
that this creature was counter-shaded,

but that didn't stop
it from being attacked.

By analyzing its bones
we've been able to work out

that its most likely attacker
was the Temnodontosaurs,

the most ferocious predator
of the seas at that time.

It's been a fascinating
journey of discovery.

But for me the real wonder
is the bones themselves...

I can't wait to see what they look
like when they're finally cleaned.

After many months of painstaking
and patient preparation,

Chris and his team have
finally completed their work

on the fossil of our
ancient sea dragon.

Here it is finished.

It's really beautiful, isn't it? I
mean, it is beautiful, that's for sure.

Thank you. It's a great specimen isn't it?
- Lovely.

And how many new species have been
discovered in the last 100 years?

Very few, very, very few, and it's
thrilling to find something that's...

that's, you know,
just never been seen before.

Well, it's a long time spent just
revealing the body of this creature,

but it's also revealed this extraordinary
story of life and death, predator, prey,

fighting it out in the
seas 200 million years ago

just down there in the bottom of the lane.
- Yeah. It's a fantastic story.

Exciting. Really,
really thrilling and romantic.

For Chris,
this has been a labor of love,

and it's filled in another gap
in the paleontological jigsaw,

a story that all started with an
odd-looking boulder on a Dorset beach.

It's extraordinary to think
that some 200 million years ago,

exactly here,
the greatest predator of its time

was swimming around in the sea.

And that's what I really love
about fossils and fossil hunting.

It gives you an
extraordinarily vivid insight

into what the world was
like millions of years

before human beings even
appeared on this planet.

Ichthyosaurs died out
around 90 million years ago.

No one knows why,
but standing here,

and having excavated that spectacular
fossil it's not difficult to imagine a time

when dragons really
did rule the seas.

New timing - danel32.
/eng.to.est@gmail.com/