All language subtitles for Dinosaur.with.Stephen.Fry.S01E02.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track4_[eng]

STEPHEN FRY: 'Dinosaurs.
Prehistoric monsters.

'Huge, terrifying.

'I've always loved them.
Always been fascinated by them.

'What's mind-boggling is that
these extraordinary creatures

'roamed where we walk today.

'But what if I could
go back in time,

'millions of years into the
past,

'to the magical, dangerous
world they lived in.

'I wonder...

'what would I make of them
face-to-face?'

Oh, you can just pull up here.

Thanks.

Imagine being able to explore

their world and move with them.

HE CHUCKLES

It's just a dream, I suppose,
but...

Well, I must get on with my
life. Ha.

DISTANT ROAR

Mind you... you never know...

DRAMATIC MUSIC

ROARING

'For 180 million years,
dinosaurs dominated our planet.

'In this series, I'm going to
be transported back

'to the different eras of these
awe-inspiring creatures...'

'..to immerse myself in
their amazing, magical world.'

HISSING
Hey! Don't do that!

'With the help of experts

'and the latest scientific
discoveries from our time,

'we'll put their power
and strength to the test,

'unravel their remarkable story
from humble origins

'of the dawn of the dinosaurs

'to see how they evolved

'in a dazzling and bizarre
array of forms to become
giants...'

'..and produce some of
the scariest predators

'ever to have stalked the
earth...'

'..until their ultimate demise,
wiped from the face of the
planet

'in a single catastrophe
of unimaginable power.

'Come with me
as I travel back in time

'to encounter the dinosaur.'

'Reverse back time

'and the Earth we know today
looked very different indeed.

'The land squashed together
into one giant mass called
Pangea,

'which covered a third
of the planet.

'And as the Earth changed,
so did the conditions.

'New and distinct worlds formed

'and each was home to its own
class of unique characters.'

'Last time, we were in
the Jurassic period

'to discover how the very first
dinosaurs grew into monsters.'

BELLOWS

'Tonight, we're exploring the
next key chapter in the
dinosaurs' story,

'when a multitude of strange
and exciting new species

'evolved to take over
a fast-changing planet.'

'We're in a time period
known as the Cretaceous.'

'The climate is one of the
hottest in Earth's history,

'as much as ten degrees Celsius
warmer than today.

'So hot, there's not even ice
at the north and south poles.'

'Among the ancient conifers
and ferns,

'appearing for the very first
time are flowering plants and
trees,

'as well as a remarkable
new cast of dinosaurs.'

EXHALES

This is one of the most dynamic
ages in dinosaur history.

An era that sees
an explosion of diversity.

'Among an array of new species

'comes a group of highly
effective predators known as
raptors.

'The most famous
is probably Velociraptor,

'a break-out star of the
Hollywood movie Jurassic Park,

'which featured a couple of
terrifying creatures

'teaming up to outwit their
prey.

'Now I wonder how accurate
that really was?'

Ah, there you are. Hello.

HISSING
Hey! Don't do that!

Velociraptors are in fact
about the size of a turkey.

Not quite the terrifying
killing machines

that Spielberg brought to life.

Jurassic Park did somewhat
exaggerate the Velociraptor's
size,

but that was partly because of
a dramatic discovery

that was made while the film
was in production.

An entirely new
and much bigger raptor.

DRAMATIC MUSIC,
ROARING

SQUEALS

This is the Utahraptor.

Named after the American state
where it was discovered in
1991.

It's really remarkable, isn't
it?

Look how it has all those
feathers over its body,

and yet it doesn't even fly.

Look at those remarkable
flashes of red on its wings.

They're even brighter
on the other side.

And those razor-sharp teeth
mark it out as a vicious
meat-eater.

It also has very sharp claws,

and those two huge ones
there on its feet.

What are they for, I wonder?

But the raptors weren't the
only dinosaurs to come into
their own

during the Cretaceous. Hell,
no!

'The trigger lies
with those shifting continents.

'As we head from the Jurassic
to the Cretaceous,

'the supercontinent Pangea
fragments.

'This break-up isolates
pockets of land

'where evolution starts to
run along different tracks,

'producing a variety
of new dinosaurs.

'In North America, there's
the spikily-armoured Gastonia.

'In Africa, what is today
Niger, the Ouranosaurus,

'with a huge sail on its back,

'thought to store food
like a camel's hump.'

'And in south-east Asia
in modern Laos,

'the Ichthyovenator,

'with a tapered snout able to
pluck fish from the seas.'

The raptors are a key part of
the Cretaceous dinosaur boom,

and Utahraptor here is the
biggest one we know of - so
far.

But what kind of predators are
they?

Well, to discover that,
we need to examine the evidence

the raptors left behind.

And to do that,
we need to travel to Utah.

'Dr Jim Kirkland has been
hunting dinosaurs in the US

'for over 40 years.

'He's found and named
26 new species.

'Back in 1991, he was about to
make a momentous discovery.

'He and his team were digging
at a quarry in central Utah

'when they unearthed a body
part

'that could only have come
from a raptor.'

DR JIM KIRLAND:'One of our guys
called me over and said,'

Jim, "Will you take a look at
this?"

Oh, that's a nice one.
Yeah, you did good.

'And it was just sticking out'

from under the rock.

'And I'm looking at it and
saying, "Well, that's a claw."

'I want you to uncover this,

'and I realise this is a giant
dromaeosaur raptor claw.'

'It was by far the largest
raptor claw ever discovered.'

This is a cast of
a Deinonychus claw.

That was the biggest one in
the world until we found this.

'It's a pretty formidable
claw.'

'More fossilised bones
followed,

'until Jim could reconstruct
a full skeleton.'

'It revealed a creature
that stood as tall as a man

'and weighed as much
as two grand pianos.

This animal
is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It's got massive bones.

In fact, it matches very close

to the size of the animals
in the movie.

'Jim named his new dinosaur
Utahraptor,

'announcing his find
the same month

'the movie Jurassic Park
was released.

'Its large size was a match for
Spielberg's infamous
Velociraptors.

'But found in Mongolia,

'the real Velociraptor was in
fact a mere half-a-metre tall.

'The largest raptor previously
known at around twice that
height

'was Deinonychus.'

'Utahraptor was half a metre
taller still.'

DR JIM KIRKLAND: 'And this
thing could kick the side out
of the barn.

'These animals could run
circles around any of us.'

'Jim's discovery has made
Utahraptor the undisputed king
of the raptors.'

'When you look at Utahraptor,'

basically scale it up
to a large grizzly bear.

The kind of things
that live in Alaska

and would rip your head right
off.

RASPS

'The perfect guide
to these creatures

'and to this key era
in dinosaur history

'is a man who has made plenty
of dinosaur discoveries of his
own -

'Dr Dean Lomax.'

Well, hello, Dean.
Hello, Stephen.

You're the man to tell me about
these extraordinary creatures.

Beautiful, apart from anything
else. Yeah. Fantastic beast.

The thing that really surprises
me especially is, I'll be
honest,

I think of a raptor,
I think of a Velociraptor,

and I think of Jurassic Park,
like most people - the
feathers.

Mm.I mean, how do we know,
and what are they for?

We know for sure
because many other raptors

and relatives of raptors have
been found with feathers
preserved,

'and so if we go along
the family tree of raptors,

'we can work out that even the
predecessors of the ancestors

'of Utahraptor
and Velociraptor had feathers.'

So the days of thinking of...

you know, almost scaly, slimy
skin,

those days are over, really?

They're extinct.
LAUGHTER

How do you know that it's a
meat-eater, that it's a raptor?

What's the first clue
that gives you that idea?

The first place you've got to
go is right to the mouth.

You can see inside the mouth
there you've got the sharp
teeth.

They are not teeth
for eating plants.

They're definitely
for slicing through flesh.

Right. Steak knives.

Steak knives. Exactly.

But then look at the arms, as
well, and the feet,

you've got the curved claws
there,

and then you've got the long,
stiffened tail, as well.

And then, of course,
you've got the long legs, so...

this is certainly a hunter.
Right.

A very beautiful animal,
that's the surprise to me.

I would say that's a genuinely
lovely creation.

LAUGHTER

I'm talking about it as if
it's in the enclosure at Ascot,

but it would pass rather well
there. I think it would be let
in.

Yeah.
Beautifully dressed. Fabulous.

Oh!

That's quite a turn of speed
there.

And is that their superpower?

Yes, certainly one of them,
yeah.

So speed is really important
for Utahraptor.

At least the juveniles,
or shall we say, the teenagers,

they were probably clocked
at about 40kph, 25mph.

Pretty fast.
That's faster than Usain Bolt.

Yes. That's quick, then,
for something of that size,

because even though it's
smaller than a lot of the
famous...

things like Diplodocus,
it's still a big creature.

It is still a big creature.
Yeah.

So compared to other dinosaurs
of the period,

they were the fastest,
or amongst the fastest?

Certainly up there
amongst the fastest

of the two-legged
meat-eating dinosaurs.

DINOSAUR VOCALISING

Ooh, now here's something.

Oh! What's that?

Now that is a type of dinosaur
called an iguanodontid,

and specifically, I think,
this is one called
iguanacolossus.

This is part of a big family
of dinosaurs

that's had its roots, the very
first of these were called
iguanodon,

found here in the UK.

My goodness. And are they
meat-eaters or vegetarians?

No, these are strictly
plant-eaters. Oh.

So it's possible that this
would be a prey animal

for our friend the Utahraptor?

Very likely. They lived
together at the same time.

STEPHEN GASPS

Well, I think this one might be
in danger of becoming lunch.

'But if it comes to a fight,
will these placid plant-eaters

'have the pace or the power
to survive a raptor attack?'

SCREECHING

'We're in the early
Cretaceous period,

'when the dinosaurs flourished
into a dazzling and bizarre
array

'of very different forms,

'including a group
of deadly predators

'that were covered in exquisite
feathers, but couldn't fly...

'the raptors.'

'We're on the trail of this
one,

'but it seems more interested
in an iguanodontid

'that's grazing over there,
quite oblivious of the threat
to it.'

The thing I've been
rather fascinated by

is as it's preparing, it seems,

to ambush this iguanodontid,

I can't help noticing
those signature -

I don't know what you'd call
them - toe claws that poke up.

What on Earth are they for?
They're so unusual.

Yes, the old famous
sickle-shaped toe claw.

This is something that was on
the toe itself, it's the
second toe,

and this,
palaeontologists have thought,

maybe is it used for slashing?

Is it used for stabbing? Or
maybe even climbing up trees?

Oh, good heavens. Yes, like
someone climbing up a telegraph
pole.

Exactly. But we know for sure

that it would have been used
in close combat.

How'd you know that for sure?

Well, we have, would you
believe, an exquisite fossil

that was found in 1971

as part of an expedition
in Mongolia,

of a Velociraptor
found with one of these claws

buried deep in the throat
region of a Triceratops
relative

called Protoceratops.

You have this behaviour that
is locked in time, preserved
forever.

Wow.

So I get the slasher/stabber
role,

but what's so surprising
is that it points upwards.

I can picture coming downwards,
grabbing, but this?

You can see on the Utahraptor,

the claws are held up
constantly in life,

up in the air, so the claw
didn't actually touch the
floor,

and the reason for that was
to protect the claw itself

and keep it sharp
and always ready for attack.

And if we're to believe
Stephen Spielberg,

it taps its toes on the
chromium floor of the kitchen,

or whatever it was
that it was doing.

Yeah, I think that was done
for cinematic effect.

I can't imagine
that ever would have happened.

'To unravel the secret

'of exactly how Utahraptor
used those vicious claws...'

'..engineer and dinosaur
enthusiast Adam Wojcik

'is turning to the power
of modern machinery.

'His team has constructed
a set of robo dinosaurs

'to put the claws to the test.

'And he's getting the expert
advice of palaeontologist Joe
Bonsor.'

What we've done is we've got a
motor here and a gearbox and a
swingarm

and a nice, sharp steel claw.

What we want to look into
is the idea that Utahraptor

and the other raptor-like
dinosaurs

had this big slashing motion

that they could make
with their claw,

and we want to see how
effective that would really
be.

'Adam's brought the
Utahraptor's vicious claw

'back to life with two tests.

'The first uses
a mechanical slashing limb,

'testing the popular idea that
raptors disembowelled their
prey.'

'The second test uses the claw
to pierce and penetrate,

'more like an eagle's talon.

'Which will be more effective?'

'The slasher claw is up first.

'So, will it be able
to slash through dinosaur skin?

'Some leather might give us an
idea of what it would be like

'against a true prey animal,
like an iguanodontian
dinosaur.'

'The teams modelled the metal
claw

'on the original Utahraptor
fossil.'

This would be the bony core
of the claw, and then it would

have been surrounded in like a
keratin sheath around the
core.

'It's time to put the slasher
theory to the test.'

Oh. Wow. We've definitely
got...

That's really interesting.
..no penetration there.

There's a bit of a scratch,
but nothing major, really.

'The claw just bounces off
the leather.'

So even though we've
emulated the action,

it hasn't given you the end
result.

And I guess this is showing us
that this inside edge

wasn't used for cutting and
slicing. Yep.

'Time for the second test,
the piercing claw action.'

So this is the penetration rig.

'A hydraulic ram will simulate

'the pushing force of the
Utahraptor's toe muscles.

'Will it be enough for the tip
to pierce the tough leather
hide?'

Are you ready?
I'm ready. Let's do it.

'Three, two, one.'

Oh, look at that. Straight
through.

So this does kind of give us
some more weight

behind the theory that these
were

using these claws
more of a piercing tool,

to kind of cling onto
the back of prey,

and then it would strike down
with the mouth

and rip it apart, really.

But none of this slashing.

Yeah, and I think the idea
that they were using these

to sort of slash about,
a bit like Zorro,

is probably a bit just for the
movies, I think, yeah.

OK, fair enough.

VOCALISES

I'm not sure where the
Utahraptor has got to,

but I don't think it's going
to end well for our friend here

if it gets within striking
distance.

Interesting dinosaur,
the iguanodontid.

Not nearly as famous as the
great raptor, but they were
actually

one of the first dinosaur
species ever discovered.

So what else do we know
about this docile dino?

'London's Natural History
Museum

'is home to
some of the most important

'iguanodontid fossils ever
found,

'giving palaeontologist Joe
Bonsor

'plenty of opportunity
to unravel their secrets.'

'A complete skeleton is on
display in the main hall,

'and behind-the-scenes,

'a set of giant teeth
found back in 1822,

'long before dinosaurs
were even known about.'

So these would have been

some of the first-ever
Iguanodon teeth found in the
world.

These were found along the side
of a quarry,

in cuttings from the quarry.

'The discovery was made by
husband and wife Mary and
Gideon Mantell,

'amateur fossil hunters
who spotted the teeth

'poking from rocks in West
Sussex.'

'They look a little bit
like iguana teeth,

'and that was the first thing
that Gideon thought they
belonged to,'

just something a lot, lot
bigger.

'This is what led Mantell
to coin the name Iguanodon,

'meaning "iguana's tooth."'

'Over time, more fossils
emerged of this mysterious
creature...'

'..including a single spike
that Mantell assumed was a
horn.'

'Based on the bones,

'Victorian artists tried to
reconstruct this ancient
beast.'

'It basically looks like
a giant, big reptile,'

a big iguana, on all fours.

You can see the spike which was
placed at the end of the snout,

kind of like a horn.

'But since then, scientists
have discovered that the spike

'wasn't a horn after all.'

'Using 3D scanning technology,

'it's now possible
to find the solution

'to this ancient jigsaw parcel.

'Along with scans
of other iguanodontid bones,

'Joe is able to reconstruct
a remarkable prehistoric hand.'

'The spike was, in fact,
a vicious stabbing thumb.'

When they're all laid out like
this,

you get a real sense of how
this hand was put together.

So we've got
the large thumb spike there,

and then we've got these
three digits in the middle,

which it would have used as
kind of a modified hoof for
walking on.

The fifth digit was prehensile,

and it could curl it in towards
the palm of the hand,

and could be used for grasping
vegetation and leaves

and things like that.

'Seen also on the full
skeleton,

'the thumb spikes gave the
iguanodontid a secret weapon.'

In life they would have been
coated in a horny kind of
keratin sheath

that would have been really
sharp,

'a lot like a claw to swipe
at predators for defence.

'It could probably rear up
on its hind legs

'and brandish these thumb
spikes,

'and that would be enough to
hopefully scare away the
predator.

'It would have been
a very formidable sight.

'I wouldn't want to mess
with this at all.'

'So the iguanodontid
may look rather placid,'

but it does have
those spiked thumbs.

SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC

Let's take a look at how
these vicious claws work.

VOCALISING

SCREECHING

Ah.

'Our iguanodontid's shaken off
the first attack,

'but is Utahraptor
about to go in for the kill?'

SCREECHING

'I'm in the early Cretaceous
period, a key moment in
dinosaur history,

'when they diversified
into a huge range of new forms,

'including the deadly raptors.

'But can this one overpower
a much larger iguanodontid,

'with its intriguing spiked
hands?'

ROARING

RAPTOR YELPS

It turns out those spiked
thumbs

really are a formidable
self-defence mechanism -

even against the claws and jaws
of the Utahraptor.

So, the iguanodontid gets away
this time,

but clearly, the Utahraptor
must catch its prey
occasionally -

otherwise, it couldn't survive.

So, what gives it an edge

against plant-eaters
like the iguanodontids?

'A bit of a search among the
bushes,

'and I've found our Utahraptor,
hunkered down,

'trying to recover
from that vicious fight.'

It's clear that he hasn't
lost his appetite, though.

And that alert glint in his eye

is a sign of a remarkable
inner intelligence.

I think it's time we took a
look inside the dinosaur brain.

'The key to the Utahraptor's
success is hidden within its
skull.

'Compared to other dinosaurs,

'its brain may look small
and unremarkable.

'But once you factor in body
weight,

'the Utahraptor's brain,
proportionally,

'is two and a half times bigger
than that of a T Rex -

'and 19 times bigger
than a Diplodocus'.

'And this is evidence
of far greater intelligence.

'Evolution in the Cretaceous
period

'had produced one of the
sharpest and smartest predators
around.'

To help explain
how they used that brainpower,

I'm joined again
by dino expert Dean Lomax.

There's different kinds
of intelligence.

There's intelligence
you use for hunting,

for guessing what your prey
is going to do,

and there's cooperation.
There's cooperation,

hunting behaviours
and stalking behaviours.

And in many respects,
for something like Utahraptor,

in many cases, as a predator,

it just needs
to be able to outfox its prey.

And working out that
if they work cooperatively,

they can take down bigger prey,

which equals more food
for the entire party.

And that takes a mixture, I
suppose,

of the instinct that has
evolved

and actual communication
of some kind.

I mean, not language,
obviously,

but some form of signalling
or recognising, you know,

"You go round there and I'll
wait here," sort of thing.

For sure, yeah.
Especially when it comes to

trying to ambush its prey,
potentially.

So, we know Utahraptors
are intelligent, but...

did they really work together?

Well, the answer to that

seems to be coming from
a clue found in rocks in Utah.

'In 2001, Jim Kirkland,

'the dinosaur hunter who first
found and named Utahraptor,

'made a second
remarkable discovery.'

When we first started to
excavate the site, we knew,
you know...

One of the first things I
uncovered was a jaw with teeth
in it,

and even on the same block,
with the jaw,

there was also a big claw.

I was like, "Oh, that's nice."
As we started excavating,

we realised there was
a lot of bone material here.

Just a mass, a pod of sandstone
and mud filled with bones.

'The team decided to remove

'the entire jumble of bones
in one go,

'first encasing it in plaster,

'then transporting
the nine-ton sandstone block

'out of the quarry
and into Jim's lab.

'As they began
to chip away the rock,

'they soon realised they had
found a dinosaur death trap.'

Basically,
this is a blob of quicksand

which has preserved dozens of
Utahraptor skeletons -

adults, babies, two-year-olds.

Here's the shoulder blade of a
pretty good-sized Utahraptor.

Of course, here's that sickle
claw.

You know, that's from a
juvenile.

Backbone. It's mostly buried
there, but you can see the
ribs going off.

Along here, there's, like,
three animals right there,

laid in next to each other.
So...

We see over a dozen animals
on the surface,

and we know there are
skeletons going down through a
metre of this.

This is the first example

of a mass accumulation
of Utahraptors.

And we believe they all died
pretty much at the same time.

'But why would so many
Utahraptors

'all fall into the quicksand
at the same time?

'The answer lies
in a second type of dinosaur

'Jim found entombed here.

'Plant-eating iguanodontids.'

What we see at this site is

there was an iguanodont adult
and a juvenile,

apparently got stuck
into this quicksand.

This here is probably the
vertebra of one of the
iguanodonts.

Another... The iguanodont stuff
is kinda more scattered.

'For Jim, the presence
of these prey animals

'alongside a group
of meat-eating Utahraptors

'points to
one remarkable explanation.'

I think they're pack hunting.

You would have had a ton,
two tons of rotting meat.

That could have rung the
dinner bell for these animals,

probably miles away.

You know, brought this pack in.

But it's certainly the
attractor to this flypaper

where all these animals
got trapped and killed.

'The quicksand has preserved
an incredible snapshot

'from the age of the dinosaurs.

'What appears to be
a family of Utahraptors,

'hunting together in a group.

'But for Jim,
the work has only just begun.'

We may go down
a few feet into this block,

cos there's bone bed after
bone.

And maybe there's more than one
mass mortality in here.

This'll be unravelled,
probably, over the next couple
of decades.

Ooh!

Looks like
we might be in for a pack hunt.

There's an iguanodontid there
that's being harried by some...

Yeah, those are Utahraptors,
aren't they?

They sure are.

RAPTORS SCREECHING

ROARING

Now, that's fascinating,

because I've not really
witnessed this...

pack behaviour before.

I suppose one of the reasons
they can afford to cooperate

is there's enough reward of
protein from their kill

to feed the whole family.
That's exactly it.

I'm sure they're wanting
to make sure the little babies,

the little chicks, get their
fair share of food too.

Oh!

Looks as if the youngsters are
finally gonna get their meal.

That sort of makes me wonder
whether

there were, like,
hierarchies of importance,

that the young ones
had to eat afterwards,

and there were what we would
now call alpha males or alpha
females?

Yeah, I'm sure that something
like that, a hierarchy,

at least in family groups like
this, would have existed.

If they're working together
cooperatively -

you think about, say, lions
today.

Yes, you can sometimes see them
batting away the young ones

as they try and get in, don't
you? Yes, that's really
interesting.

I'm getting a real impression

of a sophistication about this
species, as we would see it.

That's to say you've got
cooperation, communication,

bonding with your children
and a hierarchy.

Yeah, well, most definitely.

'But there's a mystery
I still want solved.

'It's only in recent decades

'we've discovered that some
dinosaurs had feathers.

'But our raptors here
clearly couldn't fly,

'which raises the question,
"What are those feathers for?"

'One answer comes from the
discovery

'that dinosaur feathers came in
a remarkable range of colours.

'Palaeontologist Dr Jakob
Vinther, at the University of
Bristol,

'is using a scanning
electron microscope

'to look for clues hidden
beneath the surface of fossils.

'His ground-breaking research
has changed the way we view
dinosaurs.'

So, people have been looking at
exceptionally preserved fossils

for many, many decades,

and had taken bird fossils,
for example, preserving
feathers,

and had looked at those,

and had identified
these tiny little objects

that typically are shaped
like little sausages.

'They looked like bacteria,
come to feast on a dead corpse.

'But Jakob had another theory.

'Whilst studying
fossilised squid and octopuses,

'he'd examined
their preserved ink sacs.

'Under an electron microscope,

'the ink revealed
minute ball-like features.

'Tiny containers
for the ink's pigment,

'known as melanosomes.

'These structures bring colour
to hair and skin

'among many animals today,
including us humans.'

It made me think
that if the melanosomes

can preserve so well here

and we can identify it
using an electron microscope,

I thought to myself, maybe we
can actually find preserved
melanosomes

in, for example,
a feathered dinosaur.

'The first flightless dinosaur
ever to be found to have
feathers

'was this one.

'Called Sinosauropteryx,

'its fossilised remains
were unearthed in China,

'so Jakob decided
to analyse its feathers.

'Sure enough, his hunch paid
off.

'Under the microscope,

'he spotted the tell-tale
shapes of melanosomes.'

And when they are small and
round like this,

we see that that's typical
of feathers

that was rusty red in colour.

So this particular sample here
was ginger.

'Jakob's work has revealed a
whole new world of Technicolor
dinosaurs.

'And has shed new light

'on the presence
of colourful feathers

'among the raptors.

'This raptor was unearthed in
China.

'Its feathers,
along with its arms and legs,

'helped it to glide between
trees.

'And it was Jakob,
through studying its fossil,

'who first discovered
its true colours:

'a shimmering iridescence.'

We found very long and skinny
melanosomes,

which tell us that this
dinosaur was in fact
iridescent,

so it had metallic sheens,
like we see, for example,

in a peacock, or in a
hummingbird.

The iridescence is quite
unusual,

because if you think about
modern birds,

if you have metallic sheens,
it's typically for display.

So it's very remarkable to see
that.

And therefore it suggests to us
that maybe dinosaurs

in fact also used their
feathers

to advertise themselves
to each other.

'Our Utahraptor certainly seems
to be using his colourful
feathers

'to send a powerful message.'

SCREECHING

Whoa, Dean, what is that?

Are we under attack?
Is that a threat?

'Having seen what he did
to the poor iguanodontid,

'I don't fancy our chances.'

'Expert Dr Dean Lomax and I
have come face-to-face

'with a meat-eating raptor
from the Cretaceous period,

'when the dinosaurs produced
an explosion of new species.

'And this one
seems alarmingly on edge.'

That actually is
a courtship display.

So, you see how
it's using its feathers there.

You see the bright colours
of the feathers as well.

So it's actually trying

to attract the attention
of another Utahraptor, I think.

So we might not be a meal,
but we might be a date?

I'm not sure that's any better,
really!

Quite possibly!

Oh. What... What's he doing
there?

Yeah, you can see it
scratching the sediment there.

There's actually direct
evidence

that we have
from the site in Colorado,

in the States,
of a dinosaur dance floor.

These dinosaurs...
Seriously?

Seriously.
..scratching the floor.

And this is something
that modern birds do as well.

It's a behaviour
that's called lekking.Yes.

And they lek around,

they strut their stuff
in front of onlooking females,

and they try to entice them,
attract their attention.

And sometimes they tidy their
area. They pick up sticks...

That's the sort of thing,
exactly. And then the female,
eventually,

after all the silky dance
moves and the vocalisations by
the birds,

and the same for the dinosaurs,

they then come,
the female selects the partner,

they go away and do their, er,
business.

Right! And for all we know,

they were giving out a boom, or
a...

"Hello!"
..some sort of noise.

Of some description.
And it would have been, yeah,

highly vocalised,

to just try and seem like
the strongest individual.

The scratching, especially,
is to show,

"Pick me, I can build a nest.

"And I'm the strongest
of the individuals."

And presumably the wide display
with the fringes,

like a cowboy's jacket, is also
a kind of size, strength.

Definitely, yeah,
showing the strength,

the size of this individual,
compared to the other ones.

Is it us? Is it trying
to attract our attention?

Oh, there we go. There's a
female. Ah!

Oh, my goodness.

So, is she...

Is she on for it, do we think?

She looks like
she might be interested.Yeah.

THEY CHUCKLE

Is she gonna swipe left or
right? That's the big question,
isn't it?

Wow.

'It looks like she's not quite
ready to commit,

'but while we wait to find out,

'let's get ahead of ourselves
and ask:

'What kind of parents
might they make?

'Were raptors hands-on
or nowhere to be seen?

'A good place to start is with
crocodiles and alligators.

'These are some of the closest
living relatives of dinosaurs.

'Baby crocodiles
emerge from their eggs

'already able to feed
themselves,

'just as dinos did.

'So for zoologist Rebecca
Lakin,

'crocodile parenting offers one
rather extreme model.'

Crocodiles, of course, are
pretty poor parents, really.

The mum is really there just
to stop her from being eaten
by predators.

'A different extreme

'comes from the dinosaurs'
other living relatives -
birds.'

Birds take a much more active
approach to parenting their
young.

Those babies are completely
dependent on their parents

for everything for the first
few weeks of life.

'So, which of these two
extremes did Utahraptor parents
follow?

'A remarkable answer has
emerged,

'with an intriguing discovery

'made in Mongolia's
barren Gobi Desert.'

So, this specimen was
discovered in the 1990s,

and it's a dinosaur
that we call Citipati,

which is in the Oviraptor
family, very closely related
to Utahraptor.

What we're looking at here is
the dinosaur is on its belly.

So, we're looking at it from
behind, from the top,

from a sort of bird's-eye view.

And you can see from the
posture that it's got its arms
back,

protecting the eggs,

exactly like a bird
would brood its eggs.

'This was a parent
caring for its young

'to the bitter end.'

This dinosaur, in all
likelihood,

was actually buried alive
in a sandstorm

and may have actually
taken the decision

to stay with its eggs
and be buried in sand and mud,

rather than abandoning them.

And how fantastic of a parent
is that?

Utahraptor is even more
closely related to modern birds

than is Citipati.

So, in all likelihood,
Utahraptor was a very good
parent,

by the standards of the time.

It seems probable, then,

that, like their cousin
the Oviraptor,

Utahraptor looked after their
young from the moment the eggs
were laid.

And presumably, this allowed
them

to form close family groups
that could hunt together.

By the... Heh!
By the look of these two,

they'll be calling into action
those parenting skills quite
soon.

They're getting on awfully
well.

'We won't get to see that
ourselves, though,

'because it's time to leave

'this fascinating chapter
of dinosaur history behind us.

'The Cretaceous has so far
produced

'some radically different
kinds of dinosaurs,

'from the plant-eating
iguanodontids,

'with their vicious thumb
spikes...

'..to the intelligent,
speedy and ruthless raptors.

'Large and small.'

But in 40 million years' time,

dinosaur evolution is about to
throw up a brand-new predator

that will make the Utahraptor
look like a pussycat.

T Rex.

ROARING