All language subtitles for Dinosaur.with.Stephen.Fry.S01E04.1080p.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.

CHUCKLES

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

Well, I must get on with my
life.

FAINT DINOSAUR ROAR

Mind you... you never know.

GROWLING

ROARS

GROWLING

SNARLS

PUFFS AIR

'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...'

LOW GROWL

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

HISSY ROAR
Hey! Don't do that!

'With the help of experts

'and the latest scientific
discoveries from our time...'

ROAR

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

'Unravel their remarkable
story from humble origins

'at the dawn of the dinosaurs

'to see how they evolved a
dazzling and bizarre array of
forms -

'to become giants...'

GROWLING,
ROAR

'..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.'

GROWLING

SOFT GROWL

'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 churned,
so did the conditions.

'New and distinct worlds
formed,

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

'From the giants that emerged
in the Jurassic period

'to the explosion of diversity
in the Cretaceous.

'Tonight, we'll discover how
the most fearsome predator of
them all,

'the T-Rex, who ruled in the
final days of the dinosaurs,

'finally met his match.'

I'm here in the epic final
chapter of dinosaur history.

66 million years ago,

at the very end of the era
known as the late Cretaceous.

This is the age of the final
flourishing of the dinosaurs...

and their terrifying
extinction.

Because up in the heavens,
disaster is heading this way.

That bright star in the sky
is in fact a giant asteroid.

And it's on a collision course
with planet Earth.

'Over six miles wide
and weighing a billion tonnes,

'it's destined to deliver
the equivalent

'of ten billion atomic bombs.'

BOOM

'But down on Earth, the age
of the dinosaurs marches on.'

Last time, we saw how the
deadliest predator ever to
stalk the world,

the T-Rex,
ruthlessly hunted its prey.

GROWLING

Now we're going to investigate
how the plant eaters fought
back.

SOFT GROWL

ROARS

This is Triceratops,

named after the three
distinctive horns that adorn
his massive head.

Up close, he really is
impressive.

Huge, and clearly very strong.

We're going to investigate just
how effective these defences
really are.

But the Triceratops is not the
only solution that evolution
has produced

to help the plant eaters thrive
in the last days of the
dinosaurs.

'The continents are getting
ever closer to how we know them
today.

'In what we call Mongolia,

'there roamed
the heavily armoured Talarurus,

'with spikes and a club tail to
ward off predators.

'In North America,
the Parasaurolophus,

'adorned with a huge bony
crest,

'thought to attract a mate
or amplify its cries.

'And in India, Isisaurus -
standing 15ft tall,

'able to feed high up in the
trees like a giraffe.'

Let's just remind ourselves
of the challenges

that the Triceratops faces
if he's going to stay alive.

'His biggest threat,
the king predator.

'T-Rex.'

T-REX ROARS

PUFFS AIR

Triceratops is smaller than
T-Rex.

He's nose-to-tail about 9m
and stands 3m high.

And when it comes to bulk,
Triceratops is a real
heavyweight,

weighing in at a hefty six
tonnes.

A lot of that, of course,

can be put down to
the massive and ornate skull.

As well as the three long
horns,

he also has,
sticking up from the back,

a huge bony fan.

That could be just to protect
his neck,

but you'll notice it also has

very elaborate frilly edges to
it, almost dainty.

What was this for?

For decoration or for defence?

SOFT GROWLING

'In search of answers,

'we're heading for London's
Natural History Museum...

'and its world-famous
dinosaur galleries.

'Because up near
the cavernous ceiling

'is the fossilised skull
of a Triceratops.

'Taking us up close and
personal

'is the museum's
principal researcher

'Doctor Susie Maidment.'

It is absolutely enormous.

One of the biggest skulls

of any terrestrial vertebrate
that's ever lived.

It's about 1.5m long,
and it would have formed

about one third of the body
length of this entire animal.

'What's immediately clear

'is the inner strength
of those iconic horns,

'with a bony core that grows
directly from the skull
itself.'

They're very broad at the
base, and there's a lot of
bone in them,

'relative to, say, the
equivalent sorts of antlers or
horns

that we see in modern animals.

'A rhino's horn, for example,
may look terrifying,

'but instead of bone,
it's made of keratin,

'like our fingernails.'

Structurally, they were very
strong

and they could have been used
for defence.

And possibly even attacking
other Triceratopses.

Now, the frill is also made of
bone,

and it certainly could have
offered some protection

to the region
in the back of the neck.

And also the shoulders.

So this also could have been
a defensive structure,

and acted as...
almost like armour, really.

'But Triceratops' headgear
is not just about brute force.'

Some people think that
these structures

are related to display in some
way, they're showing off.

It's the animal maybe showing
off to try and attract a mate.

Or to show that it's the
fittest member of its species.

'Despite its ferocious
appearance,

'the Triceratops was
a strict vegetarian,

'and its mouth
was finely engineered

'to deal with
a diet of leaves and roots.

'Inside its jaws,
a staggering 800 teeth -

'nearly three times as many
as a great white shark.'

This is
the upper jaw of a ceratopsid

called Chasmosaurus,

and it's quite closely related
to Triceratops.

And these are
individual tooth sockets.

Each individual tooth socket
in these dinosaurs

had about three or four teeth
in it.

Two of which were being used
for chewing at any one time.

And this is called a dental
battery.

'The vast quantity of teeth
gave Triceratops

'the power to mash up its food
and so helped digestion.

'Each battery had
between 36 to 40 teeth columns

'in each side of the jaw.

'Three to five teeth
made up each column.

'As soon as one tooth wore out,

'it was replenished,
conveyor belt style,

'by the next one.'

This is a Triceratops tooth.

We've got the tooth growing up,
and on the back of the tooth,

we have a very smooth surface
where the opposing tooth

sheared down and acted like a
pair of scissors, really,

to chop up vegetation.

And that's what made these
dinosaurs so good at eating
vegetation.

And we call them
mega herbivores as a result.

CRUNCHING

The Triceratops' jaw is working
pretty well there. Isn't it?

Plucking and mashing the
vegetation before swallowing it
down.

Compare that action
to poor old Diplodocus...

..who comes from
90 million years earlier,

the Jurassic period.

And you can see the difference
quite clearly.

It chomps with its front teeth,

which means it has to rely on a
huge and very long digestive
tract,

and plenty of time
to break all that food down.

But Diplodocus does have
one spectacular advantage.

GROWLS SOFTLY

Poor Triceratops
can't copy that trick.

GROWLS,
STEPHEN CHUCKLES

It's all rather frustrating.

TRICERATOPS GROWLS

Where is he off to now, I
wonder?

GROWLS

Well, an unorthodox technique,
but in the end,

as effective as Diplodocus'
gymnastics, I suppose.

And it's also a frankly
intimidating demonstration

of just how much power
he packs into that heavy body.

But the question remains -

Is brute strength enough to
defend him against the ultimate
predator?

T-Rex.

I think we're about to find
out.

SNORT,
GROWL

We're in the late Cretaceous,

and dinosaurs like the
Triceratops are thriving.

But all the while, up there,
the fateful asteroid

that will bring about the end
of the dinosaurs' domination of
our planet

is hurtling towards Earth
at 30,000mph.

But meanwhile, down here, the
battle for survival continues
apace.

We saw the raw power of the
Triceratops

and examined the elaborate
defences of that heavy skull.

But stalking it now...
is the deadly T-Rex.

With a greater bite force than
any animal that's ever lived.

How will this end?

'At London's Queen Mary
University,

'palaeontologist Doctor David
Hone is examining the evidence

'that a Triceratops could
indeed survive a T-Rex attack.'

We've got used to modern
ecosystems,

you have got lions and cheetah
and leopard in Africa.

Tyrannosaurus was basically
THE only big carnivore.

And so that is the only
predator of Triceratops.

Once a Triceratops got to
a size of perhaps half a tonne,

they're probably effectively
immune to predators,

with one exception.

'To investigate what happened
when these two monsters
clashed,

'David has turned to
the clues they left behind.'

We obviously need to look
to fossils,

cos what we really want
is direct evidence

of interactions in fossils.

And big animals like
tyrannosaurs with big teeth

will bite bones
and leave marks on them.

'In 2008, in Hell Creek,
Montana, scientists found just
that.

'The remains of a Triceratops
horn with what appeared to be
bite marks.

'The Montana team has created
a digital scan of the horn,

'so David can analyse
an exact 3D print of it.'

These holes are really quite a
good fit for tyrannosaur
teeth.

This is about as large
as tyrannosaur teeth get.

And you can see that it
actually

sits into that socket
really quite neatly.

And this circular
cross-section is a classic
thing for these teeth,

they're very, very fat indeed.

So that's exactly what you'd
expect.

So, one tooth has come in here,
and one tooth has come in here.

So the upper and lower jaw
are coming together,

then the power of that
has caused this break

and removed
the end piece of the horn.

GROWLING

'But although this confirms
battles between T-Rex and
Triceratops,

'it doesn't tell us
if the Triceratops survived.'

The key thing that we're
actually looking for is
healing.

Evidence that the animal is
alive when it was bitten, and
survived.

And, of course, that tells you
that that was an attack in
life.

'Amazingly, on a skull fragment
from the same Triceratops,

'another injury appears to have
done just that.'

We've got these two big marks
running side-by-side

across the surface of the bone,

and these are where the teeth

basically
went into the bone and scraped.

You've got this very
characteristic alteration of
the bone texture,

showing that something
basically disturbed it,

pulled it apart, which is a
tooth going through it.

We've actually got an x-ray,
and this thick white band

running through the middle,
and that is dense bone -

this is where the bone is
knitted back together, it's
healed.

And famously, if you break
your leg, you'll never break
it there again.

Why? Because the bone is more
solid at that point now.

Exactly the same healing
process.

So again, that's really good
evidence of healing.

Classic bite marks, classic
healing.

This is a Triceratops who
survived a T-Rex bite on the
face.

So, could this Triceratops
also have what it takes

to survive a T-Rex attack?

SOFT GROWL

GROWLING INCREASES

T-REX SNARLS

TRICERATOPS GROWLS

ROARS LOUDLY

T-REX SNARLS

TRICERATOPS GRUNTS

T-REX ROARS

GROWLS

ROARS LOUDLY

SNORTS

ROARS

That was absolutely terrifying!

Two of the most awe-inspiring
beasts of the dinosaur world

in an epic clash.

But it seems incredible
that a plant eater

could take on and defeat
the king of the dinosaurs.

So, does Triceratops have
some concealed defences?

We might be about to find out.

'Skewering a T-Rex is one
thing...'

ROARS

'..but can it survive
a head-on charge

'from another six-tonne
monster?'

ROARS

ROARS LOUDLY

GROWLING

SNARLS SOFTLY

'Dinosaurshere in the late
Cretaceous period

'are totally oblivious
to that asteroid,

'which is getting ever closer.'

We are now unfortunately
only minutes away

from a devastating impact.

ROARS

ROARING,
GROWLING

Try telling that to these two
aggressive Triceratops.

ROARS

GROWLING

I'm not quite sure
what's going on there,

it could be some form of alpha
male face-off.

ROARING

But given that our hero has
just had a fight with the
T-Rex...

GROWLS

T-REX ROARS

..I don't fancy his chances
much.

'To help me decipher
this dinosaur body language

'is the Natural History
Museum's Doctor Susie Maidment,

'released from
the galleries and storerooms

'to come face-to-face
with the real thing.'

Susie, what's happening here?

Well, it looks a bit like
they're lining up for a fight,
doesn't it?

In living animals,
deer, for example,

sometimes do fight with each
other for either territory or
for mates,

or something like that.

You have to assume the horns
could have a double purpose.

Both for defence, but also for
display and courtship rituals,

and fighting with other males.
So perhaps we're seeing

a similar sort of behaviour
in our Triceratops.

Rutting, think it's called.
Yeah. Rutting, yeah.

ROARS

Triceratops specifically,

there's actually
quite a lot of injuries

that they have
on the sides of the frills.

They're probably horn injuries
from other Triceratops,

so there is some evidence that
these animals probably did

engage in
intraspecific competition -

that is, fighting with each
other.

ROARS

Oh, looks as if
things are kicking off now.

ROARS

GROWLING

GROWLS GRUFFLY

Oof! Well, we have a winner,
Susie. Yeah.

The first thing that strikes me
is just the immense forces.

How can their skulls, you know,
take such pressure?

Yeah, it's pretty amazing,
isn't it?

Triceratops has this, sort of,
weird structure in the top of
its skull,

in the roof of its skull,
which is a sinus.

A hole, effectively,
in the top of the skull roof.

We don't really know
what it was for,

but one theory is that
maybe it actually absorbed

some of this pressure when
they were head-butting each
other.

'To understand how those air
pockets might have worked,

'let's take a forensic look
inside those huge heads.

'The most vulnerable
part of the head is the brain -

'direct impact here
would be catastrophic.

'This is where
the sinus may have helped.

'It stretched beneath the
forehead and into the base of
each horn.

'It's thought
these were filled with air

'so could act as shock
absorbers.

'As the skulls collide, the
outside bone may flex inwards.

'The air in the sinuses
compacts

'and dissipates the huge force
harmlessly...

'..leaving the precious brain
unharmed.'

ROARS

And is there a technique

when your enemy is
exactly the same as you are?

They actually twisted rather
than head-butted and forced
each other.

So they're actually twisting
their bodies,

a bit like bovids and cows,
and things like do today.

So like bulls facing off each
other?

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah.

And presumably,
incredibly strong necks.

These heads are enormous.
They're absolutely vast.

They're about half the length
of the animal.

GROWLING

They have this really
interesting structure

in their necks to support
this massive head.

The first few
of their neck vertebrae

have actually all fused
together into a solid block.

And maybe this helped to
support the head,

but maybe also helped with
these twisting forces, too.

'Inside the skull,

'we can see exactly how those
three fused vertebrae work,

'forming a strong enough bond
to support the massive skull

'as it swivels
in multiple directions.

'To fend off an attack,
jab its vicious horns

'or wrestle with a rival.'

ROARS

'We've focused a lot on
Triceratops defences so far.

'But what about the other plant
eaters elsewhere in the world?

'How did they protect
themselves from the likes of
T-Rex?

'A dinosaur best known
for these defences

'was the heavily armoured
Stegosaurus.

'But it disappeared from the
Earth around 18 million years

'before the time of
Triceratops.

'It's an ancient mystery

'that Doctor Susie Maidment
has been trying to solve.'

This is Sophie the Stegosaurus.

And it's a really, really
important and significant
specimen

for our understanding of this
whole group of dinosaurs.

We have these two rows
of alternating plates

that stick out very slightly
from the midline.

And then at the end of the
tail, we have these four big
spikes.

And they would have been
quite a fearsome weapon,

the stegosaur would have been
able to swing its tail

and actually impact bone
with its spikes.

'So why did such a heavily
defended beast disappear

'so early in dinosaur history?'

'An incredible new discovery
could supply the answer.

'A previously unknown dinosaur
may have outcompeted the
stegosaurus

'with an even more effective
suit of armour.'

It's a really, really exciting
specimen,

but this is all that we have
of it.

And it's very, very unusual.

We've got this T-shaped rod,

which is really characteristic
of the ribs of armoured
dinosaurs.

But then it's got these spikes
that are rounded and quite
short.

And they're extending from
the top surface of this rib.

This is totally unlike
any other dinosaur

and in fact, in any other
animal, living or dead.

'Spikes are usually embedded
in the skin and muscle,

'but this animal has its spikes
growing directly from the
bone.'

I was a little unsure
about whether it was real

and what the specimen might be.

So we decided to CT scan it.

What it allows us to do is to
see the internal structure.

And what we can see from that
was that the actual bone
cortex,

so the top surface of the bone,

extends from the spike
right down into the rib.

So we know that
these spikes and this rib

are part of the same structure.

It confirmed that
that morphology was real.

And I was really, really
delighted,

because it showed that
the specimen was as strange

as we thought it might be.

It's really, really exciting
when you find something

completely different,
that nobody else has ever seen

or ever understood
in the history of humankind.

'Microscopic analysis also
revealed what kind of dinosaur
this was.'

It has a bone tissue

that's entirely unique to
ankylosaurs.

So we realised that we had an
ankylosaur on our hands.

'These plant eaters were
covered in bony armour plates,

'and many also had a vicious
club on the end of their tails.

'And this new species
was named Spicomellus.'

This obviously had spikes
sticking out from its ribs,

Spicomellus refers to
a spiky collar in Latin,

because it's this collar of
spikes.

'And Spicomellus could even
solve the mystery

'of the disappearance
of the stegosaurs.

'It was found in Morocco in
rocks,

'ten million years older
than any other ankylosaur.

'And this earlier date meant
that

'ankylosaurs lived at the same
time as the stegosaurs.'

Stegosaurs were most diverse
during the upper Jurassic.

After which, they seem to have
declined in diversity

and eventually gone extinct.

Now, in contrast, the
ankylosaurs were really,
really rare,

so animals like Spicomellus
are really poorly known

and very fragmentary
into the late Jurassic.

And then they really take off
in diversity.

This suggests that
maybe the ankylosaurs

outcompeted the stegosaur.

'So, these vicious ribbed
spikes

'may have solved
a scientific mystery.

'They must also count among the
most remarkable of all dinosaur
defences.

'Ankylosaurs were so
successful,

'they lived till these last
days of the dinosaurs.'

GROWLING,
PUFFS AIR

'Soon to be brought to a
shattering end by that deadly
asteroid

'now hurtling through space.'

Over the span of dinosaur
history, the plant eaters
developed

different ways
of defending themselves

against the predators of their
age.

And now, when we have the
deadliest predator of them all,

the T-Rex, it makes sense to
see the rise of one of the few
animals

that could take it on -
the awesome Triceratops.

But for me, there's one
remaining mystery about that
ornate skull,

and that's the huge fan of bone
at the back known as its frill.

It doesn't seem vital for
defence against an enemy like a
T-Rex

or against a member of its own
species, another Triceratops.

So what's it really for?

'Doctor Andy Knapp is finding
clues

'to the true purpose
of the Triceratops' frill

'among ancient fossils
of their relatives.'

Triceratops are part of a
group of dinosaurs called
ceratopsians.

When more ceratopsians
were discovered, we find that,

even though they have frills,
their frills are much thinner,

and they have quite large holes
in them,

which wouldn't have been
much good for defence at all.

And it's quite mysterious.

There's not really
anything alive today that has

this kind of structure on its
head.

'A clue to the frills' function
came from studying

'the fossils of a relative of
Triceratops called
Protoceratops.

'This dinosaur was found
in the 1920s in Mongolia.

'It also had a large frill,
but unlike the Triceratops,

'it didn't have
well-developed horns.

'The breakthrough came
when Andy compared a series

'of Protoceratops fossils
of different ages.'

We 3D-scanned a whole load
of Protoceratops specimens,

ranging from very small
individuals up to fully grown
adults,

which are considerably larger.

'The scans revealed the frill
didn't really get going

'until these dinosaurs
approached adulthood.

'And this suggested it wasn't
for defence, but to attract a
mate.'

Juveniles don't have frills,
because they don't need them,

they're not mating.

It's when they become adults,
and they start producing
offspring,

that's when the frill might
become useful for fending off
rivals

or attracting mates.

Potentially, this could be why
the frill evolved.

It kind of allows potential
mates to see how strong and
how healthy,

and how well adapted to their
environment possible mates are.

GROWLS SOFTLY

Whoa!

Oh, wow! The frill has turned
red. What can that mean?

That's amazing, isn't it?

Perhaps it's trying to show off
to a female.

Do we know that they could
change colour like that?

Well, we don't know for sure,
but there is a theory that

Triceratops could have pumped
blood into its frill

and actually flushed it red.

So it could be a male saying
to a female, "Look at me.

"I've got a big frill,
and I can change colour.

"Aren't I great?"
Well, maybe, and actually...

over there.
Oh, yes.

Do you think
that one might be a female?

CHATTERS

But if she is a female,
she's also got a fan,

so is the suspicion that both
sexes

would have had
exactly the same equipment?

Yeah, well, we're actually not
able to tell in the fossil
records

which of our fossils are male
and which are female.

So it's really difficult to
know

whether they had exactly the
same frills and horns,

or whether there were subtle
differences between them,

because we just don't have
enough fossils to tell that.

TRICERATOPS SNORT

How good a courtship device do
you think such a thing as a fan
is?

Well, I mean, look at this
frill. It's enormous, it's
very visual.

So it can be seen
from a long way away.

Doesn't really have
any obvious function.

The most obvious thing about it
is that eye-catching ability.

So I think it's a very good
display structure.

We think of
red as being a kind of mixture,

it can be attractive, but it's
also a, "go away". Isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Maybe he's just embarrassed.

LAUGHTER
Maybe it's slightly ashamed.

Just blushing.

Seems unlikely,
it's too big to be ashamed.

ROARS

'Some individuals may be
falling by the wayside,

'but 66 million years ago,

'the dinosaurs
as a whole are thriving -

'able to evolve and adapt
to the changing environment.

'But terror in the sky
is edging ever closer.

'The asteroid is now just
a few minutes from impact.

'With the vast global damage
it would inflict,

'nothing is going to save
the dinosaurs this time.'

RUMBLING

After 118 million years
of evolution

and dominating our planet
for most of that time,

the dinosaurs are having
a final flourishing.

But catastrophe is about to
strike.

And it comes... from above.

'66 million years ago...'
BOOM

'..a massive asteroid,
six miles across,

'slammed into planet Earth.'

ROAR ECHOES AND FADES

'Scientists are still
investigating its devastating
impact.

'Natasha Almeida looks after
an extraordinary collection

'of over 2,000 alien specimens
-

'known as meteorites.'

Meteorites are
extra terrestrial rocks.

They're pieces of
asteroids or other planets

that travel through Earth's
atmosphere, land on the surface

and then are collected to be
studied in collections such as
this one.

Each one can tell us a story

and what kind of science
we can do with them.

'By looking for certain
minerals in these rocks,

'we can learn vital clues
about their origins.'

These are
small fragments of minerals

that have come from the very
beginning of the solar system.

'It was one of these
distinctive alien minerals

'that first led scientists
to suspect an asteroid impact

'may have wiped out the
dinosaurs.'

BOOM

They found that there was this
layer of iridium,

and it was associated
with the loss of fossils.

We don't see much iridium in
most of our rocks.

So if you have
iridium found in a layer,

then you know it must have been
an extra terrestrial source.

'The next challenge was to find
the impact site, or crater,

'where the potential meteor
hit.'

Some people started suggesting
in the '70s and '80s

that there was one in the
Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

And since then,
it's been recognised -

about 180km wide impact crater
named Chicxulub.

Finding a very large impact
crater that was the right kind
of age

that contained
the right kind of rocks,

that was the real clue that

it was something like
an extra terrestrial impact.

'And this impact triggered a
chain of catastrophic events...

BOOMING

'..that led ultimately to the
mass extinction of the
dinosaurs.'

Dinosaurs living
in north South America

and south North America
would have felt searing heat -

and a lot of the animals
that were in that radius

would simply have been
vaporised on that day.

A little bit further away,
as things get cooler,

it just sets things on fire.

And as a result, we end up with
these massive global wildfires,

we end up with tsunamis
washing over the surfaces of
the continent,

probably some seismic activity
close to the site of the
impact, too.

And then that's...
In addition to that,

the gases that are released by
the explosion of the impacter.

These gases include
things like sulphur dioxide,

which, when it goes
into the atmosphere,

combines with water to form
acid rain, sulphuric acid.

This then rains back down,
kills plant life.

And in addition to that,

all of this burning that's
going on creates vast amounts
of soot.

And this soot also travels
all around the world,

creating a blanket
that shuts out sunlight,

slowing down plant growth

and removing
the base of the food chain.

And it's killing
the base of the food chain

that then kills everything
else.

THUNDER,
LIGHTNING CRACKS

RUMBLING

FIRE CRACKLES

CRACKLING

RUMBLING

This is the aftermath of the
asteroid slamming into the
planet.

The air is thick with smoke,
dust.

And the impact has triggered
earthquakes and volcanoes,

as you can see on the horizon.

And it's a scene of complete
devastation for our dinosaurs
here.

Susie, a total catastrophe,
a cataclysm.

Do we know if anything
survived?

Something survived, because
we're all standing here today.

So, the mammals made it
through the extinction event.

Of course, the birds, which
are the descendants of the
dinosaurs.

And other animals, too. Things
like the relatives of today's
crocodiles.

So some animals did,
but really interestingly,

only those that were smaller
than about 25kg in size.

So everything bigger than that
went extinct.

Is that because they could hide
underground or something?

Maybe they could borrow,
and maybe they could hibernate,

so maybe they were protected
from the environment little
bit.

Absolutely.And so these tiny
little mammals,

from which we're descended...

Yes.
How extraordinary!

So I suppose the first to go
were the really big ones,

like the Triceratops, the ones
we've been looking at.
Absolutely.

They're plant eaters. And one
of the first things that
happened

was the Earth would have been
encircled in ash,

like a nuclear winter, so it
would have been really dark

and the plants would have died
quite quickly.

So then, of course,

anything that needs the plants
to live would have died first.

Now, the meat eaters probably
hung on a bit longer

because of course...
Because they had... Feast!

They had plenty, they had a
feast. A glut of dead bodies.

So animals like our T-Rex here

would have survived
a little bit longer.

Feasting on dead bodies,
until they rotted so badly

that even they probably
couldn't manage them.

What about the pterosaurs and
the Pterodactyls, those sort of
things?

Yeah, they went extinct.

And we don't really know why
they did, and the birds
survived.

But I guess there's a
possibility that the birds
were able to fly away

and find where
conditions were slightly better

and were able to survive a bit
more.

It's a bit difficult to know.

And I suppose the other area
where there's survival would be
the ocean.

Absolutely, lots of fish groups
and sharks survived.

Some things didn't, though.
So, marine reptiles didn't
survive.

And there's lots of
invertebrate animals, so small
shelly things.

Things like the coiled ammonite

didn't make it through
the mass extinction as well.

Anybody who's ever collected
fossils,

they'd be the first they'd
find, they're the cheapest to
buy.

They went extinct at the same
time as the dinosaurs as well.

It's interesting,
because I've always thought

it was a complete extinction
event - quite wrongly.

And I didn't realise there is
an unbroken chain from this

to us and the world as we know
it. Yeah, absolutely.

There've actually been
five really massive extinctions

through the history of life.

This one wasn't even the
biggest.

But every time, something
survived, a few things
survived,

and life took the opportunity
to radiate afterwards.

So the reason that the mammals
are very prevalent today

is BECAUSE of the extinction
of the dinosaurs.

And maybe, had the dinosaurs
not gone extinct,

we wouldn't be here talking
to each other.

Well, we can't leave it here.
It's just too sad.

'Over the last four nights,

'we've travelled
180 million years through time

'to reveal a remarkable story.'

SCREECHES

'From the dinosaurs'
dramatic rise to dominance

'amid the mass extinctions
of the Triassic period...

'..their growth into monsters
in the Jurassic...'

ROARS

'..their blossoming
in the Cretaceous,

'in a surge of diversity...'

GROWLING

'..before the emergence
of the ultimate warriors

'in the final chapter
of their astonishing history.'

GROWLING,
ROARS

Ah. That's more like it.

T-REX ROARS

The dinosaurs may be extinct,
but in many ways,

they're still very much alive
in our world now.

Not just
in our collective imaginations,

where they inhabit our dreams
and our movie screens,

but also in their descendants,
the birds, which dominate our
skies,

and in the fossilised remains,

which constantly emerge
from rocks around the world.

And, like pieces of an
ever-expanding jigsaw puzzle,

build greater insights
into their lives.

And in that sense,

perhaps we are not at the end
of the dinosaurs' story,

but still just
at the very beginning.

T-REX ROARS

GROWLING

ROAR