DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: I'm on the south coast of England
in what is known as the Jurassic Coast.
150 million years ago,
the land was ruled by dinosaurs...
but the oceans were dominated
by a mysterious sea monster.
Its remains are very rare,
but some have just been discovered
in the cliffs behind me.
And now fossil experts are working to unearth
this extraordinary find.
No-one's ever done this before, ever!
Extracting a giant skull halfway down a cliff face!
This colossal creature
is called a pliosaur.
But little is known about these prehistoric giants.
What an extraordinary and terrifying thing!
Together, with a team of scientists,
we will use new technology
to discover more about this enormous marine reptile.
I have no doubt that this pliosaur
was the T-rex of the seas.
Comparing it with animals alive today...
..we can deduce a great deal about their sheer strength.
This pliosaur has a bite force
that's about twice the great white shark.
Well, that's unimaginable.
Could this be the greatest Jurassic predator
that ever lived?
Britain has a wealth
of fossil sites,
but perhaps none are quite so famous as this,
the Jurassic Coast.
I've been collecting fossils since I was a boy,
and I haven't yet got tired of it.
These days, you're supposed to wear glasses for safety.
And, if you would know a locality,
you would begin to recognise the sort of block
that might contain a fossil.
And this rock was split earlier
to make it easier to show you.
And if I can...
..hit it quite hard about there...
HE LAUGHS
What about that?
Is anything more beautiful than that?
Fantastic.
Finding even the smallest fossil
is a thrill, but discovering something much larger
can be an unforgettable moment.
And that is exactly what happened
to a fossil enthusiast,
who was walking along a beach
near Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset one morning.
I just found something quite extraordinary -
it's the jaw of a massive pliosaur.
It's enormous.
It's a massive pliosaur.
It's the best fossil I've ever found.
It must have just come out of the cliff up there somewhere.
Renowned fossil expert Steve Etches was called in,
and he realised immediately
that this find could be hugely significant.
Look! Look at those teeth.
There's a tooth there - look.
Let's have a look at the front.
You can walk along here for hundreds of times
and not find anything,
and then, occasionally, you'll hit the jackpot.
And this certainly is the jackpot.
It's the snout of an enormous pliosaur skull.
And Steve suspects that the rest of the head
might still be embedded in the cliff above.
But he needs to work fast
before the whole thing tumbles into the sea
and is lost for ever.
So he quickly gathers a team of experts,
including fellow fossil-hunter Chris Moore.
It's day one of the dig.
Steve and a team of diggers are up on the cliffs.
They're putting a net down to stop any loose rock
rolling down and hitting us,
and then we'll go down and expose the skull.
DRILL WHIRS
Steve and Chris have worked together for decades.
But this is the biggest challenge
they have ever faced.
The location of the skull,
high up on a disintegrating cliff face,
makes it very difficult to reach
and even harder to work on.
These rocks were once mud on the seafloor...
..in which the remains of prehistoric marine creatures
were buried.
Over millions of years, the continents shifted,
the seas receded,
and today, as these cliffs erode,
fossilised skeletons are revealed.
The jaw is there, and the idea
is to actually cut this down vertically,
and then we form a platform where the fossil is.
I've known Chris and Steve for many years,
and I can't wait to join them
and find out how they're getting on.
Here, we've got a live feed to them actually digging
halfway up the cliff face.
What's happened so far,
the tip of the snout has already come out and been recovered,
so the rest of it is going into the cliff.
What exactly are they doing there?
At the moment, they're using tinfoil
to try and protect the exposed piece of jaw.
In case something falls on it and breaks it?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
And then they're also using superglue to consolidate
the crumbly teeth and parts
that have been weathered over millennia.
And they're hanging by ropes there?
Yes, pretty much in the centre of the cliff.
Dear me! Pretty dangerous stuff, this.
Yeah, yeah, it really is.
After you've worked there for a few hours,
it becomes a bit more natural.
And you concentrate on the actual digging.
You must be pretty sure that there's something there
to put this amount of effort into it, really.
Oh, positive there's something there.
It's beautiful.
It's a beautiful specimen.
Is it? Yeah. Amazing.
But what can this spectacular find reveal
about the lives of these mysterious sea creatures
and the world they inhabited?
In the Late Jurassic,
Europe was an archipelago of islands
much closer to the equator than it is today.
Its seas were warm, shallow and teeming with life,
and, in these waters, underneath my feet,
lurked the ultimate marine predator... the pliosaur.
Unlike dinosaurs that lived on land,
these colossal marine reptiles
spent their whole lives in the ocean.
They're thought to have been around 10m in length...
..that's about the size of a double-decker bus.
They had long, broad flippers,
short, strong necks...
..huge heads
and enormous jaws.
But there's still a lot we don't know
about these great sea monsters,
which is why this new discovery
is so important.
Steve believes that the entire pliosaur
may still be inside the cliff...
..but it's the skull on which he's concentrating.
A skull can reveal more about an animal
than any other part of its skeleton.
Finding a complete specimen is rare,
but it can tell us a great deal
about how the animal lived.
It's quite hot and thirsty work.
Steve and Chris think they will have
about three weeks to dig the fossil out
before the storms of late summer come.
This is a learning curve.
I thought, stupidly,
that it wouldn't be quite as hard as this.
We're probably over a metre in.
There's the skull there, just behind me.
It's up to us now to get it out without any damage.
If the skull is successfully extracted,
it will be taken to the Etches Collection Museum
in Kimmeridge, which was founded by Steve in 2016
and now contains nearly 3,000 fossils
from the Jurassic period.
This was where the pliosaur snout
was brought to be assessed.
And I've come here
to learn what Steve has found out so far.
What an extraordinary and terrifying thing!
Huge teeth. They are. They're massive.
These big, fang-like teeth that come up.
And they interlock. Yes, they do.
So how far do these teeth extend?
They come right up here.
Is that characteristic of this?
Yes, typical pliosaur.
It's trihedral teeth, they're sort of...
They've got two sharp cutting edges
and then a flat face on the inside.
They must have used that to rip apart ichthyosaurs.
Ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs as well -
we've got evidence in the museum.
Because they've got subtriangular teeth,
when they bite into a bone,
they leave a very distinctive tooth hole.
Steve's collection contains a limb bone of a plesiosaur,
another large marine reptile,
which has bite marks on it
that exactly match the size and shape of pliosaur teeth.
What a godsend it is that the teeth are triangular,
so that you're able to then identify prey...
Oh, yeah. ..just as much as you can identify
the one that was the predator.
That's right. Well, that's pretty unusual
to find teeth in position. It is.
This is the first pliosaur I've ever seen
with actually closed jaws.
It is extraordinary. Mm.
It is quite extraordinary.
And there is another unusual feature
on this snout.
So let me show you the other side. I'll spin it round.
Oh, gosh. There's a lot of stuff here.
Oh, yeah. And these...
These holes here.
Well, I think these are sensory pits,
they're all on the snout.
If you look at them, they go...
See, they strike back in at an angle. Yes.
They're sensory pits for picking up its prey,
I'm pretty sure. Pretty impressive beast.
Astonishing. Mm.
But exactly how did these sensory pits help our pliosaur to hunt?
These days, we have equipment
that can help us answer such a question.
We take the snout to the University of Southampton,
which has some of the most powerful
CT scanners in the UK.
On that. That's it. Then we upright it.
Dr Katy Rankin is a specialist
in scientific imaging.
She takes thousands of X-rays through the fossil
that reveal its internal structure.
But even with such high-tech equipment, the process
is not straightforward.
The snout was very challenging.
A typical CT scan can be around an hour.
In this case, because the fossil was very, very dense,
it actually took very, very long.
So it took about five days.
Five days?! Yes.
With the scan finally complete,
paleobiologist Dr Neil Gostling
is looking for clues about the sensory abilities
of our pliosaur.
So what does this scan tell us?
I've taken the CT data,
and we can rack our way through this stack of images
and we can see all of those internal structures,
which otherwise wouldn't have been revealed to us.
And there were some things which are, I think, quite exciting.
We've got these little structures in red.
And I had to do these, each one, slice by slice,
dot by dot, because there's lots of imperfections and holes in it.
But these are continuous,
and I think these are blood vessels,
little branching blood vessels.
- Now, come on. - BOTH CHUCKLE
You're really telling me
this block of stone can show blood vessels?
Yes, and what I think we've got here
are actually branches of the trigeminal nerve.
And these are the sensory nerves
in your face that allow you to feel
fingers dancing over your cheeks and what have you.
But if you're in water and you've got these sensory pits,
you can detect changes in pressure.
That's going to give you an advantage
in what might be murky water,
where your eyes aren't working so well.
So you can always be sure
that you're going to catch your next meal.
Fantastic.
Knowing how these senses worked,
we can start to build up a picture
of how our pliosaur hunted.
Its prey...
..ichthyosaurs -
reptiles much the same shape as a modern dolphin
and similarly fast and agile.
The sensory pits found on our pliosaur's snout...
may have acted like miniature pressure pads,
detecting the turbulence produced by ichthyosaurs
as they swam through deep water.
In effect, our pliosaur was able to stalk its prey
even in the darkest depths, just by using its skin.
There are animals today
that have similar sensory systems.
Crocodiles have over 9,000 pressure receptors,
which are concentrated on their snouts,
each one of which is thought to be ten times more sensitive
than a human fingertip.
Two weeks into the dig,
and the work is proving to be even harder
than anyone was expecting.
Let me throw this big chunk away.
The last couple or three days have been...
HE SIGHS I think it's been sapping everyone.
I think it might be a tooth. Let's have a look.
But it's got no crown. Let's have it. Let's have it.
All right! You weren't like this with David Attenborough.
I bet you didn't give him a load of lip, did you?
Yeah, but I like him. Oh. All right, then.
THEY LAUGH
Being 11 metres up a cliff is one challenge,
digging through incredibly hard rock with air tools -
every lump is hard won.
But, at last,
there's a breakthrough.
There's something under there which is huge.
Here, you've got the jaw showing,
and this one's heading back this way.
It's going to be the underneath of the skull.
There's a vertebra there.
There's another vertebra there.
Finding these bones confirms that the entire skull
really is inside the cliff.
It's nice to actually see something.
You feel like you've been rewarded a bit.
What Alex is doing, he is chipping out a loose tooth.
Hang on, that's the crown! Yeah. Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah. Keep going.
LAUGHS GIDDILY
This is part of the root and there's a pulp cavity there.
That tooth will be probably about ten inches long.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Oh, the thunder's coming. Oh, look at that.
Just as the dig is revealing further exciting finds...
Go on, guys. Yeah, come on, Chris.
We've got a lot to do. We've got to get you all up.
..conditions become treacherous,
and the rope safety team decides
that it's too dangerous to continue.
Now it's rained, this lithified mudstone
is turned like a slippery clay, it's lethal.
There's certainly no way now, with us stopping now,
that we're going to get it done in those days left.
The weather may be against them,
but finding a pliosaur tooth is a real stroke of luck.
It could also help us understand more
about the type of prey our sea monster could eat.
Back in Southampton...
MACHINE WHIRS
..the scan has revealed something even more intriguing
about the pliosaur snout.
These teeth are extraordinarily well preserved, aren't they?
Is there new information that we can get from this?
Well, from the CT scan,
if we take it back again so we can expose the teeth,
these are large, pointed teeth,
and these are really well adapted
for grasping slippery fish.
But this is on an order of magnitude larger,
which would have allowed it to eat all sorts of prey
that are swimming around
in the ancient Kimmeridge Bay of the time.
Were the teeth permanent, or were they replaced?
As we move it back through,
we can see that we've got individual teeth
almost all the way along.
However, in one place,
we've got this little tooth here,
and this is a replacement tooth.
The thing that most animals die of
is that their teeth have worn out,
and they can't feed any more.
And, if you are a large predator
and you are catching large prey,
you might lose teeth relatively frequently.
Well, this isn't such an issue if you can replace your teeth
multiple times throughout your life.
Not only were its teeth replaceable,
but they were also shaped differently -
long and sharp towards the front of its jaws,
more hook-like at the back.
This deadly combination meant
that pliosaurs could feed
in a variety of ways,
from grabbing large sharks and squid
to gripping smaller, slippery fish.
But pliosaur teeth have another special feature,
which scientists are only just beginning to understand.
These are exact replicas,
cast from the teeth of our own pliosaur.
As you can see, they're very large
and also trihedral - three-sided.
If we look closer at this one,
we can see it has very distinct ridges,
known as striations,
that run vertically down the tooth.
A recent study by scientists in Australia investigated
why pliosaur teeth had these ridges.
And I'm keen to test some of these theories myself.
The research proposed that,
when the pliosaur plunged its teeth into its victim,
these tooth ridges could have helped
to not only pierce the flesh
but also prevent a vacuum forming.
So I am going to try and imitate
our sea monster's bite,
using the replica teeth and a block of ballistic gel,
an artificial equivalent to animal flesh.
This pliosaur tooth has had its ridges entirely removed.
Without its striations,
the surfaces are now completely smooth and flat.
So firstly, if I plunge this smooth tooth
into the gel...
That did feel difficult to push the tooth in
and pull it out again.
But now, if I repeat the same movement with the ridged tooth,
in theory, it should feel easier.
Smoothly in.
And I'll put it out...
..no bother.
Well, that certainly felt significantly easier.
To get a more scientific opinion,
we test the teeth at the University of Bristol,
and the results indicate that the ridged teeth
do require less force to be pushed into the gel.
While this area is new to science,
it seems that the theories were on the right track.
The ridges on its teeth could have enabled the pliosaur
to more easily capture its prey underwater
by allowing it to swiftly and repeatedly bite down,
ensuring a quick, successful kill
for this Jurassic sea monster.
METALLIC HAMMERING
Three weeks into the dig, the weather is holding.
And now the biggest question for Steve and Chris
is how to lift the skull off the cliff.
I reckon we take out a big slab.
One piece? Yeah.
Cut it underneath? What, cut underneath?
Yeah. All the way through?
Yeah. I can't see any other way of doing it.
If we do it any other way,
it's going to just crumble up.
What do you think? I think I'm going home and not coming back!
Luckily, for Steve and Chris,
friend and local farmer Rob Vearncombe
has been devising a solution.
He's building a crate, which will be lowered down the cliff,
into which the skull will be manoeuvred
and then hauled up to the top.
Yeah, I'm actually a farmer by trade.
Because of all the machinery and building that's involved,
effectively, I'm a self-taught engineer.
But it is a massive challenge,
from an engineering point of view.
Rob believes that the crate will enable them
to get the skull safely to the top of the cliff.
The theory is that whatever angle the skids are,
as it comes up the cliff,
the box stays level to protect the fossil
because we're trying to keep the fossil
as level as possible.
The big day finally arrives,
and a local army of helpers is assembled
for this crucial stage of the operation.
And Steve is feeling the pressure.
With the best will in the world,
it looks like it's all going to function,
but the risk is immense. You know, what happens
if it just actually turned on its side?
There's a lot of things that could go wrong,
so it's a risky sort of time.
This is one of the largest and best-preserved
pliosaur skulls ever found.
So the stakes are very high indeed.
When it comes down, we've got to get that aligned
and we've got to get that jaw, that skull inside that box.
And we've got to be really careful
that that sled has got a metal bar
and, as it comes down, it doesn't hit the nose.
No-one's ever done this before, ever.
Extracting a giant skull halfway down a cliff face!
The crate must be lowered into position with great precision
if the skull is not to be damaged.
The position it's coming down in, it's almost...
It's going to glance the side of the skull.
Whoa there! Stop!
RADIO: Stop. Stop.
So somehow, we've got to manually try
and move the whole sled over.
RADIO: I think we could afford to do
30cm lower and no more.
After weeks of back-breaking work,
emotions are running high.
Down! Come on. Quick! Quicker!
This moment's really fraught.
We've got one skid just about glancing the side of the skull,
and we've got to try and pull it out now
to get it over the edge.
Very slowly. Six inches.
One clumsy move,
and the skull could be smashed.
Oh, my... Oh, pull! Pull again.
My hand... That's all right. Missed it! We've done it!
Stop, stop!
It's all pretty stressful.
Every part of this is really, really stressful.
After quite a few hours, we've got it into position.
We haven't knocked the end of the snout off so far,
and it's all ready to go.
But the next stage looks even more risky.
Just retreat from the edge,
and we're going up the ropes now!
Al and Steve are going to go up to the hole
and attach the winch,
and then start the process of slowly dragging it into the box.
Shifting a fossil that weighs over half a tonne...
HE GRUNTS
..is really dangerous.
It's moving. It's very nervous and it's very tense.
So let's see how it goes.
Oh... Go on.
That's good. That's better.
That's... Whoa!
Right, I think slide it straight in.
Steve, is it OK? Has it come off OK?
Well, we're losing a bit of it, but you can't help it, mate.
Go on. Go on.
Now it's on it. There you go.
Right. Off you go.
That's it. Good, that'll do.
That's well in.
RADIO: It's right in the cage now.
Hey, the fossil's in!
Brilliant, mate. We're all cheering here.
Well done. Well done.
Well done, everybody.
Right, well done. Brilliant.
We've overcome a lot of problems to get this far,
and we've done it by the skin of our teeth.
The skull, at last, is in the crate...
RADIO: Take up the slack again.
..but shifting it carelessly, let alone dropping it,
could be disastrous.
Come over a bit.
So there'll be six ropes coming up
to be able to lift it and hold it steady... hopefully.
With the tide coming in and the sun setting,
we couldn't cut it any finer.
OK, right. Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Finally, the skull is safe.
Brilliant, Rob.
Well done. Well done.
THEY CLAP
Yeah.
It's amazing.
It's a dream come true. And I'll tell you what,
I don't think anyone would ever believe we could've done it.
Three weeks ago, it was buried in a cliff face.
We found the top food chain predator,
and now we're bringing it back to life.
And this will be one of the best that's ever been found.
Hey! Hurray! Good on you.
Oh! None of that.
Go on. Oh, get off, you little devils!
Oh, dear. Oh, dear.
It's out. The next stage starts.
The skull is transported to Steve's workshop.
Ready? Go! One, two, three. Lift.
Right up.
Oh, my God!
The mudstone's cracked and dried.
Of course, what it's done
is just cracked the bone as well.
Jeepers creepers. You'll be fine!
Oh, yeah. I can see this is the biggest jigsaw going.
Luckily, you're a young man, though, aren't you?
Yeah, yeah. Plenty of time. Yeah, plenty of time.
The painstaking task of removing the stone from around the skull
so that it can be examined in detail...
..can at last begin.
After the heavy work of the dig,
this stage requires a delicate touch.
First, Steve removes the rocks surrounding the fossil...
DRILL WHIRS
..so that the fragile area of the skull can be strengthened.
Then, using an air abrasion tool,
he starts work to reveal the more intricate details
about the anatomy of this extraordinary animal.
This giant sea monster,
after 150 million years,
finally begins to emerge from the rock.
And I have the privilege of coming to see this whole skull
for the first time.
So here it is.
And it's enormous.
I am meeting Dr Judyth Sassoon,
a palaeontologist, who has studied
pliosaur specimens for decades.
Does it still take your breath away as it takes mine?
It is a most astonishing specimen, David.
I'm very pleased to be part of the work on it.
What insights can Judyth give us
into the life of this ancient monster?
How is it coming along?
What sort of detail can you get from this,
which you never knew before?
Steve Etches has been working on it now for several months
and has made some fabulous progress.
We're seeing, as it's being prepared,
gradually, more and more detail being revealed.
So far, we have some information
about its senses.
Really? Was their eyesight good?
There are indications that, in fact, it could have been.
The eyes themselves were quite important
for this animal.
One of the reasons is the position itself.
The eyes are on the side of the head,
more or less in the middle,
so not too high and not too low.
This important feature of the skull may suggest
how our pliosaur hunted in the open ocean.
The position of the eyes in living animals varies
according to the way in which they hunt.
Dolphins are pursuit predators.
Their eyes are placed on the side of their heads,
which gives them panoramic vision...
..enabling them to attack their prey with great accuracy.
Ambush predators, such as crocodiles,
have eyes higher up on their heads...
..so they can remain just below the surface
with only their eyes above water
and judge when to attack.
Our pliosaur seems to have had
something in between...
..with an eye position that not only enabled it
to pursue prey through the water with accuracy,
but alternatively surprise it by attacking from below.
And there is another remarkable feature,
which could tell us more about where our sea monster may have hunted.
We talked about eyes. There's also another interesting structure,
which is the parietal eye.
In many reptiles, this still exists.
When it is present in terrestrial animals,
it has a full eye structure, like the lateral eyes,
and is light sensitive.
The parietal eye on the top of the head
is something of a puzzle.
It's known as a third eye
and is still found in a few living species.
It apparently helps an animal to regulate its body clock.
The pliosaur's parietal eye is thought to have had a lens,
a cornea and a retina.
Although its exact function is unclear,
it may have enabled our sea monster to gauge
which way was up when swimming at depth,
and potentially navigate deeper hunting grounds.
What other questions would you have wished the skull
to provide answers for?
I've already made some measurements on this animal,
and the proportions do seem to be different
from other pliosaurs that we know.
The skull is quite long-snouted,
but the position of the nose and the eye
and also of the crest
suggest that it is something else, something new.
A new species of pliosaur? Of pliosaur, yes.
A new species? Really? Yes.
I think it could be, yes.
The revelation that our pliosaur could be a new species
is truly exciting.
There are only eight recognised species of pliosaur...
..and this skull is certain to provide new scientific data
on the evolution of these mysterious marine reptiles.
I have to say, you take my breath away.
The detail, which you can deduce,
it is mind-blowing, I think.
And that's what palaeontology is about.
I used to think it was just a question of finding a fossil
and digging it out and saying how nice it was.
You've made it sound rather different.
DAVID CHUCKLES
In recent decades,
huge advances have been made
in our ability to study prehistoric animals.
And we can now investigate the predator power of our pliosaur
in more detail than ever before.
Paleobiologist Dr Andre Rowe is a world-leading expert
in 3D visualisation of fossils.
First thoughts - this thing is absolutely massive,
and I will also add that the level of preservation is amazing.
There's this common misconception
that fossilisation is just this really common thing
and we get these complete skulls
all the time, and that's certainly not the case.
This is actually a one-in-a-million,
maybe one-in-a-billion-type specimen here.
Using the latest technology,
Andre is carrying out the world's first surface scan
of a pliosaur skull.
So, right now, we're capturing
basically hundreds of thousands of images all at once,
essentially putting together a big 3D jigsaw puzzle.
The end result is a really nice-looking 3D model,
which we can use for biomechanics,
studying the anatomy.
I think we'll be able to unlock a lot of mysteries
about what these sea monsters were doing,
and I'm really excited to see where it takes us.
Once the scan has been finalised,
I meet Andre at the University of Bristol
to discuss his findings.
Has he seen anything in the skull's structure
that shows our sea monster
had the power of a truly deadly predator?
There's some massive openings back here along the jawline.
Yeah. And that's good for muscles
to attach and bulge out.
There'd be a muscle running through there.
Yes, we have the pterygoid muscle group,
which is in a lot of big dinosaurs,
and it's integral to having a really strong bite.
And we have hypothesised that this particular pliosaur
is kind of the apex predator
in the Jurassic ecosystems it was living in.
In the sea. Yes.
Now, this, of course, is not a dinosaur,
but neither is it a modern reptile.
But it does look a lot like a crocodile, doesn't it?
Yes. Well, we have this process called convergent evolution,
where a lot of animals will adapt
this similar-shaped skull or similar trends
throughout their evolutionary history,
even if they're not closely related.
That's because having those similarities
can give you a lot of advantages.
But in terms of this pliosaur,
it's got that kind of streamlined skull
that's kind of broad in the back, it's very triangular shaped,
and a lot of marine reptiles kind of have that skull shape.
I think that it's good for swimming quickly and ambushing prey.
Does the skull give you any information
about what animal its prey might have been?
The animal would have been so massive
that I think it would have been able to prey effectively
on anything that was unfortunate enough
to be in its space.
A popular hypothesis is that
these animals were actually ripping off
the limbs of other animals to disable them from swimming away,
and then kind of going in for a kill.
So this is really a top predator?
Yes. I have very little doubt,
just judging from how massive that skull is.
I don't see what could have possibly hurt it.
What size is that, actually?
So the actual skull itself clocks in
just a little under two metres.
Two metres. Longer than I am.
Yeah. It's quite a big boy. And that's just the skull.
The dimensions of a fossilised skull enable us
to estimate the overall size of an animal when it was alive.
And based on Andre's measurements,
our pliosaur could have been
up to an astounding 12 metres long.
Just from the sheer size of it,
just from looking at this animal and how big those pterygoid muscles
would have been at the back of the jaw,
the animal would have delivered a devastating bite, no doubt.
A powerful bite is vital to the success
of any marine predator.
Scientists are able to estimate
how much force an animal can exert
when biting into its prey.
And great white sharks have one of the strongest bites,
at around 10,000 newtons.
But how do you work out the bite force of a creature
that became extinct millions of years ago?
Professor Emily Rayfield is a world-renowned palaeontologist,
who specialises in skeletal mechanics.
Using the model created by Andre,
Emily has assessed the bite force of our pliosaur.
So this is a 3D print, a model.
It's not full size, though.
It's just over a third of the size of the actual animal.
These large openings are the spaces in the skull,
which would have been filled with jaw-closing muscles.
So you can estimate the force of the bite
from the size of those muscles. Exactly. Yeah.
We can get an estimate of that from here.
We know that muscles of a certain... a certain size,
a certain area, are capable of generating
a certain amount of force.
Saltwater crocodiles have got
the largest ever bite force measured,
and they're up to about 16,000 newtons.
And these? So our pliosaur here,
from the estimations that we've made,
has a bite force that's about twice the size of that,
of the largest saltwater crocodile that's ever been measured.
And it's in the region of around 32,000 newtons.
So this is the most powerful biter
in the sea that ever has been, or that we know of?
That we know of, absolutely. Yes, definitely.
If you're looking at kind of statistics
in terms of car-biting metrics,
I'm pretty sure it could probably bite through a car.
So it's a monster?
Absolutely.
BOTH LAUGH
The evidence gathered from the skull so far
suggests that this pliosaur
had the jaws, teeth and senses of a highly successful hunter.
Its long snout, short neck and streamlined skull
enabled it to move easily through the water.
But what else helped our enormous sea monster
to power through the Jurassic seas
fast enough to catch its prey?
Pliosaurs were unique in the natural world,
as they had four almost identical wing-like flippers.
How pliosaurs used their flippers
has been debated by palaeontologists for decades.
Some believe that they moved using a sort of rowing stroke,
like oars in a boat,
while others argued they used a flight stroke
seen in animals, such as sea turtles.
But, in recent years, scientists have been able to use
computer modelling to finally solve this mystery,
and it appears that these giant sea monsters
swam in a way that is surprisingly similar
to a very different type of animal -
one that is alive today.
Woo-oy!
Ha!
Penguins may appear somewhat clumsy
as they waddle around on land,
but once they're underwater,
they move very differently.
These are Humboldt penguins, and they're excellent swimmers.
Their streamlined body shape and their oily feathers
enable them to reach astonishing speeds
of up to 30mph.
But a key factor behind penguins' speed
are their flippers, which, underwater, act like propellers,
driving them forward and increasing their speed dramatically.
In slow motion,
you can see that the penguins are using
a lift-based underwater flight movement,
twisting their wings as they flap
and propelling themselves forward on the upstroke
as well as the downstroke.
As strange as it may seem,
it's thought that pliosaurs would have moved
in a very similar way.
But, of course, pliosaurs were enormous,
and most large animals
are relatively slow moving.
So as an apex predator,
how could this huge creature manoeuvre itself fast enough
to catch its prey?
To find out, I've come to the Hydrodynamic Laboratory
at Imperial College London,
where Dr Luke Muscutt is studying
the locomotion of pliosaurs,
using a rather unusual research tool.
How did you first become interested
in the way that pliosaurs swam?
It's the only animal that we know of
that has four large flippers.
So the question is, how did they use them?
When we're trying to understand an extinct animal,
the first thing we need to do is look at the fossils,
so we understand the shape of the bones,
how the bones fit together...
The fossils of the pliosaur
show that the flippers were very much like wings.
So what I found was that the hind flipper
can actually operate at a much higher thrust
and at a much higher efficiency,
because it's utilising the wake of the flipper in front of it.
We can see a similar effect
in the flight of migrating birds, such as geese.
When geese are flying in formation,
each bird benefits from the uplift created
by the one in front of it,
so that they fly in a very energy-efficient way.
SQUAWKING
So you can think of the pliosaur as almost two birds,
one flying behind the other,
and the back one is benefiting from the one in front.
That's an extraordinary parallel, yes!
The hind flipper has increases in thrust and efficiency
of up to 40%.
Ah!
So this would have increased the swimming speed
that pliosaurs would have been able to achieve
and increase the number
of different things it could eat.
To take his research to the next level,
Luke has built a robot
to study the swimming pattern of pliosaurs
more accurately than ever before.
So what more information do you think you can get
from this model?
This robot enables me to test the complete animal.
How fast something can move is an absolutely critical part
of what that animal is,
and it tells us what animals it could have eaten,
how far it might have been able to travel...
All sorts of questions come back down
to its locomotion ability.
Have you estimated a speed that this might produce?
Well, I've only finished building this yesterday.
Oh, really? So, so far, I haven't
actually ran the experiments yet.
If you'd like to have a go, you're more than welcome to...
Yes. Oh, show me. So if you just move this joystick
sort of upwards further.
So this is how the pliosaur would have swam.
The flippers move primarily up and down.
It's much more like a bird flies.
Luke and his team set up the robot for a test swim,
and they entrust me with its maiden voyage.
If you'd like to take the control...
There we are. It's off.
Really got some high acceleration there.
I suppose, actually, that's only a model,
but if it was full-sized, it would be going quite fast.
Indeed. You can just imagine it chasing after a smaller ichthyosaur.
Luke's research is so new, it's yet to be published,
but it's helping to provide a new perspective
on these extraordinary animals.
Large marine predators, like orcas,
can swim at great speed through the ocean.
What speed might our pliosaur,
with its four flippers,
have been capable of?
Estimates suggest that they could have accelerated
up to 30mph,
making them one of the fastest animals in the Jurassic seas.
This skull is not only helping us to understand more
about the lives of these giant sea monsters,
but also allows scientists, like Dr Andre Rowe,
to visualise the Jurassic world as never before.
So often, I've been involved in looking at fossil skeletons,
and the skull... Unless the skull is there,
you're really missing an awful lot of information.
We are lucky to find this as the first thing.
Yes, I am very biased,
since I study feeding and teeth,
but I think the majority of information
about an animal you can get from its skull.
Yeah. The brain, the teeth, what it was feeding on,
its maximum body size if you have the whole skull.
It's just a treasure trove of information.
And we're very fortunate to have the whole thing.
One of the reasons why I love the UK is because it's got
such a great collection of marine reptiles.
Delighted to hear it.
I mean, in America, we've got our big tyrannosaurs
and our triceratops, but the UK is great for marine reptiles.
Well, we did discover the dinosaurs.
Yes, the science of palaeontology did originate here.
How would it compare with T-rex?
I imagine it would be pretty comparable.
They were kind of both the respective apex predators
in their ecosystems.
So I have no doubt that this was
sort of like an underwater T-rex, if you will. OK.
Let me ask you the million-dollar question.
In a battle between T-rex and our pliosaur,
who's going to win?
As much as it pains me and brings a tear to my eye to admit it,
I think my T-rex is going to lose this fight.
And then, millions of years later,
an American palaeontologist will envision this scene
and break down into tears.
DAVID LAUGHS
Bringing an enormous predator back to life
after 150 million years
is no easy task.
But restoring this giant skull is a labour of love
for Steve and his team.
Almost a year after the skull was discovered,
I returned to Kimmeridge to see how they're getting on.
My goodness.
It is absolutely magnificent.
It's astonishing.
It's bigger than a T-rex.
Is it? Yeah, yeah. What, the skull? Yeah.
Yeah, bigger than any T-rex ever found.
David, now what we've done, since you've come here last,
is we've... I've air penned off all the mudstone
and then air abraded it. Now, the air abrasive machine
cleans out all these little voids,
and you see every little detail,
every suture, where the bone join together,
you can see every detail. That's what we really wanted.
So the teeth here have been basically tumbled on the beach,
and the shingle had worn away all the crowns.
So we're going to do a bit of dentistry on them.
So we've got this tooth, which has been scanned,
and then we're going to increase or decrease it,
and then add all the teeth back in position
to show people what it actually looked like.
You must feel, looking at this...
I mean, I know it was a huge amount of work to get it out.
We never thought we'd get it, to be honest.
I'll be honest with you.
Well, it's certainly a triumph.
Yeah, quite an emotional moment for everyone.
I'm sure. Yeah.
A sensation.
Once the pliosaur's dagger-like teeth are added...
..the picture is finally complete.
Our journey of discovery has shown
that this sea monster was one of the greatest predators
the world has ever seen.
And we can now visualise more accurately than ever
how it may have hunted in the Jurassic seas.
Ichthyosaurs,
swimming in groups along the coast...
..concentrating on hunting their prey...
..unaware that they themselves are being stalked.
On their trail,
our pliosaur uses its highly-tuned senses
to launch an attack.
In the chase, its four flippers,
each two metres long,
drive it through the water at great speed.
Splitting the shoal, it isolates its target.
Our sea monster's primary weapons
are its 90 razor-sharp teeth...
..with which it slices through its victim's flesh.
The impact alone may have been enough to kill.
But with a bite force twice the strength
of any animal living today,
its prey had little chance of survival.
From a chance discovery on a beach one morning
to the painstaking restoration
of such a rare and impressive specimen,
the story of this fossil is one of skill, dedication
and of fascinating scientific discoveries
made along the way.
We've been given a unique insight
into the life of our pliosaur
that swam in the Jurassic seas 150 million years ago,
but we're also reminded
that there is still so much to learn
about these extraordinary prehistoric animals.
And I, for one, will never tire of discovering more.
大衛‧阿滕伯勒：我在 英格蘭南海岸
在所謂的 侏羅紀海岸。
一億五千萬年前，
土地被統治 由恐龍...
但海洋被主宰
被神秘的海怪所左右。
其遺存極為罕見，
但有些人剛剛 被發現
在我身後的懸崖上。
現在化石專家 正在努力挖掘
這個非凡的發現。
從來沒有人做過 這以前，曾經！
取出巨型頭骨 半下懸崖！
這個巨大的生物
被稱為上龍。
但人們所知甚少 這些史前巨人。
多麼非凡的 和可怕的事情！
一起，與一個 科學家團隊，
我們將使用新技術
發現更多相關信息 巨大的海洋爬蟲類。
我毫不懷疑 這隻上龍
是海洋中的霸王龍。
與它比較 今天還活著的動物...
..我們可以推斷很多 關於他們的絕對實力。
這隻上龍有咬合力
大約是兩倍 大白鯊。
嗯，這是難以想的。
這可能是 侏羅紀最偉大的掠食者
曾經住過嗎？
英國有財富
化石遺址，
但也許沒有一個是 這麼有名，
侏羅紀海岸。
我一直在収集 從小就喜歡化石
我還沒有 厭倦了。
這些天，你應該 為了安全要戴眼鏡。
而且，如果你願意 知道一個地方，
你會開始 識別塊的類型
可能含化石。
這塊石頭之前就已經裂開了
以便更輕鬆地向您展示。
如果我可以...
..相當不錯 那裡很難...
他笑了
那個怎麼樣？
還有什麼嗎 比那漂亮嗎？
極好的。
甚至找到最小的化石
是一種興奮，但發現 更大的東西
可能會是個難忘的時刻。
這正是 發生了什麼事
對於化石愛好者來說，
誰沿著海灘散步
基默里奇灣附近 一天早上，在多塞特郡。
我剛剛發現了一些東西 相當非同尋常——
這是一個的下巴 巨大的上龍。
這是巨大的。
這是一隻巨大的上龍。
這是最好的化石 我曾經發現過。
應該是剛出來的 那裡某處的懸崖。
著名化石專家 史蒂夫•埃奇斯被叫來，
他立刻意識到
這個發現可以 具有非常重要的意義。
看！看看那些牙齒。
那裡有一顆牙齒——看。
我們先來看看正面。
你可以沿著這裡走 數百次
卻什麼也沒找到，
然後，偶爾， 你會中大獎的。
這當然是 是大獎。
這是一個 巨大的上龍頭骨。
史蒂夫懷疑 頭部的其餘部份
可能仍被嵌入 在上面的懸崖上。
但他需要快速工作
在整件事之前 跌入海
並且永遠失去了。
於是他迅速聚集 專家團隊，
包括同胞 化石獵人克里斯摩爾。
今天是挖掘的第一天。
史蒂夫和一隊挖掘者 都在懸崖上。
他們正在佈網 阻止任何鬆動的岩石
滾下來擊中我們，
然後我們就下去 並暴露頭骨。
鑽孔呼機
史蒂夫和克里斯曾經工作過 在一起幾十年了。
但這是 最大的挑戰
他們曾經面對過。
頭骨的位置，
高高在上 崩塌的懸崖面，
使得很難到達
甚至更難開展工作。
這些岩石曾經是 海底的泥土...
..其中的遺骸 史前海洋生物
被埋葬了。
數百萬年來， 大陸移動，
海水退去，
而今天，作為 這些懸崖被侵蝕，
骨骼化石 被揭露。
下巴在那裡，想法就在那裡
就是實際切割 垂直向下，
然後我們形成一個平臺 化石在哪裡。
我認識克里斯並且 史蒂夫多年來，
我迫不及待地想加入他們
並了解如何 他們進展順利。
在這裡，我們有現場直播 給他們實際挖掘的
懸崖表面的一半。
到目前為止發生了什麼，
鼻尖已經 出來並被恢復，
所以剩下的就是 進入懸崖。
到底是什麼 他們在那裡做什麼？
眼下， 他們用的是錫紙
嘗試並保護 暴露的下巴部份。
萬一有東西掉 並打破它？
是的。是啊是啊。
然後他們也使用 強力膠用於鞏固
易碎的牙齒和零件
那些已經風化的 幾千年來。
他們掛著 在那裡用繩子？
是的，幾乎在 懸崖的中心。
親愛的我！漂亮的 危險的東西，這個。
是啊是啊，確實是這樣。
工作結束後 在那裡待了幾個小時,
它變得更自然一點。
而你全神貫註 在實際挖掘中。
你一定非常確定 那裡有東西
把這個量 努力去做，眞的。
哦，肯定有 那裡有什麼東西。
很美麗。
這是一個美麗的標本。
是嗎？是的。驚人的。
但這能做什麼 壯觀的發現揭示
關於這些人的生活 神秘的海洋生物
以及他們居住的世界？
在侏羅紀晚期，
歐洲是一個 群島
更接近於 赤道比今天還要高。
它的海洋溫暖而淺 並充滿生機，
並且，在這些水域中， 在我的腳下，
潛伏著終極海洋 掠食者……上龍。
與恐龍不同 生活在陸地上的，
這些巨大的海洋爬蟲類
花了他們的全部 生活在海洋中。
他們被認為有 長度大概10m左右...
..大約是這個尺寸 雙層巴士的。
它們有又長又寬的鰭狀肢，
脖子短而有力…
..巨大的頭
和巨大的下巴。
但還有 很多我們不知道
關於這些巨大的海怪，
這就是為什麼這個新發現
是如此重要。
史蒂夫相信 整個上龍
可能還在懸崖裡面…
..但這是頭骨 他正在集中精力。
頭骨可以揭示 更多關於動物的信息
比任何其他部份 它的骨架。
尋找一個完整的 標本十分稀有，
但它可以告訴我們很多
關於動物如何生活。
這是一項又熱又渴的工作。
史蒂夫和克里斯 認為他們會有
大約三週到 把化石挖出來
暴風雨之前 夏末來了。
這是一個學習曲線。
我愚蠢地想，
那不會是 就這麼難。
我們大概有一公尺多了。
那裡有頭骨 就在那裡，就在我身後。
現在由我們來獲得 它沒有任何損壞。
如果頭骨是 成功提取，
它將被帶到 蝕刻収藏博物館
在基默里奇，這是 由史蒂夫於二零一六年創立
現在包含 近3000塊化石
從侏羅紀時期開始。
這是哪裡 上龍的鼻子
被帶去接受評估。
我已經來到這裡
了解史蒂夫 到目前為止已經發現了。
多麼非凡的 和可怕的事情！
巨大的牙齒。他們 是。它們很大。
這些像獠牙一樣的大 長出的牙齒。
它們是相互關聯的。 是的，他們確實這麼做了。
那麼要做多遠 這些牙齒延伸？
他們就到這裡來了。
這是這個的特色嗎？
是的，典型的上龍。
這是三面牙 他們有點...
他們有兩個 鋒利的切割刃
然後是一個公寓 臉在裡面。
他們一定用過那個 撕裂魚龍。
魚龍， 還有蛇頸龍——
我們有證據 在博物館裡。
因為他們有 次三角形齒，
當它們咬骨頭時
他們留下了非常 獨特的齒孔。
史蒂夫的収藏包括 蛇頸龍的四肢骨，
另一種大型海洋爬蟲類，
上面有咬痕
尺寸完全匹配 和上龍牙齒的形狀。
這眞是天賜之物 牙齒呈三角形，
這樣你就能夠 然後辨認獵物...
哦耶。 ..就像 盡可能多地識別
那個掠食者。
這是正確的。出色地， 這很不尋常
找到牙齒 位置。這是。
這是第一個 我看過的上龍
下巴其實是閉合的。
這是非凡的。
這是相當不尋常的。
還有另一個 不尋常的特徵
在這個鼻子上。
那麼讓我向你展示另一個 邊。我會旋轉它。
哦，天哪。有一個 這裡有很多東西。
哦耶。還有這些...
這裡的這些洞。
嗯，我覺得這些 是感覺坑，
它們都在鼻子上。
如果你看著他們，他們就會...
看，他們反擊了 以一定角度。是的。
它們是感官坑 為了捕捉獵物，
我相當確定。漂亮的 令人印像深刻的野獸。
驚人。
但這些感官到底是如何產生的 坑可以幫助我們的上龍捕獵嗎？
這些天，我們有設備
這可以幫助我們 回答這樣的問題。
我們把鼻子帶到 南安普敦大學，
其中有一些 最厲害的
英國的 CT 掃描儀。
關於這一點。就是這樣。 然後我們把它豎起來。
凱蒂•蘭金博士是一位專家
在科學成像方面。
她需要數千 透過化石的 X 射線
揭示其 內部結構。
但即使有如此高科技 設備、工藝
並不簡單。
鼻子非常具有挑戰性。
典型的 CT 掃描可以 大約一個小時。
在這種情況下，因為 化石非常非常緻密，
它實際上花了 非常非常長。
所以花了大約五天的時間。
五天？！是的。
掃描最終完成後，
古生物學家尼爾‧戈斯特林博士
正在尋找有關的線索 感官能力
我們的上龍。
那麼這個掃描告訴我們什麼呢？
我拍了CT數據，
我們可以竭盡全力 透過這堆圖像
我們可以看到所有 那些內部結構，
否則不會 已經向我們透露了。
還有一些事情 我認為，這非常令人興奮。
我們有這些小 紅色結構。
我必須做這些， 每一片一片，
一點一點，因為有很多 其中的缺陷和漏洞。
但這些都是連續的，
我認為這些 是血管，
小分支血管。
- 現在，來吧。 - 兩人都咯咯地笑
你眞的在告訴我
這塊石頭 可以顯示血管嗎？
是的，還有我 我想我們已經到了
實際上是分支 三叉神經的。
這些是感覺神經
當著你的面 讓你感受到
手指在你的上方舞動 臉頰和你有什麼。
但如果你在水中並且 你有這些感覺坑，
你可以檢測到 壓力的變化。
這將給 你是一個優勢
在可能混濁的水中，
你的眼睛不在的地方 工作得很好。
所以您始終可以確定
你將會 趕上你的下一餐。
極好的。
了解這些感官如何運作，
我們可以開始 建立一個圖片
我們的上龍如何狩獵。
它的獵物...
..魚龍-
爬蟲類大致相同 形狀像現代海豚
同樣快速和敏捷。
發現的感覺坑 我們的上龍的鼻子...
可能表現得像 微型壓力墊，
偵測湍流 由魚龍產生
當他們遊過深水時。
實際上，我們的上龍 能夠追蹤獵物
即使在最黑暗的深處， 衹需使用它的皮膚。
今天有動物
具有類似的 感覺系統。
鱷魚已經結束了 9,000 個壓力感受器，
哪些集中 在他們的鼻子上，
每一項都被認為 靈敏十倍
比人類的指尖。
挖掘兩週後，
這項工作正在證明 更難
超出任何人的預期。
讓我扔這個 走了一大塊。
最後一對或 已經三天了…
他嘆了口氣 我想是這樣 一直在削弱每個人。
我認為這可能是一個 齒。我們來看一下。
但它沒有皇冠。讓我們 有它。讓我們來吧。
好的！你本來不像 這是大衛‧阿滕伯勒的作品。
我敢打賭你沒有給他 滿嘴髒話，是嗎？
是的，但我喜歡他。 哦。那好吧。
他們笑了
十一米高 懸崖是一項挑戰，
令人難以置信地挖掘 帶氣動工具的硬岩 -
每一塊都來之不易。
但是，最後，
有突破了。
下面有東西 那裡很大。
在這裡，你有 露出下巴，
和這個 就這樣往回走。
這將是 頭骨下方。
那裡有一塊椎骨。
那裡還有另一塊椎骨。
找到這些骨頭證實了 整個頭骨
眞的是在懸崖裡面。
其實很好 看到一些東西。
你感覺你已經 得到了一點獎勵。
亞歷克斯正在做什麼，他是 鑿掉一顆鬆動的牙齒。
堅持住，這就是皇冠！ 是的。哦，這很有趣。
是的。繼續前進。
笑得頭暈目眩
這是根的一部份 那裡有一個牙髓腔。
那顆牙齒可能是 大約十英寸長。
雷霆隆隆
噢，雷霆 未來。哦，看看那個。
正如挖掘揭示的那樣 更多令人興奮的發現...
繼續吧，夥計們。是的， 來吧，克里斯。
我們有很多事情要做。 我們得讓你們都起來。
..條件變成危險，
繩索安全團隊決定
這太 繼續危險。
現在下雨了，這 岩化泥岩
像滑一樣轉動 粘土，它是致命的。
肯定沒有辦法 現在，我們停下來，
我們會得到它 那些日子做完就剩下了。
天氣可能對他們不利，
但找到了上龍的牙齒 眞是太幸運了。
它也可以幫助 我們了解更多
關於獵物的類型 我們的海怪可以吃。
回到南安普敦...
機器呼呼作響
..掃描顯示 更有趣的事情
關於上龍的鼻子。
這些牙齒非比尋常 保存得很好，不是嗎？
有新的資訊嗎 我們可以從中得到什麼？
嗯，從CT掃描來看，
如果我們再収回來 這樣我們就可以露出牙齒
這些是又大又尖的牙齒，
這些是 非常適應
用於抓住滑溜的魚。
但這是有命令的 數量級較大，
這本來可以允許 牠吃各種各樣的獵物
那些在周圍游泳的
在古老的基默里奇 當時的灣。
如果牙齒是恆牙的話 還是他們被替換了？
當我們把它移回來時，
我們可以看到我們已經 有單獨的牙齒
幾乎一路走來。
然而，在一個地方，
我們有這個 這裡有小牙齒，
這是替換牙。
那件事 大多數動物死於
那是他們的牙齒 已經磨損，
他們不能再進食了。
而且，如果你是大型掠食者
你正在捕捉大型獵物，
你可能會失去牙齒 相對頻繁。
嗯，這不是一個問題 如果你可以更換牙齒
多次 貫穿你的一生。
其不僅是 可更換牙齒，
但他們也是 形狀不同——
長而尖銳的 它的下巴前部，
後面更像鉤子。
這種致命的組合意味著
上龍可以餵食
以多種方式，
從抓大 鯊魚和魷魚
抓握更小， 滑溜的魚。
但上龍的牙齒有 另一個特別之處，
哪些科學家衹是 剛開始了解。
這些都是精確的複製品，
從牙齒中鑄出 我們自己的上龍。
如你看到的， 它們很大
還有三面體 - 三邊。
如果我們仔細觀察這個，
我們可以看到它有 非常明顯的山脊，
稱為條紋，
垂直運行的 下排牙齒。
科學家最近的一項研究 在澳洲被調查
為什麼上龍有牙齒 有這些山脊。
我很想測試一些 我自己的這些理論。
研究提出，
當上龍墜落時 它用牙齒咬住受害者，
這些牙脊 本來可以幫助
不僅要刺穿肉體
還可以防止 眞空成型。
所以我要嘗試模仿
我們的海怪的咬傷，
使用複製牙齒和 一塊彈道凝膠，
人工等價物 到動物肉。
這顆上龍的牙齒有 它的山脊完全被移除。
沒有它的條紋，
現在的表面是 完全光滑平整。
所以首先，如果我跳入 這顆光滑的牙齒
進入凝膠...
確實感覺很難 將牙齒推入
並再次將其拉出。
但現在，如果我重複同樣的話 隨著脊齒的運動，
理論上，它 應該感覺更容易。
順利進去。
而且我會把它放出來...
..沒有關係。
嗯，確實有這種感覺 明顯更容易。
為了獲得更多 科學意見，
我們測試牙齒 布里斯託大學，
結果表明 那些有脊狀的牙齒
確實需要更少的力量 被推入凝膠中。
雖然這個區域 對科學來說是新事物，
看來這些理論 我們走在正確的軌道上。
它牙齒上的脊可以 已啟用上龍
更容易捕捉 它的獵物在水下
讓它迅速 並反覆咬下去，
確保快速、 成功擊殺
對於這個侏羅紀海怪。
金屬錘擊
挖掘三週後， 天氣好。
而現在最大的 問史蒂夫和克里斯的問題
就是如何抬起 頭骨掉下懸崖。
我想我們要拿出一塊大石板。
一塊？是的。
下面剪掉嗎？ 什麼，把下面切掉？
是的。一路走過去？
是的。我看不到任何 其他方式來做這件事。
如果我們用其他方式來做的話
它就會崩潰。
你怎麼認為？我想我是 回家就不再回來了！
幸運的是，對於史蒂夫和克里斯來說，
朋友和當地人 農民羅布•韋恩科姆
一直在設計解決方案。
他正在建造一個板條箱， 將會被丟下懸崖，
頭骨進入其中 將會被操縱
然後被拖到頂部。
是的，我其實是 一個以貿易為業的農民。
因為所有的機械 以及所涉及的建築，
實際上，我是一個 自學成才的工程師。
但這是一個巨大的挑戰
來自工程學 觀點看法。
羅布認為， 板條箱將使他們能夠
安全拿到頭骨 到懸崖頂。
理論是，無論 滑板的角度，
當它爬上懸崖時，
盒子保持水平 為了保護化石
因為我們正在努力 為了保留化石
盡可能的水平。
重要的日子終於來了
和一支當地軍隊 助手已組裝完畢
在這個關鍵階段 的操作。
史蒂夫感覺 壓力。
懷著世界上最好的意願，
看起來是這樣 一切都會正常運轉，
但風險是巨大的。 你知道，會發生什麼
如果它實際上 翻轉過來？
有很多事情 這可能會出錯，
所以這是一個有風險的時期。
這是其中之一 最大且保存最完好的
迄今發現的上龍頭骨。
所以賭註是 確實非常高。
當它下來時，我們已經 必須保持一致
我們必須得到那個下巴， 那個盒子裡的頭骨。
我們必須 要非常小心
那個雪橇有 有一根金屬棒
並且，當它下降時， 它不會碰到鼻子。
從來沒有人做過 這以前，曾經。
取出巨型頭骨 半下懸崖！
板條箱必須降低到 高精度定位
如果頭骨是 不被損壞。
即將到來的位置 往下看，就差不多了…
它會掃一眼 頭骨的側面。
哇那兒！停止！
廣播：停止。停止。
所以不知何故，我們已經 必須手動嘗試
並將整個雪橇移過來。
廣播：我想我們 有能力做
低了卅厘米，不能再低了。
幾週後 勞累的工作，
情緒高漲。
向下！快點。快的！快點！
這一刻眞是心急。
我們剛剛遇到了一次打滑 瞥了一眼頭骨的側面，
我們必須嘗試 現在把它拉出來
讓它越過邊緣。
非常緩慢地。六吋。
一個笨拙的舉動，
頭骨可能會被打碎。
哦，我的...哦， 拉！再拉一下。
我的手……沒關係。 錯過了！我們做到了！
停下來，停下來！
這一切都非常有壓力。
這一切的每一個部份都是 眞的，眞的很有壓力。
經過好幾個小時後， 我們已經把它就位了。
我們還沒有敲響終點 到目前為止，鼻子已經關閉，
一切準備就緒。
但下一階段 看起來風險更大。
衹要從邊緣撤退，
我們要去 現在就上繩索吧！
艾爾和史蒂夫要走了 走到洞口
並連接絞車，
然後開始這個過程 慢慢地把它拖進盒子裡。
移動化石 重量超過半噸...
他咕噥著
..眞的很危險。
它在動。這是很 緊張而且非常緊張。
讓我們看看進展如何。
哦...繼續吧。
那挺好的。這樣更好。
那是……哇！
是的，我認為幻燈片 就直接進去了
史蒂夫，還好嗎？ 脫落了嗎？
好吧，我們正在失去一些， 但你無能為力，夥計。
繼續。繼續。
現在就在上面了。就這樣吧。
正確的。就行了。
就是這樣。很好，這樣就可以了。
就這樣就好了。
電臺：沒錯 現在在籠子裡。
嘿，化石來了！
太棒了，夥計。是 大家都在這裡歡呼。
做得好。做得好。
幹得好，大家。
對了，幹得好。傑出的。
我們已經克服了很多 走到這一步遇到的問題，
我們已經做到了 我們牙齒的皮膚。
頭骨終於 是在板條箱裡...
廣播：再次彌補這一不足。
..但不小心轉移它， 更不用說丟掉它了
可能是災難性的。
過來一點。
所以會有六個 繩索出現
能夠舉起它並且 保持穩定......希望如此。
隨著潮水的到來 和夕陽西下，
我們不能把它剪得更細了。
好吧，對。哇！ 哇，哇，哇。
最後，頭骨安全了。
太棒了，羅布。
做得好。做得好。
他們鼓掌
是的。
太奇妙了。
這是夢想成眞。 我會告訴你什麼，
我不認為有人會 相信我們可以做到。
三週前，是 埋在懸崖表面。
我們找到了頂部 食物鏈捕食者，
現在我們帶來了 它復活了。
這將是其中之一 迄今為止發現的最好的。
嘿！歡呼！對你很好。
哦！都不是。
繼續。哦，下車吧， 你們這些小惡魔！
哦親愛的。哦親愛的。
出來了。下一階段開始。
頭骨被運送 去史蒂夫的工作室。
準備好？去！一， 二三。舉起。
馬上。
我的天啊！
泥岩的 破裂並乾燥。
當然，它做了什麼
剛剛破裂 骨頭也是如此。
吉普車爬行者。 你會沒事的！
哦耶。我可以看到這是 最大的拼圖正在進行中。
幸好你還年輕 不過，夥計，你不是嗎？
是啊是啊。大量的 時間。是的，時間充足。
拆除工作十分艱鉅 頭骨周圍的石頭
這樣就可以 詳細檢查...
..終於可以開始了。
經過繁重的挖掘工作後，
這個階段需要 細膩的觸感。
首先，史蒂夫移走石頭 化石周圍...
鑽孔呼機
..這樣脆弱的區域 頭骨可以得到強化。
然後，使用一個 空氣研磨工具，
他開始揭示 更複雜的細節
關於這個的解剖 非凡的動物。
這個巨大的海怪，
一億五千萬年後，
終於開始 從岩石中出現。
我有幸 來看看這整個頭骨
首次。
所以就是這樣。
而且它是巨大的。
我正在見朱迪絲‧沙遜博士
古生物學家， 誰學過
幾十年來的上龍標本。
還需要你的 呼吸就像它帶走我的一樣？
這是一個最令人驚訝的 標本，大衛.
我很高興成為 其工作的一部份。
茱蒂絲能給我們什麼見解
融入生活中 這個遠古怪物？
進展如何？
什麼樣的細節 你能從中得到，
你以前不知道嗎？
史蒂夫•埃奇斯一直在工作 現在已經好幾個月了
並做出了一些 驚人的進步。
我們看到，作為 正在準備中，
漸漸地，越來越多 細節正在揭曉。
到目前為止，我們已經掌握了一些信息
關於它的感官。
眞的嗎？是他們的 視力好嗎？
有跡像表明， 事實上，本來可以的。
眼睛本身 非常重要
對於這種動物。
原因之一是 職位本身。
眼睛在 頭的側面，
或多或少在中間，
所以不太高也不太低。
這個重要的功能 頭骨的形狀可能表明
我們的上龍如何狩獵 在公海中。
眼睛的位置 在活體動物中存在差異
按照方式 他們在那裡打獵。
海豚是追逐型掠食者。
他們的目光投向 他們頭的一側，
這給了他們 全景視野...
..使他們能夠攻擊 他們的獵物非常準確。
伏擊掠食者， 例如鱷魚，
眼睛高一點 在他們的頭上...
..這樣他們就可以留下來 就在表面下
衹有眼睛露出水面
並判斷何時進攻。
我們的上龍似乎有過
介於兩者之間的東西...
..有眼睛位置 這不僅使它成為可能
透過追捕獵物 準確的水，
但也有驚喜 透過從下面攻擊。
還有另一個 顯著特徵，
這可以告訴我們更多關於哪裡的信息 我們的海怪可能已經捕獵了。
我們談論了眼睛。還有 另一個有趣的結構，
這是頂葉眼。
在許多爬行動物中， 這仍然存在。
當它存在於 陸生動物，
它有完整的眼睛結構， 例如側邊的眼睛，
並且對光敏感。
頂葉眼位於 頭頂
這是一個謎。
它被稱為第三隻眼
並且仍然被發現於 一些活著的物種。
它顯然對動物有幫助 來調節其生理時鐘。
上龍的頂葉眼 被認為有鏡頭，
角膜和視網膜。
雖然其確切的 功能不清楚，
它可能使我們能夠 海怪來衡量
哪個方向朝上 深度游泳，
並有可能導航 更深的狩獵場。
還有哪些問題會 你希望得到頭骨
提供答案？
我已經做了一些 對這隻動物的測量，
和比例做 似乎不一樣
來自其他上龍類 我們知道。
頭骨的鼻子相當長，
但位置 鼻子和眼睛
還有波峰的
表明這是某事 除此之外，還有一些新的東西。
上龍的新物種？ 上龍，是的。
一個新物種？眞的嗎？是的。
我想可能是的，是的。
我們的啟示是 上龍可能是新物種
確實令人興奮。
公認的衹有八個 上龍的種類...
..這個頭骨是確定的 提供新的科學數據
關於這些的演變 神秘的海洋爬蟲類。
我不得不說，你 讓我屏住呼吸。
細節，其中 你可以推斷，
我認為這令人興奮。
就是這樣 古生物學是關於。
我曾經以為這衹是一個 尋找化石的問題
然後把它挖出來 說那有多好。
你已經讓它聽起來 相當不同。
大衛•查克爾斯
近幾十年來，
已經取得了巨大的進步
以我們的學習能力 史前動物。
我們現在可以調查 我們的上龍的捕食能力
比以往任何時候都更加詳細。
古生物學家安德烈•羅博士 是世界領先的專家
化石的 3D 視覺化。
第一個想法—這個東西 絕對是巨大的，
我還要補充一點 保存水平令人驚嘆。
有這個常見的 誤解
化石化衹是 這確實很常見的事情
我們得到了這些完整的頭骨
一直以來，那就是 當然不是這樣的。
這實際上是一個 百萬分之一，
也許是十億分之一的類型 標本在這裡。
採用最新技術，
安德烈正在執行 世界上首次表面掃描
的上龍頭骨。
所以，現在，我們正在捕獲
基本上有幾十萬 一次全部圖像，
本質上是放在一起 一個大型 3D 拼圖遊戲。
最終的結果確實是 好看的3D模型，
我們可以用它 對生物力學來說，
研究解剖學。
我想我們能夠 解開很多謎團
關於這些海 怪物們在做的事，
我眞的很興奮 看看它會帶我們去哪裡。
一旦掃描完成 已最終確定，
我在 布里斯託大學
討論他的發現。
他有看到什麼嗎 頭骨的結構
這展示了我們的海怪
有權力 眞正致命的掠食者？
有一些巨大的空缺 沿著下巴線回到這裡。
是的。那就是 對肌肉有益
附著並凸出。
會有肌肉 跑過那裡。
是的，我們有 翼狀肌群，
這是在很多 大型恐龍，
這是不可或缺的 咬得很厲害。
並且我們已經假設 這隻特殊的上龍
是一種頂級掠食者
在侏羅紀生態系中 它住在.
在海裡。是的。
現在，這當然， 不是恐龍，
但也不是 現代爬行動物。
但它看起來確實很像 鱷魚，不是嗎？
是的。嗯，我們有這個流程 稱為趨同演化，
那裡有很多 動物會適應
這個類似形狀的 頭骨或類似趨勢
整個他們的 演化史，
即使他們不是 密切相關。
那是因為有 那些相似之處
可以給你一個 很多優點。
但就這隻上龍而言，
有那種 流線型頭骨
後面有點寬 它的形狀非常三角形，
和很多海洋爬行動物 有點像骷髏形狀。
我覺得游泳好 迅速伏擊獵物。
頭骨是否給 你任何訊息
關於它是什麼動物 獵物可能是？
該動物會 已經如此巨大
我認為它會有 能有效地捕食
在任何事情上 夠不幸的
在它的空間裡。
一個流行的假設是
這些動物是 其實是在敲竹槓
其他動物的四肢 阻止它們遊走，
然後有點 去殺人。
所以這眞的是 頂級掠食者？
是的。我幾乎沒有懷疑，
僅從如何判斷 那個頭骨很大。
我不明白有什麼可以 可能已經傷害了它。
那實際上有多大？
所以眞正的頭骨 本身打卡
僅不到兩米。
兩米。比我還長。
是的。這是一個相當大的男孩了。 那隻是頭骨。
的尺寸 頭骨化石使我們能夠
估計整體尺寸 動物活著時的樣子。
並基於安德烈的 測量，
我們的上龍可能是
達到令人震驚的程度 長十二公尺。
僅從其規模來看，
光是看這隻動物 翼狀肌有多大
本來會在 下巴的後部，
動物會交付 毫無疑問，這是毀滅性的一擊。
有力的咬合是 對成功至關重要
任何海洋掠食者。
科學家能夠估計
多大的力 動物可以發揮
當它咬住獵物。
大白鯊有 最強烈的咬合之一，
約10,000牛頓。
但是你如何計算出 生物的咬合力
已經滅絕的 幾百萬年前？
艾米麗•雷菲爾德教授是 世界著名古生物學家，
誰專門從事 骨骼力學。
使用模型 由安德烈創建，
艾米莉評估了 我們的上龍的咬合力。
這是一個 3D 列印，一個模型。
不過，它不是全尺寸的。
這衹是三分之一多一點 實際動物的大小。
這些大開口是 頭骨中的空間，
本來會被填滿的 具有閉合下顎的肌肉。
所以你可以估計 咬合力
從那些的大小 肌肉。確切地。是的。
我們可以得到一個估計 從這裡開始。
我們知道，人的肌肉 一定的…一定的尺寸，
某個區域，是 能夠產生
一定的力量。
鹹水鱷魚有
有史以來最大的 測量咬合力，
他們準備 約16,000牛頓。
還有這些？所以我們的 上龍在這裡，
從估計 我們所做的，
有一個咬合力 大約是它的兩倍大小，
最大的鹹水鱷魚 這是曾經測量過的。
而且它在該地區 約32,000牛頓。
所以這就是 最強大的咬人者
在曾經有過的海裡 曾經，或是我們知道的？
據我們所知， 絕對地。當然是。
如果你正在看 統計類型
就咬車指標而言，
我很確定它可以 可能咬穿一輛車。
那麼它是一個怪物嗎？
絕對地。
兩人都笑了
収集到的證據 從頭骨至今
表示這隻上龍
有下巴、牙齒和感官 一個非常成功的獵人。
它的鼻子長，短 頸部和流線型頭骨
使其能夠移動 輕鬆穿越水。
但還有什麼幫助 我們巨大的海怪
通電 侏羅紀海洋
速度夠快，足以捕獲獵物嗎？
上龍是獨一無二的 在自然世界中，
因為他們幾乎有四個 相同的翼狀鰭狀肢。
上龍如何使用 他們的腳蹼
已被爭論過 古生物學家數十年。
有些人認為他們搬家了 使用某種划船動作，
就像船上的槳一樣，
而其他人則認為他們 使用飛行動作
在動物身上看到的， 例如海龜。
但是，近年來， 科學家們已經能夠使用
電腦建模以 終於解開了這個謎團
看來 這些巨大的海怪
以一種方式游泳 驚人的相似
到一個非常不同的 動物類型 -
一個今天還活著的人。
嗚嗚嗚！
哈！
企鵝可能會出現 有點笨拙
當它們在陸地上搖搖晃晃地走來走去時，
但一旦它們進入水下
他們的動作非常不同。
這些是洪堡企鵝， 他們是優秀的游泳選手。
他們的體型呈現流線型 和它們油膩的羽毛
使他們能夠達到 驚人的速度
最高時速卅英里/小時。
但有一個關鍵因素 落後企鵝的速度
是它們的鰭狀肢， 在水下，就像螺旋槳一樣，
推動他們前進並增加 他們的速度驚人。
在慢動作中，
你可以看到 企鵝正在使用
基於昇降機的水下 飛行運動，
扭曲他們的 翅膀拍打時
並推動自己 向上衝程向前
以及下劃線。
儘管看起來很奇怪，
人們認為 上龍會移動
以非常相似的方式。
但當然， 上龍體型巨大，
和大多數大型動物
移動速度相對較慢。
所以作為頂級掠食者，
這個巨大的生物怎麼可能 機動本身夠快
捕捉它的獵物？
為了找出答案，我來到了 水動力實驗室
在倫敦帝國學院，
盧克博士在哪裡 馬斯卡特正在學習
上龍的運動，
使用相當 不尋常的研究工具。
你最初是怎樣的 變得感興趣
就像上龍游泳的方式？
這是唯一的動物 我們知道的
有四個大鰭狀肢。
所以問題是， 他們是如何使用它們的？
當我們試圖 了解一種已滅絕的動物，
我們需要做的第一件事 要做的就是觀察化石，
所以我們理解 骨頭的形狀，
骨頭是如何組合在一起的...
上龍化石
表示鰭狀肢 非常像翅膀。
所以我發現的是 後鰭
可以實際操作 以更高的推力
並且以更高的效率，
因為它利用了喚醒 其前面的鰭狀肢。
我們可以看到類似的效果
在遷徙的途中 鳥類，如鵝。
當鵝們 編隊飛行，
每隻鳥都受益 來自所創造的提昇
就在它前面的那一個旁邊，
讓他們飛在 非常節能的方式。
嘎嘎叫
所以你可以想到 上龍幾乎像兩隻鳥，
一個在另一個後面飛行，
而後面的一個則受益 從前面那一位開始。
這是一個非凡的 平行，是的！
後肢有增大 推力和效率
高達百分之卌。
啊!
所以這會有 增加游泳速度
上龍會 已經能夠實現
並增加數量
不同事物的 它可以吃。
採取他的研究 到一個新的水平，
盧克造了一個機器人
學習游泳 上龍的圖案
更精確地 比以往任何時候都。
那麼還有什麼更多信息 你認為你能得到
從這個模型？
這個機器人使我能夠 測試完整的動物。
物體移動的速度有多快 是絕對關鍵的部份
該動物是什麼，
它告訴我們什麼 它可能吃的動物，
它可能有多遠 能夠去旅行...
各種問題 回來
以其運動能力。
你估計過速度嗎 這可能會產生？
嗯，我剛剛完成 昨天建造這個。
哦眞的嗎？所以， 到目前為止，我還沒有
實際上運行了 實驗尚未。
如果你想嘗試一下， 非常歡迎您...
是的。哦，給我看看。因此，如果 你衹需要移動這個操縱桿
有點進一步向上。
所以這就是如何 上龍會游泳。
腳蹼移動 主要是向上和向下。
還有更多 就像鳥兒飛翔一樣。
盧克和他的團隊成立 機器人進行測試游泳，
他們信任我 與它的處女航。
如果你願意 控制住...
我們到了。已經關了。
確實有些高 那裡的加速度。
我想，實際上， 這衹是一個模型，
但如果是全尺寸的話 會進展得相當快。
的確。你可以想像一下 追逐較小的魚龍。
盧克的研究很新， 尚未發佈，
但這有助於 提供新的視角
關於這些非凡的動物。
大型船用 食肉動物，如逆戟鯨，
可以以極快的速度游泳 穿過海洋。
我們的上龍會有多快的速度，
有四個鰭狀肢，
有能力嗎？
估計表明 他們本來可以加速
最高時速卅英里/小時，
使他們成為最快的之一 侏羅紀海洋中的動物。
這個頭骨不僅 幫助我們了解更多
關於這些人的生活 巨大的海怪，
也讓科學家， 像安德烈•羅博士一樣，
想像侏羅紀 世界前所未有。
很多時候，我都參與其中 在觀察骨骼化石時，
還有頭骨...除非 頭骨在那裡，
你眞的缺少一個 資訊量非常大。
我們很幸運地找到 這是第一件事。
是的，我很有偏見，
自從我研究餵食和牙齒以來，
但我認為 大多數訊息
關於你的動物 可以從它的頭骨中得到。
是的。大腦、牙齒、 它以什麼為食，
它的最大車身尺寸如果 你有整個頭骨。
這簡直就是一個寶藏 資訊寶庫。
我們非常幸運 擁有全部的東西。
我愛的原因之一 英國是因為它有
這麼棒的収藏 海洋爬蟲類。
很高興聽到它。
我的意思是，在美國，我們 得到了我們的大暴龍
還有我們的三角龍，但英國 對於海洋爬行動物來說非常有用。
好吧，我們確實發現了 恐龍。
是的，科學 古生物學確實起源於這裡。
與暴龍相比如何？
我想它會 相當具有可比性。
他們都是 各自的頂級掠食者
在他們的生態系中。
所以我毫不懷疑這是
有點像水下 霸王龍，如果你願意的話。好的。
讓我問你 百萬美元的問題。
在一場戰鬥中 暴龍和我們的上龍，
誰會贏？
儘管它讓我痛苦並帶來 我流著淚承認這一點
我認為我的霸王龍是 會輸掉這場戰鬥。
然後，數百萬 多年以後，
美國古生物學家 會想像這個場景
並淚流滿面。
大衛笑了
帶來了巨大的 掠食者復活
一億五千萬年後
這不是一件容易的事。
但恢復這個巨人 頭骨是愛的勞動
對於史蒂夫和他的團隊來說。
差不多一年後 頭骨被發現，
我回到金默里奇 看看他們進展如何。
我的天啊。
這絕對是宏偉的。
眞是令人驚訝。
它比暴龍還要大。
是嗎？是啊是啊。 什麼，頭骨？是的。
是的，比 任何發現的霸王龍。
大衛，現在我們所做的， 自從你上次來這裡以來
我們有...我有空氣 把所有的泥岩圈起來
然後用空氣打磨它。 現在，空氣研磨機
清除所有 這些小空隙，
你會看到每一個小細節，
每一條縫線，在哪裡 骨頭連接在一起，
你可以看到每一個細節。 這就是我們眞正想要的。
所以這裡的牙齒已經 基本上是在海灘上翻滾的，
木瓦已經磨損了 帶走所有的王冠。
所以我們要做一個 對他們進行了一些牙科治療。
所以我們有這顆牙齒， 已掃描的，
然後我們要 增加或減少它，
然後添加所有 牙齒回到原位
向人們展示它是什麼 實際上看起來像。
你一定感覺， 看著這個…
我的意思是，我知道這是一個巨大的 需要花費大量的工作才能把它弄出來。
我們從沒想過我們會 老實說，明白了。
我會誠實地告訴你。
嗯，這當然是一場勝利。
是啊，很有感觸 屬於每個人的時刻。
我敢肯定。是的。
一種感覺。
一旦上龍 添加了匕首般的牙齒...
..圖片是 終於完成了。
我們的旅程 發現表明
這個海怪是 最大的掠食者之一
世界上從未見過。
現在我們可以想像 比以往任何時候都更準確
它可能是如何狩獵的 在侏羅紀海洋中。
魚龍，
成群結隊地游泳 沿海...
..專註於 狩獵他們的獵物...
..不知道他們 他們自己正在被跟蹤。
在他們的足跡上，
我們的上龍使用它的 高度協調的感官
發動攻擊。
在追逐中，它的四個鰭狀肢，
每兩公尺長，
駕駛它通過 水的速度很快。
劈開淺灘， 它隔離了它的目標。
我們的海怪 主要武器
它有90顆鋒利的牙齒嗎？
..用它切片 透過受害者的肉體。
僅影響就可能 已經足夠殺人了。
但用咬合力 兩倍的力量
今天生活的任何動物，
它的獵物幾乎沒有 生存的機會。
來自一次偶然的發現 一天早上在海灘上
到艱苦的修復
如此罕見且 令人印像深刻的標本，
這塊化石的故事 是一種技能，一種奉獻精神
和令人著迷的 科學發現
一路上做的。
我們被賦予了 獨特的見解
進入我們上龍的生活
在侏羅紀游泳的 一億五千萬年前的海洋，
但我們也提醒
仍然有 有很多東西要學
關於這些非凡的 史前動物。
而我，就我而言，永遠不會 厭倦發現更多。