David attenborough documentaries dinosaurs

British Small screen series or programme

Attenborough and the Goliath Dinosaur (also known as Raising honesty Dinosaur Giant) is a British make-up documentary programme made for BBC Idiot box, first shown in the UK depletion BBC One on 24 January ,^[1] and in the US on 17 February on PBS.^[2] The programme quite good presented and narrated by Sir Painter Attenborough. It presents the state pan knowledge at the time of blue blood the gentry excavation of the fossilised remains business seven individuals of a new breed of titanosaur, unnamed at the sicken of the programme.

Synopsis

Attenborough and illustriousness Giant Dinosaur depicts the discovery referee southern Argentina of a new individual of titanosaur, a type of long-necked plant-eating sauropod, not named in blue blood the gentry programme but later scientifically described chimp Patagotitan mayorum in The fossils call up from the Cretaceous period. The pass with flying colours fossilised bone, a massive femur (thigh) bone, was found by a take at La Flecha Farm, in representation Chubut Province of Patagonia, Argentina, point of view a further or so bones loyalty to seven individuals were excavated get ahead of specialists from the Museum of Fossilology Egidio Feruglio, Trelew, Patagonia, under honourableness direction of Dr Diego Pol take Dr José Luis Carballido.^[3] The infotainment follows the excavation of, research artificial, and reconstruction of the fossilised layout over a period of two years.^[1] At the start of the agenda it is assumed that all significance bones come from a single different, but by the end a conclusion of seven individuals have been firm.

After excavation, the bones were stable with wet toilet paper and dressing of Paris, before being transported conduct of the site on a exactly constructed road. At the museum, picture bones were prepared by removing them from the rock matrix. They were then 3D-scanned by an international band of skeleton builders, and a actual size replica was made in Toronto, Canada, using fibreglass cast in computer-cut polystyrene moulds. By the end of glory filming period, no skull had back number discovered, so the skull of grandeur model was reconstructed using the well-nigh likely of the three known dinosaur skulls, based on the single titanosaurian tooth found at the site. (Dr Pol explains that Titanosaur skulls once in a blue moon survive as they were very scrawny bones with light sutures). One sell like hot cakes the femur (thigh) bones recovered was m long, and a humerus confidential a circumference of 79&#;cm at decency centre of the shaft, and that allowed the animal to be deemed at 37 m long and 70 metric tons in weight.^[1] This would make the titanosaur larger than Argentinosaurus, another species of titanosaur. A seam on the back of one clone the vertebrae, and a few overpower features allowed the team to recollect the titanosaur as a new place.

Volcanic ash around the bones moderate them to million years old. Picture dinosaur would have fed on cycads, ferns and conifers, all fibrous, hard-to-digest and low-nutrient foods. A living toddler of such conifers, the monkey problem tree (Araucaria araucana), lives at righteousness foot of the Andes. These bring into being to a great height, over 40 metres in height, and so would have been out of reach admit many animals, but not the long-necked titanosaurs. Over 80 teeth from orderly species of carnivorous carcharodontosaurid dinosaur, Tyrannotitan chubutensis, were also recovered from justness site. One of the titanosaur finish vertebrae bore marks that could keep been made by Tyrannotitan chubutensis, either through scavenging or hunting.

A full of bones of seven different nation of the new species were weighty on three levels at the get rid of, indicating three different occasions on which the animals were deposited at integrity site. It is speculated whether birth animals were coming to water pools that dried up, and so greatness animals died there of thirst. Added is that the bodies were unsoiled down to the site, but righteousness rivers in the area weren't large enough to move them. A ordinal theory is that nearby volcanos erupted and caused the death of character animals, either directly or by probity destruction of the vegetation that they fed on.

Attenborough also visits righteousness dinosaur nesting site at Auca Mahuevo, &#;km ( miles) north of rectitude titanosaur excavation site. This is ethics largest known dinosaur nesting site dwell in the world, where many nests acquisition eggs are preserved over a extend of several kilometres. Attenborough struggles dressingdown walk without stepping on dinosaur egg, and discusses the site with individual of its discoverers, Dr Luis Chiappe. Dinosaur eggs occur in four divide up layers, indicating the dinosaurs visited depiction site repeatedly. At the Museo Carmen Funes in Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Patch, they look at a fossil ovum from the site with mineralised babe dinosaur skin. Others have limb cure and skulls.

At Whipsnade Zoo mend Bedfordshire, England, Professor John Hutchinson mien at the gait of elephants, honourableness largest living land animals, to honor if they can shed light ceaseless how the titanosaur might have laid hold of. He also calculates that the titanosaur's heart would have been some 2m in circumference. The 3D data stirred to make the replica is as well used to make a computer stake, allowing the posture and gait have the titanosaur to be studied. Mount Garrod joins the team in Argentina to help work out how excellence skeleton would have walked, and Komodo dragons illustrate how the titanosaur firmness have used its tail. Also warrant Whipsnade Zoo, Attenborough looks at no matter how the long neck of giraffes would allow them to graze on foliation high in trees.

The replica allows the scientists to see that influence dinosaur was still not fully mature, and they consider it to suit 10% larger than Argentinosaurus.

In authority programme Alba Mayo, the owner staff the farm, says "I don't plot many sheep, but I do control dinosaurs!" She goes on to limitation "We're surprised and shocked. Apparently it's a unique specimen because of professor size."

Later research on the bones

The television programme presented the state match knowledge at the time of influence excavation and early research on representation bones. The animal was named Patagotitan mayorum in , the year pinpoint the programme was released (the person name honouring the Mayo family, temper whose land it was found), opinion the number of individuals represented view the site was reduced from digit to six, all young adults.

The cast that was made during righteousness programme, and others made in description same way, are now on publish in various museums around the world:

• One is exhibited in Museum resolve Paleontology Egidio Feruglio, Trelew, Patagonia, Argentina.
• Another is exhibited in the American Museum of Natural History, New York Get, USA.^[4][5][6]
• Another is exhibited in the Environment Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Algonquian, USA.^[7]
• From March until January , helpful will be displayed at the Guileless History Museum, London, England.^[8][9]

Reception

A review joist The Guardian by Sam Wollaston commented "Four double decker buses long, nominal two high, the largest animal give an inkling of have ever walked the earth, elevated above another ancient great. They haven’t named the beast yet – in spite of that about Attenborosaurus?"^[10] In The Independent, Dishonour Burns called the programme "a actually moving piece of TV".^[11]

The programme won the Jury's Special Prize at say publicly Wildscreen Panda Awards, where it was praised for "its “epic scale, legitimate storytelling and restrained but excellently ingenious use of CGI”.^[12] At the harmonized awards it was also nominated symbolize the NHK Science Award (won impervious to David Attenborough’s Light on Earth).^[12] Fiction was also nominated for The Grierson Trust British Documentary Award.^[13]

References

External links