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00:00Life began here in Britain more than a billion years ago and when dinosaurs and other strange
00:10creatures roamed our land, they left fascinating clues behind.
00:16The fossil detectives are on the trail of that evidence throughout the British Isles.
00:22We'll uncover Britain's best preserved dinosaur, go fossil hunting with a real rock star, Alex
00:29James from Blur, and meet a relative of the dinosaurs, alive and well today.
00:38Here on the Jurassic coast, we'll see how the present connects to the past and track
00:43down extraordinary evidence of prehistoric times.
00:46We're on a mission to find and analyse that evidence, to unlock the secrets of the past
00:53and discover lost worlds.
00:55So get ready for some time travel with the Fossil Detectives.
01:25This is the real Jurassic Park.
01:33The Jurassic coast stretches along 155 kilometres of the southwest coastline.
01:40Earth's history is recorded in its rocks and it's become famous as one of the best places
01:45in the world to collect fossils.
01:49Some of the most amazing remnants of prehistoric life ever found were once buried here.
01:57And some of Britain's most famous fossil hunters have explored here too.
02:05You've probably heard the old tongue twister, she sells seashells on the seashore.
02:11Well, legend suggests that it was written about a young Victorian fossil hunter called
02:17Mary Anning.
02:18Now, Mary used to come collecting at these very cliffs here at Chalmers, and she became
02:25world famous for her strange and exciting sea monster discoveries.
02:40Mary Anning used to search up and down the beach here on the southwest coast in the early
02:4519th century, scanning the Dorset shoreline as she walked from her hometown of Lyme Regis
02:51up here to Chalmers and beyond.
02:55She used to sell the fossils she unearthed to museums and to collectors.
03:01The fossilised bones she found proved to be the basis for a new step forward in science.
03:12This precious watercolour of ancient Dorset was based on Mary's fossil finds.
03:26Marine creatures like the first discovered plesiosaur, and the first complete ichthyosaur.
03:43A magical insight into what Victorians imagined prehistoric life to look like when the Jurassic
03:49seas were teeming with mystical creatures.
03:57Mary devoted her life to searching out evidence of these creatures, inspiring scientists and
04:02children alike.
04:07So much so she became known as the Princess of Paleontology.
04:20Chalmers was the location of some of Mary's most impressive fossil finds, and it's still
04:25one of the best places in Britain to go fossil hunting.
04:33And just recently there's been another amazing discovery here.
04:37One of the most beautifully preserved dinosaurs ever found.
04:43The original bones have been turned into stone through the process of fossilisation.
04:50But what makes this dinosaur so special is that almost the whole skeleton was found,
04:57and that is extremely rare.
05:04The fossil detectives have the chance to glimpse it behind the scenes here at Bristol City
05:09Museum.
05:12The museum is borrowing the dinosaur and arranging to put it on display.
05:19It's taken five years so far to excavate and prepare.
05:25What is this creature?
05:27Tim Ewan works at the museum.
05:30The teeth have got these little grooves at the cutting edges, and that's a little bit
05:35like a steak knife in that it's self-sharpening, so they're quite nicely evolved, and the jaw
05:40just went up and down to slice up the vegetation.
05:44They couldn't actually move their jaw from side to side.
05:49It's a plant-eating dinosaur called Scolidosaurus.
05:55These bones are about 190 million years old, dating from the Jurassic.
06:03But this is just the beginning of the jigsaw puzzle.
06:06All these pieces will need to be put together to get a better idea of what the animal would
06:11have looked like.
06:14Here, in its jaw, if you look carefully, you can see two crocodile teeth.
06:20So these are the animal's teeth here, and then the crocodile teeth you can just see
06:23poking through there and there, and then turn it round, you can see it coming down there,
06:28so it's right in the centre of the animal's mouth.
06:32No one knows for sure how they got into the mouth of a herbivorous creature.
06:40But we can find out more about this particular fossil by making a date with its body double.
06:50At the Chalmouth Heritage Centre, not far from where the dinosaur was actually found,
06:55they are displaying a cast of the bones Tim was working on at the museum.
07:02Here they've been able to mount the replica of the skeleton in exactly the position it
07:07was found in.
07:11You can see it looks virtually identical to the fossilised bones.
07:17The thing that's really special about this is it's nearly complete.
07:20We've got about 90% of the bones still preserved here.
07:26The scelidosaur fossil is so remarkable because the process of fossilisation took place unusually
07:32quickly, in perhaps just a couple of years.
07:37So what would a scelidosaurus have looked like then, when it was alive?
07:42Well starting at the head, on the nose of the dinosaur it would have had a beak.
07:47This would have allowed it to have cropped plants.
07:49Behind the cheek it would have had teeth which would have chopped up the vegetation that
07:54it was eating.
07:56It had a heavy eyebrow to protect the eye, two little horns at the back of the head.
08:01Coming down the neck there's got this really heavy armour, and this armour you can see
08:05goes across the length of the animal.
08:08It had a big pot belly which allowed it to digest lots of vegetation.
08:12It walked on all fours, it was about four metres long, it weighed about half a tonne,
08:17so it was about the size and weight of a small car.
08:24Now the fossil was found in marine sediments and yet this is a land-dwelling dinosaur.
08:30So how did it end up fossilised at the bottom of the sea?
08:33Well it's a really sad story actually.
08:36This poor dinosaur was out minding its own business, eating some vegetation in a river
08:42valley we think.
08:43There was a big flash flood and this dinosaur was caught up in the flood waters and washed
08:47out to sea where it sadly drowned and then was buried quickly as well by a lot of sediment.
08:54Very soon after, calcite started growing in and around the dinosaur remains themselves
09:01and this protected them from being crushed and also kept it all in its life position
09:06like we can see here.
09:08Now what evidence do you really have to support that theory apart from that it was found in
09:12marine sediments?
09:14Well the limbs are swept back which looks as though it's been, as it was falling down
09:18through the water column, they've been drifted slightly back.
09:21But the other real key evidence is actually if we look at the gullet.
09:26Its throat you mean?
09:27That's right.
09:28It's actually got this sort of digested sort of mushy looking stuff in it and this we think
09:34is actually dinosaur vomit.
09:37The reason why that's interesting for our story is because the thing that animals do
09:41when they drown is throw up and we think that this is the remains of the vomit as it was
09:47drowning in its death throes.
09:51Not a sad and sorry end, but a fascinating insight into such a magnificent beast.
10:10Charmoth, where the scolidosaur was found, is part of what has become known as the Jurassic
10:15Coast.
10:17The name capitalises on the success of the Hollywood film.
10:22It's England's only natural world heritage site, stretching from Swanage to Exmouth.
10:28185 million years of geological history laid out in the cliffs for anyone to come and have
10:35a look.
10:40But unlike the fictional Jurassic Park, this is real and you can find evidence of prehistoric
10:46life here every single day.
10:49As you travel east to west, you're travelling back through the millennia, from the younger
10:55Cretaceous through to Jurassic and Triassic rocks.
11:01Anjana Katwa is one of our fossil detectives.
11:05Her passion for the Jurassic Coast inspired her to take the job of education coordinator
11:10for the region.
11:12Anjana, what's so special about this stretch of coastline?
11:16Why has it got world heritage status?
11:19It's one of the most incredible coastlines in the world because you can see 185 million
11:23years of geological time in just 95 miles of coastline.
11:27How did that work? So if you walk along that 95 miles, you walk through that length of
11:32time?
11:33You do, it's absolutely incredible and it's just a coincidence of the way the rocks have
11:36been laid down.
11:38Towards East Devon, you see these beautiful red sandstones formed during the Triassic
11:43period, about 250 million years ago.
11:46And then as we move eastwards across the coast, we come to places like Lyreagis and Chalmouth
11:52where you have these enormous sequences of Jurassic marine shales and clays.
11:57And is that what we're looking at here, these layered rocks behind us?
12:00Well this is even more incredible. What we're looking at here is what used to be a river
12:04delta, a bit like the delta in Northern Egypt.
12:08So the mouth of a big river system?
12:10Yeah, absolutely.
12:10And just all the sediments layered up. It's absolutely stunning, isn't it?
12:16The cliffs here in Dorset are some of the most striking sedimentary rock formations
12:21in Britain.
12:23Here, you can see honeycomb-like structures on the sides of the cliffs, patterns of erosion
12:30linked to areas where ancient marine creatures left evidence of their activity.
12:38What about fossils, though? You've brought along some here. What is this?
12:42This is an amazing fossil. It actually just came out of the clay like this. It's a remnant
12:46of a fish, and these are the scales. So the fish fell to the bottom of the seabed and
12:51was completely squashed, and this is what we see today.
12:54That's wonderful. So that's either side of the fish body, just squashed flat?
12:58Just squashed flat.
12:59These are absolutely beautiful. Can you find this kind of ammonite in this area?
13:04Absolutely. If you walk along the beaches, the beaches are the best place to look for
13:07fossils, and the waves do the work for you. They wash the fossils out of the cliffs, and
13:12if you're lucky enough, you might find a peep of an ammonite poking out, and you need those
13:17eyes. Your eyes are the best tools to look for fossils.
13:19And they're really interesting because they're from two different periods. They're separated
13:23probably about 20 or 30 million years of time.
13:27So although these are the same types of creatures, you can see how different they look, separated
13:33by millions of years.
13:36Do you know, when you think about the whole Jurassic Coast, what do you think your favourite
13:40aspects of it are?
13:41I think one of my favourite aspects is how it's constantly evolving and changing. It's
13:46one of the most dynamic coastlines in the world.
13:51And just like these ammonites, the coastline itself is constantly changing through time.
14:07Paleontology unlocks the secrets of the past, and you can find the legacy of prehistoric
14:18monsters even today.
14:25There are still relatives of the dinosaurs around us, all over the world, even here on
14:30the Jurassic Coast.
14:34It may be hard to believe, but birds are the descendants of a particular group of carnivorous
14:43dinosaur. A beautiful tawny eagle like this one, Sasha, is related to Tyrannosaurus rex.
14:51Sasha is an African bird of prey. Trained by a local falconer here in the southwest,
14:57she may not look much like a dinosaur, but there are clues in her plumage, her beak and
15:02her talons, which can reveal more. Phil Manning is another of our fossil detectives. He can
15:09explain how birds are related to creatures that have been extinct for millions of years.
15:15Phil, it's hard to grasp this concept that birds like Sasha here are related directly
15:22to dinosaurs.
15:22For me it's not, because just by looking at all birds on the planet, they look like dinosaurs
15:26to me. That's because I'm used to studying the bones of dinosaurs from the fossil records,
15:31some of which have feathers, which make it absolutely clear we can see a wonderful evolutionary
15:35link between dinosaurs and birds.
15:39And that's why Sasha brings Jurassic Park to life, right here on the Jurassic Coast,
15:44where her ancestors used to live.
15:47And what about physically? Can you compare, say, Sasha to an example of a dinosaur?
15:53Absolutely. Well, let's just look at these wonderful feet. They look so dinosaurian.
15:59And you can see where they translate slowly into feathers. And really, all feathers are
16:04highly derived scales.
16:09The dinosaurs are a group of extinct reptiles that used to live exclusively on the land.
16:16Other prehistoric reptiles that swam in the sea or flew in the sky weren't dinosaurs.
16:22So Sasha's a descendant not of pterodactyls that used to fly like birds, but of carnivorous
16:29dinosaurs like Allosaurus.
16:32Take a big carnivorous dinosaur like Allosaurus. How does that link to Sasha?
16:36Well, let's start in the egg. Both lay eggs, which is pretty impressive to start with.
16:41But when you actually study the growth of a bird within its egg, from its tiny little
16:46embryo to become a full bird, it actually replays some of the evolutionary past. When
16:51we look at some of the bones, especially in the feet... Now, looking at the feet of Sasha,
16:55we've got three toes, as we see in many of the predatory dinosaurs. But we move up into
16:59what is now a single bone. Now, in predatory dinosaurs like Allosaurus, it is still three
17:07separate bones. It hasn't fused together.
17:09Now, Allosaurus was this wonderful predatory dinosaur from the Jurassic. And it has powerful
17:15hind legs, a big rump, long tapering tail, muscular tail, a big chest, and this bulldog-like
17:22neck, very powerful neck, into a long, drawn-out skull, quite narrow, but with these wonderfully
17:28backwardly curved, serrated teeth. Powerful forearms with three fingers used for grasping
17:35prey. Typical for a predator.
17:39But not typical of a bird. Birds don't have teeth. So why not?
17:44Well, there's this wonderful expression, as rare as hen's teeth, which is referring to
17:49this strange occurrence when, literally, you have a chicken with teeth. Now, that is
17:53when we go, let's go back into the DNA again, because some of this fossil DNA can accidentally
17:58get turned on if a specific chemical is present. When the chick is developing in its egg, and
18:04when it hatches out, if this gene has been turned on, you'll have a chicken with teeth.
18:08So...
18:09Sounds like a throwback to being a dinosaur.
18:11Absolutely. It's the fossil record coming back to haunt the birds. Birds are dinosaurs.
18:19DINOSAUR SOUNDS
18:35There's another legacy from when the dinosaurs were alive, and it's buried deep here on the
18:40Jurassic coast.
18:43Formed originally in Jurassic times, this is the story of black gold.
18:51Oil.
18:54Oil is a fossil fuel, our direct connection to a vanished prehistoric world, even though
19:01we don't tend to think about it in that way.
19:05Here in Britain, we use almost two million barrels of oil a day. For now, we rely on
19:12it to fuel our houses, our cars, our lives.
19:21Here in Dorset, just inland from the Jurassic coast, this is Britain's largest onshore oil
19:28field.
19:30And the biggest in the whole of Western Europe, with an area of almost 200 square kilometres.
19:49BP's Witch Farm oil field has around 100 wells.
19:54But this is also an area of outstanding natural beauty, so it's critical that conservation
20:01work is undertaken to minimise any damage to the environment.
20:07One section is only accessible by boat, Fersey Island in Pool Harbour.
20:13Throughout the whole area, there are numerous sites of special scientific interest, so the
20:18oil wells are small and screened by trees.
20:22And special drilling techniques are used here, designed to minimise disruption to the local
20:28ecology.
20:30This is what they extract here, oil.
20:34It's hard to imagine that this dark, almost treacly-like substance is evidence of prehistoric
20:40life, but that's exactly what it is.
20:44Oil is a highly toxic substance.
20:48It's a very toxic substance.
20:51It's a very toxic substance.
20:53This dark, almost treacly-like substance is evidence of prehistoric life, but that's exactly
20:58what it is.
21:00Oil and natural gas are the chemical residues of countless microscopic animals, plants and
21:06bacteria that lived in the sea millions of years ago.
21:11Now, the oil from here comes from Jurassic times, back when the dinosaurs were alive.
21:17Nobody knows exactly how much fossil fuel may be left in the world, but estimates suggest
21:24the field here, which started producing crude oil in 1979, will still be extracting oil
21:31and natural gas for another 15 years.
21:35In the meantime, the birds that live here, the nearest thing which farm has to dinosaurs
21:41these days, are another visible reminder of the area's Jurassic legacy.
21:52Our present links us to our past in so many ways.
21:58One way to make that connection is to find and touch the evidence of prehistoric lives
22:04ourselves.
22:06And where better than here?
22:09Larworth Cove is a distinctive part of the coastline, attracting admirers from all over
22:14the world, including a real rock star with a rock-solid passion for fossils.
22:21Alex James, the bassist from the Britpop band Blur, has recently developed a career as a
22:27cheesemaker.
22:29Taxi drivers, they like Blur, but they love cheese.
22:32They love cheese.
22:33But what's less well-known is that ever since he was a little boy, he's been an avid fossil
22:38collector.
22:42Fossils really came as part of a whole package of these kind of beaches.
22:47I grew up in Bournemouth, which is 25 miles down the coast.
22:51So you're a local lad then?
22:53Yeah, yeah.
22:54This whole stretch of coastline is just dripping with fossils.
22:57They're falling out of the cliffs.
22:59This is ammonite country we're in now.
23:02That was what you were always hoping to find.
23:04I mean, I never found anything like this, but it didn't stop me trying.
23:10I do find ammonites particularly intriguing.
23:12Often diagrams of the beginning of time are sort of done like that, aren't they?
23:16And that's a proper logarithmic spiral.
23:19You know, it's a very mathematical structure.
23:23It suggests infinity in all kinds of ways.
23:27Ammonites were abundant in the Jurassic seas.
23:34There are thousands of ammonite fossils on the south coast.
23:39But you've got to be careful where you look for them.
23:42It's important that you're kind of responsible, I suppose.
23:46I mean, people do go hammering into the cliffs.
23:49And I mean, it's stupid to do it actually in the cliff face anyway,
23:55because people standing underneath big overhangs, like chiselling away the cliff.
24:00It's like sitting on a branch and sawing it off.
24:03But there's no need, is there? You can find everything along the beach,
24:06especially along this Jurassic coastline.
24:08Yeah, these are little brachiopods that you can find just along the coast down here.
24:12These are from the upper Jurassic.
24:14It's like a scary version of a cockle.
24:17It's like a cockle with secret weapons.
24:20I mean, these things, you don't need to hammer.
24:22You can just pick them up if you're lucky.
24:24Wow, that's an urchin.
24:25Yes.
24:26See, I had one of these that somebody gave to me, one of my parents' friends.
24:29And it was the jewel of my collection.
24:31But I didn't really love it as much as the ones that I'd found myself, actually.
24:35It was much nicer to try and make your own discovery.
24:39And that kind of kept us burning with passion, the idea of making a unique discovery.
24:45And it was possible that we could do that.
24:48Some important finds have been made by children.
24:50I think there was a big footprint of some unknown monster was discovered on the Isle of Wight.
24:56And we were all really jealous of the kid who discovered that.
24:59Children have that natural inquisitiveness that you probably lose a little bit when you're an adult.
25:06I remember a memorable Cub Scout expedition to Charmouth.
25:10There was a lot of bellum knights up there, those long sort of coney, pointy things.
25:17And I'd never been there before, and it was amazing.
25:22Bellum knights were squid-like creatures that captured their prey with tentacles.
25:28Bellum knights became extinct at the same time as ammonites disappeared from our seas.
25:34But these fossils connect us to that lost world.
25:39They come alive when you see them in situ.
25:42I think museums are great, and they're full of brilliant specimens.
25:47But I think the real joy is actually discovering them for yourself.
25:51Because you're suddenly the first person to see something that existed just an inconceivable amount of time ago.
26:01I mean, I think all children are fascinated by fossils and dinosaurs.
26:06It's the idea of kind of monsters that appeals, isn't it, I think, probably more than anything.
26:11To start with.
26:14But I think there's this sort of philosophical side of it that becomes more beautiful as you get older.
26:22When you see a fossil, it's like you're coming face to face with the past.
26:29It's like the past is still kissing the present somehow.
26:35It just makes you aware of what a kind of ever-changing, infinite universe we live in.
26:43It's a really important thing to hold on to.
26:46The Jurassic Coast is the best place in the whole world where you can, quite literally, walk through time through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods in geological history.
27:16There's been life on Earth for almost four billion years.
27:35Fossilised remains of ancient life are solid memories of worlds long gone.
27:43Without fossils, many of our land's ancient secrets would remain unknown.
27:52Fossils unlock the mysteries of the past and inspire the explorer in all of us.
28:12The Jurassic Coast is the best place in the whole world where you can, quite literally, walk through time through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods in geological history.
28:21It's a really important thing to hold on to.
28:25The Jurassic Coast is the best place in the whole world where you can, quite literally, walk through time through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods in geological history.