Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster Subtitles

00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:11,DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: I'm on
the south coast of England

00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:16,in what is known
as the Jurassic Coast.

00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:18,150 million years ago,

00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:22,the land was ruled
by dinosaurs...

00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:25,...but the oceans
were dominated

00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:29,by a mysterious sea monster.

00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:38,Its remains are very rare,

00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,but some have
just been discovered

00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:43,in the cliffs behind me.

00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,And now fossil experts
are working to unearth

00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,this extraordinary find.

00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:55,No-one's ever done this before,
ever!

00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,Extracting a giant skull
halfway down a cliff face!

00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:01,This colossal creature

00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:04,is called a pliosaur.

00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:11,But little is known
about these prehistoric giants.

00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:14,What an extraordinary
and terrifying thing!

00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:18,Together,
with a team of scientists,

00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:21,we will use new technology

00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:25,to discover more about
this enormous marine reptile.

00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:29,I have no doubt that this pliosaur

00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:32,was the T-rex of the seas.

00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:35,Comparing it
with animals alive today...

00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:42,..we can deduce a great deal
about their sheer strength.

00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:44,This pliosaur has a b***e force

00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:46,that's about twice
the great white shark.

00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:48,Well, that's unimaginable.

00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:54,Could this be
the greatest Jurassic predator

00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:56,that ever lived?

00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:16,Britain has a wealth

00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:17,of fossil sites,

00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:21,but perhaps none
are quite so famous as this,

00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:24,the Jurassic Coast.

00:02:30,920 --> 00:02:35,I've been collecting fossils
since I was a boy,

00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:38,and I haven't yet
g***t tired of it.

00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:43,These days, you're supposed
to wear glasses for safety.

00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:46,And, if you would know a locality,

00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:50,you would begin to recognise
the sort of block

00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:51,that might contain a fossil.

00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,And this rock was split earlier

00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:57,to make it easier to show you.

00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:59,And if I can...

00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,..hit it quite hard about there...

00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:10,HE LAUGHS

00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:13,What about that?

00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,Is anything more beautiful
than that?

00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:18,Fantastic.

00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:20,Finding even the smallest fossil

00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:24,is a thrill, but discovering
something much larger

00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:27,can be an unforgettable moment.

00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:29,And that is exactly what happened

00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:31,to a fossil enthusiast,

00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:32,who was walking along a beach

00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,near Kimmeridge Bay
in Dorset one morning.

00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,I just found
something quite extraordinary -

00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:45,it's the jaw of a massive pliosaur.

00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:46,It's enormous.

00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:48,It's a massive pliosaur.

00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,It's the best fossil
I've ever found.

00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:56,It must have just come out
of the cliff up there somewhere.

00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:00,Renowned fossil expert
Steve Etches was called in,

00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:02,and he realised immediately

00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:05,that this find could be
hugely significant.

00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,Look! Look at those teeth.

00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:10,There's a tooth there - look.

00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:11,Let's have a look at the front.

00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:13,You can walk along here
for hundreds of times

00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:15,and not find anything,

00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:18,and then, occasionally,
you'll hit the jackpot.

00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:22,And this certainly is the jackpot.

00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:27,It's the snout
of an enormous pliosaur skull.

00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:31,And Steve suspects
that the rest of the head

00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:34,might still be embedded
in the cliff above.

00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:39,But he needs to work fast

00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,before the whole thing tumbles
into the sea

00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:44,and is lost for ever.

00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:47,So he quickly gathers
a team of experts,

00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:51,including fellow fossil-hunter
Chris Moore.

00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:54,It's day one of the dig.

00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:58,Steve and a team of diggers
are up on the cliffs.

00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,They're putting a net down
to stop any loose rock

00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:04,rolling down and hitting us,

00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,and then we'll go down
and expose the skull.

00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:09,DRILL WHIRS

00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:11,Steve and Chris have worked
together for decades.

00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:16,But this is the biggest challenge

00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,they have ever faced.

00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:27,The location of the skull,

00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,high up
on a disintegrating cliff face,

00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:32,makes it very difficult to reach

00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,and even harder to work on.

00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:43,These rocks were once mud
on the seafloor...

00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,..in which the remains
of prehistoric marine creatures

00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:51,were buried.

00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:57,Over millions of years,
the continents shifted,

00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,the seas receded,

00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,and today, as these cliffs erode,

00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:06,fossilised skeletons are revealed.

00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:09,The jaw is there, and the idea

00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:11,is to actually cut this down
vertically,

00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:15,and then we form a platform
where the fossil is.

00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:22,I've known Chris and Steve
for many years,

00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:24,and I can't wait to join them

00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:27,and find out how they're getting on.

00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,Here, we've g***t a live feed
to them actually digging

00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:36,halfway up the cliff face.

00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:38,What's happened so far,

00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,the tip of the snout has already
come out and been recovered,

00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,so the rest of it
is going into the cliff.

00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,What exactly are they doing there?

00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:50,At the moment, they're using tinfoil

00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:53,to try and protect
the exposed piece of jaw.

00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:55,In case something falls on it
and breaks it?

00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:56,Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:00,And then they're also using
superglue to consolidate

00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:03,the crumbly teeth and parts

00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:05,that have been weathered
over millennia.

00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:07,And they're hanging by ropes there?

00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:09,Yes, pretty much
in the centre of the cliff.

00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:11,Dear me!
Pretty dangerous stuff, this.

00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:14,Yeah, yeah, it really is.

00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:16,After you've worked there
for a few hours,

00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:17,it becomes a bit more natural.

00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:19,And you concentrate
on the actual digging.

00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:23,You must be pretty sure
that there's something there

00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:25,to put this amount of effort
into it, really.

00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:27,Oh, positive
there's something there.

00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:28,It's beautiful.

00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:29,It's a beautiful specimen.

00:07:29,840...