Dinosaurs. Fun, fact and fantasy.
The
dinosaurs. You've seen them on TV, in films and in comic books. But what were they really
to find out everything you ever wanted to know, we have to go right back in time, back over
150 million years. To the time this terrible fight first took place. As you can see, it's
not a very pleasant time to be around. And this swampland isn't a very safe place to be. That's
because the age of the dinosaurs happened a very long time ago. And although this scene actually
took place here in England, it was a very different England to the one we know today. There were no
towns and villages and none of the fields and woodlands that we see today. It was a time long
before the first men and women were on the earth. A time when this world was a very different place
to the world we know. And it was covered with all kinds of extraordinary plants and even more
extraordinary animals. And when the dinosaurs were around, a map of the world would have looked like
this. The countries Africa and India are both next to South America and Britain and Europe far
closer to North America than they are today. So although all of the countries were around then,
they were in very different places. Since the age of the dinosaurs, the mainland areas of the world,
the continents, have gradually been drifting apart. And it has taken millions of years to do so.
Today's world of course now looks like this. We live now in a period called the Quaternary,
and it's lasted for about 1 million years. And although that seems a very long time to us,
it's actually just a very short time in the total life history of the world. If we go back 10 million
years however, we find ourselves in a very different period. We find ourselves in the tertiary
age. This was the time when most of the plants and animals that we know today were just about
starting to develop. The tertiary age goes back as far as 65 million years ago. And further than
that, we begin to enter another age, the Mesozoic age, the age of the dinosaurs and their ancestors.
During the Mesozoic age, the age of the dinosaurs, the weather was rather warmer than it is today.
As we have seen, the countries of the world were all much closer together, and so there was very
little difference between the different seasons. As a result, all kinds of plant life could grow all
the year round in very hot conditions to provide food and shelter for all kinds of weird and
wonderful animals, including of course, the dinosaurs. Just look at them. Did you ever see
such wicked eyes? Did you ever see such fearsome teeth? Did you ever see such a terrible face?
Here, I beg your pardon? A crocodile? What are you doing here? What do you mean, what am I doing
here? This is where I live. But you're not a dinosaur, you're a crocodile. Well, all right,
if you want to get technical, I'm not a real dinosaur. But me and all the other crocodiles
in the world are descended from the same group of animals as the dinosaurs. Most of my ancestors
were around during the age of the dinosaurs. In fact, I remember my great-great-great-great-great-
great-great-great-great-great-grandfather telling me that his great-great-great-great-great-great-
great-great-great-great-grandmother said she could remember them quite clearly. So you know
all about them? Anything you want to know, I'm your man, or rather, I'm your croc, because man
didn't arrive on the scene until much later, as you know. Dills, the name, descended from chaps
like this Tellosaurus. Those fearsome looking set of teeth lurking down there on the riverbank. But
this is amazing. Do you mean to tell me that all the crocodiles in the world are directly related
to the dinosaurs? That's what I was trying to say, that my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-
great-great-great-great- Oh no, hang on. I'll tell you another way.
About 250, a million years ago, this great big gruesome creature began to grow and grow. It was
called the Fecodonchian. It made reptile history, because the fierce old Fecodonchian began the
dinosaur dynasty. Now there were all kinds of dinosaurs, as you will shortly see, and related
to the dinosaur is the crocodile. Yes, you're right, that's me. Yes, you can tell by the shape
of our muscles, and you can tell by the snap of our jaw. You can tell by the way we go hunting
at night, and the way that we stun with our tail when we fight. Oh, I could tell you so much more
how I'm related to a dinosaur. Oh, I could tell you so much more how I'm related to a dinosaur.
When we lay eggs just like hens do, we live in rivers and swamps, and we can run faster than the
average man. When we're out of the water and we're on the dry land, oh, I could tell you so much more
how I'm related to a dinosaur. So, crocodiles and dinosaurs are both descended from the same ancestor.
As the song says, that fierce old Fecodonchian. According to the reference book, there are something
like 800 different kinds of dinosaur. How on earth can you remember them all? You see, whilst my side
of the family was busy developing into crocodiles, the dinosaurs were all busy developing into
different types. What on earth do you mean, Dil? I'm sorry, well, I'm sorry, I can't tell you much
more at the moment, something's come up, and it looks very much like a Brachiosaurus to me.
So, who's that with it? That's a Fecodontosaurus. Let's hope neither of them saw us.
Shh, shh, shh, and pay attention, because these two are the biggest and the smallest members of one of
the different dinosaur groups I was telling you all about. They're the largest and the smallest
of the plodding dinosaurs. Now, these two, on the other hand, are the biggest and smallest of the
bird-footed dinosaurs. The big ones are Chantungosaurus, and the little ones got an even longer name,
Micropachycephalosaurus. They're just two out of scores of bird-footed dinosaurs.
Micro means small, doesn't it, Dil? That's right, but you need a big breath to say it.
Get your head down. Here come the killer dinosaurs, and that could mean real trouble.
The big one is the worst of the lot, the Tyrannosaurus, and the smallest is that chicken-sized
little monster, the Comsognathus. Because most of the dinosaurs were vegetarians, they dined only
on plants and leaves, but some really were meat-eating monsters that would kill anything
that got in their way. Now, these two are much more friendly towards me at any rate.
They're the Stegosaurus and the little Struthosaurus from the armored dinosaur side
of the family. They look quite well protected. Oh, yes, they could take care of themselves all
right, even though they preferred quite a peaceful life. These two look familiar. And so they should
be, because they were among the very last of the dinosaurs. Triceratops is the big one, and the
little one in front of him is Microceratops. These were the last dinosaurs because they live right at
the very end of the Mesozoic age, in the light green Cretaceous period, remember? So they were
some of the dinosaurs that could have been wiped out at the end of the dinosaur age. I'm afraid so,
but don't feel too sad. Remember that you've seen all the main dinosaurs from over 140 million years,
plodders, bird-footed, fighting, armored, and the Ceratopsians, the last dinosaurs, all in the space
of three minutes. And each one of these different groups could contain anything up to almost a
hundred different dinosaurs. So what are we waiting for? The plodding dinosaurs, the first of my
dinosaur dozen. They were never too quick off the mark. The dinosaur dozen, plodders.
Now here are some most very strange dinosaur names. Try to say them out loud and then say them again.
Ploddicus vulcanodon and Platyosaurus, Tiguanodon, Deinonychus, and Tyrannosaurus.
Triceratops, Elophysis, and Hypexylophodon with Taurosaurus, Stegosaurus, that's about enough of them.
Baby Camerasaurus, Thicodontosaurus, Massospondylus, Vulcanodon, Platyosaurus,
Ptolemyosaurus, Riogisaurus, Setiosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Mamanchesaurus,
Diplodocus, Supersaurus. Well, Dill, you know them all personally so much better than I do.
Which of the dinosaurs is your favorite? Well, since you ask, I must admit I've always had a bit
of a soft spot for the plodders, the Brontosaurus. They've always seemed to me to be exactly what a
dinosaur should be. None of you rushing about, just slow and stately plodding from one place to
another. And for someone like me, who can barely reach more than three feet off the ground, just
imagine the kind of view you'd get if you were a giant Brontosaurus. Yes, that's the dinosaur I'd like to be.
If I had been born a dinosaur, I'd be the most gigantic size.
And almost as wide as a house I would be, but I'd be quite gentle and live peacefully,
if I were a dinosaur other than me.
If I had been born a dinosaur, my neck would be extremely long,
so I could eat leaves from very high trees, as well as small plants on the ground near my knees,
if I were a dinosaur other than me.
Well, as you can see, despite all my high-flying ideas, I've had to come down to Earth again. Mind you,
it is a very special kind of Earth, because it was here, in this Sussex quarry, just an hour or so's
journey from London, that the first dinosaur to be identified by man was found. That's because over a
hundred million years ago, back in the Mesozoic age, the age of the dinosaurs, there were all kinds
of crocodiles and dinosaurs living here where Britain is. That's right, dinosaurs were right here
in England. Mind you, it all looks very different today, though, just as it did when Dr and Mrs
Mantell first came across the scene back in 1822. Dr Mantell had come to visit a patient of his
just along the road, and as it was such a beautifully warm summer's day, his wife Mary had come along for
a ride. Well, she didn't want to be bothered with looking over her husband's shoulder all the time,
so off she went for a short walk.
But barely had she begun, and her attention was drawn to the middle of a pile of rubble
being used to mend the road. For there, in the middle of a pile of rough sandstone,
was the oddest looking stone she had ever seen. It was dark brown and shiny, with a smooth polished
surface, and as she looked at it more closely, she suddenly realized what it was. The dark brown stone
she was holding was a giant tooth, and there were many more crushed together in the sandstone nearby.
She rushed to tell her husband of her amazing find,
and together they traced the source of the mysterious giant teeth back to a local sandstone quarry.
Now although Dr Mantell and his wife knew that what they had found were fossils,
animal bones that had been in the ground so long that they had turned to stone,
neither of them knew for certain the name of the animal the teeth had come from.
This was hardly surprising, for ever since the 17th century, people have been finding strange
bones and fossils in the soil and stones of the south of England. Some thought them to be the
remains of a race of giants that once lived in the area. Others believed them to be all that was
left of a mythological collection of devils, dragons, and fairy tale monsters. Well, the
Mantells knew a little more than that. They remembered barely a dozen years earlier a girl
called Mary Anning who lived in the Lyme Regis area of Dorset in southern England.
She had found amongst other fossils the complete fossilized remains of a prehistoric fish lizard,
the ichthyosaurus.
And because Dr Mantell knew that like the liash rock that Mary Anning had found her fossils in,
the sandstone rocks surrounding the teeth were very old, going back almost 100 million years,
he knew that the teeth must have come from the same period of prehistoric time.
But how could a thing as solid as a tooth find its way into something as solid as a rock?
The answer is that when the tooth first fell into the rock, the rock wasn't rock at all,
but simply a layer of rather sandy mud lying at the bottom of a stream or a swamp.
You can see exactly what happens if you pour plaster into a dish and then drop a chicken bone into it.
The plaster gradually traps the chicken bone in the same way that the mud gradually settled around
the dinosaur bones. Then as time went on, more layers of mud formed on top of the bone and it
gradually became covered. Of course, the sandstone rock took millions of years to set properly.
Our plaster mix on the other hand should be set solid in a very short time.
Then millions of years after the rock had been covered by more and more layers of new rock,
certain parts were slowly weathered away by the wind and sea to expose the old bones.
In this case, the process has only taken a few minutes.
Now you can split open your rock dill to find your original bone.
And that's exactly what Mary Anning and the Mantells had to do to split open their fossil
finds. Except that they were dealing with much harder rocks and stones. That's right.
And there's another important difference too. You see, we know exactly what's inside our fossil,
but Dr. Mantell and the other early fossil hunters were not at all sure where the bones
they had found had come from. One sunny spring day in 1822 in the little sassies town of Lewis
when Dr. Mantell's young lady wife was out walking one day just enjoying her life. What did she see
there on the ground? Something dark and shiny and brown. It was the very first tooth of a dinosaur,
the very first tooth that was found. Well, time went by more teeth and bones were found,
but nobody knew quite what they were. There was much speculation as to what they could be.
Dr. Mantell and his wife said, Oh, dear me, what have we taken out of the ground? Perhaps we should
have left things alone. Well, we've never seen anything like these before. Just what do we make
of these bones? Was it a great big dog? Was it a fierce old giant? Now how will we ever know?
Perhaps an elephant? No, that can't be right. Maybe a fiery dragon that set things alike.
Well, we've racked our brains and we still don't know. Perhaps we should have left things alone.
Oh, what is the answer? A prehistoric monster? Well, what do we make of these bones?
Was it a great big dog? Was it a fierce old giant? Now how will we ever know? No, no, no, no. Perhaps
an elephant? No, that can't be right. Maybe a fiery dragon that set things alike. Well, we've
racked our brains and we still don't know. Perhaps we should have left things alone. Oh, what is the
answer? A prehistoric monster? Well, what do we make of these bones?
So how's your fossil coming along then, Dil? Oh, I'll show you. There you are. You know,
all the same though, Dil, most people would find it pretty hard to imagine what a complete
chicken would look like if they only had a fossilized chicken bone to go on. Well,
that's the problem Dr. Mantell had. He'd found the teeth all right, but it wasn't until nine
years later, in 1831, that he finally discovered a complete skeleton.
Then he could see for the first time ever what kind of an animal the fossilized teeth had come from
and what it would have looked like back in the Mesozoic age. I hate to say this, Dil,
but you know, Dr. Mantell's strange fossilized creature has come out looking more than a little
like you. Of course it does. That's why he called it an iguanodon, after a fierce iguana lizard
that lived in South America and don't meaning teeth. It wasn't until several years later that
people first began to realize that the iguanodon was just one of the prehistoric reptiles called
the dinosaurs. The name dinosaur means terrible lizard, and by the time that the word dinosaur
first came into common use, all kinds of people have been busy working out their own ideas of
what the iguanodon would have looked like in real life. This is a model specially made for the
Crystal Palace grounds in London in 1854. He's completely the wrong shape. His colors are all
wrong, and as for the spiky horn on his nose, well, even Dr. Mantell got that wrong. This is
where it really fits. The people of Maidstone in Kent near where the iguanodon was found were so
pleased with it that they decided to put old Iggy here into their town's coat of arms.
Today of course we now know that the iguanodon that Dr. Mantell discovered was only one of a whole
family of bird-footed dinosaurs, the second of our dinosaur dozens. Dinosaur dozens, bird-footed.
Now here they are once again, those dinosaur names. Try to say them out loud and then say them out
right. Try to say them out loud and then say them again. Diplodocus vulcanidon and Platyosaurus
iguanodon, Deinonychus and Tyrannosaurus, Triceratopsilophysis and Hypesilophodon
with Taurosaurus, Stegosaurus, that's about enough of them. Lesothosaurus, Hypesilophodon,
Pachycephalosaurus, Prosaurolophus, Hadrosaurus, Parxosaurus, Anatosaurus,
Chorythosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Lambiosaurus, Iguanodon, Shantungosaurus.
Dr. Mantell's iguanodon. Did you spot him in the dinosaur dozen? He was just the first of the
dinosaurs to be discovered in Victorian Britain. Very soon afterwards came other similar fossilized
creatures and the Megalosaurus and Cetiosaurus quickly found themselves occupying pride of place
in the museums. By now people were using the word dinosaur to describe a whole collection of
prehistoric animals that have been found all over the world. In 1877 coal miners in the Belgian town
of Bernissard were opening up a new coal seam when they came across the remains of 31 iguanodon
skeletons, 11 of them virtually complete. It's believed that a whole group of them stumbled into
a deep ravine by mistake to remain there for over 100 million years. But it was in North America that
dinosaur fever really took hold. Here are some of the numerous places they've been found.
In Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana and Canada. Fossil hunters in the early days even had to fight
off the red Indians to collect dinosaur relics. And not just Indians because at least two of the
most dedicated of the American collectors, Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh, were so jealous of each
other's discoveries that they actually fought gun battles between them over who could lay claim to
the most bones. Luckily there were plenty to be found however. In fact more than enough for both
of them. They could be found just lying in the desert, large bones waiting to be picked up.
One non-dinosaur collector built a shack out of the bones. By the time Cope and Marsh had ceased
their fighting and feuding, no fewer than 136 new kinds of dinosaurs had been discovered and named.