Just when you thought Sir David Attenborough documentaries couldn’t get any better, the beloved national treasure is set to unearth the skull of a ferocious Jurassic predator in a new BBC film.
Attenborough And The Giant Sea Monster, a working title, is an hour-long programme that will see the 96-year-old broadcaster and naturalist explore the history of prehistoric marine reptile the pliosaur.
We’re obsessed already.
Speaking about the upcoming project which comes off the back of the hugely popular BBC One series Wild Isles, Sir David said: ‘Pliosaurs were the biggest and most formidable hunters in the Jurassic seas – the marine equivalent, you might say, of T Rex.
‘The skull of this one is, by itself, over two metres long and armed with massive fangs.’
He continued: ‘Frustratingly, skulls, which can tell us most about an animal, are only too easily smashed before fossilisation but this one is virtually undamaged and promises to reveal all kinds of new details about these terrifying hunters that preyed on Lyme Regis’s better known ichthyosaurs.’
Sir David will be joined by a team of expert scientists and palaeontologists as they work to better understand the Jurassic predator, which fossil experts believe to be a completely new species of the pliosaur.
The discovery of the skull will aid the team in working out how the creature looked and behaved, as well as help them understand its hunting methods.
The documentary has been filmed on location across the UK and will combine ‘ground-breaking science with gripping storytelling’, as well as ‘state-of-the-art CGI to tell the tale of this most phenomenal predator of the Jurassic world’.
The BBC’s head of commissioning of specialist factual, Jack Bootle, enthused: ‘Sir David has filmed some of the world’s very best fossil animals, so the fact he’s so interested in this skull makes me unbelievably excited.
‘This film promises to be a thrilling trip through time to a moment when monsters ruled the seas around Britain. I can’t wait for viewers to experience it.’
Attenborough And The Giant Sea Monster is coming soon to the BBC.
