Planet Dinosaur (2011): Season 1, Episode 4 - Fight for Life - full transcript

We are living through

THE golden age

of dinosaur discoveries.

From all over the world

a whole new generation
of dinosaurs has been revealed.

From the biggest giants...

and the deadliest killers...

to the weird and wonderful...

From the Arctic

to Africa.

From South America to Asia.



Using the lastest evidence

for the first time

we have a truly global view
of these incredible animals.

This time

we journey back 150 million years

to the Jurassic Period.

A time when the first giant
killers stalked the earth.

But these giants weren't
confined to the land.

Recent discoveries

have revealed an astonishing
new hunter in the oceans.

These new giant killers posed
the greatest of threats.

At the smallest debitage tipping
the balance between life and death

predator and prey were locked in a
perpetual battle for survival.

To understand this world



we must travel back 150 million years

to a time when much of Europe
looked like the Bahamas.

A time when these warm tropical seas
were home to giant predators.

Some of which

have left their mark

etched in stone.

This cliff face in Switzerland

is carved with a series

of enormous gouges and grooves.

Many over nine meters long.

The entire rock face is actually

one huge fossil

an upturned slab of Jurassic Ocean floor.

And the marks were left by a predator

as it hunted for food.

Sharks like this squatina

are similar to angel sharks
which still exist today.

It's an ambush predator and lies in wait.

But in these seas there are the hunters.

This is Kimmerosaurus.

They belong to a group called plesiosaurs.

At six meters long

they're one of the Jurassic Ocean's
most successful hunters.

And also one of the most common.

And it's this unusual hunting method

that left its trace on the ocean floor

We now know that the
rock face in Switzerland

is etched with the marks
of hunting plesiosaurs.

But these giants were
not the king of the seas.

Many of the fossils show evidence of
having been violently ripped apart.

Clearly there were much
too much bigger predators

lurking in these seas.

In 2008,

in an island in the high Arctic,

a fossil was dug out of the frozen earth.

Its skull alone was nearly
twice that of T-rex.

This was an enormous killer.

A killer a like a which had
never been seen before.

More than fifteen meters long
and weight about forty five tons

this is the most powerful marine
reptile ever discovered.

Twice as big as most
Jurassic Ocean predators...

This is Predator X

the animal that must go down in history
as one of the ocean's most deadly hunters.

And it's prey like Kimmerosaurus

that are in its sights.

Skull analysis of giant killers
like Predator X

suggests that they
hunted their prey by smell...

changeling water to
especially internal muscles

allowing them to silently
hone in on their target.

By an amazing very anatomy

we've calculated that Predator X

could move up to five metres per second -

fractionally faster than a Kimmerosaurus.

The kimmerosaurs only defence

is to head for the
refuge of shallow water.

This time

Predator X's size works against him.

Unable to hunt efficiently
in shallow water...

..means that the Kimmerosaurus
can use this as a refuge.

A subtle advantage that makes the
difference between life and death.

Predator X and Kimmerosaurus

are just one example

of a predator-prey relationship

locked in a fight for survival.

In the western states of North America

is one of the richest
sources of dinosaur fossils.

It's known as the Morrison Formation.

Recently these rocks

have given us a tantalising glimpse

of how two dinosaurs adapted together

to protect themselves against
another deadly predator...

..Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus.

Fossils of these two species

are almost always found

in the same area.

In 2008,

footprints of the two

were recovered from the same site.

It seemed that they lived
alongside one another.

But why would two unrelated plant-eaters

live together?

Stegosaurus -

a heavily armoured tank

with a deadly weapon
at the end of its tail...

known as a thagomizer.

Camptosaurus - a much smaller plant-eater

with no obvious defences.

Skull analysis shows

that Camptosaurus has bigger eyes -

and relative to its body -
a much bigger brain.

Camptosaurus appears to be a lookout.

While the armoured Stegosaurus
provides the muscle.

It's likely Camptosaurus and Stegosaurus

stuck close together
for mutual protection...

..in a world where danger is ever-present.

Allosaurus -

a one-and-a-half-tonne ambush
hunter with a lethal bite.

The world had never known a predator like it.

But haven't lost the elemental surprise

it's now faced with the
prospect of either starving...

or facing the most well-protected
giant of the Jurassic.

But trick affordable from behind

a predator needs to try to attack
the stegosaurs from the front.

The evidence for encounters such
as these is incredible.

So at finest 2008 directly link to
the great animal embattle

revealing the unmistakeable signs

of injury.

A Stegosaurus back plate

was discovered

with a u-shaped bite taken out of it.

A bite mark that fitted

the Allosaurus' jaws perfectly.

Even more amazing

was an Allosaurus vertebra.

It had a massive impact wound.

The wound appeared to have been made

by a Stegosaur's thagomizer.

The blow being so powerful

it punched a hole in the bone

of the Allosaurs' spine.

What's more incredible

is that the injured bone
shows signs of healing.

This Allosaurus survived.

The balance of power between
predator and prey is a fine one.

Prey continually evolve

different strategies

to avoid predators.

Both for their bodies like Estegosaurus

and their behaviour

like Camptosaurus.

And in the Jurasic's Oceans

we have evidence to suggest

that plesiosaurs protected their young...

..by finding sanctuary
in shallow water nurseries.

But such lagoons

won't always deter a hunter.

And a rising tide gives this predator
a glimmer of hope.

But in made shallow water

the huge Predator X can't use its power.

The smaller and agile Kimmerosaurus

can easily outmanoeuvre

the lumbering killer.

However the Kimmerosaurus
can't permanently protect itself

in this sanctuary.

They need to venture
into deeper water to feed.

And that is where
Predator X has the advantage.

Successful predators need
to play a waiting game.

Allosaurus is the most common
killer in these lands.

Nine meters long with a battery
of saw blade-like teeth

a powerful clawed forearms -

Allosaurus is a formidable hunter.

It shares the plains

with dozens of species

of plant-eating dinosaurs.

A lone Camptosaurus

away from the protection of Stegosaurus...

..should be easy pickings
for a hunting Allosaurus.

Allosaurus teeth was
so rated front on back

perfectly evolved
for tearing through flesh.

However recent research has indicated

that Allosaurus' bite
was surprisingly weak.

Calculations suggested its bite was
less powerful than a lion's -

despite being seven times more massive.

So just how did this Jurassic monster

hunt and kill?

The answer is with an element of surprise.

Camptosaurus relies

on its keen senses to avoid predators.

Allosaurus by the other hand

is a fast and powerful ambush hunter.

Faster than Camptosaurus.

A one-and-a-half-tonne killer
can't run fast for long.

It's a question of speed versus stamina.

It's might the apparent weakness let's bite

Allosaurus did in fact have
a deadly killing method.

Its skull could withstand a force

more than 15 times as great as its bite.

This meant that Allosaurus
used its head like an axe.

Its strong neck muscles driving
its top jaw into its prey.

with every impact the serrated teeth

would tear through its prey's flesh.

The victim dying through
a combination of shock and blood loss.

it isn't precise it isn't clinical...

but it's ruthlessly efficient.

However making a kill

never actually guarantees a meal.

Because here Allosaurus isn't
the only killer in these parts.

Saurophaganax.

At twelve meters

it is the biggest
carnivore in the region.

And one of the
advantages of being so big

is that stealing another's
kill is that much easier.

Giant predators like
Saurophaganax and Allosaurus

used their power and size
to dominate their domain

and all those within it.

And the story was no different
in the Jurassic oceans.

These are the bones of Plesiosaur.

They appear to have
been broken into fragments.

And many of these show indications

that they didn't die of natural causes.

It looks more like
they were violently dismembered.

One particular fossil
gives us a chilling idea

of how these plesiosaurs
might have been killed.

It consists of a skull

with a few vertebrae still attached

but nothing else.

All these dismembered fossils

we found in deeper waters

where plesiosaurs need to feed

but where they're in the greatest danger.

This animal is in
the worst possible place -

hunting alone along surface

where it's most vulnerable
to attack from below.

In deep water

Predator X can use its full power.

Although injured and stunned

this plesiosaur
is armed with a vicious bite.

So Predator X still needs to be wary.

Severely wounded now the only sanctuary

is the shallow water of the nursery.

Canal that exist by this bite is formidable

estimated to be four times that of T-rex.

Biting hard

it is cutting through muscle and bone
before shaking it to pieces.

It's almost certain that the
bite marks on the fossil plesiosaur

were made in this way.

And the position of
the marks also indicated

the attack enterly came from below.

The never-ending battle

between predators and their prey

is a finely balanced one.

However for the most successful
and enduring predators,

the struggle to survive
is always tipped in their favour.

An predator like Predator X

a killer with one of the
most powerful bites ever known...

ruled the oceans for more
than 100 million years.