Day of reckoning
DINOSAURS: THE FINAL DAY WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
SO much has been written and discovered about dinosaurs, but according to Sir David Attenborough the gaps in our knowledge are still vast, especially regarding how they died out.
The working scientific theory is that an asteroid that hit the Earth 66 million years ago was responsible for making the creatures extinct, but there’s still very little firm evidence to explain exactly what happened.
Until now, at least.
In this one-off documentary, we discover more about the dinosaurs that roamed our planet, and their demise, via an incredible dig site in the hills of North Dakota.
The fossils hidden in this prehistoric graveyard in the American mid-West are thought to be so astonishing that the site’s exact location remains top secret, but the BBC cameras have been granted exclusive access to film over three years.
Retrieving these precious bones is painstaking, slow work, with one palaeontologist
Attenborough takes us back to the final hours when dinosaurs ruled the Earth comparing the process to ‘trying to defuse a nuclear weapon in a rainstorm’. But the team’s efforts will be worth it, as they unlock secrets dating back millions of years.
Sir David is fascinated by these finds and helps us to understand the impact they have on scientific understanding, bringing the discoveries to life.
And as we start to put together a picture of how dinosaurs died out, state-of-the-art technology helps to transport Sir David back in time, to reveal what happened on the very last day of their lives, hour by hour.