09 April 2023 , 21:00
991
0
Sir David Attenborough unearths the skull of a ferocious Jurassic predator in a new BBC film.
With its 6ft jaw crammed full of huge dagger-like teeth, it terrorised Dorset’s Jurassic coast millions of years ago as the Tyrannosaurus rex of the oceans.
Sir David, 96, explores its history with the help of CGI for an hour-long documentary with the working title Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster.
He 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.
Sir David Attenborough has unearthed the skull of a Jurrasic animal (We Love TV)“Skulls, which can tell us most about an animal, are 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.”
Inside hoax claims and secrets of world's richest dog Gunther in new Netflix doc
The programme is filmed on location in the UK and follows the success of the broadcaster’s BBC1 series Wild Isles.
Sir David will join palaeontologists as they work to better understand the monster, which experts believe to be a new species of the pliosaur. The discovery of the skull will help them work out how the beast looked, behaved and hunted.
The Liopleurodon hunted the seas of what is now Europe (Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)Jack Bootle, head of specialist factual programme commissioning at the BBC, said: “This film promises to be a thrilling trip through time to a moment when monsters ruled the seas around Britain.” Executive producer Mike Gunton said: “Sir David’s eyes lit up when we told him about this find. He couldn’t wait to join the dig and get a first look.”
Attenborough And The Giant Sea Monster is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit
The revelation comes just days after it emerged that Sir David was voted Britain's favourite TV presenter of all time.
Sir David was recently crowned one of Britain's favourite presenters (BBC/Silverback Films/Chris Howard)He won 28% of the vote with 30 household names making up the list in all.
His stunning career has spanned eight decades and he is the only person to win BAFTA awards for programmes in black and white, colour, high-definition, 3D, and 4K.
Attenborough’s latest gong comes after the Mirror revealed how he risked bird flu on the Welsh island of Skomer for a first glimpse of Manx shearwater chick taking flight on its 6,000-mile migration to South America, during filming for his new Wild Isles series.
To see the bird leave Skomer, the 96-year-old broadcasting legend was positioned in the dark next to its burrow for several hours.