Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Life began here in Britain more than a billion years ago.
00:08And when dinosaurs and other strange creatures roamed our land,
00:14they left fascinating clues behind.
00:18Fossils hold the key to Britain's past.
00:22And they can be found everywhere,
00:25our direct link to a world long since gone.
00:30From the first signs of life to the dinosaurs and beyond,
00:35the evidence of our planet's past is buried in the rocks around us.
00:40We're here to find and analyse that evidence.
00:43So get ready for some time travel with the Fossil Detectives.
01:00The Fossil Detectives are in London to track down evidence of the capital's ancient past.
01:15We'll see what Victorian scientists thought dinosaurs looked like,
01:21rediscover a lost world when hippos dominated the landscape,
01:26here in the capital,
01:29find fossils in the most surprising places,
01:33and have a rare viewing of a private fossil collection
01:37at home with the most famous naturalist on planet Earth, Sir David Attenborough.
01:43More than 400 million years ago,
01:47an extraordinary thing was beginning to happen to life on Earth.
01:54Some plants and animals began to evolve
01:58so that they could live not just in water, but in air.
02:02Our time in London starts at Kew Gardens,
02:06in the appropriately named Evolution House.
02:13Here, you can get a sense of what that primordial world must have looked and felt like.
02:20This is the first time we've seen a dinosaur.
02:24Here, you can get a sense of what that primordial world must have looked and felt like.
02:31This pivotal point in evolution began 430 million years ago,
02:38in the Silurian period.
02:41It was the moment when the first flora and fauna flickered into life on the land.
02:48But the newly evolving animals could only survive
02:52because of the way plants adapted to their new environment.
02:56Plants flourished because they developed specialised systems of cells,
03:01some on their insides to conduct water and nutrients around,
03:05others on their surface to protect them, primarily from drying out.
03:09And all the oxygen that they produced was critical to the long-term evolution of life.
03:15Some of the plants here are realistic models of extinct species, like these Cooksonia.
03:22Growing up to 6 centimetres high,
03:25they were some of the very first plants that were adapted to life on land.
03:36And here, living, breathing mosses, still alive today.
03:41The first ferns.
03:46And the world's largest horsetail.
03:54We still don't know why some managed to survive when others did not.
03:59What we do know is that natural selection meant any plant could survive.
04:04Survival of the fittest.
04:07These living fossils are plant species that were growing in prehistoric times,
04:12and yet still exist today.
04:16And you might even have some in your garden.
04:21And here, living, breathing mosses, still alive today.
04:26The world's largest horsetail.
04:29And here, living, breathing mosses, still alive today.
04:34The botanist James Wong works at Kew Gardens and studies living fossils.
04:40So, James, what kind of prehistoric plants might we be able to find living in Britain today?
04:46Well, there are all kinds of weird and wonderful, really prehistoric-looking things,
04:50like the tree ferns and the monkey puzzle I've got behind me.
04:52But there's also very everyday things.
04:54Regular ferns, mosses, horsetails, even magnolias, are incredibly old species.
05:00In fact, magnolias are one of the first ever flowering plants.
05:04You can see dinosaurs walking right between them.
05:07But how can you be sure that those magnolias, and I've got one living in my garden too,
05:11how can you be sure that it's the same as the plants that you find in the fossil records?
05:15We have a number of ways of testing this.
05:17And the most simple is morphology, it's how plants look.
05:20And you can compare not only the sort of broad overall structure of the plants,
05:24but right down to a cellular level you can compare and find striking examples.
05:28For example, here, I've got a fossil of a ginkgo leaf.
05:31Okay, now ginkgo to me is a maidenhair tree.
05:34It's an incredibly common ornamental plant.
05:36In fact, I have a leaf of it right there that I picked about 15 minutes ago.
05:40Now look at this, so you can see the fossil leaf there,
05:43and then this modern one, it's exactly the same shape and size.
05:48And you can even see the lines there, the structure of the leaf is in the fossil.
05:52Exactly.
05:54That's amazing. How old is this fossil?
05:56200 million years old.
05:58And they've existed all that time, largely unchanged?
05:59Exactly.
06:01Another thing I've got for you, I've got a horsetail.
06:04It's the kind of thing you see growing on railway lines.
06:07It's an incredibly invasive weed.
06:09Oh yes, look at that.
06:11You can really clearly see a central stem there,
06:13with all those radiating fronds coming out of it.
06:16I can beat you on this one, 350 million years old.
06:19And again, it's just identical to what you see today.
06:22Exactly, except the ones that grew back then,
06:24instead of being six inches high, were up to 60 metres high.
06:26So instead of getting up to my knee,
06:28they were the size of Kew's Pagoda outside.
06:30So this is just a baby one, a juvenile?
06:32Exactly, and I can give you an example of how big they were.
06:35The modern ones are about that thick at the trunk,
06:37and this is a stem of one of the huge ones back there.
06:40It's not a chunk, it's a branch.
06:42So that's actually coming out from the stem?
06:44Yes.
06:46Enormous!
06:48It's mind-blowing, and I've got you one more here,
06:50which is a section of bark from a coniferous tree,
06:53a sequoia, like the things you get in California,
06:55the world's tallest tree that you can drive cars through.
06:58Oh yes, well this is clearly bark,
07:00and you can see in there little fibres
07:02as though it's just been ripped off the tree.
07:04And if you actually hold it up to a sequoia tree
07:06like we have in Kew today, it's an identical match.
07:09So given that these trees have done so amazingly well
07:12and survived for millions and millions of years,
07:15does it mean that their future is guaranteed?
07:18Well, plants have an amazing resilience
07:20and adaptability to different environments.
07:21And they don't have these big mass extinction periods
07:24as you find in the faunal, the animal record.
07:27As they require very basic inputs,
07:29sunlight, water, various nutrients,
07:32they can exist for 200 million years unchanged.
07:35But the really sad irony is that in recent years,
07:38many of them have become extremely under threat.
07:41And why is that? Is that habitat loss?
07:44It's habitat loss. It's one of the key drivers.
07:46Competition from other plants is a major factor,
07:48but habitat loss is one of the key drivers.
07:51Habitat loss is the big one.
07:5370% of monkey puzzle trees burnt up in a fire in 2002.
07:5750% of all magnolias are critically endangered.
08:00The big driving force behind plant extinction in the world today
08:03is human-induced.
08:12Habitat loss and population growth
08:15are the greatest threats to the natural world.
08:18If we protect what still remains,
08:21there will be a better chance of survival
08:23for our plants and animals,
08:25the fossils of the future.
08:44Roughly half of us live in towns and cities.
08:47And amazingly,
08:48you can find evidence of prehistoric life
08:51and clues about evolution around every corner.
08:58Old Bond Street, here in central London,
09:01is famous for its glamour and its extravagance.
09:04Designer brands and precious jewels
09:07jostle for position in every shop window.
09:10Well, diamonds may be a girl's best friend,
09:13but I'm here today
09:15because of a very different sort of stone.
09:18If you look at the buildings themselves,
09:21rather than what's on sale,
09:23you'll find fossils everywhere.
09:33Fossils are simply any evidence of life
09:35which have been naturally preserved.
09:41Oysters and mussels like these
09:44are extremely common fossils in limestone,
09:47as are these beautiful snails.
09:53This lump of rock is a huge prehistoric seabed
09:57filled with millions of holes
09:59where various sea creatures have lived.
10:01It's known as Portland Roach,
10:04a builder's term for a type of fossilised limestone.
10:10When you begin to hunt for fossils in this way,
10:13you start to see building stones in a completely new light.
10:16And once you get your eye in
10:19and you appreciate that all these intricate shapes and patterns
10:22are actually evidence of ancient life,
10:25it can get quite addictive.
10:27I'm going to go and have a look.
10:28As you wander through the streets of London,
10:31it seems everywhere you look, you can find fossils.
10:37The architecture of the capital is like a time capsule,
10:42proof that prehistoric life is all around.
10:47The wisps and traces in stones
10:50are secrets of ancient life.
10:53It's a place where you can find
10:55the secrets of life.
10:57The wisps and traces in stones are secret lives,
11:00lost forever,
11:02yet still linking us with our ancient past today.
11:06Seeing our capital up close like this,
11:09you can really appreciate how much the geology of our country
11:12has been rooted into the very framework of our towns and cities.
11:16And you get the sense that you're experiencing history
11:19at two different levels.
11:21What was going on in the world when the building was built,
11:23but also how different that world would have been
11:27when the rocks that form its structure were created.
11:30But to get an overview of the city's prehistoric past,
11:34I think I need a slightly different perspective.
11:37And that means going up there.
11:43London's skyline has become a world-famous tourist attraction.
11:48Its architecture, its history, its landmarks.
11:51But what most visitors and residents may not know
11:55is that London used to be overrun with hippos.
12:01120,000 years ago, there was a lull in the Ice Age
12:06when northern Europe basked in a subtropical climate.
12:10Britain was much warmer back then,
12:13and incredibly, lions and rhinoceros roamed the capital.
12:17The hippopotamus in particular thrived in this climate.
12:22A population explosion meant they became
12:25the most abundant large animal in the country,
12:29venturing as far north as Yorkshire.
12:33In London, they grazed the banks of the Thames
12:37and kept it clear of woodland,
12:39making it a prime grazing spot for prehistoric deer and elephants
12:43and a prime hunting spot for hyenas, wolves and lions.
12:52Building work back in the 1950s around Trafalgar Square
12:57revealed the fossilised remains of a whole host of different animals.
13:01This is the tooth of a prehistoric elephant known as Palaeoloxodon.
13:08Now, most of the tooth would have been below the gum line,
13:10but these ridges were what it used to grind up its food.
13:15Now, this small bone is from the toe of a lion,
13:21and it would have been one of three bones found in each toe,
13:26and you can see where it would have fitted in.
13:29Now, this is my favourite. Have a look at this.
13:33This is the canine tooth of a hippo,
13:36and it would have protruded out of its lower jaw like this.
13:40And I just find it staggering that this was actually found in London.
13:44The hippos that lived here back then
13:47were exactly the same species of hippo that you find in Africa today,
13:51called Hippopotamus amphibious,
13:54and they could grow up to three and a half metres in length,
13:57and the males could weigh over three tonnes.
14:01Now, the canine teeth were used for fighting off predators
14:04as well as attacking each other,
14:05but the rest of their teeth were perfectly adapted to their herbivorous diet.
14:10Like the other large mammals, the hippos migrated here from southern Europe,
14:16and once here, they became isolated as sea levels rose and Britain became an island.
14:22But even today, paleontologists are not entirely sure
14:26what route they took to get here,
14:28or how they eventually disappeared from our shores.
14:35Even further back in time, over 65 million years ago,
14:40it was the dinosaurs that dominated our landscape.
14:44And here in south London, they are still an imposing presence.
14:48This was the world's first theme park,
14:51created at Crystal Palace Park in the mid-19th century
14:55by a scientist called Richard Owen.
14:58These are the physical embodiments of how the Victorians imagined dinosaurs to be.
15:03Life-size monsters you can still visit today.
15:09When these creatures were completed in 1854,
15:13Richard Owen thought that dinosaurs proved reptiles had once reached their highest form.
15:19He believed a divine being was responsible for all creations.
15:23It was to be a further five years before Charles Darwin's thesis on evolution was published.
15:28The origin of species met with huge resistance.
15:32Notions of natural selection and survival of the fittest
15:36were considered by some to be outrageous and blasphemous.
15:41Our knowledge of the natural world is constantly evolving, like life itself.
15:47We now know that the Victorians made errors in their analysis and structures of these creatures.
15:54This megalosaurus is possibly the most inaccurate of all the sculptures.
16:02Back then, they thought that such creatures crawled on all four legs.
16:07We now know they walked upright.
16:11Or look carefully at the iguanodon.
16:15It's also wrongly constructed to walk on all fours.
16:19It, too, walked on its hind legs.
16:21And we now know that the horn given to it by the Victorians was actually a thumb.
16:30Through time, our understanding of fossils continues to grow.
16:35Scientists and schoolchildren alike are fascinated by the link they offer to prehistoric times.
16:44One of the original fossil detectives of our age is the naturalist Sir James.
16:49One of the original fossil detectives of our age is the naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
16:54As a small boy, he used to spend days looking for fossils.
16:58It helped inspire his interest in the natural world.
17:03Sir David has built up an extraordinary collection of fossils over the years.
17:08Here at his home in London, he's selected a few highlights to share with us.
17:13David, what an array of goodies.
17:16Well, which would you like me to talk about?
17:19Tell me the stories behind these vines.
17:22Well, that, I mean, I don't think anybody could possibly guess what that was.
17:28It looks like a leaf, doesn't it?
17:30It does. I mean, I haven't got a clue what it is, I have to say.
17:34But almost a wing, if it's not a leaf.
17:38It is, in fact, nothing to do with that.
17:41It's a late Devonian fish.
17:44It was heavily armoured. It was a big creature.
17:46And the head, you know from the skulls, had these armoured plates on it, and that's one of them.
17:53And it comes from a place called Gogo, in the middle of Australia.
17:58And the site was discovered by a paleontologist from South Kensington, you see.
18:05And they went and they got these fantastic things, and wonderful new species, and dramatic fish.
18:12And, of course, the Australians were a bit put out, really.
18:16Where would that have been, back in the...
18:19Oh, that was in the 50s, I think.
18:21And I wanted to go there, and the Australian paleontologist who was in charge of it said,
18:26you don't want to go there, David.
18:28You blokes came in and you took all the good stuff, nothing there.
18:32And I said, I'd still like to go.
18:34Went in on a helicopter, and as the helicopter came down, the bar of the helicopter just landed like that, you see.
18:40So I got out of the cabin, and I picked that up, and I said, what's that?
18:46And he said, you bastard.
18:52But to his credit, he then said, OK, you can have it.
18:56So I've got it. So it's legal.
19:00And what else have we got?
19:02Well, you know what that is.
19:04Well, a disc, a vertebrae.
19:06A vertebrae, from, and you would know, of course you would.
19:08A very large animal.
19:10Yes, well, yes, there's only one.
19:12There's only one.
19:14I suppose it could be, I mean, as it were, size-wise, it's about the size of an elephant.
19:18No, it's bigger than an elephant.
19:20So what was it?
19:22It was a dinosaur, and we were in the Sahara, and I was making a film about fossils,
19:30and I thought, I think we ought to find our own dinosaur, you know.
19:33I mean, really.
19:35So we went into the Sahara, and there was a pile of these.
19:38I mean, like plates, drying up plates after dinner, you know.
19:43So can you describe what the animal would have looked like?
19:46Well, it would have been, let me get it the right way up.
19:50Well, it would have been more or less like this.
19:54It would be about 40 feet long, and weigh, I don't know, 20 tonnes, that sort of thing,
20:01with a long neck and a head which rises up, just a kind of brontosaurus-looking-like thing.
20:07Or as we call it today, Diplodocus, or Diplodocus, or however you like to pronounce it.
20:13It had very small, relatively small teeth, and it was a herbivore,
20:18and was preyed upon by some of the big carnivores.
20:22We hoped we were going to find a skull, and we never did.
20:26So we don't know exactly what it is, because without the skull, you can't be sure.
20:33It's wonderful, though. A giant sauropod.
20:36Yes, a giant sauropod, yes.
20:39To have that, to have found that, to have picked it up yourself.
20:42I just put it in the back of the Land Rover, really.
20:44No reason to want it particularly.
20:46Do you still get a thrill when you find fossils?
20:50Oh, huge, huge. Yeah, huge.
20:53I mean, that, that's from Britain.
21:00Help. I'm feeling very much on the spot.
21:04Are these worm casts?
21:06Yes, you're doing well.
21:08So if they're worm casts, what's this?
21:13A burrow? No.
21:15Trace fossil?
21:17Yes, it's a trace fossil. It's a track.
21:19So something is, and the track would have gone along, meandering along here.
21:24And these are perhaps marks where something's propelling itself forward?
21:28Gotcha. So?
21:30Not bad.
21:32Oh yes, eight out of ten. Go to the big one.
21:34Okay, okay, okay.
21:36Trilobite track?
21:38With star.
21:40Very good.
21:42And this bit, which was, of course, the bottom thing, and in fact, it's a cast.
21:46So actually, it's like that.
21:47Right.
21:49So that's a cast of what it is.
21:51The one thing that just completely amazes me about fossils is that we're just looking at
21:55fractions of creatures that have been dead for such a long time,
21:59or just evidence of them moving on the seabed,
22:02but they tell us so much about life.
22:04I mean, the antithesis of life is telling us so much about it.
22:08Absolutely.
22:10And I think that is stunning.
22:12And these seabed casts are very evocative, aren't they?
22:15You can see this thing chuntering about.
22:17You can really see. You can visualise it.
22:19Absolutely.
22:21Great.
22:31I'm not sure about this one.
22:33Is this perhaps what it sort of looks like?
22:36Well, I thought it was, if you don't mind.
22:39I should say a dropping.
22:41A dropping.
22:43I collected it as a boy and thought it was a dropping.
22:45But in fact, it's not.
22:47I mean, it's not even a fossil.
22:49Oh! Oh!
22:51So that's unfair, isn't it?
22:53But it's a marcosite nodule from the chalk.
22:56You know, this iron sulphide.
22:58So rather like you find a flint encased in chalk.
23:01Yes, that's right.
23:03Well, you get a lot of them in the East.
23:05And that's from Norfolk.
23:07And this is something you've kept from your fossil collecting trips as a boy?
23:10Oh, yeah.
23:12How much do you think fossils played a part in your career?
23:15You've gone on to achieve.
23:17Oh, I think I first got stirred romantically, as it were, by fossils.
23:24Probably even before animals.
23:26I mean, because just finding one, they're not as common as all that.
23:31And so when you're a child, you get used to the fact that there are black birds and blue tits around, you know.
23:38And you don't see foxes or hedgehogs very easily.
23:42But you can find fossils.
23:43You can find fossils.
23:45All your very own.
23:55Collecting is quite a valuable thing to do, actually.
23:59I think.
24:01Because it teaches you how to classify things.
24:03What the order of things are.
24:05What's related to which.
24:07And what's important.
24:09And is it important to put them all the same colour?
24:11No.
24:13Those are related.
24:15And so you begin to classify things.
24:17And that's the basis of natural history.
24:29One of the great things.
24:31One of the really lovely things to do.
24:33On an evening.
24:36Is to put some gentle music on the CD player.
24:41And put a thing like this under the microscope.
24:44Changing your focus.
24:46Exploring.
24:47Moving through a lump like that.
24:49Finding an ant.
24:51And maybe another ant close to it.
24:53And what the relationships were.
24:55And maybe a little fragment of plant material.
24:58Which could be a petal.
25:00Or something from a cone.
25:02And go back to the Miocene.
25:07Yeah.
25:08And that's a very relaxing, happy thing to do of an evening.
25:14If you could go back in time.
25:16To one period in the geological past.
25:19Would it be back to the Miocene?
25:21Where would you go?
25:23And what would you be looking for?
25:25Oh, I think you'd have to say.
25:27I suppose two things.
25:29I mean, one, it would be marvellous to see the first stirs of life, wouldn't it?
25:31Back to those Precambrian days.
25:33The Precambrian days.
25:34But I once did a series.
25:36In which I was going to start.
25:38With some of those early things.
25:40And I tried to sell it to an American.
25:42And he looked at me disbelievingly.
25:44And I said, the first program is going to be about the origin of life.
25:47And he said, you mean your first new show is about green slime?
25:54So there's something in what he said.
25:57Yeah.
25:59So apart from green slime.
26:01I think I'd want to go back.
26:02To the dinosaurs, wouldn't you?
26:04I think so.
26:06I mean, the largest things that have ever walked on our planet.
26:08Moving ponderously through the pine forests.
26:11Yeah, film it.
26:13Yes.
26:15To catch it and show it to people.
26:17I think you have spent your whole life going around the world.
26:19Seeing things that people couldn't hope to see.
26:21And showing them.
26:23Revealing them to millions of viewers.
26:25Why do you think it's so important to do that?
26:27Because we are part of the natural world.
26:29Because we are part of the natural world.
26:32We depend upon the natural world for the food we eat.
26:35For the very air we breathe.
26:37And unless we protect the natural world, we're going to be in real trouble.
26:42I mean, simply as a species on a selfish level, apart from anything else.
26:45And you can't protect the natural world unless you understand it.
26:50And apart from all that, if you really want solace.
26:53If you really want deep pleasure and joy.
26:56You find it in the natural world.
27:11Through fossils, even in our capital, we have a direct connection to lives long since gone.
27:18Fossils help us appreciate that science never stops evolving.
27:23Like the natural world itself.
27:27There's been life on Earth for almost four billion years.
27:32Fossilised remains of prehistoric life are solid memories of worlds long gone.
27:38And we can't forget that.
27:40Without fossils, many of our land's ancient secrets would remain unknown.
27:46Fossils unlock the mysteries of the past.
27:50And inspire the explorer in all of us.
28:10FOSSILS
28:14FOSSILS
28:16FOSSILS
28:18FOSSILS
28:20FOSSILS
28:22FOSSILS
28:24FOSSILS
28:26FOSSILS
28:28FOSSILS
28:30FOSSILS
28:32FOSSILS
28:34FOSSILS
28:36FOSSILS
28:38FOSSILS