Nature: Season 37, Episode 7

37 - 7: Attenborough And The Sea Dragon

A remarkable chance discovery is about to reveal secrets that have laid hidden for 200 million years. A super predator that ruled the ocean at the time of the dinosaurs was found in a crumbling cliff face. It’s an Ichthyosaur, a fish lizard. Older than dinosaurs, these fearsome predators had the very best characteristics of reptiles and mammals in one formidable package. They could regulate their own body temperature, had astonishingly acute eyesight, and combined speed, sensitive “prey-detecting” organs and an impressive set of teeth to hunt successfully. Sir David Attenborough hosts this detective story, from the challenging onsite extraction of the fossils to the 3D reconstruction of the creature. He looks at evidence from animals across the world to try and piece together how this “sea dragon” lived.