"(EXCITED voices SPEAK DUTCH)" "It was in one of the galleries of St Peter's Mount, at about 500 paces from the main entry and at 90 feet below the surface, that the quarrymen exposed part of the skull of a large animal embedded in the stone." "They suspended their work to tell of their discovery to Dr Hoffmann, who had for some years been collecting fossils from the quarries." "Dr Hoffman, observing the specimen to be the most important that had yet been discovered, took every precaution to preserve it in one piece." "After having succeeded in removing a large block of stone surrounding it, and reducing the mass to a proper condition, it was transported to his home in triumph." "25 years later, after the occupation of Maastricht by the French Revolutionary Army... (speaking in FRENCH) You are here at last." "Please, gentlemen, take it." "..the famous fossil shows up one cold winter night at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris." "(speaking in FRENCH) Be careful, it's priceless." "This strange thing they called at the time "the unknown animal of Maastricht"" "started to raise interest among the scientific community." "(speaking in FRENCH) It's here!" "Let's go, let's go!" "Little bit more." "Put it on the table." "Be careful!" "Gentlemen, open this chest." "Yes let's open it." "Be very, very careful!" "Gentlemen, all together now." "(SPLlNTERlNG WOOD)" "What they discovered that night looked unlike any known living creature." "Some thought it was a crocodile." "Others believed it to be a whale." "Neither the shape of its teeth nor the size of the jaws helped them to determine its true identity." "It's too big for a crocodile." "A whale would be more appropriate." "Back then, that is 40 years before the discovery of the first dinosaur, nobody had ever thought that thousands of species could have lived and disappeared in a distant past." "(RAISED voices)" "But everything was about to change." "SEA REX:" "JOURNEY TO A PREHISTORIC WORLD" "(WOMAN) I'm sure marine dinosaurs still exist!" "My apologies for intruding upon your thoughts, mademoiselle, but, strictly speaking, only reptiles that walked on dry land are called "dinosaurs"." "If they lived under the water, they are called marine reptiles." "And they all disappeared a very, very long time ago." " What happened?" " You'll see, Julie." "(prehistoric BIRD CALL)" "65 million years ago reptiles ruled the world." "On land." "In the air." "And reptiles were kings in all the seas as well." "But then came a great cataclysm from outer space." "An asteroid 1 2 miles in diameter struck the Earth." "This asteroid's massive impact unleashed the power of more than 1 00 atomic bombs." "The sky went dark, and the Earth's climate changed drastically." "70 per cent of all life on the planet perished." "And, with the end of the dinosaurs, it was also the end of the reign of the reptile in the sea world." "And... when did you say that happened?" "65 million years ago." "So... then humans came right after that?" "Humans will come... a little later." "How much later?" "65 million years." "You're kidding." "Modern humans, like you and I, only appeared barely 200,000 years ago." "In comparison to the age of the Earth, that's a blink of the eye." "200,000 years?" "An instant, in geological time." "Somewhat difficult to comprehend, is it not?" "(SURPRISED LAUGH)" "Comparing thousands and millions and even billions of years." "Don't you agree?" "Um..." "Then follow me, Julie." "And when you want to stop time, say "stop"." " Stop?" " All right, then." "Forward to the past!" "Now, let's start slowly, from the beginning." "Earth forms four and a half billion years ago." "Then life appears but remains microscopic for three billion years." "In this time spiral, only the last turn interests us that leads to our time." "Let's consider this as a 1 2-hour clock." "540 million years ago, at 2 o'clock, the Primary Era begins." "Life grows and evolves in every environment." "At 7.30 the Secondary Era, or the Mesozoic, begins." "It is the age of reptiles." "Including the famous dinosaurs?" "Yes, as well as flying and marine reptiles." "The next and last era, the Cenozoic, is the age of mammals." "On this clock, Homo sapiens, our miniscule species, appears just eight seconds before 1 2." "The Mesozoic takes place between the two major ecological crises that led to the extinction of many species on Earth." "The largest at 7.30, and the last, right there, at 1 0.50." "That one caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and large marine reptiles." "(JULIE) But how did it start?" "Well, first, you'll need a microscope." "Life on Earth starts in the water, as bacteria, 3.5 billion years ago." "Slowly, this micro-life evolves." "Then, 650 million years ago, life becomes visible to the naked eye, soft-bodied organisms." "The following 400 million years bring with them an explosion of life." "New morphological forms appear, reaching considerable sizes." "And, finally, amphibians follow fish with feet to conquer terra firma." "300 million years ago, the first reptiles appear on land." "And in the sky, the wingspan of some insects reaches over three feet." "By the end of the Paleozoic, the land and the seas are bursting with life." "It is the golden age for biodiversity." "But this period ends with gigantic cataclysms, which exterminate up to 95% of the species, the largest extinction of all time." "95% of the species?" "But that's enormous!" "Nothing much must have remained after that!" "You're right, my dear." "And most of the world's great predators have disappeared." "But life persists." "And in the seas many fish and molluscs remain." "What about the marine reptiles?" "Their reign begins now." "Three different groups, one after the other, will rule the world's oceans." "First the lchthyosaurs, that use their tails to swim." " Like a fish?" " Much like a fish." "And then the Plesiosaurs, that use their four paddle-like limbs to fly through the water." "And next, the Mosasaurs, that use an undulating movement similar to... to a snake." "And these animals ruled the seas for 1 80 million years, throughout all three Mesozoic periods," "Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous." "From the early Triassic period onwards," "Ichthyosaurs are the kings of the seas." "During this time, above the water, all the continents on Earth are joined together in a single mass of land, a supercontinent called Pangea." "Off to the Pangean coast!" " Switzerland?" " Yes." "At this time, most of Europe is under water, a shallow and warm sea." "In the middle Triassic, it's hot and dry on land with little to eat." "In the sea, life flourishes again." "Several reptile species have returned to the marine environment, thriving on the plentiful food supply." "(ROARlNG)" "The Tanystropheus hold a world record." "In proportion to their bodies, they have the longest necks ever recorded." "With its flat teeth, this Placodont mostly eats seashells and molluscs." " Aren't those turtles?" " Not at all." "But they, too, have developed a tough armour to keep them relatively safe from the great predators of the Triassic, like... the Nothosaur." "Over 1 3 feet long." "Very dangerous, and an excellent swimmer." "But it has no chance of catching up with a Mixosaurus." " (JULlE) lt looks like a dolphin." " Except it's a reptile." "Like marine mammals today, it, too, must come to the surface to breathe." "It belongs to the large group of lchthyosaurs, which will rule the seas for some 1 50 million years!" "(JULIE) That one doesn't seem quite big enough to rule anything." "There are also some very large Ichthyosaurs, some measuring up to 75 feet long and weighing 50 tons!" "Like the Shonisaurus, the biggest of them all." "Wow!" "Like all lchthyosaurs, it lives in groups and mainly eats molluscs and small fish." "(JULIE) They look like dolphins and whales!" "That's right." "They're even born in a similar manner." "What do you mean?" "Well, let's hear from an expert, the palaeontologist Ryosuke Motani." "He has just finished studying some very fine specimens from a famous fossil site in Germany." "Many Ichthyosaur fossils have been found at Holzmaden with their bones intact and even with the imprint of their skin on the rock, which helped us to know the position of their fins." "Some Ichthyosaur fossils are so well preserved that we can actually see foetuses inside the mother's bodies, and some even being born." "Unable to get out of the water to lay their eggs like other reptiles," "Ichthyosaurs gave birth in the water." "The babies came out tail first, like dolphins today." "Another one of the lchthyosaur's characteristics are its huge eyes, protected by doughnut-shaped bones able to withstand extreme water pressure." "A Jurassic lchthyosaur, the Ophthalmosaurus, stands out in the animal kingdom as having the largest eyes in proportion to its body." "With these enormous eyes, it could make out its prey in the darkness of great depths." "Strangely enough, the Ichthyosaurs became extinct in the middle of the Cretaceous, despite their amazing adaptation to sea life." "(JULIE) But how can we know so much about species that became extinct 90 million years ago?" "Perhaps because of the large number and the quality of fossils left." "And, of course, thanks to those who discovered them." "Here we are in London, in one of the most beautiful galleries devoted to Mesozoic marine reptiles." "Nathalie Bardet is currently the French expert on these animals." "A long time before dinosaurs were discovered, the remains of marine reptiles had been known to fossil collectors." "Mary Anning." "In the early 1 9th century, she was a child when she started to collect fossils around her home along the Dorset coast in southern England." "During her lifetime, with an amazingly sharp eye, she found some of the most famous fossils, Ichthyosaur and Plesiosaur, exhibited here at the Natural History Museum of London." "One of the most complete Plesiosaur skeletons ever found was Rhomaleosaurus." "This Early Jurassic predator was a powerful swimmer." "(HlSSING)" "During the Jurassic period, a new group of marine reptiles takes over, the Plesiosaurs." "At the beginning of the Early Jurassic," "Pangea has started to break up and drift apart into different pieces." "It is still hot, but the climate is becoming much more humid." "Such conditions are perfectly suited to the development of life all over the world." "Now this sure seems more pleasant than the Triassic did." "The Jurassic is considered the golden age of dinosaurs, isn't it?" "In fact, it's the golden age of life in general, and even much more so for the reptiles, be they earth, flying or marine reptiles." "With their four strong paddles," "Plesiosaurs soon become the new kings of the seas." "The first dinosaur to be named is Megalosaurus, which means "great lizard" in Latin." "A well-deserved name for a 30-foot-long carnivore with a huge appetite." "Molluscs like ammonites and belemnites experience an unprecedented growth and are on the menu of most marine predators." "By the Late Jurassic, some animals reach record sizes, like the Brachiosaurus, over 1 00 feet long and can weigh more than six elephants." "Godzilla." "That is the nickname given to this large marine crocodile discovered in the Andes." "With large, bony plates on its back, the Stegosaurus, a three-ton plant-eater, is a contemporary of the very first birds." "At the end of the Jurassic period, as the continents continue to drift, new oceans appear and new Plesiosaur species rule the deep." "The Liopleurodon is most likely one of the largest ocean predators of the Mesozoic, measuring 49 feet or more." "That big?" "Here." "This is one of its teeth." "It's for you." "Thank you!" "You see, the Liopleurodon had no reason to fear any creature, save perhaps another Liopleurodon." "Here is a pair of Liopleurodon." "The male is attempting to court the female." "Look at her - 50 feet of sheer muscle, four deadly paddle-like limbs, and jaws about ten feet long that hold teeth even bigger than the one I gave you." "During this process, the male makes himself extremely vulnerable to the female." "(JULIE) lt seems to have worked." "Now that she's chosen him as her partner, the pair needs to head to the safer coastal waters to reproduce." "Like sharks, the male Liopleurodon holds on to the female while mating." "Their young will be born in a few months." "(JULIE) What happened?" "It seems that upon separating she has accidentally injured his eye." "The pain has made him lose consciousness for a while." "In the end, though, the Liopleurodon remains a superpredator that lives alone." "At the end of the Jurassic Era, its territory spanned from Europe to South America." "Here we are with Zulma Gasparini, who discovered the marine crocodile nicknamed "Godzilla" in the Andes." "People believed for a long time that the world had always been the same as it is now." "And it was only in 1 91 5 that Alfred Wegener, a young German scientist, put forward a revolutionary theory he called the "continental drift"." "Among the solid arguments that Wegener used to support his theory, a tiny marine reptile that lived 250 million years ago, the Mesosaurus, was to become unexpectedly important." "Indeed we have found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean identical fossils of this animal." "But considering the small size of the Mesosaurus, like the one we have here in this virtual aquarium, it is obvious they were much too small to cross an ocean as vast as the Atlantic on their own." "The conclusion is inescapable:" "if they did not cross the ocean, then the very continents that contained their fossils must have separated." "(SCREECHlNG)" "The Jurassic was the age of giant animals." "The Leedsichthys is approximately 1 00 feet long, probably the largest fish of all time." "What are these long-necked Plesiosaurs called?" "Those are Elasmosaurs." "They're gulping down gastroliths, stones they swallow in order to help their digestion." " What do they actually eat?" " Molluscs and a lot of fish, judging from their long, sharp teeth." "I believe that's the male Liopleurodon that was wounded some time back." "(JULIE) Oh, yes." "With one eye missing, it's not easy." "From the deep bite marks on Elasmosaur bones made by larger relatives, it would appear that other Liopleurodon were luckier." "30 million years later, Kronosaurus took Liopleurodons' place at the top of the marine food chain." "Kronosaurus remains were first discovered in Australia during the 1 930s." "A 1 3-foot-long skull with 1 0-foot jaws, armed with dagger-like teeth." "To tell us more about Plesiosaurs, here's Dr Benjamin Kear, an Australian expert on these animals." "Marine reptiles' remains have been found on every continent, particularly those of Plesiosaurs." "Up to 46 feet in length, they were magnificent ocean-dwelling reptiles that flew gracefully through the water with four massive paddles." "The order Plesiosauria was large and varied." "It has been broadly divided into two superfamilies, based on their overall body structure." "Some of them, thanks to their large heads and powerful, short necks, were the superpredators of their time, like Kronosaurus." "Others were the complete opposite, with tiny heads at the end of extra-long necks, such as Elasmosaurus." "Plesiosaurs lasted as long as the dinosaurs, until the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago." "The Late Cretaceous is the very last period of the Mesozoic Era, and it is the age of Mosasaurs." "The land masses of the Earth have nearly reached their present positions." "The interior seas of the Americas retreat but Europe is still partly covered by shallow waters." "(JULIE) And what about the climate?" "Very comparable to the climate of today, but warmer." "A beautiful day for a dip in the Cretaceous ocean, don't you think?" "As has been the case for millions of years, molluscs are still a favorite meal for most predators." "So, the Plesiosaurs are still around in the Cretaceous?" "Indeed, there are some." "But they are no longer at the top of the ocean's food chain, a place now disputed by the two greatest predators of this era." "In this corner, the largest fish of the Cretaceous, a 23-foot-long shark." "And in this corner, the most powerful marine reptile, the Prognathodon, a 40-foot Mosasaur." "(JULIE) lt looks just like a great white of today!" "Indeed, just larger." "(JULIE) But the shark is never going to measure up to that!" "We can't be too sure." "You see, it has a distinct edge over its opponent." "The shark doesn't need to come up to the surface to breathe, so..." "Oh, well." "(JULIE) I told you the Mosasaur was going to win." "This time, yes." "But it wasn't always the case." "We've even found shark teeth embedded in Mosasaur bones." "So the sharks did get their teeth into them from time to time." "By the way, wasn't it a Mosasaur that was found in a mine back in the 1 8th century?" "Here we are, very close to the mine where the famous "unknown animal of Maastricht" was found around 1 770." "Like all palaeontologists, Olivier Rieppel knows this story very well." "In 1 795, when the fossilised Mosasaur of Maastricht arrived in Paris," "Georges Cuvier was a young, 26-year-old anatomist, who had just started working there at the Museum of Natural History." "This skull was the first great fossil ever to be thoroughly studied by scientists, who found it quite difficult to classify this creature." "But it was Georges Cuvier who would provide the solution based on comparative anatomy." "The reptile from the Meuse River, the Mosasaur, was a giant sea lizard, a close relative of the monitor lizards." "But this species became completely extinct before the dawn of time." "And so the Mosasaur helped to support Cuvier's hypothesis that several universal cataclysms occurred on Earth in the distant past." "And thanks in part to this large animal," "Georges Cuvier is recognised today as the father of palaeontology." "At the end of the Cretaceous, the interior seaway running through the middle of North America had not yet completely disappeared." "So, there are sharks on the other side of the Atlantic as well?" "In addition to marine reptiles, they are found in all the oceans." "Contrary to dinosaurs, marine animals don't have any borders." "These are young, 1 3-foot-long sharks." "After hours of laying her eggs on the beach, this turtle is exhausted." "(JULIE) Easy prey for starving sharks." "Ah, but they are not alone." "(JULIE) A Mosasaur." "This large predator truly is the marine equivalent of the famous T. rex." "The Mosasaur will become the last ruler of the ancient seas." "(GEORGES CUVIER) This is one of its teeth." "It's for you." ""Without fossils, no one would have ever dreamed" ""that there were successive epochs in the formation of the earth.""