"This is our galaxy, the Milky Way." "Our sun takes 225 million years to go around the galaxy once" "The dinosaur era lasted 180 million years." "So if one rotation of the galaxy is one hour, the earth is 20 hours old, dinosaurs have lived for 48 minutes, and us 48 seconds." "This is a comet." "It's all ice and rock." "Its 10 miles wide, and it's headed for the earth ...fast." "But this isn't the earth that we know, not really." "This is 65 million years ago, and we're in South America, long before the dawn of man." "At this time the masters of the earth are dinosaurs." "This is Patagonia." "A vast region of Argentinean South America as it is today." "The oldest known dinosaur is from Argentina." "Dinosaurs have rapidly spread throughout the whole planet," "Partly because 250 million years ago, all the land on earth was connected as one colossal super continent, the Pangaea." "And there was only one immense ocean," "Panthalassa." "We are north of the South American plate, in the sea that will grow to be the Atlantic Ocean." "Dinosaurs only existed on land." "The large ocean creatures of that time were marine reptiles." "These creatures are not dolphins." "They are Ichthyosaurus 160 million years ago." "Some species of Ichthyosaurus grew up to 75 ft." "One prey's predator is almost always another predator's prey, until you reach the top of the food chain, where you will find this monster ruling alone." "Liopleurodon." "This one is 60 feet long, but an isolated find points to a specimen reaching 80 feet." "Extreme forms of life also appeared on land during the dinosaur era." "Erosion and geological forces have revealed that South America saw the evolution of exceptional dinosaurs." "In many places there, one walks today on the very ground these giants walked upon a 100 million years ago." "Patagonia in particular, offers us some of the most amazing discoveries in the history of palaeontology, the science of ancient life." "This phenomenon seems to depend on another peculiar twist of evolution." "Regions that produce great dinosaurs also tend to produce great palaeontologists." "This is Professor Rodolfo Coria, world-renowned palaeontologist, and director of the Carmen Funes Museum in Plaza Huincul, a small town of the Neuquen Province in Argentinean Patagonia." "The museum I work for, is very active." "Many doctoral students come to pursue their research." "Sometimes younger people, like my daughter Ludmila, just come to satisfy their curiosity." "I love talking about dinosaurs with everyone, whether they are experts or not." "It's a busy life, and it would have been plenty for most people, but early in my career new horizons opened up for me." "Things became much larger than life." "A Rancher had stumbled upon a surprisingly large bone." "My mentor, the great Argentinean palaeontologist Dr. Jose Bonaparte, immediately saw that this bone surpassed all the dinosaur bones he had seen in his career." "After several digging seasons we ended up facing the largest dinosaur ever found." "It was one of those so familiar long neck, four-legged herbivores." "We named it Argentinosaurus" "This discovery have a profound effect, on the way we look at South American dinosaurs." "On a personal level, it took a big place in my life to say the least." "The Earth will never see a bigger creature on land," "yet it starts its life in eggs just a little bigger than grapefruit." "Scientists believe that female Argentinosaurus like all Titanosaurus, a class of four legged, long-necked dinosaur left their eggs to their fate as soon as they were laid, relying on the large number of the survival of their species" "This baby Argentinosaurus, let's call him "Strong One", will grow up to be as big as a herd of 14 elephants," "120 feet long, longer than a blue whale, the largest animal living today" "If he lives long enough." "Predators and hazards abound." "Only a few will reach adulthood." "Actually one of the most important discovery has been associated with is an extremely large nesting ground." "It helped us to learn a lot about the reproductive behaviour of the dinosaurs" "This site is known as Auca Mahuevo." "It covers more than 15 miles and it is approximately 80 million years old." "We believe that it was chosen as a nesting site by generation upon generation of these dinosaurs." "The nests are so close together, that the females could not walk between them." "We think that they lay their eggs on the edge of the site and just walked away." "The earth of the Dinosaur is familiar, yet different." "It was warmer than today." "Deserts were wide-spread." "A great part of the dinosaur era, there were no broad leaf trees and no flower bearing plants." "During the dinosaur era there is no Arctic ice caps, and Antarctica is sub-tropical." "For tens of millions of years seasons barely changed." "The water of the ocean is also much warmer." "Hurricanes are frequent." "The Magnetic poles changes position continuously." "Many times a modern compass would have pointed east, west or south." "When dinosaurs appeared, the nearby stars were in radically different positions, the moon is closer, and the tides are more amplitude." "The Earth spins faster and thus a year has 385 days." "Professor Coria has contributed to the discovery of more than a dozen of new dinosaurs." "As a scientist, he insists that each new find is important, no matter how big or small." "The journey to discovery is there is a reward into him as the discovery itself." "And sometimes he says what plays the biggest part is simply not in our hands." "I like to think that I am lucky, just incredibly lucky." "Lucky to work in Patagonia, and lucky to have been there at the right time with the right knowledge." "Many paleontological discoveries are not made by professionals." "That's what happened with the Argentinosaurus, and it happened again with yet another dinosaur." "Dr. Leonardo Salgado is a smart colleague and friend of mine." "He and I were notified of the presence of fossil bones not far from my museum." "We organized a field expedition and started to dig up more bones." "They were relatively big, so at first, we thought that they belonged to a herbivore, because in general these dinosaurs tend to be larger." "But instead, the bones proved to be those of a predator;" "a very large one." "Professor Coria's team had unveiled a first species of a group of fierce predators called Giganotosaurus." "The first Giganotosaurus appeared 100 million years ago." "The 3 species in this group surpassed the famous T. Rex in terms of size." "Although rare for reptiles, caring for the young has be observed among crocodiles for instance." "In dinosaurs, this caring behaviour evolve enough to remind us of birds." "This baby female is named Long Tooth." "However small and vulnerable, and cute she may appear now she is genetically programmed to rapidly become a 45 foot long, eight tonne predator like her mother." "In Patagonia, you have the largest herbivore and the largest predator, living at roughly the same period and in the same territory." "This clearly brings us the question," "Why did this happen that way in that place?" "It is a question, I've heard countless times." "And as a matter of fact I keep asking myself the same question." "There is no easy answer." "It could be because 120 million years ago" "South America, separated from Africa and became an isolated world." "Evolution followed a number of particular paths." "However, it's more complex than that." "A dry climate with colder nights could have favoured animals that retain their internal heat to better because of their larger mass." "But a simpler interpretation rest on a warm climate and the fertile land, with all the vegetation you can eat." "Yet another theory tells us that large herbivores had to grow big enough, to accommodate a large stomach required to digest high in fibre, low in protein vegetation." "Finally, large spans of flat space could have led naturally to Argentinosaurus, as the vast seas have led to whales." "Size has its advantages." "The highest branches belong to those who can reach them, and many predators are too small to be threatening in those situation." "Strong One is now about ten years old." "He has reached the length of 60 feet, half its adult size." "Rapid growth will give him the protection of size early in life." "If a single Argentinosaurus is hard to attack, a herd of Argentinosaurus is even more so." "And such a herd have to move constantly, because it eats a lot, and have to find new or regrown food sources." "Long Tooth has reached a quarter of her adult size." "She is growing fast too." "Her primitive feathers have almost all disappeared." "She has been feeding on just about any small animal and even some vegetation during the first part of her life." "Her genes will eventually command her to eat only meat." "The dinosaurs couldn't learn much, but they had the brains they need." "They thrived for 180 million years." "So it's likely their brain didn't need to be that large to adapt to survive." "This is a message for us here." "By the way, it is more than time to introduce Sharp Feathers." "He is Unenlagia, a 6 foot, 50 pound male raptor." "He is related to birds, as are to some extent Velociraptors, Giganotosaurus and Tyrannosaurus." "Unenlagias had feathers, but didn't fly." "Big dinosaurs need space." "This is the Carmen Funes Museum, which also happens to be my second home." "We still know so little about dinosaurs." "Palaeontology is just beginning to discover the universe." "Sometimes as a joke we say that it is a science filled with holes." "We have only found about 700 species of dinosaurs on the whole planet." "This isn't many for a reign that lasted 180 million years." "Ten percent of these dinosaurs were found in Argentina, most of them in the last 30 years." "Through technology our knowledge grows faster every day." "But dinosaurs are only found by people who are working there." "Fossilisation is a process that requires extremely rare conditions, and even then very little of an organism is preserved." "We could easily conclude that a tremendous number of species just disappeared without a trace." "Because there is so much is missing, your imagination can really run wild." "Of course, science fiction can be fun, but you also need to be very careful before proposing a new way of looking at dinosaurs." "Like so many of my colleagues," "I wish I could travel in time to see these amazing creatures alive." "Strong One has reached maturity." "For many scientists he is at full size." "He is 20-year-old, and is at the beginning of more than a century of life." "Other scientists believe that he will keep on growing all of his live, at a much slower pace than in his earlier years." "Argentinosaurus were 12 times more massive than their biggest predator." "They were almost invincible." "Here in El Chocon 100 million years ago, the normally fleeting footprints of a few dinosaurs have become eternal through fossilisation." "These traces speak abundantly about the creatures that left them." "They give us details about speed and size." "They tell us, if the animal was walking on two legs or four, if they were alone or in a group, if they were wandering, hunting, or being hunted" "Dinosaur footprints have found on all continents, but the trackway layout in El Chocon is invaluable." "The pattern clearly show association between contemporary species, and this is very rare." "The discovery of the Giganotosaurus has given Rodolfo Coria his world class reputation in palaeontology." "His passion for his work remains undiminished, despite his being most of the time very demanding." "His work is intimately linked to nature, its intimately varied terrain and ever changing climate." "So there were hardships, but there are moments, sometimes when science just blend with the pure bliss of being outside and wonderful places." "Years in the field have taught me an essential lesson." "After all this time dealing simultaneously with the live of the ancient past and that of the present time, all life have become meaningful to me." "My scientific work have shaped my whole way of thinking." "This is prospecting at its simplest." "You just look around." "But finding required a trained eye." "With time you realise that the number of questions grows faster than the number of answers." "Patience and perseverance are mandatory virtues." "They help with a specially puzzling enigma." "For instance, we wondered whether theropod, such as Giganotosaurus, hunted alone or in packs." "Again, like many times before," "A good hint and an answer came unexpectedly." "We found a new species in a group of Giganotosaurus." "In fact, we didn't find just one specimen but a chamber of bones belonging to at least seven individuals." "For me, and my Canadian colleague Phil Curry this was pointing at something we had considered, but have no evidence for until then." "Large meat eating dinosaurs, such as Giganotosaurus, could hunt in packs." "So long truth belongs to this new species of Giganotosaurus." "She is to be precise, a Mapusaurus." "And at 22 years of age, she is fully grown." "Strong One is unknowingly in a critical time." "As an adult Argentinosaurus he has no predator to fear, unless he is too old, or sick or wounded." "Despite their numbers and their powerful jaws, the Giganotosaurus can't bring down such a giant." "Tearing off pieces of skin and letting the large prey bleed to death, or die from infection is a strategy more likely to succeed." "Giganotosaurus could wait days even weeks between meals." "But this time, they won't have to." "65 million years ago" "Time flies." "Millions of years pass, and as the continents keep on drifting, the earth begins to resemble more what it is today." "Species emerge, evolve, disappear." "Nature never stops changing." "We are in North America." "Flying reptiles reach their apogee with the Quetzalcoatlus, the pterosaur as wide as a small plane." "No flying bird will ever get as big, not even close." "Apart from flight, this reptiles has nothing in common with birds" "And evolution gave it nothing to survive the impending dramatic events." "Several factors could have contributed to the demise of dinosaurs." "Mammals became bigger and more competitive." "Drifting isolated continents touched each other." "New rivalries appeared." "New diseases spread." "The climate was growing colder, possibly because of increased volcanic activity." "Five million years before the end of the dinosaur era, the volcanoes of the world became much more active." "The air was unbreathable in many places." "Vegetation suffered from the acid rain and also from the darkened and dust-filled skies." "But still, many dinosaurs made it through for a little while longer." "This comet is as big as Mount Everest." "It covers the distance from the moon to the Earth in two hours." "It cuts through our atmosphere in two seconds." "It hit the earth near today's Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico." "All the forest of North and South America are destroyed by fire." "Already weakened, dinosaurs are the animals that suffered most." "If they don't die as a result of the impact and its immediate consequences, they will die gradually in the aftermath." "In a relatively short time, dinosaurs become history." "Or did they?" "Not all the dinosaurs disappear." "Birds are dinosaurs." "It's difficult to imagine how mammals could have evolved alongside large dinosaurs." "If they haven't become extinct maybe we just wouldn't be here." "Instead, when we look at birds of today it's as if the dinosaurs have left us only the grace and beauty." "Palaeontology takes me fantastic places all over the planet." "Still it keeps bringing me back to my roots, here in Patagonia." "More discoveries await me here perhaps but as I move forward in life," "I find as much meaning in sharing knowledge as in discovering new dinosaurs." "This said, I'm not that old."