Attenborough and the giant dinosaur

The story of the discovery of the largest dinosaur ever found.

On Sunday, January 24th, Sir David Attenborough, one of the worldwide most recognized dissemination broadcaster, will be presenting the story of the discovery and reconstruction of the largest dinosaur ever: a new species of titanosaur, found in Patagonia, Argentina.

In 2011, in La Flecha farm, Chubut Province, a shepherd s potted the tip of a gigantic fossil bone sticking out of a rock. W hen this news reached the MEF paleontologists, they organized a field trip to go and check what this was about. As soon as they started working, they found themselves facing a 2.4mt (7.87 ft) long femur, the longest found in the world that far. At the end of the excavation works, they had unearth more than 220 bones that belonged to seven individuals of a new species of a giant herbivore dinosaur, whose name is still to be published. This dinosaur, 40mt (131.2 ft) long and 20m (65.62ft) high, lived 101.6 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous, and weighed an estimated of 70 tons.

This extraordinary founding caught the attention of BBC One team, which documented the paleontological works developed in Chubut for two years, from the discovery of the fossil bones in the field to the assemblage of a complete replica of the skeleton, including the original fossils´ conditioning work at MEF’s laboratories and the scientific research conducted by Paleontologists.

Through digital graphic art work, the documentary shows a virtual recreation that reveals what scientists think about the appearance and internal functioning of this dinosaur.

For more information about the finding and the reconstruction of the titanosaur, click HERE