Swimming with pliosaurs
Discover the science behind 'Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster'
On New Year’s Day Sir David Attenborough returned to our screens with a deep dive into ancient seas, with ‘Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster’.
The documentary will explore the discovery and analysis of the skull of a pliosaur, a gigantic marine reptile that lived around 150 million years ago. This skull, found in Dorset, is a rare find, not only because it is intact, but because this is believed to be a new species within the pliosaur family. A member of the plesiosaur family, the pliosaur is characterised by its four fins, short neck and large head.
In recognition of the expertise in the University’s world leading Palaeobiology Research Group, the BBC team called on researchers from the School of Earth Sciences to assist with the recreation and understanding of what this ‘T. rex of the ocean’ would have been like when it was alive, including its size and feeding habits.
The skull will be on display from 2 January 2024 at The Etches Collection Museum of Jurassic Marine Life. Bristol's Professor Emily Rayfield and her team, the University of Southampton, and Imperial College London have all assisted in the analysis of the skull.
Hear the full story of the pliosaur on BBC One or iPlayer from 1 January, as Sir David joins our team of experts in the School of Anatomy.
The pliosaur roamed our oceans 150 million years ago
Watch Professor Emily Rayfield meet Sir David Attenborough in this clip from the BBC's 'Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster'
Uncovering the pliosaur, with Professor Emily Rayfield
Bristol has an extensive history of expertise in palaeontology, including world-leading facilities . A model of an earlier species, the Pliosaurus carpenteri, discovered in Westbury in 1994 and excavated by a team from the University and Bristol Museums, is on display in the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
When the pliosaur fossil was discovered, Professor Rayfield and her colleagues were the perfect team to assist in analysing the skull.
Head of the Rayfield Lab, which specialises in the evolution of the skull and its relation to feeding behaviour in dinosaurs, birds, crocodiles and mammals, Professor Rayfield's expertise is in functional morphology, and using biomechanical analysis to determine the function of skeletons.
A leading academic in her field, she's the 'go-to' name for questions on the evolution of the skull, feeding behaviour in ancient mammals, and calculating bite force: the power an animal would have been able to exert with its jaws.
Classifying the pliosaur, with Dr Judyth Sassoon
The announcement that a new Pliosaur skull had been discovered came on 13 December 2023, exactly two hundred years after palaeontologist Mary Anning found the first complete plesiosaur fossil.
The pliosaur is important in the British fossil record. The first scientifically studied specimens came from the British Kimmeridgian Clay, the same geological formation that yielded the new pliosaur.
Pliosaurs fossils have now been discovered around the world and as each new specimen emerges, our understanding of the pliosaurs anatomy and classification must be revised.
Since Anning's initial discovery, generations of palaeontologists have worked to classify the pliosaur and grow our understanding of the species.
The next link in that chain, Dr Judyth Sassoon is working on the formal description and classification for the 'Etches skull'.
Dr Sassoon's continued work will increase our knowledge of pliosaur taxonomy, diversity and evolution.
The Jurassic Coast
The Jurassic Coast
"The Etches pliosaur is one of the most informative and best-preserved specimens worldwide"
The skull is nearly two meters long; our academics estimate the pliosaur would have been eight to nine meters in length overall.
Pliosaurs had crocodile-like heads and large, razor-sharp teeth which indicate a carnivorous diet.
The bite force of the pliosaur is between 27000 and 33000 newtons.
Andre Rowe meets Sir David Attenborough in the School of Anatomy
Andre Rowe meets Sir David Attenborough
"Bristol is one of the best universities in the world for palaeontology. The opportunity to work with Emily is what drew me here"
Reconstructing the pliosaur, with Andre Rowe
The newly discovered skull of the pliosaur is too large to be scanned in a traditional CT scanner. Enter Dr Andre Rowe, a postdoctoral researcher who specialises in 3D modelling.
Using the 'ARTEC space spider' 3D scanner, Dr Rowe mapped the skull which made it possible for computer models of the pliosaur to be produced. These computer models allow us to better understand the anatomy of the pliosaur.
Rowe has previously worked extensively on the T. Rex, a comparable species to the pliosaur in terms of strength and hierarchy in the food chain. He suggests that, much like the T. Rex, an adult pliosaur would not have had any natural predators.
The scans and models he made of the skull are key to our understanding of the sea monster. Using the computer models, the team working on the pliosaur could deduce the bite force and approximate size of the species.
Potentially up to twelve meters long, with an incredibly powerful jaw, the Etches pliosaur would have been an apex predator, potentially even preying on smaller pliosaurs.
Modelling Pliosaur teeth, with Dr Tahlia Pollock
A n expert in tooth morphology and biomechanics, when it came to modelling the teeth of the Pliosaur there was only one person for the job.
Dr Tahlia Pollock specialises in carnivores, and is works with models of teeth to simulate the bite of extinct animals.
The amazing range of software and gadgets available in the University of Bristol's Palaeontology department have afforded her the opportunity to carry out a wide range of experiments in her research.
Dr Pollock assisted with the creation of models of the plisoaur's teeth, which were used to carry out a series of experiments you'll see in the documentary. Using a resin cast pliosaur tooth, Sir David drove the tooth through a special gel to discover how the reptile would have damaged its prey.
This work enables us to learn more about the tooth morphology of the pliosaur and what its prey might have been.
Sir David Attenborough in the Vesalius Clinical Training Centre
Sir David Attenborough in the Vesalius Clinical Training Centre
"Bristol is the best palaeontology department to be in; there's so much we can do"
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Tune into BBC One or BBC iPlayer to see the work of our academics in 'Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster'
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