Chris Packham goes on an investigative journey into the mysteries of planet Earth's super predator - Tyrannosaurus rex. The latest groundbreaking paleontological discoveries combined with studies of modern animals are redefining this iconic dinosaur. Tackling everything from the way he looked, moved, socialized - even down to his terrifying roar - Chris strips away Hollywood myths to uncover the amazing truth, and utilizing the latest CGI wizardry, he rebuilds the most authentic T rex ever seen from the bones up.
Our strange rock itself can also be lethal. We tend to think of Earth as our life support but it's not there to support us at all. It's a place that's violent, that's beautiful, that's crazy, that's intense. Mother Nature is a serial killer. We wouldn't be here without mass suicide and events so devastating it makes the extinction of the dinosaurs looks like a tea party. There have been 5 mass extinctions on the planet and 99.9 percent of all species that have ever lived are gone. Explore the story of how life on Earth has evolved, becoming lethal for life to thrive.
Huge asteroids have smashed into the earth, and turned it into an enveloped fire, uninhabitable to almost all life on the surface. The world will get hit again. It's just a matter of when. So, what should we do as a species? Should we just, like the dinosaurs, look up and die? The reasons the dinosaurs are extinct is they didn't have a space program. We do. We have the capability to perhaps escape the Earth. Astronaut Chris Hadfield believes the only chance for human survival is to escape from Earth and build a space colony, but there are real barriers.
Experts suspect that the dinosaurs were wiped out after a city-sized asteroid smashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing a huge crater. But until now, they haven't had any proof. In a world first, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod joins a multi-million pound drilling expedition into the exact spot the asteroid hit to get hard evidence of the link. The team overcomes huge obstacles as it attempts to drill 1,500 metres beneath sea level to pull up rock from the Chicxulub crater. Meanwhile, paleopathologist Professor Alice Roberts travels the globe meeting top scientists and gaining exclusive access to a mass fossil graveyard in New Jersey - believed to date from the same time the asteroid hit. Alice also treks by horseback across the remote plains of Patagonia, to see if the effects of the asteroid impact could have wiped out dinosaurs across the world - almost immediately.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex is known as the king of the dinosaurs, but how did its reign begin? Meet Moros Intrepidus, a 180 lb., deer-sized ancestor to the T-Rex. Learn how the latest in palaeontology can now link this small dinosaur to the 19,000-pound Scotty, the largest T-Rex ever discovered. We're filling in gaps in the history of well-known dinosaurs and we're finding specimens of even the most famous dinosaur that are telling us new things about their biology, about their growth, about their size, that we didn't know before. We are nowhere at the end of learning about dinosaurs and in generations to come, we will be knowing things about the lives of these ancient creatures that would probably blow our minds.
Tackling everything from the way he looked, moved, socialized - even down to his terrifying roar - Chris strips away Hollywood myths to uncover the amazing truth, and utilizing the latest CGI wizardry, he rebuilds the most authentic T rex ever seen from the bones up.