Bill Hicks - Days that Shook the World TV - Natural History Museum: World of Wonder TV - Brian Cox TV - Horizon TV - David Attenborough TV - Beautiful Minds TV - Richard Dawkins - Carl Sagan - Alan Yentob TV - Planet Dinosaur TV - Richard E Leakey - Baron George Cuvier - Bill Bryson - Michael Shermer – Tom Holland TV - Secrets of the Underground TV - Tony Robinson TV - Dinosaur Wars TV -
Fundamentalist Christianity – fascinating. These people actually believe the world is 12,000 years old ... I got one word to ask you, one word question, ready? Dinosaurs. Bill Hicks, Revelations, Dominion Theatre London
He says, Dinosaur fossils? God put those here to test our faith ... I think God put you here to test my faith, dude. ibid.
Sussex ... [Gideon] Mantell is convinced he has in his possession a set of fossils that will not only transform man’s understanding of the prehistoric world but will secure his reputation as England’s greatest amateur geologist. Days that Shook the World s2e7: Dinosaurs and Duplicity, BBC 2004
The common belief is they are the remains of animals drowned in Noah’s flood. ibid.
By May 1822 Mantell felt confident enough to present his work in a book on the geology of Sussex. ibid.
But a chance discovery by Mary [Mantell] that was the turn the world of natural science on its head ... It appeared to the fragment of some sort of giant tooth. ibid.
Mantell – the first man in the world to discover a plant-eating dinosaur. ibid.
1953 ... Scientists are about to expose the most audacious fraud in the history of archaeology ... In November 1912 a startling discovery was announced of the remains of what was claimed to be the earliest known human being. The finds were made in a gravel pit in the village of Piltdown in Sussex. ibid.
Since the 1950s several of Charles Dawson’s earlier archaeological finds have also been re-examined and proven to be forgeries. ibid.
The most daring fraud in the history of science. ibid.
The most prized fossil in the entire museum: ‘This is Archaeopteryx. It’s probably the most important fossil of a dinosaur that there is anywhere in the world …’ At 147 million years old this bird-like dinosaur is so highly valued because it was the first fossil to reveal that every species of bird alive today evolved from dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx was discovered in Germany in 1861 and has been at the museum for over 150 years. Natural History Museum: World of Wonder s1e1, Channel 5 2021
We have even found fossils at the top of Mount Everest. Brian Cox, Wonders of the Universe 2/4, BBC 2011
The Natural History Museum, London: within these hallowed halls lies the fossil that first hinted of the origin of birds. Discovered in Germany a hundred years ago superstitious quarry workers thought it was a fallen angel. Archaeopteryx turned out to be something almost as remarkable. Horizon: Dinosaurs in Your Garden, BBC 1998
Fossil magnetism also helped solved the problem of continental drift. Horizon: Message in the Rocks, BBC 1979
Patagonia, Argentina: this is dinosaur country. A land where the rocks are rich with fossils ... New finds here in South America are revolutionising our picture of the prehistoric world. It now seems that in the time of the dinosaurs Patagonia may have been the scene of the bloodiest battle in the history of life. Horizon: Extreme Dinosaurs: The Science of Giants, BBC 2000
This place was once home to the most extreme dinosaurs the world has ever seen. ibid.
The first giant carnivore ever discovered in South America: they called it the Giganotosaurus. ibid.
Giganotosaurus had a skull the length of a man .... Giganotosaurus lived in the Cretaceous, the time of the Giant Long Neck. ibid.
The fossilised remains of hundreds of plant-eating dinosaurs all of the same species who died together a carpet area the size of a football pitch. ibid.
Twelve large meat-eating dinosaurs buried in the same place ... It looked like a pack. ibid.
Between six and eight million years ago ... In place of the tree-dwellers were new fossils, fossils of a completely different type of animals. Animals that lived on open plains. Horizon: The Ape that Took Over the World, BBC 2001
When this small and broken fossil first appeared it was hailed as one of the most important finds of the decade. Scientists said it was the missing link that supported one of the most controversial theories of modern palaeontology. Yet when they examined it they found buried within it something they had never expected. This is the story of a mysterious fossil that fooled some of the best scientific brains in the world. Horizon: The Dinosaur that Fooled the World, BBC 2002
For two years a team of top scientists have been secretly studying a unique fossil. They believe it could be one of our earliest primate ancestors. David Attenborough, Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor, BBC 2009
The search has concentrated in East Africa. Known as the Cradle of Mankind. Here in the 1970s they found the link between apes and man. It offered conclusive proof that we started walking upright 3.2 million years ago. A human ancestor, a female, Lucy. Then in 1984 the remains of a body was found. ibid.
The fossil was found here in a place known as the Messel Pit [Germany]. There is nowhere in the world like it. ibid.
A hundred and fifty years ago Charles Darwin explained the incredible diversity of life in a new way ... New species appeared as they adapted to a new environment. At the time Darwin’s proposal was controversial. He argued that monkeys, apes and ourselves have a common ancestor – that ancestor we know must have lived hundreds of millions of years ago. ibid.
Darwin’s idea was revolutionary and he was ridiculed by many in Victorian society. ibid.
Lucy was the half-ape half-man species that Darwin predicted. But where was the link millions of years earlier between us and the rest of the animal kingdom? ibid.
There is a bone in Ida’s foot that links her with every person on the planet. It could be the evidence that the first small adaptations towards walking upright happened forty-seven million years ago. ibid.
This is the Jurassic Coast: its rocks are full of fossils of prehistoric creatures. David Attenborough: Flying Monsters, Sky 2011
Her name was Mary Anning ... She had an almost unbelievable talent for unearthing fossils .. the Princess of Palaeontology. ibid.
This fossil is 140 million years old: it has the enlarged head of an advanced pterosaur but its tail is different – it has become much shorter. And this short-tailed species wasn’t alone. It was clearly a very successful modification. ibid.
China is the new frontier for fossil discoveries. David Attenborough’s Rise of the Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates, BBC 2013
More than a hundred and fifty different species of dinosaur have been found in the rocks of China alone, and over a thousand worldwide. ibid.
Some ancient rocks contain fossils that are well over three thousand million years old. David Attenborough: Life on Earth (revised series)
The Burgess Shales where a rich seem of fossils documents the Cambrian explosion in astonishing detail. David Attenborough’s First Life 2/2, BBC 2010
The remains of a dragon have just been discovered in the cliffs of Dorset … It was an enormous marine reptile that ruled the seas … an ichthyosaur. David Attenborough, Attenborough & the Sea Dragon, BBC 2018
Mary [Annings] had an extraordinary talent for finding fossils, and in 1811 she discovered this gigantic creature … this caused a sensation. ibid.
A 200-million-year-old reptile. ibid.
66 million years ago planet Earth was very different from today … The rulers of the land were giant reptiles: dinosaurs. Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough, BBC 2022
What happened to them all? 66 million years ago an asteroid hit the Earth, and scientists think it was this collision that wiped out the dinosaurs. ibid.
A remarkable dig site … in the American mid-west … rich in prehistoric remains … This place may hold evidence of one of the most dramatic events … ibid.
A scientific pioneer ... Global recognition for her work ... Travelling to almost the ends of the Earth for fossil evidence ... Professor Clack has remained at the forefront of tetrapod research. Beautiful Minds, Professor Jenny Clack
The Creationists fondness for gaps in the fossil record is a metaphor for their love of gaps in knowledge generally. Richard Dawkins, Creationism: God’s Gift to the Ignorant, Times online article 21st May 2005
All the fossils that we have ever found have always been found in the appropriate place in the time sequence. There are no fossils in the wrong place. Richard Dawkins