DONALD SUTHERLAND: 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.
It's 10 miles wide,
and it's headed for the Earth fast.
(INSECTS CHIRPING)
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.
(DINOSAUR SNORTING)
At this time, the masters of the Earth are dinosaurs.
(DINOSAUR GROWLING)
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 supercontinent,
the Pangea.
And there was only one immense ocean,
Panthalassa.
(SPLASHING)
We are north of the South American plate
in a sea that will grow to be the Atlantic Ocean.
Dinosaurs only existed on land.
The large ocean creatures of their time were marine reptiles.
These creatures are not dolphins.
They are ichthyosaurs from 160 million years ago.
Some species of ichthyosaurs grew up to 75 feet.
One prey's predator is almost always another predator's prey,
until you reach the top of the food chain,
where you'll find this terror ruling alone.
(DEEP MOANING)
The Liopleurodon.
This one is 60 feet long,
but an isolated find points at 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 100 million years ago.
Patagonia in particular offers us
some of the most amazing discoveries
in the history of paleontology, 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 paleontologists.
This is Professor Rodolfo Coria,
world-renowned paleontologist and Director of the Carmen Funes Museum
in Plaza Huincul, a small town of the Neuquén province
in Argentinean Patagonia.
CORIA: 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 paleontologist 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-necked, four-legged herbivores.
We named it Argentinosaurus.
This discovery had a profound effect on the way we looked
at South American dinosaurs.
On a personal level, well, it took a big, big place in my life,
to say the least.
(FOOTSTEPS POUNDING)
(DINOSAUR GROANING)
SUTHERLAND: The Earth will never see a bigger creature on land,
yet it starts its life in eggs just a little bigger than grapefruits.
Scientists believe that female Argentinosaurs, like all titanosaurs,
a class of four-legged, long-necked dinosaurs,
left their eggs to their fate as soon as they were laid,
relying on their large number for the survival of the species.
This baby Argentinosaur, 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.
CORIA: Actually, one of the most important
discoveries I've been associated with
is an extremely large nesting ground.
It helped us to learn a lot about
the reproductive behavior of titanosaurs.
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 laid their eggs
on the edge of the site and just walked away.
SUTHERLAND: The Earth of the dinosaurs is familiar yet different.
It was warmer than today.
Deserts were widespread.
(SQUAWKING)
For a great part of the dinosaur era, there were no broadleaf trees
and no flower-bearing plants.
During the dinosaur era, there is no Arctic ice cap,
and Antarctica is subtropical.
For tens of millions of years, seasons barely change.
The water of the oceans is also much warmer.
Hurricanes are frequent.
The magnetic pole changes position continuously.
Many times, a modern compass would have pointed East, West or South.
When dinosaurs appear, the nearby stars
are in radically different positions,
the moon is closer, and the tides have more amplitude.
The Earth spins faster and thus the year has 385 days.
Professor Coria has contributed to the discovery
of more than a dozen new dinosaurs.
As a scientist, he insists that each new find
is important, no matter how big or small.
The journey to discovery is as rewarding to him
as the discovery itself.
And, sometimes, he says, what plays the biggest part
is simply not in our hands.
CORIA: 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 Argentinosaur,
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.
(SOFT FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
(SQUEALING)
(ROARING)
SUTHERLAND: Professor Coria's team had unveiled a first species
of a group of fierce predators called the Giganotosaurs.
The first Giganotosaurinae appeared 100 million years ago.
The three species in this group
surpassed the famous T. rex in terms of size.
Although rare for reptiles, caring for the young has been observed,
among crocodiles for instance.
In dinosaurs, this caring behavior evolved enough to remind us of birds.
(GROWLING)
(ROARING)
This baby female is named Long-Tooth.
However small, vulnerable, and to some, cute she may appear now,
she's genetically programmed to rapidly become a 45-foot long,
8-ton predator like her mother.
(MOANING SOFTLY)
CORIA: In Patagonia, you had the largest herbivore and the largest predator
living at roughly the same period and in the same territory.
This clearly brings up the question,
"Why did it happen that way in that place?"
It's a question I've heard countless times.
And, as a matter of fact, I keep asking myself the same question.
There's 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.
SUTHERLAND: A dry climate with colder nights
could have favored animals that retained their internal heat better
because of their larger mass.
But a simpler interpretation rests on
a warm climate and a fertile land with all the vegetation you can eat.
Yet another theory tells us that large herbivores
had to grow big enough to accommodate the large stomach
required to digest high-in-fiber, low-in-protein vegetation.
Finally, large spans of flat space
could have led naturally to Argentinosaurs,
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 most situations.
(ROARING)
(POUNDING)
Strong-One is now about 10 years old.
He has reached a length of 60 feet, half his adult size.
His rapid growth will give him the protection of size early in life.
(CHEWING LOUDLY)
If a single Argentinosaur is hard to attack,
a herd of Argentinosaurs is even more so,
and such a herd has to move constantly because it eats a lot
and has to find new or re-grown food sources.
(INSECT BUZZING)
Long-Tooth has reached a quarter of her adult size.
She's 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 needed.
They thrived for 180 million years.
So it's likely their brains didn't need to be
that large to adapt and survive.
Maybe there's a message for us here.
By the way, it's more than time to introduce Sharp-Feathers.
He's a Unenlagia, a 6-foot, 50-pound male raptor.
He is related to birds,
as are, to some extent, Velociraptors,
Giganotosaurs and tyrannosaurs.
(GROWLING)
(SCREECHING)
Unenlagias had feathers, but didn't fly.
CORIA: 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.
Paleontology is just beginning to discover their universe.
Sometimes, as a joke, we say that it's 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 walking the Earth.
Fossilization 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 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.
SUTHERLAND: Strong-One has reached maturity.
For many scientists, he's at full size. He's 20 years old,
and he is at the beginning of more than a century of life.
Other scientists believe that he will keep on growing all of his life
at a much slower pace than in his earlier years.
Argentinosaurs 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 fossilization.
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 are found on all continents,
but the trackway layout in El Chocon is invaluable.
The patterns clearly show associations between contemporary species,
and this is very rare.
The discovery of the Giganotosaur has given Rodolfo Coria
his world-class reputation in paleontology.
His passion for his work remains undiminished,
despite it being most of the time very demanding.
His work is intimately linked to nature,
its infinitely varied terrains and ever-changing climate.
So there are hardships, but there are moments, sometimes,
when science just blends with the pure bliss
of being outside in wonderful places.
CORIA: Years in the field have taught me an essential lesson.
After all this time dealing simultaneously
with the life of the ancient past
and that of the present time, all life has become meaningful to me.
My scientific work has shaped my whole way of thinking.
This is prospecting at its simplest.
You just look around.
But finding requires a trained eye.
With time, you realize that the number of questions
grows faster than the number of answers.
Patience and perseverance are mandatory virtues.
They help with especially puzzling enigmas.
For instance, we wondered whether theropods such as Giganotosaurs
hunted alone or in packs.
Again, like many times before,
a good hint at an answer came unexpectedly.
We found a new species in the group of Giganotosaurs.
In fact, we didn't find just one specimen,
but a jumble of bones belonging to at least seven individuals.
For me and my Canadian colleague Phil Currie,
this was pointing at something we had considered
but had no evidence for until then.
Large meat-eating dinosaurs such as Giganotosaurs
could hunt in packs.
SUTHERLAND: So Long-Tooth belongs to this new species of Giganotosaurs.
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 Argentinosaur, he has no predator to fear
unless he is too old or sick or wounded.
(GROWLING)
(ROARING)
(BELLOWING)
(GROANING)
Despite their numbers and their powerful jaws,
the Giganotosaurs can't bring down such a giant.
(MOANING LOUDLY)
Tearing off pieces of skin and letting the large prey bleed to death
or die from infection is a strategy more likely to succeed.
Giganotosaurs could wait days, even weeks, between meals.
But this time, they won't have to.
(GROWLING)
(SQUEAKING)
(ALL ROARING)
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're in North America. Flying reptiles reach their apogee
with the Quetzalcoatlus, a pterosaur as wide as a small plane.
No flying bird will ever get as big, not even close.
Apart from flight, this reptile
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 hits the Earth near today's Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
All the forests of North and South America are destroyed by fire.
Already weakened, dinosaurs are the animals that suffer 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 do they?
Not all the dinosaurs disappear.
Birds are dinosaurs.
CORIA: It's difficult to imagine how mammals could have evolved
alongside large dinosaurs.
If they hadn't become extinct, maybe we just wouldn't be here.
Instead, when we look at the birds of today,
it's as if dinosaurs have left us only their grace and beauty.
Paleontology takes me to 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.
(FOOTSTEPS POUNDING)
(ROARING)