0:00:05 > 0:00:08Most fossils are just the hard bits that nature leaves behind.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11Cells, like these.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15The other parts of the organism, the soft parts if you like -
0:00:15 > 0:00:19feathers, guts, and many kinds of organisms that are soft-bodied,
0:00:19 > 0:00:21leave no trace behind.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Except in a few very special places.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28And it is to these places that we are going to
0:00:28 > 0:00:31travel in search of windows into the past.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34So far in the series,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38we've been 8,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains of Canada
0:00:38 > 0:00:42to discover the fossilised remains of the earliest complex life.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51While, in the heart of Europe, we'll explore a long-lost lake
0:00:51 > 0:00:55that has preserved some of the best fossils of early mammals ever
0:00:55 > 0:01:00uncovered - including, perhaps, our own earliest known ancestor.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06Now, in this second episode,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09we're travelling to a site in Northern China to investigate
0:01:09 > 0:01:13some of the most surprising dinosaur fossils ever discovered.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27It used to be thought that the dinosaurs died out
0:01:27 > 0:01:30in a cataclysm 65 million years ago.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33'But, now, we know different.'
0:01:33 > 0:01:35What is going on here?
0:01:35 > 0:01:37Right, yeah, yeah. This is a dinosaur egg.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Dating back to 160 million years ago,
0:01:43 > 0:01:46the discovery of fossil feathers in China has
0:01:46 > 0:01:50revolutionised our understanding of what happened to the dinosaurs.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54Evidence now shows they evolved into all sorts of unexpected
0:01:54 > 0:01:56and exotic species.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01Including the ancestors of the birds.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24I'm taking my own personal voyage of discovery to uncover
0:02:24 > 0:02:28the story of how birds evolved.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32Joining me is Lisa Morgan, a warden for the RSPB.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40After nearly an hour, we reach our destination, Grassholm Island -
0:02:40 > 0:02:47a jagged and inaccessible hunk of rock jutting out of the Irish Sea.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51It's home to more than 66,000 of the largest
0:02:51 > 0:02:57and heaviest sea bird in the North Atlantic, the gannet.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Well, from a distance, of course, this looked like a snow-capped peak.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03It does indeed.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06And, you get nearer and you see it is, well,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08thousands upon thousands of gannets.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11Is that the old thing about safety in numbers?
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Well, I don't know that it really is with gannets.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18Nothing really is going to worry them - they've got that huge, pointy bill and they're very aggressive birds.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21So, really they just need an isolated place to breed -
0:03:21 > 0:03:24ideally with no land predators, very important.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26And, also, they need lots of breeze.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29So, these are big heavy birds, weighing three kilos.
0:03:29 > 0:03:30That's to take off?
0:03:30 > 0:03:31Yeah, exactly that.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34So, on a calm day, they really use a lot of energy
0:03:34 > 0:03:35to get off the ground.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Well, let's talk a little about, bit about adaptation.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40- They're obviously superb aeronauts. - They are.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43They've got long, narrow wings, so they can really take advantage
0:03:43 > 0:03:47of the wind, so they can move very efficiently through the air.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51But also they plunge dive from quite a height actually, maybe ten,
0:03:51 > 0:03:5420, 30 metres above the water.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56And, when they do that, they bring their wings right
0:03:56 > 0:03:59back behind them to avoid stress on the wings.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03- They turn into some sort of torpedo, briefly. - It's an amazing thing to see.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12It's an extraordinary thought, that this exquisitely adapted
0:04:12 > 0:04:17and elegant bird is descended from a creature that many people
0:04:17 > 0:04:20think as rather cumbrous - the dinosaur.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27And it is that story that we will be exploring in this episode.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Today, there are more than 10,000 species of birds.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39They have mastered the air, the land and the world's waters.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44Some, like the gannet, have even adapted to all three at once.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51But who were their evolutionary forebears?
0:04:58 > 0:05:01A country that has yielded surprising discoveries
0:05:01 > 0:05:04that are revealing new answers is China.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20One of the great revelations greeting a westerner arriving
0:05:20 > 0:05:25in Tiananmen Square today is the sheer number of Chinese tourists.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34But while thousands upon thousands of citizens of The People's Republic
0:05:34 > 0:05:39respectively walk past the icons of their recent past...
0:05:40 > 0:05:44I have come in search of icons of their country's deep past,
0:05:44 > 0:05:49that largely remain off the beaten track.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Situated just outside Beijing's busy centre,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology
0:05:57 > 0:06:03and Paleoanthropology, or IVPP, is a world-class research facility.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09It also houses a small public museum,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12filled with dinosaur-age fossils.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18The word "dinosaur" translates as "terrible lizard."
0:06:18 > 0:06:23And, in the mid-19th century, it was always assumed that these creatures
0:06:23 > 0:06:29were exactly that -lizards, albeit gigantic and terrifying ones.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37But, starting in the 1990s,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41strange new fossils began being unearthed in Northern China.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46Fossils that revealed features
0:06:46 > 0:06:49that put a whole new complexion on that image.
0:06:49 > 0:06:50Feathers.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58And in 2012, a discovery was made that changed
0:06:58 > 0:07:02the face of the most famous dinosaur of them all.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Curious though it may seem, the fiercest dinosaur of them all,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Tyrannosaurus Rex, may have
0:07:09 > 0:07:12been clothed in a kind of fuzz of fine feathers.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15We know this because a close relative, in China,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18has just such a covering.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21I'm holding a sample, which is
0:07:21 > 0:07:24about to go into further scientific analysis,
0:07:24 > 0:07:29which shows these rather simple, almost hair-like, proto feathers.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34It's an extraordinary thought to think that a fierce,
0:07:34 > 0:07:39carnivorous dinosaur might have been clothed in such things.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50Yutyrannus Huali lived about 140 million years ago, probably
0:07:50 > 0:07:54using its fuzzy proto feathers for insulation and warmth.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59Strange as it may seem,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03it's only one of many feathered dinosaur discoveries.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09To delve deeper into this mystery, I set off for a remote
0:08:09 > 0:08:13part of China's north-eastern Liaoning Province.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22The landscape of Sihetun hides a turbulent past.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30140 million years ago,
0:08:30 > 0:08:35during the cretaceous heyday of the dinosaurs, this world was blasted by
0:08:35 > 0:08:40volcanoes that periodically entombed the entire local eco system.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55On hand, to be my guide, is one of China's foremost
0:08:55 > 0:08:59experts in feathered dinosaurs, Professor Xu Xing.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05He starts by showing me the local geology,
0:09:05 > 0:09:10and the reason why this area is nicknamed "the dinosaur Pompeii".
0:09:10 > 0:09:16Well, erm, the rock types here, you can
0:09:16 > 0:09:20see beautifully the horizontal stratification.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25But we can actually get a bit closer here, can't we?
0:09:25 > 0:09:31So, those yellow bands, they are volcanic ash. You see.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34So, this is the volcanic ash cloud that comes down very suddenly...
0:09:34 > 0:09:36- Right.- ..Kills the fauna?
0:09:36 > 0:09:42Right. And also it tells you there are multiple events.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44I can see them, just looking in front of me,
0:09:44 > 0:09:46- every few centimetres, in fact... - Right, exactly.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48..Up to, perhaps, half a metre at most.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52It means there were eruptions at a very regular,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55- perhaps thousands-of-year, intervals.- Right.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59But enough time between them for the lake to get re-colonised again.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01Right, right.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04But what about extracting it? It's obviously quite soft.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06I guess you have to be very careful
0:10:06 > 0:10:08when you're excavating to keep fossils in one piece.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11But, still, new finds turning up every year.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13So, it's worth it.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15Yes, yeah, that sounds amazing!
0:10:15 > 0:10:19You know, these days before the cavemen, oh, we have some great stuff.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28The ancient name for this region is the Jehol, meaning "hot springs."
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Yet, for most of the 20th century, the true extent of the fossil
0:10:35 > 0:10:37riches buried beneath its volcanic ashes was unknown.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55These are the first known fossils from the Jehol area.
0:10:55 > 0:11:02This is a larva of a mayfly, so-called Ephemeroptera.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Mayflies, of course, live for but a day as adults,
0:11:05 > 0:11:07and even the adults have been found fossil.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12This is a carapace of a freshwater crustacean,
0:11:12 > 0:11:17called Eosestheria, which is probably the most abundant fossil in Jehol.
0:11:17 > 0:11:23And er, well, this is a rather charming little fish,
0:11:23 > 0:11:29called Lycoptera. Sometimes you can find a mass grave of these
0:11:29 > 0:11:30charming little fish.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33And that, of course, begins with "L".
0:11:33 > 0:11:35taken together, you get "E", "E", "L".
0:11:35 > 0:11:38And for a long time these were the only fossils
0:11:38 > 0:11:41known from the Jehol formation.
0:11:41 > 0:11:42Of course, in the '70s
0:11:42 > 0:11:46and '80s they were joined by all sorts of wonderful new discoveries.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Charming as they are, it's hard to believe these little creatures were
0:11:53 > 0:11:59the warm-up act to some of the great fossil finds of the last 20 years.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03From stunningly preserved fish and flowering plants
0:12:03 > 0:12:05to early mammals and reptiles.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09And, most important,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13feathered dinosaurs of every conceivable variety.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23One of the most significant of these resides a day's drive from Sihetun.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29'This is the Beipiao Geopark,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33'and I am assigned the ever-helpful Ms Chung as my guide.'
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Thank you. After you.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45'The park is a powerful symbol of China's increasing affluence,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49'as well as pride in its new-found fossil riches.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52'Though, I have been warned, it takes a few liberties with
0:12:52 > 0:12:55'the past that might not be exactly to my taste.'
0:12:57 > 0:13:02Now, here must be one of the dino birds, freely rendered.
0:13:05 > 0:13:11'Bred over several square kilometres, the park is undeniably spectacular.'
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Ah, now, here - a fossil forest.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18Yes. Er, there is about 1,000 fossils.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23And, oh, my goodness, here's a volcano.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28'And at one end, in a kind of gigantic greenhouse,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32'a vast cross section of rock has been dug out to reveal
0:13:32 > 0:13:35'some of the local discoveries.'
0:13:35 > 0:13:39So is this the real rock here?
0:13:39 > 0:13:40Yes.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Wow, what a sight.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48And I guess the treasure, the specimens,
0:13:48 > 0:13:53are dotted about on the bottom here.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56But they're not actually where they were found.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01These are, kind of, scattered about, as it were, in an ordinary museum,
0:14:01 > 0:14:07but placed on the strata to give them a kind of simulated reality.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13The treasures inside the museum, both fossil and man-made,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16conjure forth an image of ancient Jehol
0:14:16 > 0:14:19and its unique feathered inhabitants.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25'Some of the precious relics here can provide us with a valuable
0:14:25 > 0:14:29'insight into the eco system our feathered dinosaurs inhabited.'
0:14:29 > 0:14:32You can almost see the frog laid out going, 'Ooh!'
0:14:32 > 0:14:34at the moment of death.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38'Including some nearer our own family tree.'
0:14:40 > 0:14:47This is a very, very important fossil. It's a mammal.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Not much bigger than a mouse, but it's a very important mammal
0:14:50 > 0:14:55because it's the first placental mammal known in such detail.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01The placentals, of course, include womb-bearing mammals.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Everything from porcupines to tigers, and, of course, ourselves.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07And, among all the mammals,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11this is the one that lies close to our line of descent.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18But the star attraction isn't a mammal, it fed on them.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24The object of my quest, Sinosauropteryx.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31Yes, and I can see it's the holotype.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36The actual specimen on which the name, Sinosauropteryx, hangs.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39And it really is a wonderful example.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Sinosauropteryx was the first dinosaur to be clearly
0:15:46 > 0:15:50identified as feathered, back in 1996.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57I'm just trying to see, from this distance, whether I can see
0:15:57 > 0:16:00the feathers. I think I probably need to get up closer.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09I think, yes, up on the tail there.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11I can just see a hint of them.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18But it's a specimen preserved down to the last fingernail.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Sinosauropteryx lived about 120 million years ago,
0:16:24 > 0:16:28and was a carnivorous raptor, coated in primitive feathers.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32And those feathers weren't just monochrome.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36Using pioneering techniques, scientists have been able to
0:16:36 > 0:16:40suggest the original colours of the fossilised plumage.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45By examining microscopic structures called melanosomes,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47that are associated with pigmentation,
0:16:47 > 0:16:52it's now believed the dinosaur was probably red-brown in colour.
0:16:52 > 0:16:57With stripes in its tail, which were likely there for display.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04But here, they don't appear to take such findings too literally.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09Rendering Sinosauropteryx as one of a series of more
0:17:09 > 0:17:12psychedelically coloured feathered dinosaurs and early birds.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23One of these garish recreations might seem somewhat familiar.
0:17:25 > 0:17:30It's called Beipiaosaurus, and was discovered not far from the Geopark.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Today, its fossilised remains are kept behind the scenes
0:17:39 > 0:17:41back at the IVPP.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Professor Xu Xing helped to identify and name it back in 1999.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57Like all feathered dinosaurs,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01Beipiaosaurus was a therapod - a two-legged dinosaur, and thus
0:18:01 > 0:18:05a relative of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex.
0:18:05 > 0:18:11'It must be one of the more bizarre creatures ever to walk on two legs.'
0:18:11 > 0:18:13By the looks of it, very large.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17And, also, it's in pieces, I can tell that.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19- Bone strewn around. - Yeah, many bones.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21So, you have to try and put it together.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24- So, what are the pieces? - Well, that's a skull.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26Oh, I can certainly see lots of really rather tiny teeth.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30Yeah, yeah, tiny teeth. It's probably a herbivorous dinosaur.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34So, most of its relatives are not plant-eating,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37- but this one is plant-eating.- Yeah.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40And what have we here?
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Here are arms.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Oh, I can see here - is that the feathers?
0:18:45 > 0:18:48Yeah, that's the feathers, so, you can see those are, kind of,
0:18:48 > 0:18:50- primitive feathers. - Oh, they're the simple ones?
0:18:50 > 0:18:53- Yeah, simple ones; a little bit like your hair.- On the arm?
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Yeah, actually the whole body covered by feathers.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58- so you know the whole body was feathered?- Yes.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02And here you see the hind legs, a little bit of a tail here.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06And there's some claws there, too.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18- So, small head, vegetarian, but with powerful claws, and long feathers.- Right.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20This is a weird mixture.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22If you put it all together, what do you get?
0:19:22 > 0:19:26It is rooted among the meat-eating, fast-moving animals.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29But this one is kind of a fat, slow...
0:19:29 > 0:19:31- Oh, waddled about.- Yeah.
0:19:31 > 0:19:32A bit like me.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34Yeah, but they got feathers on their body.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Any living equivalent?
0:19:37 > 0:19:41A little bit like a panda, in dinosaur family.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Oh, so this is the nearest thing the dinosaurs got to ever making a panda?
0:19:45 > 0:19:47That's, er, right.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Well, it just shows that nothing in nature is
0:19:50 > 0:19:53so strange that it can't be invented twice.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55HE LAUGHS
0:19:58 > 0:20:01It may seem improbable that a dinosaur,
0:20:01 > 0:20:06and a feathered one at that, could evolve to resemble a panda.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10But there are clear evolutionary parallels between these two
0:20:10 > 0:20:13completely unrelated animals.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Like the panda, Beipiaosaurus evolved from meat-eating
0:20:18 > 0:20:22ancestors to become, primarily, vegetarian.
0:20:24 > 0:20:25Both swapped the fast speed
0:20:25 > 0:20:30and reactions of a predator for the defensive bulk of a herbivore.
0:20:30 > 0:20:37And both also retained their long sharp claws, re-purposing them
0:20:37 > 0:20:41for cutting vegetation rather than rending flesh.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51A contemporary of Beipiaosaurus provides an even more
0:20:51 > 0:20:57striking example of the inventiveness of evolution.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Caudipteryx was also a ground-dwelling, feathered dinosaur.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08It, too, had pronounced tail feathers and a beak-like snout.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12But it also possessed another characteristic that might
0:21:12 > 0:21:16make it almost indistinguishable from a flightless bird.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18Long, powerful legs.
0:21:21 > 0:21:27So, this is a feathered dinosaur called Caudipteryx.
0:21:27 > 0:21:28Yeah.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30And just so we can prove that right at the start,
0:21:30 > 0:21:33- here are the impressions of the feathers.- Exactly.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35- And the tail, was that feathered too?- Yes.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37They used that for show, perhaps?
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Er, that's our, our guess.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42Or, to scare an enemy off.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Yeah. A kind of communication display, you know.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47Like some birds,
0:21:47 > 0:21:52Caudipteryx swallowed stones to help it digest tough vegetation.
0:21:52 > 0:21:58Extraordinary preservation means we can still see them in its stomach.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02Well, it's a rather wonderful animal.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05But this particular feathered dinosaur is likely to have
0:22:05 > 0:22:07been terrestrial, presumably?
0:22:07 > 0:22:10It's definitely a ground-living animal. You can tell
0:22:10 > 0:22:12from the long leg.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17So, it's a middle-sized, active, ground-living, feathered dinosaur?
0:22:17 > 0:22:18Right.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24There's a modern,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28flightless bird that bears a rather uncanny resemblance to Caudipteryx.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30And can help us fill in the missing evidence,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33which even fossils don't preserve.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35It's the emu.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40But at the Royal Veterinary College of London,
0:22:40 > 0:22:45dinosaur locomotion expert, Professor John Hutchinson, has been
0:22:45 > 0:22:50studying these fine, if sometimes rather bad-mannered, birds.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55Well, of course, John, one of the great things about
0:22:55 > 0:22:58knowing that dinosaurs and birds are related...
0:22:58 > 0:22:59...Mm-hm.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03..Means that you can come and study living birds to find out
0:23:03 > 0:23:06more about dinosaur habits and their transition into birds.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Absolutely. An emu is a living dinosaur.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13And the feet, of course, are poor, pure dinosaurian.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16Yeah, they've got those wonderful, scaly, three-toed,
0:23:16 > 0:23:19clawed feet on them.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26But the feathers, of course, not used for flight.
0:23:26 > 0:23:27But what function do they have?
0:23:27 > 0:23:29You know, the emu have?
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Yeah, in any bird, feathers have a lot of functions.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34In an emu, even though they're flightless, they're
0:23:34 > 0:23:37using their feathers for insulation, for camouflage, display
0:23:37 > 0:23:42and communication, all kinds of things - lots of benefits to being feathered.
0:23:43 > 0:23:44The other thing, of course,
0:23:44 > 0:23:47these birds are wonderfully well adapted to, is running.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49Oh, yeah.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51They have massive leg muscles,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55and they can sustain a run for quite a while, if they need to.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57You know, they're, they're excellent athletes.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01So, if we imagine three or four emus running across the Australian
0:24:01 > 0:24:04plains, and just er, in our minds eye,
0:24:04 > 0:24:09we might be looking at a little flock of Caudipteryx.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Yeah, Caudipteryx is a lot like an emu in many ways.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15A bit smaller body size,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18but, some of the very bird-like dinosaurs would have looked
0:24:18 > 0:24:21and behaved much like this, except for having the big tail.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Otherwise, they would have been quite similar.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27That one is certainly anxious to join its friends.
0:24:27 > 0:24:28Yeah, they are quite social animals.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38The emu, and all other ratites, or flightless birds, share
0:24:38 > 0:24:43a common ancestor that, millions of years ago, was able to fly.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48Like this albatross, it did so by running on its powerful legs,
0:24:48 > 0:24:52flapping its wings and launching itself into the skies.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58It's a flight technique some biologists believe to be
0:24:58 > 0:25:02the origin of bird flight, and is still used by a variety
0:25:02 > 0:25:06of large, living birds; even ground-dwelling peacocks.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24There's still more to learn about the links between living birds and
0:25:24 > 0:25:28feathered dinosaurs from fossils recently found in Liaoning Province.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Its capital city, Shenyang,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37is the ancient seat of China's Manchu Dynasty.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45Their palace still stands today, the remains of another lost world,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48nestled in a rapidly expanding, modern city.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Cranes, a symbol of long life, you know.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11And, before I look further into the history of feathered dinosaurs,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13with fossils housed in museums,
0:26:13 > 0:26:19I'm intrigued by some which seem to be available on the open market.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23My guide is local journalist, Zhang Wanlian.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31See that's, that's just like you've taken a herring
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and pressed it down, hard on the rock, isn't it?
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Ah, here we've got a lot of fossils.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40That's probably genuine, isn't it?
0:26:41 > 0:26:44That's its counterpart, you see, you can't fake that.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47I wonder how much they want for it.
0:26:48 > 0:26:49Shall we ask?
0:26:55 > 0:26:56800?
0:26:56 > 0:26:57Yeah.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03No, no, it's good value, I know.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05It's like being at a fish market, really,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08except they're 130 million years old.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12But I soon find out seeing is not necessarily believing.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21- You mean this is a fake? - It's a fake.
0:27:21 > 0:27:22Ah.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24It's quite a good fake.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32This, he's saying that it's perfectly made.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35But that's real rock.
0:27:35 > 0:27:36This is real rock.
0:27:36 > 0:27:42So, they then put this, somehow, on the surface.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49You can use lasers.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51- Lasers?!- Yes, lasers.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Oh, I'm beginning to lose my faith in human nature.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02To restore it, I seek out the genuine treasures of
0:28:02 > 0:28:07Liaoning's Paleontological Museum - the biggest of its kind in China.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11- Hello, nice to meet you. - Very pleased to see you.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15The museum's proud director is Professor Sun Ge.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19And the building he helped mastermind is designed to
0:28:19 > 0:28:24suggest the intimate connection between dinosaurs and birds.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26What is going on here?
0:28:26 > 0:28:28This is a dinosaur egg.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31- Oh, so it's symbolic?- That's right. - It's symbolic of a dinosaur.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33And this is a dinosaur bone.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35Like ribs?
0:28:35 > 0:28:38That's right. 21 ribs.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41So we have 21 ribs sitting on top of a gigantic egg.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44- That's right, yeah. - Do you think it will go lighter?
0:28:44 > 0:28:47Once inside, Sun Ge treats me
0:28:47 > 0:28:52to a whistle-stop tour of his museum's exceptional treasures.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57We can see, this is new. You know, when I was in er,
0:28:57 > 0:29:02you know, er, in certain time we just find, like, this part.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07When I first visited China, more than 20 years ago, a provincial
0:29:07 > 0:29:11museum, packed with precious finds like this, was unimaginable.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17As was an entire private gallery for a select few.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24This one is one for the real fossil, do not to give the public.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28There is, when some leader coming here.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Mm.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32This one we call Leefructus.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34We'd probably say it was a buttercup.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37Oh, yeah, that's right - a buttercup, yeah!
0:29:39 > 0:29:43But the treasure I've come to see has a particularly English connection.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50And whilst we've seen parallels to living, flightless birds,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53this fossil takes us down another path.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59Ooh!
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Before me lies one of the most precious
0:30:09 > 0:30:12possessions of the Shenyang Museum.
0:30:13 > 0:30:18It's the oldest known feathered dinosaur.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23Probably 160 million years old.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27It's called Anchiornis.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30The size of, perhaps, a very small chicken.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37I can see a, kind of, black fuzz on the surface of the slab...
0:30:38 > 0:30:41which are the remains of the fossil feathers.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48I can see all four limbs, spread-eagled out.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55But both the legs and the arms had feathers on them.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00It probably wasn't a very good flier,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03because the feathers are very simple in design.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07It could probably leap from tree to tree,
0:31:07 > 0:31:09rather than be capable of true flight.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16The full name of this remarkable animal is Anchiornis huxleyi,
0:31:16 > 0:31:20named after the 19th Century scientist, TH Huxley.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24And Huxley it was who played a pivotal role
0:31:24 > 0:31:28in the debate about the origin of birds.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Covered in black feathers with a red head crest,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38at 160 million years old,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42this gliding animal is the oldest known bird-like dinosaur.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51It's named for Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwin's bulldog, who was
0:31:51 > 0:31:54the first scientist to suggest a link between dinosaurs and birds.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03And the fossil that convinced him of this was discovered,
0:32:03 > 0:32:08not in China, but in Germany, more than a century and a half ago.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15I'm here in southern Germany, in Bavaria,
0:32:15 > 0:32:17near a little town called Sonthofen.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Behind me is a vast quarry.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23In the late 18th Century, they discovered that the very fine
0:32:23 > 0:32:26limestones here were excellent for making lithographic plates.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29And the limestone, ever since, has been known
0:32:29 > 0:32:31as the lithographic limestone.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33But it also contains fossils.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37And, in 1860, the most important fossil of all was found -
0:32:37 > 0:32:41a single feather of the extinct bird, Archaeopteryx.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49On hand to show me the quarry where Archaeopteryx was discovered
0:32:49 > 0:32:54is Dr Martin Roper, director of the local museum in nearby Sonthofen.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56- Oh, yes.- Yes, you can see it.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59I can see the beautiful, horizontal stratification.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06- Every one of those little lines... - Yes.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08- ..represents a former sea floor, doesn't it?- Yes, yes.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12- In this lagoon.- And you can look here, at this plate.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15- You see, this bit here.- Yes.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25So every time I split, I'm exposing a new, ancient sea floor.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30And, of course, it comes up beautifully easily.
0:33:31 > 0:33:32There we are.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38- Ah! - So, that's a little sea star.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41So, most of the fossils you find are actually marine creatures.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43- Yes. - The terrestrial ones are very rare.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45It is a place they are very rare.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51Back at the end of the Jurassic Period,
0:33:51 > 0:33:53around 150 million years ago,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56this vast quarry was a lagoon.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58And gradually became so salty,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01it preserved almost anything that fell into its depths.
0:34:03 > 0:34:04Including flying animals.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10But before I see Archaeopteryx itself,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14I'm reminded that it shared the sky
0:34:14 > 0:34:17with other unrelated flying vertebrates, who've filled the
0:34:17 > 0:34:20background of many a dinosaur movie.
0:34:20 > 0:34:21The Pterosaurs.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29When you look here, you can see the whole skin, er,
0:34:29 > 0:34:31with a long finger.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33- And there, yes, it's the wing membrane.- Yes.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37- Attached to the finger, rather like the wings of a bat.- Yes.
0:34:37 > 0:34:38But, of course, it's a reptile.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41It's a reptile, it's a flying reptile, yes.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43And, I notice, here's the head.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46Er, and here's this beautiful skull with,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49well, pointy teeth.
0:34:49 > 0:34:55- Yeah.- It was a fish hunter, flying over the water and then we, it can
0:34:55 > 0:34:57see a fish is cutting him.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00- Caught the fish.- Yes. - And then flew away again.- Yes.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02He was a flying artist.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06Obviously, if you can do that - snatch a fish and fly off,
0:35:06 > 0:35:08you're a fantastic acrobat in the air.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10And yet the strange thing is that they didn't survive
0:35:10 > 0:35:15- at the end of the Cretaceous. They died out.- They died out.
0:35:17 > 0:35:18This, this is skin at the end here.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22Whether Pterosaurs went extinct because they were out-competed
0:35:22 > 0:35:27by flying feathered dinosaurs and early birds remains a mystery.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31- So, what is this?- Ah.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33Well, shall I say, slightly scrappy fossil.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37It's only the right wing of a specimen of Archaeopteryx.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40So, this is a piece of Archaeopteryx, just the wing?
0:35:40 > 0:35:43Only a piece. Er, just the wing.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45Well, knowing the auction price of Archaeopteryx,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48this must be the most expensive chicken wing in the world.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51Yes, very nice, you see!
0:35:51 > 0:35:54But we have to see how it fits on the whole animal.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59I can show you a complete specimen, it's here.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01It's the sixth specimen of Archaeopteryx.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05So, the whole specimen, one of seven in the world.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08- Yeah. - Your prize possession, naturally.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Yes, it's the greatest, it's the greatest specimen of Archaeopteryx.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15We are very proud to have the original here in our museum.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19And, of course, it looks as delicate as a ballet dancer,
0:36:19 > 0:36:20- doesn't it?- Yes.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24- And yet, this poor animal probably died in agony.- Yeah.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30On the right side you can see both wings, but it is not clear
0:36:30 > 0:36:32in this specimen, to see the feathers.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36You don't see the feathers, so you might mistake it for a dinosaur.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40Er, when this specimen came in, into our museum,
0:36:40 > 0:36:44all thought it is a little dinosaur, but not Archaeopteryx.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53Seeing it so clearly, with a small dinosaur-like body
0:36:53 > 0:36:56and a covering of feathers, it's easy to see how it could
0:36:56 > 0:37:01represent a link, even a transition, between dinosaurs and birds.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08But when this idea was first suggested by Huxley, in 1868,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11he met with much opposition.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16The principal opponent of Archaeopteryx
0:37:16 > 0:37:19as an evolutionary link was Richard Owen,
0:37:19 > 0:37:23founder of the Natural History Museum and a brilliant anatomist.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29Owen was a pioneer in recognising dinosaurs for what they were.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32But he was sceptical about Darwinian evolution
0:37:32 > 0:37:35and a sworn enemy of Huxley.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38So, he chose to downplay the importance of transitional
0:37:38 > 0:37:40fossils, like Archaeopteryx.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Partly as a result of this caution, the status of Archaeopteryx
0:37:45 > 0:37:48remained disputed for much of the next century.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55- So, this is the Berlin specimen. - Beautiful.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57It's Archaeopteryx.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00You can see here the claws of the fingers, here.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05One of the anatomical features that was most controversial
0:38:05 > 0:38:06was its claws.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10Seen clearly on this exact replica of a specimen discovered
0:38:10 > 0:38:13nearly two decades later, in 1877.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20Claws may also have played an unexpected role
0:38:20 > 0:38:24in the evolution of bird flight.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32This is a primitive South American bird, called the hoatzin.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41A clumsy flier, its flightless young rely on clawed wings
0:38:41 > 0:38:43to climb in the trees.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46Some scientists argue that climbing and gliding,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49clawing their way up trees and floating down,
0:38:49 > 0:38:52was more likely as an origin of flight than the running
0:38:52 > 0:38:56and flapping alternative suggested by the long legged Caudipteryx.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09Back at the IVPP, I see a wonderful fossil that beautifully
0:39:09 > 0:39:13illustrates what's called the "tree down" hypothesis.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20It's a superb aerial predator that lived 30 million years after
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Archaeopteryx, and which could easily be mistaken for an ancient
0:39:24 > 0:39:28bird of prey, complete with its beautifully preserved feathers.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34It's called Microraptor.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41Now, what's going on here? We've got feathers again.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43- Yes.- Beautifully shown.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47But, also, if you look at it, the feet, the two feet, here and here.
0:39:47 > 0:39:48Oh, right.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52There are long flight feathers also attached to the feet.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55I suppose the first question I should ask you is
0:39:55 > 0:39:58how do you know it's a dinosaur and not a bird?
0:39:58 > 0:40:01That's the first question somebody would ask about this.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03A lot of features, if you look at the skeleton,
0:40:03 > 0:40:05tell you that it is a dinosaur, definitely a dinosaur.
0:40:05 > 0:40:10If this fossil were discovered, say, a hundred years ago,
0:40:10 > 0:40:11people would say,
0:40:11 > 0:40:15"Oh, this is a bird because it gets the beautiful feathers."
0:40:15 > 0:40:19But now we know dinosaurs, early birds so well, so we can tell.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23- Absolutely certainly this is a dinosaur.- Yes, yes.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25So, as usual, the truth is in the bones.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Yeah, so we call it a four-winged dinosaur.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34It's got very curved claws and so, does...
0:40:34 > 0:40:37- is that rather suggestive of hanging onto branches?- Yeah, exactly.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42And then, presumably, gliding from branch to branch using its four...
0:40:42 > 0:40:45- Four wings.- Wings. - Yeah, that's, er, our guess.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54We may not have a living Microraptor
0:40:54 > 0:40:58to study this beautifully designed animal in the flesh...
0:41:01 > 0:41:03..but here, in an experimental wind tunnel,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07at Southampton University, they have the next best thing.
0:41:12 > 0:41:13He's called Maurice.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28Engineer, Colin Palmer, has helped to make him.
0:41:30 > 0:41:35- So, Colin, this is a life-size model of Microraptor.- Yes.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38- With real feathers. - With real feathers on here.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41- The feathers, of course, on all four limbs.- Yes.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44Er, and how are the feathers chosen?
0:41:44 > 0:41:46Well, we, we looked at the actual fossil
0:41:46 > 0:41:50and then we found feathers from existing birds that matched those.
0:41:50 > 0:41:51And you can see that they're different.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53Out towards the ends of the wings,
0:41:53 > 0:41:55they're what are called 'primary' or 'flight' feathers.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59This side of the feather is much narrower than that side.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01As you come closer to the body,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03they're called secondary feathers, where they're symmetrical.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05And then on the legs we've also
0:42:05 > 0:42:07got these asymmetric flight feathers, like that.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10So, what about the functions of the feathers on the legs?
0:42:10 > 0:42:13Well, we tested the model with them in different positions,
0:42:13 > 0:42:15so we tested it with them down, like that,
0:42:15 > 0:42:17and then we tested it with them up, like that.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25And what we found was, with the legs up, it flew more slowly.
0:42:28 > 0:42:29But it was less efficient.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33Whereas, for the maximum speed it would fly with the legs down.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36and then, as it came into land, so it didn't hurt itself,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39it would put the legs up and perch.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42And, you conclude... what do you conclude?
0:42:42 > 0:42:46We concluded that this animal is very good at short flights
0:42:46 > 0:42:50within a crowded tree environment. It's very good at leaping from
0:42:50 > 0:42:53one tree, gliding down to end up on a lower branch in the next tree.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56But you've used the word 'glide', that means it wasn't a flapper?
0:42:56 > 0:43:00No, it couldn't flap because it had very, very, weak chest muscles.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03So it was not able to flap very much at all,
0:43:03 > 0:43:05maybe one or two flaps at the most.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09So, do you think this kind of model-making is relevant to
0:43:09 > 0:43:12understanding the origins of flight?
0:43:12 > 0:43:15Well, I think they show us that gliding flight was a step along the
0:43:15 > 0:43:19way, that the earliest dinosaurs with feathers were not able to fly.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22And then animals like this used those feathers in order to glide,
0:43:22 > 0:43:25and then later they would have evolved into powered flight.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35So, we seem to have two competing theories about the origin
0:43:35 > 0:43:39of feathered flight, both of which have supporting evidence.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47They may have climbed and glided, like Microraptor.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51Or run and flapped, a path suggested by Caudipteryx
0:43:51 > 0:43:53and its possible relatives.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59But are they mutually exclusive?
0:44:07 > 0:44:11Dr Ashley Heers, currently based at the Royal Veterinary College,
0:44:11 > 0:44:13thinks she has a solution.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20She's been conducting a series of experiments with young birds
0:44:20 > 0:44:23to try to get to the bottom of how birds,
0:44:23 > 0:44:26and their varied dinosaur ancestors, learned to fly.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34Why do you think chicks, or immature birds, are the best
0:44:34 > 0:44:40experimental material, as it were, for studying dinosaur theories?
0:44:40 > 0:44:44So, if we just look at their feathers, these guys are just
0:44:44 > 0:44:47beginning to get their flight feathers out, you can see there.
0:44:47 > 0:44:48Yes, yeah.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51And, some of the earliest dinosaurs that we see, actually have very
0:44:51 > 0:44:55similar-looking feathers. They're relatively symmetrical in shape.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58And so, by studying how these feathers function in baby birds,
0:44:58 > 0:44:59and what they use them for,
0:44:59 > 0:45:02we may gain some insight into these earlier dinosaurs.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07So the lifecycle of the individual bird, in a way,
0:45:07 > 0:45:09parallels the evolutionary story.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12- Exactly, so... - From flightless to flightful.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Exactly. So, most birds can't fly when they hatch.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18And so, if you look at the fossil record, at some of these early
0:45:18 > 0:45:20dinosaurs, you start out with animals
0:45:20 > 0:45:22that are clearly flightless, can't fly at all.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25And at some point you end up with the very bird-like animals
0:45:25 > 0:45:27that probably could fly.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30And so the question is, what's really going on in-between?
0:45:30 > 0:45:33What are these transitional fossils using their wings for?
0:45:33 > 0:45:36You know, the traditional assumption has been that these early
0:45:36 > 0:45:40dinosaurs probably don't use those very small wings for flight.
0:45:40 > 0:45:41Erm, which these guys don't,
0:45:41 > 0:45:43but they do use them for other flapping behaviours.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53To prove her point, Ashley sets up an improvised test,
0:45:53 > 0:45:55using high speed photography.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Baby birds really like to hang out in a group, and so,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06if I want this bird to go up to this perch here, I put a bunch of its
0:46:06 > 0:46:10friends up there, and his tendency is to want to be with his buddies.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13So, hopefully, as opposed to the other way around!
0:46:13 > 0:46:15There you go.
0:46:15 > 0:46:17And so, obviously, these guys being babies,
0:46:17 > 0:46:19it takes a while to train them.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23A lot of hens you have to start out pretty close to the top
0:46:23 > 0:46:26cos they don't exactly know where to go.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28Oh, lovely, that was a good one.
0:46:31 > 0:46:32Go on, little fella.
0:46:34 > 0:46:35- Whoa!- That was nice!
0:46:35 > 0:46:38So, on your dinosaur analogy, you could imagine a feathered dinosaur
0:46:38 > 0:46:42finding this a useful ability to escape trouble
0:46:42 > 0:46:45- and get up to into a roosting site.- Exactly.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48And so we're filming this behaviour on a, you know,
0:46:48 > 0:46:49a very artificial ramp.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51But, the chicks when they first hatch,
0:46:51 > 0:46:53there's a small period of time when they can't fly yet,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56and so they may use this behaviour to actually go up a tree.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58- Scuttle up a tree.- Yeah, exactly.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Seen at ten times slower than normal speed,
0:47:08 > 0:47:13these five-day-old chicks clearly illustrate why reducing the secrets
0:47:13 > 0:47:17of bird flight into two mutually exclusive camps might be misguided.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Instead of 'tree down' versus 'run and flap',
0:47:25 > 0:47:29Ashley's experiments show that developing birds use their wings
0:47:29 > 0:47:34and legs for a variety of different purposes - to get up slopes,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38slow aerial descents, speed up running, even swim.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49Now Ashley has begun collaboration with dinosaur locomotion expert,
0:47:49 > 0:47:53Professor John Hutchinson, to try and discover how theropod dinosaurs
0:47:53 > 0:47:58may have turned these primitive flapping behaviours into flight.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03So, what are you doing here?
0:48:03 > 0:48:06Well, we've used the power of computers
0:48:06 > 0:48:08to represent dinosaur bodies in 3D,
0:48:08 > 0:48:14using scans of the actual skeletons of real fossil dinosaurs.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17And then put them into computer models that represent
0:48:17 > 0:48:20their whole body shape with flesh and lungs, and everything
0:48:20 > 0:48:25to study how these animals may have moved, so, what kinds of behaviours.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28And, we can predict that using a computer model.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33So, where does your work with Ashley come into the picture?
0:48:33 > 0:48:37Yeah, well, the super cool thing that we can do now is combine
0:48:37 > 0:48:41the computerised approaches that we use with experimental approaches.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43And that's where Ashley really comes in perfectly,
0:48:43 > 0:48:48as she's got this great dataset on how living birds do these
0:48:48 > 0:48:50unusual flap-running behaviours.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54So, we'd like to run those through a computer to ask, well,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57what did Microraptor or a Caudipteryx do?
0:48:57 > 0:49:00What kind of behaviours were they capable of? Or not capable of?
0:49:00 > 0:49:02And then, with an evolutionary sequence,
0:49:02 > 0:49:05we can address how flight itself may have evolved.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18At my old stomping ground, London's Natural History Museum,
0:49:18 > 0:49:20they've also been using cutting edge science to try
0:49:20 > 0:49:23and find out more about the origin of bird flight.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28They've been re-examining the fossil of Archaeopteryx, Richard Owen
0:49:28 > 0:49:31and Thomas Huxley fought over more than a century ago.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37But they're not looking at its claws, wings or legs.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41Impossible though it may seem, they've been studying its brain.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47So, Angela, this is the specimen that was studied by Richard Owen.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50- That's right. - And, er, we're missing the head.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54We're not quite missing the head. We have got most of the skull,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58which has fallen away from the rest of the specimen.
0:49:58 > 0:49:59That's the cast.
0:50:01 > 0:50:07Here is the actual original specimen.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10So, if we turn it over, we've actually got some of the bones
0:50:10 > 0:50:13er, from the skull roof, all round the back.
0:50:13 > 0:50:15So, this is in three-dimension, which is
0:50:15 > 0:50:17- unlike the Chinese specimens.- Yes.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20The Chinese specimens, unfortunately, although they showed
0:50:20 > 0:50:24lots of marvellous detail, they were all squashed completely flat.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27This is the only specimen, of all the known Archaeopteryx
0:50:27 > 0:50:30specimens, where it was possible to actually take the skull out.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36So, what we were able to do was scan this little object,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39bring it back out into three-dimensions.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43And then, because the brain in all birds, including this one,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46is very, very tightly packed inside the skull,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49the brain leaves an impression of the, what the brain itself was like.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55And is this a bird's mind?
0:50:55 > 0:50:58The way the different parts of the brain are organised,
0:50:58 > 0:51:04it had big lobes where all the flight co-ordination took place.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06It had very big optic lobes so, of course,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09sight is very important if you're flying.
0:51:09 > 0:51:13And we're even able to get the details of the semi-circular
0:51:13 > 0:51:17- canals inside the ear, way back here inside.- Ah, for balance.- Yes.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21And the semi-circular canals fall exactly within the range
0:51:21 > 0:51:23you see in modern birds.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28So, could we say, "if it thought like a bird, it was a bird"?
0:51:28 > 0:51:29Yes.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32It's a bird but it's not as sophisticated as a modern bird.
0:51:34 > 0:51:36It was well-equipped for gliding
0:51:36 > 0:51:38and possibly a little bit of flapping flight.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42And it certainly had good visuals
0:51:42 > 0:51:45and good balance, just like you need in modern birds.
0:51:48 > 0:51:53Archaeopteryx was flight ready, but it was still, primarily, a glider.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11So, in Beijing's IVPP, I examined the fossil of an animal
0:52:11 > 0:52:15the institute's director, Professor Zhou Zhonge,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18believes is one of the first, if not the first, true birds.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24- This is Confuciusornis. - Confuciusornis.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27- Named after... - Named after Confucius.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30- The greatest Chinese philosopher. - Greatest Chinese philosopher, yes.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33And, well, the first thing that strikes you are these
0:52:33 > 0:52:35magnificently preserved feathers.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37- Feathers, yes. - And we know they're flight feathers
0:52:37 > 0:52:39- because of the way they're constructed.- Yeah.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44You can see they are asymmetrical, meaning it's, er,
0:52:44 > 0:52:46- for flying purposes. - It's a definite flight feather.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49- Definitely a flight feather.- We've got a strong flyer here.- Mm-hm.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55- Well, we've got this extraordinary pair of tail feathers.- Yeah.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57- But they're proper feathers. - Mm-hm.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00- And so different from Archaeopteryx. - Yes, different.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03Archaeopteryx has a long, bony tail, but not in this bird.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07You see, we have a short, bony tail. They are called 'pygostyle'.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11- So, it's like a modern bird? - Like modern bird in the tail.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16Now, I believe there are Confuciusornis without
0:53:16 > 0:53:19the tail feathers. So, the obvious conclusion is
0:53:19 > 0:53:20the one without could be the female.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Well, that's the general feeling that, er,
0:53:23 > 0:53:27those with long tail are male and those without are female.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31So, even in those days, the males were likely to have been show-offs.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33Yeah. That's true, yeah.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39Now, I've just recently been looking at Archaeopteryx
0:53:39 > 0:53:42and I can see that this does not have teeth.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45No teeth, no teeth at all. This is another modern feature.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49But, on the other hand, it's also primitive,
0:53:49 > 0:53:51more primitive than modern birds.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55- Because?- Yeah. For instance, you will see big claws.
0:53:55 > 0:53:56- Ah, we've got the wing claws.- Yeah.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00Wing claws. There is another small, tiny claw.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02So, this is a reminder of dinosaur ancestry.
0:54:02 > 0:54:04It's a reminder of a dinosaur ancestor.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13- So, we know so much about this bird. - Mm-hm.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15- Yet, there's one thing we probably don't know.- Mm-hm?
0:54:15 > 0:54:17Did it sing?
0:54:17 > 0:54:22This bird probably could not make a complicated song.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24- It's not a song bird.- Ah, right.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28Because song bird appeared much later in bird history.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33- So, we'll have to wait for tens of millions of years...- Right.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35..before we could hear it for the first time.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38Before we hear the first bird song, yeah.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42- So, not all bird features appear at the same time.- Yeah.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45- They come one after the other. - Right. Exactly.
0:54:47 > 0:54:52Confuciusornis may not have been able to sing, but it had developed
0:54:52 > 0:54:56a large chest bone to anchor arm muscles, which meant it was probably
0:54:56 > 0:55:00one of the first such animals to flap its wings and truly fly.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04Initial tests on its colouring,
0:55:04 > 0:55:08suggests its plumage was rather like that of a house sparrow,
0:55:08 > 0:55:12which is rather less exotic than many people might have expected.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26As I prepare to leave China, my thoughts turn to another
0:55:26 > 0:55:31favourite subject - it's time to mix business with pleasure.
0:55:34 > 0:55:42This is a scientific examination of the fauna and flora of the Ge-Hole.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45I'm going to start with these little noodles,
0:55:45 > 0:55:50which I'm told are made out of the roots of ferns.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57And we know, of course, the origin of the angiosperms,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01the flowering plants, was in these rocks, so...
0:56:05 > 0:56:09Mm. Perhaps we ought to move on to the animal kingdom.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14Crustaceans have been around for hundreds of millions of years so,
0:56:14 > 0:56:16er, they're legitimate.
0:56:19 > 0:56:20Plenty of those in Ge-Hole.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25Well, we've seen some very nice frog fossils.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27A bit tricky to process with chopsticks.
0:56:30 > 0:56:31Mm.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35It's quite nice when you get used to it.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40Then, of course, there are reptiles and I've chosen the snake.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Er, this, er... Actually, I'm only joking.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46Er, this is really an eel.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48So, that's going to take both roles.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53And finally, I suppose, star of the show - we do, of course,
0:56:53 > 0:56:55have, as we know, birds.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00And, er, so I have to eat some chicken.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05So, you see, you too can acquire a taste for pre-history.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16Thanks to discoveries in the Ge-Hole of China,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20our picture of the dinosaurs will never be quite the same again.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28We've seen how they sprouted feathers, developed beaks,
0:57:28 > 0:57:30and used colour for display.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37As well as how some of them learned to climb,
0:57:37 > 0:57:39glide...
0:57:39 > 0:57:40and, finally, take flight.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48Every species of bird alive today is ultimately
0:57:48 > 0:57:50descended from these animals.
0:57:50 > 0:57:54But the division between birds and dinosaurs seems now
0:57:54 > 0:57:58a multifarious transition, rather than a sharp line.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04The dinosaurs still live among us,
0:58:04 > 0:58:07shrouded in plumage and song.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17In the next episode, we travel forward in time to an age
0:58:17 > 0:58:21when Europe was covered in dense rainforest.
0:58:21 > 0:58:26And a deadly lake captured and recorded the rise of the mammals.