All language subtitles for Natural History Museum World of Wonder Series 1 Part 2 1080p

In the heart of London
is an incredible world.

The Natural History Museum.

Home to 8O million sensations
of nature.

From dinosaurs to whales,

giant squid
to billion-year-old rocks.

It's probably the most important
fossil of a dinsoaur

that there is
anywhere in the world.

Now, our cameras have been
allowed behind the scenes...

This rather large crate reminds me

of something from the movie
"lndiana Jones".

...to meet the team...

...keeping it up and running.

Who's a good boy, eh?
DINOSAUR ROARS

I think they're gorgeous.

Welcoming up to
five million visitors a year...

...and bringing its unrivalled
treasures to life.

So, this is the oldest thing
that we have in the museum.

It's actually older
than the solar system.

In this episode, the most famous
dinosaur of all time...

Dippymania has taken over.

...a possible new dino discovery...

...and a dark secret about
our prehistoric ancestors.

So, these teeth marks
must be from a human.

Here we go. To infinity and beyond.

This is The Natural History Museum
as we've never seen it before.

From whale skeletons
to robot dinosaurs...

DINOSAUR ROARS
CHILDREN SCREAM

...The Natural History Museum's
28 galleries

are crammed full
of priceless show-stoppers.

Some of the biggest draws

take centre stage
in the spectacular main hall.

But with the grime of central London
just outside the door,

head of conservation
Lorraine Cornish

is on constant alert
for pollution damage

to these precious pieces.

Very busy day today,
there's a lot going on.

This is the uniform
for most conservators,

hi-vis jacket and a hard hat.

Today, Lorraine and
a crack team of specialists

are descending on
these prized exhibits.

We've got a small army in
this morning.

We're checking the specimens,
we're cleaning them.

The clock's ticking,

we've just got a limited amount
of time to get it done, really.

So at the entrance to the museum,

one of the first things people see
is these two amazing giraffes,

over 100 years old.

So, these giraffes
are right near the doors,

there's a six-lane road outside,
a lot of traffic,

public coming through,
the doors are often open

and so we get dust just coming in

and one of the things
we're looking at

is there any split in the skin,
is it drying out or anything?

We check those seams, check that
everything is as it should be.

I'm just cleaning the glass eye
with some ethanol.

It's going to be
the cleanest eyeball ever.

Some of these things
are absolutely enormous

and we just need to get on with it.

The museum holds one of the greatest
dinosaur collections in the world

and it's looked after
by a team of experts,

including Susie Maidment.

Here at the Natural History
Museum's dinosaur collection,

we have the world's
most complete stegosaurus,

the first T. Rex ever found

and the first dinosaur fossils
to be recognised as such.

And that's just
scratching the surface.

Down here in the basement,

we have hundreds of different types
of dinosaur fossils

from all over the world.

With its world-class reputation,

the museum is the first stop
for any member of the public

who thinks they've made
a new dino discovery.

Today, Susie and her colleague,
Paul Barrett,

have had a promising tip-off.

Someone has sent in photos
of what they think

could be a series
of dino footprints,

known as a trackway, in Wales.

This is someone who thinks
they might have found

a dinosaur trackway on the coast
just outside Cardiff.

I have to say,
these are some of the more

convincing footprint photos
we've been sent.

They're pretty good, aren't they?
Look at this one.

Visitors send us photos

of what they think might be
dinosaur tracks all the time.

And very often, they're just
random holes in rock,

they don't look
like trackways at all.

Do you think those
are toeprints there?

That is a convincing set
of toeprints

for a hand rather than a foot.
Yeah.

And then there's this huge
dustbin lid shaped thing here

and I wonder if we're looking at
a hand-foot pair?

It's difficult to think
how that could form

if it wasn't a footprint,
to be honest.

New dinosaur finds are rare
in the British Isles

and Susie and Paul are so hopeful
that these could be dino footprints

that they've decided to go to Wales
and check them out for themselves.

Members of the public
send us lots of inquiries

about things that they've found.

Sometimes, those are genuine
dinosaur footprints,

but it's pretty rare,

most of the time
it's something else.

But these are some of the best ones
that we've been sent,

and some of the most convincing.

Coming UP---

Susie and Paul arrive in Wales
and the plot thickens.

Footprints are tricky things
to get a handle on,

but there are an awful lot
of them around here.

And we meet the most famous
dinosaur of all time.

When you're over 100, life can be
pretty tough on the road.

Since opening its doors
140 years ago,

the Natural History Museum's
main hall has been a stage

for the biggest crowd-pleasers
of the day.

Including today's main attraction,
Hope the blue whale.

Tonight, head of conservation
Lorraine Cornish

has been looking back at
the headline exhibits from the past.

People will possibly think that
Hope's always been here

where she only came in 2017

and the museum opened in 1881.

So I've gone back into the archives
and I've got a great picture here

showing George, an elephant.

I think George came to
the museum in 1907

and he looks magnificent,
absolutely magnificent.

I'm thinking around here

would be where the photographer
would have taken the picture

of a sperm whale that was
on display from 1895.

But the most popular attraction
in the history of the museum

is Dippy the dinosaur.

Dippy's definitely
the most famous dinosaur

in the country and globally.

Dippy came to the museum in 1905

and has been around a bit,
it has to be said,

and started off in
a reptile gallery

just to one side of here.

And we've got people
in lab coats, here.

We've got people just
casually sitting on the base.

They're essentially
putting Dippy together.

Then this would have been

the public opening
in the reptile gallery.

Back in 1905, when Dippy
was unveiled to the public,

the opening was a must-have ticket.

So you had some
crowned heads of Europe,

a bit of royalty, some VVIPs,

coming to the unveiling
of this colossal dinosaur

that was truly amazing

and the press even
went mad for Dippy.

Instant rock-star status
and really cemented the museum,

you know, as the place to visit.

Dippy is a diplodocus who dominated
the main hall from 1979 until 2017.

Since then, he's been
on a tour across the UK.

As one of the museum's
most prized showpieces,

Lorraine is responsible for
making sure nothing happens to him.

And now Dippy's due a check-up.

Dippy's been very busy
on kind of an extended tour.

I mean, literally,
there is a t-shirt.

When you're over 100
and you're made of plaster,

life can be pretty tough
on the road,

so I have to go and check

to make sure that everything's
as it should be

and he's not showing his age,
essentially.

For many visitors,

the giant specimens
are the museum's biggest draw.

But for fly expert Erica McAlister,
small is beautiful.

We have many hidden treasures
and this is my hidden treasure.

Because it is really in the corner
of a corner of this entire building

and yet there is so much going on

in just one little specimen
on display.

This is a grasshopper
eating a mouse.

It's very personal to me

because it's one of the things
that first sat on my desk

when I joined the museum,
ahem, quite a few years ago.

And I loved it,
because it was so weird,

and we did a little bit
of research into it

and it was found by
Reverend So-And-So

who passed it on to
Reverend So-And-So

who passed it on to someone
who passed it on to us,

because obviously, we want
a grasshopper eating a mouse.

But you can see
the ear of the mouse

is being properly nibbled.

Another of Erica's favourites

is part of a bizarre story
about the museum building.

This is a really terrible looking
specimen of a cat.

It's desiccated, it's mummified,

which some people
might find quite "ugh",

but I think it's fascinating.

And it was found
buried in the front steps

of the entrance to
the Natural History Museum.

We believe it's one of
these superstitious cats

buried in the 1870s.

A warder of bad spirits

and also to get rid
of all vermin in the building.

And I love the fact that is
a building dedicated to science

and still its roots
are very much superstitious.

The Natural History Museum's
dinosaur experts

Susie Maidment and Paul Barrett
have had

a promising tip-off
about dino footprints.

Now they've arrived in Wales
to see them for themselves.

There's some rock ledges
over there, maybe?

Yeah, quite a lot
of exposed rock up there.

If they turn out to be genuine,
they could be an exciting find.

They're pretty big, aren't they?
They are.

But first they need
to get a proper look.

The first thing we've got to do
while we're here

is actually work out
if these are tracks for sure

or whether they're some
other geological feature.

But one of the things that makes me
suspicious that it could be tracks

is they have this
raised rim of rock

around these
crater-like structures,

which could be potentially
be these footprints.

What we really need to do
is get some of them nice and clean

so we can have a look
at the edges properly,

see if there's evidence
of things like toes

that might help us
really nail that down.

It'll be really good if we can
remove some of this sand,

which is going to involve
quite a lot of sweeping, I think.

It's kind of like
making sandcastles, actually.

Dinosaur footprints can often just
look like holes in the rock

and even for experts
like Susie and Paul,

it's still hard to work out
whether these are dino prints.

They need to find clear proof

that a dinosaur may have
once walked here.

I can't say anything in this one
that looks particularly like

a definite finger
or a toe impression,

but they're very deep.

They get quite filled up

with all of the sand
that's covering the beach.

But there are an awful lot
of them around here.

Footprints are tricky things
to get a handle on.

What you really want
is something that's perfect,

with lots of fingers
and lots of toes showing.

At the moment, I'm thinking
I don't know what these things are.

It is hard work, yeah,

and there's not really
a shortcut to it, either.

There's no technology we can use
that makes this easier,

so we just have to stick with this.

Susie and Paul will need
to excavate more ground

if they're going to find
the crucial evidence they need

to get to the bottom
of this dino mystery.

As a housekeeping supervisor
at the museum,

Debbie Marler gets privileged access
to the world-famous exhibits.

It's just not your normal everyday
nine-to-five job, is it?

I get to see all the things
that the public don't get to see

and actually,
really close up, as well.

I'm touching really old objects.

They've got to be
priceless, really.

It's not like you can just
go down the shops and buy one.

This is the dinosaur nest.

All the kids must love this one,
cos I do.

Look at them, they're just
cute little dinosaurs

coming out of their eggs.

I'd say these were my most
favourite in the whole museum

because they just look so innocent.

This is Harry, he's in his bed,

he's got his little
blanket around him.

This is Billy,

and Susie's just,
"No way. You're not coming out".

I've got six children

and I would say these are
so much easier to look after.

The Natural History Museum
is on a site

the size of eight football pitches
in up-market South Kensington.

But what lots of visitors
don't realise is that,

tucked between the central building
and the busy main road,

the museum has
its very own two-acre garden

crammed full of British wildlife.

BIRDS COO

MAN: Morning!

Today, Tom McCarter
and Sylvia Myers,

who are part of the team
who run the wildlife garden...

Morning, sheep.

...are welcoming some new additions
to entertain the tourists.

How are you doing?

Bracken is five years old
and Ivy is three

and they're both
grey-faced Dartmoor sheep.

They come here for six
to eight weeks.

Do you want some sheep nuts?
Mmm, yummy!

They really love the sheep nuts,

so if we want them to come with us,
it's quite a useful tool.

They love them so much, I believe
they know the word "sheep nut".

THEY BLEAT

Come on!

It's a lovely thing to have
in your job description,

you get to be a farmer for
six to eight weeks every year.

Bracken!

HE LAUGHS
Come on!

Herding sheep is harder
than it looks.

Come on!

If you try and direct the sheep,

they will quite often bolt
and go the other direction.

Do you want to try
and get behind them?

Come on!

SYLVIA LAUGHS

They have their own minds
and they like to

wander round the gardens
as they see fit.

Come on. Hey, girls.
Come on, girls.

They do really like this bit.

If they don't come here in the
morning,

they sometimes get
a little bit grumpy.

That was trickier than I thought.
BOTH LAUGH

With Ivy and Bracken safely
in their new pasture,

they're ready for the public.

THEY BLEAT

Coming UP---

The secrets of
ancient Brits revealed.

To have a skeleton from someone
who died 10,000 years ago

is just so incredibly rare.

And we meet the most famous dinosaur
of all time.

Dippymania has taken over.

The world's most famous dinosaur,
Dippy,

is on a blockbuster tour
around the UK.

As one of the Natural History
Museum's most prized possessions,

it's vital nothing happens to him.

So today, head of conservation
Lorraine Cornish

has come to check up on him.

I'm really excited to be going in
and seeing Dippy.

It'll be like seeing
our long-lost friend.

After nearly three years
on the move,

Lorraine needs to make sure
he's not damaged

after being taken apart and
put back together so many times.

Hi, Janet. How are you doing?

15 feet high and longer
than two double decker busses,

Dippy can only just about squeeze
into Rochdale's huge public library.

The whole town has been

experiencing the Dippy effect,
basically.

Dippymania has taken over.
Dippymania, totally.

We've even had dino breakfasts
at one of the local hostelries.

Really? I've even got
my Dippy badge on.

There he is.

He seems to get bigger every time
I see him, though.

It's so funny, when you haven't
seen him for a long time

and then you come back and go,
"Oh, he is huge".

Life on the move could easily damage

a dinosaur of this size
and structure.

We have a very large join here
where the legs come together

and they're bolted

so we always like
having a look here

just to see if everything's
as it should be.

Dippy is now over 100 years old

and time has taken its toll.

He's quite delicate.

He looks quite robust, doesn't he?
He looks like he's pretty solid.

But that plaster is from 1905.

It's quite fragile, it could snap.

There are some tiny cracks,
just because it's so old,

and so we have to be
very respectful of this skeleton

when we put it together

and don't assume anything.

And clearing away the dust

isn't just to make Dippy
look good for his fans.

Two bits of any trusty
conservator will have

and that is a handi-brush,

which helps to sometimes dislodge

those tricky bits of dust that
actually will fall on the specimen,

and then, this is a bit of a trick
up our sleeves, cosmetic sponge.

You don't just use it
for your face, you know.

Dust isn't great
on objects over time.

It's hygroscopic,
so it kind of absorbs water,

it can sometimes become acidic.

It's just not a great thing if
you're looking after a skeleton.

After a day of close inspection,

Lorraine's happy
that he is structurally sound

and ready for his public.

Lots of people think
that this is a real skeleton

but the original
is actually in America

and this is the first copy
that was ever made

and then was gifted to London
at the request of King Edward VII.

And at the time,
it was the biggest,

most complete dinosaur to go
on display anywhere in the world,

so it caused an absolute
media sensation.

Everyone was absolutely amazed

at this "colossal stranger",
as it was called.

SHE CHUCKLES

Everything's as it should be,
which is what we want.

Dippy's been fascinating the crowds
for over a century

and today's no exception.

That's a really good question.

It's a bit like
how you poo and wee.

There's a part of
the dinosaur's body back here

where the poo and the wee
would come out.

No one ever tires of seeing Dippy

and I think it doesn't matter
how many times.

And that's magical, isn't it?

Alongside dinosaurs,
plants and stuffed animals,

the Natural History Museum is home
to hundreds of human remains

from the last 10,000 years.

The most famous exhibit
is the oldest

and most complete human skeleton
ever found in Britain, Cheddar Man.

Ancient DNA expert Selina Brace
and her team

have spent the past three years
unlocking the secrets

of his remarkable prehistoric bones.

Cheddar Man is called Cheddar Man

because he was found
in Cheddar Gorge in Somerset.

To have an almost complete skeleton

from someone who died
10,000 years ago

is just so incredibly rare,
it's amazing.

And we can tell
so much looking at him,

from his skeleton,
about the way he lived, who he was.

Cheddar Man was alive

over 4,000 years before the ancient
Egyptians built the pyramids.

But using cutting edge techniques,

Selina has been able
to discover how he lived.

Cheddar Man's lifestyle would have
been that of a hunter-gatherer.

He would have eaten off the land,

he would have eaten
roots and berries

but he would have
hunted wild animals.

Examining his 10,000-year-old DNA
was a delicate process.

When we sampled
Cheddar Man for DNA,

it was a very scary day.

We took the skull
and we turned this upside-down

and we took a very small amount
of bone powder from his inner ear.

Ancient DNA testing
often yields no results at all.

But with Cheddar Man,
the team struck gold.

And what they discovered
was extraordinary.

From his DNA and skeleton,

they were able to create
an accurate image

of what prehistoric Britons
looked like.

And it wasn't
what most people expected.

This is a reconstruction
of Cheddar Man's face.

From the DNA, we were able to say

that he had dark hair, blue eyes
and dark skin pigmentation,

which today looks really unusual,

but what we think and what we know
from other human remains

is that, in fact,
most people in Britain

during this time point,
10,000 years ago,

would have had this

really interesting
combination of features.

Tucked away in the same cave
as Cheddar Man

was another collection
of human skeletons

that still need investigation.

Cheddar Man was found
on his own in the cave

but in a different part
of the cave,

there were a lot more bones,

and these are from individuals
much, much older

and these were are only just
starting to look at.

Selina is now hoping further
examination will reveal

what secrets these bones
could be hiding.

Head of conservation
Lorraine Cornish

is back at the museum

and there's one more stuffed animal
to check over.

It's her personal favourite.

Hi, Guy.

Guy the gorilla.

I certainly have objects
in the museum

where I've looked after them
for a long time

and I am attached to them,
for sure.

Guy is so treasured and so popular

that he has his own
protected glass case

and a dedicated corner
of the museum's main hall.

You have to be a little bit agile
getting in,

which is not a great look.

I think the phrase "Does my bum
look big in this?" comes to mind.

As I don't damage anything.
SHE GROANS

He's handsome, isn't he?
Don't you think?

When you're in the case, you can
get to most of him, actually.

What we're doing is
we're looking at any splits.

You can also look at the fur

to see if there's no
insect movement or anything.

See how he's doing.

Lorraine's bond with Guy goes back
to when she was a girl.

It's even more special to me
sitting here with him now

because I remember seeing him
when he was alive at London Zoo

as a young child and
I thought he was amazing then.

He came to London Zoo as a baby

and he arrived on Guy Fawkes' Night
in 1947

and I think he was afraid

of all of the noise of
the fireworks and everything.

The story goes that
he wouldn't settle

until one of the keepers would
actually stay over with him,

and so he got the nickname Guy.

All the public adored him and
they would then give him treats,

but sadly that was sweets
and cakes and things,

very bad for your teeth,
so his teeth were rotting,

so he had to have an operation

and sadly, while he was under,
he had a heart attack and died.

And then he was at London Zoo

from 1947 until he died in 1978

and then eventually,

his body was donated to
the Natural History Museum.

Even now, people will
come into the museum,

they'll ask about the dinosaurs,
they'll ask about Guy.

Looking good.

Dead leg. Ooh!

So we probably won't check him
for another year now

and so we can close the door up.

Dinosaur experts Susie Maidment
and Paul Barrett

are investigating traces
of possible dino footprints

on a beach in South Wales.

Dino prints are rare

and identifying them requires
evidence of finger and toe imprints.

But after hours
of careful searching,

Susie and Paul are no closer
to uncovering

the vital proof they need.

I'm still sad that
we can't see any toe claws

or really distinct shapes of feet.

Maybe it could have been
a claw mark or a toe...

But I wouldn't want to
bet my life on it.

To help them get to
the bottom of things,

they've called in back up.

Peter Falkingham is a specialist
in analysing prehistoric footprints.

So this is it,
this is what we've come to see

and we're really intrigued
as to hear

what you're going to make of it.

After several more hours
of clearing sand,

fresh evidence seems to be emerging.

We do seem to have these
depressions in the sides coming up

that could be left behind by toes.

So, that's a long-necked,
long-tailed dinosaur foot

and then hands there.

And we just see them
quite close to each other.

Ooh! Quite a stretch.

Susie is becoming convinced
the potential footprints

match the strides
of a large dinosaur.

They're so regular,
they're so evenly spaced.

I just can't believe
that's a natural feature.

You can predict where
the next one's going to be.

I reckon there's going to be
one here, right? And there is.

But now Peter is not so sure.

For the team to be certain,

Peter is going to create
a 3D model of the footprints,

which Paul and Susie will then
analyse back at the museum.

Pete takes lots and lots
of pictures

of the same footprint
from different angles.

Then we can take
all those photographs

and using some
really cool software,

we can build 3D models
of each of those prints.

The 3D models should confirm
once and for all

whether these are
dinosaur footprints or not.

Erica McAlister is one of
the curators who looks after

the museum's enormous
fly and flea collection.

She's part of the museum's
ambitious mission

to photograph every one
of their 8O million specimens

so that anyone in the world
can see them.

Today, she's set her sights
on some of the most bizarre.

So, these are exceptionally fragile
and exceptionally delicate.

We really never take this lid off,

but I'm going to take it off
to do this imaging.

The dressed fleas.

These were by the nuns in Mexico,
which is great.

So what they would do,
they would put the fleas in there,

make little outfits and then
the fleas would be the head.

The strange art of dressing
real fleas in costumes

began in 19th century Mexico.

This is a wedding being serenaded
by a Mariachi band.

So these bands are very popular
in Mexico

and these have been made by,
we believe, nuns

and they've been bought
as tourist trinkets.

You know, who doesn't want
a dressed flea?

And then where's the lady?

She's not looking her best,
really, is she?

She's got a bouquet.
ERICA CHUCKLES

So we've definitely got
a bride and groom

and then we've even got
a bridesmaid and best man

and then either side
of the wedding party,

you've got this little
Mariachi band

and you've got a guitarist
and one with the castanets.

They've all got the most
fabulously large hats.

How on Earth she made these hats,
I don't know.

But that's the level of detail
I like.

OK, that's really cute,

I might have to take some photos
of actually that.

As a child, it's not
something you imagine,

being paid to photograph a flea
that's been dressed as a bride.

Can you imagine
your career guidance counsellor,

"What do you want to do?"

"l want to image fleas.

"L want to image fleas
like nobody's imaged fleas before."

These photographs will now form part

of an enormous
digital archive project,

recording every single item
the museum owns.

One of the museum's
biggest crowd-pullers

is Sophie the stegosaurus.

With almost all
of her skeleton intact,

Sophie is the world's most complete
example of the famous dinosaur.

But she's so unique that
the most precious part of her

is kept under lock and key.

Her skull.

While she waits for news
about the dino footprints,

Susie Maidment is taking a rare look

at Sophie's
150 million year old skull.

Although they're very iconic
as dinosaurs,

there are really few skulls
of stegosaurus that are intact

from anywhere in the world,
there's no more than five,

and Sophie's is absolutely unique

in that all the bones
are separate from each other,

they're not all fused together,

and that, for us,
is kind of the holy grail.

The separate skull bones means Susie

has been able to discover more about

this incredible dinosaur
than ever before.

We were able to do loads of study
on this specimen

and we discovered that Susie
weighed about 1.5 to 2 tonnes,

which is something like
a white rhino.

The question I get asked the most
about the stegosaurus

is what was the function
of their armour

that they had down the back,

the plates and the spikes
at the end of the tail?

Now, the spikes were probably
used as a weapon.

The plates,
it's a bit harder to say.

They're very thin, and while
some people have suggested

they could have been
armour plating,

I think if you were
something like allosaurus,

with a big, bone-crunching bite,

chomping through stegosaurus plates

would probably be like
eating a pack of Pringles.

What we've got here
is the brain case.

This is actually the back
of Sophie's skull.

Now, stegosaurus's brain

is sometimes compared to
a size of the plum.

I think Sophie's might have been
a little bit smaller than that.

Now, while there's not
a direct relationship

between brain size
and intelligence,

Sophie did have a very small
brain for her body weight

and so I suspect that this dinosaur
was not very clever.

Coming UP---

A gruesome secret is uncovered.

So this is definitely
cannibalistic behaviour.

And after the great dinosaur hunt,

the results are in.

Slightly blows your mind,
doesn't it?

At the Natural History Museum,

Selina Brace has been examining
a set of ancient human bones.

These 15,000-year-old human remains

are among the oldest of their kind
ever found in Britain

and they were discovered in the same
cave as the skeleton of Cheddar Man.

PhD student William Marsh
has been studying them

and has some gruesome news.

You've got four ribs here.

All of them showing signs
of human cannibalism.

And this one is kind of unmissable.
Oh, that's amazing.

There are bite marks
on these rib bones

that can only have been made
by human teeth.

Three tooth marks.

One, two, three.

So these teeth marks
must be from a human.

Yeah, I think so.

And cos you can see
there's evidence also

of cut marks slightly down here,
which is evidence that...

Where they de-fleshed?
Where they de-fleshed it.

Yeah, absolutely.
Taken the flesh off.

And then the human teeth marks.

The other body parts
tell an even more horrifying story.

A skull has been turned into
a drinking vessel.

We've got a skull cup
which shows signs of cut marks.

So rather than being,
like, brutally smashed

or very quickly broken apart
to remove the brain,

what they've actually done
is very carefully cut away,

de-fleshed around the outside

to create this beautiful cup
that you see here.

So that together,
if we had that up round there,

would be the whole of
the drinking vessel,

this would be the drinking cup.

For Selina and William,
the next step is to work out why

humans were carving skulls
and eating each other

15,000 years ago in Britain.

So this is definitely
cannibalistic behaviour.

So there are many reasons
that you can have cannibals

and that people
would eat human flesh.

One is that they were very hungry.

Maybe this was a time
when there wasn't much food.

It could be that they were
eating their enemies

to prove they were stronger
than they were.

Or it could be much more
about honouring the dead,

so ritually eating
members of your family

as a way to show that you cared,

as bizarre as this may sound.

With many questions
about these prehistoric cannibals

left to answer,
Selina's research will continue.

In a hidden corner of the museum,

marine expert Miranda Lowe
is responsible

for some of the most delicate items
in the entire building.

150-year-old replicas
of sea creatures

made from paper-thin glass.

Every time I handle these,
I take a sharp intake of breath.

You can see how fragile it is.

A glass jellyfish that was actually
made in the 1870s.

The museum has a new exhibition
coming up

and Miranda has been asked to select

just one of these models
for public display.

It's really hard to just choose
one item for exhibition

because we have 180 of them.

This is a form of moon jellyfish.

The glass here is one-tenth
of a millimetre.

So thin, so fragile.

This is one of my most
favourite objects.

A beautiful glass octopus.

You can see so much detail.

These painstakingly accurate models

once offered a glimpse into
a mysterious underwater world.

So when these things were made,

these glass marine sea creatures
were there to inspire people

about the world's oceans.

This kind of object
brought to the public

what you might actually see.

This is a bit like unwrapping
your best birthday present.

But as much as she loves them all,

Miranda can only choose one
for the exhibition.

Amazing.

Or can she?

I can't just choose one, so
I'm going to see if I can have to.

I'd love this one to go in,

and then I'd love
this other one over here.

I think I've got my final selection
and people are going to love them.

Dinosaur experts Susie Maidment
and Paul Barrett

have just received a digital model

of the possible dino trackways
they saw on a beach in Wales.

These images have revealed details

that were invisible
to the naked eye.

It just looks so clear.

It does. It really gives
a much clearer view

than when you're on the beach.

That's true, actually.

There's no water
in the tracks here, are there?

Which really helps to see it,

cos on the beach it was
quite difficult to see.

After a thorough examination,

Susie and Paul finally see
the evidence they were looking for.

Proof of finger and toe marks.

That one looks like it's got toes.
Yeah, that looks like a toe.

And it has this big raised rim
of mud at the back of the print

which has been caused
by the heel of the hand

really pushing into that soft mud.

And as you say,
these could be claw marks

and these animals would have had

really big, chunky claws
on their fingers.

With these images,
and what they saw on the beach,

Susie and Paul now feel confident

that they've made
an exciting new discovery.

They're so much like footprints.

They're so regular,

they've got these raised rims
that just look like what you get

when a foot impacts into mud.

Not only can Susie and Paul now see
these dinosaur prints clearly,

they also think they know
what type of dino they belong to.

An early sauropod, the largest
land animal that's ever lived.

One of its relatives sits in
the Natural History Museum today.

I think it was probably made
by an early relative

of this sort of dinosaur here.

But an earlier member
of this group.

And some of these shapes
that we see

in these footprints here
are really so similar.

I actually think it's kind of
amazing that something like that

would have been wandering around

what is now a beach in South Wales
210 million years ago.

Yeah, it is quite stunning.

It slightly blows your mind,
doesn't it?

Next time...

The first T. Rex ever discovered.

The ribs can be
really, really fragile

because they've been around
for 66 million years.

In the eeriest corner
of the museum...

Some of these animals,

you might not even realise
are actually real animals.

And the most daring mission
the museum's ever undertaken.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media