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it was in one of the galleries of Saint

Peter's mount

at about 500 Paces from the main entry

and at 90 feet below the surface

part of the skull of a large animal

embedded in the Stone

they suspended their work to tell of

their Discovery to Dr Hoffman who had

for some years been collecting fossils

from the quarries

Dr Hoffman observing the specimen to be

the most important that had yet been

discovered took every precaution to

preserve it in one piece

after having succeeded in removing a

large block of stone surrounding it

and reducing the mass to a proper

condition

it was transported to his home in

Triumph

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after the occupation of Maastricht by

the French Revolutionary Army

the Famous Fossil shows up one cool

center night

the national museum of natural history

in Paris

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this strange thing they called at the

time the unknown animal of Maastricht

started to raise interest among the

scientific community

what they discovered that night looked

unlike any known living creature

some thought it was a crocodile

others believed it to be a whale

neither the shape of its teeth

nor the size of the Jaws

help them to determine its true identity

that is 40 years before the discovery of

the first dinosaur

nobody had ever thought that thousands

of species could have lived and has

appeared in a distant past

but everything was about to change

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dinosaurs still exist

my apologies for intruding upon your

thoughts Mademoiselle but strictly

speaking only reptiles had walked on dry

land are called Dinosaurs

if they lived under the water they are

called marine reptiles and they all

disappeared a very very long time ago

what happened

you'll see Julie

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65 million years ago reptiles ruled the

world

on land

in the air

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and reptiles were Kings and all the Seas

as well

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but then came a great cataclysm from

outer space an asteroid 12 miles in

diameter struck the Earth

this asteroid's massive impact unleashed

the power of more than 100 atomic bombs

the sky went dark and the earth's

climate changed drastically 70 of all

life on the planet perished

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it was also the end of the reign of the

reptile in the Sea World

and when did you say that happened

65 million years ago so

humans will come

a little later

how much later

65 million years

you're kidding

modern humans like you and I only

appeared barely two hundred thousand

years ago in comparison to the age of

the Earth

that's a blink of the eye

two hundred thousand years

an instant in geological time

somewhat difficult to comprehend is it

not

comparing thousands and millions and

even billions of years don't you agree

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then follow me Julie

and when you want to stop time

say stop

stop all right then forward to the Past

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thank you

now let's start slowly from the

beginning

Earth forms four and a half billion

years ago then life appears but remains

microscopic for three billion years in

this time spiral only the last turn

interests us that leads to our time

let's consider this as a 12 hour clock

540 million years ago at two o'clock the

primary era begins

life grows and evolves in every

environment

at 7 30 the secondary era or the

Mesozoic begins

it is the age of reptiles including the

famous dinosaurs yes as well as flying

and marine reptiles

the next and last era the cenozoic is

the age of mammals on this clock Homo

sapiens our minuscule species appears

just eight seconds before 12.

the Mesozoic takes place between the two

major ecological crises that led to the

extinction of many species on Earth the

largest at 7 30 and the last right there

at 10 to 11.

that one caused the extinction of the

dinosaurs and large marine reptiles

but how did it start

well first you'll need a microscope

life on Earth starts in the water as

ulterior three and a half billion years

ago slowly this micro life evolves

then 650 million years ago life becomes

visible to the naked eye soft bodied

organisms

the following 400 million years

bring with them an explosion of Life new

morphological forms appear reaching

considerable sizes

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and finally

amphibians follow fish with feet to

conquer Terra Therma

300 million years ago the first reptiles

appear on land

and in the sky the wingspan of some

insects reaches over three feet

by the end of the Paleozoic the land in

the seas are bursting with life it is a

golden age for biodiversity

but this period ends with gigantic

cataclysms which exterminate up to 95 of

the species

the largest Extinction of all time

95 of this species but that's enormous

nothing much must have remained after

that you're right my dear and most of

the world's great Predators have

disappeared but life persists and in the

Seas many fish and mollusks remain

what about the marine reptiles

the rain begins now

three different groups one after the

other will rule the world's oceans first

the ethiosaurs that use their tails to

swim like a fish much like a fish and

then the Plesiosaurus that used

therefore paddle-like limbs to fly

through the water

and next to the mosasaurs

use an undulating movement similar to to

a snake

and these animals ruled the Seas for 180

million years throughout all three

Mesozoic periods Triassic Jurassic and

Cretaceous from the early Triassic

period onwards ichthyosaurs are the

kings of the Seas during this time above

the water all the continents on earth

are joined together in a single mass of

land a supercontinent called Pangea off

to the pangean coast

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Switzerland yes at this time most of

Europe is underwater a shallow and warm

sea

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land with little to eat

in the sea life flourishes again

several reptile species have returned to

the marine environment thriving in the

plentiful food supply

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the tennis trophies hold a world record

in proportion to their bodies they have

the longest necks ever recorded

with his flat teeth this placodont

mostly eats seashells and mollusks

aren't those turtles not at all but they

too have developed a Tough Armor to keep

them relatively safe from the great

predators of the Triassic like the North

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over 13 feet long

very dangerous

and an excellent swimmer

but it is no chance of catching up with

a mix asaurus

it looks like a dolphin except it's a

reptile like marine mammals today it too

must come to the surface to breathe it

belongs to the large group of

ichthyosaurs

which will rule the Seas for some 150

million years

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one doesn't seem quite big enough to

rule anything

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there are also some very large etiosaurs

on measuring up to 75 feet long and

weighing 50 tons like the shonasaurus

the biggest of them all

like all it to your Source it lives in

groups and mainly eats mollusks and

small fish

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they look like dolphins and whales

that's right they are even born in a

similar manner what do you mean well

let's hear from an expert the

paleontologist ryosuke motani he has

just finished studying some very fine

specimens from a Famous Fossil site in

Germany

fossils have been found at holtzmarden

with their bones intact and even with

the imprint of the skin on the Rock

which helped us to know the position of

their fins

fossils are so well preserved that we

can actually see fetuses inside the

mother's bodies

and some even being born

unable to get out of the water to lay

their eggs like other reptiles

theosaurus gave birth in the water

the babies came out tell first like

dolphins today

another one of the ichthyosaurus

characteristics are its huge eyes

protected by donut-shaped bones able to

withstand extreme water pressure

a Jurassic ichthyosaur the optomosaurus

stands out in the animal kingdom as

having the largest eyes in proportion to

its body

with these enormous eyes it could make

out its prey in the darkness of great

depths

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strangely enough the ichthyosaurs became

extinct in the middle of the Cretaceous

despite their amazing adaptation to Sea

Life

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but how can we know so much about

species that became extinct 90 million

years ago perhaps because of the large

number and the quality of fossils left

and of course thanks to those who

discovered them

here we are in London in one of the most

beautiful galleries devoted to Mesozoic

marine reptiles Natalie bauday is

currently the French expert on these

animals a long time before dinosaurs

were discovered the remains of marine

reptiles had been known to Fossil

collectors

Mary Anning

in the early 19th century she was a

child when she started to create fossils

around her home along the Dorset Coast

in Southern England

during her lifetime with an amazingly

sharp eye

she found some of the most famous fossil

ichirozor and Pleasures or exhibited

here at the Natural History Museum of

London

one of the most complete Pleasures or

skeletons ever found was romerosaurus

oh

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tourism Predator was a powerful swimmer

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during the Jurassic period a new group

of marine reptiles takes over the

plesiosaurs at the beginning of the

early Jurassic Pangea has started to

break up and drift apart into different

pieces it is still hot but the climate

is becoming much more humid such

conditions are perfectly suited to the

development of Life all over the world

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now this sure seems more pleasant than

the Triassic did the Jurassic is

considered the Golden Age of Dinosaurs

isn't it in fact it's the Golden Age of

life in general

and even much more soap for the reptiles

be the Earth flying or marine reptiles

with their Four Strong paddles

plesiosaurs soon become the new Kings of

the Seas

the first dinosaur to be named is

Megalosaurus which means great lizard in

Latin a well-deserved name for a 30-foot

long carnivore with a huge appetite

mollusks like ammonites and Bellum

Knights experience an unprecedented

growth and are on the menu of most

marine predators

by the late Jurassic some animals reach

record sizes like the Brachiosaurus over

100 feet long and can weigh more than

six elephants

Godzilla that is the nickname given to

this large Marine crocodile discovered

in the Andes

with large bony plates on its back the

stegosaurus a three-ton plant eater is a

contemporary of the very first Birds

at the end of the Jurassic period as the

continents continue to drift new oceans

appear and new Plesiosaurus species rule

the Deep

the liopleurodon is most likely one of

the largest ocean predators of the

Mesozoic measuring 49 feet or more that

big

big here

one of its teeth

you see the lyopleurodon had no reason

to fear any creature save perhaps

another Liopleurodon

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thank you

here is a pair of Liopleurodon the male

is attempting to court the female

look at her 50 feet of sheer muscle Four

Deadly paddle-like Limbs and Jaws about

10 feet long that hold teeth

and bigger than the one I gave you

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during this process the male makes

himself extremely vulnerable to the

female

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it seems to have worked

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now that she's chosen him as her partner

the pair needs to head to the safer

Coastal Waters to reproduce

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like sharks the male pluradon holds on

to the female while mating

their young will be born in a few months

what happened

seems that upon separating she has

accidentally injured his eye the pain

has made him lose Consciousness for a

while

in the end though the liopleurodon

remains a super Predator that lives

alone

the end of the Jurassic era its

territory spanned from Europe to South

America

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here we are with zulma gasparini who

discovered the Marine crocodile

nicknamed Godzilla in the Andes

people believed for a long time that the

world had always been the same as it is

now

and was only in 1915 that Alfred Wagoner

a young German scientist put forward a

revolutionary theory he called

continental drift

among the solid arguments that wagon are

used to support his theory a tiny Marine

reptile that lived 250 million years ago

the mesosaurus was to become

unexpectedly important

indeed we have found on both sides of

the Atlantic Ocean identical fossils of

this animal but considering the small

size of the mesosaurus like the one we

have here in this virtual Aquarium

it is obvious they were much too small

to cross an ocean as vast as the

Atlantic on their own the conclusion is

inescapable

if they did not cross the ocean then the

very continents that contained their

fossils must have separated

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the Jurassic was the age of giant

animals the lead sickness is

approximately a hundred feet long

probably the largest fish of all time

what are these long-necked Plesiosaurus

called those were elasmosaurs they're

gulping down gastroliths Stones they

swallow in order to help their digestion

so what do they actually eat mollusks

and a lot of fish judging from their

long sharp teeth

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I believe that's the male liopleurodon

that was wounded some time back oh yes

with one eye missing it's not easy

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bones made by larger relatives it would

appear that other lyopleurodon were

luckier

30 million years later Kronosaurus took

lyopleurodon's place at the top of the

marine food chain chronosaurus remains

were first discovered in Australia

during the 1930s a 13-foot long skull

with 10-foot Jaws

armed with dagger-like teeth

to tell us more about Plesiosaurus

here's Dr Benjamin Kier an Australian

expert on these animals

marine reptiles remains have been found

on every continent particularly those of

plesiosaurs up to 46 feet in length they

were magnificent ocean dwelling reptiles

that flew gracefully through the water

with four massive paddles the order of

plesiosauria was large and varied it's

been broadly divided into two super

families based on their overall body

structure some of them thanks to their

large heads and Powerful short necks

were the super predators of their time

like chronosaurus

others were the complete opposite with

tiny heads at the end of extra long

necks such as elasmosaurus

plesiosaurs lasted as long as the

dinosaurs until the end of Cretaceous 65

billion years ago

the late Cretaceous is the very last

period of the Mesozoic Era and it is the

age of mosasaurs

the land of masses of the Earth have

nearly reached their present positions

the interior Seas of the Americas

retreat but Europe is still partly

covered by shallow Waters

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and what about the climate they're

comparable to the climate of today but

warmer

a beautiful day for a dip in the

Cretaceous ocean don't you think

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as has been the case for millions of

years mollusks are still a favorite meal

for most predators

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are still around in the Cretaceous

indeed there are some

but they are no longer at the top of the

ocean's food chain a place now disputed

by the two greatest predators of this

era in this corner the largest fish of

the Cretaceous a 23-foot long shark and

in this corner the most powerful Marine

reptile the prognathodon a 40-foot

mosasaur

just like a great white of today it

it just larger

but the shark is never going to measure

up to that

shark doesn't mop to the surface to

breathe so

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oh well I told you that Moses are was

going to win

this time yes

but it wasn't always the case

we've even found shark teeth embedded in

Moses or bones so the Sharks did get

their teeth into them from time to time

by the way wasn't it a mosasaur that was

found in a mine back in the 18th century

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here we are very close to the mine with

a famous unknown animal of Maastricht

was found around 1770.

like all paleontologists Olivier rippel

knows this story very well

in 1795 when the fossilized mosazor of

Maastricht derived in Paris

George cuvier was a young 26 year old

anatomist who had just started working

there at the Museum of Natural History

this skull

was the first great fossil ever to be

thoroughly studied by scientists who

found it quite difficult to classify

this creature but it was George cuvier

who would provide the solution based on

comparative Anatomy

The Reptile from The Muse River the

mosazor

was a giant sea lizard a close relative

of the monitor lizards

but this species became completely

extinct

before the dawn of time and so the

mosazor helped to support qva's

hypothesis that several Universal

cataclysms occurred on Earth in the

distant past

and thanks in part to this large animal

George cuvier is recognized today as the

father of paleontology

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at the end of the Cretaceous the

interior Seaway running through the

middle of North America had not yet

completely disappeared

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so there are sharks on the other side of

the Atlantic as well in addition to

marine reptiles they are found in all

the oceans

contrary to dinosaurs marine animals

don't have any borders

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these are young 13-foot long sharks

after hours of laying her eggs on the

beach this turtle is exhausted easy prey

for starving shot

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ah but they are not alone a mosazor

this large Predator truly is the Marine

equivalent of the famous T-Rex

thank you

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the Mosasaur will become the last ruler

of the ancient Seas

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this is one of its teeth it's for you

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thank you

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without fossils no one would have ever

dreamed that there were successive at

pokes in the formation of the Earth

thank you

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thank you

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