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Documentary, Dinosaurs Giants of Patagonia 2007 -2 Lizard Kings
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00:00This is Patagonia, a primordial landscape unlike anywhere on earth, and is bordered
00:23by the Andes mountains to the west and south, plateau and low plains to the east.
00:34Here it feels as though time stands entirely still, as if the age when dinosaurs walked
00:44these plains was, but a moment ago, and a heartbeat away.
01:14Professor Rodolfo Correa is director of the Carmen Funes Museum in Nucan Province, Argentina.
01:23He's best known for the field study and co-naming of the Argentinosaur, the world's largest land
01:29animal, and the Gigantosaur, a carnivore even bigger than T-Rex.
01:37When it comes to really big dinosaurs, simply put, Rodolfo is the man.
01:43My first fossil was not found in a field of tradition.
01:47I found my first fossil in a shelf in a collection of a museum, and I think that was a love of
01:55first sight.
02:00Correa loves his native Argentina, and his love of the land perfectly echoes his passion for
02:05prehistory.
02:06Here, soil erosion has laid bare the story of this land's prehistoric inhabitants for all
02:12to see.
02:16This is dinosaur country.
02:18I would have to go to the field, to go to the countryside, in expeditions.
02:24Many times we have to spend several weeks in the field, away from any human contact.
02:33And in that extreme conditions, of course, there are some risks that show up.
02:49They straddle the line between fact and fiction, these beasts.
02:53Had they never existed, we probably would have dreamt them into being.
02:58Creatures as big as our collective imaginations, as fierce as our darkest nightmares now, vanished
03:04from sight.
03:05It takes a unique camera to capture them.
03:15In this case, an IMAX rig weighing nearly 300 pounds, film stock so rugged it could pull
03:22a truck, and a team of producers, directors and digital whiz kids bent on doing the impossible.
03:32And they'll be doing it all in 3D, a total immersive experience.
03:38Just another on the list of daunting challenges for an IMAX team who believe they can bring
03:42these creatures to life, undaunted by the fact that their star actors have been stone cold
03:49dead for millions of years.
03:56Join us as we venture to the wilds of Patagonia.
04:00Join us in on the wonders of stereoscopic vision and watch prehistory collide with digital
04:06culture to produce dinosaurs, giants of Patagonia.
04:12Dinosaurs, giants of Patagonia paints a meticulous picture of a lost world, allowing us a glimpse
04:19into what the earth looked like when Argentinosaur and Gigantosaur called it home.
04:22As you'll be with us on this journey back in time, we're going to ask you to join us in a little prehistoric trivia, a pop quiz on the Cretaceous
04:26period.
04:27But don't worry, we're not going to take it too seriously.
04:33We're not going to take it too seriously, and you shouldn't either.
04:40Welcome armchair paleontologists.
04:41Come on in, grab a cup of joe and join us.
04:46It's Cretaceous as we kick back way back into prehistory.
04:53Sharpen your pencils and get ready.
04:54It's trivia time.
04:55Okay.
04:56The dinosaurs range from the Cretaceous.
04:57But don't worry, we're not going to take it too seriously.
05:00But don't worry, we're not going to take it too seriously.
05:02And you shouldn't either.
05:04Welcome armchair paleontologists.
05:06Come on in, grab a cup of joe and join us.
05:10It's Cretaceous as we kick back way back into prehistory.
05:16Sharpen your pencils and get ready.
05:19It's trivia time.
05:21Okay.
05:22The dinosaurs' reign came to an end in the late Cretaceous due to either a comet or an
05:28asteroid smashing into the earth forever changing the planet's climate.
05:33Now here's the question.
05:35This unhappy event occurred.
05:38A. 65 million years ago.
05:41B. 650 million years ago.
05:45Or C. On a rainy night in the late 1980s.
05:52I'm sorry.
05:53The dinosaurs had millions of years, but you don't.
05:56Time's up.
05:58For those of you who chose C. On a rainy night in the late 1980s.
06:02I'm sorry.
06:03You may have confused the demise of the mighty dinosaur with the breakup of Duran Duran.
06:09It's a common mistake.
06:10Better luck next time.
06:12For those of you who chose B. 650 million years ago.
06:17I'm afraid you two are in error.
06:19Although this is about the time the humble sponge came into being.
06:24And for those of you who chose A.
06:26Well bingo.
06:27You're all over it.
06:28It was indeed a scant 65 million years ago that our little blue planet got smacked.
06:33The rest is history.
06:35Prehistory.
06:36And now back to our program.
06:40Behind this ambitious project lie two remarkable individuals.
06:45Paleontologist Rodolfo Correa and the film's writer and director Mark Fafard.
06:53Rodolfo is a scientist, so he's an inquisitive mind to start with.
06:58And being someone very curious myself, I relate to other curious people.
07:05And I think that people having quests can share with other people having quests.
07:15For the director, the match with Rodolfo Correa is a good one.
07:18They both have oversized passions.
07:20It's a very unique scenario to show just a moment in life of these dinosaurs, of these
07:30Patagonian dinosaurs.
07:31Roll camera.
07:32In action.
07:35Fafard is known as a trailblazer in the realm of large format filmmaking.
07:40Dinosaurs and Giants of Patagonia is only his latest foray into IMAX.
07:50It's a medium he knows well.
08:05Fafard's groundbreaking film, Adrenaline Rush, explored the thrill of skydiving.
08:13Taking viewers on an unforgettable journey into extreme sport.
08:35In Viking's journey to new worlds, Fafard brought fresh insight into a remarkable period of discovery.
08:43Viewers were given front row seats in an epic tale of exploration and adventure.
08:53Now Fafard is involved in an even greater challenge.
08:56To film the unfilmable, to bring prehistory to life, to tame it, and to bring it in here for all of us to see.
09:05The truth of the matter is that making movies about extinct creatures is a tricky proposition.
09:24Doubly so on the big screen, and exponentially more difficult working in three dimensions.
09:31But that's exactly what the team creating dinosaurs, Giants of Patagonia, have set out to do.
09:37Whatever it takes.
09:40Today, this haunting landscape is temporary home for a small group of filmmakers determined to bring Patagonia's original inhabitants back to life.
09:52We're trying to mimic what life looked like 85 million years ago.
10:02We're trying to mimic what life looked like 85 million years ago.
10:06We're on this mission of working with invisible subjects, and that is exceedingly difficult.
10:12Okay, stand by, three, two, one, action!
10:16Shooting a subject that's extinct is the fact that it's not there, it's not in front of us.
10:22We have to pretend that it's moving.
10:24This remote part of Patagonia forms the perfect backdrop for their film and the ideal setting for our story.
10:36A place big and strange enough that for a moment we can allow ourselves to imagine a world where such extraordinary creatures drew breath, roamed free, and ruled all they surveilled.
10:52Shooting in isolated areas of Patagonia is only part of the challenge Fafard must face.
11:10He must also tame a range of advanced technologies in order to bring Coria's extraordinary discoveries to life.
11:17It's a complex recipe involving large format film plates, computer imaging, and digital composition.
11:24What will make this film about dinosaurs different from every film made about dinosaurs is that this one will literally carry the audience in the Cretaceous.
11:36This movie, in this kind of format, with this technology, is a brand new experience for me.
11:45The large format film, especially in 3D and stereoscopic view, it's a real good way to show those dinosaurs in their real environment.
11:53By coming to this movie, people will travel back in time. That's what, you know, the greatest part of the experience would be.
12:00To make the journey convincing requires a thorough understanding of how we perceive the world around us.
12:29Specifically, how our vision works. To create a sense of depth perception that transports us into the moment.
12:36Seeing in stereo is something so commonplace we rarely think about what it involves.
12:41But, making that happen in a movie theater requires an in-depth understanding of optics and how to use that to the filmmaker's advantage.
12:51Before you go rushing out to shoot your own 3D movie, you'd best wrap your head around the concept of stereoscopic vision.
13:03Because 3D movies employ a lot of highly technical stuff just to achieve what our eyes do naturally.
13:093D vision occurs because both of our eyes share pretty much the same field of vision.
13:15Horses, for instance, with eyes on the sides of their head, see almost completely different things out of each eye, resulting in very limited depth perception.
13:24Whereas we see the same visual information twice, from slightly different perspectives.
13:34Our brain, using a process known as stereopsis,
13:40then combines the two images into one, and voila! Depth perception is born!
13:46For the IMAX guys, replicating the process involves shooting with two lenses, recording two different perspectives on two rolls of film.
13:57When it comes to showing the movie, the projector uses polarized filters on the lenses to beam two slightly different images onto the same screen.
14:08Polarized glasses ensure viewers receive one image in each eye.
14:14The brain does the rest, combining the two images into one stereoscopic picture, despite the fact the screen and the images are actually flat.
14:25It's a textbook case of movie magic.
14:29And it's tricky to do, requiring exact calibration.
14:33Get it wrong by a fraction of an inch, and all you'll do is give the audience an IMAX-sized headache.
14:40Do it right, and you've got one of the most impressive and immersive technologies on offer.
14:47Throw in state-of-the-art computer graphics and a few dozen thundering reptiles,
14:52and you've got dinosaurs, giants of Patagonia.
14:56The perfect recipe for folks who like their prehistory big, bold, up close, and personal.
15:03You would think that you could just take a camera and plant it and pretend that life is going to move in front of it.
15:17We used measuring sticks to show us how high the shoulder of these dinosaurs were, and also their depth and their breadth and their length.
15:30You know, when we get all these elements out in front of the camera, you realize that these things were enormous.
15:37And in many cases, we had to back up and expand the frame because we just hadn't given enough room to have a full-scale dinosaur.
15:46And it was our first take of Dino 3D!
16:02The audience of large format movies likes to travel.
16:17Patagonia is such an exotic and beautiful place that they will get their share of exoticism.
16:23shooting in such a remote area is a unique challenge.
16:38It's not like a Hollywood back lot with hot and cold running everything.
16:42everything this crew is smack dab in the middle of nowhere and everything is a challenge
16:53in documentary filmmaking we're faced with many different hazards and challenges
16:59in argentina it was basically the terrain the weather the wind there's days when
17:06people don't even come out of their homes because the wind is too strong and it's too dangerous
17:11light patagonian breeze patagonia it's a little bit windy but it's not chilling
17:18you know we face lots of different hazards we're working with heavy gear and we're moving it around
17:23on unbearable terrain sometimes and hauling a 300 pound camera down the sides of riverbeds
17:29crevasses and whatever that's very challenging
17:40for faffard and his team all the frustrations of working on location would be worthwhile if they
17:54could get the kind of footage needed to tell the story convincingly faffard is looking for realism
18:01bringing together the exact elements that would transport the viewer into rodolfo coria's prehistoric
18:07world which is what's so irresistible about large format filmmaking the imax experience is an immersive
18:15one where filmmakers are able to have their subject matter reach out and touch you that's what happens
18:22with imax 3d it's really as if you've been transported to another world alas we are not boasting quite the
18:31same horsepower here on the small screen and we are missing a third dimension to boot but
18:36we do have some very cool paleontological trivia to fill the void so get ready for the next round
18:51welcome our chair paleontologists come on in as we get totally old school
18:56it's cretaceous join us as we kick back way back into prehistory it's trivia time and only one
19:08question stands between you and paleontological greatness and here it is dinosaurs are divided into
19:16two main groups psoricia and ornithisia according to what criteria is this division made a their hip structure
19:27b their choice of habitat or c their choice of diet oh i'm sorry your time is up for those of you who chose b
19:38choice of habitat congratulations are in order for choosing such a plausible criteria unfortunately nobody ever thought of it
19:46before clever but wrong for those that selected c choice of diet well what can we say brilliant choice but
19:54also wrong which leaves us with a their hip structure no kidding that's it bird hips or reptile hips
20:04that's what it's all about in the dinosaur classification game now you know stranger still
20:11the bird sight is sericea not ornithisia even though you'd think it was the other way around
20:18what can we say paleontology is flat out weird and that's all we have time for back to our program
20:28in the end of course the dinosaurs didn't make it ending up in textbooks and museums rather than
20:35basking in the sun and chasing down prey but don't get too cocky dinosaurs dominated the earth for 180
20:43million years as for whether we'll make it anywhere near that long is a very open question but that's
20:50a story for another day what we do know is that if the fart and his team are successful then for the first
20:58time we'll be able to watch life-sized dinosaurs in a theater in three dimensions
21:12to fafard's way of thinking large format filmmaking and dinosaurs are the perfect meeting between medium
21:19and subject matter pushing it to the third dimension is just the next logical step on the road to actually
21:25slipping back into prehistory and one of the long dead stars of the film the argentinosaur and giganitosaur well
21:36in many respects that's where our story really begins
21:56like all good stories this one begins in a land far away and a long long time ago more specifically
22:04about 90 million years ago when the world was young and human life was but a darwinistic twinkle
22:11in a far distant future to put it simply the neighborhood was a little on the rough side
22:18populated as it was by a scaly assortment of predators
22:23most of whom viewed each other as so many potential menu items
22:30the biggest of the lot was argentinosaur the largest heaviest beast that ever lived
22:37it was a herbivore which must have been something of a relief to well pretty much everybody else
22:44the argentinosaurus the biggest dinosaur ever found so far on earth was discovered in january of 1989
22:59in a tiny town called plaza wingo in the north western patagonia in argentina every backbone of argentinosaurus is
23:07the size of the size of a refrigerator
23:13we were able to reconstruct a whole skeleton of this animal and it's shown a 40 meters long 100 feet long
23:23dinosaur 80 100 tons in weight and this dinosaur lived 90 million years ago in patagonia
23:33to look up at this incredible monster getting under it was like entering a cathedral of bones
23:50the meat eating end of the spectrum was the giganitosaur
24:04weighing in at nearly eight tons this was one beefy lizard
24:08not a creature you'd want to encounter in a dark alley or on a sunny day for that matter
24:19rodolfo correa and his colleagues are discovering more about these marvelous creatures every day
24:25but they are still beings filled with mystery it has always been this way
24:31back in 1842 a gentleman by the name of sir richard owen invented the term dinosaur which roughly
24:43translates to terrible lizard it's a great name it'd be a pretty good name for a rock bear but it brought
24:49with it a number of associations that may be flat out wrong you see once you call these things lizards
24:57you start thinking of them as lizards and that's the mother of all assumptions for instance you
25:03begin to think of them as cold-blooded because they're lizards right actually owen thought they
25:10were warm-blooded but by the first half of the 20th century scientists determined that owen was wrong
25:17and the dinosaurs were actually cold-blooded and that was the case for a while until well they
25:24changed their minds and now the thinking is more in line with sir owen with general agreement that
25:30these creatures were in many respects warm-blooded the truth is that the terms cold-blooded and warm-blooded
25:38are falling out of favor somewhat as we discover that body temperature can be maintained in a number of
25:44different ways the current thinking is that large dinosaurs may have been gigantotherms
25:52maintaining their body heat by virtue of huge body mass so now you know but just to be safe we'll be
26:01checking back with the experts in another 50 years to see if they've changed their minds again
26:11warm-blooded or cold-blooded the very thought of a hungry gigantosaur is enough to give you the chills
26:1845 feet of pure carnivore interestingly enough the one you're looking at here is a pretty recent
26:26example of the species having been born not from an egg
26:30but in a digital design studio in quebec city
26:42although many of the dinosaurs for the film were created in a computer the lead dinosaurs were made
26:48the old-fashioned way no not by a couple of amorous reptiles after a bottle of wine but by sculptors
26:55working with traditional tools the work is painstaking and the attention to detail is exact
27:04these are the stars of the film and no detail is too small rodolfo coria works closely with the
27:12artists to ensure the creatures are accurate reflections of his conception of what these beasts looked like
27:18the dinosaurs need to be transported very carefully to canada's capital city of ottawa where they will
27:30be scanned using advanced laser scanners to produce digital information that can be imported into the
27:36team's computers and thereby beginning their journey back to their home in patagonia
27:42in nature the argentinosaur reached lengths of up to 120 feet and weighed in at upwards of 100 tons
27:54even in the digital realm these creatures are massive computer generated images are created out of tiny
28:02polygons which together create the shape and surfaces of the creatures on screen
28:07these are compositions of unsurpassed realism multi-gigabyte images that in computer terms
28:16make the dinosaurs of jurassic park look well prehistoric by comparison
28:31and these are not just pretty pictures
28:33they represent the coming together of computer modeling the latest scientific research and advanced
28:42mathematics for every dinosaur you see in this film we had to create the skeleton the envelope which
28:50is the skin and also the muscles what's fantastic about the skeleton is that we have complete control
28:55over it we created a character setup which is transforming the skeleton into like a digital puppet
29:01and with the controllers we can affect in different areas in ways like for instance rotation or
29:08translation the dinosaur to figure out how dinosaur would move we look at other animals in nature to
29:14see how they would react how the weight shift and all the the subtleties of the motion so our dinosaurs
29:20have parts of parts of elephants parts of reptiles birds all combined together
29:35so
29:39so
29:43so
29:47so
29:49Striding among the greats of 19th century paleontology was Othniel Charles Marsh, a veritable giant
30:12in the field, whose work included some early studies on the Stegosaurus, specifically on
30:19its brains. And the plural is applicable here, because there was some thought that the Stegosaurus
30:25had two, count them, two brains. One comparatively small thing in its head, the other nearly 20
30:33times bigger, located, well, the other brain was thought to be in its hindmost region,
30:41um, around its tail. The jury's still out as to what this second, larger part of the nervous
30:48system was all about. Some believe it provided a form of glucose. Whatever it was, it turns
30:54out not to be unique to the Stegosaurus. It's an anatomical feature that occurs in many reptiles.
31:00The creature's actual brain was only about three ounces, which isn't a lot of grey matter
31:05to power four and a half tons of Stegosaurus. So any help in the brain department would have
31:10been appreciated. Although the relationship between the two organs remains a bit of a
31:14mystery. We're pretty sure now it wasn't actually a second brain. But for a long time, paleontologists
31:21weren't sure. They were, you might say, of two minds about the whole thing.
31:28Now you have to admit that's pretty strange, a creature with a brain in its butt. You know
31:34what they say. Two heads are better than one, regardless of where it's located. Now before
31:40we move on, let's take another moment for a quick round of trivia.
31:46Welcome armchair paleontologists. Come on in. Mi casa su casa. It's Cretaceous. Join us
31:59as we kick back way back into prehistory. Sharpen your pencils and get ready. It's trivia time.
32:07And our topic today is stuff that's older than dinosaurs. Sure, they're old, but dinosaurs
32:13weren't the first living creatures to take up residence here on planet Earth. In fact,
32:19a number of species still with us predate the dinosaur, including all of the following except
32:26one. Can you spot the imposter? A. Jellyfish. B. Dragonflies. And C. Cocker Spaniels. I'm afraid
32:40your time's up. For those of you who chose A. Jellyfish, we're sorry to inform you that
32:46the jellyfish was a well-established resident hereabouts long before the dinosaur. So you
32:51would be, how can we put this kindly, totally wrong. For those of you who chose B. Dragonflies,
32:58you join the losers over with the jellyfish people. Our friends the dragonfly have been around
33:04for nearly 400 million years, a veritable arrival on the Mayflower in prehistory terms. And for
33:12those clever folk who chose C. Cocker Spaniels, well, we're speechless. You're right. Our fluffy
33:18friend the Spaniel is a relative newcomer, belonging to the genus Canis familiaris, domesticated from
33:25wolves a scant 15,000 years ago. Well, that's all we have time for. Back to our program.
33:31Dinosaurs. Giants of Patagonia is about more than the huge reptiles that made the Triassic
33:38such a bizarre and awe-inspiring place. Filmmakers also investigated other extraordinary beasts,
33:46including some of a more aquatic bent, like my personal favorite, Leopleurodon, a sea creature
33:53that makes Australia's white sharks look like guppies.
33:56A silent killing machine they believe may have reached lengths in excess of 70 feet. Its trademark
34:14dental work was comprised of a lethal hybrid of teeth and tusks. The Leopleurodon sampled water
34:22through its nostrils, smelling in stereo as it were, making it an extremely able hunter. As for predators,
34:33the Leopleurodon had none. I mean really, what the heck is going to eat that thing?
34:40If 3D computer wizardry is complex with land creatures, it's doubly so with the things that lived underwater.
34:48Not only is there the challenge of creating the surrounding structures and the beast itself, but even the water,
34:55the currents and the surrounding fish and plankton have to be built and animated in order to produce an underwater sequence so real.
35:03While so real, we're almost tempted to hold our breath.
35:14It turns terrifying. It turns surprising. The enduring appeal of dinosaurs lies in their otherness.
35:22Their utter strangeness to us and the world we inhabit has fascinated paleontologists for more than a hundred years.
35:33Of course, it was so long ago and everything was so different from the way that it is today that nearly anything seems possible.
35:44Because what we're talking about here is an enormous sweep of time.
35:49Something paleontologists often refer to as deep time.
35:52The thing that's amazing about dinosaurs is that they've been around for 180 million years.
36:08They were very successful. They've been dominating the planet for much longer than we did.
36:12And that's where we get into an ocean that we call deep time. How do you understand time at this scale?
36:21I think we're fascinated by dinosaurs because they're part of us.
36:26Not because we've lived among them, but because they incarnate the sum of our fears.
36:31To understand dinosaurs, you've got to have a sense of time on a scale that's rather difficult to fathom.
36:42We tend to think in terms of weeks and years.
36:46But when you start measuring the age of our planet, the scale becomes immense.
36:51In Canada's Northwest Territories, they've discovered rocks that date from 3,500 million years ago or 3.5 billion years ago.
37:05Whichever number you find easier to comprehend.
37:10The Earth itself is estimated to be over 4.5 billion years old.
37:14Imagine this screen, all 52 by 72 feet of it, as representing the total age of the Earth.
37:23Now for some perspective, let's compare that with the average human lifespan.
37:28There. That's speck.
37:32That's the blink of an eye that the average human life amounts to.
37:35A pinprick in deep time.
37:38Fafard's challenge as a director is to try and take the audience by the hand
37:42and make that great traverse across deep time.
37:46Dinosaurs roamed the Earth for 180 million years.
37:50We've been here, in our latest incarnation, for about 160 at that time.
37:55And over the last 150 years or so, we've turned our attention towards the planet's earlier inhabitants.
38:03And to be honest, it's been something of a mixed success.
38:07Which brings to mind the cautionary tale of the Archaeoraptor.
38:12In 1999, a remarkable discovery emerged when a potential missing link between dinosaurs and birds was unveiled.
38:20The extraordinary new specimen was dubbed Archaeoraptor.
38:23There was considerable excitement at the news.
38:25Even the prestigious publication National Geographic covered it.
38:29Then some killjoy noticed that the fossil's tail had been glued on and came from a different creature entirely.
38:34And so the short, unhappy story of the Archaeoraptor came to an abrupt halt.
38:41But questions about birds and dinosaurs persisted and are the source of much confusion and some acrimony amongst paleontologists.
38:48Dinosaurs' skeletons, their footprints so much about them, are reminiscent of birds that we can't help but wonder what links exist between them.
38:58Recent fossil discoveries in China suggest some dinosaurs, for at least a portion of their lives, had feathers.
39:03For many of us, this requires a bit of imagination.
39:07Envisioning our old friend Velociraptor, for instance, sporting feathers like some giant carnivorous chicken.
39:13Still, the existence of feathers doesn't necessarily mean they could fly, much less that they were birds.
39:19Feathers make excellent insulation, so it was probably just that.
39:23A little something extra to keep a cold dinosaur warm on a chilly Cretaceous evening.
39:27And the truth is, if you ask your local paleontologist, she'll likely tell you that, technically speaking, what we think of as birds are actually modern-day dinosaurs.
39:38Imagine that, real live dinosaurs hanging out in the backyard.
39:44Forgive me if I find that just a little bit disconcerting.
39:48Dinosaurs in the backyard kind of makes you rethink the karma in the neighborhood, doesn't it?
39:53The strange creatures, indeed. There's still so much more for us to learn about them.
39:58The feathers, the bizarre neurological wirings of the Stegosaurus, and probably even weirder things yet to be discovered.
40:05But for Fafard and his team, this quest is drawing to a close, and what a remarkable journey it's been.
40:15And undertaking equal parts art and science.
40:17Making their contribution to the ongoing debate about what these creatures really were.
40:24And how they behave.
40:26It's a realm in constant evolution.
40:29Shifting with each new breakthrough.
40:32A world that dinosaurs, giants of Patagonia, conjures up vividly.
40:37Providing us a glimpse into what the Earth looked like when the Argentinosaur and the Gigantinosaur called it home.
40:52It will always tantalize us. This world of the Lizard Kings.
40:57So much like our own. Yet alien to us.
41:00Its hold on our imaginations is complete.
41:04We shall forever be in its thrall.
41:07Trying to reach out and touch a world forever gone from sight.
41:11It lives on in us.
41:14A primordial memory of a time long before our own.
41:19Distant yet familiar.
41:22Where terrible creatures ruled.
41:24Creatures ruled.
41:37Like most professions, paleontology has its own specialized jargon.
41:43A multisyllabic toolbox that enables paleontologists to talk to one another about the weird and wonderful work they do.
41:50Because they spend a lot of time trying to classify the various beasts they study, they use something called phylogenetics.
42:01Now phylogenetics is basically the study of who's related to whom and who came first.
42:08It breaks everybody up into groups and then uses something called a cladogram to map out their relationship to one another.
42:17A cladogram is a fancy name for a family tree, showing who evolved into whom.
42:25All of this, both phylogenetics and the cladogram were the invention of a German biologist named Willi Hennig.
42:34In fact, it could be said that this entire system of classification used today evolved directly from him.
42:44And for what it's worth, Willi Hennig was the son of one Marie Grobe, a German factory worker.
42:51Marie, in turn, was a modern Homo sapiens.
42:56Homo sapiens, as some of you are no doubt aware, appear in the fossil records in Africa about 135,000 years ago.
43:04And are, in turn, the evolutionary descendants of...
43:09Well, you get the picture.
43:12Or in this case, you get the cladogram.
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