Attenborough and the Sea Dragon, Scientific Advisor

I was invited to advise and contribute to this documentary during the proposal stage, and following commission, further advised on the anatomy, scanning, and functional work included in the documentary.

The programme was broadcast on 7 January 2018 and followed the discovery of an ichthyosaur at Lyme Regis and David learning more about it and the environment in which it lived.

‘Attenborough’s Sea Dragon’ at Charmouth Heritage Centre.

I helped with the CT scanning of the main specimen and another large Temnodontosaurus, the segmenting and reconstruction of the CT scans, and jaw biomechanics of Temnodontosaurus, as well as advising the CGI and production team on the science for the programme. A write-up of the biomechanics can be found here.

CT scanning a large Temnodontosaurus using a horse scanner at the Royal Veterinary College. This photo shows Renate Weller measuring to see whether the skull can be scanned.