David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive

The Natural History Museum.

One of the most popular

of all London's attractions.

Sometimes it gets so crowded

that it can be quite difficult

to see the exhibits

as closely as you might wish.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the museum is going to be closing

in five minutes,

so please make your way

towards the exits. Thank you.

So it's a great treat if -

somehow or other -

you can manage to look around

when all the other visitors

have gone.

Some of the creatures here

you might - if you were lucky -

have seen in the wild.

But there are certain ancient

animals that we'll never see

with our own eyes...

...because they're extinct.

And among them

are one or two mysterious,

not to say suspicious, characters

that I would like to examine

as they were when they were alive.

'It's a big place.

'There are 70 million or so

specimens here, I'm told.

'And the first I want to look at

right now

'is way up on the very top floor.'

This, some might say,

is the most scientifically important

and valuable specimen

in the whole of the museum.

It's a fossil called Archaeopteryx

and it was secured for the museum

by the first director,

Professor Richard Owen,

back in 1862.

Getting it wasn't easy.

There was a lot of

international competition

and there was a certain amount

of skulduggery

and it certainly cost

a small fortune.

But what kind of creature was

Archaeopteryx when it was alive?

It had two long leg bones,

so it must have stood upright.

A bony tail and a long neck.

Its head had bony jaws packed

with teeth like a reptile's

and its arms had three elongated

fingers, each ending with a claw.

So, you might think it was

some kind of strange,

spindly-armed, upright-standing

lizard.

Except for one fact...

There is evidence of more than

just bones on its slab.

Feathers.

Archaeopteryx lived

some 150 million years ago,

long before the appearance

of true birds.

Those feathers on its arms

certainly enabled it to glide.

But that's not all.

It had powered flight.

Marks on the bones show that there

were enough muscles attached to them

to enable it to flap.

Not only that,

a recent scan of its skull

showed that its brain would've

given it the senses and reactions

that are needed for accurate control

in the air.

This creature was half reptile,

half bird.

It was the first proof that,

in prehistory,

they were intermediate forms

that link the big,

very different groups of animals

that we know today.

But while Archaeopteryx

could certainly fly,

it could also clamber up tree trunks

and along the branches

like a tree-living reptile,

thanks to those clawed fingers.

There were insects flying around

at that time.

And Archaeopteryx's teeth show

that it was a hunter.

And this is Professor Richard Owen,

the man who acquired that fossil

and built this museum.

Although he disagreed with

Darwin's views on evolution,

he was one of the great scientists

of his time

and he had a particular flair

for interpreting fossils.

In 1839, a huge thigh bone was sent

to the museum from New Zealand.

Owen deduced

from its internal structure

that it must have belonged

to a bird.

If so, it must've been a giant.

The Maoris of New Zealand had

stories of giant, flightless birds

that had once roamed their islands,

but Europeans had dismissed them

as myths.

But eventually, Professor Owen

acquired enough bones

of these huge birds to put together

a complete skeleton of one of them.

This was no myth.

The Maoris in their legend

had called it a moa

and Professor Owen in his researches

had proved that it once had existed.

But was it the largest bird

that had ever lived?

There were several different

species of moa,

but this one was the biggest.

It stands 3m tall.

But is this really what it

looked like when it was alive?

You can tell how an animal

holds its head

from the junction between the skull

and its neck.

If that is underneath the skull,

then its neck would have been

upright.

But this moa's neck joint

is at the back of the skull,

so it must have held its neck

more horizontally, like this.

So was the giant moa

the biggest bird

that has ever existed?

Well, if it craned up its neck,

it was almost certainly the tallest.

You might think

that such a gigantic bird

would have no enemies

in the remote and isolated forests

of New Zealand.

Well, there's also a Maori legend

of a huge predatory bird, an eagle,

that existed at the same time.

And what is more,

there are bones to prove it.

This colossal bird

was nearly twice as heavy

as today's most powerful eagle.

Bringing down a giant moa

must have been a huge task.

They, too, were strong and heavy.

But the eagle had

powerful eyesight...

...a beak the size of

a butcher's cleaver...

...and razor sharp talons

as big as the claws of a tiger.

The Greek for grappling hooks

is "harpax".

And that word gives this bird

its name.

This is Harpagornis.

It was a deadly predator.

It was the largest eagle

that has ever existed.

And it lived in the same forests

as the moas.

We know that Harpagornis

preyed on moas

because moa skeletons

have been found

with holes stabbed through

their pelvic bones

that exactly match the grasp

of the eagles' claws.

It was probably even strong enough

to cling to a moa's back

with one foot

while it slashed at its victim's

neck with the other.

But it looks as if this moa

is going to escape - for now.

As well as its millions of specimens

of animals and plants,

the museum also has huge

and fascinating archives,

scientific journals from all over

the world, letters from explorers,

even posters and handbills

if they have anything

to do with natural history.

In the 19th century,

when Professor Owen

was in charge of this museum,

new and extraordinary things were

turning up from all over the world

and Professor Owen was very keen that his

museum should have the best of them.

He secured the Archaeopteryx

from Germany,

the moas from New Zealand,

but sometimes, really strange things

turned up on his very doorstep.

And there were certainly lots

of very odd creatures

being exhibited around London

in Victorian times.

This print shows

an extraordinary monster

that was being displayed

in Piccadilly.

An American showman called

Albert Koch

was charging a shilling a head

to have a look at it.

Professor Owen decided

to investigate.

He felt sure

that something was wrong with it,

but nonetheless, he was intrigued,

and he bought it.

When he'd got it back

to his museum,

he was able to examine it

in detail.

It was certainly gigantic

and bigger than anything else

he had in his museum at the time.

Koch, the showman,

had dug up the bones from

a farmer's field in Missouri

and maintained that in life,

the animal had stood 9 meters long

and almost 5 meters tall.

There were claims that this

was a fearsome predator,

that used its extraordinary tusks

for stabbing its victims,

presumably by swinging its head

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