Text: WTC-SWE
Throughout our history,
one creature above all others...
has haunted our imagination.
On land and in the air...
the dragon has left its mark
in the folklore of our ancestors.
But what if these fantastic stories
were more than myth?
What if the legends were true?
This is the story of a unique family...
that survived from the time
of the dinosaur...
to make a final stand in the Middle Ages.
A scientific exploration
of a remarkable species.
This is the natural history
of the most extraordinary creature...
that never existed.
The Cretaceous Period.
A time when the world was ruled
by the most fearsome predator...
that ever walked the Earth:
Tyrannosaurus rex.
The T. Rex has been forced
to this remote place...
from his usual hunting ground.
Something has been raiding his territory,
and food has become scarce.
He hasn't eaten for days.
At last, a potential kill.
But the T. Rex is cautious.
He has never seen
a creature like this before.
Hunger drives him on.
The T. Rex has a clear weight advantage.
So his prey bluffs...
extends its wings to give the illusion
that it is much larger than it really is.
But the T. Rex isn't buying it.
So the creature tries a different tack.
The cry carries for miles.
To this predator's sensitive ears
the sound is incredibly painful.
But the T. Rex is still not deterred.
And up here, there's nowhere to hide.
But it is the T. Rex, not his prey,
that is fatally exposed.
They are not alone.
This is an adult female.
A fully grown prehistoric dragon.
This is her territory
and she's protecting her son.
The Tyrannosaurus will not last the night.
But the mother is also seriously injured.
With a broken wing,
she can no longer hunt...
to feed herself or her offspring.
But 65 million years from now...
the T. Rex's skull will inspire a theory...
in the mind
of a brilliant young paleontologist.
This is one of only three
intact T. Rex skulls...
that have ever been found.
It all started five years ago...
when I discovered
this complete T. Rex in Montana.
It was big news.
Dr. Jack Tanner, paleontologist...
an overnight celebrity.
But then I blew it.
I proposed the existence
of an impossible creature.
You see, my T. Rex skull was damaged
in a very specific way.
To me, the injuries were evidence...
of an attack by a predator
unlike anything known to science.
The evidence was undeniable.
So I tried to get others
to see things my way.
The nature of these marks suggests...
that this skull was punctured
by three sharp objects...
in an arc.
It's a talon formation.
But I don't believe
that these puncture wounds...
actually killed the rex.
The real deathblow is here.
See?
Symmetrical deposits of carbon
down both sides of the skull.
These are scorch marks. Precise, aimed.
Perhaps my childhood obsession
had clouded my thinking.
You see, as a kid I was mad about dragons.
Dragons from the high seas,
flying dragons from Greenland...
fire-breathing dragons from Europe.
And here's the thing that got me:
These myths came
from all over the world, right?
From cultures that could never have met.
And yet from the Andes to the Himalayas
you could hear stories of dragons.
How?
Here's a kid's best guess:
Because the stories were real.
Last week, guess what?
Out of nowhere,
the dragon man is thrown a lifeline.
Another find, not Montana this time...
but on a Romanian mountain.
Extreme skiers had fallen
into a network of ice caves.
They found something horrific.
A body, and it wasn't wearing
the latest lightweight thermals.
It was ancient.
There's nothing the police could do
with a 15th-century corpse.
This was a case for historians
not detectives.
But police being police,
they couldn't resist a nose around.
They uncovered a medieval crime scene.
A massacre.
They moved deeper into the cave...
and soon wished they hadn't.
Now I don't know
the Romanian word for dragon...
but someone said it.
So the Romanians contact
the museum in London:
"Is this thing a hoax or what?"
Now the museum, they're ready to pass.
They have an international reputation
to maintain.
I get to hear about it
and figure I'm the perfect solution.
The man with no reputation to lose.
Have you seen the pictures?
Every head of department
has seen the pictures.
And?
The museum's been formally asked
by the Romanian authorities...
in the strictest confidence,
to help with this find.
It's got them in quite a state.
They don't know what they've got
and neither do we.
Can I go? On the museum's behalf.
I can call a meeting.
So here I am with two
of the museum's rising stars...
who see me as a bad career move.
We've got strict orders:
If this thing's of any interest...
get it shipped back to London.
If it's a hoax, make our excuses and leave.
If news gets out, I'm the fall guy.
Either way, I lose.
Unless, by one chance in a million...
it's not a hoax.
Maybe then I get my reputation back.
It starts badly.
They've moved everything
off of the mountain.
Who knows what evidence
might have been disturbed.
So we're in the backwoods...
at a makeshift mortuary
in an overgrown shed.
The official word is the bodies have been
blackened by ice, but I wonder.
Ask me, I'd say they have
a different story to tell.
But I mind my own business.
My assignment is through here.
Nobody said anything
about a whole carcass.
It's massive.
I can see why the Romanians were cagey.
I should be, too, if I had any sense.
This has got to be a hoax.
Hasn't it?
Okay, so let's get this over with.
12:05 p.m. June 25.
Dr. Tanner and team are forced
to begin an immediate examination...
of an unidentified animal.
The skin looks real enough.
Too well preserved?
If this is a hoax, it's the best I've ever seen.
Okay, sweetheart. What are you?
The hide is scaly.
It has a tail.
Now, both suggest
that this is some sort of reptile...
and yet there are two limbs visible, ending...
with what appear to be talons.
Now these are general characteristics...
Characteristics of powered flight.
Could this thing really fly?
It's too heavy for these small wings.
They couldn't create nearly enough lift
to get its carcass off the ground.
You see, to fly you have to obey
the laws of physics.
There is a relationship between weight,
power, and wingspan.
Wing measurements give us
wingspan under 20 feet.
It's not enough.
This creature looks built to fly,
it's got all the parts...
but at the moment they just don't add up.
- Estimated weight?
- I'm guessing 900 pounds.
Maybe 950.
He's not gonna like this.
Don't tell me.
The wing-to-weight ratio is way out.
Couldn't fly, right? It's too heavy.
A creature with wings that can't fly.
That spells trouble.
Two weeks have passed since his mother
saved him from the T. Rex...
and the young dragon is in trouble.
His mother is dead.
The injury to her wing proved fatal.
He cannot fly and with no one
to hunt for him, he, too, will die.
The smell from his mother's carcass
is attracting scavengers.
For the moment they're just pterosaurs...
but who knows what other creatures
may pick up the scent.
This dragon lost his mother
at a critical moment.
Somehow, he has to teach himself
to fly before it's too late.
And if he does get airborne...
it will be thanks to one of nature's
most astonishing feats of engineering.
This just gets stranger by the minute.
Internal scans show a massive heart.
That's typical of flying creatures.
Those chest muscles would need
large quantities of oxygen-rich blood.
Your bones are perfectly designed
for flight, too.
The internal structure is very specialized.
It's honeycombed.
You see this lightweight structure
in bird skeletons.
Their bones are strong
but still light enough for flight.
But you're too heavy for those wings.
Come on. What's your secret?
Any good news?
There's something unusual
inside the chest cavity.
What are these?
The image is too fuzzy.
We don't have time to speculate.
I'm going inside.
The plot thickens.
A second pair of lungs?
But there's no internal structure.
Bladders, maybe?
They must have held something.
Can you pass me a syringe please?
Thank you.
It's gas.
Analysis, please.
Unable to hunt, the young dragon
exploits the only food available to him.
His mother's meat will keep him alive
for a few days.
But if he can't fly, he can't hunt.
His future looks bleak.
Yet, even in death,
his mother may still help him.
In their gut, all creatures contain bacteria...
that help them to break down food.
And as they do this, they release gas.
But the bacteria inside dragons are unique...
and the gas they produce is special.
It is channeled into two storage chambers:
The dragon's flight bladders.
Alongside the super-light skeleton,
these bladders provide the key to flight...
provided you know how to use them.
This young dragon will have to learn fast.
The scent of his decomposing mother...
has attracted the most
dangerous creature imaginable:
An aging male dragon.
Its broken horns and dull markings
betray a dragon at the end of his days.
And this is bad news for our juvenile.
Continuous battles over territory
mean that most males never reach old age.
But this dragon is still around.
He's a survivor and he's hungry.
The youngster senses that,
given the choice, he'd prefer fresh meat.
And this time his mother
isn't there to save him.
His only hope is to take to the air.
Okay. Gas composition.
Predominantly hydrogen.
Hydrogen.
It's 14 times less dense than air.
It's odorless, colorless.
You put hydrogen in a balloon,
what happens? It floats away, right?
The juvenile heads for the trees.
The old male cannot fly here.
Inside, the young dragon's body
is working overtime.
Heart beating, muscles pumping...
and hydrogen is collecting
at a phenomenal rate.
Fully expanded, what would you say
is the cubic capacity of one of these things?
- 15 cubic feet?
- There are two. That's 30.
30 cubic feet, all pumped full of hydrogen.
What kind of lift does that give us?
Not quite there, but maybe.
The youngster's flight bladders
are now full...
but crucially so is his stomach.
The undigested meat is weighing him down.
Just in time, instinct takes over.
He empties his stomach...
and spreads his wings.
Exhausted, the old male
abandons the chase.
Our young dragon has found his wings...
just in time.
And for the very first time in his life.
Analysis suggests, it's to be confirmed...
that maybe, just maybe...
this creature could fly.
This is no hoax. This thing is for real.
A gigantic flying lizard.
Too much to expect
that you can breathe fire, too.
"If it's interesting,
bring it back to the museum."
That was the plan.
Well it's interesting all right.
But let's see what else we can find out
before we have to leave.
Okay.
Time to put our heads into the lion's mouth.
It was clearly a carnivore.
A formidable predator.
What's going on here?
You've got incisors for ripping meat...
and molars, grinding teeth.
Stingrays have the same kind of teeth
for crunching rock-hard shells.
What would a meat-eating predator want
with teeth like these?
Several years have passed
and our juvenile is now a young adult.
But he is homeless.
Without territory, he will never have
a regular supply of food...
and he will never mate.
But his time has come.
In the past he has strayed accidentally
inside the territory of dominant males.
Today there is no mistake.
It is a daring act.
Half of all young males are killed
in territorial battles.
The dull coat of adolescence...
has transformed into a vibrant display...
designed to intimidate rival males.
But before he makes himself known...
he takes on stores
of a rare and valuable mineral...
found at the heart of every dragon territory.
He is preparing for the fight of his life.
And these rocks will hold the key.
The inner surface of the mouth is incredible.
It's almost armor-plated.
Now this is something
I've definitely seen before.
A fleshy valve at the back of the throat.
This flap is very similar to the false palates
found in crocodile throats.
Crocs use it to stop their lungs
from flooding...
while holding prey underwater.
It's a very distinctive shape
and come to think of it...
I think I've seen fossils of this somewhere.
This is a highly specialized structure.
Can you scout the excavations
and dig sites and museums...
to see if anything like these bones
have popped up anywhere else?
Maybe it's an adaptation.
Maybe it wasn't used to prevent water
flooding the lungs.
Maybe it's to prevent a backdraft of fire...
from burning the throat.
Boy, when you say it out loud,
does it sound lame.
It doesn't look like fire ever came out
of this creature's mouth.
There's no carbonized food residue,
no signs of charring whatsoever.
It's as if all the tools are here,
they just haven't been used.
Perhaps it didn't breathe fire at all.
Well, maybe you're right.
Let's take a step back.
Nature isn't constrained
by our lack of imagination.
Think about it. The natural world
is full of bizarre creatures...
that have the most extraordinary weapons:
Tongues like spears, colors that change...
and shapes. Lassos, even.
But a creature that breathes fire?
Bear with me.
Meet the bombardier beetle.
When this guy gets angry
it fires out liquid...
at a temperature
of over 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
How does he do it?
By pumping a liquid fuel
into a reaction chamber...
where a catalyst ignites it.
The exploding chemicals
have nowhere to go but out...
and with a bang.
Is that how dragons did it?
In the heart of his territory,
the resident dragon, the alpha male...
blasts a warning into the air.
It signals that he is fit, healthy,
and confident enough...
to waste precious fire on a display.
The message is not lost
on our young challenger.
If he has any chance at all
of winning this duel...
he must be at his very best.
Because the stakes are high.
With territory comes
not only a guaranteed supply of food...
but the one thing every young male needs...
if he is to leave his mark
on the next generation:
Females.
And this female is the reason he is here.
She's in season and for just one month
will breed with the alpha male.
He's killed for her before
and he'll do it again.
Okay.
Back to basics.
What do we need to produce fire?
We need fuel and we need something
to light it with, an ignition system.
We need a light, combustible material.
Like gas?
Now what did you say was in these things?
Hydrogen and methane?
How could I have been so stupid?
I need a light.
This is hydrogen and methane.
Both combustible gases,
both lighter than air.
These sacks double up as buoyancy aids...
and fuel stores.
Evolution at its most economical.
So far, so good.
But how did you ignite it?
Could I take a sample please?
The alpha male is an experienced warhorse.
With nothing to prove
he's lost the bright colors...
that mark out the young challenger.
Experience tells immediately.
The alpha male catches our youngster
with his first strike.
Instinctively, the young dragon
heads for cover.
The cold damp clouds
will also dull the pain.
But the alpha male
is not without his problems.
These dogfights are calculated affairs.
The hydrogen in his fuel tanks
also has to keep him airborne.
Every blast of flame reduces his mobility.
The challenger appears to accept defeat.
He heads for the territorial boundary.
It seems that now his best hope
is to escape with his life.
The alpha male drives on.
He would rather finish him now.
But he has misjudged his young opponent.
The youngster is faster, more agile...
and, crucially, he has a full payload to burn.
Wouldn't you know it!
That sediment on the creature's molars,
it's rock...
with particularly large traces of platinum.
Platinum is not just a precious metal,
it's also a catalyst.
Like our old friend the bombardier beetle,
fuel needs an ignition system.
And when platinum combines
with oxygen and hydrogen...
it combusts.
It produces fire!
Our young pretender has triumphed.
The female prepares to accept
her new dragon overlord.
All his life he's fought the odds
and at last he's made it.
My theory was right after all,
and you're the proof.
You could fly. You could breathe fire.
65 million years ago,
one of your ancestors killed my T. Rex.
So how did your ancestor survive
when the dinosaurs didn't?
The natural history of our planet tells me...
that it simply couldn't have happened.
65 million years ago,
at the peak of our dragon's success...
a curtain comes crashing down
on The Cretaceous Period.
A meteorite the size of Mount Everest
smashes into the planet.
Known as the K-T event,
it wipes out nearly all life on Earth.
But somehow your species did survive.
How?
If the K-T meteorite
finished off the dinosaurs...
how did a giant species like yours survive?
Let's think straight.
What other large creatures survived K-T?
Sharks, skates, rays, turtles, coelacanths
amongst others.
- All have in common?
- They're marine life.
And crocodiles, too.
Crocodiles.
The false palate is found in crocodiles.
Raised nostrils, suggesting a creature
that could hold its prey in its jaws...
and breathe
while completely submerged in water.
But this creature didn't swim, it flew.
It has wings and talons, not webbed feet...
suggesting the palate must be
an evolutionary relic.
Somewhere in the dim and distant past...
this creature's ancestors lived in water.
You swam from extinction.
Water did indeed provide dragons...
with the escape route from one
of the deadliest events in Earth's history.
But not the Prehistoric Dragon.
The land-living dragon
was indeed wiped out.
But it was not alone.
The dragon family had another branch.
At the time of the K-T catastrophe,
the Prehistoric Dragon had a cousin:
The Marine Dragon.
Both species were descended
from a common ancestor.
But they followed very different
evolutionary paths.
The Marine Dragon lived in the sea...
and life in the sea was less affected
by the K-T event.
As they evolved,
their flight bladders became swim bladders.
Their large wings reduced to become fins...
and their powerful tails became rudders.
Marine Dragons thrived.
Then, as global temperatures rose
and the land recovered...
some Marine Dragons returned
to shallow waters.
Through estuaries and rivers...
they eventually made their first
tentative steps back on to land.
The sea serpent.
Are the legends
actually about Marine Dragons?
That false palate. Guess what?
Looks like it's turned up at a dig site.
This could be our missing link.
What kind of environment
are we talking about?
Forest.
- What kind of forest?
- Bamboo.
I knew I'd seen the palate before.
It was in that excavation in China.
I thought it had been
from an extinct branch of crocodilian.
Turns out to be much more exciting.
So the Water Dragon came back on land
and evolved into new species...
at least one of them in Asia.
Forest-dwelling. What would you be like?
Well, in Chinese mythology...
dragons are low-slung, elongated, slender.
The kind of body one would expect
from an animal...
that's recently adapted from water.
Was it really suited for life in a forest?
The dragons that return to land...
discover that the prehistoric world
has changed.
The era of the dinosaur is over...
and a new order of animals
has risen up to fill the void:
Mammals.
And mammals provide
plentiful food for dragons.
The trick is to catch them.
The superb camouflage
and silent movement...
has made this dragon all but invisible
in the bamboo forest.
The wings on this dragon
are too small for flight...
but the flight bladders provide gentle lift...
and allow her to glide silently
across the forest floor.
The markings on her skin
break up her outline...
in the dappled forest light.
And to be sure, this massive relic
from the age of the dinosaur...
has had to develop new tricks.
Hunting mammals
in this compact environment...
requires tremendous guile.
Small, fast, and agile...
mammals have incredibly acute hearing
and smell.
Alerted, they can disappear in an instant.
Positioning herself downwind
from her prey...
she lies in wait and listens intently.
But she's not ready to strike just yet.
Not before unveiling
a highly specialized weapon...
that gives her an edge
against this wary prey.
The Forest Dragon has developed
a remarkable behavioral strategy:
Mimicry.
By carefully controlling the flow of gases
from her flight bladder...
she manipulates her voice
and entices her prey.
But her hunt is disturbed.
There's an intruder in her territory.
A creature that will come between
this dragon and her prey for the last time.
It's not just the invasion of her territory
that riles her...
or the loss of the odd meal.
This animal is a real and emerging threat
to her very survival.
A glide is the best her stunted wings allow.
But she has the scent now
and is determined to finish things.
Smaller and more mobile
in the forest undergrowth...
the new mammalian predators
are proving to be accomplished hunters.
Left alone, these predators
will out-compete her for food...
and she would starve.
She isn't going to let it happen.
The dragon closes to striking range.
She blends into her surroundings,
unseen but not unheard.
The sound is not a warning to go away,
but an invitation to come closer.
The tiger senses a meal.
But he is a cautious hunter.
The dragon tries a subtle change of pitch.
The prey sounds distressed.
An injury perhaps?
The tiger falls for it, hook, line, and sinker.
One less rival, one more meal.
The kill is taken to a clearing.
The Forest Dragon has adapted
its ancient weapon into a culinary tool.
Cooked meat is far more easily digested.
But the flames draw another mammal near.
A species that will prove
a far greater threat to her survival.
I came here to expose a hoax...
and suddenly a whole reptile family
is coming to life.
And what a family.
Of all the prehistoric giants...
only yours survived the K-T catastrophe.
And you weren't the only dragon.
Seems there was
a forest-dwelling Asian Dragon...
a Sea Dragon, too, just like the myths.
Could there have been others?
I need more time.
The helicopter will be with us any minute,
and soon we'll be heading back to England.
And once this thing's back in the museum,
I won't get a look in.
Until then, we'll keep scanning.
You need to look at this.
I've just noticed these fragments here.
- What are they? Crushed ribs?
- No, the rib cage is totally intact.
But they're bone fragments right?
What are they?
That explains the weird proportions.
Of course. It's got four legs.
And two wings.
Six limbs.
No vertebrate that ever lived has six limbs.
It's true. Every land-based vertebrate
on the planet has four limbs.
Front feet, back feet: Arms and legs.
And airborne creatures, too. Feet and wings.
They all have four limbs.
But not this dragon. It's got six.
It can't be a fake, not now.
If those legs are for real,
then they'll show up in its DNA.
Oh, my.
Now that's some freaky mutation.
This creature has a genetic adaptation
unlike anything in the animal kingdom...
and wouldn't you know it...
in the gene responsible
for generating limbs.
And it's here in mythology, too.
The Chinese, the Aztecs, Polynesians...
they all drew images of creatures
with the same adaptation:
Giant six-limbed reptiles.
The clue was there all along.
How could I have missed it?
These drawings aren't wild imagination.
They're records.
These primitive people were telling us
something and we weren't listening.
And if the images are accurate...
then they're even more evidence
that there were many types of dragon...
and they lived everywhere on the planet.
We've got evidence for a Marine Dragon,
the sea serpent of legend...
a Forest Dragon that lived in Asia...
the Chinese Dragon that adorns 1,000 pots...
and you...
Let's call you the Mountain Dragon.
Have you left your mark
on European folk history?
Romania.
Dragon iconography. Here you are.
Recorded in stained glass.
The locals called you
"the devil from the mountains."
The legend conforms pretty much to type:
Terrorizing local folk, raiding livestock...
breathing fire.
The monumental battle to the death.
Is this is a 15th-century photograph of you?
So the local farmers gave you a name:
The Mountain Devil.
What kind of devil were you?
We're down to the wire.
They'll be moving the body out any minute.
And I'll have to leave with it.
One last check.
Could we have missed something?
What's that in the heart?
It's something embedded in the right atrium.
That's not organic matter.
This could be really important.
Unequivocal evidence
that dragons and humans were at war.
Throughout the Age of Mammals,
dragons survived.
But their survival was precarious.
Fire was the ace that kept them one step
ahead of the competition.
But, in time, a new mammal emerged.
Small, vulnerable, but supremely intelligent.
Physically, man was no match for a dragon.
But he recognized the possibilities of fire.
With fire, mankind could clear forests
for farmland...
mold metal into savage weapons.
In the evolutionary blink of an eye...
mankind was pushing
the most deadly predator...
in the natural history of our planet
to the verge of extinction.
They had turned the dragons' most potent
weapon against them.
The stories of these epic battles
were recorded in folklore around the world...
culminating here in Romania.
A dark story passed down
through generations.
The story of a demon on a mountaintop...
and of knights, drawn into the mist,
never to be seen again...
until now.
Humans and dragons: Mortal enemies.
If these knights went looking for a dragon...
it looks like they found one.
This isn't ice damage, this is carbonization.
These men were burned alive.
By a dragon for sure, but not ours.
Our dragon never breathed fire.
- We haven't finished yet.
- Yes, we have.
Look.
Carbon.
I found it on one of those bodies out there.
Those bodies have been scorched.
They're right, of course.
It's the find of the century,
and we can't risk it turning to mush.
But the mountains are calling me.
What did those men find up there?
They're ready for it!
This section here.
Am I misreading this?
Is this a reproductive system?
These are oviducts, right? Small ovaries?
It's a female.
Yet there's no evidence of follicular activity.
The reproductive tract is immature.
It's a juvenile.
It's a baby.
That clinched it.
The creature in the autopsy room
was a baby.
The cave wasn't just the scene
of a random crime.
It was a nest.
The local myth is starting
to sound remarkably like...
an accurate verbal account of a real event.
The knights weren't killed by our dragon.
They were killed by an adult...
perhaps defending its young.
A dragon corpse can tell us
how their bodies worked...
but a nest can tell us so much more,
how they lived.
My guess? Up in those mountains...
we'll find evidence for a dragon family.
Tanner is about to unravel
a medieval tragedy.
It is the 15th century,
and a Mountain Dragon is under threat.
The distant ancestors
of this female Mountain Dragon...
fed on the wild herds
that roamed the vast Asian grasslands.
But the herds were tamed by man.
For dragons, they were no longer fair game.
They were livestock.
And so the dragons
that gorged themselves on the plains...
have been driven
to the remote regions of Europe...
and in this remote place,
wild game is scarce.
Today, she is hunting
the rarest creature on Earth...
but not to eat.
Today, she's looking for a mate.
She spreads her scent
throughout her territory.
Strong winds carry the pheromones south.
Female dragons mate
once every seven years.
Yet this mature female
has never seen a male dragon.
Nevertheless, every year,
when she comes into season...
instinct commands her to play out
the rituals of attraction.
Her season is almost finished
and the window will close for another year.
Another change of plan. Something
interesting about a half-mile below the cave.
The melting snow has revealed
unusual features on the rock.
To the casual observer,
they could be anything...
perhaps the result
of some odd geological process.
But, me, I've got fire on my mind...
and these rocks
look like they've been scorched.
No. Don't worry about samples.
I need you to follow this line
and look for more burn marks.
And tread carefully.
Watch for hidden crevasses.
Approximately two hours due south
of the drop-off point...
heading towards the scene of death...
Can you take a GPS reference?
Evidence of discoloration of the rock.
It seems to have been subjected
to a blast of intense heat.
It's literally scarred the rock.
These rocks have been burned
to melting point in symmetrical lines.
The dimensions are frightening.
Lightning couldn't do this. Forest fire?
It's not likely. We're half way up a mountain
at the edge of a glacier.
The lair is nearby.
Was there some kind of fight?
The female returns to her den...
a network of caves
melted into dense glacial ice.
Despite the cold temperatures outside...
in here the temperature is relatively warm.
Like an igloo, the thick walls retain heat.
But the mountain dragon has another line
of defense against the cold.
From her marine ancestor,
she's inherited a blood protein...
that prevents her tissues from freezing.
It has proved vital to her species...
as they are forced
into increasingly inhospitable habitats.
Soon it will be autumn
and her metabolism will slow...
as she prepares to hibernate
through the bitter winter.
This is it.
Why would you choose such a remote,
inhospitable place to live?
Come on.
The police have done their job.
Now it's our turn.
Set up ultrasonic mapping
and grid digital tiles of all the surfaces.
We need to get a clear picture
of what this place looked like 600 years ago.
Can you begin excavation
of the floor and the walls?
Any extra forensics we may have missed...
that may give us some clues
as to the nature of the creature.
I'm on it.
So this was where they found you.
Gridding Tile 1. Set.
The laser scanner will help us
build a map of this place...
and then we can accurately record
the position of everything we find.
Any mapping results yet?
I've gridded most of the cave,
but it's a labyrinth in here.
It's anyone's guess
what's behind these walls.
Glacial movement.
Set those echo scan charges at minimum.
We don't know how unstable this place is.
Echo scanning:
Small explosive charges send shock waves
into the ice.
The echoes will tell us what's behind them.
- What is it?
- I'm not sure.
I know what this is.
Dragon poop!
Looks like organic matter.
It's beautifully preserved. Good work.
Okay, bag it.
Sorry.
Evidence of bone shards.
Look. These look like fruit stones.
Date stones?
Not many date palm trees
in the Carpathians, 600 years ago.
It's possible that she strayed...
but it's more likely
that this is the feces of another.
So, the next question:
Why would you travel
such an immense distance...
across the continents and the climates?
What could possibly attract you
to this place?
Whatever dumped this had its last meal
in a much warmer place.
Somewhere a long way from here.
The female's curiosity is aroused.
It is a sound she has never heard before...
yet somehow it seems eerily familiar.
She is compelled to investigate.
Against all odds, a male Mountain Dragon
has picked up our female's scent.
He's a nomadic dragon
from the Atlas Mountains of North Africa.
His search for a mate has brought him
across southern Europe...
to the Carpathian Mountains.
Now he has found her.
Instinct takes over.
And they do what their kind has done
for thousands of years.
It is a courtship ritual that is as perilous
as it is spectacular.
At the height of her climb, they lock talons...
and drop in a dazzling free fall.
It is the ultimate test of faith.
The scorches in the mountain rock
serve as mute testimony...
to a spectacular
and successful dragon mating...
and a species on the verge of extinction...
that finds hope in a new generation.
What is that?
The initial investigation team
must have had a lot on their minds.
They sure overlooked this.
It's a nest.
Judging from the size and shape...
of the calcified fragments,
and the curvature...
I think it's safe to say that this egg
was of considerable size.
And given the fairly limited number
of fragments...
I think it's safe to say that only one egg
would have been incubated at any one...
Oh, my God!
Two eggs in a clutch.
But only one of them made it.
Crocodiles bury their eggs
in active compost to keep them warm.
Dragons have a much more direct method.
The eggshells have heat resistant properties
that can withstand intense temperatures.
In fact, without this searing heat...
the dragon chicks inside would die of cold.
The rocks shield the eggs
from the direct blast...
but they also retain heat,
releasing it over a long period...
and keeping the temperatures
inside the nest stable.
If she is to become a mother,
careful and constant temperature control...
is essential over the long incubation period.
Her mate returns from hunting.
He has been unsuccessful.
Again.
After mating,
female dragons become aggressive...
deeply defensive when any creature
approaches the nest...
even a mate.
In order to placate her for the lack of food,
he brings a gift.
Another rock for the nest.
The male is now clear to enter the cave.
The female will take her turn to hunt.
Now the male has responsibility
for the nest.
Special sensors in his tongue
allow him to check the temperature.
If the eggs fall below 60 degrees,
the chicks will die.
Yet, quite deliberately,
he lowers the temperature.
There is method in this apparent madness.
Just like crocodiles,
the temperature in the nest...
will determine the sex of the offspring.
Cooler temperatures encourage
the development of females.
Males, even sons...
will compete for territory,
food, and breeding females.
Females suit him better.
In normal times,
this self-serving strategy is sound.
But in a species on the verge of extinction...
an imbalance in the sexes could prove fatal.
Should anything happen to him,
this tiny group is finished.
The female returns empty-handed
from another hunt.
The male is not at his post.
Something is very wrong.
The male has let the incubation temperature
drop dangerously low.
It is already too late for one of her chicks.
But one might survive.
The male senses trouble,
and makes his escape.
The cave continues to yield up its secrets
at a fantastic rate.
Bones from a domesticated sheep.
You were preying on local livestock.
Silly girl. You were playing
a very dangerous game.
The female has taken to raiding livestock
for food.
She has good reason.
This is her daughter.
And her survival
is the most important thing now.
But by stealing from farms,
she risks provoking the locals...
and placing her daughter in danger.
Unaware of the price on her head...
the female dragon continues
to equip her daughter for the future.
She is passing on the secret of fire.
These marks
could have been made yesterday.
They were after something in the rock.
We'll need tests,
but my guess is that we'll find platinum.
This nest wasn't built here for the view.
I've got the results through.
Yes. Look. One chamber through here.
There's a second chamber behind us, here,
and a third chamber right over there.
Three chambers.
But we've only got time to go into one.
So what do you want to do?
I have no idea.
Wait a minute. What's that?
There's something in the rock.
Just stand here.
Put your arms here.
Put your arm. This arm.
Just stay there. Don't move.
No. Put your arms down.
Whatever created that blast mark
came from behind this wall.
Set up Rover. We're going in here.
The RO V: Remote Operated Vehicle.
One of the latest additions
to the paleontologist's arsenal.
The small camera can scoot through
the tightest holes to send back pictures.
We've got to get in there.
After feeding, mother and daughter bask
in the sun's warmth.
Their wings soak up heat like solar panels.
In a rare moment of intimacy,
they lie together and share body warmth.
Soon the mother will have to hunt,
and her daughter will be left unguarded.
The knights in the mortuary weren't alone.
This place is looking more like a war zone.
The question is: Whatever killed them,
is it still in there?
With summer drawing to a close...
the dragon is desperate to fatten herself
and her baby before they hibernate.
And in her desperation, she has all
but cleared the local farms of livestock.
There are two more bodies in here.
There doesn't appear to be any evidence
of scorching.
I'm getting closer. I know it.
Where are you?
There's another passage.
I'm going through here.
Once, man and dragon lived side by side.
Dragons were respected, even worshipped.
Now they are hunted like vermin.
Man has driven dragons
to these remote habitats.
Now, even here, they are not safe.
Without the ability to breathe fire,
this immature youngster is vulnerable.
But her assassins were reared on stories
about their terrifying weaponry.
Wary of the fire-breathing devil,
they are cautious.
Eventually they sense
that this dragon carries no threat.
The mother returns...
too late.
But her grieving will have to wait.
She catches a scent, chilling, yet familiar.
In a final insult, the assassin
wears the blood of her daughter as a trophy.
These warriors
may have survived many battles...
but nothing can prepare them for the fury.
They are about to reap the whirlwind.
Like higher mammals, dragons invest
many years in rearing their young.
And like those mammals, they feel loss.
But the trauma of her daughter's death
has brought the female dragon into season.
She may still be mourning,
but her body knows that to survive...
she must mate again.
She starts again the process
of attracting a mate back into her territory.
She displays the armor
from her daughter's assassins.
Dragons are naturally attracted
to reflective objects.
It is a long shot,
but perhaps a glint might catch his eye.
The chances are that he is no longer alive.
There's nowhere left to hide.
As winter draws in, hibernation beckons.
She'll have to survive the winter
on her meager reserves of fat.
Her body temperature drops dramatically
and she goes into suspended animation.
All her usual functions
are placed on emergency status...
and her hydrogen reserves fall
to almost zero.
And in this state,
she is as vulnerable as her daughter.
Where are you?
Another body!
A spear...
a body...
crushed by something.
I've found a wing!
It's huge!
The female is woken from her torpor.
More men have made the climb to her lair.
This time, they are better prepared.
Mercenaries, paid by the local farmers
to settle a score.
Without food, she cannot make hydrogen.
And without her precious gas,
she cannot fly or breathe fire.
Over the years,
the cave was sealed by snow and ice...
and the bloody battle frozen in time.
The dragon faded from reality to mythology,
and would've stayed that way...
had these two dragons not revealed
their secrets to us.
I left the museum
with my reputation in pieces.
I return with the story to end all stories...
and evidence
that will rewrite natural history.
The creatures of legend were real...
but the legends gave a twisted view
of reality.
I fill my colleagues in about
the fantastic family that we have unearthed.
A group of animals that lived
alongside the dinosaurs...
that escaped annihilation
by going underwater...
that re-emerged all over the globe...
claiming forests and conquering mountains.
But I can tell that they're not listening.
They want to see the evidence firsthand.
And who can blame them?
This way. And goggles on, please.
The story of life on our planet
has been rewritten...
by a mother and her child, reunited.
And that's what we have here.
The last of a legendary line.
Myth made real.
The myth of a sheep-stealer.
The reality of a mother
struggling to feed her young.
The myth of a vicious beast.
The reality of survival at any cost.
The myth of knights
that climbed a mountain to slay a dragon.
The reality: Persecution and extinction.
Now, every dragon myth from around
the world begs the same question:
Were they real, too?
And the most important question
of them all:
Were these really the last dragons?
Professor Tanner. I thought I'd catch you.
These were taken two months ago.
Text: WTC-SWE
