Abundance of incredible reconstructions and scientific expertise captivate in “The Last Day of the Dinosaurs”, documentary by BBC Studios Production, Thursday May 5 at 9 p.m. on France 5.
In the company of paleontologist Robert De Palma, cousin of filmmaker Brian de Palma, we follow the excavations at the American site of Tanis in North Dakota, which offers a striking snapshot of the fatal day that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Everything takes place in the era of the Upper Cretaceous, which became incandescent, 66 million years ago. The Chicxulub meteorite collides with the ocean in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, wiping out all life 1,500 km away and causing the extinction of dinosaurs across the planet. But how could a single meteorite wipe out 75% of life on earth? Such is the challenge of the very explicit and visually appealing documentary by Matthew Thompson, “The Last Day of the Dinosaurs”released as part of the “Large Format Science” eveningThursday May 5 at 9 p.m., on France 5.
Tanis, “the Upper Cretaceous Pompeii”
3000 kilometers from the point of impact of the meteorite, in the geological formation of Hell Creek (North Dakota), the archaeological site of Tanis enlightens us thanks to the priceless wealth of its fossilized creatures in an atmosphere of “Upper Cretaceous Pompeii “, specifies the documentary of France 5.
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The paleontologist Robert De Palma gave the name of Tanis to this site in homage to the movie de Spielberg, The Raiders of the Lost Ark . A real time capsule, the excavation site offers the image of a tangle of animal fossils, deposited by a tsunami and a shock wave of incredible violence. The list of discoveries is extraordinary: pterosaur egg, triceratops horn and skin fragment still containing organic components, mandibles of a small marsupial, footprints and a nest of tyrannosaurusancestor of a turtle, sturgeons and paddlefish and the best for last, the complete leg with joint and skin of a dinosaur, presumably a herbivorous thescelosaurus, and a probable meteorite fragment. The recent hatching of eggs and the presence of young fish suggest that the event that would change the face of the world occurred in the spring.
A meteorite 11 kilometers in diameter
Thanks to stunning reconstructions and magnificent computer-generated images, the documentary offers the complete film of the apocalypse. While in Tanis, the sandy shores and the river teem with life, in the very image of the movie Jurassic Park, an asteroid 11 kilometers in diameter crosses the atmosphere at a speed of 70,000 km/h and causes a shock 1.5 billion times greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb. Winds of 1,000 km/h are rising. “The Last Day of the Dinosaurs” on France 5 tells us that the angle and the site of the sulfur-rich impact in the Yucatán Peninsula, amplified the cataclysm. Toxic compounds invaded the sky and plunged the planet into darkness for ten years. Tsunamis, shock waves and earthquakes of unprecedented magnitude hit the whole Earth.
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It is raining burning spherules (meteorite fallout) which overheat the atmosphere and trigger gigantic fires. In Tanis, the river basin yet located more than 3,000 kilometers from the impact, oscillates, the current is reversed, and takes everything, freezing forever these last hours of the life of the dinosaurs on earth. On the planet, three quarters of species are disappearing, victims of violent impacts, fires followed by a sudden drop of 25 degrees in temperature, hunger and the absence of sunlight causing the rarefaction or disappearance brutal plant species.
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