Dear All,

I’m not a huge devotee of Natural History programmes but last week I came across BBC’s Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur.

This is an astonishing programme telling the story of the discovery and reconstruction of what is the largest dinosaur ever discovered on this planet. It all began in 2013 when a rancher in the Patagonia region of Argentina discovered a dinosaur bone. The palaeontologists who excavated the area were stunned by the size of the bone: it was the thigh bone (femur) and was close to eight feet long. More bones were discovered during the excavation; in fact the remains of six of these Titanosaurs were discovered in different layers of the same area.

With the help of the amazing 3D and other technology that is now used for calculating, dating and analysing archaeological and art historical objects, the Titanosaur was reconstructed and is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It barely fitted: it is over 19 feet high and the museum roof is 19.4 ft! As Sir David points out in the programme, from nose to tail this creature measured 120 feet -- or the equivalent of four London buses end to end. Palaeontologists were able to calculate that the Titanosaur would have weighed over 70 tonnes which is apparently "ten times the weight of an average T Rex or African elephant." With its 39 foot neck straight the Titanosaurus would have reached up to five stories…!

The facts are jaw-dropping enough on their own but what David Attenborough adds to everything is his wonderful enthusiasm, his zest for the subject and infectious sense of awe and wonder. And when you see the programme you realise that not only is the discovery amazing -- finding the remains of a giant creature that lived on earth over 80 million years ago -- equally amazing is the body of knowledge that we human beings have built up over centuries of enquiry, exploration and discovery. It really is an astounding tribute to the endeavour and commitment of human beings to learning. We are crafting the future and it is helping us discover the past.

I encouraged my teenage daughter to watch the programme with me and we were both transfixed. The scale of the creature and its size in relation to a human being was an eye opener to us. As my daughter remarked, "this is how we must appear to ants!"

The long necked creature, this newly discovered species, is yet to be named but presumably its name will have something to do with the area where it was found. A lead palaeontologist on the dig, Dr Diego Pol, hinted at what the name might be. "We want to honour the place and the family that hosted us in the field," he is quoted as saying. The fossils were discovered in a desert near La Flecha, Patagonia.

In many ways watching a programme like this reminds one of how insignificant we human beings actually are. It gives you a slightly different perspective on life and one’s place in the world. It also reminds you of the immense commitment and work that go into archaeological and palaeontological discovery, and how sites so carefully excavated and studied can be destroyed so easily by callous empires. Look at Iraq and Syria: devastated countries with displaced and suffering peoples, their infrastructure destroyed and the world heritage sites they were guardians of for so many years reduced to rubble.

Worth watching, definitely.

Best wishes