The Big Monster Dig

Press Release

Official Big Monster
Dig Website

THE BIG MONSTER DIG - Channel 4

Presented by Lucy Taylor with Sarah Gabbott, John Howell and Dave Martill.

Press Release

Following on from the remarkable success of Dinosaur Detectives screen in 2002, which pulled an audience of 2.4 million viewers, RDF Media (of Wife Swap and Faking It fame) have been commissioned by Channel 4 to produce a television series centred on palaeontology. The first in the series of the seven programmes, called the Big Monster Dig will be screened on August 18th at 8 o'clock, Channel 4.

It is primarily aimed at children, families and anyone with an interest in the history of life on Earth, and it will show how, armed with some know how, a hammer and a collecting bag, anybody can look for and find beautiful and significant fossils. The programme is presented by Lucy Taylor and has three geological experts in the Big Dig team who, try to solve palaeontological problems brought to them by members of the public. Dr Sarah Gabbott, a lecturer in the Geology Department at the University of Leicester, is a palaeobiologist, so she uses her expertise and knowledge of the way that ancient creatures lived and died to help solve the mysteries that the team are given.

In one programme the grandchildren of the famous Victorian fossil collector Alfred Leeds, asked the team 'how big was Leedsichthys?' Leedsichthys is a giant fossil fish and it's 6 meter long skull has recently been discovered in the Oxford Clay near Peterborough - unfortunately the rest of the fish is missing. So the Big Dig Team set about trying to use various methods to determine the true length of the monster fish, During this episode students studying geology at the University of Leicester helped in the painstaking process of uncovering and preserving the bones of the giant fish that swam in the seas at the same time as dinosaurs roamed the land. The students armed with dental tools spent two days picking away at the clay from thousands of fragile bones called gill rakers, which the giant fish would have used to sieve the Jurassic seas fro plankton, in much the same way as basking sharks and whale sharks today. Whilst the students were busy digging Sarah visited Leicester's famous fish market to look for clues as to what the fish may have looked like because the shape of a fish varies depending upon its behaviour. For example, a tuna is perfectly engineered to cruise efficiently through the water, unlike a pike that has its' distinctive shape because it waits in ambush for prey and lunges quickly at its quarry. Sarah bought a piece of shark and salmon from the market to take back to the University of Leicester to dissect. We can't give away the story here but she was able to explain why no complete giant Leedsichthys fish have ever been found, only their heads and tails are known.

Official Big Monster Dig Website

For more information on the team and programmes visit the Channel 4 Big Monster Dig website.

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