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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ007115S
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00:28 Planet earth is filled with the dazzling diversity of life
00:33 but few animals can compare with the extinct dinosaurs 00:38 for variety, size, and sheer magnificence. 00:42 They roamed the earth away back in the ancient past 00:45 and came in an incredible range of shapes and sizes. 00:50 Some of the ancient creatures had enormous bodies 00:54 and were the most colossal creatures ever to have lived 00:58 on land while others were only the size of chickens. 01:02 Some were fierce and had sharp claws and razor teeth 01:06 while others were harmless and docile. 01:10 Many of them had spikes, horns and plates and were the 01:15 weirdest animals ever to walk on earth. 01:18 Some were agile and could run very fast while others 01:23 were ponderers, slow-moving and awkward. 01:27 Dinosaurs lived on all seven continents, yes, even Antarctica. 01:33 But how much do we really know about these amazing creatures? 01:40 How and where did they live? Why did they die out? 01:45 And what do their fossil traces tell us? 01:48 Join me on the dinosaur trail as we search for answers, 01:54 we'll travel back in time and get up close and personal 01:58 with the biggest, fastest, fiercest, and strangest 02:03 creatures that ever roamed the earth. 02:23 Dinosaurs once roamed the earth in large numbers 02:27 and though they are now extinct these creatures continue to 02:31 captivate the imagination of people young and old 02:35 around the world. 02:36 But what exactly is a dinosaur? Well, to begin with 02:42 they're reptiles and these ancient reptiles lived on land 02:46 in contrast to other ancient reptiles like Plesiosaurs 02:51 that were water reptiles and Pterosaurs that were 02:55 flying reptiles. And the feature that distinguishes 02:59 dinosaurs from these other reptiles is a hole in the 03:02 hip socket which allowed dinosaurs to walk upright 03:06 with their limbs directly underneath their body's. 03:09 Dinosaurs have huge long tails that didn't touch the ground, 03:15 they had scales, they laid eggs and built nests, 03:19 so all dinosaurs hatched from eggs. 03:22 Although they had these features in common dinosaurs also 03:26 had lots of differences that made each species unique too. 03:31 There were over 1,000 different species of dinosaurs and they 03:36 came in all kinds of shapes and sizes. 03:38 The tallest dinosaur known was Sauroposeidon 03:43 a herbivore that walked on four legs and grew up to 03:47 18 meters or 60 feet tall which is the same height as 03:52 three giraffes standing on top of one another. 03:55 In contrast, one of the smallest dinosaurs ever found was 04:01 Microraptors that was discovered in China and was about the size 04:05 of a pigeon, it only weighed about one kilo or two pounds 04:09 and fed on insects. 04:11 One of the fastest dinosaurs was Gallimimus which could 04:16 run at a rate of over 70 kilometers or 43 MPH, 04:21 about as fast as a cheetah, the fastest land animal alive today. 04:25 The dinosaur with the best armor was probably Ankylosaurs 04:32 these herbivores' weighed about five tons and were up to 04:36 10 meters or 33 feet long but couldn't move much faster 04:41 than a human could walk. They had super tough-plated 04:45 skin covered with spikes and a club tail which helped him 04:49 to defense against hunters. 04:51 If a predator attacked the low and heavy reptile 04:55 would swing its tail that was made up of seven bones 05:00 fused together in a hard and heavy mass like a club with 05:04 enough force to break the attackers bones, 05:07 other dinosaurs had their own unique defense apparatus. 05:12 The Triceratops for example, had three impressive horns 05:16 jutting out of its face and huge solid curved head plate 05:22 or frill, it was probably the most spectacular horned dinosaur 05:26 of all time. Although it appeared dangerous Triceratops 05:32 was actually a slow-moving herbivore that used its 05:36 beaklike jaw and slicing teeth to pluck and chew plants 05:40 but it sure needed its horns and fierce appearance 05:43 because it lived in Tyrannosaurus Rex territory 05:47 and that's not the kind of neighbor you want to have 05:51 living nearby. 05:52 Tyrannosaurus Rex whose name means king of the 05:57 tyrant lizards but is popularly know today as T-rex 06:01 was probably the fiercest and most powerful land predator 06:05 that has ever lived. 06:06 It was a massively built killer, 3 and 1/2 meters or 12 feet tall 06:12 13 meters of 43 feet long and weighing about 9 tons. 06:17 It had strong legs and thigh muscles for charging into attack 06:22 with lethal speed. It had terrifying long bone-crushing 06:27 teeth, powerful jaws, and eye- sight as sharp as an eagle's. 06:32 They often traveled in small groups of four or five adults. 06:37 They roamed through a wide variety of habitat 06:41 but it was on the plains and along the river valley's 06:44 that the T-rex family focused their attention. 06:47 They were the deadly enemy of so many animals 06:50 but in particular a veracious predator of Triceratops 06:55 and the smaller Einiosaurus 06:58 Using their keen power of scent that could predict prey 07:03 six kilometers or four miles away, the T-rex began to 07:07 stalk their prey, a herd of Einiosaurus who were peacefully 07:11 grazing in an open field in the river valley. 07:14 But attacking a horn creature like an Einiosaurus was laced 07:19 with danger as they were no soft target, they had 07:23 vicious horns that were lethal weapons that could stab 07:27 and severely wound and they certainly knew how to use them. 07:31 If a hunter puts a foot wrong, the next few minutes 07:35 could be his last, just how the hunt ended we'll never know. 07:40 The age of the dinosaurs ended abruptly when a huge cataclysm 07:46 killed off the dinosaurs and resulted in a mass extinction. 07:50 But thanks to modern science, we know a lot about the 07:54 dinosaurs that used to roam earth. 07:58 So, how do scientists know so much about dinosaurs today? 08:03 I mean they've been extinct a long time ago. 08:06 Nobody can see a dinosaur today they can't observe them in the 08:11 wild like they do with modern animals. 08:13 No, instead they rely upon what dinosaurs left behind 08:20 their bones, fossils. Scientists study dinosaurs bones and 08:26 other bodily material left behind in fossil graveyards 08:31 that have been discovered around the world. 08:33 Virtually everything we know about dinosaurs comes from 08:38 studying these fossils. 08:40 No one knows when the first dinosaur bone was found 08:45 ancient peoples most likely uncovered fossils of dinosaur 08:49 bones from time to time. 08:51 But they had no idea what they'd found, even early English 08:56 and European scientists weren't sure about the fossils 08:59 they found. For example in 1676 Robert Plot 09:06 a curator of an English museum discovered a huge thigh bone 09:10 in England, he believed it belonged to an ancient 09:13 species of human giants. 09:15 Only many years later was it determined that it belonged to 09:19 a dinosaur. In 1824, William Buckland, a British 09:24 fossil hunter and the first geology professor at 09:28 Oxford University was the first person to correctly identify 09:33 a dinosaur fossil for what it really was. 09:36 He wrote the world's first scientific description of a 09:40 fossil dinosaur which was named megalosaurus in 1827. 09:45 At this time the word dinosaur hadn't been invented yet, 09:51 the word had first been used by Richard Owen in 1842 09:55 he produced the term dinosaur from two Greek words 10:00 which means terrible lizards to describe these 10:03 distinct creatures which he recognized as significantly 10:07 different from today's reptiles. 10:10 Although the study of dinosaurs really got its start in 1842 10:15 there wasn't much available to study, in fact in 1860 10:21 just six types of dinosaurs were known. 10:23 But then people started finding spectacular dinosaur bones 10:28 in America. In the 1870's two dinosaur hunters 10:33 Edward Drinker Cope and Othneil Charles Marsh 10:37 started competing to find new fossils, 10:40 this became known as The Bone Wars. 10:44 By 1892 they had discovered more than 120 new species 10:50 of dinosaurs between them. 10:52 As the 1900s began, many scientists and universities 10:57 all over the world were inspired by The Bone Walls 11:01 and these new discoveries. They began to study and research 11:05 dinosaur fossils and so a whole new branch of this science 11:10 known as Paleontology began. 11:13 Now paleontology is the scientific study of fossils, 11:18 the remains of long-dead dinosaurs and other creatures 11:22 and the people who specialize in this field are called 11:27 Paleontologists, they're the detectives who examine 11:31 the evidence that dinosaurs and other extinct animals 11:34 left behind such as bones, teeth, footprints, tracks, 11:40 eggs, and skin impressions. 11:42 These fossil hunters gather and piece together the remains 11:47 of these extinct creatures to give us a glimpse of the past 11:51 and help us better understand life on earth. 11:55 And what's really exciting is that new fossil evidence 12:00 is being found all the time, virtually every day 12:04 brings a new dinosaur discovery, there's so much more 12:09 out there to discover. 12:11 But what have we learned what's already here from what we've 12:15 already discovered? 12:17 Well, we've seen that a wide variety and many species of 12:21 dinosaurs roamed widely across the world in large numbers. 12:26 We've also seen that these ancient creatures continue to 12:31 captivate the imagination of people young and old 12:34 but it's not just present-day people who are fascinated by 12:39 dinosaurs. Nearly all ancient civilization had stories or 12:44 art depicting giant reptiles and dinosaur-like creatures. 12:49 Petroglyph's or rock carvings, artifacts and even 12:54 little clay figures found in North America resemble 12:57 modern depictions of dinosaurs like the Anasazi dinosaur 13:02 Petroglyphs in Utah that looks strikingly like a brontosaurus. 13:07 Then across in Europe from the Roman Empire we have mosaics 13:12 like the Nile mosaic from Palestrina that shows 13:17 dinosaur-like creatures. 13:19 And in the Middle East, the ancient Egyptians produced the 13:24 Narmer Palette thousands of years ago that depicts 13:27 two dinosaur-like creatures with their long necks entwined 13:31 and it wasn't unique, the two dog palette displays something 13:35 similar, further east in Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq. 13:40 The Walls of ancient Babylon built around 600 BC depict 13:45 rows of curious long-legged dinosaur-like dragons 13:49 called Mushussu. Today many scholars believe the 13:53 Mushussu image and description appeared to best fit a 13:58 Sauropod dinosaur. 13:59 Across in Asia at Cambodia's Angkor Wat is a 12th-century 14:04 Hindu temple complex that later became a Buddhist Temple. 14:08 On one of the temples Ta Prohm is a clear depiction of a 14:14 living Stegosaurus, the carving is a side view of the animal 14:18 and shows a series of plates running down its back. 14:22 In much the same way we now know was present on the fossils 14:27 of Stegosaurus dinosaurs. There are literally hundreds 14:31 of these dinosaur-like depictions on the petroglyphs, 14:35 artifacts, carvings, and art of ancient civilizations 14:39 around the world. 14:41 Many people wonder about the ancient Hebrews and ask if 14:45 dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible. 14:49 Well, the word dinosaur isn't found anywhere in the Bible. 14:55 Now that shouldn't surprise us, because dinosaur is a relatively 15:01 new word, remember that it wasn't until 1842 that 15:07 Richard Owen even coined the word dinosaur and that was 15:11 thousands of years after most of the Bible was written. 15:15 So, since the word dinosaur didn't even exist when the Bible 15:20 was written, naturally you won't find that word in 15:23 the Bible. However though that term isn't in the Bible, 15:28 doesn't mean that the Bible does not refer to dinosaurs. 15:32 Now imagine that you had to find a word to describe a huge 15:37 dinosaur without actually using the term 15:40 dinosaur. What word would you use? How about dragon, 15:46 or monster? Well, those are the very words that the 15:51 Bible writers chose. The Bible uses the Hebrew word 15:55 Tanniyn to describe a mysterious creature resembling 16:00 a giant reptile, this creature appears 28 times in scripture 16:05 the scripture or Old Testament. 16:07 With English translations refer to it most often as a dragon 16:12 or a sea monster, the term applies to a water monster 16:17 as well as a land monster. 16:19 Many scholars believe that Bible writers used this 16:24 term Tanniyn to describe dinosaurs in the Bible. 16:28 but those aren't the only references to dinosaur-like 16:32 creatures in the Bible. 16:34 Dinosaurs seem to pop up through the Book of Job 16:37 which many believe is the oldest book in the Bible, 16:41 possibly written around 3 and 1/2 thousand years ago. 16:46 Job chapter 40 mentions a creature called a Behemoth 16:51 and it provides a lot of information about the creature. 16:55 Here are the details... 17:19 Here the Bible describes a huge creature that Job has seen. 17:25 It's a grass eater, that's very strong with great muscles, 17:29 it moves its tail which is like a huge Cedar Tree, 17:33 it's the first the chief, perhaps the largest and strongest 17:38 of God's creation. No present day animal fits this description, 17:43 but a giant plant-eating Sauropod would, 17:47 something like a Brachiosaurus or an Apatosaurus. 17:52 Then a little further on Job chapter 41 describes another 17:58 huge fearsome creature. 17:59 This time a sea creature, a sea monster. 18:03 Again details of the creature are mentioned. 18:40 Certainly no other creature living or extinct fits this 18:45 description better than a dinosaur. 18:48 Now dinosaurs were land creature but remember there were also 18:53 huge sea reptiles that live around the same time as 18:56 dinosaurs that are often grouped with them. 18:59 They were some of the most fearsome predators that 19:02 have ever existed. One group was the Plesiosaurs 19:07 true sea monsters with massively extensive jaws and one of these 19:13 huge water reptiles such as a Liopleurodon would certainly 19:18 fit the description in the Bible Book of Job. 19:21 The Bible also mentions other dinosaur-like creatures in 19:25 Genesis, Isaiah, and Psalms as well. 19:30 So, if the Bible does refer to dinosaurs, 19:33 where did they come from? And what happened to them? 19:37 Well, the Bible says that in the beginning God created all things 19:42 including this earth and every- thing in it. 19:45 He accomplished His creation in just six days, 19:49 all of the land animals were created on day six 19:54 along with the first people Adam and Eve. 19:57 This means that dinosaurs were created on the sixth day 20:01 of creation about 6,000 years ago. 20:04 Now, how do we know that? Well, God gives us a 20:08 comprehensive timeline right in the Bible itself. 20:12 In Genesis chapter 5, we see a list of Adam's descendants 20:17 up to Noah and how long they lived, then we can follow 20:21 more dates than the Bible gives us and measure 20:24 to the time of Abraham and on to Moses, and the Exodus, 20:28 King David, Solomon's Temple, the Babylonian Captivity, 20:33 and on to Jesus. 20:35 From there it's easy to follow on down to our time 20:40 and we see that the earth is around 6,000 years old, 20:44 the Bible provides a reliable timeline that provides a 20:48 framework through which we can interpret and understand 20:52 science and history. 20:54 The Bible tells us that the dinosaurs were originally 21:00 plant eaters like all the other creatures that God created 21:03 Here's what it says in Genesis Chapter 1 and verse 30. 21:22 After Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the 21:26 tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, sin entered the world 21:30 and some animals became carnivores or omnivores' 21:35 including many of the dinosaurs. 21:37 So, what happened to the dinosaurs? 21:41 Well, the Bible tells us that there was a great cataclysmic 21:49 flood that largely destroyed life on earth and only Noah, 21:54 his family and the animals that he brought with him 21:57 onto the large ship called the Ark survived. 22:02 Noah was commanded by God to bring two of every kind of 22:06 creature on the ark so he would have brought dinosaurs as well. 22:10 Now, you're probably wondering how Noah could possibly have 22:16 squeezed all those animals including large dinosaurs 22:20 on a boat well, there are several important facts 22:24 we need to remember. Firstly. 22:27 God instructed Noah to build a massive ship that could hold 22:31 not only the animals but also all the food they needed 22:35 along with Noah and his family. 22:38 Secondly. Noah could have taken younger and much smaller 22:43 dinosaurs on the ark so that they would be able to mature 22:47 and reproduce after the great flood. 22:49 Thirdly. It's not hard to conceive of dinosaurs 22:54 being on the ark when we remember that the average 22:57 size of a dinosaur was actually smaller than a cow. 23:01 So, what happened to the dinosaurs after the flood? 23:05 How do we account for their extinction? 23:08 Well, remember most of them would have perished 23:12 during cataclysmic worldwide flood and for those on the ark, 23:17 the earth they disembarked on after the flood was 23:21 very different from the one they knew before it. 23:24 The flood devastated the earth and made it a much more 23:29 difficult world to live in and survive. 23:32 Possibly they simply died out after the flood because 23:37 their population never grew large enough in the post-flood 23:41 world. There may have been major environmental change, 23:45 making it more difficult to find the right types of food 23:49 in sufficient quantities to sustain them. 23:51 Quite simply, it was quite difficult for the dinosaurs 23:56 to find enough food to survive. 23:59 Also, the great worldwide flood and all the water covering 24:04 the earth's surface would have changed the earth's climate 24:08 and since the dinosaurs were reptiles, it could have been 24:12 challenging for them to stay warm enough to live. 24:15 And then humans may have hunted dinosaurs to extinction for food 24:20 or sport, or self-defense. 24:22 The fact is that no one knows for sure what happened to the 24:28 dinosaurs, but we do know the dinosaurs and not the only 24:32 animals to become extinct. 24:34 Many animals over the years have died due to all sorts of 24:38 causes. Scientists tell us that thousands of species 24:43 have gone extinct in the past century alone. 24:46 So, we don't know for sure exactly when and why 24:51 dinosaurs went extinct, but we do know that it wasn't 24:55 too long ago because now there in archeological and scientific 25:00 evidence to demonstrate it. 25:02 Recently eminent paleontologist unexpected discovered 25:08 red blood cells, soft tissue, and proteins in dinosaur fossils 25:13 for the first time. 25:15 These cells and soft tissue could not possibly have 25:19 survived tens of hundreds of millions of years, 25:23 these things simply don't last that long. 25:26 But they do clearly fit a Biblical understanding 25:29 of a creation only 6,000 years ago. 25:34 These new discoveries contradict the evolutionary time schedule 25:40 of tens and hundreds of millions of years but provide immensely 25:45 powerful support for the proposition that dinosaur fossils 25:49 were mostly produced on the catastrophic conditions 25:53 a few thousand years ago at most. 25:56 So we see that the Biblical, Scientific, Archeological and 26:01 historical evidence all combined to help us better understand 26:07 dinosaurs and the world they lived in. 26:09 Yes, dinosaurs were awesome creatures yet the best thing 26:15 of about these incredible creatures is that they were 26:18 created by our majestic and all-powerful God. 26:25 If you'd like to know more about dinosaurs, and when and where 26:28 they came from, then I'd like to recommend the free gift 26:32 we have for all our Incredible Journey viewers today. 26:36 It's the booklet Dinosaurs and the Bible. 26:40 This booklet is our gift to you and is absolutely free, 26:45 I can assure you there are no obligations whatsoever 26:49 so make the most of this wonderful opportunity 26:53 to receive the free gift we have for you today. 26:57 Here's the information you need. 26:59 Phone or text 0436.333.555 in Australia or 020.422.2042 27:10 in New Zealand, or 770.800.0266 in the United States, 27:17 or visit our website tij.tv or simply scan the QR code 27:23 on your screen and we'll send you today's free offer 27:26 totally free of charge and with no obligation, you can also 27:31 write to us at the addresses on your screen or email us 27:35 at info@tij.tv. Don't delay call or text us now. 27:41 Dear Heavenly Father and creator God, 27:45 Thank You for the wonders of the natural world 27:48 that You have provided for us, including the awesome dinosaurs 27:52 you have provided for us in the past. 27:53 They leave us in awe and wonder, they remind us that You are 27:58 powerful God, but they also tell us that You a loving God 28:02 who cares about us. 28:04 Please grant us the inner peace and happiness that comes from 28:09 knowing that You're our creator and that You are in charge 28:12 of our lives and that You will care for us. 28:16 Please bless us now we pray in Jesus' name. 28:20 Amen! |
Revised 2025-03-31