It’s the much-anticipated series that brings the prehistoric world right into our living rooms.
But the BBC’s new Walking With Dinosaurs is embroiled in a fakery row – over an enormous piece of fossilised poo.
The first episode of the new show, which airs on Sunday, focuses on a three-year-old triceratops called Clover as she tries to evade a hungry T-rex 66million years ago.
While it showcases cutting-edge CGI, there are also scenes showing palaeontologists digging up fossils in Montana.
One stand-out moment involves the team analysing an enormous piece of dinosaur excrement at their dig site in a place called Hell Creek.
The specimen, which they measure at 26.5 inches long and up to 6.2 inches wide, must have come from a T-rex, they said.
‘The team has tracked down a remarkable fossil with a chilling tale to tell,’ the carefully worded commentary says.
‘It may look like a nondescript bit of rock but the shape and texture tell the experts this is a coprolite – fossilised faeces.’
The specimen is called ‘Barnum’ and holds a Guinness World Record for the largest coprolite by a carnivorous animal. Since 2020, it has been housed at the ‘Poozeum’ in Arizona
Team leader Eric Lund from The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, measure the prehistoric excrement which is half covered in plaste
The new Walking With Dinosaurs episode, featuring Clover the triceratops, comes more than 25 years after the series was first broadcast in 1999
However, it turns out not all is as it seems.
Despite the fossil being ‘analysed’ at the dig site – as others continue to excavate fossils right next to them – it was actually transported from over a thousand miles away.
Since 2020, it has been housed at the ‘Poozeum’ in Arizona – a 1,200-mile journey by road – and belongs to coprolite specialist George Frandsen.
The specimen is called ‘Barnum’, after the man who first discovered it at Hell Creek in 2019 – and holds a Guinness World Record for the largest coprolite by a carnivorous animal.
While producers do not attempt to show it being ‘dug up’ at the site, those watching would be forgiven for assuming it had been unearthed there and then by the on-screen researchers.
Team leader Eric Lund and fossil restorer Aubrey Knowles, from The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, measure the prehistoric excrement which is half covered in plaster.
‘The only large carnivorous dinosaur that could have possibly dropped this would be a T-rex,’ Mr Lund says.
‘So very, very cool.’
The duo continues to analyse the fossilised poo to reveal small bones – from the predator’s victims – still in the remains.
Last night, Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke branded the show ‘totally misleading’.
‘The BBC must always remember that education is at the core of its charter,’ he said.
‘A public sector broadcaster must employ the highest standards when making documentaries, and not become distracted by a desire to entertain.
‘We’re seeing too many programmes like this which don’t actually portray the facts. I would expect an organisation like the BBC to be absolutely crystal clear about what is being shown and not try to cheat viewers.’
While producers do not attempt to show it being ‘dug up’ at the site, those watching would be forgiven for assuming it had been unearthed there and then by the on-screen researchers
It was 25 years ago that the terrifying T-Rex, the spiny Stegosaurus and the dizzyingly-tall Diplodocus were brought to life on our TV screens
While the original Walking With Dinosaurs series – first broadcast in 1999 – focused purely on the prehistoric world, this time producers decided to include footage from real dinosaur digs
The BBC have confirmed the fossilised poo is the Barnum specimen.
A spokesman said: ‘The programme does not say that this coprolite specimen was found at the dig site.
‘As the commentary says: “The team has tracked down a remarkable fossil with a chilling tale to tell”.
‘The specimen comes from the collection of coprolite specialist George Frandsen. It was brought to the site to illustrate what T-rex commonly ate, which was important information for the story.
‘Palaeontologists sometimes bring fossils into the field when attempting to build a wider picture of the prehistoric landscape they are studying.
‘The coprolite specimen was used during the course of filming in exactly this manner.’
In 2011, the BBC denied misleading Frozen Planet viewers after it emerged footage of newborn polar bear cubs was filmed in an animal park, rather than in the wild.
The new Walking With Dinosaurs episode, featuring Clover the triceratops, comes more than 25 years after the series was first broadcast in 1999.
An adult triceratops would have reached eight tonnes and nearly nine metres in length. It was the largest and most iconic of the horned dinosaurs.
With two one-metre-long horns over its eyes, and a giant frill behind its head, it would have been an imposing sight.
But youngsters like Clover would have been nothing more than a snack for larger predators.
The episode showcases her day-to-day life as she looks for her herd and tries to survive.
Steve Brusatte, a leading palaeontologist and consultant on Walking With Dinosaurs, said: ‘There isn’t anything remotely fake about it. The fossil coprolite is genuine, and the voiceover makes it clear that the palaeontologists tracked down the fossil from elsewhere, so I don’t see what the issue is.
‘If they had, say, reburied the coprolite and reenacted it being dug up, then that would be misleading, but that isn’t what is shown on screen.
‘Sometimes palaeontologists bring fossils discovered previously to a dig site, to compare to the fossils they are finding or to help train their team, and we’ve done this before on digs I’ve been on.’
Helen Thomas, executive producer, said: ‘The story of Clover is so fascinating because, like the whole series, it is based on the real finds from a unique dig site.
‘In the case of Clover, finding the bones of a very young triceratops is rare in itself as so many ended up as lunch for the many predators roaming north America in the late Cretaceous.
‘But Clover’s story was something even more special – close to her dig site the team found remains of the most infamous predator of them all – the T-rex.
‘Unearthing the bones of predator and prey so close together enabled us to reveal the latest science of these iconic species and tell their extraordinary stories.’
In contrast with the original series, this time producers decided to include footage from real dinosaur digs.
‘This allowed us to tell the most amazing dinosaur stories, but also viewers will literally be able to see the scientific evidence these narratives were based on emerging from the dust for themselves,’ showrunner Kirsty Wilson said.
Other episodes will feature a spinosaurus, a predator even bigger than a T-rex, the ‘spikiest dinosaur known’ called gastonia, and a Jurassic giant, the lusotitan.
The episode will air on Sunday 25th May at 6:25pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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