A new David Attenborough film exploring the fate of the dinosaurs is coming to BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year.
Hidden in the low hills of North Dakota lies a secret, prehistoric graveyard known as Tanis where fossils dating from the very end of the Late Cretaceous lie buried in a mysterious crumbly layer of rock.
Followed by a BBC Studios Science Unit film crew for three years, palaeontologist Robert DePalma has explored the site and unearthed creatures which can shed light on life at the very end of the age of the dinosaurs.
He has been searching for new evidence at Tanis that can link the site to the actual day the asteroid hit, perhaps allowing a blow-by-blow visualisation of the devastation that occurred on the last day that dinosaurs ruled the earth.
Sir David said: “Dinosaurs were among nature’s most extraordinary creatures, dominating the planet for over 150 million years before they became extinct.
“Tanis could be a place where the remains can give us an unprecedented window into the lives of the very last dinosaurs, and a minute-by-minute picture of what happened when the asteroid hit.”