BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs in row over fossilised faeces

Yahoo

20-05-2025

The BBC has been accused of misleading viewers over fossilised dinosaur faeces.
A 2ft-long slab of ancient Tyrannosaurus Rex excrement is shown in the first episode of the broadcaster's new Walking With Dinosaurs programme.
However, this fossil was found at the site six years ago and was not unearthed during a recent dig.
The show does not acknowledge this and has been criticised for insinuating that it was a contemporary finding.
The programme focuses primarily on a three-year-old Triceratops called Clover and tells the story of her trying to avoid a T-Rex with visual effects and CGI.
But it also shows other fossils being unearthed at a site in Montana, and then later cuts to researchers analysing a slab of rock which is revealed to be T-Rex excrement.
'The team has tracked down a remarkable fossil with a chilling tale to tell,' the narrator says.
'It may look like a nondescript bit of rock but the shape and texture tell the experts this is a coprolite – fossilised faeces.'
However, the specimen was first dug up in 2019 at the Hell Creek excavation site in Montana, and has been on display at an Arizona museum since 2020.
It holds the world record for the largest coprolite by a carnivorous animal and is called Barnum after the person to first find the fossil.
The fossil was not dug up at the site while the show was being filmed, leading to accusations of 'misleading' viewers.
The BBC programme never said it was found during filming and does not show it being dug up, despite it being shown alongside modern footage.
Alec Shelbrooke, the Tory MP for Wetherby and Easingwold, called the programme 'totally misleading' for how it integrated the Barnum specimen into the show.
'The BBC must always remember that education is at the core of its charter,' he told the Daily Mail.
'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.'
A BBC 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.'
Steve Brusatte, consultant and palaeontologist 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, 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 do 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.'
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