The sound is not a warning to go away, but an invitation to come closer.
The tiger senses a meal.
But he is a cautious hunter.
The dragon tries a subtle change of pitch.
The prey sounds distressed.
An injury perhaps?
The tiger falls for it, hook, line, and sinker.
One less rival, one more meal.
The kill is taken to a clearing.
The Forest Dragon has adapted its ancient weapon into a culinary tool.
Cooked meat is far more easily digested.
But the flames draw another mammal near.
A species that will prove a far greater threat to her survival.
I came here to expose a hoax...
and suddenly a whole reptile family is coming to life.
And what a family. Of all the prehistoric giants...
only yours survived the K-T catastrophe.
And you weren't the only dragon.
Seems there was a forest-dwelling Asian Dragon...
a Sea Dragon, too, just like the myths.
Could there have been others?
I need more time.
The helicopter will be with us any minute, and soon we'll be heading back to England.
And once this thing's back in the museum, I won't get a look in.
Until then, we'll keep scanning.
You need to look at this.
I've just noticed these fragments here.
- What are they? Crushed ribs? - No, the rib cage is totally intact.
But they're bone fragments right? What are they?
That explains the weird proportions.
Of course. It's got four legs.
And two wings.
Six limbs.
No vertebrate that ever lived has six limbs.
It's true. Every land-based vertebrate on the planet has four limbs.
Front feet, back feet: Arms and legs.
And airborne creatures, too. Feet and wings. They all have four limbs.
But not this dragon. It's got six. It can't be a fake, not now.
If those legs are for real, then they'll show up in its DNA.
Oh, my.
Now that's some freaky mutation.
This creature has a genetic adaptation unlike anything in the animal kingdom...
and wouldn't you know it...
in the gene responsible for generating limbs.
And it's here in mythology, too.
The Chinese, the Aztecs, Polynesians...
they all drew images of creatures with the same adaptation:
Giant six-limbed reptiles.
The clue was there all along.
How could I have missed it?
These drawings aren't wild imagination. They're records.
These primitive people were telling us something and we weren't listening.
And if the images are accurate...
then they're even more evidence that there were many types of dragon...
and they lived everywhere on the planet.
We've got evidence for a Marine Dragon, the sea serpent of legend...
a Forest Dragon that lived in Asia...
the Chinese Dragon that adorns 1,000 pots...
and you... Let's call you the Mountain Dragon.
Have you left your mark on European folk history?
Romania.
Dragon iconography. Here you are.
Recorded in stained glass.
The locals called you "the devil from the mountains."
The legend conforms pretty much to type: Terrorizing local folk, raiding livestock...
breathing fire. The monumental battle to the death.
Is this is a 15th-century photograph of you?
So the local farmers gave you a name: The Mountain Devil.
What kind of devil were you?
We're down to the wire. They'll be moving the body out any minute.
And I'll have to leave with it.
One last check. Could we have missed something?
What's that in the heart?
It's something embedded in the right atrium.
That's not organic matter.
This could be really important.
Unequivocal evidence that dragons and humans were at war.
Throughout the Age of Mammals, dragons survived.
But their survival was precarious.
Fire was the ace that kept them one step ahead of the competition.
But, in time, a new mammal emerged.
Small, vulnerable, but supremely intelligent.
Physically, man was no match for a dragon.
But he recognized the possibilities of fire.
With fire, mankind could clear forests for farmland...
mold metal into savage weapons.
In the evolutionary blink of an eye...
mankind was pushing the most deadly predator...
in the natural history of our planet to the verge of extinction.
They had turned the dragons' most potent weapon against them.
The stories of these epic battles were recorded in folklore around the world...
culminating here in Romania.
A dark story passed down through generations.
The story of a demon on a mountaintop...
and of knights, drawn into the mist, never to be seen again...
until now.
Humans and dragons: Mortal enemies.
If these knights went looking for a dragon...
it looks like they found one.
This isn't ice damage, this is carbonization.
These men were burned alive. By a dragon for sure, but not ours.
Our dragon never breathed fire.
- We haven't finished yet. - Yes, we have.
Look.
Carbon.
I found it on one of those bodies out there.
Those bodies have been scorched.
They're right, of course.
It's the find of the century, and we can't risk it turning to mush.
But the mountains are calling me.
What did those men find up there?
They're ready for it!
This section here.
Am I misreading this? Is this a reproductive system?
These are oviducts, right? Small ovaries?
It's a female.
Yet there's no evidence of follicular activity.
The reproductive tract is immature.
It's a juvenile.
It's a baby.
That clinched it.
The creature in the autopsy room was a baby.
The cave wasn't just the scene of a random crime.
It was a nest.
The local myth is starting to sound remarkably like...
an accurate verbal account of a real event.
The knights weren't killed by our dragon. They were killed by an adult...
perhaps defending its young.
A dragon corpse can tell us how their bodies worked...
but a nest can tell us so much more, how they lived.
My guess? Up in those mountains...
we'll find evidence for a dragon family.
Tanner is about to unravel a medieval tragedy.
It is the 15th century, and a Mountain Dragon is under threat.
The distant ancestors of this female Mountain Dragon...
fed on the wild herds that roamed the vast Asian grasslands.
But the herds were tamed by man.
For dragons, they were no longer fair game. They were livestock.
And so the dragons that gorged themselves on the plains...
have been driven to the remote regions of Europe...
and in this remote place, wild game is scarce.
Today, she is hunting the rarest creature on Earth...
but not to eat.
Today, she's looking for a mate.
She spreads her scent throughout her territory.
Strong winds carry the pheromones south.
Female dragons mate once every seven years.
Yet this mature female has never seen a male dragon.
Nevertheless, every year, when she comes into season...
instinct commands her to play out the rituals of attraction.
Her season is almost finished and the window will close for another year.
Another change of plan. Something interesting about a half-mile below the cave.
The melting snow has revealed unusual features on the rock.
To the casual observer, they could be anything...
perhaps the result of some odd geological process.
But, me, I've got fire on my mind...
and these rocks look like they've been scorched.
No. Don't worry about samples.
I need you to follow this line and look for more burn marks.
And tread carefully. Watch for hidden crevasses.
Approximately two hours due south of the drop-off point...
heading towards the scene of death... Can you take a GPS reference?
Evidence of discoloration of the rock.
It seems to have been subjected to a blast of intense heat.
It's literally scarred the rock.
These rocks have been burned to melting point in symmetrical lines.
The dimensions are frightening.
Lightning couldn't do this. Forest fire?
It's not likely. We're half way up a mountain at the edge of a glacier.
The lair is nearby.
Was there some kind of fight?
The female returns to her den...
a network of caves melted into dense glacial ice.
Despite the cold temperatures outside...
in here the temperature is relatively warm.
Like an igloo, the thick walls retain heat.
But the mountain dragon has another line of defense against the cold.
From her marine ancestor, she's inherited a blood protein...
that prevents her tissues from freezing.
It has proved vital to her species...
as they are forced into increasingly inhospitable habitats.
Soon it will be autumn and her metabolism will slow...
as she prepares to hibernate through the bitter winter.
This is it.
Why would you choose such a remote, inhospitable place to live?
Come on.
The police have done their job. Now it's our turn.
Set up ultrasonic mapping and grid digital tiles of all the surfaces.
We need to get a clear picture of what this place looked like 600 years ago.
Can you begin excavation of the floor and the walls?
Any extra forensics we may have missed...
that may give us some clues as to the nature of the creature.
I'm on it.
So this was where they found you.
Gridding Tile 1. Set.
The laser scanner will help us build a map of this place...
and then we can accurately record the position of everything we find.
Any mapping results yet?
I've gridded most of the cave, but it's a labyrinth in here.
It's anyone's guess what's behind these walls.
Glacial movement.
Set those echo scan charges at minimum. We don't know how unstable this place is.
Echo scanning:
Small explosive charges send shock waves into the ice.
The echoes will tell us what's behind them.
- What is it? - I'm not sure.
I know what this is.
Dragon poop!
Looks like organic matter.
It's beautifully preserved. Good work.
Okay, bag it.
Sorry.
Evidence of bone shards.
Look. These look like fruit stones.
Date stones?
Not many date palm trees in the Carpathians, 600 years ago.
It's possible that she strayed...
but it's more likely that this is the feces of another.
So, the next question:
Why would you travel such an immense distance...
across the continents and the climates?
What could possibly attract you to this place?
Whatever dumped this had its last meal in a much warmer place.
Somewhere a long way from here.
The female's curiosity is aroused.
It is a sound she has never heard before...
yet somehow it seems eerily familiar.
She is compelled to investigate.
Against all odds, a male Mountain Dragon has picked up our female's scent.
He's a nomadic dragon from the Atlas Mountains of North Africa.
His search for a mate has brought him across southern Europe...
to the Carpathian Mountains.
Now he has found her.
Instinct takes over.
And they do what their kind has done for thousands of years.
It is a courtship ritual that is as perilous as it is spectacular.
At the height of her climb, they lock talons...
and drop in a dazzling free fall.
It is the ultimate test of faith.
The scorches in the mountain rock serve as mute testimony...
to a spectacular and successful dragon mating...
and a species on the verge of extinction...
that finds hope in a new generation.
What is that?
The initial investigation team must have had a lot on their minds.
They sure overlooked this.
It's a nest.
Judging from the size and shape...
of the calcified fragments, and the curvature...
I think it's safe to say that this egg was of considerable size.
And given the fairly limited number of fragments...
I think it's safe to say that only one egg would have been incubated at any one...
Oh, my God!
Two eggs in a clutch.
But only one of them made it.
Crocodiles bury their eggs in active compost to keep them warm.
Dragons have a much more direct method.
The eggshells have heat resistant properties that can withstand intense temperatures.
In fact, without this searing heat...
the dragon chicks inside would die of cold.
The rocks shield the eggs from the direct blast...
but they also retain heat, releasing it over a long period...
and keeping the temperatures inside the nest stable.
If she is to become a mother, careful and constant temperature control...
is essential over the long incubation period.
Her mate returns from hunting.
He has been unsuccessful.
Again.
After mating, female dragons become aggressive...
deeply defensive when any creature approaches the nest...
even a mate.
In order to placate her for the lack of food, he brings a gift.
Another rock for the nest.
The male is now clear to enter the cave.
The female will take her turn to hunt.
Now the male has responsibility for the nest.
Special sensors in his tongue allow him to check the temperature.
If the eggs fall below 60 degrees, the chicks will die.
Yet, quite deliberately, he lowers the temperature.
There is method in this apparent madness.
Just like crocodiles, the temperature in the nest...
will determine the sex of the offspring.
Cooler temperatures encourage the development of females.
Males, even sons...
will compete for territory, food, and breeding females.
Females suit him better.
In normal times, this self-serving strategy is sound.
But in a species on the verge of extinction...
an imbalance in the sexes could prove fatal.
Should anything happen to him, this tiny group is finished.
The female returns empty-handed from another hunt.
The male is not at his post.
Something is very wrong.
The male has let the incubation temperature drop dangerously low.
It is already too late for one of her chicks. But one might survive.
The male senses trouble, and makes his escape.
The cave continues to yield up its secrets at a fantastic rate.
Bones from a domesticated sheep.
You were preying on local livestock.
Silly girl. You were playing a very dangerous game.
The female has taken to raiding livestock for food.
She has good reason.
This is her daughter.
And her survival is the most important thing now.
But by stealing from farms, she risks provoking the locals...
and placing her daughter in danger.
Unaware of the price on her head...
the female dragon continues to equip her daughter for the future.
She is passing on the secret of fire.
These marks could have been made yesterday.
They were after something in the rock.
We'll need tests, but my guess is that we'll find platinum.
This nest wasn't built here for the view.
I've got the results through.
Yes. Look. One chamber through here.
There's a second chamber behind us, here, and a third chamber right over there.
Three chambers.
But we've only got time to go into one. So what do you want to do?
I have no idea.
Wait a minute. What's that?
There's something in the rock.
Just stand here.
Put your arms here.
Put your arm. This arm.
Just stay there. Don't move.
No. Put your arms down.
Whatever created that blast mark came from behind this wall.
Set up Rover. We're going in here.
The RO V: Remote Operated Vehicle.
One of the latest additions to the paleontologist's arsenal.
The small camera can scoot through the tightest holes to send back pictures.
We've got to get in there.
After feeding, mother and daughter bask in the sun's warmth.
Their wings soak up heat like solar panels.
In a rare moment of intimacy, they lie together and share body warmth.
Soon the mother will have to hunt, and her daughter will be left unguarded.
The knights in the mortuary weren't alone.
This place is looking more like a war zone.
The question is: Whatever killed them, is it still in there?
With summer drawing to a close...
the dragon is desperate to fatten herself and her baby before they hibernate.
And in her desperation, she has all but cleared the local farms of livestock.
There are two more bodies in here.
There doesn't appear to be any evidence of scorching.
I'm getting closer. I know it.
Where are you?
There's another passage. I'm going through here.
Once, man and dragon lived side by side.
Dragons were respected, even worshipped.
Now they are hunted like vermin.
Man has driven dragons to these remote habitats.
Now, even here, they are not safe.
Without the ability to breathe fire, this immature youngster is vulnerable.
But her assassins were reared on stories about their terrifying weaponry.
Wary of the fire-breathing devil, they are cautious.
Eventually they sense that this dragon carries no threat.
The mother returns...
too late.
But her grieving will have to wait.
She catches a scent, chilling, yet familiar.
In a final insult, the assassin wears the blood of her daughter as a trophy.
These warriors may have survived many battles...
but nothing can prepare them for the fury.
They are about to reap the whirlwind.
Like higher mammals, dragons invest many years in rearing their young.
And like those mammals, they feel loss.
But the trauma of her daughter's death has brought the female dragon into season.
She may still be mourning, but her body knows that to survive...
she must mate again.
She starts again the process of attracting a mate back into her territory.
She displays the armor from her daughter's assassins.
Dragons are naturally attracted to reflective objects.
It is a long shot, but perhaps a glint might catch his eye.
The chances are that he is no longer alive.
There's nowhere left to hide.
As winter draws in, hibernation beckons.
She'll have to survive the winter on her meager reserves of fat.
Her body temperature drops dramatically and she goes into suspended animation.
All her usual functions are placed on emergency status...
and her hydrogen reserves fall to almost zero.
And in this state, she is as vulnerable as her daughter.
Where are you?
Another body!
A spear...
a body...
crushed by something.
I've found a wing!
It's huge!
The female is woken from her torpor.
More men have made the climb to her lair.
This time, they are better prepared.
Mercenaries, paid by the local farmers to settle a score.
Without food, she cannot make hydrogen.
And without her precious gas, she cannot fly or breathe fire.
Over the years, the cave was sealed by snow and ice...
and the bloody battle frozen in time.
The dragon faded from reality to mythology, and would've stayed that way...
had these two dragons not revealed their secrets to us.
I left the museum with my reputation in pieces.
I return with the story to end all stories...
and evidence that will rewrite natural history.
The creatures of legend were real...
but the legends gave a twisted view of reality.
I fill my colleagues in about the fantastic family that we have unearthed.
A group of animals that lived alongside the dinosaurs...
that escaped annihilation by going underwater...
that re-emerged all over the globe...
claiming forests and conquering mountains.
But I can tell that they're not listening.
They want to see the evidence firsthand.
And who can blame them?
This way. And goggles on, please.
The story of life on our planet has been rewritten...
by a mother and her child, reunited.
And that's what we have here. The last of a legendary line.
Myth made real.
The myth of a sheep-stealer.
The reality of a mother struggling to feed her young.
The myth of a vicious beast.
The reality of survival at any cost.
The myth of knights that climbed a mountain to slay a dragon.
The reality: Persecution and extinction.
Now, every dragon myth from around the world begs the same question:
Were they real, too?
And the most important question of them all:
Were these really the last dragons?
Professor Tanner. I thought I'd catch you.
These were taken two months ago.