Dean’s dinosaur work applauded with re-run of TV documentary

Dinosaur Britain (ITV1 2.30pm) demonstrates how over 50 dinosaur species roamed Britain, and Dean, with co-presenter Ellie Harrison, reveals exactly how they lived 200 million years ago.

It is a mind-boggling fact that although dinosaurs lived on earth for 165 million years, no-one even knew they existed until 200 years ago.

Dean, 25, of Balby, Doncaster, has accomplished much on the subject, with two published books explaining his discoveries and a number of scientific articles.

He has just received the prestigious Marsh Award at London’s Natural History Museum for his contribution to palaeontology, and has also won the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences Postgraduate Research Student Excellence Award at the University of Manchester for Best Contribution to Society for 2015.

He said: ““To win this award is a real honour, especially at my age. Having seen the list of past recipients of this award, I join an excellent group of palaeontologists who have contributed a lifetime of study to this science, so for my contribution to be recognised in the same vein is incredible.”

The Marsh Award for Palaeontology aims to recognise living individuals based in the UK who have contributed significant work to the field of palaeontology, yet whose efforts have not necessarily been widely recognised.

Dean has studied dinosaurs for eight years and completed painstaking research in Doncaster, even discovering the first occurrence of horseshoe crabs and a shark egg case in the area.

Dinosaur Britain was first aired on television in August this year as a two-part documentary.

The story of British dinosaurs has never been told previously, said Dean. So viewers see Giant Sauropods that were the length of two double-decker buses, and agile carnivorous pack-hunters known as Raptors that were discovered in Dorset, along with three types of Tyrannosaur.

“We show how Britain has advanced our understanding of the study of palaeontology and its role in helping to literally sculpt the world we live in today,” said Dean, who immersed himself in the subject following an enduring early fascination with evolution.

The first bone in the world to be discovered was just north of Oxford, buried 40 feet underground.

Dinosaurs of Britain reveals how a miner found part of a large jaw packed with teeth down a slate mine. it remains in Oxford today.

Dean explains that although large fossilised bones had been unearthed in other parts of the world, no-one knew what they were. In China, they were thought to be proof of dragons and here in Britain the train of thought had gone along the lines of a race of super-sized humans.

Making the documentary realised one of Dean’s ambitions, to allow viewers “a snippet in to an ancient world that we see through examination of fossils.”