Roaring back the years

IT'S 25 years since Walking With Dinosaurs first stomped across our screens. And now the pioneering show is back, using the latest technology to bring us closer to the beasts than ever before. The BBC One reboot takes viewers through the ultimate prehistoric punch-up - the Cretaceous period. There are T-rexes tearing through jungles, Spinosauruses stalking the swamps and flying reptiles dive-bombing like they own the sky. Here JULIA KUTTNER speaks to some of the boffins behind the new series, out on May 25...

- JULIA KUTTNER

THE show uses digital wizardry to recreate mind-blowing scenes from 66million years ago. It might seem a little too real but don't worry - we're still a long way from a full-blown Jurassic Park scenario.

Series anatomist and palaeontologist Dr Nizar İbrahim explains: "We may be able to bring back some creatures from the not-so-distant past one day, something like a mammoth or a woolly rhino.

"But for now, the genetic material is just not there in the state we need to be in to bring these creatures back."

For hardcore dino fans, though, he does have some good news. The surviving dinosaurs still walk among us - as birds.

He says: "Birds are surviving dinosaurs and just like humans carry what you might call fossil genes that are switched off."

He adds that in theory, it means you could make a chicken grow a few dinosaur "tooth buds".

EVER wondered what a dinosaur brain looked like? You can find out in Walking With Dinosaurs, when boffins use a 3D printer to create a model built from fossil clues.

Suddenly, the beasts aren't just skeletons - they're beings with brains, senses and maybe even strategies.