Sir David Attenborough will explore how dinosaurs came to be extinct in a new documentary for the BBC.

The veteran broadcaster and naturalist will look at some of the fossil finds from a new dig site at a secret, prehistoric graveyard hidden in the low hills of North Dakota, known as Tanis, for the one-off film Dinosaurs: The Final Day, with David Attenborough.

The fossilised creatures at the site, dating from the very end of the Late Cretaceous period and buried in a crumbly layer of rock, are preserved in such detail that they could help offer a clearer picture of the time just before an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs than ever before.

Sir David will join leading experts and follow the dig team as they carry out cutting-edge visualisation and scanning techniques to reveal fossilised secrets invisible to the naked eye.

New VFX production techniques will be used to immerse Sir David in the Late Cretaceous and bring the creatures which lived at Tanis to life.

Sir David Attenborough (BBC)

A BBC Studios Science Unit film crew has followed palaeontologist Robert DePalma for three years as he 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 for 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.”

Dinosaurs: The Final Day, with David Attenborough will be on BBC One and iPlayer later this year.