New insights into life and death of Jumbo the elephant revealed in BBC One documentary

New insights into the life and mysterious death of Jumbo the elephant - a celebrity animal superstar whose story is said to have inspired the film 'Dumbo' - will be revealed in a BBC One documentary hosted by Sir David Attenborough and featuring a University of Nottingham archaeologist on Sunday 10 December. Dr Holly Miller, from the University of Nottingham's Department of Classics and Archaeology, was invited to work as a specialist in isotope science on the 'Attenborough and the Giant Elephant' documentary. As part of the project, Dr. Miller and the team were given unique access to Jumbo's skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History. Dr Miller worked with lead scientist Doctor Richard Thomas (University of Leicester) and Professor John Hutchinson (Royal Veterinary College) to build a biography of Jumbo's life - with the hope of resolving the long-standing mystery of how he died. The documentary will reveal Jumbo's height and body mass, and confirm if he was as big as it was claimed. Dr Miller was particularly involved in the detailed macroscopic and chemical analysis of his teeth, bones and tail hair, which reveal the stresses and strains of captive life and provide insights into how Jumbo might have died. She performed the laboratory work with Dr Angela Lamb from the British Geological Survey as part of CEG , and spent a day filming with Sir David Attenborough in Keyworth.