Walking With Monsters
Chronologically the first part of the classic Walking With… series, but with the most advanced technology, and thus most awesome animations, this show tells the tale of life’s history before the time of the dinosaurs.
Unlike Walking With Dinosaurs and Walking With Monsters, this series has only three episodes, so it gives a pretty brief account of the early evolution on our planet. The first episode begins at the Cambrian period (about 540-490 million years ago), at the time where the early animals begin to evolve rapidly and things start to get interesting, and leads up to the colonisation of land.
Next, we see the early land scene: giant arthropods (insects, spiders, millipedes, etc.) rule, while small reptiles struggle to stay alive, and when this all changes into the reptiles becoming the dominant land animals.
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Pterygotus, a Silurian three-metre sea scorpion (eurypterid) – the largest
arthropod ever – ambushes Brontoscorpio, another sea scorpion.
Next, we see the early land scene: giant arthropods (insects, spiders, millipedes, etc.) rule, while small reptiles struggle to stay alive, and when this all changes into the reptiles becoming the dominant land animals.
The primitive reptile Petrolacosaurus is snack for the head-sized spider Mesothele.
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Then came the famous Dimetrodon, a type of mammal-like reptile (synapsid), the reptilian ancestors of mammals. So, in a sense, creatures like these are our ancestors. Image from http://about.ebs.co.kr/board/gallery?boardTypeId=4&boardId=5&cmd=list&pageNo=412&no=2&searchCondition=title&searchKeyword=&postId=503453&uri=&tabVal=
The final episode is about life’s greatest disaster – the end-Permian extinction event, where everything hardly could have gone more wrong, and about 90% of all life died out – and the recovery from the catastrophe, setting the scene for the emergence of the dinosaurs.
The drought means little food for herbivores such as the anapsid (related to turtles) Scutosaurus (top), and, as the herbivores die, the food sources for carnivores like the therapsid (advanced synapsid – mammal-like reptile) Gorgonops (bottom) is depleted. This is a bottom-up food chain collapse, typical for mass-extinctions. Images from http://walkingwith.wikia.com/wiki/File:Scutosaurus.jpg (top) and
What is good about this series is that you do not only get to see how the life forms change – how groups evolve, how their roles change, and so on – but there is also some slight emphasis on the key inventions of evolution, such as senses, memory, a skeleton (both external and internal), lungs, egg shell, temperature regulation, among others. It gives you an idea of the most significant moments in the chain of events, and how important these things actually were – and are – although we might take them for granted now.
In short, this is a brilliant introduction to the beginning of Earth’s history, and a pleasant show with good animations and excellent music.
Planet Dinosaur
Planet Dinosaur is a BBC dinosaur series from 2011, directed by Nigel Paterson and narrated by John Hurt. If there is any series that could possibly rival the Walking With… series, it is this one!
The animations are plain incredible! Fabulous! Fantastic! Awesome! Amazing! Magical! Mesmerizing! Yet, none of these words are good enough… You must simply see them for yourself to comprehend their stunning perfection.
A capture of one of the most brilliant scenes in Planet Dinosaur. Image from
But they don’t just look good, their movements are also unbelievably realistic! Once again, you must watch the series to appreciate fully appreciate it.
The huge, carnivorous Carcharodontosaurus is taking a bite of a juvenile Paralititan sauropod.
The entire environments are also computer-animated, and are too phenomenal!
Sinornithosaurus attacking Microraptor. Image found on
The plesiosaur Kimmerosaurus is attacked from the depths by the gargantuan Predator X.
Picture from http://akibara-store.com/predator-x-dinosaur-wiki
Carcharodontosaurus, the king of Africa in the Cretaceous period.
Another extraordinary feature of Planet Dinosaur is its emphasis on evidence, much of which is up-to-date, and the spectacularly well-made presentation of it. The Walking With… series present their underlying research in special in-the-making-of episodes, but in Planet Dinosaur, it is given as a part of the show. The pros and cons of these methods reflects the main difference in the nature of the content between the Walking With… series and Planet Dinosaur.
In the Walking With… series, each episode focuses on either an area or a creature, telling its tale as well as putting it all into a greater context, showing its place in the history of life on Earth. Planet Dinosaur, however, can jump back and forth between continents, sometimes to show similar features, sometimes to show differences; they go from specific case to specific case without really tying the ends together into a chronological story. Rather, Planet Dinosaur seems to emphasise features of dinosaurs that make them interesting/make good tv.
There are two aspects where Planet Dinosaur is lesser than the Walking With… series: content (as discussed above), and music. The music is not necessarily bad, but it is nowhere near good either. It is adequate to set a mood, but not epic.
Still, the astonishing animations and enthralling evidence presentation more than make up for the not-so-deep content and poor music, making Planet Dinosaur one of the best dinosaur tv-series I have ever seen!
The first episode is about two of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs known – Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus – both living in the same area in northern Africa, and how they manage; it is a case of specialist versus generalist – and a question of who will perish and who will persevere. Episode two shows the many small feathered dinosaurs that have only recently begun to be discovered in eastern Asia (China and Mongolia), including Epidexipteryx, Gigantoraptor Microraptor and Sinornithosaurus. The third chapter tells about late Cretaceous predatory dinosaurs and the pattern of tyrannosaurids such as Daspletosaurus dominating the northern continents while abelisaurids like Majungasaurus ruled in the southern hemisphere; it also shows the giant Troodon of Canada. The forth episode focuses on interspecific (between species) relationships between predatory and prey – the basal iguanodont Camptosaurus and the theropod Allosaurus – prey and prey – Camptosaurus and the thyreophoran Stegosaurus, living together and cooperating in their defence against predators such as Allosaurus – and predator and larger predator – the plesiosaur Kimmerosaurus and the pliosaur Predator X (the non-scientific name of a huge marine reptile thought to be close to Liopleurodon, probably the largest predator ever, the size of a large whale!); Allosaurus and another theropod called Saurophaganax (awesome name, by the way). The fifth part is about newly discovered giant sauropods such as Argentinosaurus (the biggest dinosaur, and therefore the largest land animal ever) and Paralititan from Africa, and the massive predatory dinosaurs that fed on them – Mapusaurus and Carcharodontosaurus, respectively. The final chapter is about the survival ability (adaptability) of dinosaurs, including island dwarfism by the sauropod Magyarosaurus, and diet change by therizinosaurs such as Nothronychus from carnivores into herbivores and by oviraptorids such as Gigantoraptor into omnivorous opportunists.
By the way, as you might notice if you see this series, the intoroduction inspired me to the title of this blog!
By the way, as you might notice if you see this series, the intoroduction inspired me to the title of this blog!
Dinosaur Revolution
A relatively new series, from 2011, Dinosaur Revolution is another brilliantly animated dinosaur show, with a humorous touch.
The title refers to the central theme of the series: the marked changes in our understanding of what dinosaurs were like that have occurred in the last years. How big a change this actually is is difficult for young people like me to appreciate, because I have grown up with this new picture having a strong hold already, and the series does not really show any contrast, but merely depicts the current view, with few comments about how the paleontologists that appear in the show used to look at dinosaurs.
The animated animals and environments rival Planet Dinosaur in sheer excellence. With even more vivid colours and patterns, they picture dinosaurs are more bird-like than any show I have seen so far.
Eoraptor, one of the first dinosaurs, is given strong colours and ravishing patterns,
emphasising the modern view on dinosaurs as more like birds than reptiles.
Dinosaur Revolution is similar to Planet Dinosaur in other aspects as well. The music is just enough to set a mood, and is drowned in the roars of the dinosaurs. Again, it is not bad, but it is not commendable either. The scenes readily jump around between continents and time periods, except in episodes 2 and 4, which are focused on one single site each. The lack of chronology means that the features and events they show is not put into proper context.
However, the show is not seriously scientific. It seems to be made for the primary objective to entertain the audience, rather than educate it. The group of experts and the narrator do not say much at all; instead, they let the animations do the talking. When they do throw in a comment, it is usually to explain what is happening, or to mention (not so much explain) some key idea behind the events in the episode. While this makes the educational quality of the show plummet, it lifts the pleasantness of watching a more relaxed, fun show for once! For that purpose, it is actually better not to have a narrator constantly talking and interrupting the illusion the vibrant animations create. This can be exemplified by the introductory scene of episode 2.
The theme of the first episode is the notion that many dinosaurs probably took care of their young and that they are likely to have engaged in vivid mating displays.
A brightly ornamented male Gigantoraptor is courting a female. Picture from http://arod3d.com/?p=59
The second episode depicts the life and deaths around a watering hole – a gathering point for many animals, since all need to drink to survive – in the Jurassic of Peru.
All living organisms need water. Therefore, the entire food chain gathers around watering holes like these,
making it a truly dynamic place. Image from http://deinonych.blog.cz/1112/dinosaur-revolution
Episode 3 explores some of the features that could have made the dinosaurs so successful, including pack hunting by theropods such as Utahraptor, small body size and flight ability by tiny, feathered theropods, e.g. Rahonavis, and the peculative idea of advanced learning ability among even sauropods like Shunosaurus.
A pack of Utahraptor were efficient killing machines. Image from
The last episode focuses on a pair of Tyrannosaurus struggling to create and maintain a family, plus a little about the great dinosaur extinction, emphasising an idea that it would have been a more drawn-out dying rather than direct annihilation.
A fight between two male (?) Tyrannosaurus. Image from http://www.ofelio.com/show?lang=en&id=94790
