These past few years have been an exciting time for paleo nerds. The revival of the Jurassic franchise has renewed the public’s interest in dinosaurs, and new paleontological discoveries such as the revamping of Spinosaurus, and new understandings of behaviour, integument, and taxonomy are coming out every few months.
But there’s this disconnect between what the general public thinks of dinosaurs, and what experts and enthusiasts (like myself) understand. Once upon a time, dinosaur nature documentaries were all the rage. Walking With Dinosaurs was a cultural cornerstone of the turn of the century, but it has been a while since any Dino Doco has had anywhere near the same success.
Fast forward to 2022, and Apple TV presents a BBC series in the style of Planet Earth and Blue Planet, but with dinosaurs, called Prehistoric Planet. And I loved it.
Prehistoric Planet
BBC / Jon Favreau / Mike Gunton
The Pitch
Prehistoric Planet is a 5-part nature documentary, each episode about 45 minutes long. Unlike Walking With Dinosaurs, which explored habitats and species across the Mesozoic period, Prehistoric Planet focuses in on the end of the Cretaceous, around 66 million years ago.
Each episode explores biodiversity in a specific type of habitat;
Coasts
Deserts
Freshwater
Ice World
Forests
Rather than follow a group of animals in one specific locale, each episode will jump around different locations around the world that match the episode’s theme. Episode 2 for example gives an insight into deserts in South America, North Africa, and East Asia. This formula allows the documentary team to discuss various species from all across the world.
There’s fantastic variety in the species chosen to focus in each episode. With the dinosaurs, of course they have to discuss mainstream fan favourites like Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Velociraptor. But they also discuss species not as well known to the public like Nanuqsaurus, Antarctopelta, and even dinosaurs I hadn’t heard of until now, like Zalmoxes.
Something I have seen discussed as somewhat unique to this series, is the spotlight on non-dinosaur animals from this period. Plesiosaurs, frogs, primitive birds, Mosasaurs, Ammonites, and most of all, Pterosaurs. Pterosaurs get a great amount of focus in multiple episodes, and from a variety of groups within Pterosauria; aerial expert Nyctosaurs, impressively decorated Pteranodontids, and the gigantic stalking Azdarchids.
And I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned it yet, but the documentary is narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and that just ties together the whole package.
My Thoughts
As a fan of anything with David Attenborough, this was an immediate sell for me. The tenderness and wonder in David’s voice as he details the mundane and exciting of these extinct animals holds your attention firmly.
The special effects used to create the illusion of these animals interacting with their world is stunning; water splashes and flows as animals move through it, snow and sand shifts against them, leaves are brushed aside. It’s expertly done.
Every behaviour and design aspect of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and the animals they live with is called against direct fossil evidence and further inferred from behaviour and physiology in living animals. Even the most speculative aspects of their design have roots in actual zoology.
Each of the 45 minute episodes are accompanied with a 5 minute behind-the-scenes clip, where palaeontologists who were consulted for the project explain how all decisions made were steeped deeply in real science. These were once living things on this planet, and the way they are depicted, and described by David Attenborough, illustrates this fact.
That last part is probably my favourite aspect of this documentary series, that the dinosaurs and other creatures are treated like animals. They were not blood thirsty monsters that would stop at nothing short of absolute bloodshed. They had families, they would back off if there was too much danger, they were curious about their environment.
It’s a shame that dinosaurs have become little more than movie monsters in the eye of today’s public, because as Prehistoric Planet shows us, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and all extinct animals were living things, and they were extraordinary.
Credit to tumblr user @bluedaddysgirl for all the gifs used in this post
