PREHISTORIC PLANET

[Dynomikegojira]

So now that's there's talk of potential future season what would y'all like to see next. For me I'd like at least one more season set in the Masstricthian since for as much as they give us they really only scratched the surface of the full diversity of the time with several groups missing or underrepresented like the pachycephalosaurs various mammals, birds, various crocs and the abelisaurids like Majungasaurus and Rajasaurus. As for story ideas in keeping with the nature of this documentary it'd be cool if with we see a Tyrannosaurus adopt an orphan Triceratops or Edmontosaurus calf and certainly an episode about the open oceans would make sense also.

Mark Witton painted and blogged about just such a scenario.  Frankly, I found a lot of the parental care in Prehistoric Planet to feel a bit too mammalian and far fetched. Especially the plesiosaurs in the Coasts episode.



http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2015/03/tyrannosaurus-and-triceratops-friends.html.

Oh wow thanks I didn't know Mark Witton wrote about this.

[Carnoking]

Why must it end??
Forest was a delight of an episode! Lots of great surprises and memorable scenes (I've never related more to a Carnotaurus in my life!) I'll have to rewatch them all again before I dare try to make an official ranking!

[CarnotaurusKing]

I've enjoyed every episode so far, and Episode 5 continues this trend.

Spoiler

I loved the scene of the Carnotaurus courting the female. Seeing it dance around with "frolicking in the fields" type music playing in the background brought me so much joy, it was adorable. It was nice to see some new and unexpected faces like Austroposeidon, Atrociraptor, Therizinosaurus and the "ankylosaur" (Anodontosaurus). The Austroposeidon looked slightly more CG than most of the other creatures in the show, but I can't complain otherwise. And I'm glad it didn't end with the K-Pg mass extinction, instead leaving us with a more sombre and peaceful ending. Either way, I'm sad it's ended (for now?).

[close]

Overall, pretty much a perfect show! My problems with it are so few and miniscule, they're not even worth mentioning. This has been one of the most enjoyable cinematic/television experiences of my life, and it's what I've been wanting for years now. I just wish we'd gotten a slight bit more. Majungasaurus, the Lameta fauna, Alamosaurus, and Albertosaurus would have been nice to see. But I'm beyond happy with what we got. If this is all we get, I'm not gonna complain at all. The crew behind Prehistoric Planet hit a homerun with this show, it's damn near perfect. They'll probably never see this, but I just want to say thank you, to all of them. They've created something truly one of a kind.

If they do make more, I'd be happy with whatever they give us. But if I had to choose, I would go with the Permian, the Triassic, the Late Jurassic, the Cenomanian, or the Miocene. And I, like many of you, wouldn't mind seeing a toyline, a la Toyway Walking with Dinosaurs, featuring some of the amazing reconstructions from the show.

[GojiraGuy1954]

So now that's there's talk of potential future season what would y'all like to see next. For me I'd like at least one more season set in the Masstricthian since for as much as they give us they really only scratched the surface of the full diversity of the time with several groups missing or underrepresented like the pachycephalosaurs various mammals, birds, various crocs and the abelisaurids like Majungasaurus and Rajasaurus. As for story ideas in keeping with the nature of this documentary it'd be cool if with we see a Tyrannosaurus adopt an orphan Triceratops or Edmontosaurus calf and certainly an episode about the open oceans would make sense also.

Mark Witton painted and blogged about just such a scenario.  Frankly, I found a lot of the parental care in Prehistoric Planet to feel a bit too mammalian and far fetched. Especially the plesiosaurs in the Coasts episode.



http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2015/03/tyrannosaurus-and-triceratops-friends.html.

Plesiosaurs having very large babies is based on fossil evidence

[Gwangi]

The size is not the part that I find far fetched, @GojiraGuy1954.

[Fembrogon]

The way the young Tuarangisaurus

Spoiler

provoked the Kaikaifilu to distract it from the mother

[close]

did come as quite a surprise to me. Do we have precedent for that kind of behavior even in modern cetaceans? I was entertained by it, but it struck me as the most (potentially) anthropomorphic behavior in the show.

Man, it feels weird that the show has already finished airing. We spent years wondering if the show was really happening; then all of a sudden it was here and it was done. I loved every minute of it, and now I'm sad it's over. I'll definitely be watching the show again (and again, and maybe again...) this month, and I look forward to all further content and news on the franchise!

[Dynomikegojira]

I wonder when we'll get news on further installments

[Stegotyranno420]

Finally finished it.
I could really go for an episode about Maastrichtan India.

[Fembrogon]

I wonder when we'll get news on further installments

I imagine we need to give some time for Apple and BBC to gauge numbers on viewership, awareness, profit, etc and decide whether or not greenlighting more content is worth it.

[Fembrogon]

I found a couple more articles/reviews from earlier in the week - lots of positive reception, so far!

Apple TV+'s Prehistoric Planet Reviews Are In, See What Critics Are Saying About Jon Favreau's Dinosaur Docuseries

'Prehistoric Planet' Is a Love Letter to a Lost World

[Duna]

The way the young Tuarangisaurus

Spoiler

provoked the Kaikaifilu to distract it from the mother

[close]

did come as quite a surprise to me. Do we have precedent for that kind of behavior even in modern cetaceans? I was entertained by it, but it struck me as the most (potentially) anthropomorphic behavior in the show.

I think they got that behaviour from dolphins (I probably saw that in another BBC documentary as most of the series is based on real animal behaviour and experience). In dolphins, there are some individuals, normally male, that when a predator -shark- appears, they circle the females and young and act as a distraction. They are well know for attacking, too, ramming the gills and sometimes even killing them.

[Duna]

@Fembrogon Thank you for the review links! I love that people that have no idea about dinosaurs are writting such wonderful comments on them (and even trying to explain the species). Super cool.

[HD-man]

Episode 4 was, again, pure greatness. Now I definitely have to pickup PNSOs Olorotitan after its appearance here.

It was mentioned that a total of 95 species would show up in Prehistoric Planet. Is there a full list of all of them? Would be nice to check out what genuses/species are already available in figure form.

such post would be very very much appreciated actually. the list of genuses/species and figures that are "closest in accuracy" to them.

*Genera, not "genuses"

So now that's there's talk of potential future season what would y'all like to see next. For me I'd like at least one more season set in the Masstricthian since for as much as they give us they really only scratched the surface of the full diversity of the time with several groups missing or underrepresented like the pachycephalosaurs various mammals, birds, various crocs and the abelisaurids like Majungasaurus and Rajasaurus.

I like that idea IIRC, that's basically what Planet Earth II is to Planet Earth.

As for story ideas in keeping with the nature of this documentary it'd be cool if with we see a Tyrannosaurus adopt an orphan Triceratops or Edmontosaurus calf

That idea, not so much :/ I'm not completely against it, just that version, which is more-or-less equivalent to when lions adopt baby antelope/warthogs/etc only for the latter to eventually get eaten by the former. Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK, that doesn't really fit in w/Planet Earth-type stories, which focus on how organisms are adapted to their environments. AFAIK, those predator/prey mammal adoptions aren't adaptations, just occasional accidents that always end poorly for the adoptee. What may be an adaptation is when Bald eagle parents adopt baby Red-tailed hawks ( https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/science/amazing-story-hawk-raised-eagles/ ), which may be good inspiration for a future PP story about Dakotaraptor parents adopting a baby Acheroraptor (especially given the controversy over whether they're synonymous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakotaraptor#Possible_synonymy_with_Acheroraptor ).

Frankly, I found a lot of the parental care in Prehistoric Planet to feel a bit too mammalian and far fetched. Especially the plesiosaurs in the Coasts episode.

How so? I'm just surprised to hear that, given the evidence.

I'll have to rewatch them all again before I dare try to make an official ranking!

Me too!

[Strepsodus]

I would rather Prehistoric Planet be arranged chronologically and not based on season since there is a time frame for all the episodes.

[spinosaurus1]

So now that's there's talk of potential future season what would y'all like to see next. For me I'd like at least one more season set in the Masstricthian since for as much as they give us they really only scratched the surface of the full diversity of the time with several groups missing or underrepresented like the pachycephalosaurs various mammals, birds, various crocs and the abelisaurids like Majungasaurus and Rajasaurus. As for story ideas in keeping with the nature of this documentary it'd be cool if with we see a Tyrannosaurus adopt an orphan Triceratops or Edmontosaurus calf and certainly an episode about the open oceans would make sense also.

Mark Witton painted and blogged about just such a scenario.  Frankly, I found a lot of the parental care in Prehistoric Planet to feel a bit too mammalian and far fetched. Especially the plesiosaurs in the Coasts episode.



http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2015/03/tyrannosaurus-and-triceratops-friends.html.

theres actually pretty good precedent for the level of parental care with the plesiosaur scenes. having a single large baby over a long gestation period takes a lot of devoted energy. this quite the opposite level of reproduction seen in  many of our extant reptiles, witch favor having large clutch sizes in  short gestation periods to ensure at least some survive to adulthood. having low birth yields over long periods of time would warrant a heightened level of parental care to ensure the survival of the young.
as for family groups. we do have reptiles that does that today ( monkey tailed skinks, night lizards, almost all the species within Egernia, etc) that partake in it. so it certainly isn't a behavior that to be considered improbable for plesiosaurs to do, and it goes hand in hand with their reproduction methods. as animals who do have long gestation cycles and low yields not only evolutionarily benefit from  a heightened level of parental care, but simultaneously benefit from forming groups, pods, herds, etc, to increase the odds of survival of not just individual members, but also the young and pregnant. these are evolutionary traits that often times coincide with one another.

[Medzo]

Just finished watching the show. All in all there is a lot of non-dinosaur shoots, so they've tried to save money in plenty of ways.
The only problem I had that there was too little time for every species, we only got a grasp of many of them, including the more iconic ones. Also more inter-species interactions would have been welcomed, sometimes it felt a bit static, watching hadrosaurs stride from A to B.

Anyway, this is very high quality material. I hope we get some more of this.

[GojiraGuy1954]

The size is not the part that I find far fetched, @GojiraGuy1954.

But then parental care is just common sense. If you only have ONE baby, especially one so large and energy-intensive, of course you're going to be very attentive and take care of it. Parental care is not exclusive to Mammals.

[GojiraGuy1954]

Finally finished it.
I could really go for an episode about Maastrichtan India.

That was part of Forests at one point

[Stegotyranno420]

I don't recall seeing it in forest. It was only North America , South America, Central, Europe and East Asia. The subcontinent was not connected to Asia at the time, it was an island.
Or do you mean in the sense they were planning to do it but stopped.

[Gwangi]

See? This is why I initially withheld my criticisms, because now I have 3 different people taking me to task over it. And frankly, I just don't have the time to get into it right now. I plan on doing a lengthy post about the show when I have the time and I'll address it more then. So to keep it short, no, I don't buy into cetacean-like parental care in marine reptiles. Or in mammalian-like parental care in dinosaurs. I think that it's likely that they birthed them and left them, or if they did care for them it was more of a utilitarian process. Like what we see in those reptiles that do practice parental care. Like what we see in many birds. Some sharks have a 2 year gestation period and don't practice any parental care whatsoever, so a long gestation period for a plesiosaur doesn't convince me that they were reptile-dolphins.