Walking with...: Difference between revisions
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The series was a [[prequel]] to ''[[Walking with Dinosaurs]]'', and its focus is life before the [[dinosaur]]s in the [[Paleozoic Era]]. |
The series was a [[prequel]] to ''[[Walking with Dinosaurs]]'', and its focus is life before the [[dinosaur]]s in the [[Paleozoic Era]]. |
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==== ''Walking with Creatures'' (2009)==== |
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{{main|Walking with Creatures}} |
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The series was about of the [[dinosaur]]s and [[mammal]]s from any era. |
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=== TV specials === |
=== TV specials === |
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Revision as of 00:38, 12 November 2008
The Walking with... series (also known as the Trilogy of Life or Walking with Prehistoric Animals series) is a collection of shows that are produced by the BBC and are made by Impossible Pictures. The aim of the series and specials, along with books, is to recreate extinct animals and presents them as a wildlife documentary. All the shows (with the exception of Chased by Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters) focus on one individual of a certain species or that species as the main characters in each episode. Creatures were realized through computer graphics and animatronics and are directed by Tim Haines. The concept for the series was imagined by Tim Haines and Jasper James.
Shows
TV series
Walking with Dinosaurs (1999)
This series is focused on the rise, success, and the demise of the dinosaurs and other Mesozoic animals in the Mesozoic Era.
Walking with Beasts (2001)
This series was a sequel to Walking with Dinosaurs, and its focus is on the world after the dinosaurs, and the rise of the mammals and birds in the Cenozoic Era.
Walking with Cavemen (2003)
This series is focused on the evolution of the our species, humans. (Note it is not always considered as part of the Walking with... series as it was not a Tim Haines production).
Walking with Monsters (2005)
The series was a prequel to Walking with Dinosaurs, and its focus is life before the dinosaurs in the Paleozoic Era.
Walking with Creatures (2009)
The series was about of the dinosaurs and mammals from any era.
TV specials
The Ballad Of Big Al (2001)
This special follows the life and death of Big Al, a famous Allosaurus skeleton found with various injuries.
Chased By Dinosaurs (2002)
This is the first time that an actor was featured in the Walking with series. Real-life zoologist Nigel Marven travelled through time in search for various dinosaurs.
Sea Monsters (2003)
Nigel Marven is featured a second time, this time he dives in the seven deadliest seas of all time, and encounters creatures such as Basilosaurus and Dunkleosteus.
Spin-offs
Prehistoric Planet (2002-2003)
A alternative release of the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts series. Unlike the original versions, it has two new narrators, and violent scenes and depictions of animals mating have been cut out. It was targeted more towards children and was shown only in America.
Prehistoric Park (2006)
Once Again, Nigel Marven sets on an prehistoric Adventure to search for Creatures for a Prehistoric Zoo, He goes face to face with The fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Majestic Woolly Mammoth, the strange Microraptor, the powerful Smilodon, the Raging Arthropleura, and the gigantic Deinosuchus.
Artistic touches
Throughout the series, there is a recurring gag in which prehistoric animals sometimes breaking the fourth wall (interact with the camera, interact with the human host, camera crew, etc).
Walking with Monsters:
- A Brontoscorpio stings the camera and cracks the lens.
- Another Brontoscorpio bumps the camera with its claw as it crawls onto land.
- A Hynerpeton knocks the camera while it is swimming, so does a Hyneria.
- A Hynerpeton spits on the camera.
- A Hyneria splatters water on the camera while diving back into the water.
- A Mesothelae crawls on the camera, and so does an Arthropleura.
- A Mesothelae kicks dirt on the camera when it crawls over it.
- A Dimetrodon shakes intestines to avoid eating the feces inside, and most of it splats onto the camera.
- A Dimetrodon digs up some dirt, and it lands on the camera.
- A baby Dimetrodon splatters some dung on the camera when it jumps in a pile of it.
- A Gorgonops sniffs the camera.
- A Gorgonops splatters water on the camera when it jumps in some water.
- A Diictodon looks curiously at the camera.
- A Proterosuchus knocks the camera while it is swimming.
- A Lystrosaurus bumps and sniffs the camera.
Walking with Dinosaurs:
- A Liopleurodon flipper bumps the camera.
- A Tyrannosaurus roars, flecking the camera lens with saliva.
The Balled of Big Al:
- A young Allosaurus bumps the camera with its head.
Chased by Dinosaurs:
- A Therizinosaurus licks the camera, however it was Nigel's camera
- A herd of hadrosaurs acciendently disturb camp.
- A Giganotosaurus attacks a camp, leaving behind a tooth.
Walking with Beasts:
- A group of Formicium swarm over the camera when attacking the Gastornis chick
- A troop of Apidium hastily climb down the camera during the shark attack.
- A Basilosaurus fluke occasionally hits the camera.
- A Paraceratherium aggressively rushes and knocks down the camera.
- A troop of Australopithecus threw rocks, one rock splitting the camera lense.
- A Mammoth sprays mud on the camera.
Walking with Cavemen:
- A Homo ergaster stabs an antelope, causing blood splat at the screen.
- Several hominids attack, disturb by, or curious at the geep.
Books
Related books issued by the BBC and DK include:
- Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History by Tim Haines
- Walking with Dinosaurs 3-D Dinosaurs by Stephen Cole
- Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence by David Martill and Darren Naish
- Walking with Dinosaurs Sticker Book by Stephen Cole
- Walking with Dinosaurs: Fascinating Facts by Mike Benton
- Walking with Dinosaurs Photo Journal by Stephen Cole
- Walking with Beasts: A Prehistoric Safari by Tim Haines
- Walking with Beasts Photo Journal by Stephen Cole
- Allosaurus! The Life and Death of Big Al by Stephen Cole
- The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life by Tim Haines and Paul Chambers
- Sea Monsters by Nigel Marven and Jasper James
- Prehistoric Park by Kristin Bienert
- Prehistoric Park, Creatures and Beasts by Brandon Snider
Paleontological Inaccuracies
Despite the Walking with series being such a successful documentary series, it had also made controversy around the series' paleontological inaccuracies. Even the book also has some errors.
TV Series
- Cephalaspis was not the ancestor of gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates) as they appear in the fossil record before Cephalaspis. Furthermore, even though Cephalaspis was found only during the early Devonian, it is shown being pursued by the Late Silurian Brontoscorpio.
- Pterygotus was neither 3 meters long (being actually 2.3 meters), nor the largest arthropod; both its cousin Jaekelopterus rhenaniae and the giant myriapod, Arthropleura, were larger.
- Diictodon, Gorgonops and Rhinesuchus are only known from South Africa, yet in episode 3 they are portrayed living with Scutosaurus, which have only been found in Siberia.
- In the series, Petrolacosaurus is incorrectly identified as an ancestral synapsid, when in fact, it was an early diapsid and could therefore not have been the ancestor of any synapsids (e.g. Edaphosaurus). The most basal synapsid, Archaeothyris, would have been a more suitable candidate (although the book states it is an early diapsid.
- In the Discovery Channel version, the narrator says the following about Euparkeria: "Giants such as Tyrannosaurus and Brontosaurus can trace their family tree back to this little insect eater." The name Brontosaurus is invalid; the valid name is Apatosaurus. (In the BBC version Diplodocus is said, which is correct.)
- Also, Euparkeria was not the direct ancestor of the dinosaurs, but a fairly close relative to the last common ancestor of dinosaurs and crocodiles. A more accurate statement might have been that the giants can trace their ancestry to an insect eater closely allied to Euparkeria.
- Mesothelae had originally been referred to as Megarachne (which, at the time, was thought to be a giant spider) and removing the scene would have been impossible. Mesothelae is a suborder of three primitive spider families (two extinct, and one still extant); the animal would more properly have been referred to as a "mesothelan".
- When the Hynerpeton evolves into Petrolacosaurus, it shows the egg gradually becoming shelled from the bottom up, which, in real life, would mean that that the animal that was in between the two animals would have an egg that was half-shelled.
- Prehistoric Park, Chased by Dinosaurs and Walking with Dinosaurs portrayed Troodon, Velociraptor, Dromaeosaurus, Utahraptor, young Tyrannosaurus, adult Ornithomimus and Mei as being scaled and featherless, whereas the majority of scientists now agree that all of these dinosaurs had feathers, based on fossil evidence. However, this may have been due to lack of evidence of feathers at the time or because of technical difficulties. Though the book Prehistoric Park, Creatures and Beasts clearly states that Troodon and Mei Long has light feathers, which may have been mis-calculation.
- Throughout the series, they portray some of the theropods with their hands bend backwards. The anatomy of their wrists would not have allowed such postures.
- Velociraptor did not live in heavily forested areas. All of the sites where Velociraptor fossils were found suggest that the animal lived in sandy, arid environments with many sand dunes[1] (with one specimen apparently being smothered to death by a sand dune[2]).
- Ornitholestes didn't have a nasal crest. However, this discovery was made after the program had been made.
- Ornithocheirus was not the largest known pterosaur, Quetzalcoatlus or Hatzegopteryx is.
- Giganotosaurus was depicted on the show as the largest carnivorous dinosaur, though current size estimates favor Spinosaurus. However, this discovery was made after the program had been made.
- Argentinosaurus is said to have been the biggest dinosaur. That record may actually belong to poorly known forms such as Bruhathkayosaurus or Amphicoelias fragilimus.
- Allosaurus was not the biggest Jurassic carnivore; that record belongs either to Torvosaurus , Epanterias or Saurophaganax (although Epanterias has been argued to be a big specimen of Allosaurus; and the Allosaurus featured in the show fits in the size range of Epanterias.).
- Tylosaurus is depicted as a "sixty foot giant" in Chased by Sea Monsters, but no mosasaur has been found over 49 feet in length (surprisingly the book states 49 feet).
- Dromaeosaurus did not live alongside Tyrannosaurus, and, in fact, predated Tyrannosaurus by a little less than 10 million years.
- Liopleurodon was overestimated to be 25 metres (82 feet) long and 150 tons. These lengths were based on what was at first believed to be tooth marks from a juvenile Liopleurodon. It was more likely to have grown to 12 metres (39 feet) long. In Walking with Dinosaurs: The Next Chapter, they fixed this with a more reasonable 40 feet long.
- Cymbospondylus was not the largest ichthyosaur; Shonisaurus sikanniensis, at an estimated length of 21 m[3], is the largest known ichthyosaur species.
- The Neanderthal was not the last survivor of the genus Homo, besides humans: the highly debated Homo floresiensis was.
- Some paleanthropologists believe the African H. heidelbergensis is merely an archaic form of modern humans.
- Some paleanthropologists do not recognize H. ergaster and H. erectus as separate species. Even if they were separate, some believe H. erectus did survive and evolved into the highly controversial Homo floresiensis.
- Ornithomimus and Incisivosaurus were more likely omnivores rather than true herbivores.
- Mei was not 7ft long.
- Microraptor wasn't the ancestor of birds, just a close relative.
- It's unlikely that Tyrannosaurus could run at 40mph.
- If Microraptor glided with its hind legs sticking to the sides, its legs would dislocate. More likely, it glided with its legs down.
Book
- On page 209, on the family tree, Pteranodon is incorrectly placed in the crocodiles branch.
- On page 21, Cameroceras is misspelled as "Cameraceras".
- Coelophysis is repeated misclassified as a coelurosaur (pp. 70, 100, 107).
- On page 128, Protoceratops is incorrectly identified as an ornithopod, while it's actually a ceratopian.
- On page 164, Arsinoitherium is misclassified as an ancient species of elephant.
- On page 166, they say say whales are descended from Andrewsarchus, while the earliest known whales, such as Nalacetus, predate Andrewsarchus.
References
- ^ Jerzykiewicz, Tomasz (1991). "Late Mesozoic stratigraphy and vertebrates of the Gobi Basin". Cretaceous Research. 12 (4): 345–377. doi:10.1016/0195-6671(91)90015-5.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Osmólska, Halszka (1997). "Barun Goyot Formation". Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. p.41. ISBN 0-12-226810-1.
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Check|isbn=value: checksum (help); Unknown parameter|editors=ignored (|editor=suggested) (help) - ^ Nicholls, Elizabeth (June 21, 2004). "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology". BioOne. BioOne. pp. pp. 838–849. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
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