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Walking with Monsters

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Walking with Monsters
File:Walking with Monsters DVD cover.jpeg
GenreDocumentary
Developed byAndrew Wilks
Narrated byKenneth Branagh
Theme music composerBen Bartlett
Country of originUK
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerTim Haines
ProducerChloe Leland
Running time90 minutes
Original release
NetworkBBC
Release5 November 2005
Related
Other shows in the Walking with... series

Walking with Monsters (also distributed as Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters or Walking with Monsters: Life before Dinosaurs) is a three-part British documentary film series about life in the Paleozoic, bringing to life extinct arthropods, fish, amphibians, synapsids, and reptiles. As with previous Walking with... installments, it is narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and by Avery Brooks in the American version. Using state-of-the-art visual effects, this prequel to Walking with Dinosaurs shows for example how a two-ton predatory fish came on land to hunt. The series draws on the knowledge of over 600 scientists and shows nearly 300 million years of Paleozoic history, from the Cambrian Period (530 million years ago) to the Early Triassic Period (248 million years ago). It was written and directed by Tim Haines.

As with some of the other BBC specials, it was renamed in North America, where its title was Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters. It has also aired as a two-hour special on the Canadian and American Discovery Channel.

At the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006 it won the Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More).

Episodes

Episode One: "Water Dwellers"

The first episode begins with an illustration of the giant impact hypothesis: approximately 4.4 billion years ago when the Earth was formed, it is conjectured that a planet-like object referred to as Theia collided into the early Earth, dynamically reshaping the Earth and forming the moon. The episode then jumps ahead to the Cambrian Explosion, showing the first diversification of life in the sea. Strange predators called Anomalocaris feed on trilobites, and fight with each other, whereupon the wounded loser is attacked by a school of Haikouichthys, described as the first vertebrate. The Haikouichthys attack by swarming through a crack in Anomalocaris's armor.

530 Million Years Ago
Cambrian
Place: Chengjiang, China
Oxygen Content: 30% Below Today
Hazards: World's First Super Predator

The segment moves on to the Silurian period, where Haikouichthys has evolved into the jawless-fish Cephalaspis. The marine scorpion Brontoscorpio pursues a Cephalaspis but falls victim to the giant eurypterid Pterygotus. Later a shoal of Cephalspis migrate into the shallows to spawn, navigating via memory thanks to their advanced (for the time) vertebrate brains. As they cross a shallow embankment, they are ambushed by several Brontoscorpio which are depicted as the first animals capable of walking on land. Several fish are killed but the majority slip past the scorpions and arrive at spawning site.

418 Million Years Ago
Silurian
Place: South Wales, UK
Oxygen Content: 30% Below Today
Hazards: Giant Scorpions

A short sequence depicts Cephalaspis evolving into Hynerpeton (erroneously bypassing the lobe-finned fish stage), amphibian-like tetrapods. Though capable of terrestrial movement, Hynerpeton have to remain near water to keep moist and reproduce. A lone male Hynerpeton hunting underwater is threatened by predatory fish, at first by a Stethacanthus which is eaten by a two-ton Hyneria that chases the amphibian out of the water. After seeing off a rival during the night, the male finds a receptive female at dawn and the two mate at the waters edge. They are ambushed by the Hyneria, which drags herself ashore to grab the fleeing male. Despite his untimely death, the Hynerpeton eggs were successfully fertilized and sink into the water to develop. A sequence depicts them acquiring hard shells as the first reptiles evolve.

360 Million Years Ago
Devonian
Place: Pennsylvania, USA
Oxygen Content: 20% Below Today
Hazards: Giant Killer Fish

Episode Two: "Reptile's Beginnings"

The second episode shows the swampy coal forests of the Carboniferous. It explains that because of a much higher oxygen content in the atmosphere, giant land arthropods evolved, such as a Mesothelae (a member of the primitive spider suborder), Meganeura; a dragonfly and Arthropleura; a huge millipede relative. A Mesothelae hunts down a Petrolacosaurus. She comes back from her hunting expedition only to find her burrow has flooded. Not only that, the Petrolacosaurus she caught is stolen by a Meganeura. On the spider's search for a new burrow, she passed a pond full of Reptiliomorphs (which would make a more central appearance later on). Later she was chased by an Arthropleura, which is later killed in a fight with a Proterogyrinus. The Mesothelae finally chases a Petrolacosaurus out of its own burrow and moves in. A storm brews and the narrator explains that its high oxygen content makes the atmosphere very combustible, so lightning is a real danger. The Proterogyrinus are seen leaping out of the water to catch Meganeura, which was driven below the tree canopy by the storm. Later, lightning, rain and a forest fire pour in, devastating the life around. At last, only some animals survive...including Petrolacosaurus, who finds the dead body of the Mesothelae (the animal was hit by lightning) and begins to feed upon the spider's carcass.

300 Million Years Ago
Carboniferous
Place: Kansas, USA
Oxygen Content: 40% Above Today
Hazards: Giant Insects

The episode then moves on to the early Permian, where the swamp-loving trees of the Carboniferous have been replaced with more advanced conifers that are better adapted to survive in a changing climate. Petrolacosaurus has evolved into Edaphosaurus, a pelycosaur (this is impossible, as Petrolacosaurus was a diapsid reptile, related to modern lizards, snakes, crocodiles, and birds, whereas Edaphosaurus was a synapsid, related to modern mammals). They live in herds and have outgrown their arthropod contemporaries in size. A pregnant female Dimetrodon, another pelycosaur, hunts the Edaphosaurus herd, beginning with a fake charge to expose the weak and the juveniles. She finally kills a baby Edaphosaurus, but is forced to abandon her kill when the scent of blood attracts others of her kind, all of which were males. She builds a nest on a hill and is watched by an egg-stealing Reptiliomorph. Some time after laying her eggs, another gravid Dimetrodon tries to take over her nest. After a long duel, the original female drives off the intruder, but is badly injured and fatigued in the process. A male Dimetrodon approaches the now unguarded nest, but luckily kills the thieving reptiliomorph and leaves the eggs unharmed. The eggs hatch and the mother's bond with her offspring is severed. The episode ends with the wounded mother joining other adult Dimetrodon in attacking her own young which race to the trees and hide in dung to escape. At the end the narrator says that the reptiles evolve to tighten their grip on land, becoming "new reptiles."

280 Million Years Ago
Early Permian
Place: Bromacker, Germany
Global Temp: 20% Colder Than Today
Hazards: Extreme Seasons

Episode Three: "Clash of Titans"

The third episode is set in the Late Permian, on the supercontinent Pangaea, which was covered by a vast and inhospitable desert. In this arid climate, early therapsids, which are described as more "mammal-like" than reptile, are shown fighting to survive alongside other animals. The programme starts with an old and sick Scutosaurus, an ancestor of turtles, being killed by a female gorgonopsid which later joins others of her kind at a small waterhole. Other inhabitants of the area include Diictodon, a small burrowing dicynodont. In the pool itself is a starving labyrinthodont that ambushes the female gorgonopsid in desperation and quickly retreats. A herd of Scutosaurus arrive and eventually drink the waterhole dry. The female gorgonopsid tries to dig out a pair of Diictodons but is unsuccessful. Upon returning to the waterhole, she unearths the Labyrinthodont wrapped in a "cocoon" which it utilized to survive drought. In a torpid state, it is helpless and quickly killed. The gorgonopsid is eventually killed by a sandstorm which is a foreshadowing of the oncoming Permian-Triassic extinction event.

250 Million Years Ago
Late Permian
Place: Siberia
Global Temp: 60% Hotter Than Today
Hazards: Extreme Heat, Volcanic Activity

Diictodon is seen evolving into the larger Lystrosaurus. The Lystrosaurus multiply into vast herds that must continually migrate in order to find fresh foliage. Also featured is the small insectivorous Euparkeria that is depicted as an ancestor of the dinosaurs. When the lystrosaur herd traverses a ravine, one is killed by a venomous Therocephalian (Which the model is used again as a Cynodont in its sequel Walking with Dinosaurs). Encountering a river, the herd enters the water and is attacked by numerous chasmatosaur. Many are killed, but the majority escape and continue their migration. The narrator explains that despite the dominance of Lystrosaurus, eventually the world will recover in full from the Permian-Triassic extinction event and other reptiles will overtake them. The mini-episode ends as a Euparkeria is confronted by a chasmatosaur: as the creature rapidly begins to evolve into an Allosaurus, the narrator explains that mammals are destined to be confined to the shadows as a new group of animals becomes the dominant species on Earth. The age of mammal-like reptiles is over. This is the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs.

248 Million Years Ago
Early Triassic
Place: Antarctica
Global Temp: 40% Hotter Than Today
Hazards: Ambush Predators

Artistic touches

As in the entire Walking with line of films, the animals sometimes interact with the camera:

  • A Brontoscorpio stings the camera and breaks it.
  • Another Brontoscorpio bumps the camera with its claw as it crawls onto land.
  • A Hynerpeton knocks the camera while he is swimming, so does a Hyneria.
  • A Hynerpeton breathes 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 she crawls over it.
  • A Dimetrodon shakes intestines to avoid eating the feces inside, and most of the feces and blood 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.

Body part close-ups

Occasionally, the camera gets a close-up of certain body parts of animals. Here are the list of body part close-ups:

Paleontological inaccuracies

See more info on Walking with...#Paleontological inaccuracies

Because the series takes an artistic license with regards to its views on evolution, there are a number of inaccuracies especially related to ancestor-descendant relationships. Many of the claimed 'direct ancestors' are not considered basal:

  • Cephalaspis was not the ancestor of gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates) or tetrapods as gnathostomes appear in the fossil record well before Cephalaspis. Furthermore, even though Cephalaspis was found only during the early Devonian, it is shown being pursued by the Late Silurian Brontoscorpio.
  • Diictodon, Gorgonops and Rhinesuchus are only known from South Africa, yet in episode 3 they are portrayed living with Scutosaurus, which lived only in Siberia.
  • In the series, Petrolacosaurus is portrayed as an ancestral amniote: one of the first "reptiles" in the traditional Linnaean sense of the word - so, from an evolutionary point of view, one of the first vertebrates which are already fully adapted to terrestrial life, but are still cold-blooded. Therefore, Petrolacosaurus is portrayed in the series as the ancestor of both synapsids (mammals) and sauropsids (modern surviving reptiles and birds). In fact, Petrolacosaurus was an early sauropsid (specifically a diapsid) and could therefore not have been the ancestor of any synapsids (e.g. Edaphosaurus). Casineria, possibly a basal amniote, would have been a more suitable candidate.

Criticism

Some viewers criticize Walking with Monsters as an overly dramatic presentation of speculation as fact.

In the "Trilogy of Life" documentary, included on the Walking with Monsters DVD, the producers of the Walking With... trilogy state that their intention was not to write a scientific thesis but to bring prehistoric animals to life. The documentary also states that science is littered with mistakes (some scientists might even say that science only progresses by making mistakes), and that while scientists can make guesses as to how these prehistoric creatures might have looked or behaved while they were alive, there is no guarantee that these guesses are correct and in this case, we have no way of knowing for sure.

Unlike Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts, Walking with Monsters focuses rather graphically on the killings made by predators, in a way which some find disturbing.

Evolution according to the program

See also

Walking with Monsters is part of a series of BBC documentaries that also include:

The following are Walking With... series specials:

The following are similar programs, produced by the BBC:

References

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