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Walking with...

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The Walking with... series (also known as the Trilogy of Life or Walking with Prehistoric Life 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.

Walking with Dinosaurs (1999)

Main article: Walking with Dinosaurs

This series is focused on the rise, success, and the demise of the dinosaurs and other Mesozoic animals in the Mesozoic Era.

The Ballad of Big Al (2001)

Main article: The Ballad of Big Al

This special follows the life and death of "Big Al", a famous Allosaurus skeleton found with various injuries. In the North American market, it was released under the title Allosaurus.

Chased by Dinosaurs (2002)

Main article: Chased by Dinosaurs

Real-life zoologist Nigel Marven travels through time in search for various dinosaurs.

Sea Monsters (2003)

Main article: Sea Monsters – A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy

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. Released in North America as Chased by Sea Monsters, and not to be confused with National Geographic's similar Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure.

Walking with Beasts (2001)

Main article: Walking with Beasts

This is the first time that actors were featured in the Walking with series. 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. It was released in North America as Walking with Prehistoric Beasts.

Walking with Cavemen (2003)

Main article: Walking with Cavemen

This series is focused on the evolution of humans. (Note it isn't part of the Walking with... series because it was not a Tim Haines production and doesn't fit in the trilogy of life).

Walking with Monsters (2005)

Main article: Walking with Monsters

The series was a prequel to Walking with Dinosaurs, and its focus is life before the dinosaurs, in the Paleozoic Era.

Prehistoric Park (2006)

Main article: Prehistoric Park

Nigel Marvin is featured a third time in this spin-off from Walking with Dinosaurs, going back in time to rescue prehistoric animals then on the brink of extinction and bringing them to the safety of a biological preserve in the twenty-first century. (Note like Walking with Cavemen, Prehistoric Park is not always considered as part of the Walking with... series because it wasn't a Tim Haines production.)

Prehistoric Timeline

Artistic touches

Throughout the series, there is a recurring gag in which prehistoric animals sometimes "break the fourth wall" (interact with the camera, interact with the human host, camera crew, etc).

Walking With Monsters has the most artistic touches, 15 in all:

  • 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 Chasmatosaur knocks the camera while it is swimming.
  • A Lystrosaurus bumps and sniffs the camera.

Walking with Dinosaurs:

The Ballad of Big Al:

  • A young Allosaurus bumps the camera with its head.

Chased by Dinosaurs:

  • A Therizinosaurus licks what appears to be the camera. But when it zooms out, it is revealed that it actually licked Nigel. Apparently, the camera was just showing what was happening from his point of view.
  • A herd of Saurolophus accidentally disturb camp, and one sprays the lens of Nigel's camera with mucus. However, Nigel also gets sprayed with mucus.
  • A Giganotosaurus attacks a camp, leaving behind a tooth.
  • Nigel's Cameraman and Soundman attempt to repel a Protoceratops with a microphone.

Walking with Beasts:

  • A group of Giant ant 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 troop of Australopithecus throws rocks, one rock splitting the camera lens.
  • A Mammoth sprays mud on the camera.
  • An Indricothere charges and knocks the camera over.

Walking with Cavemen:

  • A Homo ergaster stabs an antelope, causing blood to splatter the lens.
  • Several Homo habilis attack, are disturbed by, or are curious about the Jeep.
  • A Homo ergaster stares in confusion at the tracks of the off-road vehicle, and gazes after the retreating car in wonder.
  • A Boisei Stares curiously at the camera.

Books

Related books issued by the BBC and DK include:

Paleontological inaccuracies

Despite the Walking with series being a well-researched documentary production, it had made some paleontological errors. Even the book also has some inaccuracies.

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, with its relative Jaekelopterus being slightly larger. However, it should be taken into account that the latter was only discovered after Walking with Monsters, and thus, the show was accurate in showing Pterygotus as being the largest arthropod yet discovered at that point.
  • 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. A similar error happens in Primeval, though the show never refers the gorgonopsid as any specific species.
  • In the series, Petrolacosaurus is incorrectly portrayed as an ancestral Amniote that was the ancestor of both synapsids and diapsids. In fact, it was an early diapsid and could therefore not have been the ancestor of any synapsids (e.g. Edaphosaurus).
  • In the series, Diictodon is portrayed to be the ancestor of Lystrosaurus. However, some Lystrosaurus species have been known to live in the Late Permian, the time when Diictodon was alive.
  • Diictodon was shown to survive the Permian-Triassic mass extinction by living underground and feeding on tubers. It was shown to evolve into Lystrosaurus. The Diictodon died off at the end of the mass extinction and the Lystrosaurus had nothing to do with it.
  • The cynodonts featured in the Walking with Dinosaurs episode New Blood, were scaled up versions of Thrinaxodon. However, the episode took place during the late Triassic when Thrinaxodon actually lived in the early Triassic.
  • 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 has been invalid for many years; 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". In any case, the spider depicted in the series is effectively fictitious, is not based on any actual arachnid fossil, is considerably larger than the known Palaeozoic mesotheles and retains an appearance based on the misinterpretation of Megarachne.
  • In the first episode of Walking with Dinosaurs, Postosuchus urinates copiously. Michael J. Benton, a consultant to the making of the series (and Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at Bristol University), notes that a group of critics gleefully pointed out that birds and crocodiles, the closest living relatives of the dinosaurs, do not urinate; they shed waste chemicals as more solid uric acid. However, Benton notes that nobody can prove this was a real mistake: copious urination is the primitive state for tetrapods (seen in fishes, amphibians, turtles, and mammals), and perhaps basal archosaurs did the same. He believes many other claims of "errors" identified in the first weeks fizzled out, as the critics had found points about which they disagreed, but they could not prove that their views were correct.[1]
  • 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. The book Prehistoric Park, Creatures and Beasts, however, clearly states that Troodon and Mei long had "light feathers". Also, when Walking with Dinosaurs and Chased by Dinosaurs were made, the creators either didn't know they had feathers or they didn't have enough time and money.
  • Throughout the series, theropod's hands are depicted with the palms able to rotate, but this would have been anatomically impossible for the real animals, as their forearm bones (ulna and radius) could not rotate in this way. Their palms should have been relatively fixed facing each other, like a person about to applaud.[2]
  • 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[3] (with one specimen apparently being smothered to death by a sand dune[4]).
  • 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. However, since both are poorly-known, and the latter only from drawings, the record, for now, belongs to Argentinosaurus.
  • Allosaurus was not the biggest Jurassic carnivore; that record belongs either to Torvosaurus , Epanterias or Saurophaganax (although Epanterias and Saurophaganax have been argued to be big specimens of Allosaurus; and the Allosaurus featured in the show fits in the size range of Epanterias.).
  • In the second episode of the original British version of Walking With Dinosaurs, the narrator refers to "a great family of dinosaurs called the sauropods". However, sauropoda is actually classified as an infraorder, not family, of dinosaurs.
  • Tylosaurus is depicted as a "sixty foot giant" in Chased by Sea Monsters, but no mosasaur has been found over 49 feet in length (the book does state 49 feet).
  • 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. (However, in Walking with Dinosaurs, the narrator stated that the program's version is big even for its kind). In Walking with Dinosaurs: The Next Chapter,[clarification needed] 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[5], is the largest known ichthyosaur species. (Interestingly, the book states that the largest ichthyosaur is either Shonisaurus or an undescribed genus.)
  • H. neanderthalensis may not have been the last survivor of the genus Homo besides modern humans. The controversial H. floresiensis would be more recent, assuming that it really is a separate species. However, its status as such is highly disputed, and the first publication is so recent that the information was almost certainly not available when the films were being made.
  • Some paleoanthropologists believe the African H. heidelbergensis is merely an archaic form of modern humans.
  • Some paleoanthropologists 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 never 7 feet long.
  • Microraptor wasn't the ancestor of birds, just a close relative.
  • If Microraptor glided with its hind legs sticking to the sides, its legs would dislocate. More likely, it glided with its legs down.
  • It is unlikely that Tyrannosaurus could run at 40mph.
  • In Prehistoric park, Albertosaurus is called "early ancestors of T. rex". However, Bistahieversor is more often cited as the best ancestral candidate.
  • All dinosaurs in the series had their fleshy nostrils located quite high in the bony nostril, whilst in reality, they would've been located rostrally (as far forward as possible in the bony nostril) and in sauropods their location should be rostroventral (far in front of the bony nostrils). This was not known during the production of the series, but is later shown to be evident both in the CT-scanned fossils and relatively obvious for important physiological reasons.[6]
  • Some Embolotherium in Walking with Beast have catapult-like horns similar Brontotherium while in reality, it only had Heart-shaped horns.
  • In Walking with Dinosaurs, Utahraptor was shown living in Europe. Utahraptor actually lived in North America in what is now Utah.

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 repeatedly misclassified as a coelurosaur (pp. 70, 100, 107).
  • On page 128, Protoceratops is incorrectly identified as an ornithopod, while it's actually a ceratopsian.
  • On page 190, the closest living relative to Phorusrhacos is said to be the secretary bird. That would actually be the seriema bird.
  • On page 196, Megaloceros is said to reach antlerspans up to 3 metres (10 feet) while, in fact, specimens with 3.6 metres (12 feet) are not uncommon.
  • On page 197, the cave lion is depicted with a much shorter tail than it had in real life.
  • On page 201, it is said that a population of pygmy mammoths survived on an island off the east coast of Russia until about 6000 years ago. In fact, this time estimate is only accurate about the population on the Alaskan St. Paul Island than the real last sanctuary, the Wrangel Island, where the most recent remains are as young as 3700 years old.
  • The size comparison images of some animals, like Meganeura, Ornitholestes, Megatherium and Megaloceros, are erroneous. Also, the silhouette used for Tarbosaurus (actually a stock image that has been used in older books) depicts the animal standing in a kangaroo-like manner, instead with its spine parallel to the ground.

References

  1. ^ "birds and crocodiles, the closest living relatives of the dinosaurs, do not urinate". Benton, M. J. 2001. "The science of 'Walking with Dinosaurs'". Teaching Earth Sciences, 24, 371-400.
  2. ^ Paul, Gregory S. (2002). Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of Flight in Dinosaurs and Birds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 472pp. ISBN 978-0801867637.
  3. ^ 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)
  4. ^ 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)
  5. ^ Nicholls, Elizabeth (June 21, 2004). "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology". BioOne. BioOne. pp. pp. 838–849. Retrieved October 1, 2008. {{cite news}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ [1] Witmer, L. M. 2001. Nostril position in dinosaurs and other vertebrates and its significance for nasal function. Science 293:850–853.
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