Planet Dinosaur

Nature

Station:
BBC One (UK)

Status:
Ended

Start:
2011-09-14

Rating:
7.7/10 from 3 users

An astonishing series that brings to life the most incredible creatures that ever existed. From Spinosaurus, the biggest killer to ever walk the Earth, to the immense sea-monster Predator X, and the deadly cannibalistic Majunasaurus - dinosaurs were more monstrous, more horrific and bizarre than ever before imagined. Combining a 3D graphic world, incredible CGI and stunning photo-real fight scenes, this is a whole new perspective on dinosaurs.

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List of episodes

S1E4 - Fight for Life

This episode focuses on the Jurassic period, a time when the first giant killers stalked the Earth and lurked in the seas - and the slightest advantage meant the difference between life and death.

In North America, the iconic allosaurus, an ambush hunter with a lethal bite, dominated. Not even the heavily armoured stegosaurus was safe from this killer, and incredible evidence reveals a glimpse of a vicious battle between these two giants.

Life in Jurassic oceans was no easier - in 2008, a fossil was dug out of a frozen island high in the Arctic. It was a colossal marine reptile, twice as big as most ocean predators at 15 metres long and weighing about 45 tonnes. This was Predator X. Its skull alone was nearly twice the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex's, and its bite force unmatched by anything in the Jurassic seas.

The balance of power between predator and prey is a fine one, as prey continually evolve different ways to avoid predators. But for the most successful and enduring predators, the battle to survive has always been tipped in their favour.

Air Date: 05 Oct 2011 13:30 (CDT)

S1E5 - New Giants

This episode focuses on the new giants, the heavyweights of the dinosaur world. It is only in recent years that experts have unearthed the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived.

One monster, the immense argentinosaurus, eclipsed all others, being more than seven times as heavy as the diplodocus. A single backbone was bigger than a human.

For years, these giants were considered immune to attack from any predator - until the discovery of the mapusaurus, a new giant killer whose fate appeared to be inextricably linked to the argentinosaurus.

Air Date: 12 Oct 2011 13:30 (CDT)

S1E6 - The Great Survivors

The final episode explores dinosaurs' extraordinary ability to survive. Featured dinosaurs include the bizarre magyarosaurus, which lived in the shadow of the biggest flying animal - hatzegopteryx - and showed an amazing adaptation to island life; and the weird nothronychus, a carnivore that gave up meat eating.

This astonishing capacity to evolve into ever more diverse and bizarre forms meant that dinosaurs not only spread throughout the world, but also dominated life upon it for more than 160 million years. It was only an unprecedented extraterrestrial event that finally saw the end of planet dinosaur.

Air Date: 19 Oct 2011 13:30 (CDT)