Walking with Dinosaurs - Episode 1: New Blood

Description

Walking with Dinosaurs is a six-part documentary television mini-series that was produced by the BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the UK in 1999. The series was subsequently aired in North America on the Discovery Channel in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that of Avery Brooks. It is the first entry of the Walking with... series and used computer-generated imagery and animatronics to recreate the life of the Mesozoic, showing dinosaurs in a way that previously had only been seen in feature films. The programme's aim was to simulate the style of a nature documentary and therefore does not include "talking head" interviews. The series used paleontologists such as Peter Dodson, Peter Larson and James Farlow as advisors (their influence in the filming process can be seen in the documentary The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs).

The Guinness Book of World Records reported that the series was the most expensive documentary series per minute ever made.

Episode One: "New Blood"

220, 000, 000 BC - Late Triassic - Arizona

The episode followed a female Coelophysis as she tried to survive in the dry season. The Coelophysis was shown hunting a herd of Placerias, looking for weak members to prey upon. Early pterosaurs (specifically Peteinosaurus) were featured, depicted cooling themselves in what little water was present during the drought. A female rauisuchian (Postosuchus, one of the largest carnivores alive in the Triassic) was shown following the Placerias herd, and kills one of the members. Still searching for food, the Coelophysis are shown discovering a burrow of the small mammal-like cynodont. Eventually, one young cynodont strays too close and is eaten and the father attempts to protect the youngster, but to no avail. At night, the pair of cynodonts are shown eating their remaining young, then moving away. The female Postosuchus is later shown to have been wounded by Placerias's tusks (the wound is on her left thigh), and is beaten out of her territory by a rival male Postosuchus. Wounded, sick and without a territory, the female dies and is eaten by a pack of Coelophysis. As the dry season continues however, food becomes scarce and the Coelophysis start killing and cannibalizing each other. Finally, the wet season comes again, and the majority of the Coelophysis have survived, along with the cynodont pair, who have a new clutch of eggs. The episode ends with the arrival of a herd of the prosauropod Plateosaurus, foreshadowing the future dominance of giant sauropod dinosaurs as depicted in the second episode.

    * Coelophysis
    * Placerias
    * Thrinaxodon
    * Postosuchus
    * Peteinosaurus
    * Plateosaurus
    * Lungfish
    * Dragonfly

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