* AccidentallyCorrectZoology: While WWD was hit by ScienceMarchesOn hard, some of the speculative ideas presented in it were justified by future discoveries.
** "New Blood":
*** Evidence of cynodonts in the Chinle Formation was slim at the time, being mostly isolated teeth and other fragments (all of which couldn't be confidently assigned to cynodonts by later researchers), [[AllThereInTheManual and the main inspiration for the cynodonts in the episode were two large teeth]], later named as ''Kraterokheirodon'' (which was later deemed an indeterminate tetrapod). In 2020, however, we named ''Kataigidodon venetus'' based on a partial dentary, the first properly named cynodont from Chinle (though it was only rat-sized).
*** At the time, no pterosaur fossils were confidently identified from Triassic North America (beyond some fragments tentatively attributed to ''Eudimorphodon''). In 2018, however, we described the dimorphodontid ''Caelestiventus'' from the Late Triassic of Utah.
** "Time of the Titans":
*** The North American ''Anurognathus'' was a case of MisplacedWildlife. In 2007, the Morrison pterosaur ''Mesadactylus'' became classified as an anurognathid (although the classification is rather tentative, as it's based only on a single set of fused vertebrae).
** "Cruel Sea":
*** The European theropod ''Eustreptospondylus'' is [[AnachronismStew inaccurately shown living at the end of the Jurassic]] and is a PaletteSwap of ''Allosaurus'' (despite being a megalosaur). Coincidently, in 1999 (when WWD debuted), paleontologists in Portugal described fossil material of ''Allosaurus'' itself from the Late Jurassic Lourinhã Formation, which would later be named ''Allosaurus europaeus'' (2006).
*** The German ''Rhamphorhynchus'' is shown coexisting with Oxford Clay Formation in England, likely based off fragmentary fossils from the site previously classified within the genus (and ''Rhamphorhynchus'' being thought to have a much bigger geographical range at the time due to scrappy Jurassic pterosaur fossils from around the world ascribed to it), but have since been determined to be dubious and likely represent unrelated rhamphorhynchoids (on top of the fact the episode is set more than ten million years after all the Oxford Clay fauna died out). However, an actual English ''Rhamphorhynchus'' was discovered in 2002 (named ''Rhamphorhynchus etchesi'' in 2015), and lived at the exact time the episode is set to boot (in the younger Kimmeridge Clay Formation).
** "Giant of the Skies":
*** Several scenes show a generic midsized pterosaur with a ''Pteranodon''-like crest, most notably the one who gets its fish stolen by the ''Ornithocheirus'' (''Tropeognathus'') in Europe. At the time, no such animals were known from the Lower Cretaceous, but then in 2003, we named ''Ludodactylus'', a midsized anhanguerid with a ''Pteranodon''-like crest that lived in Brazil at roughly the same time as its larger cousin ''Tropeognathus'', and two years later, we also described the similar-looking ''Caulkicephalus'', who lived in Britain during the Barremian (when “Giant of the Skies” takes place).
*** The tapejarids are depicted as having black bodies and red crests. In 2017, a tapejarid was discovered with preserved melanosomes (pigment cells). Guess what colors its body and crest were.
*** An unnamed large pliosaur briefly appears in the episode. A [[WordOfSaintPaul tie-in video game]] claims that it's ''Plesiopleurodon'' (a case of both InformedSpecies and major AnachronismStew). In 2018, however, we described ''Sachicasaurus'', a very large pliosaurid from Barremian Colombia, which fits the former's profile quite perfectly.
*** ''Iberomesornis'' an enantiornithine is depicted with a tail fan, which until the the discovery of enantiornithines with [[https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%2815%2901430-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS096098221501430X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue fan-shaped]] tail feathers and [[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2015.1054035?journalCode=ujvp20 elaborate]] tail displays, it was thought that all enantiornithines instead possessed ribbon like tail feathers.[[note]]Though it is not known if ''Iberomesornis'' itself possessed such a structure.[[/note]]
** "Death of a Dynasty":
*** The temporally displaced ''Deinosuchus'' has a gharial-esque head and is described as weighing about one ton, is actually very similar to the largest crocodylomorph actually known from the Hell Creek area: ''Thoracosaurus''.
*** The ''Dinilysia'' is live-acted by a boid snake and unnamed. There is an actual, unnamed boid in the Hell Creek Formation (the earliest boid in the fossil record, in fact).
*** Though fossil discoveries disproved the show's depiction of a stocky, badger-like ''Didelphodon'', it also turned to be a largely true portrait of ''Repenomamus'' by sheer coincidence (although ''Repenomamus'' didn't live anywhere close, geographically or temporally, to the Hell Creek Formation).
*** At the time the series premiered, the inclusion of ''Torosaurus'' in "Death of a Dynasty" (set in Hell Creek at the time of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction) was considered a minor example of an AnachronisticAnimal. While ''Torosaurus'' was indeed part of the Hell Creek biota, it was at the time only known from the middle Maastrichtian about 1-2 million years earlier than the setting of the episode. However, late Maastrichtian ''Torosaurus'' material has been uncovered since then and confirms that the genus really was still around to witness the K-Pg event[[note]]That said, the late Maastrichtian ''Torosaurus'' material comes mainly from the Scollard Formation in Canada. We don't actually know whether it was still present in Hell Creek at this point (given the overall extreme rarity of ''Torosaurus'' fossils from Hell Creek, the idea they were there at the time and we just haven't found their fossils is highly plausible).[[/note]].
* ActorAllusion: From the 3D movie, this wouldn't be [[WesternAnimation/IceAge the first time]] Creator/JohnLeguizamo played a prehistoric animal, although this time he's playing a bird. And not [[Film/SuperMarioBros1993 the first time]] [[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs he's been surrounded by dinosaurs]]. Humorously enough, his Ice Age costar, Creator/RayRomano was picked to host the Creator/DiscoveryChannel premier of "Walking With Beasts" in order to promote Ice Age. This was an America only thing however, Canada was Romano free. Also amusing, Skyler Stone, the voice of Scowler, would later be [[TheOtherDarrin the new voice actor]] for Diego in ''WesternAnimation/TheIceAgeAdventuresOfBuckWild''.
* CaliforniaDoubling: For obvious reasons, with one or two exeptions, none of the episodes were shot anywhere close to where they are supposed to take place, but in various exotic locations that more closely match the climate and flora from various points in the Mesozoic, and which also lack grass (which Tim Haines cited as one of the most frustrating factors).
** All of "New Blood" (Late Triassic Arizona) was filmed on the shrublands of New Caledonia, and its coasts were used for parts of “Cruel Sea” (Late Jurassic Oxfordshire) while the rest of it was filled in the Bahamas.
** "Giant of the Skies" (Early Cretaceous Brazil, North America, and Western Europe) and “Spirits of the Ice Forest” (Mid Cretaceous Antarctica/Australia) were filmed at various sites in Tasmania and New Zealand.
** The ash fields and araucaria forests of Conguillío National Park in Chile served as the backdrop for “Death of a Dynasty” (set in Montana just before the K-T extinction). The site would be revisited for the T. rex episode of ''Series/PrehistoricPark''.
** "Time of the Titans" (Late Jurassic Colorado) was the most elaborate, as parts of it were shot in Conguillío, while other bits were shot back in Tasmania, and others still, were shot in the redwood forests of California, including the famous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fern_Canyon Fern Canyon]] (which was also used in ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''). At least the last location is close to Colorado.
* ColbertBump: Outside of the already [[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs well-known]] ''Diplodocus'', ''Brachiosaurus'', ''Allosaurus'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Rhamphorhynchus'', ''Iguanodon'', ''Utahraptor'', ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', and ''Ankylosaurus'', all the other featured animals gained much public attention thanks to their inclusion in this series, [[TheGenericGuy especially those that don't really stand out much compared to many of their relatives]].
** ''Peteinosaurus'' was just one of several Triassic pterosaurs known at the time, and it wasn't even the most complete, yet its inclusion in "New Blood" gave it a major boost in notoriety.
** ''Ornitholestes'' was seen as just a generic small coelurosaur, and likely would have been eclipsed in popularity by other Jurassic coelurosaurs named down the line, like its larger and sympatric relative ''Tanycolagreus'' (named in 2005), [[Literature/PredatoryDinosaursOfTheWorld and Gregory Paul's interpretation of the animal sporting a nasal crest]] would likewise have been buried by the sands of time, if not for its appearance in "Time of Titans".
** ''Liopleurodon'' gained some minor notoriety among researchers at the time as one of the largest (then) known pliosaurs together with the Australian ''Kronosaurus'', but during the 2000s, the largest known ''Liopleurodon'' species were placed into the genus ''Pliosaurus'', which itself gained a further boost in fame around that time due to the discovery of a third giant species, ''Pliosaurus funkei'' (Predator X). [[AnimalsNotToScale Though its portrayal here]] [[HistoricalBadassUpgrade isn't the most accurate]], WWD is the main reason ''Liopleurodon'' hasn't faded into obscurity as just another "small" pliosaur.
** ''Cryptoclidus'' was just one in a [[{{Pun}} sea]] of generic, small-bodied Jurassic plesiosaurs, but since "Cruel Sea" was based on the Oxford Clay, it was given the limelight due to being the most common plesiosaur in the formation.
** ''Eustreptospondylus'' was just one of several Jurassic theropods known from Europe at the time, fairly run-of-the-mill, and more obscure than its larger and more iconic relative ''Megalosaurus'' (even if the former is more complete). Its appearance in "Cruel Sea" changed that.
** ''Polacanthus'' was just a typical Early Cretaceous nodosaur and known from fairly incomplete material. Following a boom of new early nodosaur taxa being described from the late '90s onward and from more complete material (most famously its cousin ''Gastonia''), it likely would have faded into obscurity if not for its inclusion in "Giant of the Skies". By extension, the episode is the only reason anyone has heard about ''Hoplitosaurus'' and ''Dakotadon'', as they were the basis for the American ''Polacanthus'' and ''Iguanodon'' shown in the episode respectively.
** As its cousin ''Triceratops'' outnumbers it in the fossil record by around ten to one, ''Torosaurus'' wasn't particularly well known to the general public, but that changed after it was featured as the token horned dinosaur in ''Death of a Dynasty".
* CreatorKiller: The box office failure of the 2013 film caused one of it's production companies, Evergreen Films,[[note]] The same studio that made ''WesternAnimation/WhenDinosaursRoamedAmerica'' and ''Series/DinosaurPlanet'' among other documentaries.[[/note]] to go bankrupt.
* DevelopmentGag: The ''Plesiopleurodon'' from "Giant of the Skies" uses the ''Liopleurodon'' model used in "Cruel Sea", but the coat is the same as the ''Liopleurodon'' in the unaired test pilot.
* CreatorProvincialism: It's a British documentary and "Cruel Sea" and "Giant of the Skies" focus heavily on British fossil animals. Though their depiction of ''Ornithocheirus'' was mainly based on the Brazilian ''Tropeognathus'' (as the British fossils are very fragmentary) and ''Liopleurodon'' originated in France (where it was first named from teeth but proper skeletal remains come from Oxford Clay).
* ExecutiveMeddling:
** The makers first intended to do a series on prehistoric mammals and continue with one about dinosaurs, moving further back in time with every episode. However, the producers thought dinosaurs were cooler, which is why this series came first and the others were technical spin-offs instead of new seasons.
** For the ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' movie, 20th Century Fox decided to add voices to the dinosaurs to help kids get the film, but the decision was made really late in production to the point where there isn't even lip syncing. The majority of viewers disliked the change, as they found the voices annoying and distracting. The 3D Blu-ray release thus contains an exclusive "Cretaceous cut", which cuts out all the voices.
* FalselyAdvertisedAccuracy: For all the ScienceMarchesOn, certain things claimed in the series were unambiguously wrong even for 1999.
** “Time of Titans”:
*** ''Brachiosaurus'' is said to be the largest land animal ever to have lived, a popular notion for most of the 20th century, but it was already surpassed in size by ''Argentinosaurus'' by 1993 (when the latter was described). This gets corrected in ''Series/ChasedByDinosaurs''.
*** Even though ''Allosaurus'' was known from numerous well-preserved skulls, even back in the late '90s, the series erroneously showed its "brow horns" as being placed above its eyes instead of in front of them, making it look as if it has permanent AngryEyebrows. Fortunately, this was fixed with the updated model in ''Series/TheBalladOfBigAl''.
** "Cruel Sea" has several examples:
*** This size of the show's ''Liopleurodon''. Back in the '90s, workers would have cited ''Liopleurodon'', based on fragmentary remains from Oxford Clay and younger fossils from Kimmeridge Clay subsequently assigned to ''Pliosaurus'', [[https://www.geokniga.org/bookfiles/geokniga-fossils-oxford-clay-1991.pdf as reaching a max length of maybe 15 meters]] (improved understanding of pliosaurid anatomy would place such specimens at around 10-12 meters). The larger size in the series was based on very fragmentary remains (namely a large vertebra) which yielded length estimates of anywhere between 16 to 20 meters. Even the tie-in book ''Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence'' admits that no expert truly thought that 25-meter pliosaurids existed. Tellingly, the American cut of WWD shrunk down the ''Liopleurodon'' to 60 feet, which was more in line with the initial estimates for the large Oxford Clay fossils.
*** Bizarrely, when comparing the locomotion of ''Ophthalmosaurus'' and ''Cryptoclidus'' in "Cruel Sea", the narrator states that the latter represents the "norm" for marine reptiles by using its four flippers for propulsion, even though most other marine reptiles such as mosasaurs and sea crocs used their tails for propulsion just like ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs were actually the odd ones out.
*** In “Cruel Sea”, the narrator claims that large dinosaurs are rare in Late Jurassic Europe and that the 5-meter ''Eustreptospondylus'' is one of the biggest (at least in England). This is simply not true, as some of the first large dinosaurs ever named, like ''Dacentrurus'', ''Cetiosaurus'', and ''Megalosaurus'' (the first non-avian dinosaur ever named) all come from Late Jurassic England, and others, like the Portuguese ''Lustotitan'' (then lumped into ''Brachiosaurus'') were also known at the time. This is especially odd since the unaired pilot shows ''Cetiosaurus'' coexisting with ''Eustreptospondylus''.
** "Giant of the Skies":
*** The ''Polacanthus'' was an unfortunate example of new information being published while the series was in production. In the '90s, the fragmentary ''Hoplitosaurus'' was considered so similar to ''Polacanthus'' that some workers synonymized them, and more complete fossils similar to ''Polacanthus'' had been found alongside ''Utahraptor'' in the Cedar Mountain Formation. However, in 1998 (a year before WWD aired), the Utah fossils were described as a distinct genus, ''Gastonia'', and its describers criticized the proposed synonymization of ''Hoplitosaurus'' with ''Polacanthus'', showing that the anatomical similarities between them were plesiomorphic traits that were widespread across early nodosaurs in general. The more complete ''Gastonia'' also revealed several anatomical errors in WWD's ''Polacanthus'', most notably its head shape (which is addressed in ''Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence'' as an example of ScienceMarchesOn). The 2000 American cut of WWD, unsurprisingly, renamed the American ''Polacanthus'' as ''Gastonia''.
** ''Death of a Dynasty'':
*** While the exact cause of the non-avian dinosaurs' extinction was still debated in the '90s and a gradual extinction was still considered possible, WWD opted to go with a minority opinion saying that dinosaurs were dying out specifically due to living on a "sick planet" poisoned by constant volcanic activity, even though we already had ample evidence, based on the various wildlife such as fish, insects, amphibians, and small crocodiles, as well as the local flora, that Hell Creek was a lush floodplain more similar to the Everglades than anything. Yet here, it's depicted as a barren, ashy wasteland with only patches of forests dotted across it. This was very much an artistic license, as even the novelization downplays this aspect and shows a more accurate version of the Hell Creek environment (while still keeping volcanism as a threat to the local dinosaurs), and ''Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence'' acknowledges that evidence for excessive volcanism at the time of the K-Pg extinction is slim.
* FollowTheLeader:
** The inception for the series came about due to the incredible success of ''Film/JurassicPark'' and riding the '90s wave of dino-mania, making it the best possible time for a scientific series with dinosaurs brought to life with special effects to be viable. Notably, the ''Diplodocus'' is shown making whale-like calls, much like JP's ''Brachiosaurus''.
** After ''Walking With Dinosaurs'', there came a whole onslaught of documentaries with CGI dinosaurs. ''WesternAnimation/WhenDinosaursRoamedAmerica'', ''Series/DinosaurPlanet'', and ''Series/JurassicFightClub'', to name a few.
** Every post-WWD toy of ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Liopleurodon]]'' has been given the colour scheme it had in WWD.
** It's impossible to see the ''Coelophysis'' and not think of the ''Compsognathus'' swarm in ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''. However, this was based on a ''Procompsognathus'' swarm in the original novel, ''Literature/JurassicPark'', which was likely based in turn in the great numbers of ''Coelophysis'' skeletons found together in Arizona and New Mexico, since both ''Compsognathus'' and ''Procompsognathus'' are known from single, isolated skeletons. Same goes for the ExplosiveBreeder plot, which is reminiscent of the book's ''Velociraptor'' plot.
** The [[AlwaysABiggerFish climax]] of ''Film/JurassicWorld'' is virtually identical to the SignatureScene in "Cruel Sea".
* HeyItsThatSound: Many of the sounds the ''Allosaurus'' makes in the original series are the exact same sounds the ''Velociraptors'' make in ''Film/JurassicPark'', just with a slightly lowered pitch.
* GenreKiller: An odd case in which two works from the same franchise both launched the genre and killed it. The original miniseries was followed by a wave of imitators, and ''Walking With Dinosaurs''-inspired dinosaur documentaries became a genre in their own right in the 2000s. The failure of the movie in 2013, however, was followed by the well of other dinosaur documentaries drying up almost overnight-- almost none were made in subsequent years until the release of ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet''.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** The cut down two-hour long presentation of the original miniseries narrated by Avery Brooks that initially aired in the U.S. on the Discovery Channel has never been released on home video.
** The pilot episode of the series was never released on home video and assumed to have been lost forever. For a long time, only clips from the pilot used in DVD documentaries for the series were available. Fortunately, a crew member who kept a real of said episode on DVD eventually found his copy and allowed it to be uploaded online.
* OrphanedReference:
** The European ''Utahraptor'' wound up being one due to never being given a sufficient explanation for being [[MisplacedWildlife geographically misplaced]] by the narrator. This was meant to reference a controversial theory that Early Cretaceous Europe and North America shared the same dinosaur genera, based on the apparent presence of ''Iguanodon'', ''Polacanthus'' and ''Hypsilophodon'' on both sides of the Atlantic (a case of ScienceMarchesOn), however, in the actual episode "Giant of the Skies", the only indicator that this is the case is ''Iguanodon'' and ''Polacanthus'' being present in both North America and Europe, and yet we only see ''Utahraptor'' in Europe, and the flying ''Ornithocheirus'' having to cross the Atlantic further muddies things.
** The 'Cretaceous Cut' (the dialog-free version) of The Movie leaves in a few gags that make no sense without dialog:
*** In the theatrical cut, Alex explains some ''Gorgosaurus'' stats to the viewer with close up shots and diagrams (and he keeps getting distracted by its tiny arms). The visuals for this scene are left in the Cretaceous Cut.
*** The film gets inexplicably re-wound when Patchi falls in the river (originally, Alex questions Patchi's claim of diving in to save Juniper)
*** There is a close up of one of the knocked-out gorgosaurus teeth (which becomes the fossil in the present day scenes)
*** The closing credits pop music starts to FadeIn and is interrupted by the gorgosaurus fourth wall break, but the actual credits with that song have been cut.
* PermanentPlaceholder: ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was intended to just be the WorkingTitle (it was based on the director misremembering the title of ''Film/DancesWithWolves''), but it was kept as the final product.
* PropRecycling: The small ornithopod from "Death of a Dynasty" is simply the ''Othnielia'' model reused, as it includes the same colors.
* ReCut:
** The format of the original series lends itself well to this.
*** The American Creator/DiscoveryChannel version which, in addition to alternative narration, was cut [[EditedForSyndication to make room for commercial breaks]], had a new opening title sequence, and features short paleontologist interviews next to the AdBumpers.
*** ''The Highlights'': a 30-minute promotional VHS released in the UK.
*** ''Short Bites'': ten-minute clip shows, each focusing on a specific animal, and narrated by british actor Sean Barrett. Released on VHS in the UK and Australia.
*** ''Prehistoric Planet'' ([[SimilarlyNamedWorks not to be confused]] with [[Series/PrehistoricPlanet the 2022 series]], or the film listed below): another Discovery Channel version, this time aimed specifically at children and narrated by Creator/BenStiller.
*** A three-part version with hour-long episodes; the time-lapse footage from the opening of the series is used as a transition between the original half-hour episodes.
*** A 90-minute CompilationMovie, which also uses the time-lapse between episodes and replaces the modern day ending with footage from Series/WalkingWithBeasts. This version is used on the Reader's Digest DVD of the series.
** The 2013 movie:
*** The ''Cretaceous Cut'': removes the modern day opening, and all of the dinosaurs' telepathic dialogue.
*** ''Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet'': a 50-minute version that features narration in a similar style to the original series. It's only available in IMAX cinemas.
* ReferencedBy:
** ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': The ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' "[[Recap/StrongBadEmailE145MythsAndLegends myths & legends]]" has an EasterEgg that the CG Dinosaur Channel airs "Walking with Trogdor", a reference to the series.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E6TheBookJob The Book Job]]" has the family going to see Sitting with Dinosaurs, a parody of the arena show based on the series.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines:
** Most obvious is the humongous ''Liopleurodon'', as the main source of inspiration for its colossal size was a giant pliosaur vertebra around 25 cm in width described in 1996 from Oxford Clay (though it might actually belong to a sauropod).[[note]] Though estimates for that specimens were initially placed at 17-20 meters, not 25. The episode justified the latter by claiming the main ''Liopleurodon'' is an unusually large individual, the hypothetical max limit for its species. [[/note]] This is also true for its comeback in 2003's ''Series/SeaMonsters'', as it coincided with the description of the "Monster of Aramberri", a fragmentary Mexican pliosaur specimen originally described as a 15-meter juvenile ([[{{Retcon}} which the tie-in books tried to link to the former]])
** ''Diplodocus'' (and later ''Apatosaurus'' in ''Series/TheBalladOfBigAl'') having horizontal, relatively inflexible necks was a theory sauropod expert Kent Stevens (the main advisor for "Time of Titans") was developing while the series was in production, so its inclusion in "Time of Titans" was very cutting-edge for its time ([[ScienceMarchesOn but later research on diplodocid biomechanics would heavily criticize it]]). ''Diplodocus'' having iguana-like spines was also a very new idea, thanks to the 1990 discovery of the "Howe Quarry diplodocid", which preserved impressions of long, keratenous spines.
** Female T. rex being larger and MoreDeadlyThanTheMale is another clear-cut example, as this theory only came about during the early to mid '90s, with workers arguing that the more robust specimens represented the female of the species based on features such as a wider pelvis and an alleged reduced chevron in order to more effectively lay their eggs. However, for numerous reasons, this interpretation was heavily criticized by subsequent studies, [[https://doc.rero.ch/record/14378/files/PAL_E1827.pdf ironically starting back in 2005]] (when the WW series wrapped up).
** A large chunk of “Giant of the Skies", including the discovery of the giant ''Tropeognathus'' specimen MN 6594-V during the '80s (who remains the largest known pterosaur next to giant azhdarchids), the 1993 description of ''Utahraptor'' (the first giant dromaeosaur to be found, just as a [[Film/JurassicPark certain movie]] made raptors famous) and the 1997 description of giant ''Tapejara'' specimens (now ''Tupandactylus''). The early bird ''Iberomesornis'' was also only described in 1992 and was seen as an important "missing link" in avian evolution ([[UniquenessDecay until enantiornithines became a dime a dozen]]).
** "Spirits of the Ice Forest" was certainly this for 1999, due to the then-recent boom of fossil finds from the Dinosaur Cove site in Victoria during the late 1980s and '90s, which helped boost our understanding of South Pole dinosaurs, not to mention the 1997 description of ''Koolasuchus'', a giant temnospondyl amphibian that survived long past its kin’s glory days.
* SameVoiceTheirEntireLife: In the 3D movie, Patchi, Juniper, and Scowler keep the same exact voices they had as kids when they turn into adults by the middle of the movie. This is mostly thanks to the creators not having enough time to find other voice actors for the dinosaurs.
* ShrugOfGod: The small ornithopod from "Death of a Dynasty" is not named. Common [[{{Fanon}} fan speculation]] is that it is meant to be ''Thescelosaurus'', a small ornithopod from the same place and time. This is somewhat supported, though not confirmed, by ''Thescelosaurus'' being name-dropped in the book's entry about ''Anatotitan''.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The series was originally envisioned as merely chronicling the history of palaentology with some occasional cuts to CG dinosaurs, but it was quickly decided that this wasn't nearly ambitious enough for what was intended to be a "landmark" documentary series.
** A concept that was conceptualized and used in the pilot was occasional cutaways to the animals' skeletons to show how their anatomical features work in more detail. This aspect was scrapped to focus more on making the world seem natural. The idea was [[RefittedForSequel reused for the prequel]] series ''Series/WalkingWithMonsters'', however, and was also used for Creator/{{Discovery Channel}}'s ''WesternAnimation/WhenDinosaursRoamedAmerica''.
** The director initially wanted Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic to do the effects for the series, as they had recently worked on the groundbreaking [=CGI=] of ''Film/JurassicPark''. However, their estimated cost of $10,000 per ''second'' of dinosaur footage was infeasible for a series that needed ''three hours'' of footage. This briefly led to the possibility of the series focusing more on the landscape of the Mesozoic, with only dinosaur cameos, before Creator/{{Framestore}}, which had initially turned the job down, agreed to take up the project (''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was still the most expensive per-minute documentary ever made, at over $61,000 per minute of footage).
** ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Baryonyx]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeSauropods Cetiosaurus]]'' were to appear in the main series, but they were replaced with ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Utahraptor]]'' and scrapped entirely, respectively. The ''Cetiosaurus'' is also portrayed with a high-arched neck, but this was abandoned for sauropods in the franchise, due to a consultant who stated that horizontal poses were more likely ([[ScienceMarchesOn although this has since been heavily disputed]]).
** The pilot episode used far more specific dates for each episode, in this case stating the time of the setting was 146,398,431 BC, while the series and all the followups only use broad dates (in this case it was changed to merely 149,000,000 BC).
** When the pilot was retooled into the "Cruel Sea" episode, there were some minor changes aside from the ones already specified. The ''Eustreptospondylus'' was bright green instead of a dull brown, the ''Liopleurodon'' had a uniform bluish-grey colouration instead of blotchy black and white, and ''Liopleurodon'' is depicted hunting ''Cryptocleidus'', a predator-prey relationship which is told but not seen in the episode proper.
** In the original pilot episode, the ''Liopleurodon'' was depicted at a somewhat more realistic 60 feet long and weighing 60 tonnes (still the very upper limits of size estimates at the time), but still noted as the largest predator that ever lived. Apparently that still wasn't good enough for the producers, who increased the size to the infamous and monstrously unrealistic 82 feet long and 150 tonnes in the final program, with the HandWave that the ''Liopleurodon'' we were following was an unusually large specimen, [[StrongerWithAge over a hundred years old]].
** The series was originally to be narrated by Creator/DavidAttenborough, but he turned down the part, unwilling to support a fictitious, fake wildlife documentary. 23 years later, he would narrate ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet''.
** One backstory told for the series was that the producers initially advocated for a series centring on prehistoric mammals, but were only given the O-K for a series on dinosaurs. This ended up being for the better, the predominantly scaly skin of dinosaurs and other reptiles were much easier to animate than the furry bodies of mammals.
* WordOfSaintPaul: ''Dinosaur Worlds'', a tie-in video game to the series, claims that the unnamed pliosaur that briefly shows up in "Giant of the Skies" is ''Plesiopleurodon''. However, this would be a major case of both InformedSpecies and AnachronismStew, as ''Plesiopleurodon'' was a very small taxon that lived ''30 million years'' after the setting of the episode, and this isn't supported in the novelization or any of the tie-in books (which don't mention it at all).
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