Rule Of Cool / Walking with…

aka: Walking With Dinosaurs

Walking With Dinosaurs

• New Blood:
  • The episode is based on the Chinle Formation, which has an amazingly rich fossil record containing various strange Triassic animals, many of them known from very complete remains. Yet one of the central characters is a cynodont, whose presence at Chinle was only suggested by a smattering of isolated teeth (which likely aren't even cynodont teeth) because we need to show the early origins of mammals.
  • Plateosaurus is only known from Germany, which would have been on the other side of northern Pangea at the time, but their appearance makes for a spectacular ending that signals the true start of the age of dinosaurs.
  • Peteinosaurus also isn't known from North America but we need to show the origins of pterosaurs, and Caelestiventus wouldn't be described until 2018.
  • Another example is the pack of Coelophysis being capable of ripping off the Postosuchus's tough skin with their weak jaws.
• Time Of The Titans:
  • Like Chinle, the Morrison Formation is a very fossil-rich ecosystem, preserving various animals ranging from tiny mammals and lizards to gigantic sauropods. Naturally, the episode focuses almost exclusively on the largest and most spectacular dinosaurs found here (sauropods, Stegosaurus, and Allosaurus). The only exception is one small coelurosaur, while little "hypsilophodonts" are relegated to being background extras (though they do get more screen time in "Ballad of Big Al").
  • Elderly Diplodocus are said to reach over 40 meters in length, which were quite optimistic estimates for the largest specimens at the time (though the related Supersaurus could have reached such colossal sizes).
  • Likewise, both Allosaurus and Stegosaurus were more modestly sized, the former reaching around 8.5 meters and 2 tons on average, the latter about 7 meters and 3 tons. The episode goes with the highest possible estimates based on the largest known fossils and shows both animals as being about the same size as T. rex.
  • At the time, there were several theories regarding how Stegosaurus might have used its plates. The episode goes with the idea that it could flush blood into its plates for display and for warding off predators.
  • Out of the three Morrison coelurosaurs known at the time (Ornitholestes, Coelurus, and the early tyrannosaur Stokesosaurus), they pick the one that sported a flashy nasal horn (though as it turns out, it didn't actually have one).
  • At the time, we knew next to nothing about anurognathid ecology other than they were tiny, insectivorous pterosaurs. The episode shows Anurognathus as an oxpecker Expy that has a symbiotic relationship with the Diplodocus (unfortunately, this depiction became dated in just a few years). Anurognathus also isn't known from North America, but fossils of pterosaurs at Morrison are quite scrappy.
• Cruel Sea:
  • A certain 25-meter pliosaur is the most infamous example. The highest estimates for Liopleurodon at the time suggested that it reached 15 meters, though improved understanding of pliosaurid anatomy shrunk those estimates down to 10-12 meters and transferred the largest fossils into Pliosaurus, leaving the former at 5-7 meters. A single large pliosaur vertebra was cited from Oxford Clay, and its owner was estimated to have stretched anywhere from 16 to 20 meters. The producers took the highest estimate and speculated that even larger specimens could have existed, leading to the nearly blue whale-sized titan shown in the episode.
  • Eustreptospondylus is shown as a specialized beach-comber that swims between islands because the holotype was discovered in a marine deposit (even having clams attached to it). The more parsimonious answer would be that this individual simply got washed out to sea after death, a fairly common fate for many terrestrial animals that got fossilized, but the former interpretation makes it a lot more interesting despite otherwise being a fairly standard, midsized theropod.
  • The plesiosaur Cryptocleidus weighed much less than eight tons in Real Life (perhaps its much larger relative Elasmosaurus did weigh so).
• Giant Of The Skies:
  • The only published material for Ornithocheirus and other ornithocheirid pterosaurs at the time suggested that they had wingspans of 6 meters tops, but some new fossils from Brazil, which still hadn't been properly described at the time, suggested far greater sizes. The producers went with the highest possible estimates at the time (12 meters) and presented Ornthocheirus as one of the largest pterosaurs ever. Those Brazilian fossils eventually got described in 2013, but yielded estimates of 8.2-8.7 meters, still a huge pterosaur but still notably smaller than its WWD counterpart.
  • The idea that Early Cretaceous dinosaurs like Iguanodon, Polacanthus, and Hypsilophodon had Transatlantic distributions was iffy even at the time, as it hinged on fragmentary fossils from America and controversial classifications, but it made for an interesting narrative, and it gave the producers an excuse to include Utahraptor in the second half of the episode, which takes place in Europe. And with dromaeosaurs becoming a household name in the '90s thanks to Jurassic Park, there was no way they were going to use the local but more banal allosaur Neovenator over the largest known raptor, or the fish-eating Baryonyx that would have only targeted baby Iguanodon.
• Spirits Of The Ice Forest: It's easily the most speculative episode of the series, as the Mesozoic fossil record from Australia is notoriously poor.
  • Given that the local dinosaurs aren't all that unique beyond their choice of habitat (a generic theropod, a generic "iguanodont" and a generic "hypsilophodont"), the presence of Koolasuchus, an alligator-sized and creepy-looking predatory amphibian that is also a Living Relic from a time long before the dinosaurs, was undoubtedly the main reason this episode was greenlit.
  • The Iguanodon relative Muttaburrasaurus with air sacs to produce loud sounds: this one is a classic (but not demonstrated) theory about several iguanodontians and hadrosaurs including Edmontosaurus and Saurolophus.
  • Only one skeleton can be attributed with security to Leaellynasaura; there are other possible remains but their assigntion is problematic. So all the talk of Leaellynasaura being social, hyerarchic and building communal nests is speculative. Interestingly, remains of simple, individual burrows have been later attributed to Leaellynasaura and similar dinosaurs.
  • Megaraptorans such as Austalovenator hadn't yet been discovered, and they needed a reasonably large theropod to menace the herbivores, so the producers looked at an ankle bone (which likely belongs to a megaraptoran) from Dinosaur Cove that had controversially been identified as a polar allosaur and showed it as the apex predator of the polar forest.
• Death Of A Dynasty:
  • Naturally, the final episode was going to be set close to the meteor impact, so the last of the dinosaurs could be seen experiencing the brunt of it.
  • Like Chinle and Morrison, Hell Creek has an extensive fossil record that covers every trophic level, from tiny fish, mammals, birds, and lizards to giant armored ankylosaurs, huge horned ceratopsians, massive duckbills, and one of the largest land predators ever, the king of the dinosaurs. As to be expected, the latter are the focus, and the most famous dinosaur ever is the protagonist.
  • Of course, the one mammal to be given focus is Didelphodon, one of the largest Mesozoic mammals known at the time. Only known from skull material at the time, here it's shown as an aggressive and braze Tasmanian devil Expy who regularly raids T. rex nests.
  • As to be expected, T. rex utters many, many Mighty Roars, even if half the time, it has no real reason for bellowing at the top of its lungs.
  • The ankylosaur featured in this episode is Ankylosaurus (the largest one of the armored dinosaur), in favor of the smaller Edmontonia (Denversaurus), who also lacked a tail club that can shatter a T. rex's ribs.
  • Why did they pick Torosaurus over the more famous and more numerous Triceratops (who outnumbers the former by ten to one at Hell Creek)? The former has even bigger horns and a taller, even more impressive frill.
  • Evidence of dromaeosaurs from Hell Creek at the time amounted to little more than scattered teeth belonging to indeterminate taxa, but it's the '90s and raptors are cooler than the better-preserved and non-predatory smaller dinosaurs at Hell Creek such as Ornithomimus, Pachycephalosaurus, or Thescelosaurus.
  • Evidence of excessive volcanism at the end of the Maastrichtian was scarce and there was lots of evidence that Hell Creek was a lush floodplain environment covered in forests and swamps, akin to today's Everglades, but it's more dramatic to depict it as a barren, heavily polluted, borderline post-apocalyptic landscape covered in ash fields with only islands of forests and dotted with active volcanos, akin to the popular pop culture depiction of primordial prehistoric times.

Walking With Beasts

• New Dawn:
  • Carnivorous giant ants... just that. We don't know if they were really that voracious or even if Titanomyrma ants were carnivorous.
  • Ambulocetus was (back then) seen as a very important "missing link" that bridged the gap between the more derived whales and their terrestrial ancestors (having only been named in 1994), and it also lived at the same time as the Messel fauna, so the producers simply had to include it, especially given how the next episode starred its descendants (the still primitive but more recognizably cetacean basilosaurids). The main issue is given a Hand Wave, saying that this specific individual is a vagrant that swam a good 7,000 km away from its native range, the Indian subcontinent (then still an island that was colliding with mainland Asia).
  • Gastornis portrayed as the apex predator of Eocene Europe, and the implication that flightless birds were the dominant predators all over the world in that time. Even the partidaries of carnivorous Gastornis (and this is now disproven) agreed that it was not built for speed and had to be an ambush predator, but the show's version sprints after its prey all the time. Other predators like creodont mammals and especially running crocodiles are ignored (one can't help but consider the latter a missed opportunity, given that predatory running crocodiles as a concept are arguably just as capable of holding their own in the Rule of Cool department while also being far easier to defend based on the existing fossil evidence).
  • We don't know how many eggs Gastornis laid at a time. However, it is more dramatic if it is only one and the ants eat it.
• Whale Killer:
  • Basilosaurus throwing a shark in the air just like orcas do with seals. And 60 tons seem too much for this very long but slender cetacean (perhaps 20 tons is a more reasonable measure).
  • The hungry Basilosaurus looking for food in a mangrove swamp, as a way to introduce a new cool looking location and the Egyptian El Fayyum fossil faunas. Even the narrator calls this rare.
  • Andrewsarchus, at the time believed to be the largest mesonychid ever, as the representative of this group in the series, even though the genus is known almost exclusively from a jawless skull.
  • Andrewsarchus eating nesting sea turtles in the coast. Its remains (along with those of its screen partner, Embolotherium) were found in Mongolia, and while the show moves them to Pakistan, they still never come near the protagonist Basilosaurus.
  • The giant brontothere is very clearly Embolotherium, and it's living at the right time and on the right continent, but it's still only called a "brontothere" instead of by its specific genus, because the former ("meaning thunder beast") sounds cooler.
  • A Physogaleus grabbing an Apidium sitting outside the water. A crocodile would be more likely.
• Land Of Giants:
  • The setting of the episode. The Oligocene fossils record of Asia is pretty lackluster, while the White River formations over in North America or the Quercy Phosphorites site in France have a much more extensive fossil record, including species of Hyaenodon and entelodonts. If they went with North America, they could have included (given some Anachronism Stew) the giant chalicothere Moropus, which showed up at the end of the Oligocene. The main reason Asia was chosen was because neither Europe nor North America had giant indricotheres or giant species of Hyaenodon.
  • Which might make the last example an aversion, as the bear-dog species depicted is of the smaller, dog-like kind, rather than the nowadays more famous, bear-sized variety.
  • Though fossils of giant Hyaenodon have been found at several sites in Central Asia, from the Late Eocene (H. gigas) to even the Early Miocene (H. weilini) they are incredibly fragmentary, consisting of little more than isolated teeth and jaw fragments, with the only evidence of H. gigas (or a relative) from Hsanda Gol being a single large ungula (a claw), and basically everything we know about them is extrapolated from smaller but more complete species like H. horridus. Andrewsarchus is less enigmatic than the former!
  • Even the most charitable size estimates for Hyaenodon gigas at the time suggested that it was around the size of a large brown bear (it was more likely tiger-sized) but here, it's shown as being the size of a rhino, which is more in line with the highest possible (and likely also incorrect) size estimates for the related Megistotherium from Miocene Africa. When the protagonist of the episode is the "largest land mammal ever", the main predator has to be as big as a carnivorous land mammal can get.
  • The Bullet Time scene. In "New Dawn" it can be justified as a way to show the Gastornis's run and the Propalaeotherium it's after. This one feels like someone bet the animators they couldn't do a low speed Orbital Shot around a Hyaenodon slipping on the mud while hunting.
  • Borissiakia was known from Late Oligocene Asia at the time and would have fit the theme of gigantism well (being one of the largest chalicotheres known) but it was also a schizotheriine, a chalicothere that didn't knuckle-walk (just like Ancylotherium). Evidence of knuckle-walking chalicotheriines from Late Oligocene-Early Miocene strata is slim but those that were around at the time (like the fragmentary "Chalicotherium" pilgrimi) were rather small, as to be expected from basal species. The producers instead based their portrayal of the Late Miocene Chalicotherium goldfussi (as an 8-foot tall giant) and just hand waved the anachronism by simply calling it a "chalicothere", even though giant knuckle-walker would't show up for well over 10 million years.
  • In general, the episode was based on the older Hsanda Ghol Formation but was moved forward in time so it could include chalicotheres and Daeodon-like entelodonts, which are not found in it (and as far we know, could not survive in a desert environment).
• Next Of Kin:
  • The early scene with the male Australopithecus knuckle-walking and waddling, for no real reason other than to dramatically rise when the narrator says "this ape walks upright".
  • By 3 million years ago, the wildlife of Africa was starting to look very similar to how it does today (something the opening narration acknowledges), so out of all the large proboscideans that inhabited Pliocene Africa (like African mammoths, Palaeoloxodon recki, early members of Loxodonta, or the long-tusked Anancus), the episode opted to use the short-trunked Deinotherium, who also sports strange, downwards-curving tusks (and it also happens to be the last representative of the ancient plesielephantiforms). Likewise, instead of many of the more familiar ungulates such as the bovid Pelorovis or the stocky giraffid Sivatherium, we get the chalicothere Ancylotherium (who also offers an excuse to reuse the chalicothere model from ''Land of Giants").
  • Deinotherium entering in "musth" and chasing all the Australopithecus they meet just like modern elephants; however, deinotheres weren't elephants, just distant relatives (as much as we are related to baboons) and we have no proof about such behavior.
  • The African Deinotherium bozasi was about the same size as an African elephant, but here, it's described as being "as tall as a giraffe", which more closely matches the European D. giganteum (not to mention that giraffes can reach 6 meters in height, about two meters more than the biggest Deinotherium).
  • Dinofelis as a specialized australopithecine killer, being later driven back by a concerted effort of the australopithecine group. This is a showcase of Bob Brain's book The Hunters or the Hunted?, where he argued that Dinofelis preyed mainly on primates and that its extinction happened when hominids got too smart and turned the tables on it. However, there are no australopithecine fossils with Dinofelis bites. There are australopithecines with leopard bites, but leopards are considerably smaller and they are still around, and also a later hominid species with bites of Megantereon, a sabertoothed cat smaller than Dinofelis. A study using calcium isotopes, though not completely conclusive, found that their sample of Dinofelis had the results expected of an animal that fed solely on grass-eaters like ungulates, while the ones of Megantereon, leopard and hyena fossils were compatible with predation of omnivores like primates.
  • Dinofelis was also given a Signature Scene where it climbed a tree carrying a felled Australopithecus just like leopards do with their prey (and we know leopards did with australopithecines, in fact). However, Dinofelis was heavier and larger than a leopard, with leg proportions more like a jaguar or a lion. Both can climb trees, but do it more rarely and never take their prey there.
• Sabretooth: As far as WWB goes, this episode is perhaps the biggest offender.
  • Much like the T. rex in "Death of a Dynasty", WW's Smilodon is very fond of excessive roaring and posing, far more so than any extant big cat would realistically do. Special mention goes to the opening, where, after scaring off two terror birds, Half Tooth continues roaring and posing for no real reason, as if he's aware that he's being filmed and he's trying to look badass for the camera. And at the end, he once again roars after defeating the surviving brother. For comparison, how many fights between two alpha lions have you seen where the winner punctuates his victory by uttering a Mighty Roar?
  • Instead of going with the more familiar Smilodon fatalis, they go with the South American Smilodon populator, who just happens to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest felid ever to have lived, and instead of living alongside mostly familiar animals like mammoths, bison, camels, and horses, many of its neighbors were exotic and large-bodied South American natives such as giant ground sloths, massive glyptodonts (including one with an ankylosaur-like tail club) and the strange-looking Macrauchenia. There were also more familiar creatures such as gomphotheres, giant llamas, tapirs, peccaries, and even South American horses living alongside it, but none of those show up (other than Hippidion in the novelization).
  • Terror birds are featured as the titular sabretooth's only rival, despite the story taking place in the Mid Pleistocene, 1 million years ago. For a while, it was debated whether Titanis survived into the Late Pleistocene or not, as its fossils were found in the Santa Fa River and washed through different sediments. WWB decided to support the late-survival theory (even stating that they died out just before the first Native Americans showed up), but rare earth element analysis in 2007 confirmed that the last Titanis died out at least 2 million years ago. Of course, a giant flightless killer bird is a much more exotic creature than, say, a dire wolf or a Protocyon, a short-faced bear, or a lion-sized jaguar, carnivores that are actually known to have been sympatric with S. populator.
  • Like many other creatures in the series, the portrayal of the terror bird is based on the highest possible size estimates, being shown as a 3-meter-tall giant with a very long neck and legs, even though more complete phorusrhacid fossils showed that these animals were rather stocky and the biggest ones were less than 2.5 meters tall.
  • Megatherium is shown supplementing its diet with scavenging, which was already an iffy idea at the time, and had no real evidence to validate it beyond "It's not impossible", and was debunked after carbon isotope analyses showed that Megatherium was indeed a full-fledged herbivore (though the much smaller Mylodon was shown to have been omnivorous). The giant short-faced bear Arctotherium angustidens would have made more sense as a super-sized brute that could curb-stomp a Smilodon and try to steal its kill.
  • Out of the numerous giant glyptodonts that lived in Pleistocene South America, like Glyptodon and Glyptotherium, they picked Doedicurus, one of the largest and the only one to have an ankylosaur-like club at the end of its tail, with huge spikes to boot.
• Mammoth Journey:
  • The bull mammoths have absolutely massive tusks that curve backward. Such extravagant tusks are known in the related Columbian mammoth but not in the woolly mammoth.
  • The cave lion is depicted with a silvery, almost snowy white pelt akin to a polar bear or Arctic wolf, even though plenty of big cats today that inhabit colder climes with heavy snowfall (cougars, Amur leopards, Siberian tigers) retain the same orange or tawny pelts as their warm-weather counterparts (and sure enough, the later discovery of four mummified cave lion cubs confirmed that these cats had the same tawny pelt as their African cousins, albeit slightly lighter). Though the white pelt might instead have been added in order to try and mask the fact that the cave lion is a repurposed Smilodon/Dinofelis model.
  • When showing the Neanderthals hunting mammoths, the show utilizes the dramatic (and since debunked) interpretation that various mammoth bones found at the Jersey Cliffs were the result of generations of Neanderthals driving mammoths over cliffs and butchering them there.

Walking With Monsters

• This one might as well be named "Walking With Rule of Cool". It's filled with it from start to finish. Not counting the "Theia" hypothesis about the Moon's birth presented as fact, we have:
  • Cambrian Period: Anomalocaris fighting each other without any apparent reason, and the tiny vertebrate-ancestor Haikhouichthys scavenging the flesh of the loser Anomalocaris just like modern hagfish and lampreys; ^note Modern jawless vertebrates such as lampreys and hagfish are very specialized animals, while Hakhouichthys, being a very early animal, was more likely a filter-feeder, see Prehistoric Life. Also, the only true Cambrian invertebrate shown is, naturally, the first superpredator Anomalocaris (the others are generic trilobites).
  • Silurian Period: Armoured fish Cephalaspis portrayed as a tireless migrant despite it was a bad swimmer in Real Life (and depicted so just a moment before during the Brontoscorpio's chase); not to mention that scorpion which moults onto land instead of into water (with a high risk to get dehydratated...). Also Brontoscorpio being shown instead of the more classic-but-smaller Palaeophonus to represent the passage from water to land among arthropods. Pterygotus was also not the largest sea scorpion, that title belongs to a larger relative that lived later.
  • Devonian Period: Always-screeching protoamphibian Hynerpeton (shaped upon the iconic Ichthyostega) that lays eggs with the same look of a frog's eggs. Also the Hyneria being used instead of the iconic Eusthenopteron to represent the transition from fish to amphbians because it's larger. And being oversized. The shark-like Stethacanthus is also shown being able to transition between salt and freshwater like a bull shark, even though stethacanthid fossils are only known from marine deposits.
  • Carboniferous Period: The most Rule of Cool-filled of all: Arthropleura rearing just like a cobra to frighten enemies, and the giant anthracosaurian amphibian impaling the "giant millipede" after the fight. And giant spiders with black venom (Real Life spiders have colourless, water-looking poison) and apparently laughing sadistically upon its victims before destroying the nest of the tiny protoreptile Petrolacosaurus (with the narrator saying "ARTHROPODS ARE BACK!").
  • Early Permian Period: The rival female Dimetrodon chooses to lay her eggs just over another Dimetrodon nest despite all the endless room available... Interesting that Dimetrodonts are represented in a strong Komodo Dragon-like fashion in this show, despite being mammal relatives (and correctly shown with mammal-like skin instead of scaly, at last). Not to mention the Dimetrodont which sprays dung over the camera and the babies which dive themselves in dung to repel the (alleged) cannibalistic adults...
  • Late Permian Period: The Gorgonopsid shown is the largest member of its family (most relatives were much smaller than the near-reptile Scutosaurus which appears as its prey); the Diictodons playing a sort of Wack-a-mole with the gorgonopsid; the giant amphibian labirhynthodont which produces a "cocoon" just like modern lungfishes (there is no proof of this); and it seems there are too many Gorgonopsids that manage to survive around such a small lake almost empty of food...
  • Early Triassic Period: The herbivorous stem-mammal Lystrosaurus and the croc-like Proterosuchus behaving just like modern wildebeest and Nile crocodiles; another stem-mammal, the carnivorous therocephalian, with a venom so powerful that "it's several times more lethal that a black mamba's" (we don't know even if it was venomous at all, although it has been seriously suggested by palaeontologists.).

Chased by Dinosaurs

• "Land of Giants" is another heavy offender:
  • The main selling point of the special is to see the "ultimate hunt", a clash between the "largest land animal of all time", and the "largest land predator of all time". In actuality, allosaurs hunting giant sauropods happened all across the globe from the Upper Jurassic up until the end of the Mid Cretaceous (when allosaurs vanished), though granted, few of them grew quite as huge as lognkosaurians and giganotosaurines.
  • While Giganotosaurus was undoubtedly a massive animal and indeed one of the largest known land predators, it likely was not the biggest, as the related Carcharodontosaurus and T. rex reached similar sizes. Furthermore, despite Nigel claiming that Giganotosaurus weighed two tons more than T. rex, later research on the tyrant king showed that it was more stocky and rotund than traditionally thought, thus making it the heaviest known land predator to date, outweighing Giganotosaurus by two tons or more.
  • With Sarcosuchus imperator (a.k.a "Super Croc") gaining much attention at the Turn of the Millennium, thanks to several new specimens (including a 1.6-meter skull) being described from the Saharah, the producers of course couldn't resist including it, even if it lived on the other side of the Atlantic. It did have a Brazilian relative in the form of Sarcosuchus hartii but it was much smaller than its famous relative, being only as big as a saltwater croc. "Chased by Dinosaurs" combined the two species, and gave us a giant Sarcosuchus living in Mid Cretaceous Argentina, which was also rather arid at the time (as shown in the special) and thus poorly suited for supporting giant crocodylomorphs.
  • It's hard to explain what Pteranodon is even doing in this special, as it's only known from Late Cretaceous North America, not Mid Cretaceous Argentina, other than that it's the most famous and recognizable of all pterosaurs. And the giant Ornithocheirus (Tropeognathus) from "Giant of the Skies" makes a comeback, as it fits with the Central Theme of gigantism, and it apparently hasn't changed in-universe for 27 million years!
• "The Giant Claw":
  • Like how Nigel was searching for the "largest dinosaur" in the other special, here, he's searching for the weirdest of all dinosaurs (at least back then), a therizinosaur. Of course, he looks for the largest known therizinosaur, Therizinosaurus itself, who conveniently also coexisted with Tarbosaurus, the Asian cousin of T. rex. Naturally, the climax of the special has the two giants engage in combat.
  • In an interesting example of Popularity Power, even though the velociraptorine Adasaurus was found alongside Therizinosaurus and Tarbosaurus in the Nemegt Formation, the producers instead used the much more recognizable Velociraptor (leading to minor Anachronism Stew), even though Adasaurus was larger (growing as big as a Deinonychus).

Sea Monsters

• Perhaps the biggest example in the WW series. The whole point of this mini-series is for Nigel Marvin to encounter the greatest "sea monsters" in Earth's history, meaning some of the largest and most threatening marine predators to swim Earth's oceans. Technically, extant giant marine predators like orcas and sperm whales would qualify as well, but they are too familiar and "cute".
  • In the Ordovician, we meet the giant orthocone (Cameroceras/Endoceras), which is depicted as a massive, 11-meter cephalopod, even though the only properly described fossils suggest a max length of 6 meters. The great size (like other media depictions) was based on an allegedly 9-meter-long orthocone shell that was lost (and thus not properly described) in the 1950s.
  • The Triassic:
    • This segment is based on the Besano Formation, but the only Cymbospondylus found there (and Europe in general) is Cymbospondylus buchseri, which was less than 6 meters long. Here though, it's shown as a 10-meter giant, based on the North American Cymbospondylus petrinus. Retroactively though, it ended up being an aversion, as the giant Cymbospondylus youngorum (named in 2021) grew to an estimated 15-17 meters.
    • Infamously, the bizarre, long-necked Tanystropheus is depicted as being capable of shedding its own tail like a lizard, which was a very niche theory supported by paleontologist Ruper Wild, who also thought that Tanystropheus was related to lizards, something most workers disagree with.
    • Surprisingly averted with the Nothosaurus. It's shown at a modest 3-4 meters, but the largest known species, the aptly named Nothosaurus giganteus, grew to 6-7 meters.
  • The Devonian placoderm Dunkleosteus is represented by the biggest known species, Dunkleosteus terrelli, here shown as a 10-meter giant, based on the highest size estimates derived from large jaw fragments, while the more complete fossils (namely skulls) suggest that most specimens of D terrelli were 6 meters or less.
  • Out of all the small cetaceans that megalodon would have hunted, they used Odobenocetops, an utterly bizarre cetacean that looked more like a cross between a dugong and a walrus. The more humdrum Cetotherium or Piscobalaena wouldn't be nearly as interesting.
  • For the Late Jurassic segment, we get the return of massively oversized Liopleurodon from "Cruel Sea", but we also meet its main prey item, the gigantic filter-feeding pachycormid fish Leedsichthys problematicus, who is of course depicted as a blue whale-sized leviathan and cited as the largest fish ever to have existed, once more based on the highest possible size estimates for its species (in reality, it was closer to a humpback in size, 15-16 meters).
  • The Late Cretaceous:
    • Tylosaurus is hyped up as the ultimate sea monster, by being depicted as a 60-foot giant that travels in pods like killer whales, even though the largest Tylosaurus specimens were estimated to have reached 50 feet tops (40-43 feet is more likely), and them being pod animals is dubious at best, given that mosasaurs are squamates (which aren't known for being gregarious, let alone pack-hunters) and we have a lot of evidence for intraspecific aggression in Tylosaurus and other mosasaurs. Plus, being the largest animal in the Western Interior Seaway, Tylosaurus would have little incentive to band together, when one adult could easily take any prey animal it coexisted with, and a lone mother could (hypothetically) easily protect her young (like a mother crocodilian).
    • Instead of resembling an oversized loon or grebe with teeth like in most depictions (being an aquatic bird and all), Hesperornis is depicted as an ugly, vulture-like creature with a balding red head, for no real reason other than to look more threatening and "prehistoric".
    • A T. rex randomly shows up for a cameo, uttering a Mighty Roar, even though it wouldn't evolve for another 7 million years (contradicting what was said in "Death of a Dynasty"). A more time-appropriate tyrannosaurid like Daspletosaurus or Gorgosaurus didn't have the Popularity Power it would seem.

The books

• Include details of many events from the series much differently, much more violently, and with a bigger emphasis on Rule of Cool and what may be Nightmare Fuel for some. They also include new scenes. Examples:
  • The wounded Postosuchus puts up a real fight, and manages to snatch a Coelophysis before they overwhelm it.
  • A herd of Diplodocus mowing down a group of small predatory Coelurus with their spiky necks.
  • The Allosaurus-scene in the small canyon involves more predators (although the Allosaurus attack from the end is missing).
  • As if he hadn't suffered enough already, the male Ornithocheirus from "Giant of the Skies" gets physically attacked every time he tries to land on the mating grounds; he's bitten by the other males, pecked at until his head starts bleeding and has his wings torn to shreds before dying of his injuries a while later. In the episode, the other males just clack their beaks at him until he is forced to land outside the main display area, where he attempts to display to the females, only to be ignored in favour of the males nearer the centre. But his instincts force him to keep trying and he eventually dies from exhaustion, heat stress and starvation.
  • While in the series, the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus just catches a fish, eats it, and then flies away, in the book, the poor thing is mangled and pulled into the lake by a bunch of giant crocs Deinosuchus.
  • And perhaps the most violent scene of all: the Ankylosaurus (who is a mother this time) isn't satisfied with "just" breaking the leg and messing up the internal organs of the T. rex... it brings her down to the ground, and continues to bash the T. rex's head with its clubbed-tail into a bloody mess... in front of her kids. The Tyrannosaurus chicks later drink the blood of their mother.