Monsters Resurrected (also known as Mega Beasts) is a documentary that aired on the Discovery Channel from 2009 to 2010. The basic plot of each episode (there are six in total) involves a different extinct predator. Each episode usually has the creature hunting its prey, fighting other creatures and eventually being driven to extinction.
This series contains examples of:
- Always a Bigger Fish: After killing a juvenile Paralititan, the Rugops is killed by a Spinosaurus.
- Anachronism Stew: Mostly averted but there are a few examples.
- Sarcosuchus lived during the late Aptian-early Albian (115-110 mya) and died out before the appearance of Spinosaurus and the rest of the cast from “Biggest Killer Dino”, who all lived during the Cenomanian (100-95 mya). Ironically, the former was a contemporary of the animals shown in “Great American Predator”, even if they lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
- Dinohyus is shown coexisting and being driven into extinction by a large-bodied species of Amphicyon, shown as a slightly smaller ancestor of the massive A. ingens. But the only Amphicyon species that coexisted with Dinohyus was the wolf-sized A. galushai, and it’s instead likely that the extinction of Dinohyus led to it evolving into the much larger A. ingens a few million years later.
- Animal Jingoism: Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus. A much more realistic clash between the two appeared in the 2011 doc Planet Dinosaur.
- Animals Not to Scale: Spinosaurus is type 1, making a light snack out of what the narration describes as a thirty-foot Rugops, making the spinosaur comparable in size to Godzilla. Xiphactinus and Cretoxyrhina are type 2. Elasmosaurus is type 1.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Subverted, quite a few species kill members of their own kind. The mosasaur is a good example of this.
- Artistic License – Biology: Pretty much every scene involving the Elasmosaurus, or long-necked plesiosaur. Basically, the neck of the one in the show is as flexible as a big snake, while the neck of the real creature was quite rigid.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Let us count the ways:
- Naked raptors.
- Flexible-necked plesiosaurs.
- Wrong forelimb posture on all of the theropods.
- Chewing sauropods, and their nostrils are (wrongly) atop their heads.
- Abelisaurid hands proportioned like those of typical theropods. They should be absurdly tiny with clawless stumps for fingers. Compare this
(Skip to the 00:45 mark, you may have to sit through an advertisement) to this◊. - They say that Acrocanthosaurus was the first theropod in North America to feed on sauropods but apparently forgot about Allosaurus, Torvosaurus, Saurophaganax, etc.
- Acro is shown to be able to leap which is highly unlikely for a 3-4 ton theropod.
- Referring to the "terminator pig" as Dinohyus, although it had been renamed Daeodon years before.
- The European version corrects this at least. As the paleontologists' commentary couldn't be changed, the narrator makes an effort to point out the correct name.
- The skull of the show's Spinosaurus is modeled on that of Baryonyx, which didn't even belong to the same subfamily. Compare the show's model◊ to the real deal◊.
- The show only ever uses Baryonyx as a reference point for filling up the missing parts of Spinosaurus, while making no mention of the Brazilian Irritator (who is closer to Spino phylogenetically) or Suchomimus, who is closer to Spino in terms of age, size, and geography (both stem from the Sahara), while also being even more complete than Baryonyx. The episode likewise acts as if Stromer’s lost holotype is the only specimen of Spinosaurus ever found, even though we had found a number of new specimens during the late '90s and 2000s (including skulls).
- And perhaps the most notorious example: Essentially, the Spinosaurus is portrayed as the ultimate predator of all time, able to effortlessly kill any other predator that lived in its time and region. In short, it is depicted devouring a Rugops with one bite, killing a Carcharodontosaurus by slashing it across the face with its claws and effortlessly tearing apart the giant crocodylomorph Sarcosuchus. And that isn't all, its size is practically Godzilla-portioned, as it is able to pick up a 30ft long Rugops in its mouth and the thing appears to be no bigger than its head. Spinosaurus didn't really grow larger than 50ft, meaning the one depicted in the episode would have been 300ft long or more.
- Artistic License – Space: To quote The Other Wiki:"At the end of "T-Rex of the Deep", the narrator asks, 'But what if the comet [that wiped out the dinosaurs] had missed?' However, if the dinosaurs were wiped out by an extraterrestrial object, it would have been an asteroid, not a comet."
- Bears Are Bad News: And even worse with bear-dogs.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: Sauropelta.
- Big Eater: The mosasaur. There's a reason it can dislocate its jaws.
- Bloodier and Gorier: More so than your average documentary.
- Death of a Child: Several times. There's the terror bird eggs that get eaten by wolves, the young mosasaur that is killed by sharks, the juvenile Paralititan attacked by a Rugops, the bear-dog pups that are killed by wild dogs and the Acrocanthosaurus eggs that are stolen by deinonychosaurs.
- Downer Ending: Kind of a given, since every creature eventually goes extinct
- Eats Babies: Many of the predators.
- Feathered Fiend:
- Titanis, the terror bird.
- Also, Deinonychus (although here it's shown featherless).
- Full-Boar Action: Dinohyus (
technically Daeodon), the "terminator pig." - Gorn: Almost to the point of
Nausea Fuel. This is a much Bloodier and Gorier series than your average documentary. For the sake of Rule of Cool, perhaps? - Historical Badass Upgrade: Yes, Spinosaurus was a truly fearsome creature. But it wasn't an unstoppable behemoth that ate 30-foot theropods as a light snack.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: The mosasaur to the Ginsu shark and the Spinosaurus to Rugops (and vice versa).
- Kaiju: One notorious shot implies the Spinosaurus is at least 300 feet long.
- Land Down Under: The home of Megalania, a giant monitor lizard.
- Mega Neko: Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Sarcosuchus, but it serves mostly to get killed by the Spinosaurus.
- Noisy Nature: And HOW! Slash! Crunch! Stomp! It's as if the SFX guys put on their headsets and recorded themselves munching loudly on a full meal. Almost every movement of the beasts is synced to ground-stomping or flesh-tearing.
- One-Hit Kill: Spinosaurus against the Carcharodontosaurus.
- One Mike Limit: Subverted. The mosasaur episode features three paleontologists named Mike.
- Prehistoric Monster: Several of the show's creatures are turned into this - it's in the show's title.
- Production Foreshadowing: The movie theater in the Spinosaurus episode has a sign saying "Now Playing: Reign of the Dinosaurs".
- Raptor Attack: The completely scaly, naked Deinonychus.
- It's also shown being a threat to Acrocanthosaurus, despite the fact it was much, much smaller. The talking heads mention that it could have been a threat to Acrocanthosaurus eggs and hatchlings, but it's shown scaring off a pretty good-sized young Acrocanthosaurus that is still far too big to be a hatchling. This is the exact same sort of misinterpretation that can be seen in Clash of the Dinosaurs.
- Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: The Cretaceous extinction, which wipes out the mosasaur.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Each episode drops the main creature in a 21st century scenario for a scene.
- Rule of Cool: What the show operates on.
- Sea Monster: The mosasaur.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Subverted with the mosasaurs.
- Shout-Out: The show's Spinosaurus resembles◊ a Todd Marshall illustration (seen in the linked picture with the show's model!).
- Speculative Documentary
- Stock Footage: Each 45-minute episode has about ten or fifteen minutes of CGI sprinkled throughout. However, there have been worse offenders.
- Scenes from When Dinosaurs Roamed America and Dinosaur Planet are used throughout, and at least one scene from Walking with Beasts appears.
- Threatening Shark: Cretoxyrhina, the Ginsu shark, eats mosasaurs.
- The Worf Effect: It affects the Spinosaurus quite embarrassingly, given its portrayal as a badass.
- It also affects the Smilodon, which only appears so the Terror Bird can steal its kill.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Spinosaurus' sail is an extension of its vertebrae - if it tips over, it breaks its back and dies. Another Artistic License – Biology for the documentary, as the spines would not have included the spinal cord. The bleeding caused by a multi-ton animal breaking several of its own bones would be a far greater problem than the one the documentary presented. In fact a broken spinosaurus spine was found, and it showed signs of healing, indicating that the animal survived whatever caused it to break.
- Zerg Rush: The Rugops pack on Spinosaurus.
