Line #88 RuleOfCool/WalkingWith


1	[[foldercontrol]]
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3	[[folder:Walking With Dinosaurs]]
4	* '''New Blood''':
5	** 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.
6	** ''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.
7	** ''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.
8	** Another example is the pack of ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Coelophysis]]'' being capable of ripping off the ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Postosuchus]]'''s tough skin with their weak jaws.
9	* '''Time Of The Titans''':
10	** 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").
11	** 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).
12	** 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.
13	** 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.
14	** 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).
15	** 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.
16	* '''Cruel Sea''':
17	** 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.
18	** ''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.
19	** The plesiosaur ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Cryptocleidus]]'' weighed much less than eight tons in RealLife (perhaps its much larger relative ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Elasmosaurus]]'' did weigh so).
20	* '''Giant Of The Skies''':
21	** 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.
22	** 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''.
23	* '''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.
24	** 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 LivingRelic from a time long before the dinosaurs, was undoubtedly the main reason this episode was greenlit.
25	** The ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Iguanodon]]'' relative ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeHadrosaurPredecessors Muttaburrasaurus]]'' with air sacs to produce loud sounds: this one is a classic (but not demonstrated) theory about several iguanodontians and hadrosaurs including ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Edmontosaurus]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Saurolophus]]''.
26	** 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.
27	** 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.
28	* '''Death Of A Dynasty''':
29	** 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.
30	** 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.
31	** 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.
32	** As to be expected, T. rex utters many, many [[MightyRoar Mighty Roars]], even if half the time, it has no real reason for bellowing at the top of its lungs.
33	** 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.
34	** 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.
35	** 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''.
36	** 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.
37	[[/folder]]
38	[[folder:Walking With Beasts]]
39	* '''New Dawn''':
40	** Carnivorous [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures giant ants]]... just that. We don't know if they were really that voracious or ''even'' if ''Titanomyrma'' ants were carnivorous.
41	** ''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 [[MisplacedWildlife main issue]] is given a HandWave, 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).
42	** ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs 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 [[ScienceMarchesOn 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 RuleOfCool department while also being far easier to defend based on the existing fossil evidence).
43	** 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.
44	* '''Whale Killer''':
45	** ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs 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).
46	** 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.
47	** ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs 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.
48	** ''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''.
49	** 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.
50	** A ''[[ThreateningShark Physogaleus]]'' grabbing an ''Apidium'' sitting outside the water. A crocodile would be more likely.
51	* '''Land Of Giants''':
52	** 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 AnachronismStew) 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''.
53	** 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.
54	** 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!
55	** 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.
56	** The BulletTime 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 OrbitalShot around a ''Hyaenodon'' slipping on the mud while hunting.
57	** ''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 [[HandWave 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.
58	** 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).
59	* '''Next Of Kin''':
60	** 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''".
61	** 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").
62	** ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Deinotherium]]'' entering in "musth" and chasing all the ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeMammals 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.
63	** 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'').
64	** ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeMammals Dinofelis]]'' as a specialized australopithecine killer, being later driven back by a concerted effort of the [[CowardlyLion 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.
65	** ''Dinofelis'' was also given a SignatureScene 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.
66	* '''Sabretooth''': As far as WWB goes, this episode is perhaps the biggest offender.
67	** 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, [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall 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 MightyRoar?
68	** 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).
69	** 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''.
70	** 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.
71	** ''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.
72	** 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.
73	* '''Mammoth Journey''':
74	** 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.
75	** 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.
76	** 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.
77	[[/folder]]
78	[[folder:Walking With Monsters]]
79	* This one might as well be named "Walking With RuleOfCool". It's filled with it from start to finish. Not counting the "Theia" hypothesis about the Moon's birth presented as fact, we have:
80	** '''Cambrian Period''': ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Anomalocaris]]'' fighting each other without any apparent reason, and the tiny vertebrate-ancestor ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures 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 UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife.[[/note]] Also, the only true Cambrian invertebrate shown is, naturally, the first superpredator Anomalocaris (the others are [[AnachronismStew generic trilobites]]).
81	** '''Silurian Period''': Armoured fish ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Cephalaspis]]'' portrayed as a tireless migrant despite it was a bad swimmer in RealLife (and depicted so [[{{CanonDiscontinuity}} just a moment before]] during the ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures 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 [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures 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.
82	** '''Devonian Period''': Always-screeching protoamphibian ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Hynerpeton]]'' (shaped upon the iconic ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Ichthyostega]]'') that lays eggs with the same look of a frog's eggs. Also the ''Hyneria'' being used instead of the iconic ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs 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.
83	** '''Carboniferous Period''': The most RuleOfCool-filled of all: ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Arthropleura]]'' rearing just like a cobra to frighten enemies, and the giant [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures anthracosaurian]] amphibian ''impaling'' the "giant millipede" after the fight. And [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures giant spiders]] with ''black venom'' (RealLife spiders have colourless, water-looking poison) and apparently ''laughing sadistically upon its victims'' before destroying the nest of the tiny protoreptile ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Petrolacosaurus]]'' (with the narrator saying "ARTHROPODS ARE BACK!").
84	** '''Early Permian Period''': The rival female [[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs 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 [[CameraAbuse sprays dung over the camera]] and the babies which ''dive themselves in dung'' to repel the (alleged) cannibalistic adults...
85	** '''Late Permian Period''': The [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Gorgonopsid]] shown is the largest member of its family (most relatives were much smaller than the near-reptile ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Scutosaurus]]'' which appears as its prey); the ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Diictodon]]''s playing a sort of Wack-a-mole with the gorgonopsid; the giant amphibian [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures 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...
86	** '''Early Triassic Period''': The herbivorous stem-mammal ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Lystrosaurus]]'' and the croc-like ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Proterosuchus]]'' behaving just like modern wildebeest and Nile crocodiles; another stem-mammal, the carnivorous [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles 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.).
87	[[/folder]]
88	[[folder:Chased by Dinosaurs]]
89	* "Land of Giants" is another heavy offender:
90	** 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.
91	** 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.
92	** With ''Sarcosuchus imperator'' (a.k.a "Super Croc") gaining much attention at the TurnOfTheMillennium, 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.
93	** It's hard to explain what ''Pteranodon'' is even doing in this special, [[AnachronismStew as it's only known from Late Cretaceous North America]], [[MisplacedWildlife not Mid Cretaceous Argentina]], [[PopularityPower 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 CentralTheme of gigantism, and it apparently hasn't changed in-universe for ''27 million years''!
94	* "The Giant Claw":
95	** 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 [[BiggerIsBetter largest known therizinosaur]], ''Therizinosaurus'' itself, who conveniently also coexisted with ''Tarbosaurus'', the Asian cousin of T. rex. Naturally, [[CoolVersusAwesome the climax of the special has the two giants engage in combat]].
96	** In an interesting example of PopularityPower, 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 AnachronismStew), even though ''Adasaurus'' was larger (growing as big as a ''Deinonychus'').
97	[[/folder]]
98	[[folder:Sea Monsters]]
99	* 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, [[PerilousPrehistoricSeas 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, [[MammalMonstersAreMoreHeroic but they are too familiar and "cute"]].
100	** 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.
101	** The Triassic:
102	*** 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''. [[ScienceMarchesOn Retroactively though]], it ended up being an aversion, as the giant ''Cymbospondylus youngorum'' (named in 2021) grew to an estimated 15-17 meters.
103	*** 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.
104	*** 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.
105	** 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.
106	** 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.
107	** 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).
108	** The Late Cretaceous:
109	*** ''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).
110	*** 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, [[PrehistoricMonster for no real reason other than to look more threatening and "prehistoric"]].
111	*** A T. rex randomly shows up for a cameo, uttering a MightyRoar, even though it wouldn't evolve for another 7 million years ([[ContinuitySnarl contradicting what was said in "Death of a Dynasty"]]). A more time-appropriate tyrannosaurid like ''Daspletosaurus'' or ''Gorgosaurus'' didn't have the PopularityPower it would seem.
112	[[/folder]]
113	[[folder:The books]]
114	* Include details of many events from the series much differently, much more violently, and with a bigger emphasis on RuleOfCool and what may be NightmareFuel for some. [[AdaptationExpansion They also include new scenes.]] Examples:
115	** The wounded ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Postosuchus]]'' puts up a real fight, and manages to snatch a ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Coelophysis]]'' before they overwhelm it.
116	** A herd of ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Diplodocus]]'' mowing down a group of small predatory ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherSmallTheropods Coelurus]]'' with their spiky necks.
117	** The ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Allosaurus]]''-scene in the small canyon involves more predators (although the ''Allosaurus'' attack from the end is missing).
118	** [[TheWoobie 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.
119	** While in the series, the giant pterosaur ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs 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 ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Deinosuchus]]''.
120	** And perhaps the most violent scene of all: [[spoiler:the ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Ankylosaurus]]'' (who is a mother this time) isn't satisfied with "just" breaking the leg and messing up the internal organs of the ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs 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.]]

Context RuleOfCool / WalkingWith