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Post by Infinity Blade on Jun 3, 2022 17:25:27 GMT 5
To be fair, it’s worth mentioning the “Velociraptor” are actually an indeterminate velociraptorine species, which Darren Naish has since confirmed on Twitter somewhere. The reason it was called such was because “indeterminate velociraptorine” would not have been marketable.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Mar 2, 2023 16:50:22 GMT 5
See y’all here in two months
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Post by tyrannasorus on Apr 19, 2023 8:53:50 GMT 5
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Post by Infinity Blade on Apr 28, 2023 21:40:06 GMT 5
Season 2 episodes and blurbs.
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Post by Creodont on Apr 30, 2023 7:55:48 GMT 5
I need to get around to watching this show soon (It’s the sole reason I got Apple TV+)
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Post by Infinity Blade on May 6, 2023 5:32:01 GMT 5
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Post by Infinity Blade on May 22, 2023 22:48:33 GMT 5
Islands- The first animal we see is a small azhdarchid-looking pterosaur resting on a raft. I’m pretty sure its coloration is based on a blue-footed booby’s. The blue head, the white pycnofibers on the neck and body, and the black wings. Only thing it’s missing are the actual blue feet from what I can tell. I guess the team behind PhP is okay with heavily basing colors on modern animals.
The mosasaur that tries (and fails) to catch it is also not specifically named. I guess this is okay since we’re not going to focus on these two much in the episode. - Zalmoxes returns! The aforementioned mosasaur is a threat to it, and I love how they pull off the illusion of what looks like a shark’s dorsal fin surfacing above the water. Of course, it’s not a dorsal fin at all, but rather the mosasaur’s tail, so this was a creative move on the animators’ part.
- The Zalmoxes makes it to the bigger raft before he gets eaten. Yes, I can say “he”, not only because Attenborough does, but also because he finds another Zalmoxes on the raft, a female. From looking at these presumably adult(?) Zalmoxes, we can see that they slightly differ in that the male has some brighter, bluish green stripes on his body.
The two seem likely to become mates, and their raft drifts away from the island. Attenborough mentions that if lucky, they could end up elsewhere and speciate. Given that this is set at the end of the Mesozoic, we know that these two have comparatively limited time to do that before they all go extinct. Maybe if this is set a few thousand years or so before the K-Pg event they could. - The fact that Tethyshadros is here is potential further proof that season 2’s development already started way back when. Because the lagerstätte it was found in was recently re-evaluated as early Campanian in age (Chiarenza et al., 2021), thus older than originally thought (Dalla Vecchia, 2009). It’s likely that this recent discovery came after they had done this entire scene and were past the point where they could practically change anything. Alternatively, it’s possible that they don’t agree with this new dating, but I have no real reason to think that.
The Tethyshadros looks beautiful, though. Hands down my favorite representation of the animal. - Also, while it’s true that Tethyshadros was no taller than a human (at least when on all fours), don’t be fooled into thinking it was *small-small*. The holotype specimen, nicknamed Antonio, was estimated to weigh ~338 kg, and it wasn’t even an adult. Another specimen that was an adult, nicknamed Bruno, was estimated to weigh >500 kg (Chiarenza et al., 2021). So this animal was no taller than a grown human, but it easily weighed as much as a cow or a horse.
- ”Hunters like T. rex have never reached this little island, so it should be a safe place for a mother to raise her brood.”
Hatzegopteryx:
- LET THE BABY KILLING BEGIN!!!!!
One thing I like is the characterization of the Hatzegopteryx as intelligent, since they use different tactics after losing the element of surprise. They flush out baby dinosaurs out of their cover with their sheer menacing presence. It’s important to remember that predators don’t just use one tactic when hunting. I wish people would remember this for dromaeosaurids instead of just dismissing them as unable to hunt anything they couldn’t do RPR on.
Also, this is now my favorite representation of Hatzegopteryx predation. I mean, I guess it wasn’t a high bar, though, given the only other one we’ve seen was from Planet Dinosaur (which was just one picking up a baby sauropod). - We now head to Madagascar. The Simosuchus’ introduction comes off as suspenseful at first, but the background music calms once we see their full bodies and their herbivorous diet. I think this was rather clever: it subverts the audience’s expectations upon sight of a crocodile relative.
- The Majungasaurus is also amazing, and it too is the best representation I’ve seen of its species in paleomedia. I’ve heard a complaint that the neck looks “too thick”, but as the footage of it confirms, it’s clearly not.
Something to note is that despite this being the first individual Majungasaurus we see, it is not a “typical” representative of the species. This one is blind in one eye, with scars around that eye and what looks like blood trickling down some of its body parts (I can’t tell if its her own blood or that of prey or a rival). This is similar to what Charles R. Knight did with his paintings: they captured the personality of an individual animal, not a generalized representative of the species as a whole. - The Simosuchus are surprisingly swift. I haven’t really thought of it as a particularly fast animal, judging from its anatomy, so good on this for giving me a new perspective!
Anyway, they get into their burrows and block the entrance with their armored backs. One male is too late and, oh god, it *fights off* the Majungasaurus with sheer attitude! It hisses at the Majungasaurus, while also performing reverse charges, tail swipes, and kicks. These don’t actually make contact with the Majungasaurus, but I wonder if these would be effective against predators closer to it in size. I also wonder if Simosuchus could potentially bite at predators, given how its teeth are said to be similar to those of iguanas, which do sometimes bite in self defense. Simosuchus’ teeth remind me most of a marine iguana’s (Simosuchus->, marine iguana->), and marine iguanas (mostly females) do indeed bite each other in combat (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 2008). Their armor, burrows, and the depicted behaviors in this episode are enough, though. - The Majungasaurus still tries to go after the Simosuchus when it retreats into its burrow, but her snout is too broad to fit in, meaning a failed hunt for her. RIP.
- The other group of animals neglected in S1, mammals, finally get the spotlight here in the form of Adalatherium. She finds a nest of eggs that at first I truly was convinced she would eat. But after a bit of stalling on her part, I knew, before it was even said, that these were hers.
Adalatherium was a gondwanathere, a clade of mammals completely separate from eutherians, metatherians, and monotremes. Because the basal reproductive method for amniotes is to lay soft-shelled eggs, and because there are crown mammals that do just this, it is tempting to think that many Mesozoic mammals also laid eggs, and that viviparity is a derived condition that only evolved in therian mammals. Interestingly, Darren Naish, a member of the PhP team, wrote an article about this, and his answer seems to be “it may not be that simple” (link->). However, it looks like they decided to go for egg-laying for Adalatherium here, and seeing an egg-laying Mesozoic mammal is a real treat. - I was also kind of worried that the eggs were hard-shelled. This was quashed when I saw the eggs actually hatch; they are clearly soft-shelled, just like monotreme eggs (and the basal condition for amniote eggs). The hatchlings, might I add, look SOOOOOOO real. They are easily some of the most realistic things I’ve seen rendered in Prehistoric Planet.
- The hatchlings grow some more after two months to where they now look like their mother. They just look adorable!!! When she leaves the den to find food at night, we see that there are predators looking around, like a snake (keep this in mind). We also see the half-blind female Majungasaurus again, which means that she’s been able to keep herself fed enough after two months (unless this part happens around the time of the botched Simosuchus hunt).
The Adalatherium remains undetected, and the music playing over her foraging and the sunrise is really nice to my ears. - The mother has to work harder to get food for all of her cubs, and she often leaves them alone for extended periods of time. This opens the door for predators, like Masiakasaurus, returning from S1. Unlike Majungasaurus, it is well suited to go after burrowing prey. I was genuinely expecting it to find the burrow and kill some of the cubs.
- The Madtsoia attack? I did not expect that. I honestly didn’t think they’d care enough about prehistoric snakes, but…wow. The attack is sudden, and the Madtsoia is very well hidden from the audience. You need to look very carefully to spot the snake before the attack, and I certainly didn’t see it the first time I watched this.
Overall, it does a really great job hammering the nature of ambush predation into your head. Not only did the Masiakasaurus fall prey, but if you were there, YOU could have as well. - The size estimate of nearly 25 feet seems to check out, as the largest vertebral specimen of M. madagascariensis suggests that large adults may have reached lengths of nearly 8 meters. Even a specimen weighing 5.1 meters would still weigh at least 50 kg (Laduke et al., 2010), so a 25 footer would truly be an enormous, powerful predator.
- Our first view of Imperobator (a giant predatory maniraptoran lacking the retractable hypertrophied sickle claw of dromaeosaurids and troodontids) is a thermal image, which is a cool trick (the last episode of WWD did this with the young T. rex at one point).
Their prey (which they at least pursue in a pack) is a Morrosaurus. It’s stated to be faster than the theropods, but it appears that the snow hampers its speed. While this is a minor example, snow is definitely something that can make or break a hunt. Hell, deep snow to sink in is the difference between an adult moose falling prey to a god damn wolverine and trampling that same wolverine to death with no effort.
The Morrosaurus manages to escape, especially after one of the Imperobator slips on the ice. Man, the dinosaurs are really taking L’s in this episode. - The final segment is of a male Hatzegopteryx with its young Tethyshadros kill. He surrounds it with markings and sticks for a potential mate. The mating scene is nice to see, but it’s truly enhanced by the track playing in the background. At least until the rival male arrives.
- This rival male lacks the head and crest coloration that the first male has, which I think may suggest that our colored male is meant to be a fitter, “higher quality” individual. The fact that the rival is much younger supports this in my view, as he would have less time to obtain the nutrients needed to support the color of our male.
The fact that our male wins (and not with much difficulty) only cements this. - I was expecting this episode to end on a bitter, or at least bittersweet note, but the female, who fled from the fight, returns after it is over. The display continues and the two finally mate.
Overall verdict:I think this was a solid start to the second season. We get a sufficient amount of the high energy dynamism and predation everyone loves to see, but we also get to see the more tender sides of certain animals, be it the mother Adalatherium or the male Hatzegopteryx. But I think the episode really shines in finally depicting a couple groups neglected in the previous season, particularly crocodyliforms and mammals. Neither are mere side animals or dinosaur fodder, but are bizarre animals with fascinating lives in their own right. Sure, the Adalatherium still has to deal with dinosaur predation, but her life is more than that (plus, she has her own way of dealing with it). The same could be said of the Simosuchus, but it also defends itself with plenty of bark (and no bite), burrowing, and armor. Again, not just dinosaur chow. The one segment that solely contains dinosaurs is, in concept, nothing outside of what we’ve already seen, but it still introduces us to two species most don’t know, one of which I believe is especially interesting. I suppose where the episode may fall short is the inclusion of Tethyshadros, which appears to have lived significantly earlier than the time period set in this show. It’s not necessarily a fault of the team, since like I said it could just have been that this discovery was announced after they passed the point where they could do anything to change it. So to be clear, I am NOT criticizing the team for this (and I am very much open to hear what they may have to say about Tethyshadros’ inclusion, if it differs from what I expect). But judging the final product solely on its own, the presence of a dinosaur (and a major character, at that) that probably shouldn’t be there does leave me feeling somewhat less immersed from my Maastrichtian happy place. So overall, great work! Can’t wait for more!
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Post by Creodont on May 23, 2023 4:34:40 GMT 5
Infinity BladeIt seems something got cut out at this point in your review.
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Post by Infinity Blade on May 23, 2023 18:36:44 GMT 5
Infinity Blade It seems something got cut out at this point in your review. I think that was just something I originally intended to say, but revised as I was writing my review. Looks like I didn't cut that out completely. I fixed it now. I need to get around to watching this show soon (It’s the sole reason I got Apple TV+) Have you been able to watch it yet?
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Post by Infinity Blade on May 23, 2023 22:55:46 GMT 5
Badlands
Badlands: - The volcanic landscape and erupting lava are rendered exceptionally well here. No doubt that one of the charms of Prehistoric Planet are also its landscapes.
Maastrichtian North America was sometimes depicted as a volcanic ash hellscape with spewing volcanoes and poisonous gas in older documentaries (e.g. Walking with Dinosaurs), but the real Maastrichtian volcanic world was India. It’s great to finally see it and its unique dinosaur fauna in a documentary.
One thing you’ll also notice is that while WWD portrayed its volcano landscape as one where dinosaurs were slowly dying in (with the asteroid being the Mt. Everest-sized straw that broke the camel’s back), PhP frames it differently. While the Deccan Traps certainly are hazardous, they are depicted as a habitat where dinosaurs still managed to survive, even thrive in. Hell, the Isisaurus are *using the warm volcanic ash to incubate their eggs*, with the poisonous gas acting as a barrier from nest predators (at least for a time).
This has the feel of modern animal nature documentaries, and it’s what I love seeing. A habitat may be harsh, deadly even, but in the end life conquers it anyway. - The Isisaurus design is really well done. The coloration is nice enough, and the strange body proportions of this sauropod (like the relatively robust, thick neck and long upper arm->) are visible to those who know what they’re looking for. They even have dorsal spines, which make the relatively thick neck look more “complete” in my eyes.
- Baby “Velociraptors”! Their heads look rather big for their size, which I find intriguing. Do we have any hatchling dromaeosaurid specimens?
- We get a mixed herd of Nemegtosaurus, as-yet unnamed Mongolian titanosaurs, and Prenocephale. I noticed that the Nemegtosaurus have no claws on their front feet, while the Mongolian titans still have theirs. I don’t know if that’s just something the latter retained from their S1 models or if the team doubled down on titanosaur front claws, but for now at least I’m glad they didn’t completely get rid of them. It isn’t just that some basal titanosaurs like Diamantinasaurus had the front claw, but other titanosaurs still have tiny vestigial phalanges fused on their fourth metacarpal (Opisthocoelicaudia and Epachthosaurus) or articular surfaces at the ends of their metacarpals that imply the presence of phalanges (Rapetosaurus) (Poropat et al., 2015).
- Although the “Velociraptors” anticipate the arrival of the titanosaur herd for their hunt, the sauropods are said to be growing nervous as they enter the canyon. It’s obvious that it’s not the raptors they’re worried about, it’s the Tarbosaurus.
Yes, Tarbosaurus returns from S1. Not only do they sleep together, but they’re depicted hunting together too (how coordinated they are remains up in the air, though; read on). They’re formidable enough to unnerve even the huge Mongolian titanosaurs, a detail I like. Putting aside whether or not a group of Tarbosaurus could seriously threaten one of them, elephants can be put off just by hearing big cat growls, even though the cats are not a threat to them (Thuppil & Coss, 2015). - Oooh yeah, Tarbosaurus hunting sauropods baby!!!!!
- Tarbosaurus hunting sauropods…right…?
- Well um…I’m rather disappointed, not gonna lie. I was really hoping we’d get to see Tarbosaurus macropredation on sauropods, which the trailers seemed like they were teasing. We know from S1 that the Tarbosaurus are regarded as serious threats by the Mongolian megaherbivorous dinosaur guild, so I was really stoked for actual action in this season (especially since I doubt that we’re going to see T. rex hunting Alamosaurus). The Tarbosaurus pack does get a meal in the end, but we don’t see it (I’m pretty sure they killed the Nemegtosaurus that is seen stumbling to the ground).
Instead the Tarbosaurus spooking the herd is used to lead into the real focus: the “Velociraptor” hunt. It’s obvious that the dromaeosaurids were going for the Prenocephale, because they don’t stand a chance against any of the sauropods. When the pachycephalosaurs run to higher ground from the tyrannosaurs, the raptors pursue them over the rocky cliffs. One of the raptors waits until a pursued Prenocephale draws near and it literally kicks the pachycephalosaur off balance and down to its death.
So make no mistake, the scene certainly isn’t a total loss, and still a good one overall. I was just hoping for something else. Oh well. - Corythoraptor also reappears from S1. A new species, Kuru kulla (although, it has the same model as the “Velociraptor”), is introduced as a nest predator of the Corythoraptor. Some modern birds are nest predators of other bird species. Imagine this, but on a larger scale, and that’s what you have here. This certainly isn’t the first time dinosaurs were depicted raiding each other’s nests (Oviraptor literally got its name from that proposed habit, and was on the receiving end of it in Dinosaur Planet), but it’s still nice to see again.
- The Kuru’s low-pitched “purrs” are…new. But great to hear. Predictably her hatchlings don’t break into the stolen egg with their mouth or claws, but roll it over and drop it.
- Now we get to the segment that the blurb for this episode advertised. We get Tarchia. I’ve seen this pointed out by a friend of mine on Twitter, but after seeing so many spiky Ankylosaurus depictions, it’s nice to see an ankylosaur species that (most likely) did have spikes on its body.
- After one of the youngsters bullies its companion away from a bush, the second young Tarchia wanders off to find its own sustenance. Attenborough tells us that Tarchia have “mental maps”; that is, they remember where resources are and can travel across wide landscapes accurately. Thyreophorans are often thought of as mentally and cognitively simple animals, so to see one depicted with a “mental map” and great memory of the landscape’s resources (which modern animals commonly have) is something of a break from their common portrayal as dullards.
- Unfortunately, the oasis the young Tarchia finds turns out to be where an adult is napping. Luckily for it, though, the other youngster arrives and provides backup, forcing the adult to relent. Frens after all.
- The final segment returns to the Deccan. Months after the female Isisaurus laid their eggs, they hatch, who then feed on their mother’s dung (giving them healthy gut bacteria and pheromones). I like the track playing as the Isisaurus hatchlings travel out of the caldera.
- Inevitably, though, we get casualties. The first one, though, is implied, and not caused by a predator. One of the baby Isisaurus stumbles into a pit with hot bubbling mud.
While this scene isn’t too bad, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people out there were unsettled by it. We don’t see the hatchling die, but it is never seen escaping as it watches and calls out to its fellow hatchlings. We have no reason to think that it makes it. The other hatchlings march on as if nothing happened. One of them briefly looks at the trapped hatchling and continues walking. They can’t, won’t, and don’t help. - It’s honestly interesting how the mothers unintentionally did so many things to help their hatchlings. Not only laying the eggs in a place surrounded by poisonous gas (which most animals can’t cross), but also leaving behind dung to feed on and spreading seeds (through their dung) that grew into short vegetation while the eggs were incubating.
- But of course, the predators come. A Rajasaurus introduces itself from behind a rock going “Is it baby killing time?!”
- The thing I like about these Rajasaurus is how surprisingly fast and nimble they are over the rocky crevices. Even when they stumble they’re able to save themselves and maintain their balance. This is an animal probably around 7 meters long and a metric ton (skeletal by Justice Duncan->), and yet it’s able to turn on a dime when catching Isisaurus hatchlings. It’s a display of dinosaur athleticism and dynamism not usually portrayed in media (and I’m glad they don’t fall into the “meh theropod rotational inertia” meme).
- I don’t usually comment on the explanation segments at the end, but this episode covers dinosaur parental behavior. It goes over different parental strategies well, such as incubating eggs with a feathered body (a la Corythoraptor) vs incubating them in sediment (a la Isisaurus).
Overall verdict:At this point I’d say S2 is still going strong. My biggest complaint is arguably the fact that we were still denied seeing large theropods hunt big game on screen. The Tarbosaurus hunting the sauropods was a perfect opportunity, and one that I was convinced was going to happen judging from the trailers. I feel like it could still have been done in conjunction with the “Velociraptor” hunt too. Nevertheless, we still get the content we’d expect from PhP at this point. And while the myth of dinosaurs as sluggish and simple-minded is mostly known to be false at this point, we still get a few instances of dinosaurs being the exact opposite of that in “Badlands”. One example is “ Velociraptors” setting up a trap for the Prenocephale, running along the cliffs, and basically Sparta-kicking one of them down to kill it; I may have been disappointed by not seeing the Tarbosaurus hunt, but this was still great to watch. The dinosaurs may have taken quite a few L’s last episode, but they come back full force and make up for it in this one. It’s a nice little reminder that sluggish, tail-dragging, swamp-dwelling* dunces they were not. *Okay, well, we’re getting a swamp-themed episode tomorrow, but you know what I mean.
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Post by spartan on May 24, 2023 4:37:54 GMT 5
How realistic is it for 300-500kg animals to be preyed upon by a 250kg Hatzegopteryx? The pterosaur appears much too fragile to risk any kind of serious fight with an animal heavier than itself.
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Post by Infinity Blade on May 24, 2023 8:33:00 GMT 5
How realistic is it for 300-500kg animals to be preyed upon by a 250kg Hatzegopteryx? The pterosaur appears much too fragile to risk any kind of serious fight with an animal heavier than itself. Well, from the looks of it the Hatzegopteryx target the youngsters in the herd (and in the last segment, the male Hatzegopteryx is said to have taken down a young hadrosaur weighing some 40 pounds). And since the adults retreated into the forest instead of fighting back, I guess the pterosaurs were relatively safe in the scenario depicted. That said, paleontologists who have studied azhdarchids seem to agree that Hatzegopteryx could probably hunt large animals, including those that were too large to swallow whole, using the massive, reinforced skull and powerful neck muscles as their weapon. Powerful bites, bludgeoning blows with the head, and stabbing motions with the beak are thought to be likely for larger fare. I even asked Darren Naish recently on Twitter about this, and he simply affirmed the plausibility of this behavior. markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2017/01/new-paper-when-short-necked-giant.htmlpeerj.com/articles/2908/Postcranially, sure, I agree the pterosaur build isn't really all that durable or well suited for hunting animals as heavy as or heavier than themselves. But then again, spectral bats (which are also not exactly powerfully built postcranially, like all other bats and pterosaurs) can prey on birds almost as large as themselves, and flying predatory birds (not built the same way, but still not exactly built like tanks) can take on ungulates much larger than themselves. A tail slap, body slam, kick, or whatever from a 300-500 kg hadrosaur would likely have severe effects on a Hatzegopteryx, but with that sheer weaponry, it's possible it would have tried its luck anyway.
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Post by Creodont on May 25, 2023 8:14:05 GMT 5
I need to get around to watching this show soon (It’s the sole reason I got Apple TV+) Have you been able to watch it yet? Yeah, I’m still catching up on season 1 at the moment.
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Post by Supercommunist on May 26, 2023 8:29:24 GMT 5
I find it super unrealistic how the quetz is presented as a legit physical threat to a rex. Sure, it's possible it could peck out an eye, but that would almost never happen in a real scenario.
I could see a quetz bluffing a rex with it's size, but given that we have zero accounts of storks stealing kills from predators 10x their size, I really doubt a quetz would have picked a fight with a tyrannosaurus.
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Post by Creodont on May 27, 2023 4:28:02 GMT 5
I find it super unrealistic how the quetz is presented as a legit physical threat to a rex. Sure, it's possible it could peck out an eye, but that would almost never happen in a real scenario. I could see a quetz bluffing a rex with it's size, but given that we have zero accounts of storks stealing kills from predators 10x their size, I really doubt a quetz would have picked a fight with a tyrannosaurus. Yeah, I think it’s hyped up for TV at least somewhat. That’s kind of like a marabou stork stealing a hyena’s kill. (Now, I get that a spotted hyena and a T. rex are two very different animals but my point is they both have bone-crushing jaws and are much heavier and more durable than their respective adversary.) I certainly wasn’t expecting to see the pterosaurs win the standoff, even combined. I think the chances of a direct stab to the eye are negligible.
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