Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure (& Review)
Sept 20, 2023 7:45:44 GMT 5
Grey, theropod, and 1 more like this
Post by Infinity Blade on Sept 20, 2023 7:45:44 GMT 5
Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure (& Review)
If you've ever been to a museum as a kid (or even as an adult), you may have occasionally found that they were playing an IMAX documentary. Back in the day, I visited the Franklin Institute, and saw two different paleontology documentaries on different days. The first was Dinosaurs Alive. The second was, as you would have guessed, Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure.
Now, if I weren't a paleontology enthusiast, I probably would have forgotten all about it (I'm sure my dad and brother, who saw it with me, have). But SM made a big enough impression on me that I remembered it all these years, as a one-time thing I'd never get the chance to see again. Boy was I wrong, and boy was I glad to be.
So how well does it hold up? Let's find out in this retrospective review!
Final verdict:
Aside from a few certain things in this documentary (like the mosasaur models or the “Tusoteuthis”), I actually think Sea Monsters still holds up rather well. It could perhaps be that I’m not enough of an expert on some of the animals featured here, but there weren’t too many times where I was able to go “ackchyually”. The times where I did, the outdatedness thankfully didn’t impact the doc significantly. The Pteranodon and “Tusoteuthis” do not affect the plot or the documentary’s narrative, as much as you can point out errors in their models. The outdated info with the “biggest impact” is arguably the body shape of the mosasaurs (since they are significant characters). But given how this was before more updated information on mosasaur locomotion and tail shape came out, this is not the fault of Sea Monsters.
Aside from accuracy, the story is good enough too. There’s a clear main character, and the struggles of surviving out in nature (especially in “Hell’s Aquarium”) is made clear. The open seas are inevitable, and there is no shortage of sharks and mosasaurs that will waste no time turning the Dollies into mincemeat. Even the harmless creatures, like the Styxosaurus and the Hesperornis, are competitors for the same food (Enchodus), the driving force for the Dollies’ migration. Even the discovery reenactment segments, while not all that special themselves, made me wonder just what was going through the heads of the discoverers, especially if they were non-paleontologists or early paleontologists (who were just starting to study these creatures), trying to make sense of the remains of these strange dead creatures no human had ever seen alive.
And my god, the soundtrack. Okay, most of the stuff there isn’t really that special, but for some reason low bass/electric music fits really well with the big open sea.
So I’d argue that Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure was fair for its day, and even though certain elements have become outdated, it’s still a nifty watch. I may have watched it as a kid, but it’s not particularly immature, the music can be great, the story’s fun for the most part, and can still be informative (especially to non-paleontology enthusiasts who have likely never heard of most of the animals in this documentary).
If you've ever been to a museum as a kid (or even as an adult), you may have occasionally found that they were playing an IMAX documentary. Back in the day, I visited the Franklin Institute, and saw two different paleontology documentaries on different days. The first was Dinosaurs Alive. The second was, as you would have guessed, Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure.
Now, if I weren't a paleontology enthusiast, I probably would have forgotten all about it (I'm sure my dad and brother, who saw it with me, have). But SM made a big enough impression on me that I remembered it all these years, as a one-time thing I'd never get the chance to see again. Boy was I wrong, and boy was I glad to be.
So how well does it hold up? Let's find out in this retrospective review!
- Just want to note that the narrator of this documentary is Liev Schreiber. I personally remember him as the guy who played Sabertooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the guy who narrated America: The Story of Us. I love my British nature doc narrators like David Attenborough and Kenneth Branagh, but Schreiber is actually pretty good too.
- Our story is set in the state of Kansas 82 million years ago (early Campanian), when the Western Interior Seaway split North America into two halves. One of the first animals we see is a tyrannosaurid walking on a beach making these crocodile-like bellow/hiss noises (I don’t think is a type of vocalization anyone can complain about for a non-avian theropod like it). The model matches an old Nat Geo rendering of Gorgosaurus->, which makes me think this is the tyrannosaurid it is meant to be. However, this is still too old even for the Campanian Gorgosaurus; nowadays perhaps Lythronax would be more fitting.
Also, aside from the Hesperornis, this is the only dinosaur you will see in this documentary. So if you really like dinosaurs, take a good look at this tyrannosaur. - Pteranodon are seen flying overhead. The wing membranes don’t extend down to the ankles and the legs are bent at the knee instead of spreading outward. This is unlike pterosaur reconstructions I see today (e.g. look at Prehistoric Planet’s Quetzalcoatlus flying; considering Mark Witton was a consultant for that show, I have a lot of trust in their model).
- Schreiber calls these the most dangerous seas of all time, where no living thing was safe…followed immediately by a Tylosaurus snatching a shark on-screen and swallowing it whole, accompanied by the epic theme.
I also guess this isn't the only time the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway is considered the most dangerous sea ever. - ”But many of us might still encounter a sea monster”
So why haven’t I Schreiber??? It’s been 16 years since this came out, where’s my damn sea monster!?!? - Part of this documentary is actors playing as paleontologists (or regular people coming across relevant fossils) excavating the fossils of the titular sea monsters. The main one involves a trio of paleontologists unearthing the remains of a Dolichorhynchops. I’ve tried searching online, but I don’t think this “plot line” is actually based on a real fossil, just created for the sake of the story.
- I honestly don’t know which South Australian discovery they’re referring to when explaining marine reptile birth. Not that I find anything wrong with the point of it (i.e. giving birth in shallow waters), but I’ve been having trouble finding out more about it. All I know is the location and the year it happened (2002, apparently).
- The mother Dolly (if the doc can call them this for brevity, so will I) gives birth to the main character (a female Dolly) and her slightly older brother. Interestingly they give the siblings different color patterns so you can actually tell which is which for as long as both are on screen (the main character is darker in color with white patches under her eyes).
- They find competition in Hesperornis and the giant plesiosaur Styxosaurus. The latter has teeth that look rather long for the genus, with preserved Styxosaurus skulls having teeth of more modest length (here are S. snowii-> and S. browni->). The Styxosaurus have some very creepy faces too, might I add.
- Don’t ask me how accurate the ammonite models are. However, I do like how you can see one of them moving its eyes as it notices prey, and then keeping track of one fish as it grabs it with its arms.
Unfortunately I don’t know what genus of ammonite this is supposed to be. Not only do they not identify it, but Wikipedia doesn’t bother to either. - One of the ammonites squirts ink at the young female Dolly when she pokes it. The presence of an ink sac in ammonoids is debatable. It’s been noted back in the 80s that even exceptionally preserved ammonoids lacked in sacs. In 2004, bituminous structures were reported in the ammonite Austrotrachyceras. Because they resembled melanin they were interpreted as ink sacs (which Sea Monsters may have based their ink-squirting ammonite on). However, it could be that these were from the black layer, beak, or the esophagus, all of which contain melanin in cephalopods, so the presence of ink is still ambiguous in ammonoids (Klug & Lehmann, 2015). It may be that ink sacs first evolved in coleoids (squids and octopuses), given how Nautilus lacks an ink sac and ammonoids show only equivocal evidence of it at best (Hoffman & Stevens, 2020).
- A Platecarpus hunts a couple ammonites, not even bothering with the shell but just going straight for the soft body and shaking it out of its shell.
I’m just going to get this out of the way: mosasaurs are now understood to have had fusiform bodies, flukes shark-like tails, and sub/carangiform locomotion. Platecarpus in particular helped prove this a few years after Sea Monsters premiered (Lindgren et al., 2010). So any time you see a mosasaur here, with a paddle-like tail and moving a bit like an eel, keep this in mind. - Rock formation suddenly blows up. If you’re watching this, keep this in mind lest you get potentially jump scared.
- So this discovery reenactment is from central Texas in 1980. This is just used to explain how ammonites are used as index fossils to help date rock layers and the other fossils found in them.
- This segues into a brief overview on the evolutionary history of marine reptiles. The background is this dark brown rock layer with effects that make my eyes sore even at 720p. That aside, this part does show you their models of other marine reptiles that lived earlier in time; these come in the form of moving skeletons that are then fleshed out to show you their life appearances.
The first marine reptiles to cameo within this overview are Nothosaurus and Henodus. The former is used to illustrate “land reptiles moving into the sea” (which I think is fine, as Nothosaurus was semi-aquatic). The inclusion of Henodus, the turtle-mimic placodont (used as an example of a marine reptile with “elaborate armor”), was also neat.
Jurassic marine reptiles are also referenced, with the ichthyosaur Temnodontosaurus used as the example here (with “eyes the size of dinner plates”). Unfortunately, this is the only way the documentary can show you a live ichthyosaur since by this point they were already extinct.
Top predators are said to reach their peak in the Late Cretaceous. They show you a Kronosaurus (here's their model->), until finally settling on the Dolichorhynchops that are the main animal in this story.
The track has this certain electric riff in here that’s really pleasant to listen to (it’s hard for me to explain it since I’m not an expert in music). - Surprisingly, the fish that the Dollies prey on are referred to by name. It’s the so-called “saber-toothed herring” Enchodus. Enchodus itself was a predator, with large fangs at the front of its jaw, but unfortunately for it there were, quite literally, so many bigger fish in the sea that preyed on it.
However, Enchodus was a very successful genus. By the time this story is set it’s already been around for about 30 million years, and it will persist long after as well. In fact, it is one of the only animals in this doc that survived the K-Pg extinction*, and the only one that survived well past it, only going extinct during the late Eocene ~37 Ma.
*The only other one is the “straight-shelled ammonite” Baculites, which may have survived into the early Danian (Landman et al., 2015). Even if they did, however, they clearly didn’t last long afterwards. - The string music playing as the plesiosaurs – both long and short-necked alike – hunt Enchodus is wonderful!
- The Enchodus model in SM has exposed teeth, including both sets of fangs and some of the upper teeth (here's the model->). I’ve seen one reconstruction, however, where all the teeth (including the fangs) are concealed when the mouth is closed (link->). I’m not a fish expert, so it’s not my place to judge which is more likely.
- The Enchodus move out of the shallow seas and so the Dollies have to follow, marking a turning point in the lives of the young polycotylids.
- Okay so, Tusoteuthis. The first thing I need to mention here is that the holotype specimen of Tusoteuthis longa is fragmentary, and it is impossible to distinguish it from Enchoteuthis, Niobrarateuthis, or Kansasteuthis. Some specimens of other supposed species were reclassified to the genus Enchoteuthis, and Tusoteuthis longa may be a nomen dubium (Fuchs et al., 2020).
Enchoteuthines were a subfamily of the family Muensterellidae, and their closest living relatives are octopuses. Based on soft tissues known from Muensterella, Enchoteuthis would look more like this reconstruction by Tyler Greenfield with additional input from Dr. Dirk Fuchs (link to his blog post-> for further information).
Because it lacked the extremely long tentacles that a giant squid has, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near 30 feet long like the doc states. However, enchoteuthines are thought to have been active predators, so it is indeed something the Dollies here could have brushed their shoulders with (Fuchs et al., 2020). - Tylosaurus is introduced by name at last, but we don’t get to it being a predator of the Dollies yet. Instead we’re first introduced to Xiphactinus, who have a low-key nice track as their shoal pursues the dollies. Inevitably we’re also shown the famous “fish within a fish” fossil, which we see played out in the Xiphactinus hunt here. As far as a Xiphactinus depiction could go, this is about as standard as it could get (so rather a positive IMO).
- The night time scene is pretty cool. We get to see some fish diving out of the water and back in, although it’s hard to see them given the darkness. The track playing with the deep bass(?) works really well as an ominous theme, fitting for the nighttime ocean setting here. Although the Xiphactinus chase long ended, and nothing’s in immediate danger, the young dollies are way out in the open sea, which does open them up to danger. The suspicious vibe is even reflected in the Enchodus, which are said to be resting but “not quite sleeping” (it’s obvious as to why; literally everything in this ocean wants to eat them).
- The scene becomes more colorful (both figuratively and somewhat literally) when, in addition to the green-glowing microscopic plankton, we see red-glowing “straight-shelled ammonites” (Baculites). This won’t be the last depiction of bioluminescent ammonites, as Prehistoric Planet will depict them in their very first episode years later. But although we have no direct evidence of bioluminescence in ammonites, both documentaries have very interesting takes on the speculative idea, and I love both.
- We also see some Protosphyraena swimming close to the Baculites and prompting the background music to become more tense. Protosphyraena, by the way, is the coolest fish ever in my humble opinion (for being a swimming armory). Sadly, they are not mentioned by name or elaborated on in any way here.
- But this is mostly offset by the introduction of Cretoxyrhina. This is one of the most fascinating extinct sharks in my opinion. This was a fast-swimming, endothermic shark that could weigh as much as ~5 tonnes (making it closer to an adult orca in size than a great white like the documentary claims), with teeth functioning similarly to a mako shark’s. So you basically had an elephant-sized mako shark…yikes.
- The discovery reenactment here even makes it clear that this thing hunted marine reptiles, this time showing bones of mosasaurs that were bitten.
- Seriously, what is it with works relating to the ocean having really cool deep bass rock tracks?
(Another one plays as the Cretoxyrhina stalk the Dollies) - I love how the attack plays out. The last thing we see are the Cretoxyrhina’s open jaws approaching the camera that then cuts to black. Even when we return to view, we’re treated to a bird’s eye view of the aftermath. A semi-faint cloud of blood is present where the mother last was, and everything else swims away. It’s quiet barring the chirps of birds(?).
- A smaller shark (Squalicorax; the model-> is noticeably different from the great white-like Cretoxyrhina model) is able to land a bite on the female Dolly’s left hind flipper, but only barely, and she’s still able to swim away quickly. They escape…but the Squalicorax gets ocean manned by a Tylosaurus.
”Perhaps the shark was not as lucky”
What do you mean “perhaps”? - The Dollies are alone for a while until they find more of their species trailing a shoal of Enchodus, continuing on for a while. Interestingly, we see some crinoids (Uintacrinus), which still surprised me even as I was rewatching this. Though, they don’t really do anything, they kind of just…exist as we travel through their arms.
- And then it’s back to the Tylosaurus. They use a discovery reenactment to put some suspense on one Tylosaurus specimen’s last meal, but don’t reveal what it is yet (so far, they’ve established Tylosaurus as an apex predator that ate just about anything it could get its mouth around). They also…gave it crocodilian noises? Eh, may not be accurate, but I can look past this. It’s hardly significant anyway.
- Sadly, the brother Dolly doesn’t make it because he doesn’t detect the incoming mosasaur and gets nommed in one fell bite.
But then we get into the mosasaur with its last meal. The doc speculates that it died because a larger Tylosaurus killed it. Turns out this menacing predator is the one that’s in trouble, which you could maybe see as a subversion of expectations. - Anyway, the two Tylosaurus get into a fight. Although the younger one does put up a fight, managing to bite its rival’s foreflipper, the fight ends when the elder bites the young Tylosaurus in the neck and breaks it, mortally wounding it and leaving it to the sharks.
And just so you know, stuff like this did happen. There is a Tylosaurus skull bearing deep, unhealed bite marks. It was likely bitten and crushed (possibly even had its neck broken) by another, larger mosasaur. The victim was estimated to have been some 5 meters long, while judging from the size of the bite marks, the perpetrator would have been some 7 meters long (Everhart, 2008). These weren’t the biggest Tylosaurus by any means, but the point is that mosasaurs fought each other, sometimes to the death. Now imagine a fight between two truly gigantic mosasaurs. - The death of the Tylosaurus essentially means the “Big Bad” here is gone. From the beginning of this documentary, it’s clear that Tylosaurus is a major threat in the Western Interior Seaway. It snatches a shark in the intro, is established as the biggest and baddest predator around, kills another shark and a Hesperornis, and kills the brother Dolly. We’ve now reached the falling action of the documentary. I feel like it’s too fast-paced here; literally the scene before the Dolly was still new to the world and just lost her brother and mother, now suddenly she’s not only an adult, but also a mother herself. It’s clear that she became survived her first round out at sea and her journey to the birthing grounds, but the time skip is really jarring. I mean, how long do they think it took for a Dolly to grow to adulthood?
- Well, still a happy ending for the Dolly, I guess. She has multiple batches of offspring until she dies of old age, and her story is pretty much over at this point.
- Right before Schreiber mentions the extinction of the last of the Mesozoic marine reptiles, you can notice the ocean very briefly turning dark with the only light being this spherical object moving over the water, making a loud booming sound. No points for guessing what that is. For having to cover a major event in the history of life on Earth very briefly, this was a clever move on their part.
- 82 million years later, the Dolly’s skeleton is discovered by a little girl and is excavated out, the story coming full circle. But it’s the very ending (and the soundtrack with it!) that really rocks.
“There are countless other creatures still buried within the layers of the Earth. Waiting for us to find them. Waiting to tell us stories of our world when it was theirs.”
Holy shit. This line isn’t just applicable to the sea monsters. It could be said for literally ANY fossil, and it would be equally true. This is the kind of shit that makes me proud to be interested in paleontology. The track accompanying it is also my favorite in this entire documentary (it’s a shame they never released the damn soundtrack).
Final verdict:
Aside from a few certain things in this documentary (like the mosasaur models or the “Tusoteuthis”), I actually think Sea Monsters still holds up rather well. It could perhaps be that I’m not enough of an expert on some of the animals featured here, but there weren’t too many times where I was able to go “ackchyually”. The times where I did, the outdatedness thankfully didn’t impact the doc significantly. The Pteranodon and “Tusoteuthis” do not affect the plot or the documentary’s narrative, as much as you can point out errors in their models. The outdated info with the “biggest impact” is arguably the body shape of the mosasaurs (since they are significant characters). But given how this was before more updated information on mosasaur locomotion and tail shape came out, this is not the fault of Sea Monsters.
Aside from accuracy, the story is good enough too. There’s a clear main character, and the struggles of surviving out in nature (especially in “Hell’s Aquarium”) is made clear. The open seas are inevitable, and there is no shortage of sharks and mosasaurs that will waste no time turning the Dollies into mincemeat. Even the harmless creatures, like the Styxosaurus and the Hesperornis, are competitors for the same food (Enchodus), the driving force for the Dollies’ migration. Even the discovery reenactment segments, while not all that special themselves, made me wonder just what was going through the heads of the discoverers, especially if they were non-paleontologists or early paleontologists (who were just starting to study these creatures), trying to make sense of the remains of these strange dead creatures no human had ever seen alive.
And my god, the soundtrack. Okay, most of the stuff there isn’t really that special, but for some reason low bass/electric music fits really well with the big open sea.
So I’d argue that Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure was fair for its day, and even though certain elements have become outdated, it’s still a nifty watch. I may have watched it as a kid, but it’s not particularly immature, the music can be great, the story’s fun for the most part, and can still be informative (especially to non-paleontology enthusiasts who have likely never heard of most of the animals in this documentary).
