Prehistoric Planet

Using wildlife filmmaking techniques and advanced visual effects, the show aims to paint a fuller picture of Earth during the Cretaceous era by showing the ...

If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. - "Pachinko" Several promotions are available for longer trial periods as well. New members are eligible for a seven-day free trial before they are charged the monthly price. Apple TV Plus costs $5 a month for ad-free access to the service's entire streaming library of original content. Using wildlife filmmaking techniques and advanced visual effects, the show aims to paint a fuller picture of Earth during the Cretaceous era by showing the dinosaurs in their natural habitats.

In a bit of engineering fit for "Jurassic Park," "Prehistoric Planet" weds BBC nature documentaries-- complete with narrator extraordinaire David ...

(Each episode directs the audience to a web site for more information about that night's tales.) ), the behaviors on display offer glimpses of dinosaur actions that aren't normally displayed. Set 66 million years ago, as Attenborough explains, the production leverages everything we've learned about dinosaurs to craft narratives that follow the template of traditional nature fare.

Drawing from science that connects modern birds and ancient dinosaurs, the David Attenborough-narrated Apple TV+ show was influenced by avian biology and ...

While a few shots across the five-hour span of Prehistoric Planet look a bit ropy, the vast majority of the show is absolutely convincing, sweeping you up in the dramas on screen. It’s not just a fanciful bit of decoration: Research published last year showed that the inner-ear anatomy of Mononykus and its relatives closely resembled those of modern Barn Owls. This discovery, combined with Mononykus’ large, owl-like eyes, suggested that the little dinosaurs could have had a similar facial structure, which helps funnel sound to the inner ear. The production staff shot the majority of scenes on location, which meant finding places that could conceivably fit herds of nonexistent dinosaurs. In a scene set in “Forests,” the show’s fifth episode, the short-armed, bullhorn predator Carnotaurus performs for a mate. Extrapolations from bird anatomy and behavior also contributed to Naish’s favorite sequence: a pair of long-necked, 80-ton titanosaurs in bruising battle, surrounded by a crowd of keenly observing females. The show’s focus on verisimilitude also extended to more technical questions, such as where to put the camera. A bull Tyrannosaurus sculls across the shallow warm waters of an inland sea, a gang of fluffy chicks in tow. The series is also notable for the range of creatures it covers. When figuring out their dinosaurs’ postures, Prehistoric Planet’s team looked to the oldest living bird lineages—flightless birds, waterfowl, and wildfowl—which often share body language with crocodiles. “If we found behaviors in living birds that were also seen in living crocodilians, we applied them to extinct dinosaurs.” Today, researchers have shown that many predatory dinosaur species were likely feathered, and that plumes of one sort or another may have been widespread across the family tree. The past few decades have solidified scientists’ understanding that modern birds are essentially dinosaurs, descended from a single branch of the predatory dinosaur family tree.

Prehistoric Planet is a nature series, executive produced by Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton, that takes current research of dinosaurs and pairs it with cutting ...

Probably not, but seeing him and his calves in the water looked as natural as seeing a shark in a current-day nature show. Our Take: What will attract viewers to Prehistoric Planet is the fact that it’s formatted just like a regular nature show, complete with Attenborough’s narration. Sometimes, that works against the show, as it seems like some moments could use a more modern narrative approach than Attenborough’s enthusiastic, but academic-sounding tone. But when they go back out to sea to feed, they have to be careful of the Hoffman’s mosasaur, a known predator. Prehistoric Planet is a nature series, executive produced by Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton, that takes current research of dinosaurs and pairs it with cutting edge CGI technology to present long-extinct animals in their natural habitats, caring for babies and avoiding predators. The young ones get pushed off a cliff as they learn to fly.

What are critics saying about Jon Favreau's new Apple TV+ docuseries, Prehistoric Planet, and its CGI dinosaurs?

Lucy Mangan of The Guardian rates it 4 out of 5 stars, saying the series awakened the critic’s inner 10-year-old dino-fan. There are, however, some minor annoyances with the scope and keeping track of what species were being shown and where in the world: Narrated by renowned nature documentary presenter David Attenborough, the series also features an original soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. So let’s travel back in time 66 million years and see what the critics think of Prehistoric Planet.

“Deserts” opens dramatically in western South America, with the arrival of the mighty titanosaur, Dreadnoughtus schrani. Titanosaurs were the last surviving ...

The behavior seen here, with male animals that morphologically disguise themselves as female, is a process known as sexual mimicry, and is seen in a variety of vertebrates. The final sequence in this episode of Prehistoric Planet focuses on a herd of Secernosaurus koerneri. Another fascinating thing about Secernosaurus is that it’s from South America. It was long believed that hadrosaurs, who were common in fossil ecosystems in North America and Asia, had evolved after the northern continents had fully split from the southern ones. If there’s one complaint I have about this depiction of Mononykus, it’s that the coloration and patterning of its feathers are a little too similar to its inspiration, fellow dinosaur Tyto alba. The next animal shown is Mononykus olecranus, a member of a group of dinosaurs called alvarezsaurs. Paleontology is often thought of as a science exclusively for white men, but many Mongolian dinosaurs have been found and described by women. In Prehistoric Planet, the male Dreadnoughtus are depicted with rows of air sacs that fill as part of a mating display. This scene also marks the first appearance of Velociraptor. Prehistoric Planet‘s model is far and away the most accurate screen representation of the animal, fully covered in feathers, hunting prey suitable for its relatively small size, and with its slender snout. Within dromaeosaurs, both Microraptor and Zhenyuanlong have been found with extensive feather covering, and in Velociraptor itself, quill nobs (places where feathers anchored into the arm bone) have been found, giving us direct evidence that Velociraptor was feathered. Next, Prehistoric Planet takes viewers to Asia. Specifically, due to the animals on display, we can pretty safely say this is Mongolia. We begin with an ancient lizard chasing down flies around a group of sleeping Tarbosaurus bataar. It’s very possible that the 60° C figure is correct, but I was unable to find the literature supporting it. “Deserts” opens dramatically in western South America, with the arrival of the mighty titanosaur, Dreadnoughtus schrani.