Dinosaur Planet (TV series)

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Dinosaur Planet is a four-part American nature documentary first aired on Discovery Channel in 2003. It was hosted by Scott Sampson and narrated by Christian Slater.

Dinosaur Planet depicts dinosaurs living in various parts of the world (Asia, North America, South America and Europe) during the Late Cretaceous, using CGI (just like Discovery Channel's earlier When Dinosaurs Roamed America and BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs). In actuality, a good part of the dinosaurs were designed by Mark Dubeau, who was the art director and primary creature designer on the aforementioned "When Dinosaurs Roamed America".

Contents

[edit] Episodes

[edit] White Tip's Journey

The pack of a female Velociraptor called White Tip has been killed by another pack, and she must find a new one. She tries to hunt a herd of Prenocephale, but comes close to injury -- Velociraptor cannot efficiently hunt without a pack.

Now hunting lizards, White Tip hears a loud shriek. Rather than a carcass, she finds Oviraptor courting each other. When a young Oviraptor fails to attract a female, he takes his anger out on White Tip and chases her into a Protoceratops nest. A male Protoceratops chases White Tip. Luckily, he chases her into the territory of another male Protoceratops and the intruder is killed in a head-butting match.

White Tip eats part of the carcass, but the smell of blood attracts another pack of Velociraptor. White Tip realizes the pack is strong and attempts to join them. The pack's leader is an injured male named Broken Hand. The other male is Bluebrow, and there are also two other female Velociraptor in the pack.

When White Tip tries to join them Bluebrow sees her as a potential mate since the two other females are Broken Hand's harem. By trying to recruit a new member, Bluebrow threatens the leadership of Broken Hand and he engages Bluebrow in battle. Broken Hand loses, and is driven away. Bluebrow becomes the new leader and mates with White Tip. The pack hunts for Protoceratops eggs. The two females divert the adult Protoceratops' attention while White Tip and Bluebrow steal the eggs. But White Tip is still at the bottom of the pecking order, and must relinquish her catch.

A few months later, White Tip lays her eggs. Since there are predators everywhere she cannot go hunting with the others. The others chase a Shuvuuia, but an Oviraptor catches it first. Because the pack did not catch anything, White Tip goes hungry. She tries to stalk a Deltatheridium, but is interrupted by Broken Hand, eating two of her five eggs. She manages to chase him away.

The next day, her young hatch and she can go hunting with the others. This time, they attack baby Oviraptor, using the same trick as they used with the Protoceratops. They also see Broken Hand getting rammed to death by a herd of Prenocephale, but make no move to help him. White Tip feeds the baby Oviraptor to her young.

That night, there's heavy rain. The next day, the pack goes to hunt adult Protoceratops. White Tip pounces on one, but gets knocked to the ground. Bluebrow attacks another by thrusting his claw into the Protoceratops' side, while the Protoceratops bites his arm.

As Bluebrow struggles to get free, the two females leap to help him. But before anyone can do anything, a landslide buries Bluebrow, the Protoceratops and the two female Velociraptor alive. Alone again, White Tip raises her young as her new pack.

[edit] Pod's Travels

A male Pyroraptor named Pod hunts with his pack consisting of his two young sisters. On his home island in Romania, he relies on his intelligence to hold his own against giant enemies, mainly his rival hunter, Tarascosaurus.

One day, Pod and his island inhabitance feel a massive tremor which causes an Iguanodon stampede. Pod and his sisters flee to the shoreline to escape the stampede. At the shoreline, a tsunami sweeps Pod and the other dinosaurs away. Only Pod and one of sisters survives clinging to life on a log. The next day, Pod's sister is eaten by a plesiosaur. On his third day on the log, Pod is swept onto an island and collapses from exhaustion.

As Pod sleeps, dwarf Pyroraptor squabble with Allodaposuchus over what they believe to be Pod's carcass. During the fighting, Pod is awakened by the noise and scares the Allodaposuchus away. Because they look like him, Pod attempts to join the dwarf Pyroraptor's pack, but they run away, terrified.

Pod follows the dwarf Pyroraptor believing they can lead him to his own kind. Instead, Pod is astounded to find that all of the island's species are dwarf versions of animals back in his homeland. Having lived in a world where size determined a dinosaurs survival, Pod is baffled by the small creatures. In a last attempt to find his own kind, Pod climbs to the top of a cliff and shrieks only to hear his own echo and believe it's another Pyroraptor. Dwarf Troodon hear the cries and go to Pod. Pod walks away but the curious Troodon follow.

Pod finds several dwarf Tarascosaurus feasting on an Iguanodon. Pod then realizes that the only thing that kept him on the bottom back at his home island was his relative size. With his size and intelligence, Pod kills one of the Tarascosaurus and scares away the others, becoming the apex predator on the island. Seeing the advantages, the Troodon join Pod as his pack. When Pod returns to the shore days later, he finds the log that saved him.

[edit] Little Das' Hunt

  • Setting: the future American state of Montana, 75-68 MYA.
  • Focus of the episode: Little Das, a young male Daspletosaurus

As a flock of Orodromeus feed on vegetation a pack of Troodons chase them into their own grave. Once the Troodon lose the Orodromeus, a blast of steam from a geyser kills one of their three members.

Meanwhile, in the lowlands a young Daspletosaurus, Little Das, is on his first hunt. His targets are two young Maiasaura, Buck and Blaze, who have wandered away from their herd for fun. Das chases them far away from their herd. Das' older sisters then chase Buck and Blaze towards their mother. Little Das' Mother bites Buck on his back leg. Little Das, in his enthusiasm, accidentally rams his head into his mother's leg, causing her to let go of Buck.

The next day, worrying that Das will ruin the hunt, Das' mother and sisters leave him in a grove. When Das can't find them he goes searching and finds a herd of Einiosaurs. Thinking he is a scout for an older Daspletosaurus, the Einiosaurus stampede, alerting the Maiasaura to the danger.

Meanwhile, the highland animals -- Orodromeus, Troodon and Quetzalcoatlus -- are beginning to see signs of the inevitable volcanic explosion. Orodromeus, are noticing that the water they drink is boiling. The Quetzalcoatlus nesting ground is overcome by geysers.

Little Das and his family decide to target injured Buck. The Einiosaurus form a barricade to defend themselves from the Daspletosaurus, shielding Buck as well in the process. Buck makes a break for it when the Einiosaurus distract Little Das' family. Once Das notices Buck, the volcano is preparing to erupt and small pieces of glass and soot fall from the sky like snow. Now relying on their sense of hearing, the pack chases Buck. Buck sends out a call for help and hears a return call from Blaze. With Blaze's help, Buck makes it back to the herd.

The volcano erupts, and the highland animals are first to be affected, but the smoke reaches the lowlands, completely enveloping and suffocating the dinosaurs. 7 MY later, a young Tyrannosaurus hunts an immature Edmontosaurus. The conflict between them continues the stories of their ancestors: Buck and Das.

[3]

[edit] Alpha's Egg

Alpha the Saltasaurus hatches a day earlier than her siblings, because an Alvarezsaurus and a Notosuchus crack her eggshell, only to be scared away by an adult Saltasaurus.

Meanwhile, Dragonfly, an Aucasaurus, is also born. The next day, the rest of the baby Saltasaurus hatch, and they rush for the forest, dodging Alvarezsaurus and Notosuchus. Alpha survives, and travels along with the adult Saltasaurus.

Some Aucasaurus attack, and Alpha comes face to face with Dragonfly. Luckily, a dragonfly flies by and Dragonfly chases it.

As Alpha enters adolescence, she meets Dragonfly again. This time, they're separated by a stream. She learns quickly never to stumble -- stumbled Saltasaurus quickly becomes food.

When the herd moves to a plain, two Carcharodontosaurus attack. Alpha dodges them and arrives at the breeding ground. Dragonfly has mated as well.

When Alpha moves away from the breeding ground, Dragonfly and his mate attack. Alpha whips the female Aucasaurus with her tail, and then rams Dragonfly. But Dragonfly dodges and bites Alpha. Alpha falls, and squashes Dragonfly's skull under her weight.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Iguanodon was later identified as Rhabdodon in the DVD Factfiles.
  2. ^ In Pod's Travels, only dwarf Troodon are portrayed.
  3. ^ Tyrannosaurus and Edmontosaurus are seen briefly at the end of Little Das' Hunt
  4. ^ No remains of Carcharodontosaurus have been found in South America, though the way the continents were connected could have allowed it to travel there.

5. Even the dwarf Tarascosaurus would've been too large for Pod to take down alone. A pack might fared as well as shown however.

[edit] External links

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