Walking with Dinosaurs

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The newborn pups have just a few seconds to reach the surface and take their first breath.

[first lines]

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The most fearsome predator of the Jurassic is watching his prey. Peering through the water, the carnivore fixes on his unwary victim, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

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[about the Lipleurodon] At one hundred and fifty tons, it is the largest and most powerful carnivore ever to live on the planet.

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For the pups, their secure life in the reef is coming to an end.

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These islands are regularly ravaged by violent tropical storms from the east, that are strong enough to tear away shallow sea beds, smash corals, and kill thousands of marine animals.

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Marine reptiles were one of the glories of this ancient time, even though turtles are the only ones left today.

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There are still islands of greenery between the barren lava flows. In the warm moist climate of the late Cretaceous period, the vegetation has transformed.

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Millions of years of evolution has also created intimate relationships among different types of dinosaurs. Especially the delicate balance between predator...and prey.

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It is the beginning of a period in Earth's history called the Cretaceous, and the movement of the continents is not only breaking up the giant northern and southern landmasses, but it continues to push up sea levels. This has opened new seaways and coastlines.

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In the far future, the pterosaurs will surrender the skies to the birds!

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It is the beginning of a period in Earth's history known as the Cretaceous.

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First light across the western hills of Earth's only continent; Pangaea. This world has been ruled by one group of giant reptiles for over fifty million years. But these ancient creatures have had their day.

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[about the mammal-like reptiles] One day in the future, this strategy of investing in their young will pay off for their mammalian descendants. But as mammals evolve over the next one hundred sixty million years, they will only survive as a few small species, clinging on at the edge of a world dominated by dinosaurs.

[last lines]

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The Age of the Dinosaurs has dawned!

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The giant carnivore has killed the dominant female. It is a bitter blow; winter is coming, and without a lead female there will be tension in the clan.

[first lines]

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Dawn over a silent forest a few hundred miles away from the South Pole. It is the end of months of total darkness, and as the sun's rays filter down through the trees, they reveal a cold harsh world.

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It is the mid-Cretaceous period, and dinosaurs are now more widespread than ever, reaching every part of the globe. But one place is a special challenge: the South Pole.

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Life on the Poles is a remarkable evolutionary achievement for the dinosaurs. But eventually, a slight cooling in the world's climates will spell the end of these lush forests. And without them, these unique dinosaurs will also disappear.

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Away from the Poles, the dinosaurs continued to thrive for another forty million years before extinction.

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Sauropods dominate the late Jurassic, and it will be millions of years before new dinosaur herbivores evolve to replace them. With their passing, life will never again be this large.

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[about the Allosaurus] These are the lions of the Jurassic. The top predators of their age!

[last lines]

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Eventually the mighty sauropods went into decline, and their lowland prairies became flooded because the sea levels began to rise. This created vast inland seas, and in the next program, we will meet the giant carnivorous reptiles that patrolled them.

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These rich sunlit waters are on the northern end of the ancient Tethys ocean, the sea that separates the Earth's two continents: one in the north, one in the south.

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Under these azure waters, lies the future continent of Europe. But now in the Late Jurassic period, all that exists here are a few scattered islands.