Prehistoric Planet: BEST Dinosaur Documentary?

47:14 to he honest I never saw this as censorship, I feel like it’s more so that the model is so detailed into looking realistic that making it possible for that model to be torn apart and animated in a realistic way would be difficult, not to mention expensive

A few notes: Mosasaurus being referred to as twice the size of T-Rex is in reference to its mass, with the average T-Rex being about 8 tons or so, whereas the average Mosasaurus Hoffmannii of 15 meters or so would be more like 15 tons. It is roughly twice the size by that metric. In reference to being "arguably the greatest marine predators of all time", that's in reference to the mosasaur family, not Mosasaurus itself. And that is definitely a valid appraisal, it's not just as size matter, especially in light of the revelatory science they did that concluded Mosasaurus could accelerate to incredible speeds in a matter of seconds. Mosasaurus were without a shred of a doubt the most formidable predators of the cretaceous oceans at most trophic levels. Additionally, referring to for example Tarbosaurus individuals as a "Tarbosaur" is perfectly valid, because Tarbosaurus does not at all refer to a specific animal, it refers to a genus, and a genus may include a variety of species within it. Homo is a genus and to it belongs 13 species including Homo Erectus, Neanderthalensis and Sapiens. Plus, modern animals are in documentaries referred to by a sort of slang. Lion isn't a scientific term, they are the species Panthera Leo. Prehistoric animals don't have this, they just have the scientific names. Trying to remedy the issue of taxonomic confusion by referring to the genus like saying "Tarbosaurus" all the time instead of ever calling them "Tarbosaurs" makes about as much sense as being satisfied with referring to Lions in documentaries as "Panthera". What "panthera" are you talking about? Lions? Jaguars? Tigers? Leopards? They're all of the genus Panthera. One needs to accept that in order to actually get it taxonomically correct in a dinosaur documentary, you could never just call Tarbosaurus by its genus name, you would have to refer to the species name every single time. So should David Attenborough have called them "Tarbosaurus Bataar" every single time he mentions them by name? Obviously not, that would be beyond stilted and awkward. There isn't a real solution to this until extinct animals get named in the same way that extant ones do and so a taxonomic lack of specificity are gonna be inherent to prehistoric documentaries. Calling them "Tarbosaurs" instead of "Tarbosaurus" doesn't comparatively fail to convey any important information to the viewer and is thus perfectly valid. Which puts the similar X-fish thing into context, given that they already referred to them by the genus name and are basically using "X-fish" in the same way one would call Panthera Leo a "Lion". The point about speculation is valid in the way that all speculation is treated equally in the narration, however you cannot escape that this and documentaries like it will never be more than artistic renditions of the past, and since Prehistoric Planet is done in the style of the other Planet documentaries that David Attenborough does, I think speaking in this way is a valid trade-off between immersive filmmaking and scientific accuracy. The show ends every episode by referring you to the bonus featurettes talking about the science and speculation they do, they know what they are doing, which is why I believe this to be very deliberate. In my opinion, the show is made a better documentary by making this slight tradeoff because it makes it more engaging and entertaining and thus more capable of accomplishing its artistic goal of spiking and changing public interest in the topic without sacrificing too much accuracy.

You took pretty much every word out of my mouth. The only thing I slightly disagree on is the speculation being indistinguishable from the facts being an issue. It's just the caveat when doing a cg dinosaur documentary, we'll never know everything, Though like you said, it's a nitpick. I also completely agree with people being too attached to walking with dinosaurs to give prehistoric planet's format it's merits and overlooking WWD's issues. Probably my new favourite video of yours.

That outro reminding us to appreciate the beauty and diversity of birds was beautifully wrought. I did not expect an "our prehistoric planet" to be thrown in there in such a way, and the elegance of the way it was performed was very praise-worthy.

This is beautiful! Your channel has sparked a newfound fascination for me.

PHP outdid the Trilogy of Life. Absolutely agreed on Hatzegopteryx’s multifaceted depiction on Season 2, and that the T. rex hunt scene is easily the first GOOD version of such a scene in media yet (if only we had scenes like this for other theropods).

I never left my dinosaur phase!

I tbh would love a show based on prehistoric park idea with all the good things prehistoric planet has

What makes these times so exciting, paleo wise, is the co-incidence of recent brilliant science/knowledge with incredible CGI to bring these times back to life.

Very glad I came back to this one when I realised I never finished it. The Catholic Church joke alone was enough for the near hour I've been listening

Bravo, Jackson. You had me (figuratively) applauding and cheering by the end.

Went though a dinosaur phase in childhood? I'm in my 40s now and dinosaurs are still a fascinating obsession! So glad my son also finds them equally as fascinating!

you should be feeling very proud of this one, absolutely amazing description.... thank you very much

Answer: yes.

I hope that future seasons cover more than just the Late Cretaceous the early to middle parts of that period would be nice to see along with the Jurassic Fantastic video.

BUGS That ending made me tear up in a way that I haven't teared up since I first watched that Hatezgopteryx fly off into the sunset. Well Played, Sir.

I love how they portrayed the mosasaurus as an actual animal that would pick up it's fights and not attack a T Rex that is capable of defending itself in the water.

Damn, the ending segment brought a tear to my eye

that ending was beautiful

Brilliant review of a brilliant series. Thank you :)