Walking With Dinosaurs Ep1: New Blood. (Part1/3)Show Video Details ↓ [music] … … … … … … … … … [noise]Narrator: Imagine you could travel back in time to a time long before man. [noise] Back across sixty five million years. As you travel you would see huge changes in the vegetation and the climate. Even the surface of the earth itself would move as mountain ranges are pushed up by colliding continents. [noise] … … Now you've reached the remarkable period in earth's history known as the Cretaceous. It is a very different world. The Himalayas do not yet exists and the Atlantic is only half as wide. There is no grass, only conifer forests and fern prairies. This is a world ruled by dinosaurs. [noise] [noise] Giant reptiles like tyrannosaurus, a five ton predator, stalk the landscape. [noise] [noise] … In walking with dinosaurs we will show you how these magnificent creatures live. How they eat, fight and reproduce and you will witness how the forces of nature conspire to drive these animals to extinction. [noise] … But this series will also take you back much further, [noise] [noise] back to the Jurassic period, a time when life on earth was its most spectacular. [noise] … The creatures here bathe in a warm tropical climate. There are no ice caps at the poles. Flowers and broad leaved tress are yet to evolve. In the air and on the land, the world is dominated by reptiles and by far the most common are the dinosaurs. [music] … But they are not the only giants. Huge Terasaurs rule the skies and below them massive marine reptiles harvest the rich oceans. [noise] … However, first this series will go back even further and discover where dinosaurs came from. [noise] This is our own earth during the Triassic period. Here there are no separate continents just one giant land mask called Pangaea. It is a harsh place dominated by deserts. [music] [noise] … The Triassic has already seen many different varieties of ancient reptiles come and go. But now, out of this dry wilderness has appeared something revolutionary. A family of reptiles destined to shape the course of life on earth for the next one hundred and sixty million years. These are the first dinosaurs and this is where our story begins. [music] … … … … 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. All over these lush fern prairies, a grim evolutionary battle has broken out among the newer types of reptile for supremacy of this strange world. On these Triassic proving grounds, dinosaurs are still comparatively rare, but they are beginning to show the first signs of their future success. [music] [noise] [music] … It is the end of the wet season and the local river is full. But it will not remain this lush and ahead lies nine months with no rain. [noise] One type of reptile has evolved to thrive in drought. Dinosaurs like this Sylaphisis can survive in very little water. She is also liked boned, fast and she is beautifully adapted for killing. [music] … … [noise] … Dinosaurs first appeared around ten million years before as small predators. But what makes them unique is special hips and ankles that allow them to stand perfectly balanced on two legs. With lightning fast reactions, they are built to survive. [noise] … A growing course of calls signals of the arrival of a huge herds of Pasyrhias. They are making their way down from the fern scrub land for their morning drink. [noise] … These impressive one ton beasts are not related to dinosaurs. They are a much more ancient type of reptile. Once there were many different varieties of these powerful creatures swaggering across the landscape, but now the Plaserias are the only ones of their kind that remain. They are an endangered species. Despite their fearsome appearance they are actually gentle herbivores. Their tusks are used for digging up roots, but on two angry males these tusks can make lethal weapons. [noise] … For the swift Sylaphitus, Plaserias are prey. This young female targets the old and weak in the slow moving herd. [noise] … … … … … One day the descendants of dinosaurs like Cylaphisus will take over this world. But it is their speed and agility that gives them the edge in the mid Triassic. [noise] … Further down river is one of the Triassic's most bizarre animals, the Psynadont is a missing link between reptiles and mammals. As he runs, his back bone moves from side to side like a reptile's. But he has hair and lives down a burrow like a mammal. [music] [music] … Deep inside, his mate sleeps on the bed of lichen. The bond between Psynadonts is extraordinarily strong. They pair for life. Like all land reptiles they lay eggs. But after hatching the young utterly dependent on their parents and spend their first three months feeding from special milk glands on the mother's stomach. This form of reproduction has evolved to protect their young from the daylight predators outside. [noise] By day even the father sticks close to the safety of the burrow and carries out domestic chores. He only hunts at night. [music] … … … |