Prehistoric Planet (2022) s02e03 Episode Script

Dinosaurs ruled the planet
for over 150 million years.
They occupied almost every corner
of the globe
and came in almost
every shape and size imaginable.
Some were truly extraordinary.
We now know that T. rex was
Velociraptors were cunning,
feathered hunters,
and that some dinosaurs had
the most bizarre behavior.
But new discoveries
are being made almost every day
that tell us more about life
on this planet 66 million years ago.
This time on Prehistoric Planet,
we reveal new animals,
and new insight
into their quest to find a partner,
the challenges faced by raising a family,
and their titanic battles.
Journey to a time
when nature put on its greatest show.
This is Prehistoric Planet 2.
The vast swamplands of northeast Asia.
Within this low-lying flooded territory,
there are countless islands.
Each of them is surrounded
and that makes them potential sanctuaries
for new life.
A young pterosaur, an azhdarchid.
Just a few hours old.
Being on an island
means that she's able to take
her first tentative steps in safety.
Having found her feet,
it's time to try out her wings.
Getting them to work properly
will take some practice.
Although she's only 1-foot tall,
she will grow into a giant
with a 30-foot wingspan.
And to do that
something this tiny island can't provide.
She will have to leave
to feed in the swampy forests
that surround her island.
Maiden flights are always tricky,
especially when they're over open water.
Today there is a light breeze.
That will help by giving some extra lift.
But this youngster
is not yet strong enough.
Shamosuchus. Fifteen-feet-long predators.
This island might offer safety,
but the surrounding waters
certainly do not.
If the takeoff isn't perfect,
it's difficult to gain height.
And this is not high enough.
Some of the stronger flyers
have almost reached the safety
of the forest.
Others have still to make their attempt.
A near-miraculous escape.
And now the chance to collect her rewards.
In these rich swamp forests,
there's all the food she needs.
Here in the wetlands of South America,
long summer days
are fueling a greater feast.
These swamps are teeming
with animals of all kinds.
And hunters are gathering.
The ferocious three-foot-long garfish.
Lunch for a giant Austroraptor.
They are relatives of Velociraptors
but much, much bigger.
Twenty feet from head to tail
and weighing over 800 pounds.
And with teeth
not unlike those of a crocodile,
these dinosaurs are very skilled
at catching fish.
For most of the year,
they're solitary hunters.
But as the number of fish increases
during summer,
so does the number of Austroraptors.
The biggest try to keep
the best fishing spots for themselves.
They won't tolerate rivals.
For those not yet in their prime,
it's a challenging time of year.
This young male,
still in his juvenile colors,
has little hope
of securing a good place to fish.
However, there are other ways
of getting a meal here.
With so much food around,
the adults are very wasteful feeders.
They often eat
only the choicest parts of the fish.
And for a youngster,
any leftovers will do very nicely.
But it's risky.
To succeed, he will have to be sneaky.
Bruised and empty-handed.
But with the adults
still feasting around him,
there might be another opportunity.
Two adults fighting
over the best fishing spot.
and time to leave.
Success.
And more than just scraps.
A lesson learnt.
And when the good conditions
return next year,
perhaps he'll be able to challenge
for a fishing spot of his own.
In northern Madagascar,
conditions are already changing.
The first rain in months
is reviving the parched land.
As pools and channels refill,
the animals return.
And they're not all dinosaurs.
is a monster.
Beelzebufo, the devil toad.
It's so big it can swallow
a small dinosaur whole.
But this male isn't here to hunt.
He is looking for a mate.
Female devil toads are fussy,
so he needs to find a good spot.
Only then will he be able
to entice them in.
His deep croaks travel far and wide.
This isn't quite what he was hoping for.
Fifty-foot-long rapetosaurs.
They have been attracted here
by the promise of a mud bath.
For Beelzebufo,
their timing couldn't be much worse.
His pools now lie
beneath 70 tons of sauropod.
Time is short.
Female devil toads will only mate
at the start of the rainy season.
He needs a new pool.
There's one.
Reaching it will be dangerous.
but he's been noticed.
He's not known as a devil toad
for nothing.
but he can't make himself heard
above the sound of satisfied sauropods.
Luckily for him,
there's one thing that rapetosaurs enjoy
and that is food.
although, not without leaving
something useful behind.
Dozens of giant footprints, full of water.
Perfect for a Beelzebufo
to continue his quest for a mate.
A devil toad can only survive here
because every year
the land is flooded by seasonal rains.
However, there are places
where changing climate
means the rains are less certain.
This inland basin in North America was,
in the past, several feet deep in water.
But after a decade of drought,
it's now bone dry.
Nonetheless,
some dinosaurs still linger here.
A herd of pachycephalosaurs,
bizarre creatures with thick,
dome-shaped skulls.
but now they are forced
to make do with roots and insects.
The herd is led by a large male.
He keeps order, so everyone
is able to search for food in peace.
But trouble is brewing within the herd.
The young male
is throwing his weight around.
It's time for the dominant male
to put him in his place or kick him out.
trying to intimidate the youngster.
But he's not going to back down
that easily.
Ten-inch-thick skulls enable them
to survive powerful, head-on collisions.
The older male is heavier,
but the younger is more agile
and has more stamina,
and that tips the balance in his favor.
A bellow of victory.
But too soon.
The loser has to pay a heavy price.
Exile.
Alone,
it will be a struggle to fend for himself.
But life here will not be easy
for the winner either
unless the water returns
to this land and soon.
Across this vast continent,
there are over 100,000 square miles
and most of them
remain flooded all year round.
Here in spring,
new plant growth creates excellent
feeding grounds for the gathering herds.
But where there are large numbers
there are great hunters.
the most powerful land predators
on the planet.
this is not the right time to attack.
As darkness falls,
some of the herds
that had been grazing out in the open
retreat into the forest for shelter.
Now the odds switch in favor
of the predators.
Tyrannosaurs have the largest eyes
of any dinosaur,
which gives them superb low-light vision.
And they're able to move
through the forest in near silence,
thanks to cushioned pads on their feet.
A group of edmontosaurs.
They lack armor,
but they're as big as T. rex
and twice as fast.
To catch one needs cunning.
Each of the hunters
carefully moves into position.
Then one deliberately makes a noise.
The edmontosaurs are alarmed.
They now know hunters are close,
but they don't know exactly
where they are.
Time to spring the trap.
One T. Rex rushes out.
The herd panics and bolts to where
the other T. Rex is waiting in ambush.
by one of the greatest land predators
in the swamps of our prehistoric planet.
This is the skull of a pachycephalosaur,
a 16-foot-long plant eater.
Despite years of research,
we're still trying to understand
why it had this bizarre-shaped head.
The most distinctive feature
about the pachycephalosaurs, of course,
is this really weird dome
that they have on their head.
All around it is a series of very odd
tubercles and nobbles and bobbles.
They look quite dragonlike.
When they first saw
these very thick, domed skulls,
and these domes could be
up to 30 centimeters in thickness,
they were thought to be very strong.
It was thought that maybe they were
using them for headbutting each other
in contests over social hierarchy.
Today, animals
like bighorn sheep butt heads in this way.
A thickened skull helps protect
their brain from impact.
But does this fully explain
pachycephalosaur's domed head?
A number of paleontologists thought
that they should look inside the skulls.
They sliced up a number
of pachycephalosaur domes,
and when they did that, they found out
that maybe it wasn't strong enough
to withstand these direct head-on impacts.
However, they did discover something else,
suggesting the dome had a different use.
The surface was marked
with a mesh of tiny fibers.
Perhaps they supported
brightly colored skin,
used to attract a mate.
This new theory seemed to be accepted
until 2013,
when a new discovery was made.
A pachycephalosaur was found,
with marks showing it had survived
multiple injuries to the top of its head,
and it wasn't a one-off.
They went back and looked through
historic museum collections
and discovered that actually there was
quite a lot of evidence for these lesions
in a similar place across a whole bunch
of different pachycephalosaurs.
This is good evidence
that they probably were headbutting.
So, were the skulls strong enough
to protect pachycephalosaur's brain
after all?
To find out, scientists turned
to the latest scanning technology.
We can use CT scans to build
virtual models of the bones,
and then we can subject those
to various engineering tests
in the same way that we'd do with
an aeroplane part or an artificial hip.
This provided the final piece of evidence.
What they've shown
is that pachycephalosaur domes
could actually have withstood
an enormous amount of force.
It's the sort of force
that goes through American footballers
when they hit each other.
We now believe
pachycephalosaurs used their head
and as a colorful display.
Two ways to demonstrate
who was boss in their prehistoric world.