"Swimming With Sea Monsters" TV mini-series

[neuropteris]

Fantastic!

 

[Phil]

RE: Walking with Monsters.

I'm stuck at work on a night shift and missed it. Hopefully I managed to tape it and will catch up tomorrow.

Well, was it any good?

Ta!

 

[neuropteris]

Just seen it - excellent stuff as usual from the 'Walking with' series. Covers the Cambrian through to the Triassic and Cephs do get a (brief) appearance with a Orthocone swimming past in the distance at one point. No Euproops (sigh...) but lots of other interesting beasties. The Mesothelae did have quite a resemblance to the reconstructions I've seen of Megarachne which is now thought to be a form of Eurypterid rather than spider as Ob has pointed out - I'll have to see what I can find.

Hope they do another one at some point - there's loads more spectacular dead things out there still to cover!

Andy

 

[Phil]

Thanks Andy, now you've REALLY whet my appetite! I've just posted an individual thread about this programme to remind people to try and catch it, as they might not find it buried in this thread.

I'll let you know what I think tomorrow, providing my video has worked. The darn thing's old and temperamental these days (aren't we all!).

 

[spartacus]

the bugs & beasties were trés cool but got bit bogged down with our arch enemies the vertebrates for my liking but hey, can't have it all. Good luck with the steam video Phil.

Keef

 

[Architeuthoceras]

5 seconds showing a 20' orthocone, then skip to the early chordates

How come I got to see this last night?

 

[Phil]

5 seconds showing a 20' orthocone, then skip to the early chordates

Yep, wasn't that scene set in the Silurian? I thought the true nautiloid giants were Ordovician in date. I suppose it was difficult to assess scale in that brief scene.

How come I got to see this last night?

I found out today that Discovery had a special Paleo-day yesterday and showed both 'Walking with Dinosaurs' and 'Beasts'. 'Monsters' was a premiere.

I've just watched it, and I thought it was excellent, especially the Dimetrodon scenes. I'm not sure if there is really any evidence for newly-hatched juvenile Dimetrodon scaling vegetation to evade predators, must try and research that one.

It was somewhat jumpy, straight from the Cambrian to the Silurian, by-passing the Ordovician. I suppose the production staff reasoned that the main Ordovician creatures they could focus on, i.e nautiloids, sea scorpions and trilobites had already been covered in 'Sea Monsters', so they saw little point in repetition.

Agreed, it would have been nice to have seen Opabinia, Hallucigenia and some of the other weirdies in the Cambrian scenes, but Anomalocaris has never looked so well realised and dynamic.

I expect it'll be chopped into three parts for showing on BBC1 later in the year, but wasn't it excellent with no presenter in distress? I wish they had all been made like this. As now the history of life have been carefully skimmed over and selected, I doubt if we'll see any more 'Walking with..." series ever again. They were good fun while they lasted.

Oh, and if I may add, I think that it dovetailed nicely into 'WwD', especially with the bombastic theme crashing in at the end.

Good stuff.

 

[Architeuthoceras]

I found out today that Discovery had a special Paleo-day yesterday and showed both 'Walking with Dinosaurs' and 'Beasts'. 'Monsters' was a premiere.

Actually I was watching "Dinosaur Face Off: Velociraptor vs Ankylosaur" then to my surprise "Before the Dinosaurs" came on (2 hours with commercials). Both very interesting and entertaining. Except in one, I dont remember which, they called gastroliths gastropods

Before the dinosaurs will be shown again next sunday 3:00 pm et/pt

 

[Phil]

The Mesothelae did have quite a resemblance to the reconstructions I've seen of Megarachne which is now thought to be a form of Eurypterid rather than spider as Ob has pointed out - I'll have to see what I can find.

Andy, Ob,

Please check out this fascinating article available in full online by Paul Seddon entitled:

The true identity of the supposed giant fossil spider Megarachne

This was published on 11th October this year. It's a pity for Impossible Pictures that their lavishly depicted giant spider was depicted as such; it now seems that it was indeed a eurypterid, albeit a peculiar one.

 

[Nik]

Hi,

Yes, the Monsters team got that research about Megarachne, but i think the modelling had already happened by that time we read it - occupational hazzard!

No new Walking withs in production at the moment (although we're always looking into what comes next) but we've got something even better coming up next spring which I know you're going to like . It may even feature a special appearance by someone not entirely a stranger to these parts

Biting tongue....i've said too much...better stop writing now.

Nik

 

[neuropteris]

Great news Nik, can't wait.

Thanks for the reference Phil - I met up with Paul Seldon a couple of times at the start of the year when we took him and Fred Broadhurst round a carboniferous site here. He's very into his fossil arachnids though we didn't find any on that trip giant or otherwise. Never mind, theres always tomorrow....

Andy

 

[Jean]

It may even feature a special appearance by someone not entirely a stranger to these parts

Biting tongue....i've said too much...better stop writing now.

Nik

AHA you've been to the O'Shea school of hint dropping...........haven't you? Drop a tantalising bit of info then run away!

J

 

[Phil]

A reminder for UK readers, 'Walking with Monsters' is repeated on BBC1 at 20:30 this Thursday the 8th. I presume parts two and three are being shown on the following weeks.

 

[OB]

Good egg!

 

[Colin]

I watched the programme last night on BBC1, thanks for the reminder Phil.

How do the BBC manage to take such interesting information, such exciting cool graphics, such a new concept in showing ancient natural history... and make an arse of it in 30 mins?

Before there is a, 'but its for public consumption' reply. I often teach The Classification of Living Things to kids between the ages of 5 - 14 which fits in with our national curriculum for science and the programme fell well short of the mark for even what 7 year olds learn regarding invertebrates and vertebrates etc in the classroom.

It was lovely to watch. The skin textures and movements of the animals have really came on so much. The footage of individual animals is truly spectacular and a pleasure to watch. But why does it make me cringe to listen and want to mute the TV?

I think that one of the series, (was it the mammals one?) had a choice of 2 narrators, one with the daft stories and one with bits of useful information? That would be nice to have again.

Sorry for the rant and negativity but it really doesn't make me want to see the other parts and its another case of 'looks nice' but has no direction and the script certainly doesn't add anything to the programme

Oh, last moan...

Why do we asume that giant caudate amphibians roar?