"Swimming With Sea Monsters" TV mini-series

[OB]

It's terrible, I got dragged down to the local watering hole by one of my best friends and forgot all about getting back before 21:30, which was our local time of airing.... Me and King Ethanol are now pretty much at odds with each other.

 

[Phil]

This afternoon I popped up to the Natural History Museum in London as I heard that there was to be a special talk on the 'Walking with..." series. When I arrived I was quite pleasantly surprised to find it was Tim Haines, the producer and mastermind of the trilogy. The 30 minute talk was recorded for a web-broadcast.

Following the talk I privately asked Mr Haines about Megarachne and it's reclassification as an eurypterid. He admitted that the staff were somewhat disappointed to discover this following Paul Seldon's paper given the work they'd put in, and that's why the name Megarachne was dropped from the broadcast version in favour of the family name. He stated that there were other giant spiders knocking around in the Carboniferous that fitted the bill of the spider in the show...(not that it's easy to find out about them).

A nice day, and Mr Haines is a nice chap too!

As soon as a link goes up to the chat on the BBC site I'll post a link. Gawd, I hope you can't see me in the audience though; I must have been only 3m from the chap!

 

[larry_large]

help

hello i'm new here. i've been trying to get hold of a dvd of the sea monsters series but i can't find it anywhere. i hear that it was not even released on dvd, is this correct?

i could realy use it for a project i'm working on. so if there's anyone that can help me please let me know thx

 

[Phil]

Hi Larry,

Where do you live? "Swimming with Sea Monsters" has only been released on Region 1 DVD as far as I know; this means that you should be able to get it fairly easily in the US, but not elsewhere. It was released under the title "Chased by Dinosaurs" along with two extra land based episodes featuring Nigel Marven. If you live in the UK, NZ or outside the Region 1 zone you will need a multi-region DVD player to watch it.

I obtained my copy via eBay, but it is available via most online retailers including Amazon. There should be a link on this page to that retailer should you wish to track it down.

Best of luck, and please tell us about your project!

Phil

 

[larry_large]

hello Phil Thank you very much for your help.

I'm in the uk in Kent. thankyou for the other title I did a search on Amazon and found it

sorry I can't mention anything about the project. at the moment i'm waiting to see if it will go ahead.

if it goes a head I'll send you a private message about it in about a weeks time.

thx again

 

[Phil]

Sounds most intriguing Larry. Look forward to hearing from you.

Whereabouts in Kent do you live? I think we must be the only two people from Kent on this site. So, here's to us!

 

[um...]

 

[larry_large]

I live in tunbridge wells at the moment, have also lived in ramsgate.

i see your in dover, a place i have visited many times, mostly to visit dover castle and the war time tunnels, a great place to visit on a nice day

 

[neuropteris]

Hi Folks

Can't see that this has been mentioned before but there is a new computer generated prehistoric beasties series starting on ITV in the UK soon (I think the first one is Saturday evening). Called "Prehistoric Park" it has 6 episodes featuring Nigel Marven going back in time and retrieving long dead beasties. Haven't seen much info - missed most of the interview on GMTV this morning. Don't know if cephs will feature at all - from the clips I've seen there is the inevitable T rex, mammoths and another trip to the Carboniferous was mentioned (yay! - maybe Euproops will get its long awaited 15 minutes of fame afterall!)

Andy

 

[Phil]

(yay! - maybe Euproops will get its long awaited 15 minutes of fame afterall!)

I'm rather hoping for Tullimonstrum myself.

 

[neuropteris]

A Tully would also be acceptable. I recently acquired a rather nice composite of the real thing! Not Lancashire this time - Mazon Creek in the US. Weird creature.

 

[DHyslop]

I still have a big bag full of Mazon Creek concretions somewhere. I should find them and freeze-thaw them open.

Dan

 

[Phil]

That's great Andy, what a fantastic specimen. What is the latest thought as to the nature of the animal? Still unclassified?

Good luck Dan. Fingers crossed that you find something unusual.

 

[OB]

I always tied Tullimonstrum in with Opabinia, although there is only the slightest hint of resemblance. Convergent evolution at work with a 100 million year interval

 

[neuropteris]

Still unidentified as far as I know although my sources of info are limited to web searches. It does resemble Opabinia in some ways though has a lesser number of eyes (if that be what the 'eye stalks' are - I think the jury is still out on that aswell). I tilt towards the heteropod gastropod id but thats only because of a superficial physical similarity (the Tully, not me), not expert knowledge. Its one of natures little mysteries!

How do you rate the freeze thaw method of splitting Dan? I know thats the recommended technique for Mazon nods but I've never had much success with it over here - partly because giving them a whack with the estwing usually does the trick if there's something in there but also 'cos I'd have a yard full of dud nodules if I tried to do it with all the ones I find.

Andy