Fanclub Paleo Posting.

[TheAncientCenturion]

The pet trade does seem a likely eventual destination for these things. There are already genetically modified "glow in the dark" axolotls in the pet trade. Wig mice seem pretty normal in comparison.

Well they'll probably find some bio-medical purpose from this research.

TIME magazine did a long article on those wolves. It is mentioned that besides the de-extinction stuff, they are using all this gene editing stuff to try and help endangered species, specifically those with low genetic diversity due to a population bottleneck.

Spoiler: Article links.

https://time.com/7274542/colossal-dire-wolf/

https://time.com/7275439/science-behind-dire-wolf-return/

Since inbreeding depression results in all kind of medical problems then I imagine fixing it will probably result in some useful knowledge.

That’s the excuse they use lol, then went and made cosmetic changes to the wolf that weren’t in the dire wolf’s dna to make it look more like them.

Then there’s a time magazine cover, meeting with journalists and publicity photos before any person in the scientific community can see their papers.

Im sure there are positives but I don’t believe for a second that they are primary goals for Beth Shapiro

 

[Owl Ki]

The CGI honestly looks dated for ten years ago too. The talking heads segments will be... Alright, I don't mind those. Just not for a series known for telling dinosaur stories through a documentary style.

I think it would have been better if the BBC didn't have the Walking with... title attached to it. Just have it be its own separate prehistory documentary like they did with Planet Dinosaur.

Attaching the Ww title to it gives an expectation of how the show should be presented. They clearly aren't following the original show's format so giving it the same name seems rather unfair. I know they're doing it for brand recognition but in this case doing so actually works against them.

Well if nothing else the Spino scenes were cool at least.

Spino was a dangerous choice to add. The scientific portrayal of that sucker practically changes every year.

Also 00:53 is unintentionally rather funny to me. *NOM*

They had a couple of T-Rex mauling an Azhdarchid pterosaur shots. I like to think somebody at the BBC took that T-Rex vs Quetzalcoatlus fight from Prehistoric Planet very personally.

CGI does look like something out of a Dazzling Divine video. No sense of weight at all and they look a tad plasticky.

Aye, you're right on that. The creature textures look subpar and the mass on some of the movements look lacking.

 

[Zoinks52]

I think it would have been better if the BBC didn't have the Walking with... title attached to it. Just have it be its own separate prehistory documentary like they did with Planet Dinosaur.

Attaching the Ww title to it gives an expectation of how the show should be presented. They clearly aren't following the original show's format so giving it the same name seems rather unfair. I know they're doing it for brand recognition but in this case doing so actually works against them.

Spino was a dangerous choice to add. The scientific portrayal of that sucker practically changes every year.

They had a couple of T-Rex mauling an Azhdarchid pterosaur shots. I like to think somebody at the BBC took that T-Rex vs Quetzalcoatlus fight from Prehistoric Planet very personally.

Aye, you're right on that. The creature textures look subpar and the mass on some of the movements look lacking.

Tbf I'd say that Spino's mercurial nature is a positive - because that means it's both very popular and very famous for changing designs often.

Which means that it will attract crowds and said crowds will forgive inconsistencies because " Oh, that rascally ol' Spino! He'll have wings and horns next, just you wait!".

Like just imagine if they'd made this a bit earlier and featured "Saurophaganax" for instance.

Oh the Rex scenes were definitely a little jab lol. I don't mind tbf, nice to see it not job for a change.

Also, did you see the sauropod with the inflatable testicles on its head? Is that actually thought to have been a thing?

 

[Owl Ki]

Tbf I'd say that Spino's mercurial nature is a positive - because that means it's both very popular and very famous for changing designs often.

Which means that it will attract crowds and said crowds will forgive inconsistencies because " Oh, that rascally ol' Spino! He'll have wings and horns next, just you wait!".

There will probably be YouTube videos soon of "Spinosaurus throughout the years" but it's just Spino throughout the last 5 of them.

Like just imagine if they'd made this a bit earlier and featured "Saurophaganax" for instance.

Oof. That would have been rough.

Also, did you see the sauropod with the inflatable testicles on its head? Is that actually thought to have been a thing?

As far as I'm aware, it is a speculative thing. Theoretically possible but not currently provable.

Sauropods had lot of air throughout their pneumatic skeletons, similar to birds. So the idea that sauropods could have had inflatable air sacs for mating displays like a frigate bird does has become popular recently.

Not that a pneumatic skeleton is strictly necessary for possessing an inflatable organ mind you. The hooded seal has an inflatable nostril sac, the siamang is a gibbon with an inflatable throat sac and numerous frog species have inflatable throat sacs.

 

[TheAncientCenturion]

I like Prehistoric Planets display features better. Sauropods had very long necks and odds are it would’ve been used for display as well, as opposed to the top of a sauropods head

 

[Owl Ki]

Och aye, I forgot to share share this. Better late than never I guess.

PBS released an article a couple weeks back showing the episode descriptions for the upcoming Walking with Dinosaurs.

https://www.pbs.org/articles/how-to-watch-walking-with-dinosaurs

Tl;dr version:
• Episode 1 follows a baby Triceratops.
• Episode 2 follows a doting Spinosaurus father.
• Episode 3 follows some Ankylosaurian dinos being harassed by Utahraptors.
• Episode 4 follows an Albertasaurus.
• Episode 5 follows a herd of Pachyrhinosaurus being harassed by a pack of Gorgosaurus.
• Episode 6 follows Lusotitans battling for mating rights.

Elsewhere, I learned about a different paleo documentary titled Surviving Earth.

https://dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Surviving_Earth

Tim Haines (a creator and producer on the original Walking with series) and Loud Minds (a media company that worked on Walking with Dinosaurs and Primeval) are working on this show. It will supposedly consist of eight 1 hour long episodes that cover various extinction events throughout prehistory. I recall reading that the Great Dying and the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse will have episodes.

 

[Zoinks52]

So this is from the new WWD...allegedly. Looks a bit....lacking, I feel. Any thoughts?

 

[TheAncientCenturion]

So this is from the new WWD...allegedly. Looks a bit....lacking, I feel. Any thoughts?

Haven’t watched yet so I can’t fully judge the series off this clip but… that was poorly done lol. Nothing natural about it

 

[Zoinks52]

Haven’t watched yet so I can’t fully judge the series off this clip but… that was poorly done lol. Nothing natural about it

Yeah it was, like, really jerky. Legit looked like they were doing Ray Harryhausen style stop motion for the Rex especially.

I'm also not sure if the Trike's frill repaint skill would have been a sufficient deterrent against a hungry Rex...and that smaller ceratopsian just standing there and backing away from the Rex too, wouldn't it have just run away instead?

 

[Owl Ki]

So this is from the new WWD...allegedly. Looks a bit....lacking, I feel. Any thoughts?

I think it is three things in the visual department:

1) The textures are off, the dinos look rubbery.

2) The CGI isn't completely terrible but it doesn't hold up in a real world environment.

Funnily enough, that reminds me of how a 2011 series called Planet Dinosaur solved that problem by putting its dinosaurs in a CGI environment. It knew its dinos didn't have good enough CGI to hold up in a real world environment so it instead put them in a fake one and the series visually holds up because of it. The dinos don't look out of place.

3) Lack of physical presence is the real nail in the coffin. No interaction with the environment. On that Triceratops charge, the original WwD would have had vegetation being disturbed and dirt being kicked up. Here, there is nothing.

The narration goes "each of these dinosaurs are over 8 tons!" yet it doesn't even look like a mouse went through the forest. Lol.

On side notes, the new narrator doesn't sound as good as Kenneth Branagh and the soundtrack I'm hearing doesn't hold a candle to Ben Bartlett's masterpieces.

All in all, the BBC really shouldn't have put the Walking with title onto this new series. It sets expectations way too high.

 

[Zoinks52]

I think it is three things in the visual department:

1) The textures are off, the dinos look rubbery.

2) The CGI isn't completely terrible but it doesn't hold up in a real world environment.

Funnily enough, that reminds me of how a 2011 series called Planet Dinosaur solved that problem by putting its dinosaurs in a CGI environment. It knew its dinos didn't have good enough CGI to hold up in a real world environment so it instead put them in a fake one and the series visually holds up because of it. The dinos don't look out of place.

3) Lack of physical presence is the real nail in the coffin. No interaction with the environment. On that Triceratops charge, the original WwD would have had vegetation being disturbed and dirt being kicked up. Here, there is nothing.

The narration goes "each of these dinosaurs are over 8 tons!" yet it doesn't even look like a mouse went through the forest. Lol.

On side notes, the new narrator doesn't sound as good an Kenneth Branagh and the soundtrack I'm hearing doesn't hold a candle to Ben Bartlett's masterpieces.

All in all, the BBC really shouldn't have put the Walking with title onto this new series. It sets expectations way too high.

Well put. You summed up the issues nicely - no sense of weight, models look a bit amateurish and the whole thing feels isolated in terms of the surrounding environment.

One thing I really felt was the lack of energy in the scene. I've seen vids of bears, elephants etc fighting and there's a kind of explosiveness when they get moving that this doesn't have.

I remember Planet Dinosaur! I loved the Spino episode back then and saw a bit of the Predator X one. I agree it was good. Never knew about the artificial backgrounds.

Agree about the narrator, no shade intended but he has a rather reedy forgettable voice. Any reason they couldn't get Branagh? Even Benedict Cumberbatch would have done, I once heard a bit of some documentary he narrated and it was pretty good.

I wouldn't be surprised if the title was just a result if the chronic sequel-itis that's been rampant in recent years. It feels a bit like they're trying to coast on the OG WWD's rep.

 

[Owl Ki]

Well put. You summed up the issues nicely - no sense of weight, models look a bit amateurish and the whole thing feels isolated in terms of the surrounding environment.

One thing I really felt was the lack of energy in the scene. I've seen vids of bears, elephants etc fighting and there's a kind of explosiveness when they get moving that this doesn't have.

You're right. There is a real lack of energy. Looking at some other Dino Docu clips.

Ballad of Big Al (2000). Skip to 2:40

Spoiler

Short, intense, high energy, plenty of physical impact and environmental interaction.

The lack of energy could also be compounded by the lacklustre editing.

This fight in The Giant Claw (2002) lasts for about the same amount of time as that T-Rex vs Trike fight. I wouldn't call it high energy but the editing in it makes it visually more interesting.

Spoiler

Again there is more environmental interactions, more weight, more presence. The close-ups actually show you things you want to see (the Thero's claws and the Tarbo getting hit). The close-up in WwD 2025 shows you stuff you don't want to see (the Trike's face when you would likely be more interested in the T-Rex bite).

I'm pretty sure the only reason 2025 even does a close-up is because they weren't confident in the physical CGI interaction between its dinos.

Agree about the narrator, no shade intended but he has a rather reedy forgettable voice. Any reason they couldn't get Branagh? Even Benedict Cumberbatch would have done, I once heard a bit of some documentary he narrated and it was pretty good.

Looking at his filmography, Branagh was probably too busy. Bloke is also a theatre actor and throughout 2023 and 2024 he'd have been busy for his theatre performances for King Lear as King Lear.

I wouldn't be surprised if the title was just a result if the chronic sequel-itis that's been rampant in recent years. It feels a bit like they're trying to coast on the OG WWD's rep.

It was probably an attempt to cash in on Prehistoric Planet using the nostalgic name of Walking with. That didn't work out.

 

[Fujishiro]

Filler.

 

[TheAncientCenturion]

Jurassic rebirth will be a good bad movie unlike the world films

 

[Owl Ki]

Filler.

Thanks.

@Zoinks52 it gets worse. I've just seen clips of the Gastonia/Utahraptor episode...

Spoiler: Utahraptor hunt.

Spoiler: Utahraptor kill.

What the feck man. The textures have degraded from looking a bit rubbery to looking like hard plastic. These don't look like living creatures, they look like giant moving toys.

That Utah flip is criminal though. They have a single 500kg raptor use its head to flip over a low centre of gravity quadrupedal tank up to 4x its weight like a stale pancake.

Every new clip I see of this show looks worse than the last.

 

[Zoinks52]

Thanks.

@Zoinks52 it gets worse. I've just seen clips of the Gastonia/Utahraptor episode...

Spoiler: Utahraptor hunt.

Spoiler: Utahraptor kill.

What the feck man. The textures have degraded from looking a bit rubbery to looking like hard plastic. These don't look like living creatures, they look like giant moving toys.

That Utah flip is criminal though. They have a single 500kg raptor use its head to flip over a low centre of gravity quadrupedal tank up to 4x its weight like a stale pancake.

Every new clip I see of this show looks worse than the last.

Ooof.

It looks like an amateur Youtuber's animation lol. Looks like they reused that frame of the Utahraptor running too...couldn't help but notice that.

They should've gotten Julian Johnson Mortimer or someone like him to work on this. Mind, I don't think his works are 100% accurate (Livyatan seemed way too scaly for instance) and they can also lack weight at times but still they look pretty damn good for someone who ( I think) is doing it in his spare time.

Imagine something like this for the raptors, but more refined.

That aside, it's the same issues as last time, but I feel the second clip's a little better in terms of visuals at least. Although I can't lie, the Utah's "diversion" looked pretty absurd to me.....

.......actually it made me laugh, because you've got a posturing raptor on one side going all "LOOK AT ME!" and the Gastonia on the other is just awkwardly gyrating in place like "Maybe if I pretend he doesn't exist he might leave."

Is the second scenario even believable? I mean aside from the flip thing which you've correctly mentioned (Gastonia is supposed to weigh two TONS) it just looks so weird.

The tanks just letting it happen for instance - I know that some animals are flight types or just don't care about other members of their kind, but are armoured dinos thought not to have any herd defenses?

 

[Owl Ki]

Ooof.

It looks like an amateur Youtuber's animation lol. Looks like they reused that frame of the Utahraptor running too...couldn't help but notice that.

I counted the same exact scene 3 times in 60 seconds and within that, 2 times in 20 seconds.

They didn't even think to zoom in for each consecutive shot to make it a bit visually different and maybe a little interesting, they just went straight to creative bankruptcy.

They also made the raptors have these exceedingly quick little movements that look visually uncanny.

It looks the thought process was "Oh, raptors are related to birds, right? We'll give them bird-like movements!" and then proceeded to put the movement set of small garden birds like wagtails and robins onto a creature the size of a fucking polar bear.

Big birds don't smeggin move like that. Large, strictly terrestrial birds like ostriches, emus, rheas and cassowaries do not move like that. They're, too, big.

That aside, it's the same issues as last time, but I feel the second clip's a little better in terms of visuals at least. Although I can't lie, the Utah's "diversion" looked pretty absurd to me.....

.......actually it made me laugh, because you've got a posturing raptor on one side going all "LOOK AT ME!" and the Gastonia on the other is just awkwardly gyrating in place like "Maybe if I pretend he doesn't exist he might leave."

Is the second scenario even believable? I mean aside from the flip thing which you've correctly mentioned (Gastonia is supposed to weigh two TONS) it just looks so weird.

The tanks just letting it happen for instance - I know that some animals are flight types or just don't care about other members of their kind, but are armoured dinos thought not to have any herd defenses?

It looks like another case of "overpowered documentary carnivore". Life on Our Planet had the same issue. For example, they had a single cave lion overpower and insta-kill a sub-adult woolly mammoth.

From what I understand, there is a notably less evidence for herd behaviour among Ankylosaurian dinosaurs as a whole than among the likes of Ceratopsians for example. That being said, Gastonia specifically might have lived in herds or at least in small groups due to them being found in multiples in its dig sites.

Realistically, I don't think a pack of Utahraptors would even bother a Gastonia because they would be in a tough fight with a two ton wall of spiked armour whose weight is mostly made up of bone and osteoderms, not meat. There would be more suitable worthwhile targets elsewhere that would have more flesh on them than Gastonia.

I recall seeing a theory that Gastonia was common in its formation precisely because it was too difficult and unrewarding for Utahraptors to bother hunting. Lol.

 

[Zoinks52]

I counted the same exact scene 3 times in 60 seconds and within that, 2 times in 20 seconds.

They didn't even think to zoom in for each consecutive shot to make it a bit visually different and maybe a little interesting, they just went straight to creative bankruptcy.

They also made the raptors have these exceedingly quick little movements that look visually uncanny.

It looks the thought process was "Oh, raptors are related to birds, right? We'll give them bird-like movements!" and then proceeded to put the movement set of small garden birds like wagtails and robins onto a creature the size of a fucking polar bear.

Big birds don't smeggin move like that. Large, strictly terrestrial birds like ostriches, emus, rheas and cassowaries do not move like that. They're, too, big.

It looks like another case of "overpowered documentary carnivore". Life on Our Planet had the same issue. For example, they had a single cave lion overpower and insta-kill a sub-adult woolly mammoth.

From what I understand, there is a notably less evidence for herd behaviour among Ankylosaurian dinosaurs as a whole than among the likes of Ceratopsians for example. That being said, Gastonia specifically might have lived in herds or at least in small groups due to them being found in multiples in its dig sites.

Realistically, I don't think a pack of Utahraptors would even bother a Gastonia because they would be in a tough fight with a two ton wall of spiked armour whose weight is mostly made up of bone and osteoderms, not meat. There would be more suitable worthwhile targets elsewhere that would have more flesh on them than Gastonia.

I recall seeing a theory that Gastonia was common in its formation precisely because it was too difficult and unrewarding for Utahraptors to bother hunting. Lol.

Yeah the animation and visuals for this doc are....bad. Kinda sad given how we had stuff like this back in 2013. I guess we ought to thank our stars that at least they didn't use AI animation lol.

Oh god I remember the damn LOOP mammoth hunt. That was another disappointment tbh.

I wish they'd treat prehistoric elephants with more respect, they're super underrated. From the whacky ones like the Gomphotheres to the titans like M. Borsoni and the steppe mammoth....but the Woolies and Columbians are the only ones that get love.

Yeah I see what you mean, scenario is super weird. Gastonia even at half the size wouldn't be easy prey. This one was not fully grown, right? I guess even then they could have had multiple raptors do the job.

Also, wouldn't it be dangerous to even get near the spikes? Wouldn't harassing and tiring out the prey animal be more effective?

It's a bit funny that we're getting an unrealistically OP carnivore in this day and age because a lot of online discourse that I see around such topics nowadays tends to be about herbivores being the really dangerous ones.

 

[Jeanstealer]

It turns out that some of the most rad posters of WG are also chad paleo-nerds?!

Any Paleozoic / Triassic enjoyers here?

 

[MonsterKaido]