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Dinosaur Revolution (Discovery Channel, Sept. 4 & 11, 9-11 PM ET/PT)

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S

Spaceman Spiff

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Official Site


Press Release:

BAD TO THE BONE: DINOSAUR REVOLUTION TO PREMIERE SEPTEMBER 4 AND 11 ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL

On September 4 and 11, the four-hour DINOSAUR REVOLUTION will present dinosaurs like you've never seen them before - combining the artistic and storytelling talents of the world's most renowned dinosaur illustrators with the most up-to-date discoveries about dinosaurs, their culture and behaviors. DINOSAUR REVOLUTION makes its world premiere on Discovery Channel Sunday, September 4 and Sunday, September 11 from 9-11PM ET/PT each night.

Executive produced by award-winning producer Erik Nelson (Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Grizzly Man), DINOSAUR REVOLUTION is rich in dramatic, pulse-pounding and humorous storytelling - told via gripping, colorful vignettes and minimal narration. Vividly illustrated by an A-team of animators and illustrators - including Dave Krentz (Disney's Dinosaur, John Carter of Mars), Ricardo Delgado (Dark Horse Comics' Age of Reptiles), Iain McCaig (Star Wars Ep. 1, 2, 3) and Pete Von Sholly (The Mask, Darkman) - the series drops viewers directly into the Prehistoric era to showcase dinosaurs in all their living, breathing glory.

As DINOSAUR REVOLUTION illustrates, dinosaurs were far more active, complex and colorful than ever imagined - more like birds than sluggish reptiles. The series transports viewers to various points of place and time to highlight a host of new behaviors, including exotic mating dances (Gigantoraptor, a dinosaur resembling a 17-foot tall turkey), the inner workings of T-Rex's nuclear family (Tyrannosaurus Rex, who was anything but dull and slow), and the underwater birthing of a huge marine reptile Mosasaurus. DINOSAUR REVOLUTION will also introduce new creatures like a Jurassic flying squirrel (Volaticotherium) and frogs so big they could eat dinosaurs (Beelzebufo).

DINOSAUR REVOLUTION is produced by Creative Differences for Discovery Channel. Erik Nelson is executive producer for Creative Differences; Alan Eyres and Brooke Runnette are executive producers for Discovery Channel.
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Episode Synopses:

Evolution's Winners - Premieres Sunday, Sept 4 at 9pm E/P

Everything you thought you knew about dinosaurs is wrong!

In the past few decades, there has been a revolution in how scientists view dinosaurs. Recent developments in the study of dinosaur culture reveal they are much more active, complex and colorful than we ever imagined, more like birds than sluggish reptiles.

This episode highlights new discoveries that shed light on the evolution from early dinosaurs such as the tiny Eoraptor to the bizarre looking crested dinosaurs of the Jurassic to the giant carnivores such as Tyrannosaurus Rex.

We'll see the mating rituals of Eoraptor and a battle between two crested Cryolophosaurs in the forests of Jurassic Antarctica. Witness the special adaptations of Gigantoraptor, a dinosaur resembling a 17-foot tall turkey with brightly colored feathers, and the huge marine reptile Mosasaurus fights off a pack of voracious sharks to protect her offspring.
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The Watering Hole - Premieres Sunday, Sept 4 at 10pm E/P

Take a leap back in time to an ancient watering hole, where predators and prey co-exist.

This episode transports us to the town of Lourinha, Portugal, where the largest concentration of fossils in Europe exists. We'll show you how this watering hole looked 150 million years ago, during the late Jurassic, where giant sauropods (four-legged herbivores) took a break along migration routes.

We see the fight for survival of a young Allosaurus as he battles the giant Dinheirosaurus - a plant-eater with a tail like a 35-foot long bullwhip - and Torvosaurus, a huge predator that competed for prey and territory. We meet the supporting cast of characters who gather near the watering hole, such as Ornitholestes - the "bird-robber" - and Rhamphorhynchus, a flying reptile, not to mention Miragaia, cousin to the well-known Stegosaurus, and Lusotitan, an 82-foot long sauropod.

Unlike previously thought, this episode reveals how dinosaurs worked in complex social systems and how the watering hole was the center of that environment where different species lived, and died, together.
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Survival Tactics - Premiers Tuesday, Sept 13 at 9pm E/P on Science Channel (not Discovery)

The world of the dinosaur is a tough and dangerous one. Remember the ferocious Velociraptors made famous by "Jurassic Park?"

Watch as bigger versions of them, Utahraptors, take down larger prey by hunting in groups. It takes revolutionary adaptations to stay alive during the era of the dinosaur, and this episode exposes how different species changed to survive.

See how a smaller version of the Utahraptor, the Rahonavis, used its special ability to run up trees to evade predators. In the skies, a young pterosaur - a flying reptile - uses flight to evade its enemy.

Also showcased will be the radical discovery that mammals were much more diverse at an earlier time than previously thought. You'll see the unusual Castorocauda, a beaver-like animal, and the Volaticotherium, an animal similar to a flying squirrel - mammals who shared the earth with dinosaurs during their reign. And an orphaned Protoceratops - a cousin to the more famous Triceratops - finds safety in numbers when it joins up with a group to fight off predators.
Click to expand...

End Game - Premiers Tuesday, Sept 13 at 10pm E/P on Science Channel (not Discovery)

Gigantic and menacing, the Tyrannosaurus Rex is probably the most famous dinosaur that ever lived.

However, new discoveries are proving wrong the previous depiction of the T.Rex as dull and slow - in fact, he was complex, dynamic and even bird-like. We get up a close and personal look at how they lived, from nesting in pairs to caring for their young and how they played together.

The reign of the T.Rex ended when the impact of a huge asteroid hurtling toward Earth decimated the dinosaur population — but not all dinosaurs died.

A few survivors such as Troodon, a small, bird-like dinosaur and the smartest dinosaur to ever live, may have hung on, yet eventually it, too, succumbed to the catastrophe. Watch as a lone Troodon — "the last dinosaur" — struggles to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. But our Troodon may not really be the last dinosaur. If birds are their descendants, then we're still living in the Age of Dinosaurs — and the DINOSAUR REVOLUTION continues.
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Panel Videos from Comic Con 2011:

  • Click the link. It's easy.


Trailer & Clips:




Images:

Eoraptor

74xPil.jpg


Cryolophosaurus

WVr1ol.jpg


Allosaurus

Ypcjul.jpg


Allosaurus (and Rhamphorhynchus)

p1wMcl.jpg


Dinheirosaurus

uPeNtl.jpg


wLxT4l.jpg


Rahonavis

ifFKcl.jpg


Tyrannosaurus

USNrtl.jpg


Tyrannosaurus vs. Triceratops (that's gonna leave a mark)

1Eidvl.jpg
 
Chuckie

Chuckie

Member
Spaceman Spiff said:

[B][I]Tyrannosaurus[/I] vs. [I]Triceratops[/I][/B] (that's gonna leave a mark)

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/1Eidvl.jpg
Click to expand...

Ah Triceratops.... my favorite.... KILL that bitch ass T-Rex!
 
F

Foliorum Viridum

Banned
Why does the Tyrannosaurus have almost a mask on? Is that how scientists think they look now?

My knowledge of dinosaurs goes as far as "FUCK THEY'RE COOL" and a totally unscientific Jurassic Park :p
 
S

Seanspeed

Banned
Foliorum Viridum said:
Why does the Tyrannosaurus have almost a mask on? Is that how scientists think they look now?
Click to expand...
There's not really any way of knowing what colors they were. But the 'ghost-face' T-Rex looks undoubtedly badass.
 
S

Spaceman Spiff

Member
Seanspeed said:
There's not really any way of knowing what colors they were. But the 'ghost-face' T-Rex looks undoubtedly badass.
Click to expand...

Yes, color and ornamentation will perhaps always be speculative, but then again, you never know.

The artists intentionally wanted the tyrannosaurs to look as if they had "death masks" on, so yeah, purely there to look badass.
 
Chuckie

Chuckie

Member
Seanspeed said:
There's not really any way of knowing what colors they were. But the 'ghost-face' T-Rex looks undoubtedly badass.
Click to expand...

True dat!

Better than this kind of shite:

Velociraptor_portrait_2_by_dustdevil.jpg
 
U

Utako

Banned
Foliorum Viridum said:
Why does the Tyrannosaurus have almost a mask on? Is that how scientists think they look now?
Click to expand...
Nobody really knows, but I like it because it looks like a natural adaptation - mimic the walking dead to spook and disorient pray.
 
S

Spaceman Spiff

Member
Cow Mengde said:
That's also an Allosaurus? I thought the one at night was the Allosaurus.
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They both are. The Portuguese Lourinhã fauna features pretty extensively in one of the episodes, (the one where the Torvosaurus gets his brutal comeuppance).
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Tence said:
True dat!

Better than this kind of shite:

Velociraptor_portrait_2_by_dustdevil.jpg
Click to expand...

That's a very nice looking Velociraptor. The one in the show looks similar to this.

They both are. The Portuguese Lourinhã fauna features pretty extensively in one of the episodes, (the one where the Torvosaurus gets his brutal comeuppance).
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Hehe, so used to seeing the same model reused for a similar difference species of the same animal. Although I don't recall reading about Allosaurus itself being in Portugal. I know about the possibility of Edmarka and Torvosaurus being the same thing, but no Allosaurus.
 
T

TrAcEr_x90

Member
the preview trailer gave me crappy thoughts of the CG. But after looking at the clips its a big step up from previous series.
 
F

Foliorum Viridum

Banned
Seanspeed said:
There's not really any way of knowing what colors they were. But the 'ghost-face' T-Rex looks undoubtedly badass.
Click to expand...
Ah, fair enough. It does look pretty cool, if a bit jarring after seeing them in pop culture without that colour scheme before.
 
Chuckie

Chuckie

Member
Cow Mengde said:
That's a very nice looking Velociraptor. The one in the show looks similar to this.
Click to expand...

It looks like a fucking duck with teeth :(

I miss the times when men still thought they looked like tiny evil T-Rex'es
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Tence said:
It looks like a fucking duck with teeth :(

I miss the times when men still thought they looked like tiny evil T-Rex'es
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I'm guessing you've never seen a duck before.

And they never look like tiny T.rexes.

zlOEc.jpg


This is the skull of a Velociraptor.
 
Chuckie

Chuckie

Member
Cow Mengde said:
I'm guessing you've never seen a duck before.

And they never look like tiny T.rexes.

zlOEc.jpg


This is the skull of a Velociraptor.
Click to expand...

Are you always so serious? Jeez lighten up.

velociraptor.jpg
 
Chuckie

Chuckie

Member
Cow Mengde said:
I'm hardly ever serious, but it blows my mind that people somehow thinks Jurassic Park is the be all end all of what dinosaurs look like.
Click to expand...

But I don't so it shouldn't blow your mind. I said I miss the time when they looked bad-ass I didn't say I think that JP is the be end all of what dinosaurs look like.
 
S

Spaceman Spiff

Member
Tence said:
Are you always so serious? Jeez lighten up.
Click to expand...

Not to pile on, but the seriousness is justified if you are interested in what dinosaurs were like, (at least as far as the evidence will allow us to know), as opposed to what people want them to be like.

Feathered dinosaurs have been known since 1996, and have been found in great numbers spanning many different families. In cases of very good preservation, dromaeosaur fossils display extensive feather impressions, and Velociraptor itself is even known to have had quill knobs on its forearms. So not only did it have feathers, but some were the broad, primary-style feathers you see on modern flying birds, even though Velociraptor itself was almost certainly flightless.

In GAF-speak: feathered dinosaurs-- dealwithit.jpg :)
 
S

Spaceman Spiff

Member
Cow Mengde said:
Archaeopteryx was just confirmed to be a dinosaur a few weeks ago.
Click to expand...

Some scientists have suspected as much for decades now, but in any event, there you go: feathered dinosaurs have been known since 1861.
 
stufte

stufte

Member
joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
That's not very scary. More like a six-foot Turkey.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm a ninny, but if a razor-toothed six-foot Turkey was chasing me down, I'd piss myself trying to get as far away from it as I could.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Spaceman Spiff said:
Some scientists have suspected as much for decades now, but in any event, there you go: feathered dinosaurs have been known since 1861.
Click to expand...

Yup, Henry Huxley grouped dinosaurs with birds back in the early days. The bird theory has been around 150 years old.
 
S

Sennorin

Banned
Don´t really like these dinosaur designs. For one, they´re unnecessarily *cool*. For second, still no feathers? I thought that had been proven. Ignoring it is just silly at this point.
 
LQX

LQX

Member
Nice, cant wait. Dinosaur loving is back. First the BBC series now Discovery.

Plus Terra Nova is coming soon.
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
Maybe it's worth to mention that we are not talking about the same feathers like modern birds have. They are called protofeathers and they weren't exactly the same, neither in look nor in function.
 
A

AlimNassor

Banned
joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
That's not very scary. More like a six-foot Turkey.
Click to expand...

yeah a 6 FT turkey isn't very scary, but, a 6FT tall vicious Turkey with claws that can disembowel you in seconds is scary.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Edmond Dantès said:
Seems like Dinosaurs are back in vogue with this and PD airing soon.
Click to expand...

And Terra Nova. Yeah, the concept is stupid, but it's a big budget TV show about dinosaurs and we rarely have those.
 
S

Spaceman Spiff

Member
Sennorin said:
Don´t really like these dinosaur designs. For one, they´re unnecessarily *cool*. For second, still no feathers? I thought that had been proven. Ignoring it is just silly at this point.
Click to expand...

Uh, there's a feathered Rahonavis in the OP, and there's other media of proper, fully feathered and protowinged dromaeosaurs:

DDVL7.jpg


He even wants a hug!
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Spaceman Spiff said:
Uh, there's a feathered Rahonavis in the OP, and there's other media of proper, fully feathered and protowinged dromaeosaurs:

DDVL7.jpg


He even wants a hug!
Click to expand...

That was listed as a Velociraptor from the site. Looking at the surroundings, it probably is a Velociraptor. Maybe not the best color scheme though. Their Saurochus is so green.
 
S

Spaceman Spiff

Member
Cow Mengde said:
That was listed as a Velociraptor from the site. Looking at the surroundings, it probably is a Velociraptor. Maybe not the best color scheme though. Their Saurochus is so green.
Click to expand...

Definitely a Velociraptor. Utahraptor is also going to feature in the third episode, for a total of three dromaeosaurids (including Rahonavis). Noice.

As for the color schemes, yeah, some are quite vivid but it's a welcome change of pace from the usually dull and drab archosaurs that parade around on these shows.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Oh man oh man. So many awesome new dinosaur shows. Which one are you guys looking forward to? Dinosaur Revolution or Planet Dinosaur?
 
E

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
Cow Mengde said:
Oh man oh man. So many awesome new dinosaur shows. Which one are you guys looking forward to? Dinosaur Revolution or Planet Dinosaur?
Click to expand...
Both, I'm intrigued by the team behind Revolution, but I'm also expecting great things from PD because of the BBC's reputation of producing great natural history series. I just think it's a wonderful time to be a dinosaur lover.

There's also the re-release of Jurassic Park in the UK to look forward to.
 
S

Spaceman Spiff

Member
Edmond Dantès said:
Both, I'm intrigued by the team behind Revolution, but I'm also expecting great things from PD because of the BBC's reputation of producing great natural history series. I just think it's a wonderful time to be a dinosaur lover.
Click to expand...

I very much agree. It's going to be a fun couple of weeks on Dino-GAF; bring 'em on.

The two shows are wildly different in style, with relatively little overlap in the faunas depicted, so both will hopefully offer plenty of worthwhile content.

Dinosaur Revolution isn't so much a documentary as it is vignette storytelling with anthropomorphized dinosaurs, complete with occasional jaunts into slapstick comedy. It's fair to say that there has never been a more talented team of artists working on a dinosaur TV feature before, and while I'm a bit disappointed that the show has been altered from the silent, narration-less treatment it was originally pitched as-- a cinematic adaptation of Delgado's "Age of Reptiles" is my ultimate dinosaur media fantasy-- the designs of the dinosaurs themselves will be a major source of my enjoyment of the series.

Planet Dinosaur seems to be a more conventional documentary, and has the advantage of those wonderful BBC production values behind it. I appreciate the emphasis on new species, (even though several of the examples in the trailers are hardly new to science), and the animation and particularly the modeling look worlds better than WWD, which I honestly didn't find all that remarkable once the initial spectacle wore off.

That all being said, I doubt either will be as good as the old PBS series, "The Dinosaurs", which remains, even after 20 (!) years, my personal gold standard against which all dinosaur series are judged. By the way, Cow Mengde, I was delighted, (but not necessarily surprised), to see it atop the list in the Top 10 you did with Hewylewis. Nice work!
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Spaceman Spiff said:
That all being said, I doubt either will be as good as the old PBS series, "The Dinosaurs", which remains, even after 20 (!) years, my personal gold standard against which all dinosaur series are judged. By the way, Cow Mengde, I was delighted, (but not necessarily surprised), to see it atop the list in the Top 10 you did with Hewylewis. Nice work!
Click to expand...

Oh wow, I didn't know people at GAF saw that video. The Dinosaurs really is a great documentary. I think it holds up better than many modern dinosaur documentaries.

Two more days till Dinosaur Revolution.
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
Spaceman Spiff said:
That all being said, I doubt either will be as good as the old PBS series, "The Dinosaurs", which remains, even after 20 (!) years, my personal gold standard against which all dinosaur series are judged. By the way, Cow Mengde, I was delighted, (but not necessarily surprised), to see it atop the list in the Top 10 you did with Hewylewis. Nice work!
Click to expand...

I had this and the Fred Savage atrocity on VHS back in the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf1xLpKLVZ4
 
G

Green Mamba

Member
I'm excited. The dinosaurs are a might bit overdesigned (the allosaurus in particular), but man oh man I have a hard time not getting excited for dinosaurs.

Also, this is a very good depiction of a velociraptor. Pretty awesome.
 
S

Spaceman Spiff

Member
Cow Mengde said:
Oh wow, I didn't know people at GAF saw that video. The Dinosaurs really is a great documentary. I think it holds up better than many modern dinosaur documentaries.

Two more days till Dinosaur Revolution.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not nearly as dated as its 1992 release date might suggest. I bought a dirt cheap MIB VHS set several years ago and converted them to DVD for posterity.

As for DR, my body is ready. Early indications suggest that the first hour is hit or miss, but the show gets into its stride by the second episode, and the final hour with T. rex and the Late Cretaceous fauna is the strongest of all. We'll see.

Green Mamba said:
I'm excited. The dinosaurs are a might bit overdesigned (the allosaurus in particular), but man oh man I have a hard time not getting excited for dinosaurs.
Click to expand...

I think that's in large part due to the fact that most shows deliberately render their dinosaurs very conservatively in terms of ornamentation and color, assuming that by avoiding speculative detail they are somehow more accurate. However, to quote Dr. Matt Wedel of SV-POW!:

... Any life restoration of a dinosaur involves going out on a limb and positing things for which we have little or no direct evidence. So no life restoration is going to show exactly how Sauroposeidon looked. In my view, if you know you’re going to be wrong anyway, you might as well be interestingly wrong, and put in the kinds of plausible-but-not-fossilized structures that extant animals are replete with.
Click to expand...

DR's Allosaurus isn't implausible in the least, though; similar conical dermal spines are known in Carnotaurus, which are quite widespread and of varying size, with the largest ones over the neck and back.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Spaceman Spiff said:
Yeah, it's not nearly as dated as its 1992 release date might suggest. I bought a dirt cheap MIB VHS set several years ago and converted them to DVD for posterity.

As for DR, my body is ready. Early indications suggest that the first hour is hit or miss, but the show gets into its stride by the second episode, and the final hour with T. rex and the Late Cretaceous fauna is the strongest of all. We'll see.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been keeping up with it so my expectations are realistic. I just finished reading impressions from the Smithsonian Blog so I know what to expect ahead of time. Though I am disappointed to hear the effects aren't as flawless as the trailer.
 
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