A few days ago Apple TV + released the official trailer of Prehistoric Planet, the new dinosaur-themed documentary that will be divided into five episodes from 23 to 27 May, narrated by the one and only Sir David Attenborough and a soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer. The trailer is amazing and the graphics are spectacular. Many species have been shown, but surely there are others that have not yet been revealed. Since this series consists of 5 episodes all set in the Maastrichtian, the final part of the Upper Cretaceous (from 72 to 66 million years ago), it seems that each episode will be more or less dedicated to a specific geological formation.
One will likely be dedicated to Hell Creek, where iconic dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops lived, and maybe there will also be the Texan formation of Javelina.
Another episode will probably take place on Hateg Island, home to many unique and interesting species of dwarf dinosaurs.
Another episode will be set in Mongolia and/or China.
Given the presence of marine reptiles, it is not known in which episode they will appear, and some short scenes suggest that one of the remaining episodes will take place in Madagascar, while the other could take place in Argentina. But now let’s talk about all the dinosaurs (and not only) that have been shown in the trailer.
Starting with marine reptiles, the trailer shows some plesiosaurs (most likely elasmosaurids) and two mosasaurs (possibly Mosasaurus hofmanni) fighting each other.
The second moment of this trailer that I liked the most was towards the end, in which we see Beelzebufo, a giant frog that lived in Madagascar that is capturing with its tongue what appears to be a juvenile Masiakasaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur belonging to the Noasaurids.
The other carnivorous dinosaurs shown are almost all tyrannosaurids. In addition to Tyrannosaurus rex, the trailer also features a trio of sleeping Tarbosaurus, a trio of Nanuqsaurus chasing a group of Pachyrhinosaurus, and the bizarre and interesting Qianzhousaurus hunting some oviraptorosaur dinosaurs, which could be Nankagia or a close relative.
Speaking of small theropods, the trailer shows a velociraptorine dromaeosaurid which could be Adasaurus or a close relative, and also some small Alvarezsaurids. One of the most mysterious dinosaurs shown in the trailer was a theropod which I hope is Balaur bondoc, a very bizarre theropod which lived in the island of Hateg.
And now that we’re done with the carnivorous dinosaurs, let’s move on to the herbivores, starting with my favorite scene from the trailer showing my favorite dinosaur eating aquatic plants, Deinocheirus mirificus, a member of the ornithomimosaur group and one of the largest theropods ever existed.
Aside from Pachyrhinosaurus, the only other ceratopsid shown in the trailer was Triceratops, and we also had a quick look at a juvenile specimen with a very different skull shape from that of the adults.
And finally, we come to the hadrosaurs. The two species that have been shown are the famous North American Edmontosaurus (probably E. annectens) and an Asian hadrosaur from Mongolia called Olorotitan. The trailer briefly shows what is probably a baby Olorotitan that just came out of its egg.
The hype for this documentary is immeasurable and we can’t wait to witness this amazing documentary with our own eyes.