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* ''The Ballad of Big Al'' (2000), which tries to recreate the possible life of a [[Real Life]] ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Allosaurus]]'', named ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Big Al]]''.
* ''Walking with Beasts'' (2001), focusing on mammal evolution which came after the dinosaurs in the Paleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary Periods.
* ''Chased by Dinosaurs'' (2002), two specials focusing on two striking dinosaurs, the gigantic ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Argentinosaurus]]'' and the odd ''[[
* ''Prehistoric Planet'' (2002), a revised version of the ''Walking With Dinosaurs'' and ''Walking With Beasts'' documentaries, aimed at a younger audience and narrated by [[Ben Stiller]].
* ''Sea Monsters'' (2003), focusing on dangerous prehistoric marine wildlife, from "the seventh most dangerous sea ever" up to "the first" one. This also featured Nigel Marven.
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* [[Carnivore Confusion]]: The "predation is just a fact of life" approach, as most predators are treated as any documentary animals should be treated, not as villains. There are a few exceptions though, mainly in the two spinoffs ending with "Monsters".
* [[Downer Ending]]: A given, since every animal featured in the program goes extinct eventually.
* [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks]]: Subverted mostly, as sharks in the series can't hold a candle to larger predators like ''[[
* [[Good Bad Translation]]: The Italian and Spanish versions. For example, the Spanish changes ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Utahraptor]]'' to ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Velociraptor]]'', ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Diplodocus]]'' to ''[[
** The Hungarian translation, too.
* [[Never Smile At a Crocodile]]: ''[[
** ''Deinosuchus'' gets only a cameo appearance in ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' the TV series, but its [[Badass|badassery]] is emphasized in the accompanying book, where it's stated that it's even capable of killing a ''Tyrannosaurus'' getting too close to the water {{spoiler|and later a group of them scares the female ''Tyrannosaurus'' away from freshly killed ''Anatotitan''.}}
* [[Noisy Nature]]: And HOW! All animals in the whole series make continuously sounds of every kind from roars to bellows, screechs, and so on (a major example of the strong [[Rule of Cool]] that characterize this series). The most incredible example is perhaps the early "amphibian" ''[[
** Another example: giant arthropods like the scorpion ''[[
* [[Roger Rabbit Effect]]: Some CGI animals share a scene or two with live-acted ones (including ancient humans), but this is used more greatly for comedic effect in all the various ''Making of'' specials.
* [[Rule of Cool]]: Several examples throughout the series, especially about speculative animal behaviour. Another example is the fact that only the most spectacular animals of each taxonomic group are usually portrayed in almost all the shows of the series, despite they were probably less common in their environments that their smaller relatives (like what happens among modern animals as well). However, we can see many small-sized prehistoric animals too. Still another example is that many animals are more or less ''oversized'' in the program: the two most striking examples are the swimming ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Liopleurodon]]'' and the flying ''[[
** Since the list of examples from this trope is ''really'' large, please [[Walking with Dinosaurs/Rule of Cool|go here]] to see them.
* [[Science Marches On]]: Many new discoveries have been made after this series, which changed our perception about prehistoric wildlife. These discoveries regard animal behaviour, taxonomy, or other issues. See [[Science Marches On/Walking With Dinosaurs|here]] for examples.
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* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The accompanying book ''Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History'' contains a lot of additional information about geography of the world dinosaurs lived in, elaborates on some speculative concepts only briefly mentioned in the TV series, and introduces new ones. The book even introduced some creatures that weren't shown in the TV series.
* [[All There in the Manual]]: More than a few species not named in the TV show appear in the aforementioned book.
* [[Always a Bigger Fish]]: Happens on several occasions. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Perhaps]] the most memorable of which was the huge marine reptile ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Liopleurodon]]'' snatching the medium-sized carnivorous dinosaur ''[[
** Also an example of [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying|another trope]] since ''Liopleurodon'' was probably closer to 4.5-6.5 meters rather than the absurd 25 meters noted in the episode.
* [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape]]: Averted, quite a few species kill members of their own kind. The small carnivorous dinosaur ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Coelophysis]]'' is an ''[[Eats Babies|excellent example]]''. The [[
** The ''Coelophysis'' example is due to the classic (but now [[Science Marches On|mostly discredited]]) interpretation of what appeared to be remains of young ''Coelophysis'' in the ribcage of some adults of the same species, it's not an invention of the show; while the Cynodont one ''is'' invented.
* [[Apocalypse Wow]]: The meteor impact scene in "Death of a Dynasty" is pretty awesome, and much more realistically shown than most other portraits in other documentaries, with the correct sequence of events: first the light, then the earth tremor, then the dust cloud and wind-storms, finally the melted rocks from the sky.
* [[Art Evolution]]: If you count the two shows as being related, then compare the ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|T. rex]]'' in the [http://i33.tinypic.com/91jv43.jpg original series] and the ones in ''[http://www.dinosoria.com/cinema/bbc_02.jpg Prehistoric Park]'' (the same thing about the "[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|sabretooth cat]]").
* [[Australian Wildlife]]: One ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' episode centers on Australian wildlife during the Late Cretaceous, the small plant-eating dinosaur ''[[
* [[Beware My Stinger Tail]]: ''Stegosaurus'' and ''Ankylosaurus''.
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: In ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', the young ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Diplodocus]]'' is attacked by an ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Allosaurus]]'' and is saved when another ''Diplodocus'' knocks the ''Allosaurus'' down with its tail.
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* [[Book Ends]]: The ending to the last episode of ''Walking With Monsters'' echoes the end of the first episode of ''Walking With Dinosaurs''. [[Crowning Music of Awesome|It even has the same music.]]
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The book is far more brutal than the television series.
* [[Eats Babies]]: The ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Coelophysis]]'', [[
* [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs]]: The developers originally wanted to do a show about ''[[
* [[Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods]]: The [[
* [[Feathered Fiend]]: The primitive bird ''[[
** Technically also ''[[
* [[Follow the Leader]]: After ''Walking With Dinosaurs'', there came a whole onslaught of documentaries with CGI dinosaurs. ''[[When Dinosaurs Roamed America]]'', ''[[Dinosaur Planet]]'', and ''[[Jurassic Fight Club]]'', to name a few.<ref>The latter show gave the [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|allosaurs]] and ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Utahraptor]]'' identical color schemes to the original show.</ref>
** Every post-WWD toy of ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Liopleurodon]]'' has been given the colour scheme it had in WWD.
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: The dinosaurs did go extinct and the episode is called "Death of a Dynasty" after all.
** The death of the old ''[[
* [[Gasshole]]: One of the ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Diplodocus]]'' is heard farting during the digestion of plant matter, while the narrator says "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|The activity in its gut produces a lot of excess gas]]".
* [[Giant Flyer]]: Several giant [[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|pterosaurs]] (the correct name instead of "pterodactyl"). From the first series, both ''[[
* [[Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure]]: The meteor at the end of the Cretaceous. It explodes with a power of 300.000.000 Hiroshima bombs.
* [[Hemisphere Bias]]: The end of ''Dinosaurs'', where Montana somehow transforms into the ''African savanna''.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted on a ''grand'' scale.
** New Blood contained the deaths of {{spoiler|all the [[
** "Time of the Titans" obviously with all the ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Diplodocus]]'' youngsters (called "sauropodlets" in the show). So many are alive at the beginning but as the episode goes on {{spoiler|most of them die off. In the series only 2 or even 3 survive everything to join a herd, if you read the book ''only ONE survived''}}
** "Cruel Sea" just might be the only part of the series {{spoiler|(Except for "Giant of the Skies", which didn't contain much young characters. That focused on old mortality if anything...)}} where this trope is put into use. As although there may have been implied deaths of the young ''[[
*** Unless you count the very, very graphic instance of [[Death by Childbirth]], which does have a dead little baby ''Ophthalmosaurus''.
** "Spirits of the Ice Forest" has young that are mostly implied to have died in the book, mentioning that although many of the ''[[
** "Death of a Dynasty" has, (besides the ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Tyrannosaurus]]'' young killed by the meteor at the end anyway) the ''Triceratops''-like ''[[
*** In the original cut the female tyrannosaur gets in heat because a leak of volcanic gas kills her first litter of eggs before they hatch. Then two ''Didelphodon'' come and [[Squick|try to eat the almost-formed tyrannosaur embryos]].
* [[Land Down Under]]: Cretaceous Australia spends half the year frozen solid, with no sunlight whatsoever during that period.
* [[The Magic Goes Away]]: ''Death of a Dynasty''.
* [[Mama Bear]]: The female ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Tyrannosaurus]]''. Deconstructed, as her valiant attempt to scare an Ankylosaurus away from her infants ends up killing her.
** The female ''Tyrannosaurus'' also displays the trait in the live arena show, when she scares away a ''[[
* [[Misplaced Wildlife]]: European dinosaurs ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Plateosaurus]]'', and ''[[
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: In the arena show, the mother ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Tyrannosaurus]]'' scares away the ''[[
* [[Narrator]]: [[Kenneth Branagh]]. He was dubbed over for some releases, (e.g. the US).
* [[No Fourth Wall]]: Nigel Marven repeatedly addresses the audience.
* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]: {{spoiler|The fight between female ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Tyrannosaurus'' and ''Ankylosaurus]]'' ends up this way in the book that accompanied the TV series.}}
* [[Palette Swap]]: Similar looking animals (like ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Utahraptor]]'' and ''[[
* [[Papa Wolf]]: The male [[
* [[Prehistoric Monster]]: Gorgeously averted, ''perhaps'' except only for ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Liopleurodon]]'', which still behaves like a real animal, but is presented in a sinister light. The portrait of ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|T. rex]]'' is of particular note: they appear more good mothers and playful youngsters than scary killers.
* [[Raptor Attack]]: Scaly raptors appear.
* [[Real Is Brown]]: Averted, although most other artwork makes dinosaurs with boring, green/grey colours, here they are often brightly coloured with stripes, spots and patterns, like reptiles and birds are today.
* [[Red Herring]]: ''[[
** This is ruined in [[Good Bad Translation|Italian dub]]: here the narrator says {{spoiler|"Eustreptospondylus, the most fearsome predator of the Jurassic..." (sigh)}}
* [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]]: Guess what.
* [[Sea Monster]]: The entire third episode, ''Cruel Sea'', though a giant ''[[
* [[Seldom-Seen Species]]:
** '''New Blood:''' ''[[
** '''Time of the Titans:''' ''[[
** '''Cruel Sea:''' ''[[
** '''Giant of the Skies:''' ''[[
** '''Spirits of the Ice Forest:''' ''[[
** '''Death of a Dynasty:''' ''[[
** '''Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular:''' ''[[
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: "Giant of the Skies".
* [[Shown Their Work]]: The production team went on great lengths to avoid [[
** [[Word of God]] says that in the Cretaceous, grass only existed in India. India was never shown in any incarnation of WWD.
* [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying]]: Mostly averted, but still, there are plenty of mess-ups.
** Apparently some paleontologists strongly criticized the scene from the first episode of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' where ''[[
*** This combines the twin arts of whining and digging oneself deeper into a hole. His argument is similar to "well. we can't prove for certain that ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|T. rex]]'' didn't breathe fire, so there's nothing wrong with having it do so in our documentary." Also note that excreting uric acid uses less water than excreting urea, which gives doing so a selective advantage in dry environments like deserts. Guess where New Blood is set? That's right, the biome least conducive to a urea-excreting reptile.
** Also, [[wikipedia:Darren Naish|Dr. Darren Naish]] is known to ''strongly'' [http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/05/100_years_of_tyrannosaurus_rex.php#comment-1647519 dislike] the WWD reconstruction of ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Tyrannosaurus]]''.
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* [[Tail Slap]]: An adult ''Diplodocus'' saves a younger one from an ''Allosaurus'' this way.
* [[Taxonomic Term Confusion]]: Branagh refers to the [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|sauropods]] as "a great family of dinosaurs" in the original WWD. "Infraorder" would be more appropriate.
* [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]: Not just ''rex'', but its Asian relative ''[[
* [[The Worf Effect]]: A good way to show that an animal is a [[Badass]] is have it drive off, beat up, or ''kill'' the top predator of the episode, as was the case with ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Stegosaurus]]'' (to ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Allosaurus]]'') and ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Ankylosaurus]]'' (to ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Tyrannosaurus]]'').
** If the animal is another predator, another way is to have it [[Always a Bigger Fish|prey on or scare away]] another stereotypically dangerous predator such as a theropod or shark. Most famously done with ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Liopleurodon]]''; and then the several [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks]] examples of course (see above).
* [[Zerg Rush]]: The ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Coelophysis]]'' against the dying ''[[
** A defensive variant is used by ''[[Feathered Fiend|Ibero]][[
=== ''The Ballad of Big Al provides examples of:'' ===
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* [[Infant Immortality]]: One of Al's baby siblings is killed.
* [[Prehistoric Monster]]: Perhaps the most notable aversion in the entire series is Big Al the ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Allosaurus]]'', {{spoiler|whose unlucky fate made many viewers sad}}.
* [[Seldom-Seen Species]]: ''[[
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: Technically, {{spoiler|Big Al himself.}}
* [[Shown Their Work]]: The second part of the special, which deals with how we learned all this stuff about Al and ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Allosaurus]]'' in general.
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* [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape]]: Averted again, as an invading ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Smilodon]]'' kills another ''Smilodon'''s cubs, behaviour based on modern lions.
* [[Beware My Stinger Tail]]: ''Doedicurus''.
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: A ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Smilodon]]'' cub is chased by a pair of ''[[
* [[Dumb Muscle]]: ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Megatherium]]''.
* [[Eats Babies]]: The [[
* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]]: ''[[
* [[Feathered Fiend]]: ''[[
* [[Full Boar Action]]: The [[
* [[Hemisphere Bias]]: The last episode ends with a pull-out from the United Kingdom (due to the last scene being a pull-out from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.)
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted again. The ''[[
* [[Killer Rabbit]]: It turns out, the elephant-sized sloth ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Megatherium]]'' can kill a ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Smilodon]]'' with a swipe of its claws.
* [[Mama Bear]]: The [[
* [[Mega Neko]]: ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Smilodon]]'' and ''[[
* [[Misplaced Wildlife]]: The only example is the Indian ''[[
* [[Prehistoric Monster]]: Averted again, though the [[
* [[Rhino Rampage]]: The [[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|woolly rhino]].
* [[Carnivore Confusion|Scavengers Are Mean]]: One example in Beasts: The pig-relatives [[
* [[Sea Monster]]: ''[[
* [[Seldom-Seen Species]]:
** '''New Dawn:''' ''Leptictidium'', ''Gastornis'', ''Ambulocetus'', ''Propalaeotherium'', ''Godinotia'', ''Titanomyrma''
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** Damn, it's subverted practically [[Once an Episode]] in ''Beasts''.
* [[Spared by the Adaptation]]: The second ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Smilodon]]'' brother is fatally wounded in the original episode, but in the corresponding chapter of the book, he just runs away.
* [[The Worf Effect]]: In ''Land of Giants'', a mob of [[
** In the episode ''Saber Tooth'', a ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Megatherium]]'' shatters the dominance of the antagonistic ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Smilodon]]'' brothers by killing one of them, and later on Half-Tooth ([[The Hero]]) completes the effect by killing the remaining brother.
** Also happens to the ''[[
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Among the proposed episode ideas for ''WWB'' was one based around the Riversleigh fossil site from Australia. They chose to abandon it, as they already had enough stories planned.
* [[Zerg Rush]]: Most gruesomly, [[
=== ''Chased by Dinosaurs'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Feathered Fiend]]: ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Velociraptor]]'', ''[[
* [[Giant Flyer]]: ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Pteranodon]]''.
* [[Killer Rabbit]]: The herbivorous theropod [[
* [[Misplaced Wildlife]]: ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Velociraptor]]'' being put in the rainforest instead of the desert. It can, however, be [[Justified Trope|justified]] or [[Hand Wave|handwaved]], as the forest is located ''right'' next to the desert.
** A more severe case is perhaps the African ''[[
** ''Pteranodon'' in South America? Doubles as [[Anachronism Stew]].
* [[Palette Swap]]: Thankfully averted by the [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|iguanodonts]] and the ''[[
* [[Seldom-Seen Species]]:
** '''Land of Giants:''' ''Argentinosaurus'', ''Giganotosaurus'', ''Ornithocheirus'', ''Macrogryphosaurus'' (provided that the unspecified iguanodont is this)
** '''The Giant Claw:''' ''Saurolophus'', ''Protoceratops'', ''Mononykus'', ''Tarbosarus'', ''Therizinosaurus'', ''Azdarcho''
* [[The Worf Effect]]: To ''[[
=== ''Sea Monsters'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Anachronism Stew]]: ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|T. rex]]'' appearing in a [[Cameo]] role 75 million years ago, whereas the oldest known ''rex'' dates from "only" about 68 million years ago. And it's clearly confirmed to be a real ''T. rex'' in the book, not one of its ancestors.<ref> ''[[
* [[Death World]]: While nearly all the seas could counts, the Creataceous Western Interior Seaway, which is actually called ''Hell's Aquarium'' to signify its dangers, particularly stands out.
* [[Everything's Even Worse with Sharks]]: ''[[
* [[Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods]]: [[
* [[Feathered Fiend]]: Subverted with ''[[
* [[Giant Flyer]]: The ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Pteranodon]]''s.
* ''[[Megalodon]]'': The third most dangerous [[Sea Monster]].
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=== ''Walking With Cavemen'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Frazetta Man]]: This being a well-researched scientific documentary, it's mostly avoided. But it doesn't stop the protohumans from looking terrifying.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: The ''[[
* [[People in Rubber Suits]]
* [[Seldom-Seen Species]]:
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=== ''Walking With Monsters'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Always a Bigger Fish]]: The huge eurypterid ''[[
** Literally with the huge fish ''[[
* [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]]: The ''[[
* [[Book Ends]]: See above.
* [[Crapsack World]]: The late Permian.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Has a scarier edge to the fight for survival than Dinosaurs and Beasts.
* [[Death by Sex]]: The male ''[[
* [[Eats Babies]]: The ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Dimetrodon]]''s.
* [[Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods]]: The [[
* [[Eye Scream]]: A female ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Dimetrodon]]'''s eye is knocked out of her head while defending her nest.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Yet more aversions. A juvenile ''[[
* [[Mama Bear]]: The mother ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Dimetrodon]]''.
* [[Misplaced Wildlife]]:
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** '''Late Permian Period:''' ''Gorgonops'', ''Diictodon'', ''Rhinesuchus'', ''Scutosaurus''
** '''Early Triassic Period:''' ''Lystrosaurus'', ''Euparkeria'', ''Proterosuchus'', ''Euchambersia''
* [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying]]: ''Walking With Monsters'' plays this trope straight more than any other presenter-less series. Evolution is described here as ''a war between predators and preys'' and many predators ([[
** Not to mention the mistakes about ancestor -> descendant relationship: the jawless, armoured ''[[
* [[Zerg Rush]]: ''[[
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