View source for When Dinosaurs Roamed America

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'''''When Dinosaurs Roamed America''''' (2001, sometimes shortened to ''When Dinosaurs Roamed'', especially outside North America) was the [[Discovery Channel]]'s first major attempt to [[Follow the Leader|cash-in]] on the [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs|dinosaur]]-[[documentary]] trend started by [[BBC]]'s famous ''[[Walking with Dinosaurs]]''. Similar to that program, this also aimed for a [[Speculative Documentary]] format, and used [[CGI]] to recreate its dinosaurs, [[Prehistoric Life/Non Dinosaurian Reptiles|pterosaurs, and various other prehistoric animals]], placing them into [[Roger Rabbit Effect|real-life]] scenery. The stories were told in chronological order, from the beginning to the end of the dinosaurs' reign.

Unlike its predecessor/competitor, however, ''WDRA'' included short cut-away scenes to paleontologists and at times froze the animation to reveal the skeletal structure behind the animals' skin, using solid facts to [[Shown Their Work|explain the science]] that went into creating the program.

Other things that make it different from ''WWD'' is the fact that it concentrates purely on [[Captain Obvious|American dinosaurs]], and condenses its stories into small segments, instead of devoting full episodes to them.

While disliked by some due to how quickly Discovery churned it out after hearing of the dinosaurs' marketability from Britain, the product was generally well-received by the viewers, especially compared to some later works, such as ''[[Clash of the Dinosaurs]]'' and ''[[Monsters Resurrected]]''.
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=== The work contains examples of the following tropes: ===

* [[All There in the Manual]]: Notice that small, unnamed theropod from the very beginning of the last segment? The website reveals it's [[The Cameo]] of ''Ornithomimus''.
* [[Always a Bigger Fish]]: ''Allosaurus'' to ''Ceratosaurus''. Also counts as an example of [[The Hunter Becomes the Hunted]].
** The ''Megapnosaurus'' (''Kayentavenator''?) suddenly cease their attack on the ''Anchisaurus''. It turns out that the ''Dilophosaurus'' has shown up.
* [[Animals Not to Scale]]: Most likely the result of the animators not paying attention. When the first ''T. rex'' shows up, it doesn't seem out of scale with the rest of the animals. But the narration claims it's a ''juvenile''. Later, when his mother appears, she is hulking huge, even compared to the "Anatotitan" which is supposed to be the same size as a ''rex''!
** Well, to be fair, [[Science Marches On|a new study]] shows that ''T. rex'' probably grew throughout its lifetime.
* [[Apocalypse How]]: A [[Apocalypse How/Class 4|Class 4]] event at the end of the Cretaceous, but interestingly, the documentary also ''starts'' with an even larger meteor-strike, that was supposed to represent the great extinction event that ended the Permian and made way for the evolution of dinosaurs in the Triassic. A lesser meteor-related extinction also separates the Triassic and Jurassic.
** [[Apocalypse Wow]]
* [[Badass]]: The ''[[Prehistoric Life/Dinosaurs|Dilophosaurus]]'' mother, and arguably the ''Allosaurus'' and ''T. rex'' also qualify.
* [[Beware My Stinger Tail]]: ''Stegosaurus'' and ''Desmatosuchus''.
* [[Eagle Land]]: Back when eagles still had teeth.
* [[Eats Babies]]: ''Ceratosaurus''.
* [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs]]
* [[Failed a Spot Check]]: The deinonychosaurs fail to notice a forest fire, even when being surrounded by flames.
** [[Behind the Black]]: And the ''Ceratosaurus'' doesn't notice the hulking huge, oncoming ''Allosaurus'' either, until it's right on top of it. To the ceratosaur's credit, though, it ''was'' off-screen, even if out in the open, plainly visible from all sides.
* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: What happens to the poor ''Apatosaurus'' that trips and falls.
* [[Feathered Fiend]]: The documentary famously depicted many dinosaurs with feathers, including "raptors" and the bizarre-looking ''Nothronychus''.
* [[Follow the Leader]]: To ''[[Walking with Dinosaurs]]''.
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: The extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period.
* [[Giant Flyer]]: ''Quetzalcoatlus''.
* [[Hemisphere Bias]]: It's in the title.
* [[The Hunter Becomes the Hunted]]: ''Allosaurus'' does this to ''Ceratosaurus''.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted, the ''Ceratosaurus'' catches a juvenile ''Dryosaurus''.
* [[Narrator]]: John Goodman.
* [[Never Smile At a Crocodile]]: Averted by the herbivorous ''Desmatosuchus'', but the (likely) non pseudosuchian ''Rutiodon'' does the job.
* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: ''Desmatosuchus'' and "Anatotitan" are mispronounced "Desma'''s'''tosuchus" and "Ana'''ta'''totitan", respectively.
* [[Noisy Nature]]: For a dinosaur-show, this is almost prerequisite.
* [[Prehistoric Monster]]: Avoided, although the animals do behave as aggressive as its intended audience expects them to.
* [[Ptero-Soarer]]: The ''Quetzalcoatlus'' may seem outdated by today's standards, but that's the result of [[Science Marches On|science marching on]].
* [[Raptor Attack]]: Somewhat [[Justified]], as the [[CGI]] team couldn't get their feathers to be quite as birdlike as they should be.
* [[Roger Rabbit Effect]]: The CGI creatures are dropped into [[Real Life]] scenery.
* [[Science Marches On]]: The lower arms of the raptors are suspiciously scaly. We now know that they had properly feathered wings.
** The theropod hands shouldn't be pronated (kangaroo-like). Their palms actually faced towards each other.
** ''Syntarsus'' is called ''Megapnosaurus'' now, and it may be synonymous with ''Coelophysis''.<ref> To further confuse things, the show's creatures may not be ''Megapnosaurus''/''Coelophysis'' at all, but a distinct creature that may have accidentally been named ''Kayentavenator''.</ref>
** According to the [[Narrator]], ''Megapnosaurus'' and ''Dilophosaurus'' are ceratosaurs. According to recent classifications, both creatures [http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/handouts/104Neotheropoda.pdf fall outside this group.]
** "Anatotitan" now appears to be synonymous with ''Edmontosaurus'', which does not otherwise appear in the show.
* [[Screams Like a Little Girl]]: The ''Ceratosaurus'', as the ''Allosaurus'' kills it.
* [[Seldom-Seen Species]]: ''Desmatosuchus'', ''Icarosaurus'', ''Rutiodon'', ''Anchisaurus'', ''Camarasaurus'', ''Nothronychus'', and ''Zuniceratops''.
* [[Sexy Discretion Shot]]: When the ''Stegosaurus'' pair get ready to mate, the camera tilts skywards. This was the only solution, though: we don't really know just ''how'' they did it.
* [[Shown Their Work]]: The scenes of paleontologists inserted in between the dinosaur clips.
** Feathered raptors and therizinosaurs.
* [[Small Taxonomy Pools]]: Averted. Many stock creatures appear, but so do a number of animals that have rarely ever been shown on television, notably the (then) newly-discovered ''Nothronychus'' and ''Zuniceratops''.
* [[Speculative Documentary]]
* [[Stock Dinosaurs]]: ''Coelophysis'' in the Triassic (the only dinosaur in that segment), along with ''Allosaurus'', ''Apatosaurus'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Ceratosaurus'' and ''Dilophosaurus'' from the Jurassic and ''Tyrannosaurus'', ''Triceratops'', "Anatotitan", and ''Quetzalcoatlus'' from the Cretaceous.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: The dromaeosaurid attacking the ''Nothronychus'' head on, although both survive the attack.
* [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]: The arguable "star" of the final segment.
* [[Wolverine Claws]]: ''Nothronychus''.

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Discovery Channel]]
[[Category:When Dinosaurs Roamed America]]
[[Category:Western Animation]]