― The official Apple TV+ episode synopsis for Islands
These are Prehistoric Planet segments which feature Hatzegopteryx.
Forests[]
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Forests, Segment VII |
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Setting
Hațeg Island, Romania |
― David Attenborough, Forests
The seventh, final segment of the Forests takes place in the dark understory of a forest in Europe. As a Telmatosaurus keeps a low profile amongst the lush vegetation, five juvenile Zalmoxes warily look around, as they are about to cross a log over the river, out in a more open area of the forest. As they rush down a log, the last one to cross is suddenly snatched up and swallowed alive by a Hatzegopteryx.
― David Attenborough, Forests
After gulping his snack down, the majestic pterosaur slowly weaves through the forest, at one point stopping by to check out one moss-covered tree before continuing his casual but regal walk, eventually making it to the beach, where he spreads his large wings, flapping them to keep them warmed up before picking at them, grooming himself.
― David Attenborough, Forests
Some Zalmoxes are seen amongst the vegetation, looking around as a small herd of Telmatosaurus feeds on the salted vegetation, with one even licking a propped-up piece of wood on the beach. Two titanosaurs make their way down to the beach, affectionately rubbing their heads and necks against one another. And as the sun sets, Hatzegopteryx spreads his wings once more and finally leaves the island, flying off into the horizon.
Islands[]
Segment II[]
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Islands, Segment II |
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Setting
Liburnia Formation, Trieste, Italy Filming Location Thetford Forest, Norfolk and Suffolk, England[1] |
Setting
Liburnia Formation, Trieste, Italy
Filming Location
Thetford Forest, Norfolk and Suffolk, England[1]
In the second segment of Islands, by the small islands of southern Europe, a herd of strange, elusive herbivores graze through a field of pine saplings. These creatures, known as Tethyshadros, are just a quarter of their mainland cousins, the adults standing no taller than a human being. For a moment, all is peaceful, with the herd foraging through the tough vegetation with their unique, serrated bills. But as the breeze blows, an air of unease takes hold of the island. One adult, sensing threats around, rears up and finds, to its horror, a flock of Hatzegopteryx coming down from the sky. The entire herd panics as the azhdarchids, numbering around four males and three females, land and gallop after them (with one of the hunters even grabbing a juvenile upon landing). Most of the herd's members rush to the safety of the forest, where the trees are too tightly-packed for their pursuers to come through, thwarting the pterosaurs and causing one male to bellow in frustration. Not all Tethyshadros have escaped to the safety of the woods, however, with three juveniles left hiding in the fields.
― David Attenborough, Islands
From the forest, the mother of the juveniles calls out to her children. Due to this, the predators realized that there are still some hadrosaurs out there that they can still hunt, prompting them to try and scour the clearing to flush out prey that might still be there, with the fearful juvenile hadrosaurs trying to stay completely still. As one male Hatzegopteryx approaches their hiding spot, one baby Tethyshadros panics and tries to run for the forest, with the rest following suit now that their cover is blown. One juvenile is promptly snatched up by the male Hatzegopteryx, while two other juvenile Tethyshadros make it back to their mother during the commotion. A female Hatzegopteryx tries to grab the male's hard-earned catch, only for the male to turn away and swallow the juvenile as the female continues to pester him.
― David Attenborough, Islands
After what appears to be a brief conversation via the clacking of beaks, the Hatzegopteryx males agree to leave for another island. One by one, they fly off to hunt elsewhere, with the last of the four males carrying yet another dead juvenile Tethyshadros in his beak. When all the azhdarchids have finally left, the Tethyshadros herd leave their forest sanctuary to continue grazing.
Segment VI[]
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Islands, Segment VI |
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Setting
Hațeg Island, Romania Filming Location An island in Maldives[1] |
― David Attenborough, Islands
In the sixth and final segment of Islands, an older male Hatzegopteryx, sporting a brightly-colored crest of vibrant yellows and blues, lands on the island with an 18-kilogram (40-pound) juvenile Tethyshadros. However, he has not come here to enjoy this meal in peace. Instead, he surrounds his catch with wood picked up from the beach to form a ceremonial nest of sorts, spreading and flapping his massive wings over to entice passing females to mate with him.
― David Attenborough, Islands
When one arrives, he lifts up the dead Tethyshadros to prove that he is a great hunter, and that he is also strong for having flown a great distance to bring the body there. While impressive, simply proving his strength is not enough. To convince her some more, he displays his crest and courts the female with enticing grunts, clacks, and head movements, gestures that the female appears to reciprocate well. Following a synchronized dance where both of them repeatedly clack their beaks against each other softly and stare up at the sky, he seems to have established trust with the female.
Suddenly, a younger male Hatzegopteryx, sporting the usual color scheme, lands down, and slowly approaches the couple. Enraged, the older male bellows and charges at the new arrival, catching the younger male completely off-guard and forcing him to slowly retreat. The older male aggressively snaps at him repeatedly and ends up grabbing his right wing. Grunting in pain, the younger male decides to back out and flies off, the older male bellowing at him to ensure that he does not return. In the chaos, the female flew off due to the commotion, with the old male believing that his chance is gone. Fortunately, the female returned, having seen the older male's successful assault as more proof of his eligibility.
― David Attenborough, Islands
After mating with the female in a relatively short span of time (with this being his only contribution to fatherhood), the female flies off as the male grooms himself and starts the courtship ritual again, ready to attract more females.
Uncovered: Flamboyant Flyers[]
Footage of Hatzegopteryx from the seventh segment of the Forests is briefly used in this Uncovered segment, which is dedicated to the discussion of the extraordinary head crests seen on pterosaurs. It seems quite surprising that an animal meant for flight has what appears to be a large, cumbersome structure on its head. It is believed that these crest played a role in sexual selection and display, with the larger, more impressive crests belonging to older male specimens. This can be seen on the show, where the male Hatzegopteryxes have thin, tall blade-like crests that even change color and become more vibrant specifically for the mating season as seen in the final segment of Islands, while females only bear a low, yellow ridge atop their heads, resembling the low crest seen on Phosphatodraco.
Uncovered: Could Giant Pterosaurs Really Hunt on the Ground?[]
― Dr. Mark Witton, Paleoartist & Paleontologist
The segment, using footage of Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx (alongside other pterosaurs in the series), brings special attention to what may be considered the weirdest of the pterosaurs, the azhdarchids. Despite their size, they are stated to be well-adapted for taking flight. The question at hand is why it is believed they can hunt on the ground.
― Dr. Darren Naish, Lead Scientific Consultant
As with all pterosaurs, azhdarchids have wings supported by an elongated fourth finger, with the membrane traveling from the tip of this finger to the top of the hind leg. While this gives them massive wings that allow them to traverse great distances, they were not agile enough to make flexible twists and turns in the air, so they could not have pursued other flying animals. The segment also tackles the prevalent idea of azhdarchids skimming the water to feed like the black skimmer, a type of seabird, pushing the lower jaws through the water to crash them into prey, able to withstand the forces generated with a neck built to absorb sudden impacts. Azhdarchids do not have any of the necessary adaptations to feed this way, and the strain of trying to do so would only end up breaking their necks.
― David Attenborough, Could Giant Pterosaurs Really Hunt on the Ground?
Without the capability to hunt aerial or aquatic prey, this meant that the only option left for azhdarchids is to hunt on the ground. The largest pterosaur tracks ever known, made 66 million years ago by a walking azhdarchid in South Korea, prove how efficiently they can move on the ground. Given their competent terrestrial walking ability, stork-like face, and throats half a meter (20 inches) wide, it is almost certain that they are predators that walked around and reached down to grab animals, with even human-sized creatures considered as viable prey. With this, while they are awe-inspiring in flight, azhdarchids can prove more impressive and terrifying on the ground.
Gallery[]
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Prehistoric Planet has a gallery for Hatzegopteryx |
Trivia[]
General[]
- Prehistoric Planet's portrayal of Hatzegopteryx mirrors the show's depiction of Tyrannosaurus rex.
- Both are shown as apex predators (the largest and most robust in their respective families) with a wide geographic range.
- Though only known from Hațeg Island (modern-day Hațeg Basin) in Romania, a group of Hatzegopteryx is shown in the second segment of Islands visiting and hunting a herd of Tethyshadros in Italy.
- A lone male T. rex is depicted scavenging an Alamosaurus carcass and facing off against two Quetzalcoatlus in the Javelina Formation of Texas, USA (the southernmost part of its range) in the first segment of North America.
- Both are seen with slain prey after a hunt, then courting and copulating with a female.
- In the sixth segment of Islands, a male Hatzegopteryx carries the dead body of a juvenile Tethyshadros to a small island. He used his latest kill to attract a female and convince her of his strength. He then enticed her with rumblings from his throat and beak clacks that she reciprocated, builds trust with her through a synchronized dance, and further proved his might by fighting off a younger male. This ensured a quick yet successful copulation between the old male and the female, a plan he intended to repeatedly carry out.
- In the second segment of Freshwater, an old male T. rex is seen waking up next to a Triceratops that he just killed, proceeded to eat it, then washed his wounds in a river, where he met a female. He courts her with rumbling noises from his raised throat, she reciprocates, and, after a tender moment, they mate.
- Both are shown as apex predators (the largest and most robust in their respective families) with a wide geographic range.
Forests[]
- The last segment of the Forests, which shows Hatzegopteryx making his way from the forest down to the beach before departing for another island, mirrors the first segment of Coasts, which is focused on a family of Tyrannosaurus swimming from a beach on the mainland to a forested island just a short distance from the shoreline, thus ending the first season of Prehistoric Planet in the same way it began, with the protagonist of the segment traveling across the sea.
Islands[]
Segment II[]
- Hatzegopteryx is only known from Hațeg Island (now Hațeg Basin), Romania. However, just as how Quetzalcoatlus is shown in the fourth segment of Freshwater flying from North America to South Africa to lay eggs in ideal soil, Hatzegopteryxes are depicted as "island-hopping pterosaurs", visiting various islands like the Liburnia Formation to hunt prey.
- While this is more plausible due to the significantly shorter distance traveled from Romania to Italy,[DN 1] conversely, flight does not necessarily mean that an animal would travel even short distances to hunt on another island (for example, the now-extinct Haast's Eagles, also flying apex predators enlarged by insular gigantism, never attempted to visit or colonize the North Island of New Zealand, only staying on the South Island, though they did visit Stewart's Island further down south).
- While the show was being made, Tethyshadros was believed to have lived 70 million years ago, during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous Period. However, in 2021, a study reevaluated the remains of the fossil and discovered that it lived 81 - 80 million years ago, during the Campanian stage. Because the discovery is made too late for the show to adjust, Hatzegopteryx is shown inaccurately hunting an animal that lived at least 10 - 15 million years before it lived.[DN 2]
- Even so, this scenario could have still played out in some form.[DN 3] A relative of Tethyshadros called Fylax thyrakolasus lived in Spain around 66 million years ago, and the remains of Hatzegopteryx, or, at least, azhdarchids of similar size, have been found across Europe.[DN 1]
Segment VI[]
- While the full extent of sexual dimorphism is unknown in Hatzegopteryx itself, sexual dimorphism is apparent in many other pterosaurs, and Dr. Darren Naish, lead consultant of Prehistoric Planet, brings up how, not only is sexual dimorphism the logical conclusion for azhdarchoids, but also that melanosomes in azhdarchoid crests serve as further proof of their use as display structures, hence, the old male Hatzegopteryx with its special breeding season coloration is not unusual given how this can also be seen in living animals like lizards and birds.[DN 4]
- Of all the segments it appeared in (not counting its Uncovered segment), this is the only one where Hatzegopteryx does not hunt or eat its prey onscreen. Instead, the male brings with him a juvenile Tethyshadros he already killed prior to the events of the segment to impress females. The young Tethyshadros is not consumed by either the male or the female throughout the courtship ritual, allowing the male to reuse the dead dinosaur as proof of his strength for several more mating attempts.
- This is the seventh segment to feature a courtship ritual.
- This is the sixth segment to feature intraspecific combat, and the third one to result in the older individual winning.
- Just as how this segment brings back the Hatzegopteryx leitmotif introduced in the seventh segment of the Forests, the brief duel between the two males reprises the quick-paced, tribal drumming theme that played for the Quetzalcoatlus duel in the fourth segment of Freshwater, cementing it as the theme for intraspecific combat amongst azhdarchids.
References[]
Dr. Darren Naish[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hatzegopteryx was likely an island-hopping pterosaur, an idea backed up by the remains of similar azhdarchids found across Europe.
- ↑ Tethyshadros did not come from the Maastrichtian, but instead from the Campanian Stage of the Late Cretaceous Period.
- ↑ Tethyshadros likely had Maastrichtian relatives or descendants like it.
- ↑ Sexual dimorphism is inferred for azhdarchoids, and melanosomes on azhdarchoid crests indicate how colorful they were, further supporting their role in sexual display.
Prehistoric Planet[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 I Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast, Episode 443: Dinosaurs on Islands. Featuring Prehistoric Planet 2