Segments
These are Prehistoric Planet segments which feature Isisaurus.
Badlands[]
Segment I[]
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Badlands, Segment I |
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Setting
Lameta Formation, Gujarat State, west India[PhP 1] Filming Location |
Badlands starts out in The Deccan Traps in India. The dangers of this place, one of the largest and most active volcanic regions in the world is made clear by all the lava and smoke spewing from various places in the area.
Even so, under the light of dawn, a herd of Isisaurus females risk their lives going through the volcanic badlands just to get to where they need to go. For a while, all seems well, with them able to traverse the deadly area by traveling on cooled lava, their long necks keeping their heads above the deadly gases clinging close to the ground.
― David Attenborough, Badlands
However, as the titanosaurs enter a low-lying area where the gases are even more heavily-concentrated, the rising sun warms the air and causes the gases to rise. With the land and time itself working against them, the Isisauruses hurry to higher ground, with some shown struggling up a steep climb in a bid for salvation. Fortunately, the herd makes it past this slope, and sees before them the place they need to go to.
― David Attenborough, Badlands
With that, the hundreds of sauropod enact what they came to do, lay eggs in the warm soil, a great incubator. One mother, as she is kicking dirt back to bury her eggs in a mound, accidentally gets sand on the face of another Isisaurus, waking her up. The sauropods settle down, some sleeping, some just lying next to their eggs, looking down on their effort. The segment ends with the view zooming out and away from the caldera, showing the rocky, desolate world surrounding it.
Segment V[]
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Badlands, Segment V |
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Setting
Lameta Formation, Gujarat State, west India[PhP 1] Filming Location |
In the fifth and final segment of Badlands, the summer heat ends up stirring electric storms, which, in turn, shift the direction of the winds, blowing away the poisonous gases around the crater where the Isisauruses laid their eggs months before. From beneath the sand of the caldera, the newborn Isisauruses call out to each other, synchronizing their hatching. Hundreds of Isisaurus babies, each less than a foot in length, begin to make their way around the caldera, searching for food. There is one source of sustenance left in the crater, their mothers' dung. Aside from serving as a surprisingly-nutritional meal, this dung contains healthy bacteria that their gut needs, as well as pheromones for them to home in on their mother's herd, which would lead them to the safety of the forest. The juveniles head out on their first journey into the world, and their first encounter with its perilous elements.
While making their way through the volcanic fields full of hot springs, one Isisaurus slips off the edge of a pit with steep slopes leading into a deadly trap, a bubbling pool of liquid mud. While it manages to avoid falling immediately into the pit, it is stuck and left crying for help, no longer able to climb out.
After two days of travel, just as the hatchlings appear to be running out of energy to continue, they find vegetation around them, grown from seeds that came from their mothers' dung. After feeding on these plants to refill their reserves, their continue moving forward, right into new threats up ahead.
― David Attenborough, Badlands
A Rajasaurus enters the scene, running around to devour as many Isisaurus babies as it can. Some babies sneak around and hide in the cracks within the jagged rocks of cooled lava, and the Rajasaurus attempts to dig the crack open in order to get to the juveniles. Soon, another Rajasaurus arrives, resulting in more Isisaurus hatchlings getting eaten. For a moment, the two hunters get into a squabble, either due to territorial reasons or over feeding priorities, with one briefly driving the other off with a hiss before continuing to hunt the Isisauruses, some of which manage to slip in small crevices where the hunters, for all their speed and agility, cannot reach them. With their prey gone, the hunters leave.
― David Attenborough, Badlands
Despite the perils of their journey claiming hundreds of juvenile Isisauruses, hundreds more manage to reach the forest, ensuring the successful survival of their generation, which would one day return to the volcanic wasteland to lay their young there like their mothers before them. The segment ends with a view of the now-empty caldera where the babies were born in, the view zooming out to once again show the extent of The Deccan, proof of the great risks and opportunities offered by the badlands of the Prehistoric Planet.
Uncovered: Were Dinosaurs Good Parents?[]
Footage of Isisaurus is used in this Uncovered segment, dedicated to discussing whether dinosaurs were good parents.
A fossilized titanosaur egg, 1.5 kilograms when freshly laid, and possessing a shell merely 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) in thickness, is shown. While these eggs had some decent amount of protection, they still needed to be kept safe and warm, hence sparking questions regarding the idea of dinosaur parental care.
One strategy of keeping their eggs safe and warm involves the standard plan of building nests and sitting on top of these nests. Proof is seen in the usual example of this, preserved fossils of oviraptorids that died sitting on their unhatched eggs, some of which contain embryos. Even so, this method of egg incubation has downsides.
― Dr. Darren Naish, Lead Scientific Consultant
While for some dinosaurs, this commitment was worth making, it is not a feasible strategy for larger dinosaurs like sauropods, which would have crushed their eggs under their immense mass if they attempted to do the same. Their solution is made apparent by remains of egg clutches laid in a long trench (dug by the mother's back feet, which are then covered up again once the process of egg-laying is done), reminiscent of what turtles do in the warm sand of seashores. Some dinosaurs are also believed to pile up a compost heap of rotting vegetation on top of the eggs to keep them warm, much like bush turkeys in Australia do today, with the rotting process of the vegetation releasing enough heat to keep the eggs beneath it warm for up to seven weeks. An even more unusual means of keeping eggs warm was discovered in 2010, involving usage of the heat produced by the Earth itself.
― Professor Paul Barrett, Natural History Museum
This likely refers to the Los Llanos Formation in Sanagasta Geological Park, La Rioja Province, northwest Argentina, an ancient hydrothermal site containing druses (crystallized surfaces), alkaline geysers, hot springs and other such vents, interspersed with 80 egg clutches (each holding anywhere from 3 - 35 eggs) laid by indeterminate titanosaurs within 3 meters (10 feet) of nearby ancient geothermal features. The hydrothermal solutions in the area range around 60 - 100 degrees Celsius (140 - 212 degrees Fahrenheit), which would have been sufficient to keep the soil warm enough to incubate eggs approximately 21 centimeters (8.3 inches) in diameter for 1 - 2 months.[1]
The segment then circles back to the Deccan Region in India, the very setting of the Isisaurus segments in this episode, to show more evidence, with several dinosaur eggs sandwiched between several layers of lava adding even more proof that, just as the episode portrays, dinosaurs risked their lives to visit sites like the Deccan, one of the largest and most active volcanic regions in the world, to use the place as a nesting site for several centuries. In the end, with all these different, effective strategies to ensure their eggs would hatch, dinosaurs have proven to be great in taking good care of their eggs, one key to their dominance for more than 150 million years.
Uncovered: How Did Dinosaurs Get So Big?[]
Footage of Isisaurus, along with the footage of other sauropods in the series except for the Nemegt Forest Titanosaur, is used in this Uncovered segment, which is dedicated to discussing how sauropods got to grow bigger than their modern counterparts, explaining how sauropods became the largest land animals to ever live, growing from eggs the size of grapefruits to titans "ten times heavier than the biggest elephant", tipping the scales at almost a hundred tons.
In the past, strange ideas have been formulated. One such suggestion is that weaker gravity allowed for larger sizes, but gravity actually did not undergo noticeable changes during Earth's prehistory for it to matter. Another factor brought up is the oxygen level, as some studies suggested that oxygen levels during the time of the dinosaurs were around 30% compared to the modern day's 21%.[2] While the early dinosaurs are believed to have been boosted by oxygen levels increasing compared to previous time periods, later studies estimate that oxygen levels in the past 220 million years were only around 10 - 19%, lower than oxygen levels today,[3][4] and, regardless, would not have helped dinosaurs reach large sizes the same way high oxygen levels during the Carboniferous Period (above 21%) allowed insects to reach larger sizes (since, without these higher oxygen levels, insects were limited in body size due to how their respiratory system diffuses oxygen).
― David Attenborough, How Did Dinosaurs Get So Big?
Dinosaurs, not just sauropods, are believed to have grown relatively quickly for their maximum size, a trait that is seen as a sign of endothermy (the capability of an organism to generate and maintain its own body heat), which is, in turn, an indicator of the animal's efficient metabolism and active lifestyle. Some sauropods grew to full size in just 20 years, though some had even longer growth rates to attain even greater sizes, with several estimates being made due to different growth curve estimation methods and equations. For example, X-rays and CT scans indicate that Rapetosaurus grew at roughly the same rate as elephants and other modern large mammals (the fossil of a juvenile Rapetosaurus, estimated to have been 3.4 kilograms or 8.8 pounds when it hatched, grew to be around 40 kilograms or 88 pounds when it died due to malnourishment 39 - 77 days after hatching),[5][6] and it may have taken Alamosaurus approximately 45 years to reach a mass of 32 metric tons (35.3 short tons), gaining a maximum of one metric ton (1.1 short tons) a year.[7]
― Dr. Susannah Maidment, Natural History Museum
The holes in sauropod bones contained air sacs, crucial features meant to extract oxygen in order to power their very efficient metabolism. Additionally, these air sacs and holes helped in another way. The largest land mammals are limited in size and mass by their heavy, solid bones. An African bush elephant, the largest living land mammal, has a maximum estimated weight of 10.4 metric tons,[8] while the extinct Palaeoloxodon namadicus, believed to be the largest land mammal to ever exist, is estimated to weigh around 18 – 19 metric tons (20 – 21 short tons) according to a 2023 study.[9] Any heavier, and the skeletons of these land mammals, comprised mostly of solid bones, would collapse due to no longer being able to support the extreme mass of their bodies. By comparison, the pneumatic, hollow, hole-riddled bones of sauropods are comparatively lighter (though overall heavier) and stronger. From natural objects like bones to manmade structures like concrete buildings and metal construction supports, holes and pores help evenly distribute forces across a material, thus lessening the concentration of stress and overall pressure. Another key feature that helped them is their posture. Like all dinosaurs, sauropods have a fully erect posture as opposed to the sprawling posture of other reptiles. With their thick, pillar-like legs positioned firmly under their bodies rather than being held out to the sides, sauropods were able to efficiently keep their weight off the ground.
― Professor Paul Barrett, Natural History Museum
One more evolutionary factor that pushed dinosaurs to grow big is the presence of predator, prey, and competitors. Great size is a tough deterrent against more predators, and, on the other hand, could also provide more power to use against proportionally-larger prey. Great size may also allow animals to drive away their competitors, increase their feeding range for adaptability, or occupy a different niche to avoid competition. While the means and factors by which they achieved gigantism are not unique, dinosaurs proved to be among the most extreme and most successful organisms to ever rely on such methods and evolutionary paths. It is unlikely that there will ever again be such giants to walk the Earth.
Encounter Dinosaurs[]
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Encounter Dinosaurs |
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Setting
Lameta Formation, Gujarat State, west India |
One baby Isisaurus appears as part of an interactive app in Apple Vision Pro called "Encounter Dinosaurs".
The experience starts with a butterfly fluttering through the rugged terrain of the Lameta Formation, with storm clouds thundering in the distance. A juvenile Isisaurus emerges from cracks in the ground and curiously chases after the butterfly. Climbing on a small ledge, it then curiously approaches the viewer, who can interact with it. Soon, however, a raspy growl from the left gets the juvenile's attention. Rearing up on its hind legs to see the source of the noise, the juvenile stumbles back and retreats back into the cracks in the ground as a Rajasaurus stomps into view. Briefly peering down the crack in an attempt to find the young Isisaurus, the Rajasaurus soon takes notice of the viewer and approaches them, curiously growling and sniffing around. During this time, the viewer can try to pet them. The Rajasaurus would growl, resist, and snap at the viewer on their first attempt, though they may allow the viewer to pet them on their second attempt or if enough time has passed since it arrived. The Rajasaurus then takes a step back to assess the viewer.
At that moment, to the east, in the distance, lightning strikes the ground, just as another Rajasaurus emerges from the rocky ledges in the back, roaring out a challenge to the first Rajasaurus, which turns around to confront its rival as it closes in and briefly looks at the viewer. The first Rajasaurus charges and attempts to swat its rival with its tail, though it misses its mark, giving the second Rajasaurus the opportunity to briefly drive the first one off with a snap. Looking back and forth between its rival standing just a short distance away and the viewer, the second Rajasaurus approaches the viewer, only for the first Rajasaurus to charge in and snap at the second one, driving it away to the left. Facing the viewer one last time, the first Rajasaurus lets off a growl, and the experience ends.
Trivia[]
- There were plans to represent the Deccan Traps (the setting of the episode's first and fifth segments, both of which feature Isisaurus) with locations in Hawaii, but this was made problematic by COVID-19 restrictions.[PhP 1]
- One of the filming locations that the staff did secure to represent the Deccan Traps is the Fagradalsfjall Volcano of the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland, which was inactive for 6,000 years, and just so happened to erupt in 2021 and 2022, while the second season of Prehistoric Planet was being worked on. Unfortunately, it stopped erupting just when the production team arrived to film in that area, so the team had to rely on eruption footage that they recorded while they were still scoping out and reviewing the location.[PhP 1] Ironically, Fagradalsfjall would resume volcanic activity on the 4th of July 2023.
- The Hverfjall Crater, a tephra cone to the east of Lake Mývatn, served as the caldera where the Isisaurus herd laid their eggs.[PhP 1]
References[]
General[]
- ↑ A new Argentinean nesting site showing neosauropod dinosaur reproduction in a Cretaceous hydrothermal environment
- ↑ Amber Yields Clues to the History of Oxygen in Earth's Atmosphere
- ↑ Rise of dinosaurs linked to increasing oxygen levels
- ↑ Dinosaurs lived in low-oxygen world, amber shows
- ↑ Rapetosaurus krausei: Tiny titanosaurus was just a few weeks old, scientists say
- ↑ Lap Dinos? Gigantic Sauropods Started Out Chihuahua-Size
- ↑ Modeling growth rates for sauropod dinosaurs
- ↑ Shoulder height, body mass, and shape of proboscideans
- ↑ Body mass estimate of Bruhathkayosaurus and other fragmentary sauropod remains suggest the largest land animals were about as big as the greatest whales