Walking with Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs

Dimetrodon explains how it really happened

Walking with Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs presented by BBC.

Plot: While dinosaurs remain the most beloved of ancient creatures, paleontologists find fossils that predate them. The show attempts to recreate life before the dinosaurs. Starting in the oceans, small, hard-bodied creatures eventually reach land and create a number of reptile-like animals. Strangely, the creatures eventually begin to show mammalian-like characteristics, leading to one of the oddest families, the mammal-like reptiles, no longer existing on the planet.

Genre: Documentary, Animals, Television

Reading Level: Not Rated, but examples of predation make it unsuitable for sensitive viewers.

Similar Titles: Walking with Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs Unearthed

Personal Thoughts: The series does promote interest in groups of animals often ignored by dinophiles. Unlike the more famous reptilians, most of the life addressed in Monsters is smaller, but still interesting. Unfortunately, the series lends itself to ample speculation, such as dimetrodon parental care or euchambersia toxicity. It also tends to focus on unlikely circumstances, such as a giant arthropod impaling itself on a tree stump. As a result, the series tends to be impressive, but not necessarily realistic.