Walking With Dinosaurs Remastered

Time of the Titans

Last time on Walking With Dinosaurs: We saw as reptiles began their rule over the planet in the early Jurassic, now we will watch as the largest land animals of all time carve a living for themselves in the late Jurassic.

Chapter 3: Time of the Titans

Time: 162 Million Years Ago; Late Jurassic

Place: Western North America

Midday in a late Jurassic forest, a clutch of sauropod eggs are hatching. These sauropodlets are diplodocus chicks, only about a foot long, they are just under 1% of the size of their colossal parent, which can grow to over 98 feet long. These young diplodocus will have to grow fast in order to stand a chance in this harsh world. Already predators lurk around every corner, a clawed hand suddenly grabs one of the hatchlings. An ornitholestes takes advantage of an easy meal, but she is unknowingly playing directly into the diplodocus' hands... or lack thereof actually. By laying so many eggs, as many as 300 by a single mother, so many babies hatch that predators cannot possibly eat them all. However this strategy isn't that efficient either, though it guarantees the survival of at least some hatchlings, fewer than 1 in 1,000 survive their first year, and even fewer than that survive until adulthood. But if they do, they are in for a long life, fully grown diplodocus have almost no natural predators, and can live for almost 200 years. But for right now, everything is a potential danger. Their mother laid the eggs near the edge of the forest because she was too big to go in further, meaning the hatchlings have to do it themselves. By doing this, they escape the larger predators of the fern prairies, but different threats await them here.

This is a young female Ceratosaurus, one of four species of large predators in late Jurassic North America. The late Jurassic had a higher concentration of predators in one place, with Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Torvosaurus, and Saurophaganax all living in the same time and place. To avoid competing with each other, these predators hunted different food sources, Allosaurus and Saurophaganax preferred sauropods, which were so big that nothing else would mess with them, torvosaurus went after more heavily armored prey, such as stegosaurus and early ankylosaurs, and Ceratosaurus, the smallest of the four, went after baby sauropods and other small prey. This way, none of these predators competed for food and the only times they would come in conflict is if one was desperate and tried to steal a carcass. The Ceratosaurus grabs one of the hatchlings in her jaws before carrying it off.

On the fern prairies is where you find the true titans of the Jurassic, a herd of diplodocus thunders across the plains, these giants are among the largest sauropods of the Jurassic, 98 feet long, and 60 tons, they are the keystone species of this ecosystem. A keystone species is an animal that several other animals either directly or indirectly benefit from, the diplodocus' relentless grazing makes sure that the prairies stay open and giving the animals in it a home. Dragonflies will often use the giant dinosaurs as feeding platforms, launching off of them to catch other flying insects. Even their ''by-products" are used by other animals, dung beetles first appeared in the Jurassic, rolling up dung just as they do to elephant dung on the African savanna today.

Diplodocus themselves are just one in the huge family of sauropods. Sauropods are descendant from prosauropods, such as sarahsaurus and plateosaurus, but as they attained larger sizes, quadrupedalism was required to support their weight, the earliest true sauropods had pillar like legs to support their bulk. And later sauropods expanded on this body plan, some, like giraffatitan, grew longer front limbs and necks in order to reach into the treetops, while others, like brontosaurus and diplodocus, grew extremely long necks to increase their grazing range on the ground. To balance out these long necks, their tails are equally as long, and in many species end with thin, whiplike tips, which also make formidable weapons if one of these giants is forced to defend itself. Some sauropods even have serrated scales on their tails to maximize the damage.

Back in the forest, the Ceratosaurus beds down as the sun sets. When night falls, different animals take the scene, an agnurognathus flutters through the trees, weaving between the branches with ease. These little pterosaurs are the Mesozoic equivalent of modern bats, they dart through the night, catching insects out of the air with its wide, net-like mouth. On the fern prairies, the adult diplodocus often feed into the night, since these giants require 2,000 pounds of food a day, doing this allows them to maximize their food intake. Among them are two other herds, one of apatosaurus and the other of brontosaurus. These two sauropods have a complicated history with each other, when first discovered, the brontosaurus skeleton lacked a head, leading it to be assigned as a different, yet closely related genus. Later, a ''brontosaurus' skeleton was found with an apatosaurus' skull on it, meaning that the two were actually one and the same, and for a long time, apatosaurus and brontosaurus considered synonymous. However, in 2015, further analysis of the fossils provided enough evidence that brontosaurus was its own genus, and as of 2022, the famous sauropods are once again separate species.

However the sauropods themselves don't give a rat's rip about who's who, as long as they get enough food into their bellies to make it to the next day, they're happy. But predators are stalking the herd, a group of saurophaganax, contrary to popular belief, most large theropods like this did not hunt in packs, not coordinated ones anyway. Rather they came together in loose gangs that don't stay together for any real length of time, and they only do this to take down large prey, and they prefer to hunt alone most of the time. And even in a big group like this they wouldn't go for a healthy adult, they prefer to go after sick or weak individuals. And this old female has become a target, and the large carnivores surround her. For the next few hours, the saurophaganax will harass the sauropod, biting and clawing at her until she dies from blood loss. But they also have another strategy, because diplodocus are so large, the saurophaganax can actually rip off huge chunks of flesh big enough to feed on without having to kill it first, they are literally eating her alive. However, one of the carnivores gets too close to the diplodocus' whiplike tail, and he pays the price, the diplodocus lashes out, and the weight of the tail smashing into the saurophaganax's face utterly shatters his skull. The rest of the saurophaganax notice the injured one, and they begin to close in. Carnivores always choose the meal of least resistance, even if it includes their own kind.

The next evening

In the forest, the Ceratosaurus has made her way down to the local river for a drink, but there's also something else she's after. In addition to smaller dinosaurs, Ceratosaurus also go after fish. She suddenly strikes, pulling a lungfish out of the water. This strange fish is a member of an ancient family of lobe finned fishes which gave rise to the tetrapods, such as amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and of course dinosaurs. But the ceratosaurus' meal is interrupted by another animal. Stegosaurus, this herbivore is far too big for the Ceratosaurus to tackle, and they have a tendency to attack anything that they deem a threat, and she quickly decides to just grab her fish and leave. Stegosaurus get their name from the large, diamond shaped plates on their back, originally they were thought to function as armor, but it is now known that they were too thin for such a job. The real danger comes from the 4 foot long spikes on its tail. Called a thagomizer, it is designed for maximum damage. Suddenly the smell of wood smoke fills the area, and the stegosaurus quickly high tails it out of there. In the hot climate of the Jurassic, fires oftentimes can start from spontaneous combusting in the leaf litter. As they rot, dead plants and animals release two things, methane and heat, and as the methane builds up under the leaf litter, the heat can reach the flash point of the gas, setting it ablaze and triggering a forest fire.

10 Hours Later

By nightfall, the once small fire has quickly grown into a firestorm, and the air is filled with the panicked and agonized cries of dinosaurs that couldn't escape the flames. However at the edge of the blaze, ornitholestes fearlessly stand in front of the inferno. Like modern secretary birds, ornitholestes often patrol around wildfires, searching for dead or dying animals. Once the fire fizzles out, then they will look for animals that couldn't flee.

Several Hours Later

Dawn, and daylight reveals the carnage left behind. The blackened forest floor is littered with the charred corpses of unfortunate dinosaurs. The Ceratosaurus has also survived, but she received a quite ugly burn down her tail. Her wound will heal, however she has been forced from her territory and out onto the prairie, and now she is forced into direct competition with the big boys of the Jurassic, and a silhouette can be seen in the distance against the rising sun. But right now, the Ceratosaurus is focused on filling her stomach, and something catches her eye. A herd of stegosaurus, these herbivores have a similar social structure to elephants, females stay together is small, loose herd, while males wander the plains and forests alone. And among the herd are camptosaurus, these small ornithopods are virtually helpless by themselves. They lack armor or weapons, aren't that fast, and are small enough to fit in anyone's mouth. To make up for it, they often stay with herds of larger animals, such as brontosaurus or stegosaurus, and use the huge herbivores for protection. The Ceratosaurus stalks the herd, and she picks out a camptosaurus with a slight limp.

But suddenly the herd falls into chaos, it's not her that they're reacting to, it's an allosaurus, he has mock charged the herd to isolate the weaker animals. The Ceratosaurus uses the confusion to her advantage, grabbing the limping camptosaurus and hiding behind a termite mound. The allosaurus aims for one of the younger stegosaurus, he rushes in, but just as he grabs the youngster, a larger one lashes out with her thagomizer. The attack narrowly misses, but manages to get the carnivore's attention, he hisses loudly at the stegosaurus in an attempt to scare her off, but in this scenario, maternal instinct trounces fear.

The stegosaurus strikes out with her tail again, and once again the attack narrowly misses the Allosaurus' head. But now it's the theropod's turn to attack, he rushes in before trying to bite the stegosaurus' neck, but is deterred by the plates before dodging another swing of the herbivore's tail. Then the allosaurus begins trying to knock the herbivore over to avoid the plates, ramming his head into the stegosaurus' side. However it's the stegosaurus that shoves the allosaurus backwards. The allosaurus once again attempts to strike, but the stegosaurus swing sits tail again, and the thagomizer collides with the allosaurus' skull, smashing through and impaling it, killing the carnivore instantly.

As the Ceratosaurus settles into her meal, she unknowingly drops a few scraps, and more small insects close in to clean it up. Eventually, the forest she used to live in will grow back, and continue the cycle that has been in place since the dawn of life.

Next Time on Walking With Dinosaurs: Things on land were hectic during the time of the dinosaurs, but one thing you should never ever do is enter the oceans.