Customer Reviews

NOVA: Arctic Dinosaurs

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Arctic Dinosaurs: Warm-Blooded Creatures of the Cretaceous is an episode of the award-winning public television series NOVA, now available on DVD. A field expedition sets out Alaska's North Slope to search for the answer to a quandary: how did dinosaurs survive in the dark and frigid polar regions? Researchers dig a tunnel into the permafrost in order to collect dinosaur bones, an activity that carries its own perils, while other experts decipher the evidence in order to bring their hypotheses to life with CGI animation. Special features include printable materials for educators and described video for the visually impaired. An amazing fresh look at these remarkable ancient reptiles, perfect for school and public library DVD collections as well as for the enjoyment of dinosaur lovers everywhere. 56 minutes, closed captioned.

Nova documentaries have always been first rate. I don't think I've ever seen a Nova documentary I didn't like. This documenatary on Arctic dinosaurs is no exception. This documentary takes us above the arctic circle to examine curious fosils scientists have found there. We see reconstructions and animations of the fosils and discussions on the finds. How did they live? What did they eat? How did they survive the polar winters? These are some of the many intriguing questions asked. There are several plausible sounding answers, but no one knows for sure whether they are correct. The most intriguing suggestion is that the current theory as to how the dinosaurs became extinct has been precluded. If the arctic dinosaurs could survive polar winters, then surely they would have been able to survive an asteroid or meteor crashing into earth and the resulting debris blocking out the sun for a while. So how did the dinosaurs become extinct?

Fossil evidence shows that dinosaurs lived near the North Pole. This is a shocker given that it was assumed they were cold-blooded and need warmer environments. Few, if not no, reptiles live up there nowadays.
Though this work is designed for an educated audience, I think little children will love it, as they do most dinosaur-related stuff. This would be something that could be shown when a junior high or high school biology class is winding down for the holidays.
The computer graphics were amazing. They made dull bones truly come to life. I was amazed at how experts could look a bones that looked like rocks and say, "Oh yeah, that's a leg bone of X species."
In this work, they blased through rock with dynamite. I found that shocking as I would assume that could break fossils, rather than expose them. You know how Bart and Homer Simpson love seing things explode? I wonder if the documentary makers purposely included that footage to lure in that Simpson demoographic. Later, they do show the fine sweeping that I associate with digs.
The work is not diverse in terms of interviewees. Beside one South African woman of South Asian descent, everyone else is a majority male. Some say the pool of anthropologists is very diverse, but maybe that hasn't happened for paleontologists (sp?) yet. The work was diverse in terms of university location. One man from a Melbourne institution spoke with an American accent and I found that surprising.
I love the way this work examined theories and put numerous factors on the table. This work questions the meteor-as-killer theory and some people may want to view this work just to hear that discussion. The work said, "Maybe there are degrees of cold-bloodedness and warm-bloodedness" and that really made a light in my head turn on. Still, some viewers may be disappointed at how many theories are presented with not much conclusion. This may feel like teasing to some.