Customer Reviews

Prehistoric Predators

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is actually three NG episodes in one on tigers, wolves, and bears. The graphics here are excellent. Like Pixar or "Beowulf," you can tell it's computer-generated, but it still has a realistic feel. There are no cheesy reenactments like a lot of documentaries on late famous people.

The work asks great questions. What did these animals eat? Were they social or solitary? The work compares these animals to the bears, big cats, and wolves of today. It doesn't present the animals as always victorious. It shows a bear smacking a tiger and a dying elephant smacking and killing a bear. This is not a boring, anthropological look at bones.

People say children love dinosaurs. This work was designed for adults, but I think many adults may want to show it to their young children. Some may want their children to see this if the new movie "10,000 BC" really fascinates them.

Each episode said North America had sloths, camels, and mammoths at the time these predators lived. Now maybe NG made a series called "Prehistoric Herbivores" of which I don't know. However, it stands out to me that the predators are given a series when the other animals are not. I wonder if being a predator is deemed "sexy" or violent animal fights are seen as attention-grabbing in a way that leaf-chomping is not.

It is very very good much better than what I expected, it details the life of three magnificent animals from the past Smilodon Fatalis, Short Faced Bear and Dire Wolf.

In general, a very good presentation of subject matter, although some time should have been spent on the evolution of each species, instead of the repetition of the same animated graphics, which are quite good compared to previous prehistoric animal representations. In my opinion, a more appropriate title might have been 'Prehistoric Mammal Carniovores' as 'Predators' is to broad for subject matter addressed.

An in depth study of 3 prehistoric predator mammals, saber tooth cat, dire wolf, and short faced bear. Lots of scientific research and interviews to explain locomotion, diet, killing strategies, habits, comparisons to modern relatives. Very good graphics and computer animation.

Prehistoric Predators features fossil carnivores from the Rancho La Brea tar pits of Los Angeles, California. The three documentaries focus on the sabertoothed cat Smilodon fatalis, the dire wolf Canis dirus, and the short-faced bear Arctodus. The documentaries combine bone analysis with computer animations of the carnivores attacking prey animals and confronting each other. There have been 2,500 sabertooth cat fossil finds at Rancho La Brea, suggesting that the animals lived in some type of social group. Smilodon fatalis' thick bone structure, body proportions, and manner of movement are viewed as more like those of a black bear than modern big cats. The seven-inch canines of Smilodon fatalis were twice as long as the canines of Homotherium. Bone analysis by Paul Matheus of the University Of Alaska shows that Homotherium was eating mainly mammoths. Computer reconstructions of the jaws of Smilodon fatalis and the modern lion show that the lion has more biting force. There have been more than 3,500 dire wolf fossil finds at Rancho La Brea, while there have been only fifteen gray wolf fossil finds. The bones of the dire wolf and the gray wolf are compared and contrasted with the dire wolf having thicker, larger bones and teeth. Bone analysis by Paul Matheus of the University Of Alaska shows that the short-faced bear ate only meat from a variety of prey animals. Because the short-faced bear's strangely-thin leg bones could not deal with the great forces of explosively-fast, curving chases, the bear is viewed as the ultimate scavenger, stealing kills from big cats and dire wolves. The short-faced bear's large nasal opening in the skull is viewed as giving it a smelling range of six miles when contrasted with the smaller nasal opening of the grizzly bear, which has a smelling range of 3-4 miles.

THIS IS A VERY EXCITING AND VISUALLY STIMULATING. LOTS OF FACTS AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE IS USED. GREAT ANIMATION.

Which seems to be the norm for a lot of documentaries on this subject lately. Granted, not a particularly cheerful subject but the same slaugher scenes over and over get old,