- 6 weeks ago
Documentary, Chased by Dinosaurs (2) The Giant Claw
Land of Giants and The Giant Claw, marketed together as Chased by Dinosaurs in the United States, are two special episodes of the nature documentary television series Walking with Dinosaurs. Created by Impossible Pictures and produced by the BBC Studios Science Unit, the Discovery Channel and ProSieben, The Giant Claw was first broadcast on 30 December 2002, followed by Land of Giants on 1 January 2003. The two episodes stars British wildlife presenter Nigel Marven as a "time-travelling zoologist", interacting with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, a drastic change in presentation from preceding entries in the Walking with... franchise.
As with previous documentaries in the Walking with... franchise, Land of Giants and The Giant Claw recreated extinct animals through a combination of computer-generated imagery and animatronics, incorporated into live action footage shot at various locations. The choice to include a presenter was made to more easily allow audiences to see the scale of the creatures shown in the episodes. Both episodes have Marven on a purposeful journey; in The Giant Claw, Marven searches for the long-clawed Therizinosaurus and in Land of Giants he searches for the enormous Argentinosaurus and Giganotosaurus.
The visual effects of the episodes were praised, with both episodes together winning the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Programme in 2004 and The Giant Claw winning a BAFTA TV Award for Best Visual Effects in 2003. The success of Land of Giants and The Giant Claw spawned further prehistoric miniseries starring Marven: Sea Monsters (2003) and Prehistoric Park (2006). For his role as the presenter of Land of Giants and Sea Monsters, Marven was nominated for a Royal Television Society Programme award.
Land of Giants and The Giant Claw, marketed together as Chased by Dinosaurs in the United States, are two special episodes of the nature documentary television series Walking with Dinosaurs. Created by Impossible Pictures and produced by the BBC Studios Science Unit, the Discovery Channel and ProSieben, The Giant Claw was first broadcast on 30 December 2002, followed by Land of Giants on 1 January 2003. The two episodes stars British wildlife presenter Nigel Marven as a "time-travelling zoologist", interacting with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, a drastic change in presentation from preceding entries in the Walking with... franchise.
As with previous documentaries in the Walking with... franchise, Land of Giants and The Giant Claw recreated extinct animals through a combination of computer-generated imagery and animatronics, incorporated into live action footage shot at various locations. The choice to include a presenter was made to more easily allow audiences to see the scale of the creatures shown in the episodes. Both episodes have Marven on a purposeful journey; in The Giant Claw, Marven searches for the long-clawed Therizinosaurus and in Land of Giants he searches for the enormous Argentinosaurus and Giganotosaurus.
The visual effects of the episodes were praised, with both episodes together winning the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Programme in 2004 and The Giant Claw winning a BAFTA TV Award for Best Visual Effects in 2003. The success of Land of Giants and The Giant Claw spawned further prehistoric miniseries starring Marven: Sea Monsters (2003) and Prehistoric Park (2006). For his role as the presenter of Land of Giants and Sea Monsters, Marven was nominated for a Royal Television Society Programme award.
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AnimalsTranscript
00:03I am zoologist and adventurer Nigel Marvin for years I've crisscrossed the globe in search of
00:11the most dangerous animals alive today but just imagine a prehistoric Safari my dream is to meet
00:21the largest and most extraordinary creatures that have ever lived to travel back in time and walk with dinosaurs
01:14so this was the start of my prehistoric Safari my adventure into the world of
01:21dinosaurs but I wasn't here to just sightsee I had a mystery to solve look at this this is the
01:30claw of Tyrannosaurus Rex the most notorious flesh eater ever known so if this is the claw of T-Rex
01:39what is this a 28 inch claw when it was first discovered by paleontologists in the 1950s it
01:50was so extraordinary they thought it was the rib of a giant turtle but later it was found that it
01:56was attached to ten foot arms the longest arms of any creature ever found and paleontologists called
02:05the creature Theracinosaurus this was it my first dinosaur encounter my tent had been flattened by a gigantic
02:29herbivore called syrolophus at 40 feet long the biggest plant eater in the area there was something very unusual
02:39about these creatures that I wanted to get on camera but first I had to get very very close this
02:53is the biggest
02:54herbivore I've ever seen she must be nearly eight tons she must have to pack in so much vegetation
03:06that's what makes duckbills special they're one of the few dinosaurs that can actually chew
03:11no dinosaurs can move their jaws like we can but what the duckbills do they've got a battery of teeth
03:18there can be over 2 000 teeth in that mouth and they slam the lower jaw into the upper jaw
03:24the bones
03:25distort and they grind the vegetation between that battery of teeth these are fabulous oh I don't believe
03:36it dinosaur snot thank you that was a terrific start to the expedition even though those brilliant
03:51duckbills actually trashed my tent but this of course is the reason I'm here the best guess by
03:59scientists is this belong to a kind of theropod dinosaur that's the dynasty of dinosaurs that
04:05includes all the carnivorous ones and just imagine a predator with claws like this and I'm in just
04:13the right place to find the owner of that giant claw this is the Nemec desert and I'm on the
04:20eastern
04:21side of the giant continent of lurasia in the late cretaceous that's 75 million years ago in the 21st
04:28century the arrangement of continents is very different and where I am now will be present-day
04:34Mongolia I don't know if I'm going to find claws I don't know what I'm going to see but whatever
04:40happens this is going to be a cracking adventure
05:25a nesting colony of protoceratops these were so common in the Nemec desert 75 million years ago some paleontologists call
05:37these the sheet of the cretaceous
05:41birds although these are little vegetarians they're about seven feet long they've got really powerful beaks and by the look
05:48of them a bite from one of those you can snap an arm or a leg
06:02those jaws are really formidable but I've got to get through the nesting colony and over to the other
06:08side there's some lush rainforest there and that may be the home of the giant claw but to do it
06:14I'm gonna take a calculated risk the dinosaurs closest relatives the birds and the crocodilians they can see
06:24well in color and if I use this the protoceratops may be deflected away from me and they'll follow the
06:35flag
06:35so let's see if it works
06:58behind you Nigel
07:08oh my lord
07:24oh my lord
07:34This area of the Nemeck desert is called a productive dune system.
07:39These great big dunes and then sandwiched in between this verdant rain forest.
07:44It's windy here, you can see the sand grains whipping off the top.
07:48These dunes are marching so every now and then the forests are swamped and then eventually
07:54a new forest grows so there's always new growth here for dinosaurs.
07:58And this is the first forest I've found and hopefully down there there's big carnivorous
08:05dinosaurs.
08:31This is a perfect dinosaur forest.
08:34There's cycads, ferns and these conifers some of them can soar 200 feet into the air.
09:09The first forest is going to destroy our Poison.
09:10This is the first forest is going to destroy our Almaty.
09:10The next forest is going to be a great soldier of the Pflym, which is actually a
09:15I keep getting glimpses of fast-moving dinosaurs in the vegetation along this creek
09:22and I think it's a pack of hunting velociraptors.
09:26I don't know if they're hunting yet.
09:38I soon found out my hunch was right.
09:41Moving through the trees, there were six or seven velociraptors.
09:47They're six feet long and they're pretty lethal predators, but they're not interested in me.
09:52I think they're stalking bigger prey and I'm going to try to follow them.
10:12There's their prey.
10:14That's what they've been after.
10:16A big male protoceratops.
10:19He's badly wounded already.
10:25And if I circle round, if I'm careful, I should be able to get right next to the kill.
10:41As I got closer, I saw how the velociraptors used those lethal claws on their toes.
10:49This reminds me of a pack of African hunting dogs.
10:52In action, they attack persistently and for both the velociraptors and the dogs, the end result is the same.
10:59The prey dies from loss of blood and exhaustion.
11:14The protoceratops is dead now.
11:18They're not paying any attention to me.
11:21They're totally focused on feeding.
11:25I've done this with tigers around a kill, so I think I can move closer.
11:42Predators are often at risk when they tackle much larger prey and the protoceratops fought back.
11:51There's a velociraptor over there with a broken arm.
11:55Must have been snapped by the protoceratops beak.
12:01I've pushed this far enough now.
12:04It's dangerous here in this dense forest and they may start paying attention to me.
12:10It's time to go.
12:25It was getting late and I needed to find a safe place to set up camp.
12:35The forest was teeming with strange animals, but not all as exotic as dinosaurs.
12:42Here we are, a really familiar face.
12:46Scorpions were around 200 million years before the first dinosaur.
12:51And of course, they're still around in the 21st century.
12:55So they've been on the earth for a staggering 400 million years.
13:00I've got one of these as a pet at home.
13:03So I'm going to keep this one as a little reminder.
13:09Come on then.
13:28As darkness closed in, I began to feel just a little anxious.
13:33Unfortunately, there was nowhere else to go but my tent.
13:42This was certainly not going to be a quiet night.
14:01Nigel!
14:03Is...
14:10Thank goodness for that.
14:12I've seen these in my book.
14:14They're called Mononychus.
14:17They can't be more than about six feet long.
14:19And they feed mainly on insects, so they shouldn't be after me.
14:25Instead, I decided to go after them and catch my first dinosaur.
14:37Over there!
14:52They're flipping fast!
14:57I've got one at last!
15:00He's struggling a bit.
15:01Calm down.
15:04He may be an insect eater, but there's some razor sharp teeth in there.
15:09I've got my fingers at the base of the jaw, just like with a venomous snake.
15:13But if I can get there, that should calm him down, keep the eyes covered.
15:19And this is what I caught him for.
15:21As near as damn it, feathers.
15:24You think reptiles have all got scales.
15:26Maybe these are just raggedy scales.
15:29You can see why paleontologists think these theropod dinosaurs, that's the carnivorous line,
15:37why they're in the same lineage as the birds.
15:40This is like a giant chicken or something.
15:44It was an amazing moment, wrestling with a dinosaur.
15:48But I knew I wouldn't be able to hold on for long.
15:52Away you go!
15:54Ah, look at that.
15:56I either spiked myself or stupidly put my finger on one of those teeth.
16:16The next morning, I checked on my scorpion.
16:19They've eaten it, Nigel.
16:22Ah, go on.
16:27There's lots of dinosaur distractions.
16:30I've seen no evidence at all of the giant claw.
16:35Perhaps this habitat's just too dense.
16:37Perhaps there's not enough herbivores for it to prey on.
16:42I've got a long way to go, but if I can get through there,
16:45maybe there's some more open habitat on the other side.
17:04I came out of the dense forest to this scrubbier habitat,
17:07and I've found our first real clue.
17:11I think this is the nest of the giant claw.
17:14It's been broken into.
17:16There's monitor lizards here.
17:17Fossils have been found.
17:18And monitors in Africa, they break into crocodile nests.
17:21Perhaps that's what's happened here.
17:23But look at what I found inside.
17:27This must be the embryo of Therizinosaurus, the giant claw.
17:32Even as a little baby inside the shell,
17:36you can see the claws there at the front of the body.
17:40But if this is a nest site, it's really curious.
17:44Because look at this.
17:49This is herbivore dung.
17:51It's not carnivore dung.
17:53Look inside there.
17:54There's pine needles, bits of cycad.
17:58Smells like a herbivore.
18:00And I can't understand why this is all scattered around here,
18:05around the nest site of the giant claw,
18:09which must be a predator.
18:15I'd been tracking for almost two days,
18:18yet I wasn't any nearer to understanding my quarry.
18:22There was nothing else but to continue my search
18:25through this extraordinary land.
18:48This is dangerous.
18:50There is a huge predator.
18:53Over there.
18:55It must be a Tardonsaurus.
18:58That's the ancient cosmos.
19:00Tyrannosaurus rex.
19:02On any safari you want to see the top predator,
19:05but I'm not keen on this.
19:07This is so huge.
19:0940 feet long.
19:10The wind's blowing towards us,
19:12and that's good.
19:16He's coming towards us.
19:17Quick.
19:17Okay.
19:18I've already got Aaron.
19:19Turn that off.
19:19Quick.
19:28Let's go.
19:48This is so nice.
19:54A tarbosaurus, scary but a thrill, it's the biggest carnivore around here because they
20:02stand tall, stand vertically, tiny limbs at the front help balance that massive head with
20:09that huge skull and those massive teeth for making devastating bites into prey and pulling
20:16out chunks of flesh. I am never going to forget that view.
20:27It was time to change my tactics. Across the scrubland were several large freshwater lakes.
20:34Instead of searching for Claus, I'd wait for him to come to me.
20:43This is beautiful. On any safari, you look for the waterhole, they're a magnet for animals
20:50and on a dinosaur safari, it's no different. And this must be the best chance for me to
20:56find evidence of the giant claw.
21:08The thing about waterholes being a magnet for wildlife, the predators know that too. In Africa,
21:16lions wait for zebras coming to drink. This could be a tarbosaurus coming down, waited for larger prey.
21:25So, we have really got to watch our step here.
21:32Look what I found. A claw. I think it's a therazinosaurus and there is a whole skeleton.
21:41Let's see what else I can find. Let's have a look. There we go. That's pretty heavy.
21:55Look at the size of it. I'm six foot two and it actually dwarfs me and this is just the
22:03front leg.
22:04And to be truthful, I'm actually a little nervous about meeting a creature with claws like this.
22:10They must be for disembowelling prey. But the more I get closer to the mystery of therazinosaurus,
22:17the more I get confused. Look at these. I found these amongst the bones. They're not the teeth of
22:26a meat-eater. They're leaf-shaped and serrated. That suggests they're designed for slicing through
22:31vegetation. And earlier, when I found the nest, there was also that herbivorous dung there. So,
22:39I just don't know what's going on with this amazing creature.
22:47Velociraptors, and they're paying attention to us.
22:52Nigel!
22:58Come on, get gaining!
23:21I've got an idea which may work.
23:28And this is a bicycle horn I bought from home. And let's see what happens.
23:35Just as I thought, Velociraptors like most animals. They don't like loud noises.
23:42Are you okay? Do you want a hand with yours?
23:57Can you hear that? There's a terrific kerfuffle. And I think, by the way, it's...
24:04I think, by the way, it's...
24:09Shh! Stop us, Horus! Get down!
24:30What is that?
24:35I don't believe it.
24:37At last, there's Claus, Therizinosaurus. I could never have even imagined anything like that.
24:45Tiny head, and those great claws at the front.
24:55It is the oddest of dinosaurs.
25:00Tarbosaurus, he's noticed, too. Normally, big predators avoid each other, but it looks like
25:09there could be a clash, and we better get undercover.
25:20I don't know a friend.
25:29See you next time.
25:30It's the oddest of a guy.
25:30All right.
25:31So, you got to be in the team of the team.
25:31We got to, you got a wife of the team.
25:31You got to be in the team.
25:32OK, I didn't see you.
25:38OK.
25:40You got to be in the team, belive,
25:42and you got to be in the team.
25:42And two of the team.
26:05It was an awesome fight, but Tarbosaurus eventually backed down,
26:10and I got a chance to sneak out and observe the Therizinosaurus.
26:16I was in for a surprise.
26:19A whole herd of them appeared from the forest and started browsing on the trees.
26:25Now everything adds up.
26:27Those teeth scattered in the skeleton, they were the teeth of a herbivore.
26:31The dung crammed with plant vegetation at the nest site.
26:36Therizinosaurus, it's a plant-eater, not a predator.
26:38Look at them now, they're using those giant claws to drag leaves towards their mouths.
26:44Those great lung necks for reaching up for vegetation,
26:48and those pot bellies, those are great fermentation chambers for the tons of vegetation they have to eat.
26:57I want to get really close, but of course herbivores of this size, they're not safe.
27:04But hopefully, because of my smell, I smell like a mammal.
27:08I won't be attacked.
27:09The only mammals around at this time, there's really, really small rat-like mammals.
27:14So they shouldn't be threatened by me.
27:19At least that was the theory.
27:22As far as I could see, those huge claws weren't for killing things,
27:26although they clearly discouraged that huge Tarbosaurus.
27:31In fact, these seem quite gentle creatures.
27:35And this gave me an idea.
27:37Something that would bring my quest for the giant claw to a natural end.
27:43They seem completely oblivious, even if I speak quite loudly.
27:47So I'm going to go even closer and see if I can touch one.
28:22What you most about, though, is for the giant claw to the giant claw to the giant claw.
28:35But still you'll see that.
28:35And you'll see that.
28:37So you'll see the giant claw to the giant claw.
28:43But still it'll see if I can touch one more.
28:46You'll see a little more.
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