Behold: Exclusive footage from Prehistoric Planet, the upcoming Apple TV+ show that offers viewers some of the most scientifically accurate depictions of dinosaurs to ever grace the screen. This clip depicts the methodical hunting routine of Mononykus, a petite, insect-eating theropod recognisable for its massive claws.
Narrated by David Attenborough, produced by Jon Favreau and scored by Hans Zimmer, Prehistoric Planet show is a five-episode series (one episode will be released every night starting May 23) that will transport viewers to five different habitats of the Late Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago, around the same time that a meteor impact wiped them all out. In case you missed the first captivating trailer for the show, it can be found here.
This exclusive footage is from the episode on deserts, and features a Mononykus on the hunt. In the clip, the roughly dachshund-sized dinosaur inspects a withered log in a desert, before rapping on the wood using a claw on one of its stubby forelimbs. Then the dinosaur pokes a hole in the log, and slurps up termites with its prodigious tongue. This depiction is in line with one theory about Mononykus’ ecological niche: that the dinosaur hunted like modern-day anteaters and pangolins.
Prehistoric Planet is not the first attempt to simulate extinct animals for the screen, but many of the specific reptiles the show features are being depicted on screen for the very first time.
Each animals’ behaviour and appearance was produced with great detail given to their actual anatomy and biomechanics, so the show depicts dinosaurs in ways you may not have imagined before — and ways that science has only recently revealed they lived. There will be footage of dinosaurs in polar regions (a paper published last year described evidence of the animals nesting near the North Pole), and sweeping shots of massive dinosaurs moving in herds.
The show aims to depict the breadth of dinosaur biodiversity as never before — from duck-billed dinosaurs as shaggy as Dr. Seuss characters, to sauropods with massive, bubble-like accoutrements lining their necks.
You can catch Mononykus, Tyrannosaurus, and many other creatures of the Cretaceous when Prehistoric Planet debuts on May 23.