Embark on a journey through time with the creative minds behind Prehistoric Planet on Apple TV+. Executive producer Michael Gunton, series producer Tim Walker, and paleozoologist Dr. Darren Naish share places to witness artifacts of ancient times.
LessFrom Michael Gunton: “The American Museum of Natural History is one of the greatest places to see dinosaurs and fossils of every kind. I always head there if I get a chance when I’m in NYC. I visited only recently, and it was a lovely experience to walk down the galleries and see so many of the stars of Prehistoric Planet all there—Mononykus, Ornithomimus, you name it. We brought all these fossils (that you can see so beautifully presented in the museum) to life in Prehistoric Planet.”
From Michael Gunton: “I’m picking the Jurassic Coast because it’s close to home and it’s where I went as a student armed with my geology hammer, hope, and ambition. The Jurassic Coast has many fantastic locations, but if I had to pick one I would head to the beach at Lyme Regis in late January just after a big storm. You might find something extraordinary. I know David Attenborough loves fossil hunting on these beaches.”
From Michael Gunton: “If you are adventurous and like to get out into the wild, then head to the deserts of Patagonia, near La Flecha. Our film crew worked with Argentinean scientists and David Attenborough to uncover one of the biggest dinosaurs to ever live, a replica of which can now be found in the Museo Municipal Carmen Funes in Argentina.”
From Darren Naish: “A mecca for people interested in dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous, with spectacular specimens on show: tyrannosaurs, sauropods, armored dinosaurs, and so much more. In fact, probably no other museum in the world features such a density of historically significant Cretaceous species and specimens and provides such a rounded, complex view of Late Cretaceous life, the view depicted in Prehistoric Planet.”
From Darren Naish: “One of the world’s most famous museums has a special place in our understanding of dinosaurs and other ancient creatures. All of the key early finds instrumental in our discovery of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and seagoing reptiles are housed here. They include most of the first dinosaurs to be scientifically recognized, one of the earliest specimens of the archaic and fully feathered Jurassic bird Archaeopteryx, and the original Plesiosaurus specimen discovered by Mary Anning.”
From Tim Walker: “I was lucky enough to visit the Burgess Shale, filming with David Attenborough, a few years ago, and the feeling of standing on top of the Canadian Rockies, looking at the fossilized remains of soft-bodied animals from 500 million years ago, is something I’ll never forget. It’s an incredible fossil site where the remains of marine animals from long before the time of the dinosaurs reveal some incredible evolutionary experiments.”
From Tim Walker: “Just a stone’s throw away from the original home of the BBC Studios Natural History Unit is the site where the remains of Thecodontosaurus were found. About the size of a large dog, this dinosaur roamed the islands that made up this part of Southern England over 200 million years ago. When it was first discovered, in 1834, the word ‘dinosaur’ didn’t even exist!”
From Darren Naish: “This museum houses complete, mounted skeletons of dinosaurs that defy belief. They include giant predators, stegosaurs with unusual and surprisingly large plates and spines, and sauropods with among the most extreme necks to have ever evolved. These animals lived long before the Late Cretaceous—the time in which Prehistoric Planet is set—but the questions they raise have helped us develop the view of dinosaur evolution and diversity crucial to the series.”
From Darren Naish: "The famously picturesque, remarkably red-and-orange cliffs of Bayn Dzak have been famous in paleontological lore since the 1920s. Prehistoric Planet emphasizes what we know of the behavior and ecology of Late Cretaceous animals, and this area has been key in helping us develop what we know. This was one of the first places where eggs and nests belonging to non-bird dinosaurs were discovered, a momentous discovery since backed up by additional finds made elsewhere."
From Tim Walker: "The west Wales coastline combines glorious beaches, spectacular cliffs, and crashing waves, and at Abereiddy Bay you get all of this and some of the best-preserved graptolites you can find—graptolites are ancient tubular sea creatures. Many of the surrounding cliff faces contain great fossils, which the wave action constantly erodes and reveals more of, and a walk on the beach can throw up pebbles that contain fossils."