Walking with Beasts (BBC America)

Walking with Beasts is a 2018 documentary and a remake of the 2001 BBC documentary Walking with Beasts. It is the third installment of the Walking with Tetralogy by BBC America, like the original it was directed and produced by Tim Haines. Whilst using the original filming locations and music as the original, the models and creatures haven been undated in accordance to the latest paleontological finds. It was narrated by famed Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.

Episode 1: New Dawn
49 Million Years Ago: Paleogene Period, Eocene epoch (Germany)

Film Location: Java

The episode starts by showing how the dinosaurs were dominating the land and that mammals were small. Then it shows how "an asteroid the size of Mount Everest" struck the Earth and demolished the dinosaurs, and how mammals evolved into new forms thereafter. The first episode depicts the warm tropical world of the early Eocene, sixteen million years after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Birds, the surviving lineage of the dinosaurs, including the giant carnivorous Gastornis, rule this world, while mammals are still very small. The setting is near the Messel pit in Germany. Due to volcanic activity, sudden bulk escapes of carbon dioxide trapped underneath lakes pose a significant hazard to the local wildlife. The episode centers around a Leptictidium family, a leaping, shrew-like mammal, which has emerged in the dawn hours to forage for food. As the mother Leptictidium forages, first in solidarity, and then with her pups, she wanders near a large predatory mammal, identified as an Ambulocetus, a "walking whale". Despite its crocodilian similarity, the Ambulocetus is shown swimming by caudal undulation like a modern cetacean. A female Gastornis, who has been taking care of the single egg in her nest, makes two attempts to hunt a small herd of Propalaeotherium, early horses. The first attempt fails when sounds among the vegetation betray her presence. The second attack proves successful when the Propalaeotherium consume fermenting grapes and are unable to evade her attack. The Gastornis also defends her territory from another Gastornis. Unfortunately, while the mother hunts, a horde of Titanomyrma, giant carnivorous ants, encounter the egg when it was just starting to hatch, and successfully kill and eat the chick. When the female discovers her dead offspring at dusk she leaves the forest to try and start another family.

With the arrival of night, a band of lemur-like Godinotia, socialize and copulate in the dark. Ambulocetus finally manages to catch a Creodont near the lake edge. As the night wears on, an earth tremor unleashes trapped carbon dioxide out from underneath the lake and the gas suffocates most of the surrounding life. The Leptictidium survive because the nest was upwind of the gas, and Gastornis also survived because she left that area in the forest.

It is mentioned that although the Leptictidium survived the gas, they would ultimately leave no descendants, while the Ambulocetus, who was killed by the lethal gases, would evolve into the whales, hereby setting the scene for the next episode.

Animals: · Torosaurus (stock footage from Walking with Dinosaurs) · Tyrannosaurus (stock footage from Walking with Dinosaurs) · Didelphodon (stock footage from Walking with Dinosaurs) ·

Episode 2: Whale Killer
36 Million Years Ago: Paleogene period, Eocene epoch (Pakistan/Tethys Sea)

Filming Location: Florida

Animals: