History Series / WalkingWithMonsters

** Likewise the final minutes of the show ends in the Mesozoic complete with reused clips of ''Time of the Titans'' (and clips from ''New Blood'' in the American version), thus ending the ''Franchise/WalkingWith'' franchise exactly where it all started.

''Walking with Monsters'' is the 2005 prequel to the ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' series, and is similarly narrated by Creator/KennethBranagh. Focusing on life during the Paleozoic era, ''Monsters'' showcases the evolution of numerous forms of life and their battle for dominance over the planet. Unlike its predecessors (both of which wielded six-episode runs), ''Walking with Monsters'' was allocated only three episodes, and thus compresses multiple time periods and narratives into single episodes.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/81fyts7m8tl_ri.jpg]]

** Kansas, USA (300 MYA) - A giant ''Mesothelae'' spider searches for a new nest in the massive coal forests of the Carboniferous while confronting the predatory amphibians and other enormous insects dominating her ecosystem.
** Bromacker, Germany (280 MYA) - Early in the Permian, a mother ''Dimetrodon'', an early synapsid (the group eventually containing mammals) must feed herself and build a nest for her eggs, all while avoiding her cannibalistic peers.

** Siberia (250 MYA) - At the end of the Permian, all the continents have combined into the supercontinent Pangea and the resulting mass desertification wreaks havoc on almost all inland ecosystems, decimating multitudes of reptile and amphibian species (including the predatory, mammal-like gorgonopsids) and paving way for the biggest mass extinction event in the history of Earth.
** Antarctica (248 MYA) - At the dawn of the Triassic, large herd of the synapsid ''Lystrosaurus'' migrate in their search for food while ''Euparkeria'', a small, insectivorous early archosaur, quietly sets the stage for the next big players in evolution: the dinosaurs.

* PrehistoricMonster: It's even titled ''Walking With [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Monsters]]''! Predators here are represented in a scarier way than the original ''Dinosaurs'' and ''Beasts''. The idea is kind of that this is before the Earth had a ruling class, so different groups of animals were ferociously and graphically battling it out to be the dominant species. Things become more relaxed by the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, as seen in ''WWD'' and ''WWB''.

''Walking with Monsters'' is the 2005 prequel to the ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' series, and is similarly narrated by Creator/KennethBranagh. Focusing on life during the Paleozoic era, ''Monsters'' showcases the evolution of numerous forms of life and their battle for dominance over the planet. Unlike its predecessors, ''Walking with Monsters'' covers multiple time periods within a single episode.

** Chengjiang, China (530 MYA) - Following the Cambrian explosion, ''Anomalocaris'', a 6ft invertebrate and the world's first superpredator, dominates a sea increasingly teeming with life (including trilobites and a miniscule form of early fish).

** Bromacker, Germany (280 MYA) - Early in the Permian, a mother ''Dimetrodon'', an early therapsid (a distant relation of synapsids, or the group containing mammals) must feed herself and build a nest for her eggs, all while avoiding her cannibalistic peers.

** Chengjiang, China (530 MYA) - Following the Cambrian explosion, ''Anomalocaris'', the world's first superpredator, dominates the seas.
** South Wales, UK (418 MYA) - A school of ''Cephalaspis'' swim upstream to spawn. However, they are being hunted by a group of ''Brontoscorpio'', one of the first creatures to walk on land.
** Pennsylvania, USA (360 MYA) - It's mating season for the ''Hynerpeton'', and the reliance on remaining close to the water puts them in the path of aquatic predators.

** Kansas, USA (300 MYA) - A giant ''Mesothelae'' spider searches for a new nest in the massive coal forests of the Carboniferous.
** Bromacker, Germany (280 MYA) - A mother ''Dimetrodon'' must feed herself and build a nest for her eggs, all while avoiding her cannibalistic peers.

** Siberia (250 MYA) - All the continents have combined into one and the vast desert conditions wreak havoc on the ecosystem, paving way for the biggest mass extinction event in the history of Earth.
** Antarctica (248 MYA) - A large herd of ''Lystrosaurus'' migrate in their search for food while ''Euparkeria'' sets the stage for the next big players in evolution, the dinosaurs.

* OffModel: The ''Allosaurus'' in the final episode switches between three different models. It first evolves into the design used in ''Series/TheLostWorld2001'', then is represented by a close up from ''The Ballad of Big Al'' and finally in a montage of wide shots from the original ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' series.

* DeathBySex: The male ''Hynerpeton'' gets eaten by a ''Hyneria'' right after it mates. In an interesting subversion, this only happens because it failed to mate the previous night, so in a way, it's a case of "death by belated sex".

* FantasticFaunaCounterart: Plenty of it.

** ''Dimetrodon'''s overall act is very similar to Komodo Dragons (the adults fight by standing up, are cannibals, and their pups flee by climbing trees to escape them).

* CrapsackWorld: The late Permian.

* EatsBabies: The ''Dimetrodons''. And yes, that includes [[MonstrousCannibalism their own kind]].
** This also includes ''their own babies'' as, after weeks of protecting the eggs to the point of near starvation, the mother joins in hunting her newly hatched offspring.
* {{Expy}}: Plenty of it.

** The close-up of an amphibian attacking by desperation the giant gorgonopsid is very similar to that of the alligator attacking the black bear in Series/AnimalFaceOff.
* EyeScream:
** A female ''Dimetrodon'''s eye is knocked out of her head while defending her nest.
** A ''Euparkeria'' is seen gnawing on a ''Lystrosaurus'' carcass' eye.

** '''Carboniferous Period:''' ''Proterogyrinus'' was likely extinct by the time chronicled in this segment.

** '''Late Permian Period:''' ''Rhinesuchus'' and ''Diictodon'' are unknown from Russia and probably were restricted to the Southern hemisphere.
** '''Early Triassic Period:''' ''Euchambersia'' and ''Euparkeria'' are unknown from Antarctica.
*** Furthermore, ''Euchambersia'' was extinct by this time, and ''Euparkeria'' hadn't evolved yet.

* BaitAndSwitch: One of the shots near the end of the ''Reptile's Beginnings'' episodes opens with the mother ''Dimetrodon'' staring off to the side at another ''Dimetrodon'' feasting on something bloody near her nesting mound, with the narration describing her as being too weak to defend her nest. The shot then pans out to reveal the other ''Dimetrodon'' has instead killed said intruder - the egg-stealing amphibian from the start of the episode.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: The mistakes about ancestor -> descendant relationship: the jawless, armoured ''Cephalaspis'' becoming a primitive amphibian missing two passages (jawed armoured fish and non-armoured lobe-finned fish), and the early lizard-like ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Petrolacosaurus]]'' (portrayed as the "first reptile") wrongly becoming an ''Edaphosaurus'' (a ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Dimetrodon]]'' relative, thus a ''mammal'' ancestor). Another example is ''Euparkeria'' mentioned as the ancestor of all the dinosaurs (it was only a distant relative). And chasmatosaurs ''were not'' the ancestors of crocodiles and alligators, and perhaps they weren't even aquatic as shown in the program.

** The huge eurypterid ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Pterygotus]]'' killing the alleged BigBad of the episode, ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Brontoscorpio]]''.
** Literally with the huge fish ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Hyneria]]'' swallowing a [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures prehistoric shark]] whole. This doesn't save the amphibian the shark was pursuing, as ''Hyneria'' immediately starts hunting it too, and only escapes it by making it to land.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: The mistakes about ancestor -> descendant relationship: the jawless, armoured ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Cephalaspis]]'' becoming a primitive amphibian missing two passages ([[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures jawed armoured fish and non-armoured lobe-finned fish]]), and the early lizard-like ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Petrolacosaurus]]'' (portrayed as the "first reptile") wrongly becoming an ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Edaphosaurus]]'' (a ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Dimetrodon]]'' relative, thus a ''mammal'' ancestor). Another example is ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Euparkeria]]'' mentioned as the ancestor of all the dinosaurs (it was only a distant relative). And [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles chasmatosaurs]] ''were not'' the ancestors of crocodiles and alligators, and perhaps they weren't even aquatic as shown in the program.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: The ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Meganeura, Brontoscorpio, Arthropleura, Mesothelae]]'', and all the other arthropods in this spinoff.

* DeathBySex: The male ''[[UsefulNotes/PRehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Hynerpeton]]'' gets eaten by a ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Hyneria]]'' right after it mates. In an interesting subversion, this only happens because it failed to mate the previous night, so in a way, it's a case of "death by belated sex".
* DeathOfAChild: A juvenile ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Edaphosaurus]]'' gets eaten by a ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Dimetrodon]]'', a bunch of baby ''Dimetrodon'' get eaten by the adults, and a mesothelae spider butchers an entire nest of ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles Petrolacosaurus]]'', save for the few that got away.
* EatsBabies: The ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Dimetrodons]]''. And yes, that includes [[MonstrousCannibalism their own kind]].

** A female ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Dimetrodon]]'''s eye is knocked out of her head while defending her nest.

* {{Leitmotif}}: ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Hyneria]]'' is accompanied by a ''Film/{{Jaws}}''-esque theme.

* MamaBear: The mother ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Dimetrodon]]''.

* ZergRush: ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Haikouichthys]]'' against the injured ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures Anomalocaris]]''.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Basically every animal except ''Dimetrodon'' (not casually, the creature chosen for the cover-image above).
** '''Cambrian Period:''' ''Haikouichthys'', ''Anomalocaris'', Trilobite
** '''Silurian Period:''' ''Cephalaspis'', ''Brontoscorpio'', ''Pterygotus'', ''Cameroceras''
** '''Devonian Period:''' ''Hynerpeton'', ''Hyneria'', ''Stethacanthus''
** '''Carboniferous Period:''' Mesothelae, ''Petrolacosaurus'', ''Meganeura'', ''Arthropleura'', ''Proterogyrinus''
** '''Early Permian Period:''' ''Edaphosaurus'', ''Seymouria''
** '''Late Permian Period:''' ''Inostrancevia'', ''Diictodon'', ''Rhinesuchus'', ''Scutosaurus''
** '''Early Triassic Period:''' ''Lystrosaurus'', ''Euparkeria'', ''Proterosuchus'', ''Euchambersia''

* OffModel: The allosaurus in the final episode switches between three different models. It first evolves into the design used in ''Series/TheLostWorld2001'', then is represented by a close up from ''The Ballad of Big Al'' and finally in a montage of wide shots from the original ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' series.