History Trivia / PlanetDinosaur

** ''Rugops'' is very oversized by today’s standards. It was initially described as 6-7 meters in length, though some media depictions went as far as 9 meters, but subsequent studies showed that it was actually fairly small, at around 4-5 meters in length. That said, there are also fossils of a another, still-unnamed abelisaurid from the domain of ''Spinosaurus'' (specially the Kem Kem Beds) that did grow as big as the show’s ''Rugops''.

** The "Last Killers" episode specifies how abelisaurids and tyrannosaurs were the "last killer dinosaurs". However, a third group of large carnivorous theropods was later determined to have survived to the end of the Mesozoic in the southern hemisphere, the megaraptorans. Although a number of studies suggest that megaraptorans might be giant primitive tyrannosaurs, making the original statement correct by technicality.

** Predator X (''Pliosaurus funkei'') is shown hunting the British cryptoclidid ''Kimmerrosaurus'', but the latter is not known from Svaldbard's Agardhfjellet Formation. This was likely down because no named cryptoclidids were known from Svalbard at the time, until 2012, when we named ''Djupedalia engeri'' and ''Colymbosaurus svalbardensis'' from the site, alongside P. ''funkei'' (the latter two genera are also known from Britain, albeit different species). In 2020, we got a third cryptoclidid from Agardhfjellet, ''Ophthalmothule cryostea''.

** Predator X (''Pliosaurus funkei'') is shown hunting the British cryptoclidid ''Kimmerrosaurus'', but the latter is not known from Svaldbard's Agardhfjellet Formation. This was likely down because no named cryptoclidids were known from Svalbard at the time, until 2012, when we named ''Djupedalia engeri'' and ''Colymbosaurus svalbardensis'' from the site, alonside P. ''funkei'' (the latter two genera are also known from Britain, albeit different species). In 2020, we got a third cryptoclidid from Agardhfjellet, ''Ophthalmothule cryostea''.

** Only a year after the series aired, "Predator X" was officially described as ''Pliosaurus funkei'', a fairly common genus of large pliosaurs during the Late Jurassic of Europe. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliosaurus#/media/File:Pliosaurus_size_chart.png And it turned out to be a lot smaller than initially claimed]], at an estimated 9-10 meters and about 8-10 tons (the size of a very large orca), and similar in size to related pliosaurs from the time like the British P. ''macromerus'' and Russian P. ''rossicus''.
* Predator X (''Pliosaurus funkei'') is shown hunting the British cryptoclidid ''Kimmerrosaurus'', but the latter is not known from Svaldbard's Agardhfjellet Formation. This was likely down because no named cryptoclidids were known from Svalbard at the time, until 2012, when we named ''Djupedalia engeri'' and ''Colymbosaurus svalbardensis'' from the site, alonside P. ''funkei'' (the latter two genera are also known from Britain, albeit different species). In 2020, we got a third cryptoclidid from Agardhfjellet, ''Ophthalmothule cryostea''.

** "Predator X" has been officially described, with it now being called ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_X Pliosaurus funkei]]''. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliosaurus#/media/File:Pliosaurus_size_chart.png And it turned out to be a lot smaller than initially claimed]], at an estimated 8-10 meters and about 8-9 tons (the size of a very large orca), though it still would have been the apex predator of its domain and indeed the largest predator of the Late Jurassic.

* ''Spinosaurus'' and ''Carcharodontosaurus'' are shown coexisting with ''Sarcosuchus'' and ''Ouranosaurus''. This was likely due to all four genera being used wastebasket taxa for any fragmentary fossils of spinosaurs, carcharodontosaurs, large crocodylomorphs, and ornithopods found in Mid Cretaceous rocks in North Africa respectively, creating the illusion that all these genera coexisted for over 10 million years. But if we just look at the more complete and properly diagnostic material, ''Spinosaurus'' and ''Carcharodontosaurus'' are only known from the Cenomanian, while ''Sarcosuchus'' and ''Ouranosaurus'' lived over 10 million years prior in the late Aptian-early Albian.

* FairForItsDay: The portrayal of ''Spinosaurus'' comes across as very outdated by modern standards, with post-2014 discoveries revealing that ''Spinosaurus'' was an amphibious animal with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinosaurus#/media/File:Spinosaurus_aegyptiacus_by_PaleoGeek.png short back legs and a paddle-shaped tail]] (essentially a cross between a crocodile and waterfowl). However, for its time, ''Planet Dinosaur''’s depiction of ''Spinosaurus'' was very up-to-date and innovative, completely ditching the sensationalized SavageSpinosaurs image that other documentaries either endorsed (like ''Series/MonstersResurrected'') or at least treated as a plausible notion (like National Geographic’s ''Bizarre Dinosaurs''), despite evidence to the contrary. ''Planet Dinosaur'', on the other hand, properly portrays the animal as a specialized piscivore that spent most of its time near bodies of water, preying on large fish (something that’s been a well-supported theory with the related ''Baryonyx'' since the 1980s). Its battle with the ''Carcharadontosaurus'' over a carcass further deconstructs the fraudulent “super predator” image, as the ''Spinosaurus'' only resorts to it out of desperation because of a drought, and while it does win, the wound the ''Carcharadontosaurus'' inflicts on it eventually kills it, a far cry from the nigh-invincible monster in other media.

** The use of ''Troodon'' has since become outdate because the genus was determined to be a nomen dubium, as its holotype is based on a single tooth. The formerly defunct name ''Stenonychosaurus'' was therefore resurrected for the more complete Campanian "Troodon" specimens, and leaving the currently still undescribed Alaskan "Troodon" species identity as ''Troodon'' up in the air.

** "Zunityrannus" was officially named as ''Suskityrannus'' in 2019 (and it's only known from juvenile specimens so it's questionable whether it would have grown large enough to menace ''Nothronychus'').
** If the chaoyangopterid pterosaur featured in "New Giants" is in fact ''Lacusovagus'', then it may be a victim of this - a few recent studies have recovered it as a tapejarid or thalassodromid instead.
** The discovery of the polar tyrannosaur ''Nanuqsaurus'' means the large Alaskan troodontids weren't the top predators of the region and didn't grow so big due to a lack of competition, being more likely just an example of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergmann%27s_rule Bergmann's rule]]. The Alaskan tyrannosaur was known since 2006, initially thought to be a polar ''Gorgosaurus'' or ''Albertosaurus'' before being recognized as a new taxon in 2014, so this was more likely an oversight.