WWD UK vs. US

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

By this stage, I was thinking I might die if I were to hear the words 
'Walking With Dinosaurs' again. Exactly why will become clear in a 
few months. Regardless, I recently watched the US version of WWD. 
How it compared to the UK version is fairly interesting - not just in 
what was taken out, as Tom has already explained (though the reason 
some of the scenes were cut out was not just because of gore, as Tom 
implied*), but in the narration. 

Firstly, the US version does put slightly more emphasis on the 
interrelationships of the various taxa. _Placerias_ and the cynodonts 
are consistently called mammal-like reptiles in the UK version - this 
phrase is used in the US version but not as frequently and, in places, is 
replaced by terms such as 'belong to a different branch of the family 
tree'. The US version also says a bit more about archosaur 
relationships than does the UK version. Only a bit more though. 

Secondly, the US version seems less shy about mentioning locations. 
We are told that the _Iguanodon_ herd in episode 4 is in Georgia (now 
Nick Pharris' comment makes sense), for example. The UK version 
tells how the _Ornithocheirus_ arrives at Cantabria - 'a landmass that 
will one day become Spain' - whereas the US version just says Spain.

Thirdly, some of the more far-fetched ideas in the UK version are 
played down a bit for the US version. In _Time of the Titans_, the UK 
version makes mention several time of the idea that _Anurognathus_ is 
a commensal: it does not just use the sauropods as feeding platforms 
(as is explained in the book), but actually depends on them for its way 
of life and is on its way to becoming a pterosaurian oxpecker. These 
bits of the narrative were taken out of the US version.

It's also particularly irksome that the US version took out scenes such 
as the cannibalistic cynodonts, but still kept in the urinating 
_Postosuchus_. Argh.

*In the UK version, a _Torosaurus_ has its whole horn snapped off 
while in a fight. Jim Kirkland objected to this scene as it's pretty 
ridiculous - if a horn broke anywhere, it would not be right above the 
postorbital. I think that's why they took it out, not because it was gory.

"I was arrested, my DNA tested"


DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
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