Walking with Monsters

530 million years ago: Cambrian period, Terreneuvian epoch

Place: Chengjiang, China

Oxygen Content: 30% below today

Hazards: world's first super-predators

The first episode begins with an illustration of the giant impact hypothesis: approximately 4.4 billion years ago when the Earth was formed, it is conjectured that a planet-like object referred to as Theia collided into the early Earth, dynamically reshaping the Earth and forming the moon. The episode then jumps ahead to the Cambrian Explosion, showing the first diversification of life in the sea. Strange arthropod predators called Anomalocaris (reclassified in 2021 as Houcaris) feed on trilobites (both described as the first creatures to evolve eyes), and fight with each other, whereupon a wounded loser is attacked by a school of Haikouichthys, described as the first vertebrate.

Animals:  · Unidentified jellyfish (live-acted by Rhizostoma pulmo)  · Unidentified trilobite (identified as arthropods)  · Houcaris (identified as Anomalocaris)  · Haikouichthys

418 million years ago: Silurian period, Pridoli epoch

Place: South Wales, UK

Oxygen Content: 30% below today

Hazards: giant scorpions

The segment moves on to the Silurian period, where Haikouichthys has evolved into the jawless-fish Cephalaspis. The marine scorpion Brontoscorpio pursues a Cephalaspis (which had detected the scorpion early with sensors on its skin that are similar to the human sense of touch) but falls victim to the giant eurypterid Pterygotus, whose young feed on the smaller scorpion's body. Later a shoal of Cephalaspis migrate into the shallows to spawn, navigating via memory thanks to their advanced vertebrate brains. As they cross a shallow embankment, they are ambushed by several Brontoscorpio which are depicted as the first animals capable of walking on land. Several fish are killed but the majority slip past the feasting scorpions and arrive at the spawning site. One scorpion misses this feeding opportunity due to having to moult its exoskeleton.

Animals:  · Cephalaspis  · Unidentified sponge  · Brontoscorpio  · Cameroceras (identified as orthocone)  · Pterygotus  · Unidentified sea urchin

360 million years ago: Late Devonian

Place: Pennsylvania, USA

Oxygen Content: 20% below today

Hazards: giant killer fish

A short sequence depicts Cephalaspis evolving into Hynerpeton, amphibian-like tetrapods, who now hunt their arthropod contemporaries which have shrunk. Though capable of terrestrial movement due to having complex lungs to breath the air, Hynerpeton have to remain near water to keep moist and reproduce. A lone male Hynerpeton hunting underwater is threatened by predatory fish, at first by a Stethacanthus which is eaten by a two-ton Hyneria that chases the amphibian out of the water. After seeing off a rival during the night, the male finds a receptive female at dawn and the two mate at the water's edge. They are ambushed by the Hyneria, which beaches itself in the attack, but then uses its fins to drag itself ashore and grab the fleeing male. Despite his untimely death, the Hynerpeton eggs were successfully fertilised and sink into the water to develop. A sequence depicts them acquiring hard shells as the first reptiles evolve, but as the offspring leave their nest, those still hatching are left at the mercy of a giant spider, foreshadowing the return of the arthropods.

Animals:  · Hynerpeton  · Unidentified scorpion  · Stethacanthus (identified as primitive "shark")  · Unidentified angelfish  · Hyneria  · Petrolacosaurus  · Unidentified Mesothelae spider

300 million years ago: Carboniferous period, Pennsylvanian epoch

Place: Kansas, USA

Oxygen Content: 40% above today

Hazards: giant insects

The second episode shows the swampy coal forests of the Carboniferous. It explains that because of a much higher oxygen content in the atmosphere, giant land arthropods evolved, such as a monstrous spider from the Mesothelae family the size of a human head, Meganeura; a giant dragonfly the size of an eagle and Arthropleura; a big relative of modern millipedes and centipedes (the spinoff Prehistoric Park also features the gigantic scorpion Pulmonoscorpius, and there is also the huge cockroach Archimylacris). A female spider hunts down and kills a Petrolacosaurus (despite the reptile's complex heart allowing it to momentarily outrun the spider). She comes back from her hunting expedition only to find her burrow has flooded; the Petrolacosaurus she caught is then stolen by a Meganeura. On the spider's search for a new burrow, she passes a pond full of Proterogyrinus. Later she is chased by an Arthropleura, which is later killed in a fight with a Proterogyrinus. The spider finally chases a Petrolacosaurus out of its own burrow and moves in. A storm brews and the narrator explains that its high oxygen content makes the atmosphere very combustible, so lightning is a real danger. The Proterogyrinus are seen leaping out of the water to catch Meganeura, which were driven below the tree canopy by the storm. Later, lightning and a forest fire pour in, devastating the life around. Despite no apparent signs of life after the storm, a Petrolacosaurus is shown to have managed to outrun the flames, but then heads into the spider's lair, where, rather than being killed, it emerges with her dead body (her burrow was at the center of a lightning strike) and begins to feed upon the spider's carcass.

Animals:  · Unidentified Mesothelae spider  · Petrolacosaurus  · Meganeura  · Proterogyrinus^[5] (identified as amphibians)  · Arthropleura

280 million years ago: Permian period, Cisuralian epoch

Place: Bromacker, Germany

Global Temp: 20% colder than today

Hazards: extreme seasons

The episode then moves on to the Early Permian, where the swamp-loving trees of the Carboniferous have been replaced with more advanced conifers that are better adapted to survive in a changing climate. Petrolacosaurus and a few other diapsids have evolved into the sub-group of creatures called pelycosaurs like the Edaphosaurus which are now closely related to mammals, down to the ability to control their body temperature through sails on their backs. They live in herds and have outgrown their arthropod contemporaries in size. In the non-episodic version, the narrator explains that the insects have shrunk since their Carboniferous glory days as a mother Edaphosaurus swats at a dragonfly while sitting next to her offspring. A pregnant female Dimetrodon, another pelycosaur, hunts the Edaphosaurus herd, beginning with a mock charge to expose the juveniles. She finally kills a baby Edaphosaurus utilising specialised meat-eating teeth her species had evolved, but is forced to abandon her kill when the scent of blood attracts others of her kind, all highly-aggressive males. She builds a nest on a hill and is watched by the egg-stealing reptiliomorph, Seymouria. Some time after laying her eggs, another gravid Dimetrodon tries to take over her nest. After a long duel, the original female drives off the intruder, but is badly injured and fatigued in the process. A male Dimetrodon approaches the now unguarded nest, but luckily kills the thieving Seymouria and leaves the eggs unharmed. The eggs hatch and the mother's bond with her offspring is severed. The episode ends with the wounded mother joining other adult Dimetrodon in attacking her own young which race to the trees and hide in dung to escape. At the end the Dimetrodon is seen evolving into a Gorgonops and the narrator says that the reptiles will evolve to tighten their grip on land, becoming new "specialist reptiles".

Animals:  · Edaphosaurus  · Dimetrodon  · Seymouria (identified as amphibian)  · Gorgonops (identified as gorgonopsid)

250 million years ago: Permian period, Lopingian epoch

Place: Siberia

Global Temp: 60% hotter than today

Hazards: extreme heat, volcanic activity

The third episode is set in the Late Permian, on the supercontinent Pangaea, which was covered by a vast and inhospitable desert. In this arid climate, early therapsids, which are described as more mammal-like than reptile, are shown fighting to survive alongside other animals. The program starts with an old Scutosaurus, a relative of turtles, being killed by a female Gorgonops, which later joins others of her kind at a small waterhole. Other inhabitants of the area include Diictodon, a small burrowing dicynodont (whose hearing bones in their lower jaw would eventually become human middle ear bones). In the pool itself is a starving female Rhinesuchus that ambushes the female Gorgonops in desperation and quickly retreats. A herd of Scutosaurus arrive and eventually drink the waterhole dry. The female Gorgonops tries to dig out a pair of Diictodon but is unsuccessful. Upon returning to the waterhole, she unearths the female Rhinesuchus wrapped in a "cocoon" which it utilized to survive drought. In a torpid state, it is helpless and quickly killed. The Gorgonops is eventually killed by a sandstorm, foreshadowing the oncoming Permian–Triassic extinction event. The Diictodon meanwhile are able to adapt by digging their burrows deeper, occasionally unearthing plant tubers for sustenance.

Animals:  · Scutosaurus  · Gorgonops^[6] (identified as gorgonopsid)  · Diictodon  · Rhinesuchus (identified as giant amphibian labyrinthodont)

248 million years ago: Early Triassic

Place: Antarctica

Global Temp: 40% hotter than today

Hazards: ambush predators

Diictodon is seen evolving into the larger Lystrosaurus. The Lystrosaurus multiply into vast herds that must continually migrate in order to find fresh foliage. Also featured is the small insectivorous Euparkeria that is depicted as an ancestor of the dinosaurs, and the first animal to evolve the ball-and-socket joint in the hip. When the Lystrosaurus herd traverses a ravine, one is killed by a pack of venomous Euchambersia, though the herd doesn't show concern for the victim. Encountering a river, the herd enters the water and is attacked by numerous Proterosuchus. Many are killed, but the majority escape and continue their migration. The narrator explains that despite the dominance of Lystrosaurus, eventually the world will recover in full from the Permian-Triassic extinction event and other reptiles will overtake them; the resulting decline in all mammal-like reptiles meaning that mammals are destined to be confined to the shadows as a new group of animals becomes the dominant species on Earth. The episode ends as a Euparkeria is confronted by a Proterosuchus: the Euparkeria suddenly rapidly evolves into an Allosaurus and the scene cuts to the Late Jurassic where it passes two Stegosaurus (in the non-episodic version it starts with the late Triassic, showing Coelophysis and Thrinaxodon, then goes to the late Jurassic with a scene from The Ballad of Big Al, showing Anurognathus, Apatosaurus and Dryosaurus alongside Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus). The Age of Monsters is over. This is the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs, the most notorious Monsters of them all.

Animals:  · Lystrosaurus  · Euparkeria  · Unidentified dragonfly  · Euchambersia (identified as therocephalian)  · Proterosuchus (identified as chasmatosaur)

Late Jurassic (152 Mya) (all identified as dinosaurs)  · Allosaurus  · Stegosaurus  · Diplodocus  · Brachiosaurus