Prehistoric Park

Prehistoric Park is a British mockumentary sci-fi drama series made by the animation house Impossible Pictures for ITV, in 2006. Nigel Marven, who has appeared in other dinosaur-related programs before, stars in this series as he goes back in time to save prehistoric creatures from extinction, at the brink of their extinctions.

The extinct animals that are brought to Prehistoric Park throughout the series are as follows:

• A male Triceratops named Theo.
• A herd of around thirteen to twenty Ornithomimus, which go on to have twelve chicks.
• Two young Tyrannosaurus rex, who are siblings. One is a male named Terrence, and the other is a female named Matilda.
• A female Woolly Mammoth named Martha.
• A male Elasmotherium. (Woolly Rhino)
• A small group of Microraptors.
• A herd of nine titanosaurs.
• A Phorusrhacos.
• Two Sabre-toothed Cats, one male and one female. The Cats later go on to have two cubs.
• A Meganeura.
• A Pulmonoscorpius.
• An Arthropleura.
• A Deinosuchus.
• A Troodon. Unlike the other animals, Nigel and the crew do not intentionally bring back the Troodon, it hides in the back of their truck as they return to the present.

As well as the extinct animals, there are also several modern-day animals that reside in the park. These include a herd of African Elephants, a Cheetah, a group of Nile Crocodiles and free-roaming Egrets and Ibis. Nigel also keeps a few smaller animals in and around his base, which include a Blue and Yellow Macaw, a Hermann's Tortoise, a Western Hog-nosed Snake and two Jackson's Chameleons.

Animals seen in the wild:

Episode 1 T-rex Returns

• Ornithomimus
• Tyrannosaurus
• Triceratops
• Nyctosaurus (identified as Pterosaur)

Episode 2 A Mammoth Undertaking

• Ursus Spelaeus (Cave Bear)
• Woolly Mammoth
• Cro-Magnon (live-acted by Human)
• Cave Hyena (live-acted by Spotted Hyena)
• Gray Wolf (live-acted by Siberian husky)
• Elasmotherium (Woolly Rhino)
• Palaeocorvus

Episode 3 Dinobirds

• Eosipterus (identified as Pterosaur)
• Incisivosaurus
• Mei Long
• Microraptor
• Borealosaurus (identified as Titanosaur)

Episode 4 Saving the Sabre-Tooth

• Toxodon
• Smilodon (Saber-toothed cat)
• Phorusrhacos (Terror Bird)
• Six-banded Armadillo (live-acted)
• Red Brocket Deer (live-acted)

Episode 5 The Bug House

• Meganeura (identified as Giant Dragonfly)
• Arthropleura (giant Centipede)
• Pulmonoscorpius (identified as Giant Scorpion)
• Crassigyrinus (giant swamp amphibian)

Episode 6 Supercroc

• Parasaurolophus
• Albertosaurus
• Nyctosaurus
• Deinosuchus
• Troodon

Trivia

An opening scene in the first episode has Nigel looking at a Tyrannosaurus skeleton. This scene takes place in the exact same museum (The Oxford Museum of Natural History) as the opening shot in 2022's Prehistoric Planet.

Scientific Inaccuracies

Episode 1: T-Rex Returns

• Non-avian dinosaurs went extinct closer to 66 million years ago, rather than 65 as the show claims a few times.
• The Hell Creek Formation is typically depicted as a volcanic rocky wasteland, but it would have been lush with vegetation similar to the Florida swampland.
• Ornithomimus' general anatomy is fine, but it is debated whether or not it lived with Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops in the late Maastrichtian.
• In real life, Ornithomimus would be fully coated in feathers, with the exception of its lower legs. However, the series did portray the chicks with a downy feather coating.
• The teenage Triceratops Theo has rounded epoccipitals, or horns around the frill, a characteristic of an adult.
• Tyrannosaurus' head and body is too slender. Paleontologists now know that Tyrannosaurus was probably the widest and heaviest of the theropod dinosaurs.
• Nyctosaurus lived around 15 million years before Episode 1 takes place.
• Nyctosaurus also appears to be oversized, with a three metre wingspan rather than two.

Episode 2: A Mammoth Undertaking

• Elasmotherium is depicted with a long nose horn. A study from 2021 theorizes that Elasmotherium had a really short horn instead, similar to the nasal boss of Pachyrhinosaurus.
• Despite the Elasmotherium being referred to as the Woolly Rhinoceros, the real Woolly Rhino was Coelodonta.

Episode 3: Dinobirds

• Microraptor is accurately portrayed with feathers, but the head is completely bare.
• The colours of at least one species of Microraptor is confirmed to be reminiscent to that of crows; completely black.
• Mei Long is oversized, as it uses the same CG model as Troodon. In reality, Mei is similar in size to a duck.
• Mei would also be fully coated in feathers.

Episode 4: Saving the Saber-Tooth

Episode 5: The Bug House

Episode 6: Supercroc

Troodon is a dubious genus. Most fossils assigned to it are now assigned to Stenonychosaurus , Latenivenatrix and Pectinodon.