Walking with Monsters

From the makers of Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts comes the prequel: the epic and entertaining story of life on Earth before the dinosaurs and beasts. It's life, but not as we know it. Before dinosaurs, a succession of fantastic animals and plants ruled the planet. Many of us are completely unaware that these creatures ever existed, or believe our planet was home to just worms or bugs. Yet there was a time when two-ton predatory fish came on land to hunt, when 26 foot sea scorpions sliced sushi in the shallows, when just one species of lumbering reptile represented eighty percent of all life. State-of-the-art digital technology breathes life into these creatures that dominated both land and sea for 250 million years. This is the final program in the phenomenally successful, multi award-winning Walking with... series.

In this first episode, the focus is on the conflict between the fish ancestor of man, Cephalaspis, and the arthropods such as the massive Brontoscorpio, a meter-long scorpion that was an early creature to make the step from the seas to land.

The second episode deals with the Carboniferous period and the early Permian, with the amphibians having to deal not only with even more monstrous arthropods but the first reptiles. Particular emphasis is given to the life of a Mesothelae, an immense spider.

The final episode covers the end of the Paleozoic, the late Permian period, with special attention to the predatory Gorgonopsids and Scutosaurs, as well as climactic change that converts much of Pangaea into a massive and nearly lifeless desert.