science

When Dinosaurs Roamed America

When Dinosaurs Roamed America is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand When Dinosaurs Roamed America rather than just read about it. In short: When Dinosaurs Roamed America (sometimes shortened to When Dinosaurs Roamed outside of the United States) is a two-hour American television program (produced in the style of a traditional nature documentary) that first aired on the Discovery Channel on July 15, 2001. The show features the reign of the non-avian dinosaurs in America over the course of more than 160 million years, through five different segments, each…

Key takeaways

When Dinosaurs Roamed America belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect When Dinosaurs Roamed America to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of When Dinosaurs Roamed America from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

When Dinosaurs Roamed America (sometimes shortened to When Dinosaurs Roamed outside of the United States) is a two-hour American television program (produced in the style of a traditional nature documentary) that first aired on the Discovery Channel on July 15, 2001. The show features the reign of the non-avian dinosaurs in America over the course of more than 160 million years, through five different segments, each with their own variety of flora and fauna. When Dinosaurs Roamed America premiered to 5 million viewers and aired numerous times on the Discovery HD Theater's opening lineup in 2002. It was released on VHS and DVD in August 2001, and had a number of re-releases on DVD since then. When Dinosaurs Roamed America also had a limited Region 2 release on Blu-ray in 2011, bundled with Valley of the T. rex.

Production When Dinosaurs Roamed America was directed by Pierre de Lespinois with Evergreen Films, and was narrated by actor John Goodman (voice of Rex in We're Back! A Dinosaur’s Story and Fred Flintstone from the 1994 film). The featured dinosaurs were designed by paleoartist and art director Mark Dubeau, noted for creating dinosaurs for many other Discovery Channel and National Geographic specials. The dinosaur animation was accomplished by animator Don Waller at Meteor Studios, in Montreal, Canada, while the music was composed by Christopher Franke (ex-member from Tangerine Dream). Unlike Walking with Dinosaurs, the show's creatures are almost entirely composed of computer-generated imagery, and is also one of the first documentaries to depict dromaeosaurs and therizinosaurs with nearly full coats of feathers. The program was shot in high definition for better portability and quality. Exotic HD cameras were rare at the time, which made reaching some of the filming locations for When Dinosaurs Roamed America (which include various parts of Argentina, Tasmania, and Florida) difficult, but the portable HD cameras allowed de Lespinois and his small team to capture never-before-seen shots of the various landscapes. The show was edited using an offline system rather than online. Animation was done using Final Cut Pro over the course of six months.

Marketing When Dinosaurs Roamed America was first revealed on the Discovery website in June 2001, originally with a July 13 airdate set. It was also announced that clips from the program would be added to the website for the upcoming show. Nine different clips were available, which showed bits of the five segments of When Dinosaurs Roamed America. The site for When Dinosaurs Roamed America lasted until September 2008, when it became a redirect to the main Dinosaurs page on the Discovery website.

Synopsis

Late Triassic segment (220 million years ago) The program starts in the Late Triassic, near modern-day New York City in the Newark Supergroup. The narrator explains how the Permian mass extinction led to new forms of life, including, eventually, the most extraordinary creatures ever to walk the planet, the dinosaurs. The camera tracks a Coelophysis through the woods. The program depicts Coelophysis as preying mainly on small animals, such as insects and Icarosaurus. It encounters other, larger non-dinosaurian archosaurs such as Rutiodon and Desmatosuchus (mispronounced as "Desmatosuchus"; the subtitles accommodated this mispronunciation by misspelling as "Dematosuchus"). The quick Coelophysis is portrayed as a very successful inhabitant of this world.

Early Jurassic segment (200 million years ago) The program moves on to the Early Jurassic of Pennsylvania, showing a pack of Syntarsus. These dinosaurs are closely related to Coelophysis. They are hunting the primitive herbivorous dinosaur Anchisaurus; only to be chased away by a Dilophosaurus, which kills the Anchisaurus to feed its young. The narrator then explains Syntarsus and Dilophosaurus will become gigantic carnivores like Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, while Anchisaurus will become the massive sauropods.

Late Jurassic segment (150 million years ago) The show skips to Utah during the Late Jurassic period (all centering the Morrison Formation). The region has been engulfed by a severe drought as the seasonal rain has failed to arrive. A predatory Ceratosaurus stalks a family of Dryosaurus, including a mother and two youngsters. The predator eventually breaks its cover and charges after the small dinosaurs as they scatter. The Dryosaurus can only flee but the Ceratosaurus is quicker than they are and catches up, grabbing and killing one of the juveniles. The Ceratosaurus feasts while the others escape into a grove of pine trees and run into a herd of sauropods called Camarasaurus. They will be safe around the gentle giants. A male Stegosaurus fights off the attacking Ceratosaurus, the same individual from the earlier sequence, later on using his spiked tail and follows a female Stegosaurus, displaying his plates. Eventually, the female decides that he is a healthy individual and the two mate. With the onset of the rainy season, a herd of Apatosaurus (the species is now considered Brontosaurus again) arrive, followed by a hungry Allosaurus who launches an assault against the herd while the sauropods graze but is unsuccessful due to their size and strength. The Allosaurus subsequently attacks and kills the Ceratosaurus that attacked the Dryosaurus and finally is able to feed. Later while on the move, one Apatosaurus tumbles off of a 20-foot-high cliff. The sauropod is injured with a broken leg, and its agonized bellowing is picked up by a trio pack of Allosaurus, which proceed to hunt the sauropod.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with When Dinosaurs Roamed America

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what When Dinosaurs Roamed America claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to When Dinosaurs Roamed America before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about When Dinosaurs Roamed America ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of When Dinosaurs Roamed America

In research: When Dinosaurs Roamed America appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses When Dinosaurs Roamed America in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: When Dinosaurs Roamed America is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2001 American films, 2001 documentary films, 2001 films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for When Dinosaurs Roamed America outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study When Dinosaurs Roamed America in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what When Dinosaurs Roamed America means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain When Dinosaurs Roamed America out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is When Dinosaurs Roamed America in simple terms?

Why does When Dinosaurs Roamed America matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study When Dinosaurs Roamed America?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on When Dinosaurs Roamed America.