Source by: steprimo.com
Dinosaur documentaries are fun to watch as they tell stories about extinct animals and entertain us with amazing stunts and narrations. Who doesn’t love great dinosaur documentaries? Well, if you don’t, trust me, you would love the ones mentioned in this article. You will learn a lot of fun things you didn’t know about dinosaurs (plus, it’s summarized!). Numerous documentaries are made periodically, highlighting human’s growth in the knowledge and discovery of these truly fascinating creatures that lived in the age before human civilization. So, to help us learn about dinosaurs, here is our list of the top 15 great and highly rated dinosaur documentaries.
Get ready to know? Let’s start!
Dinosaur Documentaries #1: The Ballad of Big AI
Source by: IMDb
Depending on your location, this series is also named Allosaurus: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special. It is a two-episode series narrating the life of Big AI, an Allosaurus. It starts with the display of Big AI’s bones at the University of Wyoming and the showing of Big AI’s ghost moving around the laboratory before doing a flashback to narrate the birth, life, and death of Big AI.
This documentary aimed at making learning fun by showing the descriptive features of an Allosaurus in a motion picture and making the dinosaurs live as similar as possible to documentaries of existing animals. This film is a good dinosaur documentary with an 8.1/10 rating on IMDb. It also won two Emmy Awards in 2001.
Dinosaur Documentaries #2: When Dinosaurs Roamed America
Source by: Wikipedia Commons
This two-hour dinosaur documentary aired in 2001 and was divided into five segments to ensure interest is retained in the viewers. When Dinosaurs Roamed America is an imaginative movie displaying a fictional scene but the scientifically proven genealogy of the progress and evolution of dinosaurs from about 220 million years ago to around 65 years when dinosaurs went extinct.
The first segment started 220 million years ago and was titled ‘Late Triassic Segment’ and featured dinosaurs such as Rutiodon, Coelophysis, etc. The second segment started 200 million years ago and was titled ‘Early Jurassic Segment and featured dinosaurs such as Dilophosaurus and Anchisaurus. The third segment and the fourth segment started 150 million years ago and 90 years ago. They were respectively titled ‘Late Jurassic Segment’ and ‘Mid Cretaceous Segment’ and featured dinosaurs such as Dromaesosaurus, Allosaurus, etc.
The last segment was titled ‘Late Cretaceous Segment’ and started in 65 million years and feature animals such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and others. The documentary won two awards in the Primetime Emmy Award and is currently rated 7.6/10 by IMDb and 73% by Rotten Tomatoes.
Dinosaur Documentaries #3: Prehistoric Planet
Source by: Apple TV+
Prehistoric Planet is an American five-part nature documentary about a different type of dinosaur that premiered on Apple TV+ on May 23, 2022. It is produced by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit with Jon Favreau as showrunner, visual effects by MPC, and narration by natural historian David Attenborough. In Prehistoric Planet, viewers will journey to various parts of the world to explore creatures that have long been extinct—dinosaurs.
Dinosaur Documentaries #4: Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia
Source by: Rotten Tomatoes
This 47-minute documentary focuses on life before the extinction of dinosaurs, starting from 150 million years ago and continuing closer to the present time. The film gave special attention to the Argentinosaurus and Mapusaurus. This attention was to highlight the research and work of Rodolfo Coria, a paleontologist who carried out some research on extinct animals. The movie used narrative style with questions about several species of dinosaurs answered by the narrator to tell the story. This documentary is rated 6.3/10 on IMDb and a great film for the whole family.
Dinosaur Documentaries #5: Dinosaur 13
Source by: IMDb
This 117-minute documentary is focused on the discovery of ‘Sue’, the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton found to date. This film took a different turn from other dinosaur documentaries as it started when Sue was discovered. It also outlined the struggle for ownership between the discoverers, Sue Hendrickson and Pete Larson, and the United States of America Government. This struggle happened because the government claimed that the discovery was made on federal land. The documentary ended with the seizure of the skeleton and the incarceration of one of the discoverers. This movie is rated 7.2/10 by IMDb and 73% by Rotten Tomatoes.
Dinosaur Documentaries #6: Walking with Dinosaurs
Source by: IMDb
This six-hour documentary series contains six episodes highlighting the movement from cradle to death of dinosaurs and their eventual extinction. It was aired in 1999 and featured dinosaurs in existence 220 million years ago to 65 million years ago. These dinosaurs include Peteinosaurus, Plateosaurus, Allosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Ophtalmosaurus, Utahraptor, Leaellynasaura, Muttaburrasaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Edmontosaurus, etc.
The documentary won two British Academy Television Awards, had six nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award and winning three, and was included among the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes in 1999. The movie has an 8.5/10 IMDb rating and a sequel.
Dinosaur Documentaries #7: Planet Dinosaur
Source by: Amazon
This 7-episode documentary series is a sequel to the documentary ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’. Walking with Dinosaurs needed this sequel because so many other dinosaurs had been discovered after the first documentary aired. It aired in 2011 and ended with the last episode in 2013.
It included newly discovered dinosaurs from 150 million years ago to 65 million years ago. It featured animals such as Spinosaurus, Carchorondontosaurus, Rugops, Epidexipteryx, Sinraptor, Gigantoraptor, Edmontosaurus, Centrosaurus, Troodon, Squatina, Kepodactylus, Camptosaurus, Arggentinosaurus, Mapusaurus, Bradycneme, Magyarosaurus, etc. It is rated 8.2/10 by IMDb.
Dinosaur Documentaries #8: NOVA: Bigger Than T. rex
Source by: Amazon
The documentary was about the search for a dinosaur bigger and more dangerous than the T. rex. Paleontologists discovered hints that such a dinosaur had walked upon the earth. Intending to find the remains of this enormous animal, the National Geographic Special gathered experts to find this animal. The documentary outlined the steps and narrated the search for the animal. The movie ended with the finding of the animal (which was called Spinosaurus) and the studying of its remains. The one-hour movie is rated 7.3/10 by IMDb.
Dinosaur Documentaries #9: Prehistoric Park
Source by: Amazon
To bring glamour and life to a documentary, Nigel Marven, a zoologist and wildlife expert, went back in time to narrate the life of extinct animals and bring some of these animals to the present day them a second lease at life. Nigel Marven stored these animals in the Prehistoric Park. The narrator narrated the movie, and Nigel Marven played the role of a saviour.
The 6-episode movie is rated 7.6/10 by IMDb and was nominated for an award in the Visual Effects Society Awards.
Dinosaur Documentaries #10: Clash of the Dinosaurs
Source by: Amazon
This is a 4-episode documentary that first aired in 2009. It showed the survival strategies, defences, and styles of attacks used by various dinosaurs. The first episode compared the survival strategies, brains, and senses of the Sauroposeidon and Tyrannosaurus rex. The second episode highlighted the style of attacking and capturing of prey done by different dinosaurs. The third episode examined the defences used by various dinosaurs against their predators, while the fourth episode examines the reproductive traits of dinosaurs and their transformation to birds. IMDb rated the movie 6.4/10.
Dinosaur Documentaries #11: Last Day of the Dinosaurs
Source by: IMDb
The documentary tried to re-imagine the last days of the dinosaurs and narrate a beautiful story from a widely imaginative structure. The documentary highlighted the strengths, weaknesses, body structures, prey, and predators of several dinosaurs. These subtle features were emphasized so that the film is both educative and entertaining.
However, the movie has been pointed out to have some inaccuracies, which were included to make the movie more enjoyable. Overall, while mildly inaccurate, the movie is an interesting one and is rated 7.4/10 by IMDb.
Dinosaur Documentaries #12: The Ultimate Guide: T-Rex
Source by: Amazon
This movie is a 52-minute documentary that aired in 1996. It focused through interviews by reputable paleontologists on the Tyrannosaurus rex, examining its features and structures. It is a documentary that brings most of what is known about the T. rex together in 52 minutes, with many differing opinions given and accommodated and the dinosaur seen through the eyes of many popular experts. It outlines the history of T. rex, the family history, feeding habits, fossil evidence, role as a parent, and its extinction. It also examines the differing opinions on whether the T. rex was a predator or a scavenger, with various paleontologists giving their opinions.
Dinosaur Documentaries #13: Beyond T.Rex
Source by: IMDb
This 52-minute documentary is a sequel to the documentary ‘The Ultimate Guide: T-rex’. It examines the discovery of two enormous dinosaurs that have existed and can displace the T. rex as the king of tyrant lizards. The process of unearthing and reconstruction of the Carcharodontosaurus and Gigantosaurus bones, the wannabe dinosaur kings, largely featured in the movie. The film also compared their might and ferocity, side by side with that of the T. rex. The documentary is rated 7/10 by IMDb.
Dinosaur Documentaries #14: When Dinosaurs Ruled
Source by: Amazon
This documentary is a five-part narrated documentary about dinosaurs from different continents like Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and North and South America. It is a long 3 hours and 30 minutes, exploring the search for the fossils of dinosaurs that had lived on earth prior. The movie narrated the thrill and movement from the South American jungles to Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and Europe in search of the treasured bones of extinct dinosaurs. The movie is rated 4.5 stars out of 5 by Amazon Prime and 7.8/10 by IMDb.
Dinosaur Documentaries #15: Dinosaur Planet
Source by: IMDb
Dinosaur Planet is a four-episode animated documentary that highlights four different dinosaurs that lived on different continents. The movie narrated the life, culture, feature, predatory traits, and prey traits of a female Velociraptor in Asia, a male Daspletosaurus in North America, a female Saltasaurus in South America, and a young adult Pyraptor in Europe.
The four episodes were divided, with each dinosaur examined in one episode each and their normal lives, ranging from birth to death or just a day re-imagined and narrated. The documentary won two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2004, and it is rated by IMDb as a 7.7/10.
Before concluding the top 15 dinosaur documentaries, let us have one final look at an animation movie that’s great for helping children learn about dinosaurs. The movie, The Good Dinosaur, narrates a story between a caveboy and a young Apatosaurus where they helped each other survive and conquer their predators. The movie is rated 6.7/10 on IMDb and has been nominated and won several awards. It’s a great movie.
Dinosaur documentaries would widen our scope and knowledge of extinct dinosaurs and help us re-imagine how life was before we came. With many of these dinosaur documentaries on Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube, it is easy to watch or stream them. So, why not grab a seat, sit and relax with popcorn by your side and enjoy one or two of the above recommended documentaries. They are so great; you might want to visit a dinosaur park when you’re done and see some really lifelike animatronic dinosaurs. You might probably even want to get a dinosaur as a pet! And you can also read the blog 10 Unique Small Dinosaurs [+ 4 Interesting FAQs About Them] if you are interested in dinosaurs.
