Oh dear. I guess the History Channel decided that the U.S. needed an equivalent to "The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs" and will soon be featuring a show called "Jurassic Fight Club." Here's the synopsis;
JURASSIC FIGHT CLUB
They were the ultimate fighters -- prehistoric beasts who walked the earth millions of years ago. With cunning and strategy, they hunted their prey -- transforming the prehistoric world into a battlefield. Today, archaeologists are uncovering these battlefields -- and are gaining startling new insight into how quick thinking, maneuverability, and striking at the exact moment separated the weak from the strong. Blow by blow, each episode will dissect these battles, uncovering a predatory world far more calculated and complex than we originally thought. Episodes of Jurassic Fight Club will include Gang Killers, T-Rex Hunters, Deep-Sea Dinosaurs, and Armored Predators. Dolores Gavin is The History Channel Executive Producer. (10 episodes).
[Note; From what I understand this is the old synopsis. I have not seen the new one yet but some corrections have been made. I won't get to see the series when it comes out but hopefully I'll be able to catch it eventually. Just so long as it's better than the dismal "Quest for Dragons" program I saw on the History Channel a few weeks ago while petsitting for a friend.]
If archaeologists are digging up non-avian dinosaurs, we've got a problem. Some of the episode titles ("Deep-Sea Dinosaurs"?!) don't inspire much hope in me either, although it sounds like there will be at least a smattering of science amongst the blood and gore. Given the History Channel's track record for inaccurate and sensational programming I don't have high hopes for this one, although I have to admit that dinosaurs look far better than the clunky ones that recently turned up on the National Geographic Channel.
[Update; Here's another trailer.]
[Hat-tip to Thomas Holtz]
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Holy hell. I have lost all faith in the Discovery Channel.
Armored predators?
Rauisuchians, postosuchians and other such triassic hellasaurs were lightly armored, but they were not dinosaurs, whatever Chatterjee said in 1979.
T-rex hunters?
What the heck was hunting T-rex? *Nanocuris* or *Palaeosaniwa* going for a hatchling? Or are the Discovery Channel`s ceratopsians on the entelodont side of things :-)?
Howdy,
First, it is History Channel, not Discovery. (History is looking for a younger, non-Nazi-obsessed audience...).
Also, the press release with all its blunders is dated from May of 2007, before any footage was shot. That's that sort of thing you get with PR folks... (Same with the teaser spots).
Granted, this is not exactly a good old-fashioned NOVA/Horizon episode (but sadly, what is these days). But along with the fun there is some real science. (This being said before I've seen any of the finished work, of course.)
While allow history channel might not be accurant down to a grain of salt, nothing ever is. History is witness to so many eyes, your view or my view could be different on the same exact event. And even NOVA is fond of stouting Theory as fact, everyday. NOVA of 10yrs ago about the same subject could be wrong compared to modern day. Science changes alot...
But for a group with as much money as History Channel, and of course their target audience. This show should be extremely entertaining, imo.
Fight Clubs are a huge success, and what did Jurassic animals do best? Fight for food. There are litterally thousand of dinasour bones found with scares or wounds that have been healed over their lifetime proving that fighting was not just a sport as humans like it to be but a survival, as even proven in the animal kingdom today.
And since we can't legally dog fight nor fight precious wild animals in a controlled setting we settle for nature shows and people catching it in the wild. So what do we do about dinasours? Apply forensic evidence and muscles capabilities etc etc...
And thats exactly what this show is doing...Lets hope the show is as good its commercials...And I for one like the quest for dragons, it was educational and covered a broad subject in a very tight time frame. You would be surprised at how many people didnt know about dragons in the bible, and thats a piece of literature thousands of years old....