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in: Documentaries, Television series, 2006, 2009

Dino Lab

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Dino Lab is a two-part series that aired on Discovery Channel in 2006 and 2009 respectively. The series follows a group of scientists at a fictional research facility, Dino Lab, as they study living dinosaurs in means of putting them through varying experiments and tests.

Part I[]

It opens with a delivery truck with a living Tyrannosaurus Rex arrives at the Dino Lab facility, the T Rex being their newest addition to the facility. They bring the T Rex to its test chamber, where it is placed on a giant treadmill, the test being how fast it could run to prove if it was a hunter or scavenger. During the test, it reaches 25 miles per hour before the T Rex suddenly trips and collapses, causing the team to cancel the experiment. Angry, the T Rex rips out an electric power box from the wall before it is sent out of the room.

Later on, A female Pterosaur is brought into a wind tunnel so the team can study how it flew. At first, the Pterosaur refuses to go into the tunnel, and eats the fish lure the pterosaur tamer was using while he wasn't looking. Eventually they get her into the path of the wind tunnel. The Pterosaur soon become airborne, and she flies out of the lab and flies alongside a small airplane, the test concluding that pterosaurs needed at least 15 mile per hour winds to get airborne.

Another test later is used for their Troodon, which they have in a small chamber with two scientists and a round ball. The test was to see if it could roll the ball back to one of the scientists, to which the Troodon was able to. However, after a few more tries, the Troodon instead picks up the ball and pops it, knocking it back to them.

Part II[]

This episode mainly follows the new employee Dave Dawes, who at this point has just been hired to work at Dino Lab. On entering, he is brought over to the main team, who were starting their first experiment with their adult T Rex in trying to figure out (again) if T Rex was a hunter or a scavenger. The T Rex is brought into an electrified experiment chamber. it tries attacking the scientists at first but is stunned by the barrier, only for it to phase through briefly. The scientists increase the power to the cage, and the T Rex gets shocked when it tries again to the point of falling unconscious to the ground for a brief moment. The main test this time is to see how strong its bite force was by having it chomp down on a bait lure. As the test continues, the T Rex bites down so hard that it causes the sensors to overload. The test is stopped but not before the bait is ripped off from its steel hook. Finding no food on the sensor, the T Rex goes into a rage and the team has Dave go in and retrieve the damaged sensor for them.

After this, the facility prepares the next experiment for Argentinosaurus, bringing it into a large experimental room. The main test here is to see if it can feed on vegetation in numerous spots without needing to move its body: feeding it with a movable container full of leaves. During the test though it gets briefly distracted by the scientists nearby, including Dave who knocks over some equipment during this time. As the test continues, it is placed in a collar to keep it from moving forward, as the scientists activate a giant treadmill underneath the animal. Having the animal walk, they project a hologram of a rampaging T Rex to see if it could fight it off or run away. This test concludes with the Argentinosaurus whipping the hologram with its tail.

After the Argentinosaurus is moved, a Stegosaurus is brought out and into the facility for a following afternoon test. During this though, Dave's car gets struck by the frightened Stegosaur's thagomizer. Prior to this, Dave is asked to help with the vet in handling the Hypacrosaurus pen. The vet advises Dave to not turn his back to them. However, this ends up happening, agitating the dinosaurs inside and having both Dave and the vet leave. After the observations, the vet gets an unhatched egg from the nest for another experiment to see how helpless they were when born, thus concluding the nurture and bond the adults have with them. She brings the eggs to an ultrasound chamber. In the meantime, Dave joins another group of scientists to study how far a Microraptor could glide. During the test, Dave jerks the bait up, prompting the Microraptor to flap its wings, showing powered flight. The Hypacrosaurus egg nearly hatches in the ultrasound chamber and is quickly brough back to the adults.

In the experimental room, the Stegosaurus is brought in to test the use of its plates. The scientists bring a second male stegosaurus, and then a female, neither resulting in much of anything. Soon, the scientists tranquilize one of the males and fitted him with larger, fake plates. This results in the other male feeling intimidated, and the female willing to move closer to said suited male. This concludes the plates were used in attraction and intimidation thanks to their size. After this, the same suited male is removed of its fake plates and brought to another chamber to test the reflex of its tail. They bring in the holorex again, which scares the Stegosaurus into attacking. This results in the holorex being destroyed, and the Stegosaurus going into a rampage. One of the scientists readies another tranquilizer, but Dave protests saying two dozes within an hour could kill the animal. Instead, Dave distracts the animal into leaving the chamber, calming it down. On seeing this, Dave becomes an official worker of Dino Lab.

Creatures[]

Errors[]

  • In part II during the Tyrannosaurus test, the documentary goes into the Scavenger/Predator debate, and states that for Tyrannosaurus Rex to be a scavenger, it would have to have the bite force strong enough to crush bone as true hunters weren't capable of such force. It also states that the subadults were hunters while the full-grown adults were scavengers. Not only is this inaccurate for T rex (which was most likely a hunter and a scavenger regardless of age) but is incorrect to carnivorous animals in general as numerous animals, both prehistoric and modern, were capable of crushing bone and still were proven to be hunters as well as scavengers.
  • During the Argentinosaurus test, it implies that a young Tyrannosaurus rex would've been its main predator. However, Argentinosaurus didn't live in North America, and would've instead been hunted by predators such as Mapusaurus.
  • "Troodon" is no longer considered a valid genus of animal.

Speculations[]

  • During the flight test for a pterosaur, it is estimated that it would've needed 15 mile per hour gusts of wind in order to gain flight. While not entirely false, this is impossible to conclude without any actual living relative to work off.

Trivia[]

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