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Jurassic Fight Club

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Jurassic fight club

Jurassic Fight Club (known as Dinosaur Secrets in Australia and the UK) is a paleontology documentary television series which premiered from July 29-October 8, 2008 on the History Channel.

Episodes[]

E1: Cannibal Dinosaur[]

Synopsis: Discoveries of bite marks on Majungasaurus(incorrectly called Majungatholus) lead experts to conclude this is the first clear case of cannibalism among large theropods.

The Fight: A male Majungasaurus is looking for a mate when he enters a female's territory. He displays to her, but the female doesn't accept. The male then learns that there is a juvenile present, so the female Majungasaurus' mating instincts are not in function at the moment. After knocking the female unconscious, the male slams the baby against a thick tree, killing it. The female wakes up, drives the male away, and feeds upon the lifeless body of the juvenile for her own nutritional benefit. The female Majungasaurus then proceeds to fight and kill the male who has drained himself of energy after killing the young Majungasaurus. The female Majungasaurus is the victor of this fight.

E2: T-Rex Hunter[]

Synopsis: When a medium sized Tyrannosaur is discovered in Montana alongside two Tyrannosaurus juveniles, Nanotyrannus is uncovered as the murderer of these children.

The Fight: A mating pair of Tyrannosaurus leave their children in a urine-marked area while they go hunting. The scent will drive off other predators, but the Hell Creek Albertosaur Nanotyrannus uses these to hunt. He knows that he can take on a juvenile Tyrannosaurus with little difficulty, and he kills one after a quick bite to the neck. After roaring for their mother, the remaining juvenile is rescued by the hulking female. She goes mad at the sight of this predator standing over the body of her fallen child, and absolutely bodies the Nanotyrannus. She then proceeds to disembowel the corpse of Nanotyrannus, and takes her remaining baby off to the father to feed together on whatever the parents hunted down. Tyrannosaurus rex is the victor of this fight.

E3: Gang Killers[]

Synopsis: Four mangled skeletons of Deinonychus found near a Tenontosaurus skeleton is thought to be the result a pack hunt with a large family group of Deinonychus.

The Fight:(TBA) Deinonychus is the victor of this fight.

E4: Bloodiest Battle[]

Synopsis: This episode focuses on the Cleveland Lloyd Quarry in Utah and speculates what exactly happened here. This episode goes with the "predator trap" idea, but it has been recently suggested that a drought pushed numerous Morrison animals together, and the large amounts of Allosaurus present scared off the herbivores.

The Fight: A parent and child Stegosaurus(the episode keeps swapping between mother/son and father/daughter) stop by a lakebed to have a quick drink, but they get trapped in the thick layer of mud surrounding the lake. A female Ceratosaurus appears on the scene, and takes out the young Stegosaurus and feeds upon the carcass. The smell of blood attracts a trio of Allosaurus. Two approach the Ceratosaurus head on, and another goes around to flank her from the side. Having just freed its tail, the Stegosaurus uses every remaining bit of energy to take out one Allosaurus. A family of Camarasaurus approach the lake, but the old bull gets stuck in the mud, and his mate and child run off fearing for themselves. The Allosaurus decide to attack this behemoth, despite the carcasses of both a young Stegosaurus and a Ceratosaurus. After fighting for a few minutes, injuries on both sides, the Camarasaurus manages to fatally crush one Allosaurus under his massive tail. This force frees his front legs, meanwhile the remaining Allosaurus can't stop moving in time to avoid this new weapon, and the Camarasaurus slams its feet down, crushing the remaining Allosaurus, but his massive weight causes him to sink down into the mud deeper than before. Both the Camarasaurus and the adult Stegosaurus are now destined to join the lifeless bodies of the four carnivores nearby with no one to rescue them. Camarasaurus is the victor of this fight.

E5: Deep Sea Killers[]

Synopsis: An abundance of large shark teeth prove the evidence of the giant shark called Megalodon, and the teeth fit perfectly on a collection of whale bones, including that of the biting sperm whale Brygmophyseter. This leads experts to speculate a fight.

The Fight: A Megalodon attacks a lone Brygmophyseter. The whale calls for the rest of its family using its sonar abilities, who then return from their hunt in the depths. As the shark returns for another strike, a larger whale rams the Megalodon, knocking it out for a few moments. The rest of the whales join, ramming the shark and biting at its side with their large teeth. The Megalodon escapes, unbeknownst to him that the pod of Brygmophyseter now employ their next weapon, a condensed sonar beam that can incapacitate or even kill smaller prey. The Megalodon is hit by one whale's sonar beam, and the whales can catch up and unleash their rage on the shark. The wounded Brygmophyseter from the beginning later succumbs to his wounds. Brygmophyseter is the victor of this fight.

E6: Hunter Becomes Hunted[]

Synopsis: Paleontologists speculate the interaction between two of the Morrison Formation's carnivores, Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus.

The Fight: A pair of Ceratosaurus invade an Allosaurus' territory due to the changing climate, and hide along a game trail to hunt prey. The male Ceratosaurus finds an animal and drives it towards his mate, but before she can strike, an Allosaurus approaches silently and kills the female. The male finds the body and the Allosaurus standing nearby. They confront each other, before the Allosaurus strikes. The Ceratosaurus plans to jump on the side of the larger carnivore, where he can attack with more power, and in a place where the Allosaurus will have trouble reaching him. At first, the plan succeeds, but the Allosaurus shakes him off and kills the Ceratosaurus. Allosaurus is the victor of this fight.

E7: Biggest Killers[]

Experts search for the largest prehistoric killer of all, with contenders including the Utahraptor, Allosaurus, Majungasaurus, Albertosaurus and Tyrannosaurus.

E8: Raptors Last Stand[]

Synopsis: Discoveries in rural Utah of an armored herbivore and a bear-sized raptor lead experts to conclude that these two fought and died around the same place and time.

The Fight: A Gastonia is rummaging through a dried up lake bed, and uses its powerful front limbs to dig for water, with a few small pterosaurs perched on its back to act as lookouts. A Utahraptor appears, and starvation cause it to attack the Gastonia. It knows what the spikes across the ankylosaur are capable of, and makes a quick attack on the front leg of the Gastonia. Desperation brings recklessness, and the Utahraptor forgets about the tail entirely and strikes the Gastonia's hind leg, but not before the Gastonia swings its tail and leaves a massive puncture wound on the Utahraptor's leg. The carnivore later dies of his injury, and the Gastonia falls victim to dehydration. Gastonia is the victor of this fight.

E9: Ice Age Killers[]

Synopsis: A natural trap cave some 80 feet deep bears the remains of numerous Pleistocene mammals, none of which show any signs of predation. Paleontologists speculate how one scenario played out that led to a large American Lion falling victim to this deadly sinkhole.

The Fight: An American Lion has recently killed a buffalo and feeds upon the carcass, having eaten very little recently due to the changing climate. An Arctodus sniffs out the carcass, and attempts to drive the lion off. The bear rears up on its hind legs, but the lion realizes too late that it could jump up on the exposed chest and deal a fatal wound. Both carnivores perform mock charges, until the lion is able to jump up on the bear. The bear manages to swat the lion away, inflicting a massive blow to the lion, which gets back up and challenges the bear to the death. The lion lands a good bite to the neck of the bear, but is quickly thrown off and into the trap cave where it remained for thousands of years. Arctodus is the victor of this fight.

E10: River of Death[]

Synopsis: A mass grave of Pachyrhinosaurus show tooth marks from a large carnivore, and signs of a flash flood puzzle experts as to what exactly happened that led to dozens of Pachyrhinosaurus lives being claimed by this deadly event.

The Fight:(TBA) Albertosaurus is the victor of this fight.

E11: Raptor vs T-Rex[]

Synopsis: Two different sets of bite marks on Edmontosaurus caudal vertebrae are the basis for a three-way battle between a bull Edmontosaurus, a pack of Dromaeosaurus, and the apex predator Tyrannosaurus.

The Fight: A lone Edmontosaurus finds himself trapped in a clearing on the edge of a Dromaeosaurus territory, which results in a fight. The surrounding forest prevents the Edmontosaurus from using his massive tail as a weapon, but the small, agile raptors can use this to their advantage. After one raptor is killed, the rest target the throat and head of the hadrosaur, killing it after some time. A Tyrannosaurus appears, scares the raptors off, and carries away the massive carcass. Tyrannosaurus rex is the victor of this fight.

E12: Armageddon[]

Synopsis: 65 million years ago, a gigantic asteroid crashes in the coast of Yucatán, Mexico. It leaves a gigantic crater and it creates a meteor shower in the process while it also makes a cloud of deadly gas spreading throughout the land. Most of the dinosaurs (usually including Tyrannosaurus, Majungatholus, Triceratops Albertosaurus, Nano Tyrannus, Dromaeosaurs, Edmontosaurus and Pachyrhinosaurus) had seen the impact and they attempt to run for cover, though some of them died in the series of meteors, shockwaves and tsunamis but most of them died as deadly toxins were released into the earths atmosphere that shrouded the planet in darkness that lasted for months. Soon, the surviving dinosaurs become extinct in a slow and gradual death until the last dinosaur (Tyrannosaurus) collapses to the ground, dead. soon the earth recovers and the time where mammals to eventually humans replaced the dinosaurs as the dominant species of Earth itself. But turns out a group of dinosaurs did survive the extinction and they were birds, Although the age of the dinosaurs ended the dinosaurs themselves didn't.

Animals Featured[]

Scientific Inaccuracies and Outdated Information[]

Given the amount of time between 2008 and now, much has changed in paleontology and our understanding of certain creatures. This section aims to shed light on what the documentary has either gotten wrong or what ideas have become outdated since then, to prevent any confusion.

  • The very first sentence of the intro, "They're the earth's first fighters" is very misleading. Given how many animals existed before dinosaurs even evolved, Earth's fauna likely had animals that partook in combat since the Paleozoic (which, unlike the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, is not acknowledged in the series).
  • Possibly as the intention for the show, many if not all of the carnivores presented are shown less as real animals and more like bloodthirsty killing machines: constantly preferring the more life-risking options and to fight to the death with little to no provocation rather than make any rational decisions as a real animal would. As such the fights shown are not only far too violent but are highly illogical for the sake of spectacle over education:
    • During the fight between the male and female Majungasaurus, they are shown ramming their heads similarly to a Pachycephalosaurus. This behavior isn't possible as the skeleton and skulls aren't sturdy enough to withstand such blows, and more likely to self-harm the animal.
    • In episode 04, after a few Allosaurus find a deceased juvenile Stegosaurus with its parent stuck in the mud, they kill a nearby Ceratosaurus. After the victory, they abandon their meal to kill the parent Stegosaurus, and ignore to eat any of the food available to them after the fact in order to attack a recently stuck Camarasaurus nearby. This the narrator describes as a "wise decision" as opposed to feeding upon the dead Ceratosaurus and a young Stegosaurus when instead attacking the Camarasaurus gets the Allosaurus killed.
    • Both the American Lion and Albertosaurus refuse to attack their opponents until after they recover from an otherwise fatal blow to continue their respected fights.
    • The Albertosaurus pair didn't both chase after a fleeing Pachyrhinosaurus, but instead only one of them chases it while the other remains with the rest of the herd.
    • The Dromaeosaurus alpha only signals her group to attack the Edmontosaurus over a territorial dispute. Realistically, this animal wouldn't risk such a confrontation, and territory in the animal kingdom doesn't work this way.
  • All theropods portrayed with pronated wrists: curving downwards rather than curving inwards. This posture is proven impossible for dinosaurs to do without breaking the bones in their wrists due to the unique shape of the arm and the lack of a mechanism to turn the hand in such a way.
  • Majungasaurus is referred to as its junior synonym name, "Majungatholus", which is a genus name now considered synonymous with Majungasaurus.
  • Despite input from the experts, Majungasaurus is still depicted with typical theropod arms and long slender legs, when none of this is correct. Abelisaurs all possessed short, clawless arms, and Majungasaurus specifically has shorter legs compared to other abelisaurids.
  • Tyrannosaurus is described as having a septic bite like a Komodo Dragon (which in itself is also false for the Komodo Dragon), with little to no evidence supporting this theory. This fact is also described in the episode as T. rex being the first animal to use biological weaponry, which is completely wrong as numerous animals (arachnids, snakes, proto-mammals, etc.) have used similar methods long before T. rex existed. Serrated teeth are used as proof for this, having housed rotting flesh, but most, if not all theropod dinosaurs had serrated teeth that could cause infection to the prey animal upon biting.
  • Nanotyrannus is now an invalid genus, and is now considered by many to be a juvenile Tyrannosaurus.
  • Both Nanotyrannus and T. rex are said to run much faster than in real life: between 30 to 50 miles per hour. Realistically, they would have only reached 15-30 miles at the most based on recent data, not to mention they likely preferred to keep sprinting at a minimum.
  • Episode 2 describes Tyrannosaurus using scent to dissuade predators from finding their offspring while both parents hunted for food. Not only is it more likely only one parent would hunt while the other protected the offspring, but the dromaeosaurs would've also more likely followed the scent back to the vulnerable juveniles.
  • Episode 3 describes that the favorite hunting method of Raptors is "slash and dash": rushing in, slashing its prey with its front claws, and darting away so the prey bleeds to death. This method would've been completely useless as the claws and teeth weren't designed for such an attack.
  • Allosaurus most likely didn't drive Ceratosaurus to extinction, as they coexisted for a long time and went extinct at about the same date. The series also claims they are enemies fighting over food, but in reality they likely filled different niches and had separate diets.
  • Due to the weight of the Allosaurus, it would've gotten stuck in the mud as the other dinosaurs did.
  • Due to its center of gravity, Camarasaurus would be incapable of rearing back on its hind legs.
  • There's no evidence that Megalodon exists in modern day.
  • The show describes how male lions in modern day drive the prey to the awaiting females, which isn't true as females primarily do most of the hunting as males guard the territory.
  • Ceratosaurus, a 1-ton carnivore, is likely incapable of jumping up to 20 feet into the air as the episode states. A similar mistake is said for Allosaurus, stating it can jump up to 10 feet vertically, and with Utahraptor at 15 feet in the air.
  • None of the dromaeosaurids in the show are properly feathered. The Deinonychus is entirely naked, though the Utahraptor has some on the head and arms, and the Dromaeosaurus has some on its neck, arms, and tail.
  • The Short-Faced Bear and American Lion didn't survive up to 10,000 years ago, both dying off a thousand years prior.
  • Pachyrhinosaurus has a design showing they had a massive horn on the end of their nose. This was due to the initial theory that the bump on a Pachyrhinosaurus' nose was a broken base of a horn. But after some study, it was found the animal instead had a large bony boss instead of a horn. Strangely, the series mentioned the possession of a boss but still kept the horn on the model, presumably due to the boss being thought at the time to have been a base for a horn, which was pointed out in the series.
  • The skull of Achelousaurus is used as a substitute for Pachyrhinosaurus, which is misleading for viewers.
  • One Albertosaurus outrageously flips a fully grown Pachyrhinosaurus into the air like the rhino-sized herbivore quite easily despite such a massive animal being impossible to flip for Albertosaurus.
  • The show states that Dromaeosaurus communicated by using hand gestures. This is not only both physically and mentally impossible for the species to do, but also scientifically impossible to confirm as firmly as the series suggests.
  • Tyrannosaurus is said to appear 90 Million years ago, which is far from when the animal actually evolved, being 68 million years ago.
  • Despite its strength, a full-grown Tyrannosaurus is most likely incapable of carrying an adult Edmontosaurus.

Speculative Information[]

While Jurassic Fight Club has its fair share of inaccuracies, some information given can't be proven or denied based on fossil and animal evidence. To prevent misconceptions, this section will bring those speculative facts and behaviors to light.

  • Nanotyrannus is portrayed as targeting young tyrannosaurs to reduce competition in the long run. While possible, it is unlikely it would go for these offspring knowing the risk of the mother being near. Once the mother returns, rather than running away, the Nanotyrannus fights the mother T. rex despite having little to no advantage against it. Upon killing it, the mother is said to leave the carcass of the Nanotyrannus as a "warning" to other predators, but it would have likely been used as food for the mother and kids as they wouldn't waste a carcass.
  • Most dinosaurs are incapable of roaring in the same way modern mammals can. They likely instead had bellows, booms, and perhaps even chirps based on evidence from existing archosaurs. If they were capable of roaring, though, the animals still wouldn't have roared as needlessly and as constantly as portrayed.
  • Deinonychus is said to use the sound of thunder to cover its footsteps and is entirely speculative. This information was made in relation to modern tigers, which use the thunderstorms to more easily ambush prey, but Deinonychus likely didn't need such auditory cover as their feet and weight would not make as much noise as an adult tiger.
  • Pack hunting behavior in dromaosaurids is entirely speculative, and has little evidence to back it up.

Gallery[]

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