List of scientific errors

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An scaly *Velociraptor.* An example of a inaccuracy in the Walking with series

Despite Walking with... being a documentary series, several paleontological inaccuracies appear throughout some of the shows. However, most of the errors are caused by new discoveries. Here's a list of them.

Walking with Dinosaurs Pilot

Eustreptospondylus was somewhat too lizard-like and resembled old reconstructions of dinosaurs.
Eusterptospondylus was not particularly fast among theropods.
Cetiosaurus had many errors, far too long neck, misshaped head, etc.

Walking with Dinosaurs: Inside Their World

Most ceratopsians had quills protruding from their backs, and evidence was found on Psittacosaurus and Triceratops.
Psittacosaurus is depicted as a quadropedal animal, unlike the real animal, which was bipedal.
Microraptor and Archaeopteryx are now known to have been black in color, thanks to fossilized melanosomes.
The dinosaurs featured in this app have pronated hands, something that isn't scientifically true.
Spinosaurus probably didn't have the jaw strength or neck muscles to lift up and throw an adult Suchomimus.
Spinosaurus may have been quadrupedal, unlike the bipedal one seen in the app, but this has not yet been officialy confirmed.
Psittacosaurus, according to a study in 2016, had a series of brown colors to camouflage and had membrane on its hind legs.

Walking with Dinosaurs

New Blood

Coelophysis probably didn't feed on live and healthy Placerias.
Coelophysis had sexual dimorphism, unlike the ones in the show, which were all the same.
There is no conclusive evidence that Coelophysis was cannibalistic. This was based on a fossil of Coelophysis with jumbled up bones in its stomach cavity, but these turned out to be species of small crocodiles, rather than the juveniles they were long mistaken to be. However, this was discovered after the release of this episode.
Coelophysis may have had feathers, but it is highly debated.
No theropod had pronated wrists.
Placerias were probably not hippo-like.
Archosaurs generally don't mark their territories with urine, unlike the male Postosuchus in the show.
Thrinaxodon was from the early Triassic, not the late. However, an unnamed species of cynodont is known only from teeth in the Chinle Formation so the reconstruction of this cynodont was therefore based primarily on Thrinaxodon.
Plateosaurus couldn't move in a quadrupedal stance. However, this discovery was made after the release of this episode.
Coelophysis didn't live at the same time as Placerias. However they were both from the Ghost Ranch Formation.
Coelophysis didn't coexist with Plateosaurus, who lived in Europe, not North America. It also did not live at the same time as Coelophysis.
Coelophysis didn't live 220,000,000 BCE. It evolved at least 203,000,000 BCE and lived to at least into the Early Jurassic approximately 196,000,000 BCE or possibly even later.
Placerias is a stem-mammal, not a reptile.
Peteinosaurus is found only in Europe, not North America. However, since all of the continents were joined, it may have traversed into North America.
Postosuchus is now known not to have walked in a quadrupedal posture. It is instead belived to be bipedal, although this therory is debated.

Time of the Titans

Ornitholestes didn't have a nasal crest. But this wasn't found out until a recent time, long after production was finished.
Ornitholestes almost certainly had feathers, which did appear in the companion book.
Diplodocus held its neck in a slightly higher position then shown in the series.
There is no evidence for such an egg laying structure in Diplodocus.
Anurognathus were micro bat-like insectivores, and did not behave like modern Oxpeckers. Its anatomy is also very inconsistent with the real animal, with a typically elongated neck, deep skull and small wings
Anurognathus wasn't found in North America, only in Germany. (Although there are other types of pterosaurs from the Morrison Formation, such as Mesadactylus and Kepodactylus) This error was fixed in The Complete Guide To Prehistoric Life book.
Allosaurus was mentioned to be the top predator of its age. The top predator would have actually been the larger Saurophaganax and Torvosaurus.
The head design of Allosaurus is inaccurate. Corrected (somewhat) in the Ballad of Big Al.
Brachiosaurus may have had spines on its neck.
Stegosaurus may have had sexual dimorphism, but in the show, all the Stegosaurus are modeled the same.
Diplodocus could not reach adulthood in only a decade. The minimum amount of time it would take for Diplodocus to reach adulthood was forty years.
Allosaurus is now known to have used its head like an axe to kill prey, as it has a bite force weaker than a lion's, but its head could withstand a force 18 times greater than its bite. However, in this episode, it is depicted attacking a baby Diplodocus similar to a Tyrannosaurus rex, an animal with a strong bite and a completely different attacking style to an Allosaurus.

Cruel Sea

Liopleurodon wasn't even half the size shown in the show. It wasn't 25m long and 150t, but more like 6–10m and 5-8t, the size of an orca. There is evidence of pliosaur bite marks that indicate an animal 25 m long, but it's unlikely that the attacker was a Liopleurodon.
Long neck Plesiosaurs and short neck Pliosaurs are now thought to have flukes on their tails, and not smooth lizard-like tails like in the series.
Liopleurodon lived from 160,000,000 BCE to 155,000,000 BCE, not 149,000,000 BCE.
There is no evidence that Ophthalmosaurus migrated towards coasts to give birth.
Cryptoclidus couldn't go on land.
Cryptoclidus lived from 186,000,000 BCE to 164,000,000 BCE, not 149,000,000 BCE.
A study of a few ichthyosaurs, Tylosaurus, and an extinct sea turtle, indicate they were mostly black in colour. This doesn't mean that they where completely black, or that other non-detected colours weren't there. It also doesn't directly involve Opthalmosaurus.
Rhamphorhynchus lacks many skeletal features required for a skim feeder.
The shape of the lower jaw is slightly off in Rhamphorhynchus.
Rhamphorhynchus had longer wings.
Some of the animals seen in the episode didn't live in the late Jurassic, instead they lived in the middle Jurassic such as Cryptoclidus and Eustreptospondylus. Others like Liopleurodon, Hybodus, and Ophthalmosaurus lived in both the middle and late Jurassic, while Rhamphorhyncus lived near the end of the Jurassic.
Eustreptospondylus lived 162,000,000 BCE, not 149,000,000 BCE.
Sea turtles hadn't evolved yet. They evolved in the Early Cretaceous.

Giant of the Skies

The giant pterosaur is actually Tropeognathus, not Ornithocheirus.
Tropeognathus had a wingspan of only 7-8.2 m (23–27 ft) max. So it was not as large as depicted in the show.
There is no evidence that Tropeognathus traveled the globe.
Tapejarids might have been herbivores/frugivores.
Tapejarids are depicted with ornithocheirid-like limb proportions, with massive forelimbs and short hindlimbs, offering them a cumbersome terrestrial gait. In reality, these pterosaurs, like most azhdarcids, had longer hind limbs and shorter wings (albeit still obviously much larger than the hindlimbs), allowing them to be effective terrestrial foragers.
The Tapejara shown was actually a species of Tupandactylus.
Sexual dimorphism isn't documented in tapejarids.
Tapejarids lived inland, not on the coast.
The walking pose of all the pterosaurs are far off.
The N. American “Iguanodon” is now known as Dakotadon.
Iguanodon's thumb claw wasn't that big.
Iberomesornis has modern bird traits not found in Enantiornithes, like scaly feet (instead of owl-like feathered feet or even Microraptor-like hindwings) and retrices (Meaning it should have these features).
Iberomesornis lacks the two, long, tail feathers that the real animal had.
Utahraptor wasn't found in Europe.
Utahraptor did have feathers running head, to toe, to tail; only the tip of the snout was visible. It even had wings. Additionally, it was impossible for the hands to be pronated without being broken. They held them at the side. The same errors are for Velociraptor (see below).
There is no good evidence that dromaeosaurids where pack hunters.
A paper is being written that will cause many more errors for the WWD dromaeosaurid.
Polacanthus isn't known from N. America, only Europe.(A better candidate for this animal would be Gastonia, since Gastonia lived 127,000,000 BCE in North America).
Since Tropeognathus was not a globe traveler, Tupandactylus lived inland, Iguanodon and Polacanthus lived in Europe and Utahraptor lived in North America, the plot of the episode would have been impossible to happen in reality since Pangea is gone at this time.
Giant pterosaurs are now known to not have been consummate gliders.

Spirits of the Ice Forest

Leaellynasaura should have a tail three times its body length.
There is no evidence that Leaellynasaura could go into a form of hibernation.
Muttaburrasaurus was less hadrosaur like then shown in the show, it was a rhabdodontid.
There is no evidence Muttaburrasaurus where migratory.
It's now known that Australovenator is not an allosaurid, but instead belongs to a group of dinosaurs know as Megaraptorians, a group whose classification is disputed.
Leaellynasaura might have had feathers to keep it warm.
Australovenator didn't live 106,000,000 BCE. It lived as early as 95,000,000 BCE.
Muttaburrasaurus could not make noises with its nasal arch, because it was bony.
Steropodon is depicted as looking similar to a modern coatimundi, when in reality, it was a monotreme and looked like the modern platypus.
Koolasuchus lived 120,000,000 BCE and was extinct by this time.

Death of a Dynasty

Dromaeosaurus has the same mistakes as Velociraptor and Utahraptor as well as 2 additional ones. The head is too blocky and stout and they died out 72,000,000 BCE, not 65,500,000 BCE. (Although there were two different dromeosaurids, Acheroraptor and Dakotaraptor, which lived in Hell Creek.).
Dinilysia didn't live at the same time as the other species in the episode, as they died out 20 million years earlier. It also only lived in South America, while the episode takes place in North America.
Torosaurus and Triceratops may have been omnivores but this is debatable.
Torosaurus might not have lived in herds.
Triceratops and Torosaurus could have been the same animal at different growth stages, although most scientists nowadays find it unlikely.
Triceratops and Torosaurus had quills on its tail, unlike the one in the program.
Tyrannosaurus rex has many errors which are listed below:
- Many aspects of T. rex mating behavior in the show was speculation.
- In WWD, the T. rex is depicted as a solitary creature. However, Phil Currie has found some evidence supporting that tyrannosaurids hunted in packs.
- Tyrannosaurs are depicted featherless. In reality, they probably had feathers.
- T. rex's hands should be facing inwards, not downwards. The rear teeth, legs, and tail also seem a little shorter. T. rex is depicted as being 5 tonnes, but specimens 8-10 tonnes are not uncommon. But The Complete Guide To Prehistoric Life seems to have corrected these mistakes.
- T. rex is now known to have extremely powerful muscles in its neck and jaws; combined with its teeth that made its bite deadly.
- Evidence that female T. rexes were bigger than males isn't solid anymore.
- The head of Tyrannosaurus is just very slightly too blocky.
- T. rex is now also considered a cannibal, as well as a hunter and scavanger.
"Anatotitan" is now known as Edmontosaurus annectens.
It also lacks a fleshy crest akin to that of a rooster on its head. However, this is a relatively new discovery. Though this is only known from E. regalis at the moment, may have been a sexually dimporphic feature, and has been disputed.
E. annectens and hadrosaurs in general didn't have thumb spikes like their Iguanodon cousins.
Deinosuchus was extinct by this time.
We now know that the eyes of smaller ornithopods are pronounced in a way that makes them look angry. This feature is also seen in eagles.
There are multiple inaccuracies for Quetzalcoatlus: The head is bigger and has a large flat crest instead of a tiny notch at the back of the head. The neck is much, much, longer than the program's design. The final result ends up looking more like another pterosaur, Ludodactylus.
Didelphodon was not badger-like. In reality, it had a head like a Tasmanian Devil and a body like an otter.
Ankylosaurus was not as tall as appeared in the series, in reality it was about 4.6 to 5.6 feet tall.

Walking with Beasts

New Dawn

Gastornis may have been herbivorous, but this was debated at the time.
Eurotamandua is depicted as an actual tamandua, when it was a rather bizarre mammal of possible afrothere affinities.
Ambulocetus was depectied as living in Germany, when in reality it was only found in Pakistan. However, the episode does say that it might have migrated from its original home.
Ambulocetus had straight limbs, unlike the sprawled legs of the one in the program, but it was still ungainly on land.
Ambulocetus was actually a fairly clumsy swimmer, not really maneuverable or fast.
Ambulocetus is depicted as amphibious. However, recent reaserch suggests that it was probably fully aquatic.

Whale Killer

Andrewsarchus is depicted as a mesonychid, when it was a more entelodont-like artiodactyl. However this is a very common and big mistake as most drawings/paintings of Andrewsarchus depict it as a mesonychid. Only a few correct drawings exist.
Moeritherium and Apidium did not live near the ocean neither did the swamps they lived in.
Dorudon was most likely not a social animal.
Basilosaurus could not live as deep in the ocean as potrayed in the episode. A study of its vertebrae reveals that it was too weak to specialize in deep diving. It instead would stay close to the shore.
Basilosaurus swam in a manner similar to an eel and has weak muscles so it couldn't swim far for long.

Land of Giants

Hyaenodon is said to have bone crushing jaws. In real life, they were for shearing rather than crushing. It's still likely that they were capable of crushing bone, though.
Hyaenodon had a slightly longer muzzle than is shown in the series.
Cynodictis is depicted walking on its toes, similar to wolves and dogs. In reality, Cynodictis walked on its feet, similar to bears and humans.
Cynodictis lived during the early Oligocene and died out by the time the episode takes place in.
Indricotherium should now be known as Paraceratherium since the name Paraceratherium was the first name given to the animal.

Next of Kin

It is unlikely Australopithecus afarensis could scare off large chalicotheres.

Sabre-Tooth

Phorusrhacos probably did not have wing claws.
Phorusrhacos was probably stockier and had a shorter neck than is shown in the series.
Phorusrhacos lived in the Miocene (20,000,000-13,000,000 BCE), not the Pleistocene of 1,000,000 BCE.
There is no evidence that Megatherium ate carrion to supplement its diet, though there is still suspense that it was a meat-eater.

Mammoth Journey

Male Woolly Mammoth skulls did not have tusks that curve over another. Only Columbian Mammoths are known to have this feature.
The Neanderthal was not the last survivor of the genus Homo, besides humans: the highly debated Homo floresiensis was.
Cave Lions had much longer, tufted, tails, like a modern lion, a primitive mane, and a faint striped pattern, we know this from cave art. The one seen in the episode shared a similar (or identical) model with Smilodon minus the sabres, which is why it exhibits these innacuricies.
The Neanderthal species had died out 40,000 years ago, 10,000 years before the time that the episode takes place in.

Walking with Cavemen

Some paleanthropologists believe the African Homo heidelbergensis is merely an archaic form of modern humans.
Some paleanthropologists do not recognize Homo ergaster and Homo erectus as separate species. Even if they were separate, some believe H. erectus did survive and evolved into the highly controversial H. floresiensis.
Lucy was not killed by being hit with a stick. It's been determined that she probably died from falling out of a tree.
Homo Naledi is more likely to be our ancestor than Homo Habilis, due to the fact that it had a Nuchel ligament, and H.Habilis does not. However H.Naledi was discovered in 2015, more than a decade after Walking with Cavemen aired, so they could not have known this.

Walking with Monsters

Water Dwellers

There is no evidence for Cephalaspis swimming into fresh water to lay eggs.
Brontoscorpio lived at a different time then Cephalaspis, one in the Silurian, the other in the Devonian.
Brontoscorpio was found in England not Wales.
Cephalaspis was not ancestral to tetrapods.
In the part of the Devonian, there is an angelfish. It appears when the part starts and reappears when the Hynerpeton is chased by the Stethacanthus. The error is this one: Angelfishes are from an order called Perciformes, the GREAT error is that the Perciformes didn't appear in the Paleozoic era. They appeared in the Cretaceous (Mesozoic era). And Pomacanthidae, the family angelfishes belong to, appeared in the early Eocene (cenozoic era); Also, the Perciformes are Teleosts. Teleosts didn't appear in the Paleozoic. They appeared in the Mesozoic

Reptile's Beginnings

In the series, Petrolacosaurus is incorrectly identified as an ancestral synapsid, when in fact, it was an early diapsid and could therefore not have been the ancestor of any synapsids (e.g. Edaphosaurus). Furthermore, it is stated that the Dimetrodon was a reptile, when in fact, it was a synaspid (one could call them reptilomorphs). Furthermore, the most basal synapsid, Archaeothyris, would have been a more suitable candidate.
The Dimetrodon hatchlings are shown with their back sails fully erect, when they probably wouldn't have grown yet.
The skin texture of Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon are slightly off. They had scutes on their skin, similar but different to the ones on crocodilians. They are believed to lack the scales of lepidosaurian reptiles. Its' also thought they could of had fur.
Dimetrodon is depicted as living in a desert-like enviornment, when in fact, Dimetrodon is known to have lived in a swamp-like enviornment.
The tops of some Dimetrodon's nureal spines may have been exposed bone rather than covered with a full sail, and some animals may have only had a sail halfway up the spines.
No species of spider is known to have been as large as the Mesothelae seen in this episode, now that Megarachne has been proven to be a species of sea scorpion. This doesn't mean that there isn't a Carbonifourus spider of this size, it just means that one has not yet been found.
Dimetrodon had incisors that were longer than the rest of their teeth.

Clash of Titans

Gorgonops and the Rhinesuchus are only known from South Africa, yet in Clash of Titans, they are portrayed living with Scutosaurus and a Siberian species of Diictodon, which were only found in Siberia. But the gorgonopsid was more likely an Inostrancevia since it lived at the same time and place as Scutosaurus and the Siberian species of Diictodon.
Gorgonopsids are thought that they could have had fur.
Euparkeria is not an ancestor of the dinosaurs, being basal to crocodile-dinosaur split.
It is unknown if the species of Therocephalian seen in this epsiode was truly venomus.

Chased by Dinosaurs

Velociraptor may not have lived in heavily forested areas. All of the sites where Velociraptor fossils were found suggest that the animal lived in sandy, arid environments with many sand dunes (with one specimen apparently being smothered to death by a sand dune).
Velociraptor lacks feathers. All Dromaeosaurids/Raptors had pennaceous feathers running from head to tail. It even had wings.
Giganotosaurus was depicted on the show as the largest carnivorous dinosaur, though current size estimates favor Spinosaurus.
Argentinosaurus is said to have been the biggest dinosaur. Though it may also belong to poorly known forms such as Amphicoelias fragilimus, Puertasaurus reuli, Bruhathkayosaurus matleyi, or Futalognkosaurus dukei.
Argentinosaurus's neck was probably held vertical not horizontal.
Argentinosaurus's body shape is largly based off Saltosaurus, like most titanosaurs were in the past. However, newer studies show that Saltosaurus had very different proportions from most titanosaurs.
Velociraptor's claw could not disembowel prey because the underside was round therefore the claw was used for stabbing.
Tarbosaurus's arms should be facing inwards not downwards and Tarbosaurus probably had feathers. Its head is also slightly off.
Tarbosaurus was depeicted as being smaller than Therizinosaurus, when in reality it was larger than it.
Saurolophus and hadrosaurs in general didn't have thumb spikes like their Iguanodon cousins.
Therizinosaurus was depicted featherless. It is almost certain that therizinosaurs had feathers.
Pteranodon didn't live in South America. It was endemic only to North America.
Pteranodon lived 86,000,000-84,500,000 BCE (possibly as late as 80,500,000 BCE), not 100,000,000 BCE (Ludodactylus would have been a closer choice but it was discovered at the time the show aired and it lived 12 million years before the episode takes place and lived in Brazil).
Tropeognathus (called here Ornithocheirus ) was found in Brazil, not Argentina.
Pteranodon should have had pycnofibres (fuzz) on its body.
Male Pteranodon probably had a more vividly colored crest to attract females. The beak of all Pteranodons is also known to have curved slightly upwards.
It is now known that the frill bones of Protoceratops increased in length and width during the ontogeny of the animal and that the growth of the frill was greater than than the overall growth of the animal.
It is known that Protoceratops most likely used it frill for sexual and dominance signaling
Protoceratops had quills on its tail, unlike the one in the program
Mononykus should have more feathers
Mononykus was too large compared to the real animal

Sea Monsters

Intro

Same issues with Velociraptor as seen above.
Velociraptor was unlikely to live that close to the sea, same with Tarbosaurus.
Same inaccuracies with the Tarbosaurus as in Chased by Dinosaurs.

Ordovician

Some "Sea scorpions" could go on land only for short intervals, and eat washed up carcasses.
Mild time map issues, see below.

Devonian

There's no evidence Dunkleosteus was a cannibal, but being the top predator it's likely Dunkleosteus was a cannibal.

Triassic

Tanystropheus was an archosauromorph, they can't shed tails in defence.
Tanystropheus is depecited as a primarily aquatic animal, while most paleontologists now believe that it was mostly terrestrial, sitting on the coast and using its long neck to catch fish from afar.

Jurassic

Leedsicthys' size is grossly exaggerated. In reality, it was 8–17 m and 25 tons rather than the 27 m and 100 tons in the show.
Same issues with Liopluerodon as in Cruel Sea. (see above)

Cretaceous

Pteranodons were diving creatures that hunted fish similar to gannets, unike the skim feeders they were portrayed as in the episode.
Same other errors with Pteranodon as in Chased by Dinosaurs
Tyrannosaurus did not live 75,000,000 BCE.
Mosasaurs, like Tylosaurus and Halisaurus, and plesiosaurs, like Elasmosaurus, are now known to have had tail flukes instead of lizard-like tails.
Tylosaurus was 15 m and 7 tons, not 17 m and 20 tons.
A recent study on Tylosaurus has concluded that the animal was mainly black in color, not brown like the series' depiction of the animal.
There is no evidence that mosasaurs like Tylosaurus lived in large family groups

Eocene

Arsinoitherium did not have a trunk.
Basilosaurus' ability to "sing" is highly inaccurate. It and other early whales lacked the melon organ that modern whales have that is used for this action.
Same issues with Dorudon as in Whale Killer. (see above)
Basilosaurus and other early whales had slightly twisted snouts.(http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/8513)

Pliocene

Megalodon was depicted a little bit too similar to modern day great whites. Though scientists suggest that Megalodon did look like a stockier version of the great white.
There's no evidence juvenile Megalodon would have lived in the shallows but its possible.

Time map

Creatures have the same issues as described in their respective sections. (See above)
Time periods of planet earth go much farther back then the Ordovician, but this was probably an artistic choice, as Nigel didn't go any farther back then this.
Basilosaurus should be a bit farther back.
The Cenozoic section should be a bit bigger.

Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie

Gorgosaurus had feathers.
Pachyrhinosaurus had quills like Psittacosaurus and Triceratops.
Edmontosaurus had a crest.
Troodon had more feathers.
Quetzalcoatlus had a bigger head and longer neck.
Alexornis had some errors.