Best Dinosaur Documentaries to Watch Now

Learn dinosaur facts, history and information about fossils in this collection of dinosaur documentaries

Published on October 16, 2024 by Beatrice Alvarez

Find the answers to all your dinosaur questions here. Yes, travel back in time with us to the Age of Dinosaurs. Or stay where you are, and watch this collection of documentaries to learn about the different types of dinosaurs, what their fossils teach us, and what scientists have learned about the planet.

Let's start with the basics: when did dinosaurs live?

Triassic Period (252 to 201 million years ago)

This period of time was when dinosaurs first evolved. The continents we live on today were part of one land mass that scientists call Pangaea. The climate was hot and dinosaurs flourished after the Permian, or Permian-Triassic, extinction (also known as the "Great Dying") eliminated nearly all marine and terrestrial life. This occurred at the end of the Permian period and the start of the Triassic.

At the end of the Triassic, another mass extinction occurred. This time, 80% of the Earth's species died off. Leaving the surviving dinosaurs to adapt and evolve during the Jurassic Period.

Jurassic Period (201 to 145 million years ago)

During the Jurassic Period, Pangaea split into two land masses where dinosaurs flourished. The plant-eating giants you know and love feasted on the warm planet that was lush with green plants and tall trees. Stegosaurus, diplodocus, and allosaurus are just a few of the dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic Period.

Cretacious Period(145 to 66 million years ago)

During the Cretacious Period, the land broke apart into more pieces and moved around to create different environments for dinosaurs to evolve in different ways. I bet your favorite dinosaur (non-scientific observation is that 60% of people say triceratops, 80% of the time) lived during the Cretaceous Period. During this time, sauropods grew to their largest size and many of the dinosaurs we know and love (we see the T.Rex fan club members out there) stomped the Earth.

What Is A Dinosaur And What Isn’t a Dinosaur?

From Be Smart:

There’s a lot of confusion out there about what is and isn’t a dinosaur. And you’d be forgiven for being kinda confused. Well, like an intrepid fossil hunter, we set out to dig up an answer, and what we found teaches us a lesson about how hard it is to build a picture of the past when you only have a few puzzle pieces and a lot about why we classify things the way we do.

What Caused the Dinosaurs to Go Extinct?

The asteroid released the equivalent of 10-billion nuclear bombs worth of energy when it struck Earth. The impact started a chain of events that wiped out 75% of all plants and animals at the time.

Dinosaurs for Sale: Learn About the Fossil Trade

Fossils are essentially messages from the past that paleontologists help us decode. It's how we have learned vast details about the Age of Dinosaurs. Have you ever wondered how fossils go from the ground beneath our feet to the museums we visit? In many cases, it starts with a fossil hunting expedition.

Fossils have been found all over the world, and while the first dinosaur fossils found were seemingly accidental discoveries, fossil finding nowadays can be a costly and intricate operation. There are many commercial entities working to uncover millions-old evidence of the largest animals to walk the Earth.

In the United States fossils can be sold and exported for profit, while it is important to note that laws and regulations around the fossil trade vary from country to country. As a result, there are people whose livelihood depends on selling the dinosaur and prehistoric animal fossils they find on private land. In some countries, any fossils recovered go to academic institutions or museums and are considered a public good. The differences in international laws that apply to the sale of fossils explain why Big John, a triceratops skeleton with the largest skull found to date (dug up in South Dakota, by the way) was sold at an auction for $7.7 million U.S. dollars to a private collector in 2021.

Interestingly enough, Wyoming has been at the center of fossil hunting for decades because so many animal skeletons were preserved in the rock formations there. The land we now call Wyoming was once a shallow inland sea during the middle to late Jurassic era. There you will find many small businesses whose livelihood depends on finding and selling dinosaur fossils.

These two documentaries: Secrets of the Dead: Jurassic Fortunes and Wyoming PBS' Fossil Country explore the business of dinosaur fossils for many perspectives and they are definitely worth watching.

A Collector Shows Off His Dinosaurs

Jurassic Fortunes

Secrets of the Dead

Discover the world of dinosaur collecting, a controversial hobby with a booming market. Hear perspectives on the fossil trade from private collectors, paleontologists, and others, as Big John—the largest Triceratops fossil ever found—is assembled in Italy and auctioned in France.

Watch with Passport

Fossil Country

Wyoming PBS

Hardscrabble fossil hunters in Wyoming make astounding discoveries that change what we know about the earth’s history. The mining town of Kemmerer, in the Green River Formation, is ground zero for the best fossil collecting in the world. Geology, history, and entrepreneurship all come to life through human stories of fossil hunters seeking a rare discovery — and a big payday.

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EONS

If you love dinosaurs, prehistoric science, fun facts for parties, then you have to watch EONS. Join hosts Michelle Barboza-Ramirez, Kallie Moore, and Blake de Pastino as they take you on a journey through the history of life on Earth. From the dawn of life in the Archaean Eon through the Mesozoic Era — the so-called “Age of Dinosaurs” -- right up to the end of the most recent Ice Age.

Press play for a taste of your new favorite show: EONS.

How the T-Rex Lost Its Arms

Tyrannosaurus rex was big, Tyrannosaurus rex was vicious, and Tyrannosaurus rex had tiny arms. The story of how T-Rex lost its arms is, itself, pretty simple. But the story of why it kept those little limbs, and how it used them? Well, that’s a little more complicated.

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How the T-Rex Lost Its Arms

6m 54s

Tyrannosaurus rex was big, Tyrannosaurus rex was vicious, and Tyrannosaurus rex had tiny arms. The story of how T-Rex lost

Full Length

The Raptor That Made Us Rethink Dinosaurs

8m 35s

In 1964, a paleontologist named John Ostrom unearthed some fascinating fossils from the mudstone of Montana. Its discovery

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How Did Dinosaurs Get So Huge?

5m 42s

Part of why we’re so fascinated with extinct dinosaurs it’s just hard for us to believe that animals that huge actually ex

Full Length

The Story of the Dino Stampede

10m 43s

To try to solve the puzzle of Lark Quarry, experts have turned to a special subfield of paleontology -- paleoichnology, or

Full Length

Where Are All the Medium-Sized Dinosaurs?

11m 1s

The remains of medium-sized predatory dinosaurs are pretty rare in places where giant predators like T. rex existed. Which

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A Short Tale About Diplodocus' Long Neck

9m 18s

Long necks gave sauropods a huge advantage when it came to food, but not in the way you think. And this benefit would allo

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How Ankylosaurs Got Their Clubs

7m 52s

While clubs are practically synonymous with ankylosaurs, we’ve only started to get to the bottom of how they worked and ho

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The Dinosaur Who Was Buried at Sea

12m 11s

Paleontologists have been studying nodosaurs since the 1830s, but nobody had ever found a specimen like Borealopelta befor

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Alaskan Dinosaurs

From NOVA: A team of intrepid paleontologists discovers that dinosaurs thrived in the unlikeliest of places—the cold and dark of winter in the Arctic Circle. How did they survive year-round and raise their young in frigid and dark winter conditions?

In this clip: scientists in Alaska discover the remains of seven different dinosaur species in the earliest stages of their development. Could baby dinosaurs have hatched in the Arctic and migrated thousands of miles with their parents to avoid polar winter?

Learn More About Dinosaur Fossils in Idaho, Dinosaur Art, and The Bone Wars

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Prehistoric Idaho

Outdoor Idaho

Idaho’s unique landscape is home to fossils that can tell us about the area’s history and wildlife. Whether it’s dinosaur eggs or sharks, the fossils found in the state tell the story of what used to be here and what to expect moving forward. Outdoor Idaho takes a look back at what the state looked like millions of years ago, 10,000 years ago, and what remains today.

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Paleo Artist Mark Hallett

OPB Science From the Northwest

Dallas, Oregon paleo artist Mark Hallett’s 40 year career drawing, painting and sculpting extinct dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals has taken him from Hollywood to India. His incredible, historically researched paintings of dinosaurs are seen in museums and galleries around the country, and he drew original concept art for Jurassic Park!

Watch now

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Westward Expansion and the Bone Wars

Compact History

Explore 19th century Westward Expansion, from the gold rush to the transcontinental railroad, until Coré - a parallel version of Cory - interrupts. Coré introduces the Bone Wars, a competition between two paleontologists leading to the discovery of dozens of dinosaurs. Cory warns that competition is costly and dangerous, while Coré boasts that competition leads to discovery and innovation.

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Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster

From Nature: Follow Sir David Attenborough and a team of forensic experts as they unearth the fossil of a giant Pliosaur, the largest Jurassic predator ever known.

We know that a pliosaur is not a dinosaur: it is an aquatic reptile. This documentary is still a good one for dino-fans to watch because pliosaurs lived alongside dinosaurs so it can teach us about life in the Jurassic period. Now enjoy this story about a hypothetical matchup between a t-rex and a pliosaur. Who would win?