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.



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.
Full Length 6m 54s
The Dinosaur Who Was Buried at Sea
Full Length
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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The Story of the Dino Stampede
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
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How the T-Rex Lost Its Arms
Full Length
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
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How Ankylosaurs Got Their Clubs
Full Length
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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Where Are All the Medium-Sized Dinosaurs?
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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The Raptor That Made Us Rethink Dinosaurs
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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A Short Tale About Diplodocus' Long Neck
Full Length
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 Did Dinosaurs Get So Huge?
Full Length
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
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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?


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?


T-Rex Vs. Jurassic Sea Monster