What is the First Dinosaur Documentary?

[@DinoDiego16]

You all have spoken and chose this video, so here you go! Hope you enjoy it! In case you missed it, this video was most voted on a poll I did on my channel earlier this week. If you chose the other topic on that poll (which was the strange, but interesting dinosaur graphic novel), and you really wanted to see that, don't worry. That video should be released sometime next week! Also, I'm trying to reach 20k subs by the end of the year. So if you're a lurker around this channel, consider subscribing!😁 I guarantee it'll be worth your time! Thank you all for watching and have a nice day!

[@migsyh2065]

I love your work dude Keep it up and have fun

[@KaisDinoAdventures]

Epic work 🔥🔥👏👏👏

[@KaisDinoAdventures]

👍👍👍

[@megazillasaurus]

I have a video idea: t rex designs in dinosaur media: from least accurate to most accurate

[@KaisDinoAdventures]

@@megazillasaurus 👍

[@fatfrogge8753]

Isn't it interesting? We can talk about parts of the fauna millions of years ago, but movies made 100 years ago are completely lost already. Shows the importance of preserving things

[@selahgreen9648]

Sadly most of all animals that were alive then are lost

[@freeman7079]

Or how ineffective humans are at preserving things….

[@fatfrogge8753]

@@freeman7079 I mean, If we do want to preserve them we are able to, but if we don't try then consider it lost. So If something is important for the smallest reason, then we have to put effort into preserving it

[@ChicagoMel23]

Except the earth isn’t nearly that old

[@samanthazeiger1553]

That's exactly what I was thinking! So strange.

[@migsyh2065]

If random peeps can make low budget animated dinosaur films with the quality of high budget documentaries, that is an opportunity to make a documentary that is profitable, informative and exciting.

[@RickRaptor105]

The German word for Cretaceous is Kreide (which is also the word for chalk), so it is named after the Cretaceous-era chalk cliffs but also counts as a mistranslation since no English-speaking person uses the term "Chalk Age".

[@DinoDiego16]

I see. Thanks for clearing that up!

[@Ozraptor4]

I mean, Cretaceous simply Latin for "chalky".

[@migsyh2065]

I think documentaries of the modern times should feature more obscure Dinosaurs with up to date information with a healthy dose of sound speculation.

[@DinoDiego16]

I agree. There are tons of interesting ideas and dinosaurs out there that don't nearly get as much spotlight.

[@HogBurger]

@@DinoDiego16 such as Megalosaurus itself, despite being the first scientifically described dinosaur, is quite obscure.

[@mann_man8556]

I think it’d be fantastic if someone did a stop motion animation dino documentary with up to date depictions of dinosaurs

[@DinoDiego16]

I would love to see something like this. That sounds awesome!

[@oaktree149]

Feathers Would Make that a Nightmare to Make lol

[@mann_man8556]

@@oaktree149 Yeah I’m not sure how that would work

[@EveryoneElseIsWeirdImNormal]

I'll add it to my list of stuff to do

[@minutemansam1214]

@@mann_man8556 They'd just place feathers on the dinosaurs individually.

[@nathanielcochran2177]

While Masosaurus being a mistranslation of Mosasaurus is plausible, I think it is more likely a mistranslation of "Naosaurus," a junior synonym of Edaphosaururs named by Cope in 1886. My main reasoning is that the clay model itself is a tight spot on copy of similar reconstructions of what was then Naosaurus found in various books and sculptures in the AMNH. The Naosaurus holotype was found without a head, and due to the only sailed synapsid similar to it being Dimetrodon, it was incorrectly reconstructed with a Dimetrodon head.

[@gusthedinoguy230-66]

Sounds reasonable

[@i.m.evilhomer5084]

Masosaurus could be a misspelling of Mesosaurus, which is the genus of gharial-like parareptile from the Permian. Maybe the American editors got confused & slapped the name onto the unrelated Permian synapsid. Speaking of mistakes & synapsids, it looks like model makers also mixed up Edaphosaurus & Dimetrodon. The model has the sail of the former & the head of the latter.

[@DinoDiego16]

True and it would make more sense. Also, some early paleoart mixed the two's overall structure a bit, so that's probably why it looks like that.

[@fossilzerer3998]

It's probably related to "naosaurus". Back in 1882, edaphosaurus was known only from a crushed skull discovered by Edward Cope, so he didn't know that it had a sail. Some time later, in 1886, Cope found the sail... and assigned it to a new species, the so called "naosaurus". Of course Cope had no way of knowing that one is a part of another, so he assumed that naosaurus had a head similar to dimetrodon's. All based on the fact that both creatures had similar sails. After all, naosaurus can be misheard as "masosaurus". The whole edaphosaurus confusion was already solved in 1907-1913s, but maybe the film creators simply had some outdated (even by 1920's standarts) sources?

[@Boltscrap]

I'm voting for Mesosaurus as well, as the only website to use word masosaurus (a store page for a tooth) says that the name stands for "middle lizard" and that it lived in permian. And as any dino fan should probably know, Mesozoic derives its name from latin word for middle.

[@douglasthescottishtwin3989]

@@fossilzerer3998 Noasaurus

[@andrewpaige1194]

Wow, they actually got the dimetrodon surprisingly accurate, compared to anything before probably the mid 90s!

[@juanjoyaborja.3054]

Remember the dimetrodon in walking with monsters? Yeah, it was embarrassing.

[@gusthedinoguy230-66]

What the heck look all I am going to say is that design looks cool you should be thanking them for not putting crocodile scales all over it

[@thomasrichardholtz9031]

The "Chalk Age" is a direct translation of "der Kreidezeit", a German name for "Cretaceous". "Cretaceous" itself is based on Latin for "The Chalk", because the vast majority of chalk deposits come from that time period.

[@casper6405]

Probably explains it In dutch the cretaceous is called Het krijt Which means chalk

[@noemitamas4066]

We call it Chalk Age (Kréta kor) in Hungarian as well. :)

[@kefir321]

it's chalk age in russian too

[@dinofanaticgojifan5760]

Kreda is Croatian word for chalk.

[@f1fan3000]

*die Kreidezeit

[@grumpyginger99]

Just on an extra note part of the reason that older films are not often preserved is because silver nitrate film is actually horrifically flammable and in archives today silver nitrate film is often kept in climate controlled and fire proofed storage with dedicated film archives sometimes holding large amounts in what are essentially bunkers.

[@Cdr2002]

The stop motion work in this documentary is incredible

[@Jenema2]

It's not impossible. The original cut of Metropolis from 1927 was thought to be lost. Now the full movie is available on blu-ray with the original score.

[@migsyh2065]

I remember that as a kid I kept in mind that the Jurassic movies can only take as much scientific fact to balance out the science fiction elements and the continuity to keep in line with the lore. That's why I enjoyed the Jurassic movies regardless of their inaccuracies since I always have documentaries and books to provide the information the movies could not provide. Which is a win win for me. I just hope more modern documentaries are made and accessible.

[@user-eh1tv9pj2d]

7:50 In Russian the Cretaceous is actually called "Chalk Age"

[@TheRunningLeopard]

That’s really cool to know, I’ve been researching Russian paleo art recently but hadn’t came across that info yet.

[@unununkreativ1027]

In German too

[@peterstangl8295]

Hungarian too

[@janslavik5284]

In Czech too

[@mrfloaty7253]

Those stopmotion animations looked so smooth for me when i was a kid but now it looks like my device on red ping

[@SaurianTarget]

What a fascinating subject, and excellent coverage of it! I love seeing old, once-thought-lost dinosaur media like this exposed for others to enjoy. I’d never even heard of this short film until now. Great work!

[@reigoemon2229]

AYO SAURIAN TARGET

[@ivane5110]

Dinosaurs have "changed" so many times over the decades since I was a kid that very little would surprise me, other than proving that "theory" that dinos were human-level intellects that were wiped out in an extraterrestrial plot to give rise to mammals for their personal goals. PS. Loved seeing this and learning about it! The wrong info is almost more entertaining than the "true" (until ammended again) science.

[@manospondylus4896]

That synapsid is pretty obviously based on an outdated skeletal of Edaphosaurus where it was assumed it had a head similar to Dimetrodon. However, that reconstruction was named Naosaurus, so I also don‘t know why they call it Masosaurus. The theropod eating from a carcass is very likely based of Charles Knight‘s reconstruction of Allosaurus

[@ViraLCyclopes]

The fact that they predicted an extinction event very soon that long ago is super eerie

[@NoArtisticLimitation]

It’s actually really interesting to see just how much people actually got right, even then. I mean, yeah, there’s a whole lot that can be updated, but considering how long ago this was, that’s absolutely crazy!

[@TBoneTony]

Disney's Fantasia from the 1940s is perhaps one of the earliest in my memory to have tried to depict what they felt Dinosaurs were. The bits they got right, the Earth was round like in that opening scene of the planet earth being red with lava and the Earth was hot and humid almost tropical during the time of the Cretaceous Period. The parts that they got wrong were only small yet significant, like the T-Rex and the Stegosaurus never coexisted together as the Stegosaurus was already extinct by the time the T-Rex existed. Most likely it would have been the Ankylosaurs or the Triceratops that would have had that epic fight against the T-Rex during that scene. And the Dinosaurs all died out due to something that happened that was a tragic event, though this was decades before the Giant Meteor theory was proven so Disney only got that half right if you think about it.

[@galaburdakirill2]

2001, A SPACE ODYSSEY, is taken directly from FANTASIA

[@peterdrieen6852]

Nice video, very informative on this lost part of media. The cretaceous actually is called Kreidezeit in German, which literally translates into chalk epoch

[@Zinervawyrm]

Silent films are so fascinating to me on so many levels. Though one thing I always find the most fascinating has to be outdated terminology. As soon as you mentioned the subtitle card calling one era the "Chalk Era" I instantly laughed and thought about The Flintstones opening of Fred in quarry.

[@sonofeyeabovealleffoff5462]

Best dinosaur documentary I ever saw was when I was a kid in 91, PBS aired THE DINOSAURS.

[@AdrianParkinsonFilms]

It's amazing that this was made all the way back then. There's an edit of the footage from The Lost World that tries to turn it into more of a documentary, I'm not sure when exactly it's from, but I'd always kind of assumed that would have been the first dinosaur doc.

[@NoArtisticLimitation]

1:30 when a documentary that appears to be at least 3-4 decades old shows a less shrink-wrapped t-Rex.

[@colk5373]

Never thought someone would make a video on this subject. Seriously, nobody talks about this

[@DinoDiego16]

Thats what this channel is all about! Covering obscure dinosaur-related topics!

[@thefirehawk8520]

I don't know if anyone already told you, but yes "Chalk Age" is a translation error. In german we call the Cretaceous period "Kreidezeit" which, if translated literally, means "chalk age"

[@phatage1401]

Small note on the "chalk age": the word for chalk (kreide) is the name for the cretacious in German, and the name cretacious is actually derived from the latin word for chalk.

[@hodari4284]

It's called "Chalk Age" because it's a direct translation of the German name for the Cretaceous. In German we call the Cretaceous "Kreidezeit"

[@Bulltoad_Real]

How does this only have 4.2k views??? This is amazing!

[@kevinnorwood8782]

I don’t know what the FIRST Dinosaur documentary was, but I know what the first one I ever saw was. It was a documentary called “Dinosaurs: The Terrible Lizards”, featuring stop-motion animation Dinosaurs from animator Wah Chang, who used many of the same models he used for the original Land Of The Lost series (ie Grumpy the T-Rex). I watched that thing when I was three years old and INSTANTLY fell in love with the subject of Dinosaurs and prehistoric life. When I watched it, I watched a version that was part of a documentary series meant for little kids hosted by a puppet called Mr Know-It-Owl.

[@kevinnorwood8782]

Edit: Also, that particular documentary was originally made in 1970, but the version I saw was the Revised Edition, which came out in 1986, three years before I was born.

[@_1aleksa2_13]

Bro aint no way your name is Diego and you are into dinosaurs that's just too perfect

[@MiKeMiDNiTe-77]

These old stop motion dino docos are more entertaining to me than modern cgi docos

[@Fede_99]

8:11 oh yeah I think I know this one, it should be called "Naosaurus". I don't remember the full story, but basically this was a chimera of both Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon. I think that's an interesting story which maybe could become the subject of a video

[@captainstroon1555]

The Chalk Age could very well be a clunky translation as the Cretaceous is called die Kreide or Kreidezeit in german. Which literally means chalk or chalk age respectively.

[@Operngeist1]

The Chalk age is a literal translation of 'Kreidezeit' which is the German word for the Cretaceous. :)

[@SuperKingGhidorah]

Just goes to show far we've come animation wise. Wonder how much further we can go?

[@Scipionyxsam]

7:49 You were right though, the German name for Cretacious is 'Kreidezeit', with Kreide meaning chalk and Zeit = time/age. It's called like this for the reason you mentioned -the abundance of chalk formations-, but of course it's not a proper translation into English to just use this etymology literally.

[@malharmony]

@4:58 I LOVE that Dimetrodon sporting her fancy Edaphosaurus sail. @8:30 My bet is on Allosaurus (er...Antrodemus...lol) Thanks for the research and upload, brother! Keep 'em coming!

[@dragonzilla6482]

Wow! I always thought that Animal World was the first to showcase Dinosaurs in documentary form but after seen your video 50 Million Years Ago, I stand corrected! 😮

[@graveyardghoul8482]

Every now and again I have flashbacks to this nightmare...

[@flaguser4196]

there's something poetic with lost media about lost creatures

[@VoorTrekker88]

There are film trade journals (basically early film industry magazines) that were published in the 1920s in Germany that cover and account for every film that was produced, or in the process of production even, during that time. It's possible that the original German film was mentioned and described somewhere in one of these journals.

[@scoutman66]

Where I live the Cretaceous period is literally called "Krijt" which is also what we named chalk

[@tyrannotherium7873]

Indeed even some documentaries are outdated there are still good buy their own right at their time and we have to respect that

[@DukeDukeGo]

The word Cretaceous is derived from the latin word for chalk and in german it is called Kreidezeit or just Kreide which literally means chalktime or just chalk. That's also why it's abbreviated with K, bc german was a lingua franca for early scientific literature

[@giandoe3616]

I'd reckon the unidentified theropod at 4:20 is an allosaurus, given that it copies the pose of the allosaur at AMNH, which was erected during this time.

[@nerdyoutube7847]

Very interesting and novel

[@manospondylus4896]

Note that the name Cretaceous literally comes from the Latin word for chalk

[@eleganceinbadtaste]

thanks for sharing this info!

[@chubibi06]

Dino Diego, your videos are always a treat ! Thank you for your dedication ; i now impatiently await your next one on the "dinosaur graphic novel"

[@DinoDiego16]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the kind words😁. I also cant wait to get that other video out to you guys!

[@kimzchaos]

Perfect for the land before time live action movie with Chomper and his friends

[@younghacker09]

great vid! glad I found your channel!

[@Ozraptor4]

8:34 = Very likely based on the AMNH 5753 mount (Allosaurus hunched over a brontosaur backbone) so this is "Antrodemus valens" (now Allosaurs fragilis).

[@samvs1259]

Great video, great subject! Had fun watching this, thx!

[@GarkKahn]

I wonder what went through the minds of the ones discovering the 1st dinasours and then those who actually discovered the magnitude of that discovery

[@backonja7255]

Chalk age is actually very interesting term for me, cause that's how we ACTUALLY refer to the Cretaceous period in everyday conversation

[@migsyh2065]

Ah yes Dinosaur documentaries The things I watch after watching Jurassic Park and The Lost World Jurassic Park Sucks we don't get as much Dinosaur documentaries that came out along with Jurassic World and Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom

[@GarkKahn]

Surprisingly jurassic park caused a boom in popularity But jurassic world just couldn't, at the very least only retake the lost interest from previous fans

[@allthelittleworms]

what really bums me out is when you google x famous dinosaur the first thing that pops up is the jurassic world design. I think it's really lame

[@kuitaranheatmorus9932]

This video was a great watch and I think learning about the first dino doc was pretty dope.

[@totra2001]

Chalk Age might also be a mistranslation or an older name for the cretacios period, since in german, that's literally what it is called "Kreide Zeit" (Chalk time/age)

[@velociraptor4you3291]

Fascinating!

[@jasonsantos3037]

I love dinosaur documentaries yeah probably this one would be interesting to watch

[@chiptankgirl]

Thank you for this interesting video.

[@phaex2288]

I really liked your channel, please continue ;)

[@Grand_History]

My guess would be that the other stuff in the original German version probably has a lot more words or talking. Then this one just shortened it to primarily the visuals

[@jerdasaurusrex557]

In my language the cretaceous period was called "zaman kapur" which also means "chalk age"

[@KarnodAldhorn]

Chalk Age is a translation accident. It's literally what the german word for The Cretacous "Kreidezeit" means

[@mechanwhal6590]

In days of old when nights were cold, And Volstead was unknown. The mildest roar of Dinosaur Would chill you to the bone.

[@PlanetZoidstar]

Wonderful video, DD. Something I thought I'd add about the incorrectly labelled "Masosaurus", if they meant "Mosasaurus", this makes sense for the time it was discovered. When it was discovered in 1789, the Mosasaur was thought to be a giant land-based reptile. Check out classic Paleoart of the time and they depict Mosasaurus like that. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5zYn3yCp96eoqs Granted depicting it more like a Dimetrodon would still be inaccurate and 100+ years of scientific advancement had progressed since its discovery, but even nowadays you find feather denialists with Dinosaurs. Perhaps back in the 1920s some people refused to accept Mosasaurs were aquatic?

[@jam92es]

I love your videos! They make me feel like a kid again!

[@heroiccombatengineer6018]

Wow I watched one ark tutorial and I get recommendations about dinosaurs, I don't regret it btw this video is nice.

[@bisonboss3230]

the missing scene was probably what they thought back then happened to the dinosaurs.

[@namida8806]

This was a nicely edited well done!

[@n_ex13]

Actually the Cretaceous period is literally translated the Chalk age (Kreidezeitalter)

[@dynamosaurusimperious2718]

This video was absolutely beauty and I love it

[@EcstasyJesus]

the german name for the cretacious is Kreidezeitalter, which literally translates to chalk age. So I'll assume they just directly translated the german text

[@Palmieres]

Since we've discovered that many dinosaurs had feathers these old depictions make me think they're all being filmed after extensive laser hair removal.

[@maozilla9149]

interesting i have never seen this Dinosaur Documentary before

[@lizerdspherex]

4:34 nearly spat out my drink

[@samantha.redacted]

THIS is why the public domain is so important, so many early films are still under copyright, meaning that preservationists can't get their hands on the film before it literally crumbles apart, we are losing so much film history because of companies like disney extending the copyright law

[@JafuetTheSame]

i love it...btw from what is that t-rex footage at 1:27?

[@TKDragon75]

8:30 That actually might be an ancient crocodilians with some disproportioned legs.

[@Ollimus]

The dimetrodon is my favorite part.

[@NinaFelwitch]

In German, the Cretaceous is called "Kreidezeit", which literally translates to Chalk Age. Edit: yeah, half of the comments here are about this 😅

[@Rubashow]

Chalk Age is likely a direct translation of the German word for "cretaceous", which is Kreidezeit = Chalkage. It's why the symbol for the Cretaceous is K.

[@rjhamler5324]

Man that is a cool documentary I'm glad we get to see it again it looks lime thoes paintings came to life specially the allosaurs eating the bronto tail a classic depiction of the creture and with a bit of thought I wonder if the missing sceen was of the Tyrannosaurs it just makes sence the sceen might of been dark and that's why it couldent be depicted like the end of the dinosaurs moment I rember Carnegie had their room go dark and had roaring sounds as they talked about the dinosaurs specially the T-rex wich was the prime center with a painting behind it of a dark cliff maybe they did something like that with it. But ya I love seeing thoes old documentarys the ideas they had then to now are incredible just T-rex alone chsnged 100%, brontosaurs got debunked but came back in 2015... wait brontosaurs came back the same year this came back cool, and tracodon sadly went out and never came back it's one of my favorite old dinosaurs and I wish they would bring it back or do more research to try to revive it, but still if it wasent for them we would of never gotten ones like walking with dinosaurs, dinosaur planet, or when dinosaurs roamed America or even movies like Jurassic park wich fuels the spark to learn more about phreostoric life just like you said about the spino reconstructions it has chsnged about 5 times since I was little the new one being 2 leged rudder tail version. But ya that's amazing they revived that it just gives us more understanding in how the came to to all dinosaur media came to be from its early stages to dominion comeing out next year just amazing. Also love how you put the when dinosaurs roamed America dilophosaurs at the begining and stated it was part of the good ones cause I love the dilo in that 1000% more than the Jurassic park one wich I still like but always found that it didn't need that frill to look cool plus it was small and America did it way way way better and even gave it a amazing roar that fits it what nore could you want?

[@GREYFLWRMUSIC]

In Germany, the Cretaceous period is actually known as the "Kreidezeit" which, directly translated, means "Chalk Age". So since this was a German movie first, that's probably why they refer to it like that.

[@JeremyTheBluespottedCornetfish]

I'm Czech and the Cretaceous is Křída, which literally means just "c h a l k", so cool.

[@user-wv9wl9zf8l]

"50миллионов лет назад"? В то время так оценивался возраст мелового периода? (А если там показывали и палеозой и кайнозой, то почему для названия выбрали именно возраст мела?) А вообще, несмотря на нереалистичность, такие вот старые фильмы (как и любой "ретропалеоарт") о доисторической жизни очень притягательны. (Кстати, было очень мило, когда тот стегозавр шевелил пластинами).

[@Robocopnik]

4:43 - looks like they're posing for a rap album cover in the 90s.

[@DinoDiego16]

Album was so hot, it caused a mass extinction😂

[@rampage75_25]

Wow. Just wow. It has its own kind of magic seeing these old stopmo docus

[@sgotach_7581]

Prehistoric park is my one true love 🥺🥺🥺

[@DiDiDinky]

I think the "Masosaurus" was actually Mesosaurus. (Although Mesosaurus didn't have a sail)

[@mech-gamingyt5374]

Dinosaurs are underrated these days, who agrees with me?

[@marioluigi1523]

People don’t seem to care anymore

[@LamangoKaijura]

1:30 That's Grumpy from the Land of the Lost, I forgot he was in a documentary.

[@SuperKingGhidorah]

The Dreaded Spinofaarus

[@danielmesser7812]

So most silent films would have a paper score that would be sent out with them for the house pianist to play.

[@DrZalmat]

"the chalk age" really is kind of a translation error. Or better: it is a literal translation of a German word. In German the Cretaceous Period is called "Kreidezeit", chalk age, because, like said in the video, most chalk sediments are from that era. A lot of eras in German are named after the main rock formations that were created then. Like Jura Period (named after the Jura rock formations) or the Trias Period that is subdivided into "Buntsandstein" (colourful sandstone), "Muschelkalk" (shell-bearing limestone) and "Keuper" (a kind of crumbly clay). Makes it way easier to see on a glance in what period a rock formation was most likely created, when out in the field. It's limestone and we can see small inclusions of fossils? Most likely from the Muschelkalk era. Sandstone that is not the usual beige/yellow colour but more red or white? Buntsandstein era. Sometimes it throws someone off, though... For example there is a big sandstone deposit near the region i live in that was created in the Muschelkalk era. Makes it a bit confusing sometimes with mixing up names and definitions ^^

[@doggo7078]

Cmon guys, if CGP Grey can fly to the other side of the world just to check if a book with a date exists, you germans can enter a film library and check if the film is there