Template:Dinoseries
Dangerous Seas is the first episode of the Sea Monsters miniseries.
Full synopsis
The Seventh Most Dangerous Sea of All Time
In the Ordovician, the day is only 21 hours long and there is more carbon dioxide than in the 21st century, forcing Nigel to don a medical-looking backpack filled with air tanks with a special oxygen mixture. To attract a Megalograptus, Nigel finds the corpse of a dead armor-plated fish washed up on the beach.
Because there is no land life, there are no coastal scavengers to eat what the sea spits out. Before long, Nigel wades into shallow water and the armor-plated fish attracts a large Megalograptus. The creature devours the armor-plated fish, before attacking Nigel's foot, cutting it badly.
Later on, Nigel attempts to go after a Cameroceras by removing the eye of a dead trilobite and replacing it with a small video camera.
Cameroceras.
He then uses the inflatable raft to venture out into the deeper waters, where he throws the trilobite video camera combo overboard. However, a Megalograptus is quickly attracted to it, and Nigel immediately gets it off of the trilobite. Later in the afternoon, a Cameroceras grabs and eats the trilobite, and Nigel and the cameraman plunge overboard to film it. On the dive, Nigel wears a chain mail suit, so that any marauding sea scorpion cannot harm him. He finds the Cameroceras in which he watches it devour two Megalograptus. The Cameroceras is more agile in the sea than Nigel, and as it attempts to swim away, Nigel grabs onto its shell. When the Cameroceras starts to dive down into the depths, Nigel swims away to the surface, almost getting attacked by another Megalograptus. When Nigel pilots the boat back to shore, he finds a surprise: there are large numbers of Megalograptus mating in the shallow waters. Nigel manages to make his way safely through the Megalograptus hordes, but a few clamber onto the inflatable boat and puncture it.
The Sixth Most Deadly Sea of All Time
As Nigel walks along the tropical coastlines of Triassic Switzerland, he explains that the reptiles are taking over the surface of the earth from the skies (e.g. Peteinosaurus), to the land (e.g. Coelophysis). But of course, he is here to see the earliest sea reptiles.
From the deck of the Ancient Mariner, Nigel and crew watch as a Nothosaurus comes up for air.
A screencap of a nothosaur from the first episode of "Sea Monsters".
When he sees one, Nigel dives into the seas, pursuing the elusive sea reptile. Before long, Nigel finds a pair of Nothosaurus. The Nothosaurus circle him, and Nigel has his prod ready to put off any Nothosaurus that comes too close. One of the Nothosaurus move in closer, so Nigel grabs it around its head to swim with it, and he explains that he would be able to open and close its jaws with tremendous force, but the Nothosaurus' jaw muscles are very weak. Therefore he can ride with it without the Nothosaurus struggling.
Tanystropheus.
He lets the Nothosaurus go so that it can breathe air, and Nigel discovers another bizarre sea reptile: a Tanystropheus.
Nigel follows the Tanystropheus, and attempts to get a closer look at it by grabbing onto its tail, impeding its movement. However, the Tanystropheus loses its tail, just as how the modern lizards do. Nigel can hold onto the tail only with difficulty, because it is thrashing around (intended as a predator deterrent). Suddenly the tail is snatched up and then eaten by a Cymbospondylus.
The Cymbospondylus begins to circle Nigel with glee, and he explains that its slow movement is designed to deceive prey, and it can move very quickly when it is needed to.
After he pokes it with the prod several times, the Cymbospondylus swims away, and Nigel returns to the relative safety of the Ancient Mariner.
The Fifth Most Dangerous Sea of All Time
On a preliminary dive in the Devonian seas of Greenland, another crew member of the Mariner (Mike) films a huge female Dunkleosteus, swimming around the shallow reefs near the Ancient Mariner.
The crew springs into action, and Nigel goes fishing for Bothriolepis. Nigel places a bet with one of the other crew members that the Dunkleosteus will be able to slice through the Bothriolepis wrapped in the chain mail suit he used in the Ordovician. When the round shark cage is fully assembled, Nigel descends into it. The smell of the dead Bothriolepis begins to attract a young Stethacanthus. Eventually, the monstrous Dunkleosteus is sighted, which scares away the Stethacanthus, and the enraged fish repeatedly bashes the cage with its thick head, and looks as though it's about to rip a hole in the cage...
Trivia
- When the camera switches to the view of the trilobite getting grabbed by the Cameroceras, its beak can be seen snapping at it.
- The Nothosaurus seems to have made an unusual call after Nigel let it go.
- The Trilobite that Nigel had antennas, but when he had it the next day, it lost its antennas.
Errors
- The theory that Tanystropheus could dettach and regrow its tail is usually discredited nowadays.