Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular

In 2007, this brand-new theatrical performance about dinosaurs was created, based on the 1999 television series. This show featured all of the creatures from the TV show, as well as one new, show-exclusive dinosaur (Liliensternus). It was shown at numerous theaters around the world.

Full Synopsis

The show opens with the palaeontologist, Huxley, holding the skull of an Allosaurus. He explains that fossils are almost all that is left of dinosaurs, but they can help us to imagine what life was like in the past. He invites the audience to travel back in time with him, to come "walking with dinosaurs".

Triassic - 220 Million Years Ago

The screen at the back of the stage shows the planet earth in the Triassic period, dominated by the Pangaea supercontinent. The camera zooms towards the ground. The Triassic is introduced as a world of conifers and ferns, without flowering plants. The closest relative of humans is described as looking like "a cross between a mongoose and a lizard". The Triassic is a world of deserts and droughts. Huxley points out a nest of Plateosaurus eggs, explaining that every animal that lives on Pangaea lays eggs, an adaptation to the arid conditions. Two of the Plateosaurus eggs hatch, and before long a Liliensternus appears, grabbing and eating one of the hatchlings. Huxley highlights the success of the theropod body plan. Eventually the drought ends and rain falls. Small green plants begin to grow on the rock on which the eggs sit. Huxley explains that an abundance of food helped early dinosaurs reach enormous sizes. At this point an adult Plateosaurus appears. The dinosaur feeds on the newly sprouted plants and Huxley highlights her adaptations for the arid conditions of the Triassic. The Plateosaurus attends to her surviving hatchling, and fends off the Liliensternus twice. With the predator gone, three juvenile Plateosaurus emerge from the rock structure and roam around the arena, before following their mother out.

After the dinosaurs leave, Huxley introduces the concept of plate tectonics. He explains that at the end of the Triassic Pangaea began to break apart, leaving narrow seaways between the new lands. To illustrate this, the single rock structure in the middle of the arena begins to break into three pieces. With the formation of new mountains and ocean currents, the climate changes, with greater amounts of rainfall encouraging a flourishing of vegetation. Horsetails emerge around the edges of the arena, and trees grow from the central rock structures. The audience have now entered the Jurassic Period.

Jurassic

Huxley spots a theropod footprint on the ground, and explains how trace fossils can tell palaeontologists lots about dinosaur behaviour. More footprints begin to emerge, first showing the theropod walking, and then a different set of tracks, those of a herbivore (probably a sauropod). Eventually the theropod tracks catch up to those of the herbivore, implying an attack (accompanied by dinosaur sound effects). The footprints vanish, and a Stegosaurus emerges. Huxley hypothesises that the plates on its back are used for display to put off predators. An Allosaurus then emerges, promptly sticking its head into the horsetails, pulling out a lizard which it devours. Not satisfied with this meal, the Allosaurus then begins to attack the Stegosaurus, which stands its ground and fights back. The dinosaurs are interrupted by a lightning storm which triggers a forest fire. The horsetails and trees start to burn down, and the Stegosaurus makes an exit. The fire is extinguished by the rain, and the plants regrow from the fertile soil. As this takes place Huxley announces that the audience will be travelling further forward in time to the Late Jurassic.

Late Jurassic

Huxley points out that Allosaurus is still around at this point in time. A sub-adult Brachiosaurus emerges, having been separated from its herd. After Huxley explains the lifecycle of the Brachiosaurus, the Allosaurus prepares to attack the young dinosaur. Before it can get very far, the sub-adult's mother appears on stage, easily fending away the smaller theropod. With the carnivore gone, two sauropods rub necks as a sign of their bond, before beginning to browse from the tall trees in the centre of the arena. As the two dinosaurs exit the stage, Huxley explains that the late Jurassic was the peak of the age of dinosaurs, and that life would never again be this grand, "but it will get a lot scarier..."

Early Cretaceous

The second half of the show begins with the continued break-up of the continents. Most of the central rocks now move to the outskirts of the arena. Huxley appears, and explains that 30 million years have now passed, and that the Americas have split apart from Europe and Africa, forming Atlantic ocean. Only one group of reptile can cross this gap, the pterosaurs, one of the largest being the Ornithocheirus. The giant pterosaur flies over a landscape inhabited by ceratopsians, and uses warm updrafts from volcanic fissures to give him lift. Having left the volcanic landscape, the Ornithocheirus flies both day and night, catching fish on the wing, and surviving a terrible storm. On arriving over a new land, the pterosaur flies over sauropods and a large theropod, before looking for somewhere to land. The Ornithocheirus quickly aborts this manoeuvre however with the appearance of a trio of Utahraptor. These pack-hunters approach the carcass of an unidentified Ornithopod, possibly a young Iguanodon. The Utahraptor have a strict pecking order, and the weaker male is forced to wait his turn to eat. The raptors communicate with sound and start to investigate the audience, before returning to the carcass. Suddenly the raptors are startled by something, and begin to run off. Just before exiting, the raptor who was lower on the pecking order, and hadn't been allowed to eat, sneaks back to the dead Ornithopod and grabs a chunk of meat.

Middle Cretaceous

The first flowers arrive, emerging along the edges of the arena. With them come the first pollinators, such as bees, wasps, moths and butterflies. Huxley explains that flowers evolved their bright colours and elegant petals as a means to attract these pollinators, in order to reproduce. Dinosaurs have also developed elaborate reproductive displays, as demonstrated by the enormous neck-frill and horns of Torosaurus, giving it the largest skull of any land animal. An old bull Torosaurus enters the arena, established to be the leader of a herd for many decades. A young bull arrives and challenges him for his position. After showing off to each other, the two dinosaurs fight, resulting in the old bull breaking one of his horns, surrendering his title to the young challenger. The older bull exits, and the younger male roars in victory, before depositing a pile of dung on the stage as the lights go down. Huxley explains how useful dinosaur dung is to palaeontologists, and extracts a dung beetle from the pile, another modern species that emerged in the Mesozoic.

Late Cretaceous - 65 Million Years Ago

As India piles towards Asia, the collision causes huge volcanoes begin to erupt (the deccan traps), releasing in sulphurous plumes of smoke and ash. The temperature rises, an acid rain destroys many of the more delicate plant species, which in turn triggers the extinction of some animals. The rock structures begin to release smoke, and the flowers on the edges of the arena die down. Hundreds of species of plants and animals, both on land and in the sea, are revealed to be dying out. Meanwhile, the dinosaur arms race between predator and prey has reached new heights. An Ankylosaurus enters the stage, the most armoured animal of all time, with plated eye-lids and a 70kg tail-club. The Ankylosaurus senses the Torosaurus which has remained on stage, and the two co-exist peacefully. Huxley reveals that only one dinosaur can pose a threat to the Ankylosaurus, that being Tyrannosaurus. At this point a baby Tyrannosaurus enters. The young dinosaur begins to harass the Ankylosaurus, narrowly missing being hit by its club tail on multiple occasions. He makes things worse for himself by provoking the Torosaurus as well, and ends up being cornered at the edge of the stage by the two herbivores. The young Tyrannosaurus cries out, at which point his mother enters the stage. The two herbivores move to face off against the predator, with the Ankylosaurus taking a swing at the carnivore's leg. Eventually the Ankylosaurus and then the Torosaurus leave the stage, and the mother Tyrannosaurus reunites with her baby. Huxley begins to explain that the success of some dinosaurs might have been due to parental care, at which point the mother lunges at him and roars, forcing him to run away, and hide behind one of the rock structures. After giving the dinosaurs time to roar at the audience, Huxley explains that the dinosaur's success was due to their versatility. The volcanoes begin to erupt again, creating a deadly fog of poisonous gas. A comet, 6.5 miles wide, travelling at 20 miles per second, crashes into an area of shallow sea in what will one day be the gulf of Mexico. The screen displays the blast front heading towards the dinosaurs, with the Tyrannosaurus mother and baby roaring one last time before the stage turns black, representing the dust cloud created by the impact blocking out the sun. 65% of all life goes extinct, including the giant dinosaurs.

Huxley repeats his monologue about dinosaur bones from the beginning of the show, and points out that the dinosaurs were extremely successful, ruling the earth for 170 million years. He then highlights the similarities between the Utahraptors and modern birds, with arms that fold at the wrist. He explains that birds are the direct descendants of the dinosaurs, so the dinosaurs aren't really completely gone. The screen displays a flock of flamingos and zooms out to a view of modern-day earth (a reversal of the opening to the Triassic segment).

At the end of the show Huxley takes a bow, and is joined by the baby Tyrannosaurus. As Huxley tries to leave the baby continues to show off to the audience and roar, before almost knocking Huxley over with his tail, snapping at him with his jaws, and running off.

List Of Creatures Featured

• Allosaurus
• Ankylosaurus
• Brachiosaurus adult and sub-adult
• Ornithopod carcass (possibly Iguanodon)
• Liliensternus
• Ornithocheirus
• Plateosaurus (1 adult, 3 juveniles, 2 hatchlings)
• Stegosaurus
• Two Male Torosaurus
• Tyrannosaurus rex adult and baby
• Three Utahraptors
• Unidentified sauropods seen in CG backdrop (possibly Pelorosaurus)
• Unidentified theropod seen in CG backdrop (possibly Neovenator)
• Unidentified ornithopods seen in CG backdrop (possibly Iguanodon)
• Unidentified ankylosaurs seen in CG backdrop (possibly Polacanthus)

Dinosaur size chart

Gallery

Trivia

• This is the very first Walking With... production that is not an on-screen production (e.g., a television series, a special, a movie, etc.).
• There’s a DVD that takes you behind the scenes of how the Dinosaurs of the arena spectacular AKA the live experience were brought to life.
• In some versions of the show the Stegosaurus would have plates that would glow red to represent it pumping blood into them.
• In later versions of the show the Ornithocheirus animatronic was replaced with a screen displaying an animated video of the animal instead.
• In later versions of the show the Liliensternus, Utahraptor and Tyrannosaurus were all given some feathers
• In later versions of the show there were only two Utahraptor instead of 3