Prehistory told through animals facing catastrophe
Surviving Earth reconstructs lost environments through the animals that inhabited them. Its eight-part journey ranges across catastrophic changes in climate, oceans and land, following creatures struggling to survive within those changing worlds. CGI and animatronics create the prehistoric sequences; these are reconstructions informed by scientific consultation rather than wildlife footage from the past.
Sky's programme guide describes consultation with more than 300 scientists. The stories include the Late Permian crisis, the climatic upheavals of the Triassic and the asteroid impact associated with the end-Cretaceous extinction. Each chapter gives a large environmental transformation the scale of an animal's immediate needs: food, shelter, reproduction and protection.
