Prehistoric Park -The Bug House

Meganeura (The Giant Dragonfly)

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the fifth exciting episode of Prehistoric Park, featuring British wildlife presenter Nigel Marven, throwing himself into the ultimate challenge: going back in time to rescue prehistoric animals from extinction and bringing them back to the ultimate wildlife sanctuary.

In this instalment of Prehistoric Park Nigel goes back some of the largest insects that ever infested the Earth such as - the Giant Dragonfly and the Giant Scorpion.

Isle of Arran in Scotland, 300 million years ago, Carboniferous.

Genera encountered: Meganeura (identified as Giant Dragonfly) Arthropleura Pulmonoscorpius (identified as Giant Scorpion) Crassigyrinus.

Arthropleura Pulmonoscorpius (The Giant Scorpion)

In the park, Bob puts the two imprinted baby Ornithomimus in an enclosure with the other baby Ornithomimus and tells them to stay there, one nips his leg. The Smilodon are in adjacent enclosures. The male wants the female, but the more mature female is not interested, either ignoring him or acting aggressively towards him.

Nigel goes to modern Arran (in a large RIB with an A-frame and a steering wheel), and sees a fossil Arthropleura track in rock. He talks about what Arran was 300,000,000 years ago.

He goes back to the park to serious trouble among the Tyrannosaurus: Matilda has broken into Terence’s enclosure: Terence has refused to allow his sister to intrude on his territory and a fight has broken out, in which Matilda is gaining the upper hand, soon knocking him down. Terence has been badly wounded on the face and is losing blood. Bob has drug-darted Matilda, but these drugs take time to act on reptiles. When Terence is badly injured by his sister, Nigel arrives in a roofed jeep and encourages her to chase his jeep. When he comes to dense woodland, he can drive no further and climbs a tree. Matilda pulls the cloth cover off the top of the jeep, and then collapses due to the tranquilliser.

The injured Terence is in good hands, so Nigel, with assistants, drives in the jeep through the time portal to Upper Carboniferous Arran, where the land is covered with coal forest. He had aimed at an island of dry land, but drives out of the Time Portal’s field into a swamp over his jeep’s axles. The jeep’s engine gets wet and stops and will not start. The forest is very quiet, as there is no bird song or tree-frog noise, only wind and insects. A Meganeura flies over.

Prehistoric Park with Nigel Marven is available as a DVD set from Amazon.com.

Prehistoric Park - The Bug House 

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