Last Day of the Dinosaurs

***Last Day of the Dinosaurs*** is a television documentary about the extinction of the dinosaurs, portraying the Alvarez hypothesis as the cause for extinction. It was narrated by Bill Mondy and premiered on the Discovery Channel on August 28, 2010.

## Summary

It is the end of the Cretaceous period. In a valley in the Pacific Northwest, a Quetzalcoatlus soaring during a rainstorm spots an unguarded nest of Tyrannosaurus eggs and begins feeding on the hatchlings. This alerts the father of the nest, who proceeds to attack and corner the pterosaur, who barely manages to escape. Only one hatchling has survived. In the forest, a pair of Triceratops battle for the right to mate. The commotion draws the attention of two T. rex, who work together in bringing down the loser. In Mongolia, a herd of Charonosaurus nests near an oasis. A Saurornithoides appears and steals an egg from one of the nests, prompting the mother to defensively pursue it into a cave, where she herself is killed and eaten by the raptor and its companion.

In Mexico, a herd of Alamosaurus is roaming the plains in search of food, and a female finishes laying her eggs just as an asteroid strikes Earth. The impact creates an explosion that sends debris flying and heating the air temperature. Many of the Alamosaurus are killed, with some burning alive and others crushed by falling debris, and the rest are finished off by a blast wave. Most of the eggs are destroyed as well, though some do survive. In the Pacific Northwest, a mated pair of Quetzalcoatlus are forced to fly from their nest in order to escape the debris. The male is killed, while the female is only injured and forced to continue on.

In Mongolia, forty-five minutes after the impact, the ejecta cloud rolls in and increases the temperature to 300°, forcing the Charonosaurus to Saurornithoides to shelter together in the cave. After five hours, the temperature returns to normal and the Saurornithoides resume their kill while two of the Charonosaurus return to the oasis, where they are suffocated by a storm. The Saurornithoides survive by hiding their prey, while the third Charonosaurus remains in the cave, though it too returns to the oasis. As the day passes, the Saurornithoides also return to the watering hole, desperately hungry but too weak from their ordeal. One of them recklessly attacks the Charonosaurus, which collapses on and kills it, and the remaining Saurornithoides resorts to cannibalizing its companion's corpse.

Four days after impact, food is in short supply. In the Pacific Northwest, four Triceratops cross a land bridge formed by receding water to reach an island untouched by the firestorm, with three reaching the island. The female Quetzalcoatlus lands to feed on a stranded fish, just as the water builds to form a tsunami. The pterosaur attempts to take off and flee but is caught and drowns along with the Triceratops. Ten days after impact, only a few dinosaurs remain. In Mongolia, the last remaining Charonosaurus stays close to the hole, but collapses and dies from inhaling gas that rose up from the hole. The remaining Saurornithoides runs to feed on the corpse, but it too is killed by the toxic gas.

In the Pacific Northwest, a small number of dinosaurs patrol the wasteland. A starving Ankylosaurus faces off with a Triceratops over a small bush, when a Tyrannosaurus arrives to attack. The Tyrannosaurus loses an eye to the Triceratops, which it kills with a bite to the neck and then, after being struck it in the leg, turns its attention to the Ankylosaurus, flips it over and bites its throat. It then turns to feed on the Triceratops, but then trips on the Ankylosaurus' tail and is impaled through the neck on the Triceratops' horn. In the end, a baby Alamosaurus emerges from an egg that was sheltered in the ground. It is revealed that several other small animals, including the mammal Mesodma, survived by hiding underground. After four months, the Sun reaches Earth, allowing plants to grow and small animals to repopulate. The mammals in particular multiply and diversify into several species over the next several million years, until eventually one evolves to become the most dominant species on the planet: Man.

## Production

The dinosaur models in the film were reused from the series *Clash of the Dinosaurs*. While the Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, and Quetzalcoatlus were reused for their respective counterparts as before, the Parasaurolophus, Deinonychus, and Sauroposeidon were used for different species. The Parasaurolophus model was used for Charonosaurus, even though the latter had shorter front legs; the Deinonychus model was used for Saurornithoides, which was slenderer by comparison; and the Sauroposeidon model was used for Alamosaurus, even though the latter had different proportions. Additionally, the models were used in different backdrops most of the time compared to *Clash of the Dinosaurs*.

## Home media

Main article: *Last Day of the Dinosaurs (Home video)*