When Dinosaurs Roamed America

When Dinosaurs Roamed America
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	2
Production
Running time	91 minutes
Release
Original network	Discovery Channel
Original release	2001

When Dinosaurs Roamed America (shortened to When Dinosaurs Roamed outside of the U.S.) is a two-hour American television program (produced in the style of a traditional nature documentary) that first aired on Discovery Channel in 2001.

It was directed by Pierre de Lespinois and narrated by actor John Goodman. The featured dinosaurs were designed by Paleo-artist and art director Mark Dubeau, noted for creating dinosaurs for many other Discovery Channel and National Geographic specials. The dinosaur animation was accomplished by animator Don Waller at Meteor Studios, in Montreal, Canada. The music was composed by Christopher Franke (ex-member from Tangerine Dream).

When Dinosaurs Roamed America premiered to 5 million viewers.

The program starts in the Late Triassic, near modern-day New York City in the Newark Supergroup. The narrator explains how the Permian mass extinction led to new forms of life, including, eventually, the most extraordinary creatures ever to walk the planet, the dinosaurs. The camera tracks a Coelophysis through the woods. The program depicts Coelophysis as preying mainly on small animals, such as insects and Icarosaurus. It encounters other, larger non-dinosaurian archosaurs such as Rutiodon and Desmatosuchus. The quick Coelophysis is portrayed as a very successful inhabitant of this world.

The program moves on to the Early Jurassic of Pennsylvania, showing a pack of Syntarsus. These dinosaurs, closely related to Coelophysis, are hunting the primitive herbivorous dinosaur Anchisaurus, only to be driven away by a Dilophosaurus, which kills the Anchisaurus to feed its young. The narrator then explains Syntarsus and Dilophosaurus will become the gigantic carnivores such as Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, while Anchisaurus will become the sauropods.

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