“Death of a Dynasty” quotes from Walking with Dinosaurs

It is the end of the Cretaceous period and the continents are taking on their modern forms. But this ceaseless movement of the Earth's crust has also produced a surge of volcanic activity across the globe. Massive eruptions that have lasted for centuries have laid waste to landscapes and have filled the atmosphere with poisonous gases and debris. This desolate world is still ruled by dinosaurs, as it has been for 160 million years, but they are nearing the end of their reign. Life on Earth is choking to death. Yet in the last two million years, the dinosaurs' most infamous predator has appeared: Tyrannosaurus, a five-tonne 13 metre long carnivore, specifically evolved to kill other giant dinosaurs.

There are still islands of greenery between the barren lava flows. In the warm moist climate of the late Cretaceous period, the vegetation has transformed.

Millions of years of evolution has also created intimate relationships among different types of dinosaurs. Especially the delicate balance between predator... and prey.

[about the Ankylosaurus] But sadly, not even these magnificent creatures have any defence against the natural forces that are suffocating their world.

Soon the age of the mammals will dawn, and they will grow to massive sizes. But at ten kilograms, this is about as big as Cretaceous mammals can get.

Many dinosaur embryos are not surviving in this volcanic environment, because acidic pollution is preventing their egg shells from forming properly.

During their long reign, the dinosaurs have adapted to many huge changes. But now they are facing a combination of events that will spell their doom.

Finally a rain of molten rocks starts to fall out of the darkening sky. This is the end of the age of the dinosaurs. The comet struck the Gulf of Mexico with the force of 10 billion Hiroshima bombs. In the catastrophic climate changes that followed, 65% of life died out. It took millions of years for Earth to recover, and when it did, the giant dinosaurs were gone, never to return.

In their place have emerged other powerful and beautiful creatures. And we now know that one small group of dinosaurs did survive the extinction, and they are all around us today: the birds.