Synopsis
Late Triassic Segment (220 Million Years Ago):
The program starts in the Late Triassic, near modern-day New York City. The narrator explains how the Permian mass extinction led to new forms of life, including, eventually, the dinosaurs. The camera tracks a Coelophysis through the woods. The program decipts Coelophysis as preying mainly on small animals, such as insects and Icarosaurus. It encounters other, larger non-dinosaurs such as Rutiodon, Traversodon, and Desmatosuchus. Nevertheless, the quick Coelophysis is a very successful inhabitant of this world.
Early Jurassic Segment (190 Million Years Ago):
The program moves on to the Early Jurassic of Pennsylvania, showing a pack of Syntarsus. These dinosaurs, closely related to Coelophysis, are hunting for the primitive herbivorous dinosaur Anchisaurus, only to be driven away by a Dilophosaurus, which kills and eats the Anchisaurus.
Late Jurassic Segment (150 Million Years Ago):
The show skips to the Late Jurassic, where a pterosaur soars while a Ceratosaurus chases a Dryosaurus and its two young. The Ceratosaurus catches one of the juveniles, while the other Dryosaurus escape to the cover of a herd of Camarasaurus, feeding on the sauropods\' conifer tree scraps that fall to the ground. The Ceratosaurus disturbs a Stegosaurus and gets whipped by its tail. Two Stegosaurus eventually mate. As the rainy season comes, a herd of Apatosaurus arrive, followed by a hungry Allosaurus. The Allosaurus cannot get past the Apatosaurus\'s whipping tails, but it manages to catch and eat the Ceratosaurus, still pursuing the Dryosaurus. Later, as the Apatosaurus leave the area, one Apatosaurus stumbles. Disabled, it is an easy meal for a small group of Allosaurus.
