The Lost Dinosaurs of New Zealand review

When you mention dinosaurs and New Zealand, what's the first thing that comes to mind that combines both? Some would say director Peter Jackson and the criminally underrated beasts of his King Kong movie. Others would think of the so-called living fossils of the archipelago from plants to the Tuatara. Still others think of the avian kind of dinosaur from the Cenozoic and by extension the Maori people's time, from the iconic Kiwi to the extinct Moas and the Poukai Eagle. While al of those are valid to think, not many would associate New Zealand with the non-avian dinosaurs, since there aren't really that many fossil sites in the country preserving them.

That brings us to this documentary, The Lost Dinosaurs of New Zealand from 2002. This Discovery Channel documentary chronicles one of the few major mesozoic fossil sites and the only only one preserving non-avian dinosaurs in the country however fragmentary they are, the people who discovered it, and the implications it bares for dinosaurs, like if they may have even survived extinction in polar regions and how the K-Pg extinction affected things globbaly even halfway around the world.

The documentary's first part introducing our main focus, Joan Wiffen, and how she and her husband first discovered dinosaurs in their fossil hunting hobby decades ago. In the mountains of North Island in what's called the Te Hoe valley and the Mangahouanga Stream (pronounced Manga-Who-Unga as its Maori), she and a crew of others break open and saw rocks before bringing the fossils inside back home to prepare, while telling us about her history. All the while, we see glimpses of animation of prehistoric New Zealand's marine reptiles and pterosaurs (including the mosasaur Prognathodon as identified in notes) and Denver's Kenneth Carpenter.

The next part generally bounces around various subjects, all tied around how New Zealand's dinosaurs would have survived at low latitudes through warmblooded. For instance, Joan Wiffen's theropod, here referred to as a Megalosaur, is used to discuss speed. A small onithopod also found is used in explaining nesting from Jack Horner (who met Wiffen and praises her for her work). We go across the Tasman Sea to Dinosaur Cove in Australia discuss polar capabilities of the dinosaurs.

The final parts of the documentary explore the possibility that New Zealand's dinosaurs may have had the adaptations to survive the infamous extinction. After a brief explaination of extinctions within deep time, its explained that since New Zealand has halfway around the world and thus not as directly impacted, its vital to understand the real culprit. Swedish female scientist Vivi Vadja is shown investigating pollen samples to study, and determines from how none appear above the boundary but ferns, showing how worldwide the effects were, where a mix of wildfires and starvation were a likely culprit.

The wrap-up for the special is of Joan teaching kids as the narrator waxes about how she's an inspiration for her work and the need to study fossils.

So, how does it hold up? What's to like about it?

I love the show's use of 2D animation, where it's in the style of field journal entries Wiffen made, a novel idea. The dinosaurs in them are also quite expressive and cartoonish, which makes them rather memorable and fun to look at. Besides, traditional animation is quite rare in palaeo-documentaries, and I can only named a handful that use it*, so its always great to see such art, helping to make the documentary stand out.

* If you want to know, they include PBS' 1992 four-parter The Dinosaurs and 2018's Dinosaur Cold Case.

However, it otherwise uses computer graphic animation for the majority of sequences, and they are... not good to say the least. Not only are many of the movements lacking heft and weight, they look....well just look at them.

The theropod looks like a crappy cartoon or model, while the hypsilophodonts look downright alien, or even like Russell's 80's troodon as an ornithopod; both have weird pseudo-upright stances. The Prognathodon, plesiosaur, and pterosaur (pictured further above) are also pretty substandard. The sauropods and nodosaur fair somewhat better in that they resemble the real thing (and I like the colour patterns of the titanosaurs, might I add), but not by much.

On a more positive note, I like the documentary reiterates constantly dinosaurs were warm-blooded and could handle cold temperatures well, even explaining evidence for it. It may seem trivial to say, but I've seen my fair share of morons who thought the Jurassic World: Dominion trailer was wrong to have dinosaurs in snow, so there is the need to demonstrate how.

There is also the matter of how New Zealand even was during the Mesozoic. While in the documentary its suggested to be the small sliver landmass it is today, when even as far back as 1995, geological evidence states for much of the era and even well into the Cenozoic up as 23 mya it was a massive continent called either Te Riu-a-Māui or Zealandia. The large size of it meant that many of the dinosaurs were likely not migrating because they were heading up north.

A good chunk of the taxonomy is also a bit outdated. The theropod and ornithopods are respectively referred to as a megalosaur and hypsilophodont as Joan did, which are insinuated to be living fossils that evolved in isolation while they went extinct elsewhere. Today, increased understanding would put them in different clades: while what I'm saying is speculative, its more likely Wiffen's theropod represents a megaraptoran, which are still being debated just what exactly are but are known from throughout the southern hemisphere, while the hypsilophodonts are most likely from a group called Elasmarians. Bit pedantic, but just want to point it out.

If there are any other accuracy problems in it, let me know, because I can't tell any at the moment (not necessarily a good or bad thing for it).

Plotwise, I do feel Lost Dinosaurs loses my interest as it goes on, especially by the second half. Maybe its that the novelty wears off for me personally, or that the last bit focuses on the extinction, which I admit is not one of my interests.

On the other hand, one could like how it uses a fairly one-note topic and squeezes as much as you can out of it, like endothermy and biogeography of the continents Gondwana formed.

The music and theme by Peter Blake are also to my liking. The main theme feels at times like a tribal and tango mix.

Personally, I'd add a focus more on some other topics to replace the trite extinction part. Perhaps further dinosaur finds in New Zealand, both a compsognathid found on the other side of North Island (Molar et al 1998), and those found on the Chatham Islands. At the same time, also draw attention to New Zealand's own endemic fauna, like the tuatara (brought up at the start) and its own extinct birds, or even Maori people in. But that's just throwing ideas around.

• Accuracy - 5/10
• Aging - 6/10
• Presentation - 6/10
• Visuals - 5/10
• Music - 5/10
• Storytelling - 7/10
• Rewatchability - 5/10

I give credit to The Lost Dinosaurs of New Zealand for its unique subject matter and the vignette animations, but its let down by a bland directing and script and some mediocre visuals on notable for all the wrong reasons. Its one of those documentaries that's mostly to watch either for the subject, mockery of the visuals, a few moments of actual note, or just completionism for palaeo-fans.

Goodbye for now! Next time we blast back to the 90's once more when the House of Ideas takes a detour from superheroes to tackle the Mesozoic - inconsistently.

Sources, References, and Further Reading

• Molar, Wiffen, and Hayes (1998).  "A probable theropod bone from the latest Jurassic of New Zealand." New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 41:145-148
• Yarwood, Vaughn (September 1993). "The Hunt for New Zealand's Dinosaurs". New Zealand Geographic.