If you are looking for some documentaries to watch with your kids, why not try one from our list of 6 best dinosaur documentaries on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and YouTube? Everyone likes dinosaurs, so the whole family can enjoy and learn new interesting things about these magnificent creatures.
Long before we humans called Earth our home, our planet was home to dinosaurs. Although the dinosaurs inhabited the Earth 65 million years ago, we are still puzzled by them. As technology advances, we are figuring out more things about them now than ever before. One thing still remains a mystery, though, and that’s the question of how dinosaurs went extinct. There are many theories about the cause of dinosaur extinction, the leading one being that a giant meteorite crashed into Earth, causing enormous amounts of dust to rise and block the sunlight. The plants died out, leading to starvation of plant-eating dinosaurs. Without them, there was no food for carnivore dinosaurs. Although lots of scientists support this theory, to this date paleontologists didn’t recover fossils dating from the time period of a meteor impact. Because of this, there is a belief that dinosaurs may have been already extinct before the meteor struck. Other theories include that dinosaurs died because of deadly gasses from volcanic eruptions and unknown diseases. If you are into science, you may want to check out our list of 11 Best Science Documentaries on Netflix Streaming.
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Because they are surrounded by such a mystery, dinosaurs were always a hot topic in popular culture including books, cartoons, and movies. You just need to look at the success of Jurassic World and you’ll see that people are still interested in them. The only downside of movies is that they often don’t depict dinosaurs as they were and play with facts. For example, if you would believe movies, every dinosaur was large and mean, but the truth is that many of them were the size of a chicken. This is where documentaries come in handy. If you want to watch a film about dinosaurs and get the opportunity to learn something new, you will watch a documentary. This is why we created our list of 6 best dinosaur documentaries on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Youtube.
To compile our list, we took recommendations about best dinosaurs documentaries from I Know Dino, Scified, and Quora among others. We then checked the documentaries to see if they are available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or Youtube. Those that were available on any of these platforms were ranked based on their IMBd rating. Let’s look at the best ones.
6. Dinosaur 13
Rating: 7.2
Available On: Netflix, Amazon Prime
This documentary, next on our list of best dinosaur documentaries on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and YouTube follows the story of Sue Hendrickson, a renowned paleontologist from the United States who discovered the first complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found. After the discovery, the fossil was seized and a 10 year long legal battle for the ownership followed.
5. Last Day of the Dinosaur
Rating: 7.4
Available On: YouTube
We already mentioned in the intro that most scientists lean towards the theory that dinosaurs were extinct due to massive meteor impact on Earth. This documentary builds on that theory and tries to explain the unfortunate events that caused their disappearance.
4. Dinosaur Planet
Rating: 7.7
Available On: Amazon Prime, Netflix (DVD)
This animated documentary series, that is one of the best dinosaur documentaries on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and YouTube is narrated by Christian Slater and features stories from 4 dinosaurs, each of them on a different continent. You will have an opportunity to see Velociraptor from Mongolia, Pyroraptor from south Europe, Troodon from Montana in addition to Saltasaurus and Aucasaurus from Patagonia. Dinosaur Planet also features paleontologist Scott Sampson, who has a role in explaining the science behind the stories.
3. Chased by Dinosaurs
Rating: 7.8
Available On: Amazon Prime
We are continuing our list of best dinosaur documentaries on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and YouTube with chased by Dinosaurs could be described as the mix of fiction and documentary. Nigel Marven, the famous British wildlife presenter, takes the role of a time traveler who goes back in time to witness the creatures that roamed the Earth from 250 to 65 million years ago.
2. Planet Dinosaurs
Rating: 8.2
Available On: YouTube, Amazon Prime, Netflix (DVD)
This is one of the most recent and most extensive documentary series you will have a chance to encounter. Created in 2011 by BBC, it features a stunning number of 50 different prehistoric species. The plot of the series is mostly based on the recent discoveries about the dinosaurs.
1. Walking With Dinosaurs
Rating: 8.6
Available On: YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu
Our list of 6 best dinosaur documentaries on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Youtube ends with another BBC documentary. The best thing is that you can watch it anywhere you want. It was made in 1999 and according to the Guinness Book of World Records, this was the most expensive series per minute in a documentary genre that was ever created. It was money well spent since the series became a huge hit and even collected few Emmy and BAFTA awards. Walking with Dinosaurs gives a great insight into the life of dinosaurs and the things they have witnessed.
