In the season of Santa and weather so bleak,
Three natural history nerds take a peek
At young ancient mammals, so fluffy and twee
As seen on the new show on Apple TV.
In landscapes so snowy and icy and barren
They go on adventures, instructed by Darren.
Some get dehydrated and some weather-beaten,
Alas, all too few of the babies get eaten.
Is the show a success, or is it too hokey?
Did the BBC trade in old David for Loki?
How did we enjoy all the epic CG?
Now listen to Gemma and Marc and Natee…
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age
Prehistoric Planet is a nature documentary television series about prehistoric animals that premiered on Apple TV+. On July 29, 2025, a third season was announced, titled Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age. This series focuses on Pleistocene megafauna. Unlike previous seasons, it is narrated by Tom Hiddleston with computer-generated imagery handled by Framestore.
Thank you for listening to the podcast! Our music was generously provided by Rohan Long. You can purchase his music at Bandcamp, and follow him at Twitter.
By becoming a patron on Patreon, you can help us continue creating podcasts and writing this blog. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. See you next time!
5 Comments
albertonykus
December 31, 2025 at 10:19 pmGood discussion as always! Mammals aren’t exactly my area either, but I may be able to offer a few items of note:
1. Yes, the tooth eruption pattern in Smilodon was based on known fossils!
2. There are indeed multiple lines of evidence suggesting that Procoptodon and other large sthenurine kangaroos probably did not hop. Instead of having evolved from non-hopping ancestors, it is thought that they lost the ability, facilitating their increase in body size.
3. The specifics of moa courtship (which are closer to my remit) were to my knowledge speculative, but there are reasons to think that their dramatic sexual size dimorphism had reproductive advantages (and may have therefore been selected for by potential partners). In most extant paleognaths, the male is responsible for incubating the eggs as shown in the series, which favors smaller male body size to reduce the risk of crushing the eggs during incubation.
4. It’s funny that you joked about the nutritional requirements of growing antlers in Megaloceros being a contributor to their extinction, because that’s an actual hypothesis that has been proposed before in scientific literature (though my understanding is that it is not currently well supported).
Gemma Hazeborg
January 1, 2026 at 10:01 amThanks for the followup Albert! We’ll probably read this out in the next episode!
bika
January 2, 2026 at 10:30 pmI’m glad to see you guys mostly felt the same about Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age as I did. I liked it a lot and thought it was absolutely beautiful, no complaints there, but I was also bothered by the lack of scientific names and locations, and near the end I do confess I was actively rooting for some baby animals to get eaten. I do think that it came off a little worse for me because I had just rewatched Walking With Beasts beforehand, and I felt that aside from the graphics and some scientific accuracy issues, WWB came off as the stronger show. It’s just a little weird how the show more than 20 years later feels a bit like a step backward? WWB wasn’t afraid to showcase violence happening to baby animals or downer endings, and I think I also read somewhere that PPIA (can we call it that? It looks a bit like an acronym for a technical medical term or something lol) chose not to touch on hominid evolution to avoid controversy, which was strange to me because WWB had no problem depicting human ancestors? They’re both British productions, and I thought creationists aren’t much of a political force over there; I wonder if it’s because Apple TV is an American streaming service?
I am complaining a lot but I didn’t hate it; the Australia episode was my favorite too because I don’t think I’ve ever seen those animals depicted in a documentary before. It legit gave me chills to see Thylacoleo and co brought to life. And the moas, I loved everything about the moas! I also enjoyed that behind the scenes segment showing all the Pleistocene animals in the modern day, even if there was no particular reason for it all and the animators were just having fun lmao. I think most of my issues are more a sense of missed opportunities; the show is good, but I think if it had been willing to take just a few more risks, it would have been great. At any rate, I hope it does well enough that we get future seasons of Prehistoric Planet, because there’s so much I want to see! I wonder if we’ll get a second surprise Ice Age season just like the second Maastrichtian season, but I wouldn’t mind if the next series went back to a different Mesozoic time period, and by that I mean it’s high time they gave us Prehistoric Planet: Jurassic World! I need to see the Morrison rendered in glorious high-definition CG!
I also find it a bit strange that Darren thinks a Paleozoic show is completely off the table, considering that Walking With Monsters exists? And I don’t think did that badly, since they kept making Walking With media after it. But I guess he’s more privy into the thinking of TV executives than I am.
Grant Harding
January 4, 2026 at 12:22 amA few years back, I turned Darren’s “last of his kind” rant into a video:
https://youtu.be/V8d2_m5yuu8?si=UyUNr3ir8fXYAVbT
Paula
January 5, 2026 at 8:47 amGreat exploration of this series – I really enjoyed it too. Also an Austin and Marillion fan – saw them lots in the 80s/early 90s, the first time at The Garden Party at Milton Keynes bowl in ‘86.
Just one quick comment. The sound mix wasn’t great for listening on the car stereo over motorway noise. Some voices were louder than others so we either had one of you too loud or one of the others to quiet. Could have been a factor of the stereo though.