Monsters
Australia’s First 
4 Billion Years 

Premieres Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 9PM/8c on NOVA/PBS

Monsters begins at the dawn of the Mesozoic Era, about 250 million years ago, just in time for the Age of Dinosaurs, Down Under. Host Richard Smith comes face to face with the previously unknown reptilian rulers of prehistoric Australia. NOVA resurrects the giants that stalked the Great Southern Land, and discovers that some of these animals were among the largest ever to have walked the Earth. Others were some of the most dangerous. In the dry desert heart, scientists unearth an ancient inland ocean, full of sea monsters. Opalised fossils of some of these beasts paint a colorful picture of the Cretaceous seascape, where long-necked plesiosaurs snacked on shelled cephalopods that grew as large as truck tires. Lord of all was the fearsome Kronosaurus, with a skull twice as long as T. rex. But reptiles didn’t have the world all to themselves. Mammals like the enigmatic platypus lived alongside them, ready for their moment in the sun. And 65 million years ago, they saw that day arrive.