How ‘Prehistoric Planet’ Used Chickens to Fabricate the Sound of Dinosaurs Mating
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Prehistoric Planet” is back on Apple TV+ with over two dozen new extinct species to explore. Given the amount of dinosaurs and birds, the biggest challenge for supervising sound editor Jonny Crew was “capturing those prehistoric sounds.” Without a library of extinct sounds to pull from, Crew, who also worked on the first season, says the trickiest task was distinguishing the sounds of different birds.
That’s where chickens helped crack an important moment in the show’s first episode, titled “Islands,” in which audiences are exposed to the behavior of the Hatzegopteryx, a stork-like reptile.
A key scene focused on two dinosaurs mating. “Whether you’re in a rainforest or swamp, the birds are going to sound different, but at that time birds hadn’t properly evolved,” Crew tells Variety.
The challenge was capturing the sound of “massive, ferocious creatures having this tender moment together.” Crew says, “Paleontologist Darren Naish suggested that the sound of a chicken purring could be used as a starting point.
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