The Fauna of Skull Island: Dinosaurs

This video covers a majority of the dinosaurs from Skull Island (2005). Come learn about their behaviors, diversity, and terror!

All uncredited art in the video belongs to Weta Workshop, and was made by artists like Greg Broadmore and Christian Pierce.

Make sure to watch out for other videos, discussing the Reptiles, Mammals (and mammal relatives), Arthropods, and more from Peter Jackson's Skull Island!

[Mudnag]

Peter Jackson’s Skull Island is, genuinely, among the very best world-buildings there are. It’s a real shame that there wasn’t even more media exploring it. Although the game was absolutely incredible, and delved deeper into the island’s lore.
Just take a look at how they detailed every single animal, from their behavior to their appearance. It’s mesmerizing. It deserved much much more.
Thank you for the amazing video.

[alexkogan]

I love how Peter Jackson took the basic framework of the original King Kong and fleshed it out even more. I wore out my copy of World of Kong from reading it I loved that book so much. Kudos to Weta for how they managed to make Skull Island almost seem like a real place with real, monstrous animals lost in time.

[rivera]

One of the things that I like most about the dinosaurs of Skull Island is just the amount of imagination it took to make these dinosaurs. Usually most people would have just used the usual stock dinosaurs, maybe a couple of different dinos here and there to say they tried. Peter Jackson and team actually went out of their way to create their own dinosaurs, base them off of their actual ancestors as well as guess how and what they would be like today. It's absolutely fascinating, and I don't think people give the movie and especially the team enough credit. I think Jackson or someone on the team admitted in an interview they wanted to think how dinosaurs would be like if given a chance to evolve without turning them into dinosauroids. How would they have adapted in an ever changing world. At the same time, they also admitted, and I think it was Jackson who said this, they wanted the dinosaurs to go by 1930's science logic. So it's a fascinating combination of realism and fantasy, it's why some of the dinosaurs make absolute sense while other dinosaurs look like an updated take on Willis H. O' Brien's designs. It is a shame no one else has done the same in any other media.

[gunmankhan]

Imagine a movie where they just explored the island and studied all the fauna

[booboo]

I'm lucky enough to have owned 2 copies of this book in my life, and it's a real treasure. My absolute favorite "prehistoric" animals are in it. It's so fascinating.

[vyktorehon]

I like that these animals aren't as large as the monster verse ones, it feels more grounded

[mhdfrb]

Probably the best King Kong movie ever made. Truly the magic of Peter Jackson

[Joshtubeofficial]

This is why I like this version of skull island. Monsterverse version is less dangerous and have less creatures

[saiprimal]

I always loved the amount of effort put into the lore and ecology of skull island in Peter Jackson's King Kong, always felt like an actual ecosystem.

[josepheasler]

Videos like this really make me wish there was a high budget "walking with dinosaurs" like show but instead of diving into the history and traits of actual animals that lived, it would go in depth of all types of movie animals and different types of creatures from video games. Imagine all of this but in a highly realistic cgi show that goes so in depth like walking with dinosaurs did.

[chaseredmoon]

I stumbled across your content by accident and was instantly hooked. I love dinosaurs

[dynamo_tyranno]

I really like this version of Skull Island and an excellent example of world building and speculative evolution done right. Here’s some reasons why:

•The explanation that Skull Island was created by the separation of Gondwana helps ground it in reality. It is a hypothetical outcome of historical geologic events.

•The creators went out of their way to design the flora and fauna to be unique and fantastical but still grounded in reality and biology. Each creature has a clear ecological niche for the island’s ecosystem after millions of years of evolution and adaptation. I like the aesthetic combination of modern dinosaur interpretation with the vintage interpretation of dinosaurs from the turn of the century. It makes them look cool.

•The explanation of Skull Island sinking is a bit fantastical but adds to the mystery of the island and allows the viewer to speculate what else was on the island and what the crew didn’t see.

•The 2005 version of King Kong is a pretty long movie (even without the deleted scenes), it is full of creative creature design and world building. I can forgive the run time because I’m enthralled by how it builds and establishes the setting. Skull Island is the most dangerous place on earth and is an evolutionary battle ground.

[terrorbird]

the world that Peter Jackson made is not only beautiful and absolutely breath-taking, but it's also inspiring. this (along with Primeval, Dougal Dixons After Man series and The Future Is Wild) inspired me to create my own spec evo project and probably inspired others to do the same. I'm glad you covered this book :)

[smitabhmoitra]

Quick correction. If we upscale from the real Brontosaurus to the Peter Jackson version, we multiply the length by 1.5 or so. Because of the square-cube law, Brontosaurus would be approximately 3.38 times heavier than the real Brontosaurus, making it closer to 70 tonnes than 30 tonnes.

Otherwise, another banger from our resident dinosaur boi.

[richmondlandersenfells]

So lucky to have watched the film in cinemas back in 2005! I still love it to this day and am hoping to get my hands on the natural history of skull island despite of its rarity and expensive price.

[indoggedon-]

The amount of work they put into this!!
Only 4 of these dinosaurs appear in the movie and yet they kept going and developed an entire ecosystem that we wish we could see in all of its cruel glory

[LowellLucasJr.]

Probably the best highlight of PJ's Kong was Skull Island! Loved the diversity of its fauna and the nods to unused material from the original film! Absolutely love any coverage on the topic and sad the new films weren't nearly as diverse as this!

[Bagelgeuse]

Easily my favorite version of King Kong. The Monsterverse version is cool, but Peter Jackson's Skull Island feels like a real ecosystem.

Btw, is it just me, or did Wetta Workshop predict Austroraptor TWICE? Both Peracerdon and Ambulaquasaurus are fish eating theropods with long snouts and conical teeth, just like Austroraptor.

[anthonyfanchin]

Moral of this video, Peter Jackson is a genius.

[victorribeiro]

I would love to see a sequel of this version of King Kong, something like ''Peter Jackson's Skull Island'', where, after the masses wen't crazy with the existence and death of Kong, others raced back to Skull Island to bring back something else that would make them rich, going back to human greed like Carl had with his ego. You could even bring back Carl as the returning character since he is one of the few who knows the island and would probably go back there, giving us more of these unique creatures and a more ''human vs nature'' aprouch since Kong isn't the focus anymore.