The music produced for Apple TV's "Prehistoric Planet" was created in part with custom instruments made from actual fossils and replicas of skulls.
Apple's streaming service is home to a variety of original content, including the natural history series "Prehistoric Planet," which focuses on ancient wildlife. The show premiered back in 2022, while its latest season, dubbed "Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age," debuted in November 2025.
Through traditional filmmaking techniques coupled with digital technology, the show brings the inhabitants of ancient Earth to screens across the world. Its soundtrack is another key component, as purpose-made instruments are used to emulate the sounds of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals.
As Variety points out, the show's composers made instruments from fossils, bones, and dinosaur skull replicas, which were used alongside orchestral arrangements. Hans Zimmer, a renowned composer, collaborated with Anze Rozman and Kara Talve on the "Prehistoric Planet" soundtrack.
For "Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age," the composers wanted to create a score that conveys the arrival of humans with a sense of familiarity. Rozman described the season's soundtrack as being "slightly off, but it's much more emotional" than that of the second season of "Prehistoric Planet."
To illustrate the size and scale of large animals, like a woolly mammoth, Rozman says they used "a wall of cellos in a semicircle and double basses." Additionally, the team "recorded an octobass, which is a huge double bass," according to Rozman.
"That gave us the rumbly, low feeling for the mammoths," he continued. To create the sounds of the terror bird, or phorusrhacid, they made an instrument dubbed the Triceratone. It features a replica of the larynx of an extinct terror bird, which helps create the necessary guttural sound.
Music in "Prehistoric Planet" also uses sounds from a replica of the Divje Babe flute, which is believed to be a Paleolithic instrument made from a bear femur. The original was discovered in Slovenia in 1995.
Rozman says the composers "went into the caverns of the Postojna Cave and recorded it." The replica flute produces "a very eerie sound that immediately transports the listener back in time," Rozman explains.
Possibly in part due to its unique score, "Prehistoric Planet" has achieved a 91% score on the review website Rotten Tomatoes.
The series has also been honored by the Annie Awards, Cinema Eye Honors Awards, Hollywood Music in Media Awards, Television Critics Association Awards, and Visual Effects Society Awards.
Its third season was made available on the Apple TV streaming service in November 2025, joining the prior two seasons, while a fourth season has yet to be announced. "Prehistoric Planet" short films for the Apple Vision Pro are available as well.
