SHOWS FOR YOUNGSTERS AND THEIR PARENTS TOO : ‘PaleoWorld’ explores the past to better understand the present

What? “Jurassic Park,” which roared into theaters with a vengeance last year and fanned even more interest in dinosaurs, “ain’t the way it really was”?

So says “Dino” Don Lessem, a dinosaur expert who was a consultant on the Steven Spielberg blockbuster and is now working on PaleoWorld, premiering this week on The Learning Channel.

“ ‘Jurrasic Park’ was fascinating and terrifying, but the dinosaurs weren’t as fast as cheetahs, as smart as chimpanzees, and they certainly couldn’t open doorknobs,” Lessum, an animal behavior specialist, points out from his home in Chicago.

“PaleoWorld” hopes to shed light on the evolution of creatures great and small, including humans and dinosaurs. It also tries to solve that age-old riddle of why the dinosaurs died off. (“There are multiple causes,” Lessum explains. “We don’t look for any one.”)

“We live so much in the present,” says the series’ producer, Tom Naughton, from his Boston studios. “Life has evolved for hundreds and millions of years. How we became inheritors of this planet, how we came to control it, is an amazing story. In paleontology and ‘PaleoWorld,’ we’re telling that story a little bit each week.”

There are many unanswered questions, Naughton says. “I think we’re exploring the past to appreciate the present. It gives you a real sense of depth and perspective so the general public can get a handle on the subject.”

Lessum says each show tells a “scientific detective story, asking a question and answering it in a confined space, while illustrating it with the latest discoveries in the field.”

For example, T Rex didn’t stand tall; he stood horizontally, like a teeter-totter, with its head down and tail up. But why is Rex usually shown standing up? Lessum explains: “The first scientists who put Rex together (skeleton) couldn’t figure out a way to prop the animal up for display purposes. So they added 12 feet of fake tail and made him stand like a rearing horse!”

Other facts the show reveals:

--Dinosaurs have been found in 35 of the 50 states.

--No one really knows what color dinos were. They could’ve been brightly colored like birds, which some scientists think may have evolved from dinsoaurs. Or they may have been drably coated like elephants and other big land animals.

--The T-Rex likely made a noise more like a loud belch than the roar he often makes in movies. Evidence? The size of his chest and throat.

Dinosaurs, Lessum believes, are the most successful creatures ever to live on Earth, based on the length of time they existed. Humans would have continue their species 100 times longer than we already have to equal the length of time dinosaurs were on the planet, he says.

Lessum thinks the series’ animation, both computer and drawn, will help kids become involved in the show. With the scientists’ explanations and family discussions, audiences can “get a pretty good idea of the whole shape of life, and that’s the biggest question to me of all: How we got here.”

“PaleoWorld” premieres Wednesday at 5 p.m. The second episode of the series airs Sunday at 6 and 9 p.m. The show airs regularly on Sundays at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. and repeats Wednesdays at 5 and 8 p.m. on The Learning Channel. For ages 5 and up.