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Original Series (1999)
New Blood
Coelophysis
- Abusive Parents: All too willing to devour their own babies if they are low on food.
- Action Girl: The one we most frequently see and who appears to be the pack's leader is female.
- Action Survivor: The one animal along with the cynodonts, Peteinosaurus and Plateosaurus that survived the trials and tribulations of the Triassic. Placerias and Postosuchus, to put it bluntly, weren't so lucky.
- Adapted Out: One of the four protagonist animals along with Diplodocus, Liopleurodon and Leallynasaura to be absent from the Arena Spectacular, apparently to avert Misplaced Wildlife on the part of Plateosaurus (who was native to Europe, as opposed to North America like Coelophysis). It's noteworthy in that it's the only one of the four to be replaced by another dinosaur—in this case, Liliensternus, a similar theropod that actually did coexist with Plateosaurus.
- Adaptational Species Change: The stage show changed the Coelophysis into the Liliensternus, possibly because it's bigger, so it was easier to portray as a costume that could fit a person inside, and because Liliensternus, unlike Coelophysis, actually coexisted with Plateosaurus.
- Anachronism Stew: The episode is set 220 MYA, but Coelophysis isn't definitively known from the Chinle Formation until about 208 MYA. This might be because the earlier coelophysid, Camposaurus, which actually did live at that time, was often considered a species of Coelophysis.
- Big Eater: It is constantly seen eating or trying to eat, and everything is game to it.
- Eats Babies: Of their own kind! And the cynodonts...
- Explosive Breeder: We don't see them laying eggs, but they keep breeding even during the dry season until there is nothing left to eat but themselves.
- Fragile Speedster: It's faster and more agile than any other reptile of the time, but it's also more fragile than the other reptiles.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Thought introduced as potential predators of Placerias right away, it is hard to picture them as such until they become The Swarm, and by that point even Postosuchus is in their sight. Doubles as one for Theropod dinosaurs, who will soon become the dominant predators on Earth, and remain such for 140 million years.
- Jack of All Stats: It is not notable for anything in particular (except perhaps explosive breeding) yet it is thanks to that lack of specialization that it is so adaptable and has become the most common resident vertebrate in the area.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A Coelophysis eats a baby cynodont, the cynodont father later hunts a baby Coelophysis. Not that the Coelophysis would care much, because they also eat their own young.
- No Party Like a Donner Party: During the tail end of the dry season, food becomes so scarce they start hunting juveniles of their own species (notably, the supposed evidence of Coelophysis cannibalism has
since been discredited, although most predators will eat their own kind given desperate circumstances, including humans, so it's not necessarily implausible). - Offing the Offspring: Whenever food gets scarce, they will eat their own babies without a second thought.
- The Swarm: At the end of the episode it gangs up to kill a dying Postosuchus.
- Villain Protagonist: Not exactly the most sympathetic main character of the series.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Despite being small and fragile, at the end of the episode they eat the resident top predator (Postosuchus) and meet with their gigantic relative, Plateosaurus. Both scenes herald the true beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs.
- Zerg Rush: Not at first, but they eventually use this on Postosuchus.
Cynodont
- Action Survivor: Represents the future of the mammals.
- All Animals Are Dogs: They are decidedly dog-like in their behavior, including barking at threats and having close social bonds.
- All There in the Manual: The tie-in book Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History confirms that it was based on isolated teeth from the Chinle Formation then attributed to large cynodonts (which in 2005 was named Kraterokheirodon) but its appearance and behavior were based on the Early Triassic Thrinaxodon. note
- Always Someone Better: They are related to the gorgonopsians that were the dominant predators before the archosaurs, and also to the mammals that became dominant after the dinosaurs. But right now, they are completely overshadowed by the archosaurs and limited to play a marginal role — both plot-wise and ecologically.
- Battle Couple: Males and females stay together while raising their young.
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: What becomes on one of the pups. When the male goes off hunting, one of his pups follows him to the burrow's entrance out of curiosity, only to then get eaten by a Coelophysis.
- Eats Babies: Their own babies, and also the babies of Coelophysis.
- Meaningful Name: "Cynodont" means "dog tooth", and indeed, these ones act very canine-like, down to barking and wagging their tails.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: They look like a lizard and dog hybrid.
- Most Writers Are Human: It's based on two teeth, and doesn't even have a name, but they're the characters treated with the most sympathy in the episode, with focus on the unique and close bonds between mates and their offspring (which is purely speculative, as we don't actually know if non-mammalian cynodonts cared for their young). It's probably not coincidental they are the animals most closely related to humans in the episode. Even when they kill and eat their own children, it's portrayed as a very grim necessary evil.
- No Name Given: They are only referred to as "cynodonts" rather than by genus name as with every other animal in the episode. This is because they are based on two teeth fossils which did not have a name until 2005 (dubbed Kraterokheirodon). However, when the teeth were named, the original cynodont classification was called into question, so there's no conclusive evidence of cynodonts from the Chinle Formation other than the rat-sized Kataigidodon (and even it is very fragmentary).
- Offing the Offspring: When they have to move out because of the Coelophysis.
- Papa Wolf: Until the Coelophysis discover the burrow and the pair decides the young aren't worth defending anymore.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The pups. And then they had to die…
- Rule of Cool: They are larger than the local fossils imply, and there is no fossil evidence for the eating of young as a defensive measure.
- Shoot the Dog: The narration acknowledges that the cynodonts eating their babies was a necessary evil; if they are to move out and start anew, they won't be able to bring their young with them. It was likely a choice between killing the young quickly or leaving them to get eaten by the Coelophysis...
Placerias
- Butt-Monkey: Representing all the species that can't survive the Triassic, and basically serves the episode simply as prey for Postosuchus and Coelophysis. However, it must be noted that no single species dominated the entire face of the Earth as they did, and none since save humans.
- Dumb Dinos: Ironically, it and Postosuchus serve that role in contrast to Coelophysis, the real dinosaur of the episode, being depicted as sluggish and lumbering relics from a bygone age that are destined to be supplanted by the dinosaurs.
- Dumb Muscle: Not too bright, but definitely brawny and armed with sharp tusks.
- Fatal Forced March: They're shown being forced to migrate in a desperate attempt to find new greenery when the dry season lasts longer than normal and all the vegetation in the region has already either been eaten or dried to a crisp. The pessimistic narration and the fact they don't come back when the wet season finally arrives at the episode's end strongly suggests a grim fate for them.
- Last of His Kind: They are described as being the last surviving species of an ancient and once-successful group of reptiles (the group isn't named in the episode, but the group is obviously dicynodonts), although since the episode aired, slightly later surviving dicynodont species have been found.
- Mighty Glacier: Between its size, strength, and sharp tusks, it's too much for most of the local predators to tackle, but it's also desperately slow.
- Mighty Roar: One scares a Coelophysis away with an impressive, guttural bellow.
- Monster Munch: The Establishing Character Moment of the Postosuchus is predating on them.
- Stock Sound Effects: Some of their vocalizations are the same elephant roars used for the Triceratops in One Million Years B.C..
- Parental Neglect: In the novelization, they are said to be R-type breeders, with females laying large numbers of eggs but after hatching, the young have to fend for themselves and few ever reach adulthood. They are allowed to travel with adults in a herd but recieve little protection from their older herd mates.
- Toothy Bird: Downplayed. Unlike most dicynodonts, Placerias didn't actually have large tusks, they had tusk-like protrusions of bone jutting directly from their skull (tusks were present but practically vestigial and would not have been visible from the sides), which is not portrayed in the episode.
- Uncertain Doom: They're last seen marching off in search of food and water during the dry season after the river runs dry, with the implication they didn't make it through the harsh drought.
Postosuchus
- Adaptational Badass: Unlike the ponderous hulk shown in the episode, in the novelization, Postosuchus is shown to be capable of running, with the narration describing it as "fast", though it still relies mainly on ambush hunting akin to a big cat.
- Adaptation Expansion: The cause of the Postosuchus' injury is never clearly explained; the narrator only said it was injured during its last hunt. In the book, however, it is stated the Postosuchus was injured by the tusk of a Placerias after a desperate attack driven by hunger. Furthermore, it tries to give one last fight against the Coelophysis pack and manages to kill one before succumbing to its wound.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Technically it is no villain and just a predator, but its death nonetheless is one of the most depressing scenes in the series.
- Armor Is Useless: Its tough osteoderms are no hindrance to the Coelophysis in the end and did not protect it from an ultimately fatal wound sustained during an offscreen fight with a prey animal.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Its marking behaviour drew some criticism from scientists, as no evidence suggested such behavior. It was also far too slow and clumsy, and should have been at least facultatively bipedal. The animal occasionally rears on its hind legs throughout the episode, however, just not to walk bipedally.
- Badass in Distress: It was injured in the middle of the episode, the injury ultimately lead to its agonizing death near the end of the episode.
- Big Bad: Main predator in "New Blood" (besides the Coelophysis, but they're sort of the protagonists).
- Cool Versus Awesome: In the book it fights a Plateosaurus.
- Doomed Hurt Guy: The female in the episode is cut on their thigh during an offscreen hunt. The injury gradually worsens over the course of the episode (set over the course of several months) and eventually kills her.
- Dumb Dinos: Ironically, it and Placerias serve that role in contrast to Coelophysis, the real dinosaur of the episode, being depicted as sluggish and lumbering relics from a bygone age that are destined to be supplanted by the dinosaurs.
- Establishing Character Moment: Eating a Placerias alive.
- Gender Flip: Partially in the book; the Postosuchus that attacks the Placerias herd is still a female, but the one that is injured and later killed by the Coelophysis flock is changed to a male.
- Mighty Glacier: Huge and powerful, with jaws that can kill most prey in a single bite, but so large and heavily armoured that it's very slow and has to remain on four legs at all times to support its weight (note that this isn't believed to be the case in real life anymore). Its weight proves to be a hindrance when one gets injured on its leg, meaning it can no longer chase after prey.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Not a true crocodile but part of a related branch of archosaurs (being closer to crocodylomorphs than dinosaurs) and shares its extant relatives' armored scales and scutes.
- Prehistoric Monster: Played with. While it's portrayed as a villainous creature for much of the episode, it's also shown as a real animal with weaknesses and vulnerabilities towards the end of the episode.
- Starter Villain: It's the biggest threat to the earliest dinosaurs, before evolution takes hold and the dinosaurs come to dominate the land.
- Starts with Their Funeral: The Triassic segment first flashes the situation during the worst of the drought, including a shot of the Postosuchus skull on the ground.
- Stock Sound Effects: Its roars are, of all things, modified versions of the Howie scream.
- Villain Protagonist: Shares this role with Coelophysis.
Plateosaurus
- Action Survivor: Along with Coelophysis, Peteinosaurus and the cynodonts, though more blatantly as it represents the future success of the dinosaurs.
- Adaptation Expansion: In the tie-in book, it's shown scaring off a Postosuchus, showcasing how it large size keeps it safe from predators.
- Adaptational Badass: In the book it manages to win against the Postosuchus in a one on one battle.
- Advertised Extra: It is always mentioned as one of the characters in the first episode, yet the only thing they do is showing up at the end and being noted for being big.
- Anachronism Stew: The giant species of Plateosaurus didn't appear until the Late Norian, several million years after the date the episode is supposed to be set (around the early Mid Norian).
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Their anatomy has some general mishaps; the skull is a weird rounded shape rather than the rectangular shape of the real animal and their thighs are abnormally huge. They were also actually obligate bipeds rather than quadrupeds, but this was not known as the time.
- Cool Versus Awesome: Its adaptational fight with the Postosuchus.
- Foreshadowing: Their presence, according to the narration, is meant to represent the future success of the dinosaurs. When they show up, they scare away the Coelophysis!"This is the shape of things to come..."
- Giant Equals Invincible: To quote the narrator, they are simply too big to be threatened.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Actually came from Germany (Plateosaurus was probably chosen despite its geographical displacement because prosauropods of the Chinle Formation are only known from footprints).
Peteinosaurus
- Action Survivor: Implied, seeing as it represents the future success of the pterosaurs (who would one day rule the Mesozoic skies).
- Artistic License – Paleontology: It's depicted as a specialized insect hawker; while pterosaurs like Peteinosaurus were likely insect eaters, they don't have any adaptations that suggest that they would be at all good at hawking insects out of the air (that was more the forte of Anurognathus').
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Like Coelophysis, its main role is to show the humble origins of a group of (future) large archosaurs, in this case pterosaurs.
- Hero of Another Story: Has a lot of scenes, but never interacts with the other animals.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Actually came from Germany and Italy. Hand waved by the narrator, who states that it and its kind arrived "from far and wide" because it was attracted to the insects at the water hole. Its inclusion is especially odd since teeth and jaw fragments from Texas were referred to the contemporary Eudimorphodon in the '80s (something that is acknowledged in Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence). Had the series been made now, the actually North American Caelestiventus could have been used instead, although it lived slightly later.
- Superior Successor: It's depicted as easily usurping the position of aerial apex hunter from the insects that had dominated the air for a hundred million years prior to its evolution.
Time of the Titans and The Ballad of Big Al
Allosaurus
In General
- Art Evolution: The Allosaurus model gets better in the special The Ballad of Big Al.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- It was four times its actual size. This mistake is largely thanks to a close relative Epanterias, which did reach such sizes (and in fact probably exceeded them) and there was a lot of confusion between the two. However, Epanterias may, in fact, simply be a large specimen of Allosaurus.
- It's portrayed in Walking with Dinosaurs with the crest horns above the eyes, instead of in front of them, as in real Allosaurus. The skull is also unusually wide, even though allosaurs have narrow skulls. The issue with the crests is fixed by The Ballad of Big Al, but the unusual width is not.
- Adaptational Expansion: In the episode, after the crèche escapes the forest fire, we only see them being watched by some Allosaurus who are resting in the shade. In the novelization, however, they get attacked by a mob of Allosaurus and two of the Diplodocus get brutally mauled to death.
- Big Bad: The main antagonists of "Time of the Titans" and the only predators that really pose a threat against the Diplodocus.
- Combat Pragmatist: After isolating a sick Diplodocus from its herd, Big Al and the other Allosaurus prefer to wait until it collapses from sunstroke, rather than attacking it outright. And for good reason; when Big Al tries to approach the Diplodocus, it finds the strength to whoop him good!
- Bloodier and Gorier: In the episode, the Allosaurus are shown quickly dispatching a sauropodlet and later, one attacks the main female Diplodocus but only scars her back before being fought off by a larger Diplodocus. In the novelization, however, after the crèche escapes the forest fire and rest by a river, they get attacked by several Allosaurus (including a 40-foot adult), and two of the adolescent Diplodocus get brutally mauled to death, with their blood spilling into the river.
- Cool Versus Awesome: The climax featuring it battling the Diplodocus. Later in the special "The Ballad of the Big Al", a pack of Allosaurus hunts a herd of Diplodocus, making it the biggest epic of the entire series.
- Eats Babies: Of Diplodocus and of its own kind, if given the chance.
- Establishing Character Moment: First seen attacking the young Diplodocus.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: The "Lions of the Jurassic" as the narrator puts it.
- Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: As shown in "The Ballad of Big Al". Although not as dramatic as Diplodocus, the change in sizes from newborn to adult is still comparable to large crocodiles.
- Historical Domain Character: Big Al is the first creature in the franchise that is based on a particular individual.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Sex between Allosaurus is not gentle, as Big Al learns when he hits puberty.
- Lightning Bruiser: It is the largest and strongest predator of its episode(s), and it is also built for speed.
- Mama Bear: Chronologically, the first dinosaur species we see caring for its young.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Though it applies to most theropod dinosaurs, the making-of of "The Ballad of Big Al" highlights that it is like a large flightless bird in some aspects, and like an alligator in others.
- Monstrous Cannibalism: Older Allosaurus can predate over the younger ones. That includes their own mother after her maternal instincts fade.
- Red Baron: The narrator calls it "the lion of the Jurassic".
- Series Mascot: Out of all the species shown in the series, this is the one most used in advertising, along with the obvious Tyrannosaurus and Utahraptor. It even personifies dinosaurs at the end of Walking with Monsters, where it is shown to evolve from the humble archosaur Euparkeria. In The Ballad of Big Al, it even gets a special all to itself, making it arguably the "mascot species" of the entire franchise.
- Stock Sound Effects: Their adult roars seem to be lower-pitched screeches and caws from the Jurassic Park Velociraptors as well as chimpanzee screams, while the babies croak like baby alligators.
- The Swarm: In "The Ballad of Big Al", several Allosaurus gather after the trail of a sick Diplodocus and succeed in bringing it down. They don't do this in a concerted manner, however, as they're not exactly social animals.
- Would Hurt a Child: It kills a young Diplodocus, and later in the special The Ballad of Big Al it's shown to be cannibalistic.
Big Al
The main character of The Ballad of Big Al, based on an individual skeleton found in Wyoming.
- Agony of the Feet: The injury that ultimately does Al in is a broken toe. Said toe becomes infected and later undergoes necrosis — that is, the tissue inside the toe dies and starts rotting while Al is still alive.
- Animals Not to Scale: A strange example, as he's based on a specific individual fossil (known as MOR 693). Al is depicted in the episode as being over ten metres long at the end of his life, but the actual fossil is of an animal less than eight metres long.
- Ascended Extra: Starts as the main antagonist of "Time of the Titans" and becomes the protagonist of "The Ballad of Big Al". It even personifies the arrival of the Age of the Dinosaurs in a small cameo at Walking with Monsters.
- Badass in Distress: Poor Al... With over 44 skeletal injuries in his fossil, he had a tough life and died young due to a foot injury.
- Body Horror: Al's toe injury doesn't look that bad with flesh over it, but what an absolute horror it is in his skeleton!
- Bookends: After Al dies, his body is inspected by two infant Allosaurus.
- Coming of Age Story: "The Ballad of Big Al" follows a male Allosaurus from birth to early adulthood. Unfortunately, this also includes his death.
- Cradle To Grave Character: The special starts with his hatching, and ends with his death.
- Death by Irony:
- Big Al is "saved" from being trapped in quicksand when a larger Allosaurus scares him away from a trapped Stegosaurus. The larger Allosaurus proceeds to become trapped and die there in his place.
- His fatal injury is produced when he trips while hunting Dryosaurus, among the less challenging game of his lifetime.
- Downer Ending: Big Al dies of starvation and injury at the end of the special.
- Foregone Conclusion: We are shown Big Al's skeleton at the start of the episode.
- Likes Older Women: At one point, Al encounters the excrements of an adult female Allosaurus whose smell shows she is in heat, and he promptly begins uttering some mating calls to lure her. When she appears, she rejects Al, because, even though he has achieved sexual maturity, he's still too young for her. Al has none of it and begins making advances at her, only to get violently injured by the older female.
- Non-Human Undead: Big Al's ghost visits his own skeleton at a museum exhibit.
- Starts with Their Funeral: The special opens with the skeleton of Big Al in a museum exhibit, which is then visited by his ghost.
Other
Diplodocus
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: The episode "Time of Titans" has a more dramatic ending, where the main female gets attacked by an Allosaurus and saved by an older Diplodocus, but in the novelization, it ends with her as a mature adult laying her own eggs in the forest, completing the cycle.
- Adapted Out: Absent from the Arena Spectacular, presumably for staging reasonsSpecifically; One of the four protagonists to suffer this fate. However, the even taller and heavier (but shorter lengthwise) Brachiosaurus is still present.
- Animals Not to Scale: It's depicted as being able to reach over forty metres in length, but Diplodocus carnegii is only known to have reached up to twenty-six metres (even taking into account Seismosaurus, which was later sunk into Diplodocus as D. hallorum, it's still only up to thirty-two metres long). That said, taking into account how modern animals have very variable sizes, it's not impossible some individuals very rarely managed to reach such sizes. The contemporary diplodocid Supersaurus is known to have reached such sizes, however.
- Big Damn Heroes: The adult herd, when assisting the main female.
- Big Eater: They must eat constantly to keep those massive bodies healthy.
- Cheerful Child: The infant Diplodocus have some shades of this, sounding similar to toddlers and are playful when not in danger, which makes their deaths all the more heartrending.
- Coming of Age Story: The episode follows a female Diplodocus from the time she hatches from her egg to her first mating.
- Cool Versus Awesome: The climax featuring it battling an Allosaurus.
- Dwindling Party: The dozens of chicks born at the beginning of the episode are gradually whittled down to just two by the end by predators, accidents, and natural disasters.
- Explosive Breeder: A subversion. The main Diplodocus's mother lays dozens of eggs, but only two live to join an adult herd.
- Free-Range Children: They don't take care of their newborns, which is justified by the babies being quite precocious.
- Gasshole: In a moment of Toilet Humor, it farts on the camera. It is justified because digesting such large quantities of vegetation inevitably produces lots of intestinal gases.
- Gentle Giant: They don't voluntarily hurt other animals unless threatened.
- Giant Equals Invincible: Such a huge animal that very few predators ever try to attack them.
- Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: A large adult is over forty metres in length. An egg is as big as a football.
- Kill It with Fire: At one point, the Diplodocus siblings must flee a devastating forest fire that kills all but three of them.
- Mighty Glacier: As an adult, it is too large and heavy to move particularly fast, but given their great strength and power, they don't really need it.
- Never Mess with Granny: The eldest female is the herd's leader, and she's no slouch in a fight.
- Perspective Flip: "Time of the Titans" is the Coming of Age Story of a female Diplodocus, with the failed attack of an Allosaurus as a climatic scene. The special "The Ballad of Big Al", set in the same formation and featuring the same fauna, is the Coming of Age Story of a male Allosaurus, with the successful attack on a Diplodocus as a climatic scene.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The old female is the leader of the herd, and she will whip anyone who dares to mess with her herd.
- Really 700 Years Old: They only vary in size and it is never elaborated, but the large ones are apparently centenarian.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: As young they are very neotenous, with large round eyes, small bodies and high pitched voices.
- Series Mascot: Though not to the extent of the three theropods (Allosaurus, Utahraptor, and Tyrannosaurus) it is often featured in promotional material and related media, and has become a Trope Codifier for the show's depiction of diplodocids.
- Tail Slap: Its only means of defense against large predators like Allosaurus, other than its size.
- Team Mom: The herd's matriarch.
- Their First Time: The main female Diplodocus has her fist mating session near the end of the episode. Presumably, it's the first time for the young male she mates with as well.
- Trope Codifier: This restoration helped popularize the idea that diplodocids marched with their tails and necks straight at all times.
- Turtle Island: A land version. Each gigantic Diplodocus has the power of changing the landscape through feeding and defecating alone, and carries its own flock of Anurognathus with it.
- Uniformity Exception: In the novelization, the main female Diplodocus is described as being darker in color than her conspecifics (possibly being melanistic).
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Three survive the forest fire, two join the adult herd some days later. The shot of an Allosaurus interested in the siblings in the middle leave little doubt about what happened to the missing sibling, however.
Ornitholestes
- Eats Babies: Kills a baby Diplodocus. They also stalk the Allosaurus babies in "The Ballad of Big Al".
- Evil Egg Eater: It's described as an egg thief by the narrator, and even though it isn't seen eating eggs, there several Diplodocus egg shells that are smashed open by it. The species as a whole is portrayed a menace to all mother dinosaurs.
- Feathered Fiend: Oddly the only theropod besides Iberomesornis shown with feathers in the series, although it's only a few quills over its neck.
- Fragile Speedster: Small and swift, but not very tough.
- Mama Bear: As a teenager, Big Al encounters an Ornitholestes mother taking care of her nest, and even though he is bigger than her, he nonetheless decides to let her be because she is shown to put up a rather fierce defence.
- Shout-Out: Its design is clearly heavily inspired by Greg Paul's influential Predatory Dinosaurs Of The World which first portrayed Ornitholestes with a crest of feathers and nose horn (the latter of which has since been discredited).
- Starter Villain: The antagonist in the early days of the Diplodocus' youth, but by the time they're grown, he's no longer a threat.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Aside from the nose horn (which it didn't actually sport) and lack of a raised toe claw (which later studies suggest it might have had), it's pretty similar to the Cretaceous raptors we met later, as both of them are coelurosaurs and Ornitholestes might even be a primitive member of the maniraptorans (the same group as dromaeosaurs and birds).
- Who's Laughing Now?: When it sees that its former prey is too big to tackle, it is compelled to flee.
Stegosaurus
- Accidental Hero: Saves the young Diplodocus from the Allosaurus accidentally — it walks into the scene when they are being attacked by Allosaurus and reacts defensively against the Allosaurus without paying attention to the Diplodocus. Unfortunately, this extends to also killing one of the Diplodocus by accident.
- Accidental Murder: As it's swinging its spiked tail at the Allosaurus' to ward them off, it inadvertently kills one of the baby Diplodocus'' that was walking next to it.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the novelization, the bull Stegosaurus doesn't harm any of the young Diplodocus but still wards off the attacking Allosaurus. Later, when the main female gets separated from the crèche following the forest fire and an Allosaurus attack, she spends several days following a Stegosaurus herd on the plains, who don't mind her presence, until she stumbles upon a herd of adult Diplodocus.
- Animals Not to Scale: Stated to be seven tonnes, but the largest Stegosaurus were maybe just over five tonnes in real life. And according to the tie-in book Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History, Stegosaurus here is 13 meters long, when the largest known specimen is less than 9 meters and most are smaller.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: Its spiky tail is its main weapon of defense.
- Cool Versus Awesome: Almost happens between it and the Allosaurus, but the predators decide to retreat before fighting it.
- Covers Always Lie: Appears in the opening credits of Chased by Dinosaurs despite being completely absent from the series. It perhaps replaces Therizinosaurus as a way to not spoil the surprise, since all other animals in the shot are from the episode "The Giant Claw".
- Dumb Muscle: Had the smallest brain of all the dinosaurs of its size. Still, it's not an easy target.
- Rule of Cool: The flushing of blood into its plates as a way to scare predators was merely conjectural at the time. note
- The Unreveal: In "The Ballad of Big Al", two stegosaurs start to get "intimate" while the narrator tells us that mating is a difficult process for them. So difficult, in fact, that scientists don't know yet how it happened. However, instead of engaging in speculation, the ritual is cut when Al walks by and the stegosaurs switch to defensive mode.
Anurognathus
- Anachronism Stew: A relatively minor example; the episode is set during the Late Kimmeridgian, but Anurognathus is known from the Mid Tithonian, about two million years later.
- Animals Not to Scale: In "The Ballad of Big Al", the model seems to have been recycled for a much larger generic pterosaur. At one point, the nearly adult Al catches one that looks half as long as an Allosaurus head.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: No evidence exists that Anurognathus or any pterosaur related to it had symbiotic relationships with any dinosaur (granted fossils can't tell us that). In fact, research done since the documentary's release suggests that anurognathid pterosaurs were actually nocturnal, swift-like creatures that spent the nights hawking insects out of the sky and hiding in the trees during the day. Oddly, they're the only pterosaurs in the series with visible pycnofibres.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Plays the part of an oxpecker, which had not evolved yet. In Real Life, it was most likely the counterpart of a bat (or rather, bats are modern counterparts of it).
- Historical Ugliness Update: Largely due to a lack of knowledge about anurognathid anatomy in the '90s. Here, it's restored as a largely scaly, drab-colored, gargoyle-like little critter with a theropod-ish head, but new anurognathid fossils discovered not long after WWD aired revealed that these animals had short, muppet-like faces with huge eyes and they were covered in fuzz, making them a lot more conventionally cute
◊. - Misplaced Wildlife: Shown in North America despite only being known from Europe. Lampshaded in the companion book. Anurognathus did have a relative (called Mesadactylus) that lived in North America, however, but this was not known at the time.
- Noisy Nature: Makes helluva lot of noise for such a small animal....
- Palette Swap: Peteinosaurus, but with a shorter tail and differently shaped head.
- Rule of Cool: The speculative symbiotic relationship between them and the Diplodocus. The two animals didn't even live on the same continent, and Anurognathus is not known to have existed with any large dinosaurs.
- The Swarm: Though non-malicious, they journey in large groups.
Dryosaurus and Othnielia
Othnielia in "Big Al".
Two small ornithopod dinosaurs (hypsilophodontids, specifically) that appear mostly in the background and follow, or forage around larger herbivore dinosaurs.- Art Evolution: Othnielia was first restored as a Palette Swap version of Dryosaurus, but later got its own model.
- Fragile Speedster: Their only defense is numbers and running away.
- Kill It with Fire: One is burned to a crisp in the aftermath of the forest fire.
- Living Prop: They aren't paid attention in "Time of the Titans" and are used to show the diversification of dinosaurs and how many niches they occupy, both large and small. They gain a little more importance in "The Ballad of Big Al", since they're vulnerable to Allosaurus before sauropods become so.
- Monster Munch: Surprisingly averted, and due to a Deus ex Machina, no less. See Unwitting Instigator of Doom.
- Palette Swap: They shared model in "Time of the Titans" but hung around separately and had their color patterns already established, so they were clearly intended to be different species. They get different models in "The Ballad of Big Al".
- Social Ornithopod: The two of them are almost exclusively seen travelling in flocks and are sometimes around larger herbivores as well.
- Those Two Guys: Those two species in this case. They barely have an impact on the plot, and the narrator almost pays them no attention.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Big Al receives his fatal injury while hunting Dryosaurus. Ironically, they're among the less dangerous creature he faced in his life.
Brachiosaurus
- Advertised Extra: Despite being featured in many trailers and accompanying material, when they appear they are just noted for their size and leave the show soon after.
- Ascended Extra: Has a more important part in the Arena Spectacular, where it is upgraded to resident sauropod in place of Adapted Out Diplodocus.
- Gentle Giant Sauropod: They are never seen getting violent.
Apatosaurus
- Palette Swap: The CGI model is clearly just a slightly tweaked version of the Diplodocus model.
- Underground Monkey: It's depicted as a darker-coloured, stockier version of Diplodocus with a shorter neck and no spines on its back.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Zig-zagged. They replace Diplodocus as the most common, "smaller" sauropod in "The Ballad of Big Al". However, they hold their necks somewhat taller and seem to prefer more wooden environments along with Brachiosaurus. Diplodocus still appears as a prey for Allosaurus, living in a larger herd in a more open area.
Cruel Sea
Eustreptospondylus
- Action Survivor: It is hard to imagine a dinosaur surviving in a small island arch surrounded by sea monsters, let alone a decent-sized theropod. And yet Eustreptospondylus manages.
- Always a Bigger Fish: One is eaten by Liopleurodon.
- Anachronism Stew: The only Eustreptospondylus skeleton is around 162 million years old; the episode is set 13 million years later. The megalosaur that would've been around at the time was the larger Torvosaurus, though it lived in Iberia.
- Animals Not to Scale: It's portrayed as being five metres long, the estimated size of the only Eustreptospondylus fossil, but said fossil is considered of a juvenile animal. The adult is hypothetically estimated to have reached anywhere from seven to ten metres long.
- Art Evolution: Restored first as an awful green, lizard-looking animal in the test footage of the original, unreleased pilot.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: It's said to be one of the largest dinosaurs inhabiting the European archipelagos during the Late Jurassic. That is flat-out wrong (even for its time), as large dinosaur fossils from the Upper Jurassic of Europe and especially Britain have been known since the 19th century, including stegosaurs, giant sauropods, and larger theropods (such as Megalosaurus, the first non-avian dinosaur ever named).
- Big Eater: Always shown either eating or trying to eat.
- Circling Vultures: Plays this role when the Liopleurodon is stranded and dying on the beach.
- The Constant: As the only actual dinosaur in the episode, it serves as a reminder that the Age of Dinosaurs is still going on despite their irrelevance in the aquatic medium.
- Decoy Protagonist: Used deliberately in the prologue to establish Liopleurodon.
- Hidden Depths: A surprisingly good swimmer despite not appearing to be built for it.
- Misplaced Wildlife: The novelization of "Cruel Sea" shifts its location to the ancient Vindelicisch islands, which are part of present-day Germany. However, Eustreptospondylus is only known from a single specimen from Britain (it's implied rogue individuals swam far and wide between islands).
- Monster Munch: Although it does other things in the episode, the prologue where it serves as this is the most memorable.
- Palette Swap: Allosaurus, but with a modified head and recoloured brown.
- Pragmatic Villainy: They don't attack the stranded Liopleurodon while it is alive. Instead, they prefer to wait for it to suffocate to death.
- Rule of Cool: It's depicted as a coastal island-dwelling dwarf and actively swimming between islands to find food due to being found in marine deposits. This was suggested at the time, but there was also the opposing theory that it was a normal dinosaur that merely got washed out to sea when it died (which is known for some other dinosaur species). Walking with Dinosaurs chose the more intriguing option, but nowadays the latter is considered more likely, especially considering the idea of Eustreptospondylus being a dwarf has been refuted: it was actually just a juvenile.
- Scavengers Are Scum: Downplayed for the most part. The narration acknowledges that they lead a difficult life, being the largest of the few dinosaur species in their region, and being fair game for marine predators like Liopleurodon. They're shown as needing to swim from island to island in search of food, and two of them fight over the paltry remains of a dead turtle. That being said, they are demonstrated to be opportunists, preying on the much smaller Rhamphorhynchus and feasting on the old Liopleurodon after it dies from being stranded.
- Who's Laughing Now?: At the end of the episode, several Eustreptospondylus gather to eat the stranded Liopleurodon who had eaten a Eustreptospondylus at the beginning.
- The Worf Effect: Somewhat similar to the top predator in the previous episode, Allosaurus, and introduced stalking a fish while the narrator speaks of how "the largest predator of the Jurassic stalks its prey". That largest predator is revealed to be Liopleurodon, and its prey is Eustreptospondylus itself.
Liopleurodon
- Adaptational Late Appearance: Instead of popping up in the opening scene, in the novelization of "Cruel Sea", Liopleurodon is the last of the five main animals to show up, likely to build up suspense for the arrival of the "largest predator to live on Earth", with an earlier paragraph saying how the Cryptoclidus crawl onto land after sunset to escape Liopleurodon. The iconic scene where it snatches an Eustreptospondylus also happens towards the end of the story.
- Adapted Out: Absent from the Arena Spectacular, most likely because an underwater scene would be too hard to stage. One of the four protagonist animals to suffer this.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Mirroring Postosuchus, it becomes a victim of the environment (a sea tempest that disorients it and leaves it stranded on a beach) and ends eaten by dinosaurs he would have barely paid attention to, while in his prime.
- Always a Bigger Fish: The trope made flesh. It preys on everything found in the area, including sharks, other sea reptiles and even shore dinosaurs.
- Anachronism Stew: Similar to most of the other animals in the episode, it's only known from fossils dates several million years before the time period of the setting (using Pliosaurus would have been more chronologically accurate), although this is probably partly due to the fact later Pliosaurus species were at the time considered to be Liopleurodon.
- Animals Not to Scale: A rather infamous example. It is ridiculously huge, even considering the inflated estimates of large pliosaur size estimates at the time, being depicted as an utter leviathan, only exceeded by the largest blue whales in size. More accurate modern mass estimates for Lioplueorodon put it at 3.3 tonnes tops, making this one more than forty-five times heavier than the real animal.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: It's much larger than its real-life counterpart was.
- Art Evolution: Has a dolphin-like grey coat in the test footage of the unreleased pilot.
- Big Bad: In all the sense of both words.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: The result of any encounter with Liopleurodon.
- Creator Provincialism: Its appearance and Historical Badass Upgrade probably owes a lot to the fact that it is known mostly from England and France.
- Death by Irony: After being stranded, it suffocates under its own massive weight and it is powerless to stop the Eustreptospondylus (like the one it killed in the beginning of the episode) from eating it.
- The Dreaded: It's the most feared creature of its environment, and the most powerful carnivore featured in the entire series.
- Establishing Character Moment: Killing a predatory dinosaur (Eustreptospondylus) in one bite. It happens right at the beginning of the episode and it's one of the most memorable scenes in the entire series.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Works as one of the Killer Whale, excluding its solitary nature and absurdly large size.
- Flanderization: In the original test pilot for WWD, Liopleurodon was depicted at a more modest 60 feet and 60 tons, which were controversial (and since debunked) estimates at the time based on a single large pliosaur vertebra. In "Cruel Sea" proper, however, this had ballooned out into 80 feet and 150 tons, with the Hand Wave that the Liopleurodon we were following was an unusually large specimen, over a hundred years old. Notably, the American cut of the series shrunk it back down to 60 feet and 100 tons.
- Hazardous Water: Pretty much the reason you wouldn't wanna swim in this ocean.
- Handwave: We are told that the featured Liopleurodon is really, really old — a centenarian or close to it, actually. That's why it's also really, really big compared to even the wildest estimates of this animal's size at the time the show came out.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: It was certainly not the size of a blue whale in reality, which would make it a contender for largest animal ever at almost 30 meters long; nor is there any reason to think it came near the shore to hunt land animals like a crocodile or a killer whale.
- Horrifying the Horror: The sharks threatening the Ophthalmosaurus mother scatter when it gets near.
- Lightning Bruiser: A fast swimmer despite its huge size, and the most powerful predator on the planet.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Crocodile and Killer Whale have a baby, it grows to the size of a blue whale.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Not a crocodile itself, but it lunges out of the water to ambush a Eustreptospondylus like a crocodile attacking a wildebeest.
- Not So Invincible After All: The old male Liopleurodon is described as the largest carnivore to have ever lived, the uncontested apex predator that even the sharks dread... but he dies a slow and undignified death from being beached and is eaten by scavengers.
- One-Hit Kill: Apparently fond of this, as both Eustreptospondylus and Ophthalmosaurus learn first hand.
- Prehistoric Monster: Easily one of the most monstrous beasts in the series.
- Rule of Cool:
- At the time of production, Liopleurodon was estimated at most at 20 meters in length, not 25 meters as in the show. And even that was a controversial maximum estimate.
- The entire introduction scene (epic as it may have been), wherein the Liopleurodon eats a Eustreptospondylus by leaping out of the water and grabbing it by the tail. Granted it's not impossible, but there is no fossil evidence of anything similar and it requires so many unlikely conditions (Liopleurodon coming to the shore despite the risk to strand itself, Eustreptospondylus to stand right on a cliff deep enough for Liopleurodon to appear right next to it, Liopleurodon somehow detecting Eustreptospondylus outside the water without making itself obvious, etc) as to render it practically impossible. Word of God is that it was based on attacks by killer whales.
- Sea Monster: It lives at sea, and it's certainly portrayed as a terrifying monster. The only thing keeping it from qualifying as a kaiju is the fact that it can't come onto land.
- Series Mascot: One that didn't really stick. It was heavily hyped up as the show's most iconic animal (along with Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and Utahraptor) back when it first aired, but most later releases have downplayed its role, since its portrayal hasn't aged very well.
- Shrouded in Myth: Not in the actual plot, as it came before humans, but in the way it's presented to the audience. It comes, feasts on its prey, and goes about its merry way.
- Slasher Smile: The restoration of the head looks as though it's constantly sporting one. It noticeably fades when it's beached.
- Stronger with Age: Due to the fact that reptiles don't really stop growing, the main specimen's age (over a hundred years old) is given as the reason for his prodigious size.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: They can hold their breath for over an hour before needing to resurface. Justified, since they're as big as whales.
- Trope Codifier: The series made Liopleurodon and pliosaurs in general a lot more popular than they were before.
- Villainous Rescue: Scares off a group of sharks stalking the birthing Ophthalmosaurus... only to attack it itself.
- Villain Protagonist: It's arguably the actual main character of the episode. Way more memorable than any other creature in it, at least. At the same time, it does nothing but killing and scaring animals before dying, solidifying its "villain" status.
Ophthalmosaurus
- Action Survivor: You have to be to survive in these waters. And they do it on their own since they are born.
- Anachronism Stew: A contemporary of Eustreptospondylus and therefore too old to appear in the episode's setting, which was obviously chosen because of Liopleurodon. Several close relatives are known from the episode's time, although only from Norway and Russia. Aegirosaurus could have also been used to be more contemporarily accurate, as it is known from the same formation as Rhamphorhynchus.
- Coming of Age Story: A particular Ophthalmosaurus pup is followed from birth to the aftermath of its first storm.
- Death by Childbirth: After a brutal fashion. A female has complications giving birth, which attracts sharks, and eventually also the Liopleurodon.
- Eats Babies: It's isn't shown, but it's stated that the adults would eat the young of other Ophthalmosaurus.
- Fragile Speedster: They rely on speed to get away from sharks and larger sea reptiles.
- Free-Range Children: They are on their own the moment they leave their mother's cloaca.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: One is cut in half by a Liopleurodon bite.
- Heroic Dolphin: How they're portrayed.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: A four-finned reptile masquerading as a dolphin.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: It is probably not a coincidence that they have comically large eyes and were chosen as the "heart" of the episode, which is one of the darkest in the series.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The little baby Ophthalmosaurus.
- Supporting Protagonist: They take over the plot several times, but it remains an ensemble.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: It's as much a predatory reptile as any other, but it receives a lot more sympathy.
Cryptoclidus
- Anachronism Stew: Also contemporary of Eustreptospondylus and Ophthalmosaurus. The genus Kimmerosaurus (seen in Planet Dinosaur) would have been more accurate.
- Animals Not to Scale: Stated to be eight tonnes, but the real animal was less than one ton. Worth noting is how in Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence, Cryptoclidus being lighter than the largest pinnipeds such as elephant seals and walruses (who can tip the scale at 4 tons and 2 respectively) is cited as a reason for why Cryptoclidus could have moved around on land.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Between their weight and nonfunctional wrists and elbows, it was already unlikely that plesiosaurs could come onto land. Even with the knowledge of the time when the episode came out.
- Black Bead Eyes: The model got this despite being a sea reptile.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: Swallows stones to keep from being too buoyant.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Besides coming onto land, it's depicted as rather curious and playful, not unlike a seal.
- Graceful in Their Element: Large and clumsy on land, fast and beautiful in the sea.
- Hero of Another Story: Not focused on, but present in the cast.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: A bit like a mix of a seal and a sea turtle.
- Noisy Nature: Makes bellowing noises on land.
Hybodus
- All There in the Manual: Only called "sharks" in the episode but gets properly named in Sea Monsters. Averted in the American cut of WWD.
- Always Someone Better: They used to be top predators before sea reptiles came about. Now they are permanently outclassed.
- Anachronism Stew: At the time of the show's production, Hybodus was still used as a wastebasket taxon, with hybodont fossils ranging in age from the late Devonian to the Maastrichtian being lumped into it, including some exceptionally preserved fossils from Late Jurassic Europe◊. Late research concluded that Hybodus was restricted to the Lower Jurassic.
- Black Bead Eyes: As expected from a shark.
- Circling Vultures: They start swimming around the moment an animal has trouble.
- Demoted to Extra: In the novelization, it's relegated to one or two fleeting references about it being a danger to the young Ophthalmosaurus without any proper sequences showing it or describing its distinct appearance.
- Eats Babies: They eat baby Ophthalmosaurus.
- Monster Munch: We're told that the Liopleurodon oftenly preys on sharks.
- Spikes of Villainy: Subverted. They're defensive spines, and they need them to protect themselves from the Liopleurodon.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: Its only advantage over the sea reptiles is that it doesn't have to hold its breath.
- The Nose Knows: They can smell blood. They're sharks. It comes with the territory.
- Threatening Shark: They are the apparent main predator of Ophthalmosaurus, or at least their young, although they're second fiddle to the Liopleurodon.
- You Can Run, but You Can't Hide: One patrols the reef, waiting for a hiding baby Ophthalmosaurus to return to the surface to breath. As the narrator reminds us, the advantage of being a shark is that you don't need to do that.
- Who's Laughing Now?: They follow a wounded Liopleurodon's trail. Also qualify in a meta sense, giving that sharks will survive to the present unlike non-turtle sea reptiles.
- The Worf Effect: Also a victim of this in order to shill Liopleurodon as the top predator, this time in the water.
Rhamphorhynchus
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- It appears to be a lot smaller than the real animal, which had a six-foot wingspan.
- Its beak wasn't useful for skim-feeding and would have submerged to fish, either partially or totally.
- Additionally, they have the same "rapid flapping" flight that the other rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs in the series have, despite the fact that Rhamphorhynchus was actually a seagull-like soarer.
- Big Eater: Fish, insect larvae, horseshoe crab eggs; it seems that as long as it's meat, they'll eat it.
- Butt-Monkey: They're depicted as rather expendable; some get eaten by a Eustreptospondylus, others have their bones shattered during a severe storm.
- Circling Vultures: At the end, a flock of surviving Rhamphorhynchus can be seen flying over the dead Liopleurodon while the Eustreptospondylus are eating him. They are presumably going to join the Eustreptospondylus in the scavenging.
- Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: Subsequent research has indicated it's likely the species was actually nocturnal, while the contemporary Scaphognathus and Pterodactylus would have been diurnal.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Essentially the Jurassic equivalent to a seagull.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Truth in Television. Rhamphorhynchus had a lot of very sharp teeth in its mouth, which it used to keep a grip on slippery fish.
- Palette Swap: It uses the same body as Peteinosaurus, but with a different head, modified tail, and recoloured.
- Noisy Nature: Makes loud honking noises throughout the episode.
- Scary Teeth: Its mouth is full of long, pointy teeth, though it's harmless as long as you're not a fish.
- The Swarm: Downplayed. There are lots of them and they show up in great numbers wherever the food is, but they never cooperate with each other and aren't dangerous.
Limulus
A horseshoe crab genus with a long fossil history. Live-acted by modern horseshoe crabs, as they continue to exist.
- The Constant: They didn't even need to splice footage as horseshoe crabs come naturally to breed in the filming location, Bahamas.
- Explosive Breeder: Each female lays thousands of eggs, which they have to because pterosaurs almost eat as much.
- Living Relic: They were there 100 million years before in the Triassic, and they are still around 150 million years later, for that matter.
- No Name Given: Just called horseshoe crabs.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Portrayed by live, modern day horseshoe crabs.
Giant Of The Skies
Ornithocheirus
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the novelization, he doesn't steal a fish from another pterosaur species but from a juvenile conspecific, and he continues to do it again and again for the rest of the day.
- All for Nothing: The episode's protagonist, an old male, flies across the world to mate, but dies without accomplishing his goal. However... Implied in the book (and the documentary, albeit in a "blink-and-you-miss-it" sense) to show that his journey may not have been completely pointless:Despite this ignominious end, the old male was a success. In his 40 years of life he probably sired several thousand offspring and it is likely that some of them were on this beach, competing and succeeding where he finally failed.
- Anachronism Stew: Twofold. The formation in which the South American Ornithocheirus (now known as Tropeognathus) was known is dated to around 110 million years old, making it about 17 million years too old in the episode. The proper Ornithocheirus and type species from England (O. simus) lived even later, around 105-100 million years ago.
- Animals Not to Scale: Depicted as having a twelve metre wingspan, but described Tropeognathus fossils at the time only gave the animal a six metre width. The oversizing in the episode was based on then-undescribed remains which have since revealed a size of just under nine metres. Even at the time, a conclusion of twelve metre was massively optimistic and considered unlikely, chosen only because it was more spectacular.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Though he's comparatively more accurate than the other pterosaurs in the series, he still skim-feeds and is far too clumsy in the air and on the ground. Visibly, he also lacks pycnofibres, though said fibres are actually mentioned by the narration at one point.
- Bloodier and Gorier: His death is considerably more violent in the book (simply put, the rival males more or less try to tear him apart every time he attempts to land).
- Combat Pragmatist: During the fishing scene, he attacks a smaller pterosaur to get a fish to eat.
- Composite Character: Of the smaller, British Ornithocheirus simus and the larger, Brazilian Tropeognathus mesembrinus, who was previously sometimes classified as Ornithocheirus mesembrinus. The show's main pterosaur consultant (David Unwin) thought they represented the same species (specifically the female and male morph), which also influenced the migration storyline.
- Continuity Snarl: When it cameos in Chased by Dinosaurs, Nigel Marven cites it as the biggest flying animal ever, even though in Walking with Dinosaurs, Quetzalcoatlus made an appearance and was given a larger wingspan (by about a meter).
- Creator Provincialism: The genus Ornithocheirus was first named in the UK, although the individual in the episode is based on a South American species that was later reclassified.
- Determinator: He would've stopped at nothing to get to his mating grounds. And later, even when he's driven away and then slowly dying of starvation and heat stress, he's still calling for females to mate with him. He fails, but points for trying.
- Dies Wide Open: We are treated to a close up of the old deceased Ornithocheirus clouded dead eye.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Exaggerated. He fails to attract even one of the female Ornithocheirus that have arrived at the breeding grounds, but instinct forces him to continue calling for a mate and he eventually dies from exhaustion after using up all his energy in a futile endeavour. However, he was more successful in previous mating seasons and fails on this occasion due to his age and has been relegated to the fringes of the breeding grounds, where he's less attractive to the females.
- Disaster Dominoes: If the rainstorm that occurs early in the episode hadn't happened, he would have reached the breeding grounds earlier and may have found his preferred spot as in previous years.
- Dying Alone: In the documentary, as he's quite far from the center of the breeding grounds by the time he dies. In the book, he's surrounded by other dead and dying Ornithocheirus at the place he dies, though that's not particularly good company.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Sort of an albatross analogue, with a dash of pelican in there as well.
- Foregone Conclusion: His death is shown right at the opening narration.
- Giant Flyer: 40 feet from wingtip to wingtip (for the record, this was a high end estimate at the time, and most modern estimates put it at just over 28 feet; still very large but outsized by several species of azhdarchids).
- The Hero Dies: He dies from a mix of heat stress, hunger and exhaustion at the end of the episode.
- How We Got Here: His dead body is shown in the opening narration and the Narrator announces to the viewers that we'll get to see the story of his last journey.
- Really Gets Around: It's implied that, in his forty years of life, he's been attracting a lot of lady pterosaurs during the mating seasons and has likely sired thousands of offspring in the process. Justified in that this is simply how his species is shown to propagate in in the program (we get an example when one of his rivals is shown to have more success).
- Rule of Cool: The producers chose the largest possible size estimate for this pterosaur to use in the show. In reality, a wingspan of 8 meters is more likely even for the large specimen the estimates were based on.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Travels the whole world to mate, dies without mating a single time. Subverted in the book, which implies that his death wasn't completely in vain, as his offspring from past mating seasons were most likely on the beach as well.
- Spared by the Adaptation: He lives in the arena spectacular, though he does have a brief run in with some raptors.
- Starts with Their Funeral: The opening narration shows him dead.
Tapejara
- Anachronism Stew: The formation in which the Tapejara species (now known as Tupandactylus) was known is dated to around 110 million years old, making it about 17 million years too old in the episode.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Its proportions are utterly screwed, its crest has weird ridges that make it look like some sort of fish fin, and it lives on the beach, eating fish, when even back then the idea that they were terrestrial omnivores with frugivore leanings was the most common interpretation. In the book, they're depicted as scavengers, being described as "combing the lagoons for carrion". This was unlikely in real life, though as omnivores they might have eaten some carrion from time to time.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The males are twice the size of females and have much larger and more colorful crests (used as display features). This isn’t directly confirmed in tapejarids but is known to very much be the case with the famous Pteranodon.
- Composite Character: According to supplementary material, they have a wingspan of 5 meters, but T. navigans (the species on which the desing is based on) had a wingspan of under 3 meters, while the larger T. imperator did grow that big but had a very different, even more extravagant head crest. Coincidently, both of these species have since been placed in the Tupandactylus genus.
- Giant Flyer: Smaller than the Ornithocheirus, but still large for a flying animal.
- Hero of Another Story: We see them during their own mating season, but we never see what their other activities are.
- Noisy Nature: Justified, being a mating colony.
- Palette Swap: It uses the same body model as Ornithocheirus, only with a swapped head and different colours, even though tapejarids had proportionately shorter wings and longer legs than ornithocheirids.
Iguanodon
- Adaptational Badass: In the novelization, the first Iguanodon to get pounced on by a Utahraptor actually fights back after the predator falls off him, using his thumb spike to stab the raptor's shoulder, leaving her with a limp arm.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Two different species are shown: a smaller, mostly brown one in North America; and a larger, green one in Europe. A third, mostly sand colored one appears in South America in "Chased by Dinosaurs".
- Cow Tools: They have conical claws on their hands. They're not shown using them.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: The North American species is striped like a zebra, walks around in herds, and even makes a zebra-like whinny at one point. It being a genus of large herbivores that are widespread across North America and Eurasia and get preyed on by smaller, pack-hunting carnivores (ala grey wolves) also brings to mind Cervus deer (elk, red deer, sika).
- Monster Munch: They do what all large ornithopods do in dinosaur media: serve as prey for the predators.
- Palette Swap: A more justified example than most in the series, the North American and European Iguanodon use the same model, only with different colours, although since they're meant to be the same genus, they would obviously look very similar (however, the North American Iguanodon is now known as Dakotadon).
- Social Ornithopod: As typical for its species, Iguanodon is normally seen wandering in small to medium-sized herds and is sometimes accompanied by a lone ankylosaur.
- Those Two Guys: Always accompanied by the ankylosaur Polacanthus or Gastonia.
Polacanthus and Gastonia
- Adapted Out: In the novelization, it's only shown with the American Iguanodon, and is oddly absent in the part taking place in Europe (depite most of its purported fossils coming from Europe).
- Mighty Glacier: It's much stronger than the local carnivores, but not particularly fast.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Played straight in the British cut, Polacanthus is known only from Europe, but it is also shown to live in in North America. The American cut corrects this and identified it as the American ankylosaur Gastonia.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Due to its thick armor and spikes. Polacanthus dissuades Utahraptor from considering it prey, despite being much smaller than Iguanodon (and even smaller than the European Iguanodon).
- Palette Swap: Inverted, despite representing two different genera, they are completely identical. The original cut and accompanying material even claim that they are the same genus, but this is corrected in the American cut with the American Polacanthus being identified as Gastonia.
- Those Two Guys: Enjoys traveling with Iguanodon.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: A Polacanthus is cornered by the Utahraptor, but its armour is impregnable to them.
Pliosaur
- All There in the Manual: It's not named in the episode or any of the tie-in books. It's identified as Plesiopleurodon in Dinosaur Worlds, a series of games based on WWD. Though, see Informed Species...
- Adapted Out: No pliosaur appears when the Ornithocheirus crosses the ocean and fishes for food in the novelization, though here, that scene takes place earlier (between South and North America), and him flying over the Atlantic is glossed over.
- Anachronism Stew: If it's meant to be Plesiopleurodon, it's about 30 million years too early. Monquirasaurus (then lumped into Kronosaurus) would make more sense, but even it wouldn't show up for another 10 million years. The similar Sachicasaurus would be a perfect fit, but it wasn't described until much later.
- Informed Species: It's identified as Plesiopleurodon in the tie-in video game, but Plesiopleurodon was not only quite small (with a skull only 71 cm long) but lived much later than 127 million years ago (being known from the Cenomanian, 98 mya). Kronosaurus (or rather Monquirasaurus) would be a better match.
- Hazardous Water: It appears to show that Ornithocheirus should cross the Atlantic fast and without getting close to the water.
- Palette Swap: This creature's a Liopleurodon without the black and white coloring. This is at least justified, because Plesiopleurodon was considered a very close relative of Liopleurodon at the time.
- Sea Monster: It's scary and lives in the sea, at least.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the Liopleurodon, down to using the same model.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: It's literally in the middle of the Ornithocheirus's flight from North America to Europe.
Utahraptor
- All There in the Manual: The episode doesn't address it, but both the American cut and supplementary material (notably Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence) explains that the European Utahraptor was a speculative idea based on the apparent fact that North America and Europe shared other dinosaur genera (like Iguanodon, Polacanthus, and Hypsilophodon) during the Early Cretaceous thanks to a hypothetical land bridge. note
- Anachronism Stew: Retroactively. It's since been found that Utahraptor lived much earlier than initially thought, around 140-135 million years ago rather than 125 million.
- Animated Actors: According to the making-of, it chain smokes and speaks in Received Pronunciation behind the camera.
- Art Evolution: They get red mane-like feathers and wings in the Arena Spectacular.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: In the novelization, their social behavior is expanded on and it strongly parallels extant lions, with the females doing most of the hunting while being beholden to a dominant male, and it's also mentioned that populations that live on plains form larger packs, while those inhabititing forests hunt alone or in small bands (mirroring African and Asiatic lions). Them being a Transatlantic, pack-hunting predator also brings to mind gray wolves.
- Genius Bruiser: The first creature we see that's capable of pulling off complex hunting strategies.
- Jerkass: The two more dominant keep the third at bay while they're eating, even though there's more than enough food for everyone.
- Killer Rabbit: The much larger Iguanodon should destroy Utahraptor on a one on one fight. It flees terrified instead, and with good reason.
- Leitmotif: A very distinct one compared to the other creatures in the series, punctuated by tribal drums.
- Lightning Bruiser: Well suited for running (although only for short distances) and fighting.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Utahraptor in Europe, anyone? The idea was that they were a Transatlantic predator (akin to modern wolves and brown bears), but it's not properly explained in the episode.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: What you may get if you cross an eagle with a big cat. It's also basically Deinonychus in appearance, but given Utahraptor's size (because the latter was not known from good remains at the time).
- Raptor Attack: For the time, it was mostly averted. Lack of feathers aside, they are accurately depicted as sprinters and ambush predators, have to attack as a pack to bring down a mid-sized ornithopod (Iguanodon) and realistically avoid the heavily armored Polacanthus. The episode also acknowledges that they share a common ancestor with early birds like Iberomesornis.
- Rule of Cool: Do you think it's a coincidence that the producers chose the very biggest known dromaeosaur species for the series?
- Series Mascot: Appears in the logo and promotional material, and also chairs (literally) the making-of.
- Slo Mo: Used when the Utahraptor jump over the fleeing Iguanodon.
- Villain of Another Story: Although they pose no threat to the Ornithocheirus, they antagonize the Iguanodon relentlessly. They're not evil, though, just predators.
- Wolverine Claws: Downplayed because it's only one located on the foot rather than the hand, but it's still fully retractable and devastating.
- Zerg Rush: They attack in groups.
Small Pterosaur
A small pterosaur, seemingly a basal pteranodont, who is seen as a background character throughout "Giant of the Skies" and at one point gets mugged by the Ornithocheirus
- Adapted Out: Does not appear in the novelization, and the pterosaur that gets robbed of its fish by the Ornithocheirus is instead a juvenile conspecific.
- Anachronism Stew: If it's indeed Ornithostoma, who lived during the late Albian, about 22 million years after the date of the episode. Though later finds would show that a crested Ornithocheirus/Tropeognathus relative called Caulkicephalus did live in Barremian Britain.
- Butt-Monkey: Its one spotlight scene shows it catching a fish and then getting attacked by the Ornithocheirus, who steals its fish.
- The Generic Guy: Represents a more normal-sized Early Cretaceous pterosaur compared to the gigantic Ornithocheirus. Being smaller is shown to have its benefits, as it makes it easier for it to take flight, while Ornithocheirus has to wait for strong updrafts to get airborne.
- No Name Given: It's only called a "small pterosaur". Given that it looks like a diminutive pteranodontid, it might be meant to be Ornithostoma, a small-bodied basal pteranodontid (or alternatively an azhdarchoid) that was sympatric with Ornichocheirus at Cambridge Greensand in England.
Iberomesornis
- All There in the Manual: Identified only as "birds".
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Very brightly colored, even when compared to non-avian dinosaurs. Referred to as "tiny feathered jewels" in the book.
- Feathered Fiend: They attack the Ornithocheirus fiercely when he intrudes into their nesting grounds.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: They're the first birds to appear, and while minuscule, they're already threatening to pterosaurs, which are disadvantaged due to their more delicate wings. Mesozoic birds don't appear again in the series, but are referenced in the final episode set 40 million years later, where it's mentioned that birds are thriving and have effectively replaced the declining pterosaurs.
- Killer Rabbit: Tiny compared to the Ornithocheirus, to the point of being mistaken for insects next to him, but no less vicious.
- Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: These birds are violently protective of their nesting grounds.
- Misplaced Wildlife: They appear in some place of Europe that's explicitly not the Iberian Peninsula, an island at the time — yet the only remains were found in Spain.
- Rule of Cool: The Zerg Rush behavior is completely speculative, since the only known remains consist of one headless skeleton. It's not necessarily unlikely though, since many small birds today will "mob" larger predators to protect their nests.
- Superior Successor: Although much, much smaller than the Ornithocheirus, it's noted that their feather wings are able to get wet with no issues, are more durable, and enable more nimble flight through dense forests, making them superior to the thin, leathery wings of pterosaurs, and are already in the process of gradually outcompeting them (note that this was based on now-outdated knowledge of pterosaurs).
- Toothy Bird: Justified, the group it belongs to only rarely evolved beaks.
- Zerg Rush: A flock of them harass the old Ornithocheirus and forces him to leave.
Spirits Of The Ice Forest
Leaellynasaura
- Action Survivor: Despite their unimpressive aspect, they're the only dinosaur we see capable of living through a challenge not often associated with them — a polar winter.
- Adapted Out: Absent from the Arena Spectacular. Along with Diplodocus, Coelophysis and Liopleurodon, it's one of the four protagonists to be left out of the stage show.
- Anachronism Stew: Downplayed compared to most examples in WWD, as it did live during the Albian, but about 4-5 million years before the setting of the episode.
- Badass Adorable: Tiny ornithopod dinosaurs they may be, but they are the only animals among the ones we see that can thrive in the winter climate.
- Cow Tools: Despite being vegetarian, they have small forward-facing canines.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: A small, herbivorous dinosaur, that can last the winter much better than the larger, more fearsome dinosaurs.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the show the lead female Leaellynasaura is killed by an "polar allosaur", while in the novelization its an sub-adult male that meets his end, the lead female Leaellynasaura instead meets her end freezing to death being unable to survive the winter, before her corpse is eaten by a Koolasuchus.
- Palette Swap: Uses the same model as Othnielia, but with different colours.
- Fragile Speedster: Speed is about the only defense they have against predators.
- Informed Attribute: It's said they have huge eyes for the dark winter conditions, but since all the small ornithopods uses the same model, they all have the same-sized eyeballs.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Their large eyes and small beaked snouts make them this. The hatchlings take this up a notch.
- Rule of Cool: The only confirmed remains of this species is a single skeleton without tail and hind legs, so everything related to its social nature and use of communal nests to survive the winter is speculative.
- Social Ornithopod: The episode focuses on a Leaellynasaura matriarch who struggles to maintain control and look after her flock during a time of harsh winter in Early Cretaceous Australia. That, and the species can sometimes be seen alongside the larger Muttaburrasaurus.
- Starts with Their Funeral: The episode begins with a lone Leaellynasaura that froze to death in the winter, then shows the carcass being eaten by Koolasuchus.
- Team Mom: The lead female. When she gets eaten, the whole clan falls apart.
- Took a Level in Badass: Compared to the other small ornithopods, who barely get more than being a Living Prop and Monster Munch in other episodes. In fact, small ornithopods made most of the dinosaurs in the area for about 45 million years, unlike everywhere else. This suggests they were better suited to cope with polar conditions than other dinosaurs.
Polar Allosaur
- Anachronism Stew: Along with Koolasuchus, the "polar allosaur" stems from the early Aptian Wonthaggi Formation, so it should have been extinct for 14 million years and would not have met Leaellynasaura, though we have since found fossils of a different megaraptoran that was sympatric with the little ornithopod (nicknamed the "Otway Claw").
- Big Bad: The main predator and the one who causes the biggest conflict by killing the lead female.
- Informed Species: The new BBC website identifies it as Australovenator, even though it doesn't look like one. Unsurprisingly, because the series aired a decade before the description of Australovenator and megaraptorans as a group. Australovenator also turned out to be much younger than initially thought, making the retroactive connection between it and the "polar allosaur" a new example of Science Marches On, though the latter likely was a megaraptoran.
- Living Relic: Implied. It is nearly identical to another dinosaur that lived 30-40 million years before in a less remote location. We know now that this isn't the case because of Science Marches On.
- No Name Given: Originally called "polar allosaur" or "dwarf allosaur", as the remain that inspired it was only assigned provisionally to a nomen dubium, "Allosaurus" robustus. The American cut alternatively went with calling it a "carnosaur".
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Not identified by a specific genus, because it was based on dubious fragmentary remains that had been tentatively assigned to Allosaurus around the time. The program went with the interpretation that it was a close relative of Allosaurus, but now it's considered more likely to have been a megaraptoran, a group of predatory dinosaurs that was not established until 2010.
- Palette Swap: Of the original Allosaurus. This was justified at the time, because it's based on a fossil that was tentatively classified as a species of Allosaurus (although even then it was questioned), although it's now considered more likely either a megaraptoran or an abelisaur.
- Rule of Cool: A more threatening enemy than Koolasuchus was needed, even if there was just an ankle bone to justify it at the time. And polar allosaur sounds freaking awesome.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Allosaurus.
Koolasuchus
- Anachronism Stew: Koolasuchus was long gone by the Mid Albian, as its fossil stem from the early Aptian Wonthaggi Formation instead. The area where it lived did become warmer and even got crocodiles just before the time of the episode, which likely drove Koolasuchus to extinction, as mentioned in the episode. It was also not a contemporary of Leaellynasaura, though it did coexist with similar small ornithopods like Galleonosaurus and Qantassaurus.
- Amphibian at Large: Though it's only distantly related, it looks like an ten-foot-long salamander.
- Black Bead Eyes: Has the typical black, emotionless eyes of an amphibian.
- Dark Is Evil: It is completely black, unlike any other creature in the series, and it has an unsettling air around it. Subverted in that, just like every other creature in the show, it's merely an animal trying to survive.
- Graceful in Their Element: It takes it a long time to move on land, but it is scarily fast in the water.
- Last of His Kind/Living Relic: The last survivor of the temnospondyls, a group of large predatory amphibians that first evolved 200 million years before and were already past their prime when the dinosaurs appeared. It survived in polar latitudes that were too cold for crocodiles and their relatives.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: It acts very much like a crocodile, which explains why its group was driven extinct everywhere else by crocodylomorphs.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: It is huge, creepy-looking and an
ambush predator, so it manages to be one of the scariest creatures in the series despite being almost useless on land. All of its appearances have a rather ominous feel to them. - Prehistoric Monster: A salamander made Nightmare Fuel.
- Rule of Cool: Honestly, would you have this in the episode or a crocodile?
Muttaburrasaurus
- Dumb Muscle: A couple gets lost on the migration north... which they do every year.
- Gentle Giant: They are absolutely not a threat to the local Leaellynasaura browsing with them.
- Mighty Glacier: Slow, but strong.
- Misplaced Wildlife: The episode is set in a rift valley joining southern Australia to Antarctica, but Muttaburrasaurus is only known from central Queensland, more than a thousand miles away. The episode justifies this by it being a migratory animal.
- Monster Munch: Subverted. Though they are presented as a potential prey for the polar allosaur, they are far from defenseless and the predator doesn't even tries to attack the bigger individuals, running from them when they show signs of aggression. The only Muttaburrasaurus the polar alosaur is seen eating is an old male who died of natural causes rather than predation. Adding to that, they have their own subplot not related to be a prey item.
- Noisy Nature: The noisiest of the bunch, with their bellowing calls.
- Palette Swap: Uses a modified Iguanodon model.
- Rule of Cool: The inflatable sacks to use in calls. Proposed for many ornithopods and makes sense, but it is not entirely proven.
- Social Ornithopod: Just like Iguanodon, and can occasionally be seen browsing alongside the smaller Leaelyynasaura.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Plays the same part as its relative, Iguanodon and also looks like it.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: A pair that gets lost in the forest end up preventing the Leaellynasaura sentry from detecting a polar allosaur, which allows it to kill the matriarch.
Steropodon
- All There in the Manual: The species is only identified in supplementary material.
- Evil Egg Eater: Downplayed as it's not really evil, but given that the Leaellynsaura are the protagonists and are trying so hard to keep their eggs safe for the next generation, it fits this role as an occasional pest that needs to be driven off.
- Informed Species: It's live-acted by a coati, which looks nothing like a platypus (Steropodon likely also didn't look like a platypus since it lacked a beak, but most certainly not like a coati). The American children recut Prehistoric Planet even states that it is a coati and that they already lived in the Age of the Dinosaurs. This makes it a massive case of Anachronism Stew and Misplaced Wildlife, as coatis appeared in South America over 90 million years after the episode's setting.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Played by a live-action coati.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: One becomes a brief challenge to the Leaellynasaura when it tries to steal their eggs, but it is easily driven away and never comes back.
Death of a Dynasty
Tyrannosaurus rex
Tyrannosaurus rex
- Action Mom: The mother Tyrannosaurus fights off anything that poses a threat to her young.
- Adaptational Ugliness: In the novelization, the main female is described as having half her face covered in scars, being quite old, and walking with a slight limp.
- All for Nothing: The individual in the episode tries to have a surviving litter in a volcanic environment that is making it difficult for eggs to hatch. She finally manages to do so, but dies trying to raise them, and the two surviving chicks are killed by the asteroid just hours later anyway, so whether or not she would have survived to raise them is moot.
- Art Evolution: The design changes a lot between this series and the sequels, Sea Monsters and Prehistoric Park.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Its proportions are really ungainly and rather ugly compared to the real animal, including abnormally long legs, a very thin tail and neck, an unnaturally blocky and short skull with a bizarre frill at the back, a too-narrow chest, and rounded hoof-like claws. It's rather strange they managed to mess up the anatomy of one of the most famous and well-known dinosaurs so badly.
- Body Horror: The up close shot of a dead Tyrannosaurus fetus, which was cut from the American version.
- Cain and Abel: Implied. The older hatchlings pick on the third one, who later disappears. The narrator speculates that it was killed by the other two but it is never confirmed.
- Camera Abuse: In the prologue, the mother Tyrannosaurus roars to the camera and covers the lens with saliva.
- Continuity Snarl: Walking with Dinosaurs (accurately) stated that T. rex only existed for the last 2 million years of the Cretaceous (same for the making-of special), only for Sea Monsters to show it alive 75 million years ago (about 7-8 million years before its time).
- Dark Is Evil/Dark Is Not Evil: Zigzagged between the two. It's nearly all black as well as a menacing apex predator, but it's also very sympathetically portrayed and a Tragic Monster.
- Demoted to Extra: The main female is less prominent in the novelization, with her time fasting while guarding her new nest being completely glossed over.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: While she still meets her end after a fight with the Ankylosaurus, unlike the show in where she dies a slow death from internal injuries, in the novelization gives her a much quicker death as the Ankylosaurus beats the mother Tyrannosaurus to death before departing with her own baby Ankylosaurus .
- Doomed Hurt Guy: The mother Tyrannosaurus is hit by the Ankylosaurus' tail club; the blow doesn't cause any visible wounds, but it does result in catastrophic internal injuries which cause a slow and painful death.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Appears in the pilot while the High Concept of the series is being described.
- Giant Equals Invincible: Played with. An adult Tyrannosaurus is too tall to be killed by a volcanic gas pool, unless it lowers the head, and everything alive seems naturally wary of it including male Tyrannosaurus. But then Ankylosaurus shows that there is one animal that is not afraid nor in any way incapable of taking on a female Tyrannosaurus. And later the asteroid squishes the tyrannosaurs flat along with all the other dinosaurs.
- Gigantic Adults, Tiny Babies: Although they are larger at birth than the Allosaurus.
- The Hero Dies: The lead female Tyrannosaurus dies from internal injuries after being hit by the Ankylosaurus' tail club, though given the asteroid crashes on Earth the morning after her death, she was not long for this world anyway.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The mother would have kept distances with the Ankylosaurus if it wasn't too near to her children. She gets a tail clubbing for her trouble, which breaks her femur and damages several internal organs before she dies.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Male Tyrannosaurus must be very careful when around females, if they want them to mate rather than killing them.
- Last of His Kind: The genus is only 2 million years old at the time of its extinction. Most dinosaurs lasted 10 or more.
- Mama Bear: Woe betide the animal stupid enough to mess with her kids... Unfortunately, this leads to her death, when her maternal instincts drive her to face an Ankylosaurus head-on that accidentally wandered to close to her chicks. The ankylosaur attacks her instinctively, causing fatal injuries.
- Monster Is a Mommy: The mother spends the whole episode trying to raise a family.
- More Deadly Than the Male: The female is larger and more aggressive than her mate, who must appease her to make sure she won't attack him (note that this sexual dimorphism is based on evidence now considered incorrect).
- Noisy Nature: They are constantly roaring and growling. Sometimes it is for specific reasons like guarding a territory, calling up mates, etc. But others they seem to roar just for the sake of it — after hunting or killing/scaring away an egg-stealing mammal.
- The Nose Knows: They have one of the best senses of smell among the dinosaurs and it is their main tool for hunting.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The mother loses her first batch of eggs to a volcanic gas release. Of the second batch, only three hatch, and one is likely killed by its own siblings. No wonder she is so paranoid about keeping the remaining chicks alive, leading to the inversion of the trope and her own death.
- Please Wake Up: The surviving baby Tyrannosaurus stay by their mother's carcass, unaware that she is dead.
- Scary Teeth: They're serrated and as big as steak knives.
- Series Mascot: The undisputed king, with Allosaurus and Utahraptor following.
- She Is the King: Tyrannosaurus rex translates to "tyrannical king of lizards", but the protagonist of the episode is a female Tyrannosaurus.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The mother never has a surviving litter. She dies, and then her last two children get killed in a planetary wide extinction event.
- Stock Animal Diet: Depicted hunting and feeding on hadrosaurs and Triceratops.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: The narrator describes Tyrannosaurus as "the dinosaurs' most infamous predator" and "specifically evolved to kill other giant dinosaurs." And they are extremely territorial and hostile to other members of their species, only tolerating each other during mating sessions.
- Through His Stomach: Gender-flipped; the male courts the female by offering her a dead Triceratops. The narration indicates that the female will attack him if he doesn't do this. The meal pacifies her and makes her more willing to consider him a potential mate.
- Tragic Monster: This episode follows a female T. rex whose only goal in the episode is become a mother, but her first litter of eggs die off and from her second litter only 3 are born and 1 of them go missing, only for her to die while protecting her 2 surviving offsprings, before they too meet their end during the K-T Extinction event.
- Villain Protagonist: Averted. This is perhaps the most sympathetic, if not downright tragic T. rex ever put to film.
Ankylosaurus
- Adaptational Villainy: Its beating of the mother T. rex is longer and much more violent in the book than in the show.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: Downplayed, as the tail club has no spikes. Still a very powerful weapon, as the mother Tyrannosaurus learns firsthand.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Appears briefly in the opening as a seemingly innocuous cameo... It later kills the T. rex.
- Chekhov's Skill: It is mentioned during the introduction that it evolved specifically to deal with tyrannosaurs.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The mother Tyrannosaurus has no real chance against it.
- Diabolus ex Machina: It walks into the Tyrannosaurus chicks by accident, which makes their mother confront it, and it mortally wounds her as a result.
- The Dreaded: The narrator says the T. rex would normally retreat from an Ankylosaurus. That alone should tell you just how scarily formidable this beast is.
- Dumb Muscle: Described as having a very small brain, and its lack of intelligence leads it to attack anything it perceives as a threat.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted, if not Inverted. Aside from the mass extinction itself, it's the closest thing the episode has to an antagonist.
- Hero Killer: It succeeds where others would not even think about: killing a female, adult T. rex.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Ankylosaurs prove the Armor Is Useless trope wrong. Even their eyelids are armored.
- Non-Malicious Monster: As far as the Ankylosaurus is concerned, it merely defended itself against an unusually aggressive Tyrannosaurus.
- One-Hit Kill: Although in the long run only, as the mother T. rex can limp away before dying.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In the book, the beating of the Tyrannosaurus mother continues for a while, instead of being made of a single hit.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: They're so heavily protected that not even Tyrannosaurus can hurt them, and actually normally flee from them, and one is able to kill a T. rex in a single hit.
Anatotitan
- Adaptational Badass: While in the episode, they are merely Monster Munch, the novelization aknowledges that an adult Anatotitan is no easy prey for a T. rex and is capable of killing the latter. One herd of duckbills stands their ground against the male T. rex and he backs off.
- Adaptational Expansion: They are given more scenes in the noveization. Notably, we see a nesting colony tacking care of their young, but the latter get killed by an incoming ash cloud brought by the winds following a distant volcanic erruption, which suffocates the hatchlings.
- Animals Not to Scale: It's portrayed as being considerably smaller than Tyrannosaurus, but in reality the reverse is more often true.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- There is a brief mention that hadrosaurs evolved in lush swamps. This reeks of the century-old, disproven theory that hadrosaurs were semi-aquatic.
- The model has thumbs, unlike real hadrosaurs. This is probably because it was modified from the Iguanodon model, rather than made from zero. Its forelimbs are also much too stocky, more like Iguanodon, compared to the very thin and gracile forelimbs of hadrosaurs.
- Boring, but Practical: There is only a vague reference, but the reason for the success of the hadrosaurs is that they evolved battery teeth comparable to the molars of mammals. This allowed them to chew their food before swallowing it.
- Decomposite Character: In the novelization, both Anatotitan and Edmontosaurus appear in supporting roles, though the fact files aknowledge that the former could be a synonym of the latter (which has since become the prevailing view).
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Iguanodon evolved a duck head.
- Monster Munch: Like every other boring large herbivore, their existence seems to revolve around being eaten.
- Noisy Nature: They actually eat noisily.
- Palette Swap: Made from a modified Iguanodon model, resulting in it having unusually stiff thumbs.
- Social Ornithopod: Typical for a hadrosaur, Anatotitan is almost always seen travelling with a herd.
Torosaurus
- Accidental Pun: Torosaurus means "Perforated lizard", in reference to the large gaps in its skull frill. It has nothing to do with the Spanish word for bull.
- Body Horror: A male loses a whole horn during rutting season.
- Compete for the Maiden's Hand: They are introduced as males fighting for the right to reproduce. Later, they are shown taking care of their young.
- Death of a Child: It's noted that they are not producing many young because volcanic activity is causing their eggs to develop incompletely. One of the young that managed to hatch is also hunted and killed by a pack of dromaeosaurs, which is noted to be a huge blow to their population.
- Dying Race: It's noted that they are struggling to maintain their numbers because of an abnormally high number of stillbirths due to increased volcanism. The death of just one baby from predation is cited as a major blow to a herd. It ends up being a moot point when the asteroid hits though.
- Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: When attacked by dromaeosaurs, they form a wall around their young. This, unfortunately, proves futile.
- Rule of Cool:
- Except for the somewhat baffling appearance of Triceratops, this is the only ceratopsian that appears in the episode, despite the former being far more common and well-known. Surely the facts that this is one of the largest ceratopsians, with the largest horns, and possibly the largest skull of any animal ever, is merely coincidental.
- Altering the color of the frill by pumping blood on it and using it in interspecific conflicts is speculative.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They replace the stock Triceratops, but are virtually identical. In fact, some scientists even proposed that they were actually the same animal in different growth stages. As of now, the consensus is that they were indeed different animals.
- Uncertain Doom: After a male in heat loses a horn in a fight, the narrator says that it will never mate again. It is unclear if this is because the male will never win a fight, due to lacking one horn, or because it will die from its injuries and will never have the chance. Naturally, considering that the asteroid hits just months after, it could be that it will not mate again for the same reason no other non-avian dinosaur will.
Triceratops
- Animal Jingoism: The only one shown was killed offscreen by its eternal cultural nemesis, a Tyrannosaurus.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Only shows up briefly as a dead corpse, even though in reality Triceratops was by far the most common large animal in the region, making up nearly half of all large dinosaur fossils from the Hell Creek Formation (by contrast, Ankylosaurus only makes up 1%, Edmontosaurus makes up 20%, Tyrannosaurus 24%, and Torosaurus was so rare it doesn't even register as a single percentage).
- Demoted to Extra: A sort of meta example. Triceratops is undeniably one of the most popular dinosaurs and a must-show in any Dinosaur Media alongside Tyrannosaurus (and for good reason, as it was by far the most common large dinosaur in the region), but here it's just shown as a single gnawed carcass.
- Killed Offscreen: Killed by a T. rex offscreen and shows up only as a carcass.
- Posthumous Character: Shows up only as a carcass.
Unnamed small ornithopod
- Living Prop: Yeah, small ornithopods continue to exist. That's about it.
- Monster Munch: Appears as a showcase of predator-prey interactions along with the dromaesaur, although it gets away.
- Palette Swap: Very obviously a recycled model of the ornithopods from the "Time of Titans" episode; they didn't even bother to change the colour in this case.
- No Name Given: Not even in supplementary material, although a possible identity (Thescelosaurus) is fleetingly mentioned as part of the Hell Creek fauna in the book.
Dromaeosaurus
- Anachronism Stew: Narrowly averted. The species was supposed to be the slightly older Dromaeosaurus while in production, but was changed to an unnamed member of the same family.note
- Adapted Out: It does not physically appear in the novelization, it's only alluded to in the prologue for "Death of a Dynasty".
- Eats Babies: Of Torosaurus, Tyrannosaurus... and really, likely anything it can get.
- Evil Egg Eater: One sneaks up to the nest of the mother Tyrannosaurus, hoping to get a bite, only to be scared off by the mother's roar.
- Jack of All Stats: It can run after small ornithischians, steal eggs from Tyrannosaurs, or team up with others to take young Torosaurus.
- Lightning Bruiser: Very fast and very powerful.
- Noisy Nature: After failing to catch a small ornithopod, it roars pointlessly as if it wanted to scare the prey further.
- No Name Given: Only called "dromaeosaur", as it was not supposed to be a particular genus, probably because no species of dromaeosaur to coexist with the other animals in the episode had been described at the time of production (nowadays, they could've used either Acheroraptor or Dakotaraptor).
- Palette Swap: Uses the Utahraptor model recolored. Not unjustified, as Dromaeosaurus was a very close relative of Utahraptor and was believed to have the same proportions at the time, despite being much smaller.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Appears to be trying to do this before the meteorite hits. Not that it would help.
- Stock Footage: This sequence is actually the previous one where a dromaeosaur flees from the Mama Bear Tyrannosaurus, just mirrored. You can even see the nest.
- Raptor Attack: Scaly pack hunting depiction.
- Wolverine Claws: Like any other raptor.
- Zerg Rush: Implied when hunting the young Torosaurus.
Didelphodon
- Action Survivor: Who knew a stuffed panda could survive in a volcanic area with dinosaurs. And do well! That said, the genus itself became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, along with the dinosaurs.
- Badass Adorable: At least until their mean temper shows up.
- Bad Ol' Badger: A tough, aggressive burrowing mammal that both acts and looks the part. It isn't related to badgers, though — it's a marsupial. More complete fossils (at the time Didelphodon was only known from a skull) have also indicated it wasn't actually badger-like, it was more otter-like in body shape.
- Big Eater: Shown constantly eating or trying to eat, despite its small size.
- Circling Vultures: Much of its behaviour borders on this. It feeds on Tyrannosaurus eggs (dead or alive) and a Torosaurus carcass left by the dromaeosaurs.
- Eats Babies: Depicted feeding on a dead unhatched Tyrannosaurus fetus and scavenging the carcass of a baby Torosaurus that had been killed and eaten by raptors.
- Evil Egg Eater: It has a knack for Tyrannosaurus eggs, some of which are well into development. It's also an unpleasant mammal, getting into fights with other Didelphodon for the spoils.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: As a large mammal by Mesozoic standards (10 kg), it symbolizes the coming Age of Mammals.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: They are everywhere during the episode and seem to be almost driving the dinosaurs to extinction by themselves, and the Tyrannosaurus in particular. This is ironic considering current knowledge and the fact that it was also driven to extinction by the asteroid.
- The Swarm: When there are enough of them.
- Too Dumb to Live: Repeatedly shown raiding Tyrannosaurus nests without watching out for the parent; two get eaten this way.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Its role and actions in this episode mirror those of Coelophysis in the first one, with the dinosaurs filling the shoes of the cynodonts and Postosuchus. It's taken 160 million years, but mammals are finally getting their vengeance (although Didelphodon itself went extinct in the K-Pg extinction event along with non-avian dinosaurs).
- Zerg Rush: In a gag sequence in the Making Of special, against the Tyrannosaurus.
Quetzalcoatlus
- Animals Not to Scale: Downplayed. At 13 meters, its wingspan is about two meters longer than that of the real thing (though the novelization puts it at a more accurate 11 meters). Ironically, however, its stunted neck and legs make it much shorter in height when standing (the real animal was nearly as tall as a giraffe on the ground).
- Artistic License – Paleontology: It is Ornithocheirus with different colors, a stubby crest (as it was believed to have in The '90s) and no jaw crests. If you look closely at its official artwork◊, you'll see that it even has teeth!note Its neck is also way too short, even considering the knowledge of the time.
- Death by Adaptation: It is killed by Deinosuchus in the book, whereas the threat is only implied in the TV series and it flies from the lake unscathed.
- Giant Flyer: Described as being a "thirteen meter giant".
- Informed Species: Looks and acts very little like an actual Quetzalcoatlus, even considering Science Marches On.
- Last of His Kind: In the line of "Giant of the Skies", it is introduced as one of the last pterosaurs, clinging to the Giant Flyer niche while the birds have swallowed everything else.
- Misplaced Wildlife: A bizarre inversion. It's depicted as normally being a coastal fishing animal that just happened to fly into the continent for a visit, despite only being known from inland terrestrial ecosystems to begin with in real life.
- Palette Swap: It's an obviously modified model of the Ornithocheirus, resulting in it having teeth.
- Toothy Bird: The real Quetzalcoatlus was toothless, unlike its portrayal here.
- Underground Monkey: Beyond its small head crest and different color scheme, there is no notable difference between it and the Ornithocheirus, as they are both piscivorous, coastal Giant Fliers. They even make the same distinct calls.
Hell Creek Crocodilian
- Adaptation Expansion: Has a more prominent role in the novelization, where several hunt a Quetzalcoatlus, and later confront the mother T. rex after she killed a duckbill, managing to drive her and her chicks away from the kill.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: A red crocodile? It does occur in modern crocodilians, albeit as an environmental reaction.
- Anachronism Stew: If it is meant to be Deinosuchus it is this, as the genus is not known from the end of the Cretaceous.
- Animals Not to Scale: It's stated to be one-ton, but no no crocodilian from the formation was known to reach that size. And if it is meant to be Deinosuchus, the real animal would have been several tonnes.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: It's described as Deinosuchus in the book, but the traits it has in both the show and the novelization do not match with that crocodilian. It actually resembles the region-accurate Thoracosaueus more than anything else, despite said animal not receiving a mention in any of the show's supplementary materials.
- The Dreaded: Drinking dinosaurs (and pterosaurs) are always looking out for them.
- Hazardous Water: As if it wasn't hard enough to drink in a semidesert with few waterholes and the threat of them being poisoned by volcanic activity. Naturally, there should be giant dinosaur-eating crocodiles in them as well.
- No Name Given: At least within the series. The book says its Deinosuchus
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Due to its huge size it is a major predator.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Their only impact in the Tyrannosaurus storyline is ironically positive. By attracting the attention of the Anatotitan, they make them react later to the Tyrannosaurus female, allowing her to hunt an Anatotitan easily.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: To the Anatotitan.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: The novelization describes Deinosuchus as stretching 12 meters in lenght and weighing 2 tons. Yeah....
Dinilysia
- All There in the Manual: Only named in supplementary material.
- Anachronism Stew: Dinilysia is not found at the end of the Cretaceous, but from 20 million years earlier.
- Bait-and-Switch: It's introduced as though it were a potentially menacing predator to the baby Tyrannosaurus, but it's shown to be far too small to be any real threat to them.
- Black Bead Eyes: Like many snakes.
- Misplaced Wildlife: It lived only in South America.
- Oh, Crap!: When the baby Tyrannosaurus get too close for comfort.Narrator:The snake does not like what it can see!
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Live-acted by a ball python.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: It watches the baby T. rexes. It then regrets watching them when they get way too close for comfort.
- Vein-o-Vision: Like all snakes, it has heat-detecting organs that help it locate its common prey, small mammals. These are shown as thermal vision in the documentary, although they work unrelated to its eyes in reality.
Other
Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History
Phytosaur
A large Triassic archosaur that convergently evolved to look and behave like a crocodile. Appears only in the novelization.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: To Nile crocodiles, as they congregate in large numbers in the shrinking bodies of water during the dry season, dig burrows and go into a dormant state to survive the prolonged drought, and their relationship with the Placerias mirrors that of crocs and hippos. Like hippos, the adults Placerias don't fear the phytosaurs (they even mate in the water while surrounded by phytosaurs) but younger animals are fair game.
- No Name Given: They are only called "phytosaurs" and never by a specific genus like Smilosuchus, Machaeroprosopus, or Redondasaurus.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Though not true crocodiles, they look the part and fulfill the same ecological role, though it's stated that they won't attack fully grown Placerias.
- Satellite Character: They appear numerous times in the novelization of "New Blood" and even have a minor subplot which mirrors the struggle of extant Nile crocodiles during droughts, but they only ever appear together with the Placerias, and never interact with the Coelophysis, cynodonts or Postosuchus.
Metoposaur
A large Triassic amphibian known as a temnospondyl. Appears only in the novelization.
- Amphibian at Large: It's a fairly large amphibian, though nowhere as big as Koolasuchus.
- End of an Age: Competition with riparian reptiles such as phytosaurs is shown as being one of the reasons why the dominance of temnospondyls (like the local metoposaurids) is coming to an end.
- No Name Given: They're only called "metopsaurs" and never by a specific genus. Given the location, they are most likely Apachesaurus.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: They only appears once in the novelization of "New Blood", mainly to showcase more of the Late Triassic wildlife and foreshadow Koolasuchus becoming the last of its kind, with Triassic temnospondyls already becoming displaced by riparian reptiles such as the phytosaurs.
Gliding Reptile
A reptile that glides, thanks to elongated ribs covered in a membrane. Appears only in the novelization.
- Bit Character: The biggest offender in "New Blood", as it only appears twice and very briefly. First as the kill of the male cynodont, and later, it gets compared with the Peteinosaurus, who took the evolutionary leap from gliding to powered flight.
- No Name Given: It's only called a "gliding reptile". Given the Late Triassic setting, it's likely meant to be a kuehneosaurid, specifically the North American Icarosaurus
Coelurus
A small Jurassic theropod. Appears only in the novelization.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: A trio of them get confronted by an adult female Diplodocus and she instantly kills one by slamming it into a tree. Given the massive size difference, it's to be expected.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: A herd of 20-ton sauropods gets spooked by a trio of jackal-sized theropods. Unfortunately for the Coelurus, the Diplodocus quickly retaliate and kill one of the predators.
- Underground Monkey: Other than lacking a nose crest, they are essentially identical to the Ornitholestes, being another coyote-sized opportunistic coelurosaur.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: They only show up twice, both times getting spooked by the Diplodocus.
Nanantius
An Australian enantiornithean. Appears only in the novelization.
- Bit Character: Only mentioned in one paragraph in Spirits of the Ice Forest, to show that enantiornitheans continue to thrive after the events of Giant of the Skies.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Downplayed, but it's only known from further north in Queensland, not in Victoria. Though like the Muttaburrasaurus, they might be summer migrants.
- Underground Monkey: More or less the same thing as Iberomesornis but living in the polar forests of the Australian-Antarctic rift valley.
Walking with Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular
The Narrator
The show’s host.
Liliensternus
A fairly large Triassic theropod.
- Adaptational Species Change: Replaces the Coelophysis that was the protagonist in the show's first segment. This change is probably pragmatic, as it, unlike Coelophysis, actually did coexist with Plateosaurus, and is much larger, making it easier for it to be played by a man in a puppet suit.
- Canon Foreigner: The only dinoaaur in the live show to appear solely there and nowhere else.
- Eats Babies: It hunts baby Plateosaurus.
Walking with Dinosaurs 3D (2013)
Patchi
Voiced by: Justin Long
The protagonist, a Pachyrhinosaurus.
- Adaptational Badass: In the video game, where he even wins against a rival male bigger than him.
- Big Damn Heroes: He pulls this off in the end, leading the herd to save Scowler from the Gorgosaurus pack.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: When Scowler says "One more thing, Patchi...", Patchi sighs and mutters "I know, I know...eat your dust."
- Buffy Speak: Calls the Chirostenotes "skinny necked pecky things".
- Chekhov's Gun: You see the hole in his frill the Troodon made eariler? He later uses it to break Gorgon's arm and finish him.
- Childhood Friend Romance: With Juniper.
- Heroic BSoD: He goes into this after Scowler leaves him for dead, even welcoming the scavengers coming in to eat him. But Alex tells him to live or die for something worth dying for like Bulldust did, giving him the resolve to rejoin the herd.
- Idiot Hero: Was this at the beginning. Begins to shape up after Scowler nearly loses the herd in an icy lake.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Tries using this after Scowler teases him for liking Juniper.
- Tempting Fate: He tells Juniper that they never know what they might find in the forest, but trips over what he thinks is a log. It's not; it's a tail of a sleeping Gorgosaurus, and he finds himself blocked by the dinosaur's feet and tail, and his face closer than an inch away from its soles.
- Use Your Head: As expected from a ceratopsian.
Alex
Voiced by: John Leguizamo
The protagonist's friend, an Alexornis.
- Deadpan Snarker: Makes a side remark at anything.
- The Narrator: Of the movie. He often shares the narrating with Patchi, though.
- Running Gag: While talking about something, he'll see bugs flying and quickly eats them.
- Toothy Bird: Although somewhat realistic, since many similar birds had teeth and all, Alex's design is seemingly more oriented towards cartoony bird appearences, having a "beak" with teeth instead of the feathered snout of known enantiornithe snouts.
- Undying Loyalty: To Patchi—best shown when he gives him an inspiring speech after he crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
- What the Hell, Hero?: He couldn't believe it when Patchi tells him to let him die, so he scolds him and says that if he's going to die...then he should die for something worth living for (his love for Juniper).
Juniper
Voiced by: Tiya Sircar
Patchi's Love Interest.
- Childhood Friend Romance: With Patchi, having been his friend since they were calves and becoming his mate in adulthood.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has her moments.Scowler: Remember, they can smell fear!
Patchi: Sorry...that's not fear...
Juniper: (annoyed) I think I just stepped in some "fear". - Flat Character: Your basic love interest character who follows the male protagonist around on his adventures and has her occasional Damsel in Distress moments.
Scowler
Voiced by: Skyler Stone
Patchi's older brother.
- Asshole Victim: After being a Jerkass for the whole film, he is firmly made into this when he gets nastily mauled by Gorgon and left for dead by his herd.
- Big Brother Bully: He pretty much entertains himself by picking on Patchi throughout the film.
- Big Brother Instinct: When he sees Patchi return after kicking him out of the herd, the first thing he does is warn his little brother to keep away from the attacking Gorgosaurus and get to safety.
- Break the Haughty: When he leads the herd into Ambush Alley and tries flee from the Gorgosaurus, getting himself caught and nearly killed as a result while his herd ditches him. Alex lampshades this and nicknames Ambush Alley "Scowler's Folly".
- Catchphrase: "Eat my dust!"
- Dirty Coward: Once the ice starts cracking, Scowler shows his true colors as a selfish coward rather than a true leader and ditches most of his herd to get himself to safety. After leading the herd into Ambush Alley, Scowler tries to flee from the Gorgosaurus, but since he was in front as leader, he ends up lagging behind and makes himself vulnerable to Gorgon's attack.
- Drunk with Power: As bad as he is to start with, he gets worse after becoming leader of the herd.
- Face–Heel Turn: Takes a turn for the worse after becoming Drunk with Power. He then has a Heel–Face Turn after Patchi saves him from Gorgon.
- Hate Sink: Especially during his Kick the Dog moment towards Patchi. Seeing Gorgon tear him apart and his herd leave him after that is somewhat satisfying.
- Hated by All: After how nasty and hateful he's become, his herd seems to be willing to disown him as their leader and leave him to die in the jaws of Gorgon (although fear may have helped).
- Heel–Face Turn: Repents after Patchi saves him from Gorgon.
- Heel Realization: Scowler finally realizes how bad he had been when Gorgon overpowers him in battle and the herd abandons him, and when Patchi saves his life and convinces the herd to do the same, he apologizes to his little brother for the way he treated him their whole lives and surrenders his leadership to him.
- I Have No Son!: He says he has no brother to justify his reason to not listen to Juniper when she tells him off for not letting her help Patchi. But then immediately subverted when Gorgon is mauling him and his herd practically disowns him as their leader.
- It's All About Me: He's very selfish, and this gets turned up a notch when he becomes leader of the herd.
- Jerkass to One: While he is rather nasty, it's Patchi whom he mostly picks on.
- Kick the Dog: After he mauls Patchi during their fight, he kicks him out of the herd and refuses to let Juniper help him. Thus, Laser-Guided Karma soon comes after him in the form of Gorgon.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Shortly after leaving Patchi to die, he attempts to cowardly flee from Gorgon at Ambush Alley to be caught and mauled to near death. Plus his herd doesn't bother to help him and run away, basically disowning and abandoning him to die much like how he did with Patchi.
- More Hateable Minor Villain: Being a selfish and nasty jerk makes him even worse than the actual main villain Gorgon, who is merely a predator.
- Never My Fault: He does not blame himself for almost letting the herd drown in a near-frozen lake.
- Smug Snake: The moment where he stops being a haughty Big Brother Bully is when Gorgon and his pack attack the herd.
- The Sociopath: Shows shades of this when he gets Drunk with Power. He doesn't seem to care when he lead the herd in a near-frozen lake which caused a few members to drown, and he is quick to fleeing to save himself upon seeing the cracks in the ice. The he mauls Patchi and leaves to die just for saving the herd from drowning. He then once again tries to flee when Gorgon attacks, which gets himself nearly killed and this causes him to become repentant, especially when Patchi saves him.
- Temper-Ceratops: The most aggressive and bad-tempered of the Pachyrhinosaurus characters.
Gorgon
- Anachronism Stew: Gorgosaurus actually became extinct a few million years before the time the film takes place.
- Berserk Button: Apparently, due to his eyes narrowing, he does not like Patchi calling him "tiny arms".
- Big Bad: The closest thing to one in the 3D film.
- Gender-Blender Name: Sort of. The word "gorgon" generally applies to female monsters.
- Genius Bruiser: He is intelligent as he is powerful and fast.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He unknowingly inflicts this on Scowler, who had just left his own brother to die in a ditch, by attacking and nearly killing him near the climax of the film. Gets on the receiving end of this after Patchi defeats him by breaking his arm and several of his teeth.
- Lightning Bruiser: Gorgosaurus is better built for speed than Tyrannosaurus, partially due to having a tibia longer than the femur.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Gorgosaurus is only known from southern Alberta and Montana, not Alaska. Again, this is because its portrayal is based on Alaskan fossils later identified as Nanuqsaurus.
- Non-Malicious Monster: He's not evil. Just a predator following instinct.
- Predators Are Mean: Subverted. He is never depicted as evil or malicious, but rather just hungry and wanting to feed his pack.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Being a member of Tyrannosauridae and the primary predator of the story, Gorgon is naturally a terrifying antagonist to Patchi and his herd.
Bulldust
An older Pachyrhinosaurus and the leader of his herd. He's also Patchi and Scowler's father.
- Big Damn Heroes: He saves his sons from Gorgon before the latter could eat them...but at the cost of his life.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He keeps Gorgon away from his sons but dies in the process.
- The Leader: Of his herd.
- Large and in Charge: As Alex puts it, he is Patchi's "six-thousand pound papa".
- Papa Wolf: To the point that he dies to save both his sons.
Azhdarchids
A trio of lesser antagonists.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: They do have a level of accuracy to them (they were designed by pterosaur expert Mark Witton, after all), but there are still some mistakes here and there; they have pointy wing tipsnote , their wings bend the wrong way when on the groundnote and their diet is shown to include fish and carrionnote
- Circling Vultures: Serve this purpose at one point.
- Giant Flyers: Though the movie shows that they're just as competent on the ground as they are in the sky.
- Hates Being Touched: The one in the middle hates it when the one on the left sidles up to it and lets it know with a squawk.
- The Leader: The one in the middle appears to be this for the flock, as the other two tend to back down to it when it gets angry.
- No Sense of Personal Space: The left one often sidles up to the middle one and at one point tries to seek warmth from it. The middle one doesn't like that at all.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: They're comic relief characters for the majority of the film that hardly even qualify as "villains"...until they take advantage of Patchi's state of despair in the aftermath of his duel with Scowler to try to eat him alive.
- Quirky Mini Boss Squad: Come off as such, being less threatening antagonists who cower at the sight of the Big Bad.
- Terrible Trio: Though they used to be a quartet before Gorgon got his jaws on one of them.
