As exciting and awe-inspiring as rescuing prehistoric animals from extinction may be, that doesn't mean there won't be plenty of reason to feel scared along the way.
For appropriate moments in the spin-off Prehistoric Park: Extras, see the following link:
open/close all folders
Novum Initium
- As saddening as it is, the scene where Arlo is trapped in quicksand is also fairly scary if you really think about it. Just imagine the sight of the poor dinosaur trapped up to his knees in quicksand, tired and weak, and with a gaping bite wound on his back. Then add in the fact that both a pack of ceratosaurus and a combined float of amphicotylus and diplosaurus show up to try to hunt and eat him while he's already trapped and unable to defend himself, and you could almost interpret his subsequent despairing bellows towards the sky as him yelling for help.
- Even before the ceratosaurus end up briefly delayed by the arrival of the prehistoric crocodiles, the carnivores seem noticeably wary about approaching Arlo after seeing the bite mark on his back, even going so far as to look around the area as if checking to see whether the creature that inflicted it is in the area. If you're not already aware of just what kind of animals lived alongside ceratosaurus and apatosaurus, the idea of something that scares the ceratosaurus is certainly not a pleasant thought.
- When Leon accidentally steps in a small hole full of dust and trips while he and Jack are trying to keep the ceratosaurus, amphicotylus, and diplosaurus focused on them instead of Arlo, the carnivores all naturally start making a beeline for him. And while Jack is thankfully able to get their attention on him in time, it's not hard to imagine what might have happened if Jack hadn't done so in time, especially considering how it's never exactly made clear just how close the carnivores had gotten to reaching Leon before Jack got their attention away from him.
- When the first rescued pair of ornitholestes are introduced, they are very viciously digging into several Jurassic mammal burrows and snapping their teeth, snarling the entire time. It's not hard to imagine the fruitafossor and paurodon that are revealed to have been living in these burrows panicking and trying to scurry deeper below the ground to avoid the vicious predators trying to dig them out. And furthermore, if you put yourself in Alice's shoes, you can easily understand why she'd be so concerned about Jack not giving her fair warning about his Indy Ploy when you realize how badly things could have ended if he hadn't summoned his portal in time when the raptors were successfully goaded into charging at them.
- The death of the elderly male apatosaurus killed in the stampede by the allosaurus fragilis pack really goes to show how this story is pulling no punches in showing off how brutal the carnivores can be in killing their prey. To start, while the elderly male in question is lagging at the very back of the stampeding combined herd of multiple sauropod species, the allosaurus pack is very swift to capitalize on his The Runt at the End status by dealing multiple swift bites against him in a short amount of time, weakening him to the point of eventually collapsing, at which he can only helplessly bellow at the triumphantly hissing and approaching carnivores before the alpha finally finishes him off with a very abrupt infliction of a Slashed Throat to him with her fangs. And no sooner is he dead when they all climb up upon him and start viciously feasting.Jack: "Hooboy! I'm certainly not inviting these guys to a holiday dinner!
- The introduction of the allosaurus fragilis pack, as well as that of the later encountered pack of saurophaganax, are also played for a somewhat decent amount of suspense. For unlike the ceratosaurus, which at least announced their presence with snarls right before they arrived, these two packs of even larger species noticeably manage to be stealthy enough to not make any noise to the point that the only warning the readers and rescue team get to their presence is the sight and sound of nearby sauropods bellowing in alarm, as well as the briefest glimpses of something stealthily moving through nearby foliage, before the carnivores themselves abruptly burst out of the foliage. And keep in mind, the giant herbivores were at least able to be detected coming via Bad Vibrations in the ground caused by their footsteps. These giant carnivores, on the other hand, despite their massive size, managed to get close enough for the sauropods to smell them and the rescue team to get obscure glimpses of them through the foliage seemingly without making any noise at all beforehand. All in all, a complete aversion of Noisy Nature pulled off to scary effect!
All Creatures Great and Small
- While somewhat easy to miss on first reading, the fact that the pack of ceratosaurus dentisulcatus are willingly feasting on a carcass alongside a pair of lourinhanosaurus actually allows for some fairly unsettling implications about how bad circumstances have gotten during this particular drought in the Jurassic era Lourinha formation. For context, most other scenes in which two groups of different carnivore species have been in the same area as a carcass they mutually want to eat have involved the two groups actively fighting each other over the rights to eat the carcass first. Yet in this scene, the two groups are first seen actively eating the same carcass together seemingly without having even tried to fight each other over it beforehand. Just how desperately hungry were they to seemingly be so willing to share food without putting up a fight over who gets to have the lion's share of the meat first?
- As affable and friendly as Arlo generally appears to be, that doesn't change the fact that he's heavier than a full grown African bull elephant, and has the height to match; all despite still being a juvenile. And as Nikolai points out, with such a massive size and weight that will no doubt increase as he grows older, then it will probably not be a pretty sight in the seemingly unlikely event that such a friendly giant dinosaur as Arlo loses his temper and tries to attack anything.
- Just like the allosaurus fragilis and saurophaganax back in Novum Initium, the torvosaurus manage to pull off an almost completely silent ambush upon a larger combined herd of herbivores.
New Blood
- When Nemo is first found, he is frantically swimming through the water as if actively fleeing from something. And while it's never explicitly revealed just why he's acting this way, the fact that he's all alone despite his young age really makes one wonder just what happened to his original pod. And for that matter, considering how whatever happened to cause him to be all alone at the time of Drew and Alice's first encounter with him probably happened fairly recently judging by how he appears to be actively fleeing from something and frightened, it's entirely possible that whatever was responsible may very well have still been pursuing him in the distance...
- A brief Jump Scare can be found when a young prosauropod manages to learn the hard way that what appears to be a small group of strangely green colored logs is actually a float of mystriosuchus, with the rescue team vicariously learning about the matter through watching the end result. And while this brief encounter ends with the prosauropod merely being scared away as well as likely not even being on the menu for these animals anyway by virtue of their piscivore diet, said diet doesn't stop that same float from swiftly charging straight towards the rescue team and hissing viciously at them in an effort to scare them off when the rescue team accidentally alerts the phytosaurs to their presence via Jack accidentally stepping on a twig and causing it to snap.
- While slightly downplayed due to their comparatively smaller size, the liliensternus manage, just like their considerably larger counterparts in the previous two missions, to successfully get within smelling range of a group of herbivores the rescue team is observing without making any noise prior to the moment one of the herbivores smells them and subsequently lets out an alarmed cry. At this point, it's safe to say that one should never get complacent when going on adventures in the wild, regardless of the time period.
- The pod of cymbospondylus. Showing up immediately after Drew and Jack have climbed back into their lifeboat following the successful rescue of an entire pod of nothosaurus, these ichthyosaurs show up completely without warning, introducing themselves via one of them abruptly smashing up against the boat and sending the two boys flying out into the water, smashing the boat in half for good measure. And while they largely seem more curious than anything else when they subsequently surround and start swimming closer towards the two boys, they seem fairly aggressive in their curiosity. And what's worse, zaps from the cattle prod seem to at best only temporarily deter them via annoyance as opposed to pain. All this in mind, plus how eagerly they start eating the placodont corpse that Jack and the Ancient Mariner crew had fished earlier in the mission when said corpse is dropped into the water near them, is enough to make you wonder if they would have been willing to perhaps attack, or even eat, Jack and Drew after all if Alice and the crew had been just a few seconds later in dropping the carcass.
Red in Tooth and Claw
- The sheer swiftness and brutality in the way the first encountered pair of phorusrhacos manage to take down and kill the one luckless elderly male macrauchenia that fails to make it through the portal alongside its herd before they catch him. With a single hatchet-like blow from its beak, one of the birds swiftly takes down the straggler. From there, the luckless litoptern can only snort and bellow helplessly as the bird that took it down uses its taloned foot to pin it down by the throat before a second swift strike from its beak crushes its windpipe instantaneously. The rescue team understandably can't help but wince at the sight of this.
- While things don't get all that bloody as a result of the time in which the rescue team intervenes, the megatherium are explicitly made clear in the narrative to not be animals that should be taken lightly. For not only do the very first two introduced manage to bloodlessly hold their own against an adult female arctotherium, but they also are seen to have noticeably wary looks still on their faces when they look at the rescue team immediately after the bear has been sent through the portal. Understandably, this wary look, plus the sharp claws on the two giant ground sloths' 'hands' is enough to make the rescue team consider their next actions very carefully indeed.
- The arctotherium themselves are no slouch either. For starters, as explicitly described of the very first one encountered in the story, these bears are taller than a human even when on all fours, and this one ends up rearing up on its hind legs at one point during its confrontation with the two bachelor smilodon brothers. And furthermore, after an entire sleuth had been successfully sent through the portal by Drew alongside a pair of wingegyps cartellei, even he can't help but whistle afterward and admit that the sight of them charging his way had legitimately scared him for a moment.
- The protocyon pack. Arriving completely without warning, it isn't until the gang hears one of them growling immediately after loading up the tranquilized smilodon pride and sending the pride's attending pair of wingegyps through the portal that they even know that the dogs (plus their FOUR attending wingegyps) are even there. And the dogs and vultures are right behind them to! And from the looks on the creatures' faces, they are clearly eager to try to eat the helpless smilodons, and not at all afraid to try to fight their way past the rescue team to do so. Oh, Crap! indeed!
- During the attempt at integrating Arlo with the larger herd, Bron, upon receiving the silent signal of permission from Gertie, proceeds to rather aggressively bellow at Arlo before charging viciously towards the younger apatosaurus. Needless to say, it's probably a very good thing that Arlo was able to get the hint and run away to a safe distance before Bron could reach him.
- Meanwhile, back in the past, Adrian is understandably wary as his efforts at keeping the protocyon at bay gradually become less and less effective. Similarly, when the trio is finally using the jeep to hightail themselves and the tranquilized smilodon pride away from the pursuing wild dogs and vultures, Adrian still remains understandably wary as their pursuers are allowed to continue to remain close behind in the chase. Naturally, it is just as much a relief to the readers as it is to Adrian himself when Drew finally gives the all clear to summon the portal in time to allow the protocyon pack and their attending wingegyps to go skidding right through to the park.
- Immediately after the protocyon and their attending wingegyps have been sent through the portal, the rescue team discovers, to their horror, that a recent lightning storm has caused a gigantic wildfire to start forming at the water hole. They subsequently hightail it to the water hole in their jeep in time to notice all the animals that had still been at the water hole at the time they left to go after the toxodon huddling together in terror and agony alongside an equally terrified phorusrhacos foursome, adult female smilodon duo, and arctotherium family (which consists of a Mama Bear desperately trying to shield her two cubs). And the fire only continues to get stronger and worse over the course of the team's thankfully successful efforts at getting this mass group of terrified and coughing animals through the portal to the safety of the future.
Oozing From the Pit
- During Eshe's introduction scene, practically seconds pass after the wounded American cheetah falls onto the ground exhausted and in pain from her scratch wound before a hungry teratornis pair descends down to her. And from both the way they subsequently behave as well as the hungry looks of triumph on their faces, it's very clear indeed just what they would have probably done if Alice hadn't managed to scare them off through the portal.
- A throwaway line from John Willowby helps point out just how hard the security team has to work to ensure the safety of the animals and staff. For with only a single lethal weapon currently available in their arsenal, the team has realized that the best chance of proper safety around the giant carnivores is to make the likelihood of them escaping as low as they can possibly manage rather than to have to find a way to deal with them in the event of an escape. That in mind, one can really only hope that things don't go too badly for the park in the event that a giant carnivore does manage to escape...
- The La Brea Tar Pits. Upon arrival, Drew, Leon, and Alice catch sight of a massive number of animals (some of which are obvious youngsters) writhing and screaming in panic and pain as they try helplessly in desperation to escape. And not only is it by sheer luck that the trio subsequently manage to prevent an entire larger herd of Columbian mammoths from unwittingly letting themselves join the two bachelor males of their kind already trapped alongside multiple other animals of different species, but the trio (plus a sizable number of additional workers that end up being sent off to go on a return trip with them when the trio briefly returns to the park afterward for help) are understandably in a big hurry to try to extract as many of the struggling would-be tar pit victims from the pit they're at as possible. Thankfully, the rescue team and their assistants manage to rescue ALL of the animals seen actively struggling at the tar pit's surface.
- As awesome as the fight between Diego the smilodon and Smokey the arctodus is, there's also no denying the fact that it's also viciously brutal. And the simple fact remains that, at the end of the battle, if Leon hadn't intervened in time with the roaring bear recording, Smokey would almost certainly have successfully had Diego Killed Off for Real right then and there.
Return of the King
- The inevitable arrival of the KT-Event asteroid is very much played for drama, with the team always making sure every now and then to look up towards the sky to see how long they have before it lands on the earth as scheduled, well aware that they're running on borrowed time and how they most certainly do not want to still be present at the moment the climactic cataclysm unfolds after the asteroid's landing.
- At one point, Jack wanders on his own into a clearing...right at the same time a t-rex family encountered earlier in the mission are already there. For a brief moment, it looks as if Jack will be able to silently exit without getting noticed...but then the juvenile female amongst the family notices him, at which point she then hisses at him like a crocodile before then charging his way, the rest of her family joining in not too long after Jack starts running to flee. Left with no other options, Jack is forced to try to hide himself inside a large log alongside a single female dinilysia and male dromaeosaurus that are also hiding within the same log in mutual fear while the entire family of rex start trying to snap their way into the log to get at the juicy prey trying to hide in there from them.
- The Tyrannosaurus rex family in general. In the first three scenes featuring them, they are played entirely seriously by virtue of being actively on the hunt, instantly changing the tone of said scenes when they appear, and also seemingly being described as the local animal that all the other animals fear.
- Once again, what seems to be a bunch of logs turns out to actually be a float of local crocodilians. And unlike the mystriosuchus from New Blood the brachychampsa in this chapter go into a full on hungry frenzy upon getting triggered into waking up by a hapless prey item. And double points on both the readers' and Alice's end when Jack ends up taking a cannonball dive right in the midst of the frenzied float for the sake of rescuing a single basilemys that wasn't able to get to a safe distance beforehand alongside the rest of her group. If it hadn't been for insanely lucky timing and the natural reluctance of crocodilians to immediately attack and go after something they're not familiar with, Jack himself could have easily ended up viciously mauled and torn apart by the crocodiles over the course of their frenzy.
- The second time Duke is encountered, it's in the context of him and his pack managing to sneak up on and surround Jack, Alice, and Leon. While the suspense is thankfully mitigated once Jack and Duke end up recognizing each other and Alice manages to throw up some bait meat in time for the entire pack to end up attracted into going through the portal instead of attacking, it's definitely unpleasant to think of what could have happened if the trio hadn't been so lucky or well prepared.
- The meteor strike:
- At the moment in which it strikes, the rescue team has just finished the heartwarming spectacle of the Tyrannosaurus rex family peacefully and happily feasting on a carcass, only for the moment to very abruptly end when Leon happens to look up and develop an Oh, Crap! look at a then unidentified sight in the sky. His reaction, followed by an ominous sound from up in the sky, is enough to convince the rest of the rescue team, plus the t-rex family, to look up in the sky in time to see the ominous light in the sky representing the infamous asteroid suddenly streak through the air rapidly before eventually dissipating into a burst of dust and smoke in the distance as the meteor finally lands.
- Immediately after the meteor's landing, the first few moments that follow are in almost complete silence, building up the suspense. And from there, Adrian has just enough time to point out that This Is Gonna Suck, followed by Alice sarcastically asking him "What gave it away?" before the full force of the impact finally starts to catch up to the environment around the crash.
- Then the dusty shockwaves start to hit, alongside bursts of roaring hurricane force winds. Before long, the rescue team finds themselves struggling to both stay upright and summon the portal, all while trying as hard as they can to avoid getting dust in their eyes and mouths.
- At the same time, the t-rex family is hissing and bellowing in rage, fear, and confusion at the apocalypse going on around them. While the situation they're in is scary enough on its own, the fact that the Tyrannosaurus rex in particular are also scared further adds to the terror. Keep in mind, in the previous three scenes that featured them, the t-rex family were portrayed as terrifying carnivorous beasts seemingly viewed as The Dreaded to all the other local animals sharing the scenes with them. But now, seeing THEM scared as well only goes to show how, in the face of The End of the World as We Know It, even the mightiest of animals is not immune to undergoing the Always a Bigger Fish treatment.
- 'Just in time'. Those are the final three words in the last paragraph of the team's time in the Cretaceous Hell Creek formation. And they are positioned immediately after the narrative describes the team and the t-rex family successfully entering the portal and going through back to the safety of the park and future. With such wording and positioning, plus the circumstances unfolding around them at the time of their exit to the future, the possibilities of what they may have just narrowly avoided are not at all pleasant to consider.
- And then there's the Word of God from A-LionGleek as to just what it was that necessitated the 'just in time' in the narrative. As it turns out, cruising a long at the tail end of the round of dusty shockwaves produced by the meteor impact was an even bigger shockwave...made of FIRE. And with that in mind, it's entirely likely that the 'just in time' means that this wave of fire burst into the area where the rescue team and t-rex family had been before their departure and roasted it up mere seconds after they had left and the portal had closed. Now imagine what would have happened if they'd been just a few seconds later...
- The torvosaurus escape is likewise played entirely for drama. While the animal itself is more confused and angry than anything else, it's still a gigantic carnivore in an unfamiliar environment that could cause a lot of damage and destruction if it's not brought back into proper containment. Even worse, right before it is successfully attracted into turning around and heading towards the planned trap for it, it very nearly manages to reach the park's front gate with the intention of potentially leaving the park grounds altogether for the sake of exploration and escape from the blaring noise of the red alert security alarms. And as if that weren't enough, there's just what Drew decided to do to for the sake of his Indy Ploy for recapturing the torvosaurus...tricking Leon into unwittingly serving as live bait to lead the torvosaurus to the trap. And while the plan thankfully succeeds, the fact that failure could have resulted in Leon getting killed, and possibly even eaten, by the giant carnivore, is understandably enough to make Adrian and Alice very uncomfortable over the idea even being thought up in the first place.
Alien Empire
- While not portrayed as evil or any more dangerous than any modern real life species of arachnid, the pulmonoscorpius and megalorachne are nonetheless described and portrayed in relatively sinister sounding fashion (the latter especially so to apparent arachnophobe Leon) during at least their introductory scenes. Selqet in particular is first introduced crawling upon the sleeping Drew's back, and even goes so far as to viciously jab her stinger against the reinforced glass wall of her 'bug cage' after being captured seemingly in direct response to what Leon says to her, whereas Neith is first introduced falling upon Leon's head and later enters her second scene by very abruptly lunging out of her burrow upon a luckless hylonomus that she then viciously kills.
- While he thankfully turns out to be a Gentle Giant in his later appearances, Felix's introduction scene involves him very abruptly rearing up like a cobra and startling the rescue team mere seconds after Leon's foot just happens to step inches away from where he's positioned and startles him.
- The crassigyrinus first introduce themselves to the story when one of them abruptly bites Leon's ankle while still underwater and out of view. The one that bit Leon is then subsequently seen very viciously struggling in Drew's grasp after he manages to grab her seconds after a lucky kick from Leon causes her to let go of his ankle. And no sooner is the one that bit Leon through the portal when seven more reveal themselves to be present in the same body of water.
- The wildfire, and the rescue team's experiences with it, are played entirely for drama. And as if the effort to run away from it wasn't enough, not only does Drew willingly delay his return to the safety of the future specifically to run deeper into the burning swamp for the sake of finding another arthropleura to keep Felix company, but Leon and Adrian also find themselves having to use the jeep at a point where swamp water has gotten into the engine and caused the vehicle to start stalling at what couldn't be a worse time. And for a brief moment, in the time it takes for Adrian to come back from the future with the tow-rope attached to Arlo, the suspense building up to that moment is enough for Leon himself to briefly start wondering if he's in fact about to die.
- Drew's portal malfunctioning. While downplayed in scariness by virtue of Leon and Adrian's ending up working just fine, it's never explicitly made clear why Drew's malfunctioned. And not only that, but what would have happened if Leon and Adrian's portals had malfunctioned as well? And during the FIRE no less?
South of Heaven
- Grime's introductory scene is definitely enough to at least startle readers just as much as it did Drew, Alice, and Jack In-Universe. Mere seconds after Drew has finished using a portal grenade to rescue a small group of diplocaulus and slaugenhopia, the eryops very abruptly lunges out of the water that the rescued smaller amphibians had been present in beforehand similarly to a crocodile; and at a speed fast enough for him to initially be only visible as a blur despite his somewhat large size. And despite his ridiculously tiny legs, his massive size, powerful tail, and large strong jaws full of viciously sharp teeth more than make up for this fact once he's come to a stop long enough for the team to get a clear view of him.
- And as if that weren't enough, Grime then proceeds to further intensify the situation by letting out a low bellow that turns out to be a signal for three more eryops, plus a small float of acheloma to climb out of the water and join him. And from there, all the carnivorous temnospondyls start to slowly advance towards Drew and the Denhams, croaking and hissing hungrily while clearly planning to try to make a meal out of the rescue team.
- And even after the eryops and acheloma have been sent through the portal to the park in time to be prevented from attacking Drew and the Denhams, one of the eryops (possibly Grime) still manages to prove just how dangerous the species can be by virtue of very nearly biting an arm off of one of the attending holding pens team keepers.
- Despite being the person who helped successfully capture a couple of them, Leon is still very much as unnerved by the pulmonoscorpius as any other scorpion before he attempts to actually work with them. And even though he explicitly makes an effort to work past his nerves around them, the scorpions do not make it an easy task for him. Selqet in particular manages to seemingly glare straight at him after he's unlocked her segment of the vivarium as if saying "Do you feel lucky punk? Do you?" (just like Grumpy the megalograptus from back in Prehistoric Earth). And even after Leon's finally mustered up the guts to open the segment and lower a 'cricket on a skewer' into range for her to eat, she is very swift to grab onto the cricket with her pincers before Leon triggers the skewer into detaching from the cricket. And while not focused upon nearly as much in comparison, a male named Scorpio similarly proves somewhat unnerving by being shown to explicitly rear up on his four back-most legs and snap his pincers on sight of food on the verge of being delivered to him and is also strongly implied to be willing to give his food a dry sting before he eats it. And while he is implied to have managed to at least somewhat worked past his nerves around scorpions, he's still all too eager to save the megalorachne for last.
- In the introduction scene for Fafnir the elderly sphenacodon, he manages to successfully pin down and bite a single straggling edaphosaurus that fails to make it through the portal alongside the rest of its herd. This in and of itself may not be so bad...except it turns out that, much like a komodo dragon, the sphenacodon bite contains lethal venomous bacteria. And furthermore, again much like a komodo dragon, Fafnir sticks around long enough to watch and wait for the edaphosaurus to be killed by his venom, knowing full well thanks to experience that the luckless herbivore's death is inevitable now that its been bitten.
- Rommel's introductory scene is also just as scary as it is awesome. The only warning that the readers, rescue team, and sphenacodon get before he arrives is the sight of the water behind the sphenacodon reacting as if there's something large moving within and the sound of a low alligator-like bellow. From there, the sphenacodon turn their heads in that direction just in time to see Rommel rise out of the water and start slowly making his way towards them, showing off his viciously sharp teeth (some of which are visibly broken) as he clearly has the edaphosaurus carcass they were just about to start fighting each other over in his sights and wishes to eat it himself. And from there, despite being outnumbered by virtue of Fafnir and the six strong pack of fully grown younger adult sphenacodon teaming up to try to stop him from stealing the food they were about to fight each other over, it only takes a single loud bellow, followed by a swift burst of movement towards them, to send all seven of the sphenacodon flee in terror right as they were in the midst of trying to charge at him, clearly not thinking it worth getting seriously wounded or killed by him in an attempt to defend the kill. And unlike most of the prehistoric reptilian carnivores that had been rescued before this mission, Rommel goes so far as to actually jump towards Drew instead of charge at him when Drew successfully goads him with an airhorn into trying to come at him. And even after he's finally at the park, the narrative makes it clear that he's still incredibly vicious and temperamental enough to make the staff feel understandably wary about him.
- Much like in Prehistoric Earth, Yolanda ends up accidentally falling into a pool full of carnivorous prehistoric aquatic animals (specifically, the crassigyrinus). And much like the brontoscorpio managed to do in Prehistoric Earth, the crassigyrinus (specifically Sasha) manage to briefly yank Yolanda underwater and render her semiconscious via her head banging against the glass of their tank in the time it takes for Leon to dive in to rescue her. And while Leon manages to subsequently drag Yolanda away from them and put up a decent fight to hold them off, they still manage to seemingly end up on the verge of finally overwhelming him before Adrian manages to successfully release Andrias the proterogyrinus into the crassigyrinus pool. And even after Andrias enters the picture, Sasha manages to get past him just in time for one last (admittedly futile) attempted lunge towards Leon as he's subsequently in the midst of climbing up a provided escape rope and carrying Yolanda out to safety, complete with a furious hissing and her wicked jaws loudly snapping shut in thin air right where Leon's previously bitten ankle had been mere seconds earlier before she falls back into the water empty jawed while hissing in rage.
- The lightning bolt triggered snow avalanche that the final animals to be rescued this mission get saved from is played entirely for horror. Due to the sheer amount of snow in the avalanche, it becomes all too clear that the animals gathered right there at the bottom of the hill the avalanche is occurring on will end up Buried Alive if they don't get out of the way in time. And while the xenacanthus and several of the smaller animals could potentially get swiftly smothered to death almost immediately after getting caught, many of the larger animals in the area would likely have to spend a decent amount of time still alive, yet unable to get free, before finally dying. Naturally, the animals all try desperately to flee. But as the narrative makes clear, their close proximity, plus the speed of the advancing mass amount of snow, makes it all too clear that they would have been doomed if Drew and the Denhams hadn't been around to save them via the portal.
Devils of the Deep
- The introduction of the very first of the rescued onychodus. Catching the rescue team completely off guard in the process, it first introduces itself by abruptly lunging out of hiding from some nearby coral in a fashion similar to the ambush hunting style used by some modern species of eel and very nearly managing to sever Leon's arm with its subsequent snap of its teeth before then whipping its head and body around similarly to a shark across the sandy ocean floor despite having not successfully caught anything in its jaws. And up until it finally calms down from its frenzy, its high lunging speed and all the sandy silt it tossed up in its subsequent frenzy was enough to at first make it impossible for the gang to even tell what it actually was or looked like. And even after its calmed down from this frenzy and returned to its earlier hiding place, it still proceeds to swiftly lunge back out of hiding once again when deliberately tricked into doing so by Drew, with only Drew's quick reaction time allowing him to summon the portal in time for it to end up going through it to the park instead of snapping its jaws upon him.
- The arrival of the second rescued onychodus is similarly startling when Jack abruptly encounters it right as he's about to start his work in rescuing a large combined shoal of five species of prehistoric lungfish. And within seconds after the onychodus itself lunges out of hiding, a pair of likewise hungry and vicious eastmanosteus lunge out of hiding to try to fight the onychodus over the right to hunt and eat the lungfish. The latter species in particular also have immense emphasis placed on their massive and sharp teeth in their gaping jaws. And of course, Jack proceeds to resort to his usual strategy by goading the both of them, plus the second onychodus, into charging at him for the sake of his work at getting them through the portal not too long after he's rescued the lungfish.
- Much like so many of the predators in this mission, the harrytoombsia show up seemingly out of nowhere when they make their introduction. The fact that they show up immediately after Leon and Drew have finished rescuing a combined shoal of multiple camuropiscids and are seconds away from swimming off to rescue a small additional shoal of one of the species they'd just rescued only makes the sudden arrival of the harrytoombsia all the more jarring. And within seconds after their arrival, the vicious and large predatory fish completely massacre and devour the entirety of the small shoal of camuropiscids that Leon and Drew had been on the way to attempt to allow to join the larger shoal they'd rescued before.
- In a Fridge Horror sense, just where were Leon and Jack positioned in comparison to the incoming titanichthys when they unwittingly missed the cue for summoning the portal? Depending on the answer, then would Drew failing to get between them and the creature in time to summon the portal for it himself have merely resulted in the giant fish merely swimming between Jack and Leon and continuing onward past them? Or outright ramming into them with all its massive bulk?
- The storm. Just as much for Drew and the rescue team as for the crew of the Ancient Mariner. With all the thunder and lightning and choppy ocean waters, the rescue team are forced to have Drew go down in a conveniently available shark cage in order to safely go under the water to rescue the animals that are successfully found and in need of rescue over the course of their time in the Devonian while the storm is occurring without being rendered potentially entirely at the mercy of the current and unable to surface back up to breath. And for the crew, they have to not only lay down their anchor near the reef for a meagre first line of defense and run the risk of the ship being sent aground upon coral in order for Drew and the rescue team to have a chance of finishing their mission, but they also have to subsequently do everything they can to work to keep the ship steady and afloat. And even with all their skill, Kira is still smart enough to ensure that Drew gives permission for them all to use the portal to go back home if things start getting too dangerous for them all...regardless of whether or not dunkleosteus has been found and rescued by such a point.
- And of course, there is the arrival of the dunkleosteus. Much like the onychodus, harrytoombsia, and eastmanosteus, not to mention multiple other predatory species from the missions that came prior to this one, the dunkleosteus arrive on the scene almost entirely out of nowhere. And in this case, unlike with so many of the other predators to similarly introduce themselves via Jump Scare that at least had their attention on a conveniently available prey animal they were hunting, the attention of the four dunkleosteus is entirely on Drew. And in their apparent desperation to try to hunt and eat him, they bang themselves against the shark cage he's in in attempts to bust through it and snap him up. And even worse, at one point Drew ends up pumping against the shark cage sufficiently enough for his arm to get stuck between the bars and be in ideal position for the dunkleosteus to at the very least bite off said arm. And as a result of this positioning, Drew finds himself rendered completely defenseless; unable to even get ahold of the portal remote or portal grenade he has on him so as to summon the portal in his defense. And to put a terrifying bow on this already scary package, Leon and Jack are so busy arguing back on the upper deck of the Ancient Mariner that they fail to even notice what's going on until not long after the point that Drew gets his arm stuck. And simply put, it's not hard to guess either of the two immensely unpleasant events that could have likely happened to Drew if Leon and Jack hadn't managed to get their attention drawn to his situation in time to save him. And even when they do finally rescue him, they only manage to do so right as all four dunkleosteus are actively rushing straight towards him and seconds away from snapping their teeth at him once again.
- While there are thankfully no moments in which the dimetrodon actually get violent and attack anyone or anything, information revealed about them and their behavior are still enough to make them very unsettling for the unprepared. For not only do they and the two other rescued sphenacodont species have at least FOUR different hemotoxic enzymes in their saliva designed to prevent blood from clotting. Simply put, if they weren't already scary enough in South of Heaven, this chapter will definitely be enough to remind readers and the characters that the dimetrodon, sphenacodon, and secodontosaurus are not at all creatures to let one's guard down around.
Building Bridges
- The Florida jaguar. Much like the Tyrannosaurus rex back in Return of the King, these mighty big cats effectively serve as The Dreaded Knight of Cerebus amongst the fauna encountered in Pleistocene Florida. Instantly changing the tone from lighthearted to serious whenever they arrive, the arrival of even a subadult male is enough to send the herbivores that happen to be present in the same area into a panicked stampede. Even a pair of eremotherium are shown to decide to try to flee rather than fight when a fully grown adult female happens to arrive in the same area as them and several other herbivorous animals, something especially noticeable after a single eremotherium had previously been introduced determinedly fighting off a pair of smilodon gracilis to defend her baby.
- Speaking of the Florida jaguars, Adrian's situation in the final scenes in Pleistocene Florida is fairly scary in its own right. For context, he has his back towards a lake where a small group of the target species castoroides is gathered in after having fairly recently come back out of hiding from a previous encounter with an adult female jaguar while directly facing and pointing his portal remote and tranquilizer gun at a snarling and hungry adult male jaguar that is ready to pounce at a moment's notice. The only reason that Adrian doesn't automatically summon his portal remote or similarly deliberately entice the jaguar into trying to come towards him from its current position is because he doesn't want to risk the jaguar scaring the beavers back into hiding. Yet if he tries to get the beavers through the portal first, he leaves himself open to attack from the jaguar. Fortunately for him, he has managed to call Drew and Alice over for backup in time for them to save the beavers (who have themselves only remained positioned where they were this whole time because they were too afraid of the jaguar managing to catch up to them and kill one of them in the time it would take for them to get out of the shallower water they're in and reach the deep water they'd need to reach in order to dive under the lake's surface and swim back to their lodge for safety once more) and depart through the portal alongside the beavers in time for Adrian to subsequently do his thing and get himself and the jaguar through the portal to the safety of the park.
- While never actually shown in great detail, the experience that Leon and Jack went through in feeding the dunkleosteus. For context, as was revealed in Soothing Seas in Extras, the feeding platform used to feed the dunkleosteus consists of a single metallic construction work style platform attached to a single thick chain designed to be hovered over the surface of the water the creatures live in within their tank when those feeding them are in the midst of such work. In other words, while all four dunkleosteus are gathered around underneath the platform as a result of the appropriate sonar cue being given and the sonar deterrents being temporarily shut off, there are no barriers on the platform that could prevent the dunkleosteus from either landing upon or sailing right across the platform with their jaws open in the event that they got impatient enough to try to jump out and take a bite of their food instead of waiting within the water for the food to come to them, let alone to instantly prevent anyone on top of the platform from falling into the tank in the event the platform got unsteady enough. And with this in mind, plus there only being a single chain preventing the platform from falling right into the tank, it is all the more understandable why Mia thinks of the whole business being quite unnerving while reflecting on the matter back in Soothing Seas.
