The time has now come for the park to turn its sights towards the Cenozoic Era. Specifically, this time Drew and his team are travelling to Pleistocene Bolivia to rescue smilodon populator...and also the unexpected additional target of phorusrhacos. At the same time, back at the park, Jack finds himself experiencing both continued rising tensions between him and Leon as well as the beginnings of a possible close bond with high ranking security guard and local Action Girl Colette, whereas the time has now also finally come for Arlo to make an attempt at integrating with the larger apatosaurus herd.
- Adaptational Name Change: Half Tooth is once again named Broken Fang.
- A Day in the Limelight: As per Nathanoraptor's plans, this chapter serves as an opportunity for further insight into Adrian's character.
- Aloof Ally: Adrian reveals himself to be this amongst the rescue team, but especially towards Leon and Drew.
- Always a Bigger Fish: The phorusrhacos prove to be this towards the theriodictis, the smilodon populator prove to be this towards the phorusrhacos, and the arctotherium prove to be this towards the smilodon.
- Animal Stampede: Three of these unfold over the course of the mission.
- At the very beginning of the mission, a herd of macrauchenia is noticeably startled when the rescue team for the mission accidentally pops into the past right in their midst, but are able to calm down and resume their grazing once Drew, Alice, and Adrian have made it out of their midst...only to then get frightened into stampeding anyway with the arrival of a hungry pair of phorusrhacos. Naturally, this is the point where the entire herd (with the exception of a single elderly male) make it through the portal the gang has set up to exploit the fact that they're stampeding away from the carnivores.
- Later in the mission, a herd of toxodon is spooked into stampeding by the pair of bachelor smilodon brothers. Just like with the macrauchenia, all but a single elderly male make it through the portal over the course of this stampede.
- At the climax of the mission, with a raging wildfire unfolding around the water hole, Drew triggers all the gathered herbivores in the area into engaging in one of these once Adrian and Alice have gotten all the carnivores to come rushing through the portal. And unlike the previous two examples, The Runt at the End of this stampede (a combined group of megatherium and glossotherium) survive to make it through the portal alongside the more swift animals ahead of them.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Just like in the original Prehistoric Park episode this chapter is based upon, phorusrhacos are seen in the same place and time as smilodon populator. Justified by Nathanoraptor in that the amount of time between the officially recorded extinction point of phorusrhacos and the time where this mission takes place is just relatively small enough to allow a potential small number of phorusrhacos that had perhaps lived past their kind's supposed extinction date to still be alive.
- Battle Couple: The first megatherium duo rescued are a mated pairing that first get introduced holding their own against an adult female arctotherium.
- Bears Are Bad News: Arctotherium are amongst the animals rescued, and they are understandably treated as dangerous animals to be careful around.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: The protocyon and theriodictis prove quite vicious and menacing predators to be wary around when they are first encountered by the rescue team and subsequently rescued, with the protocyon in particular going so far as to chase and attempt to kill the rescue team for the sake of making a meal out of the tranquilized pride of smilodon.
- Bittersweet Ending: For Arlo's attempts at integration amongst the larger apatosaurus herd. Ultimately, Gertie and Bron decide against letting him join. Despite this, Arlo proves able to still live in the larger Morrison formation herbivore paddock by virtue of a subsequent unexpected friendship that forms between him and a brachiosaurus his age named Shorty.
- Circling Vultures: One of the rescued mated wingegyps pairs is seen flying in circles over the sight of a duel between two adult female arctotherium and a mated pair of megatherium. In fact, a large number of wingegyps and gymnogyps present alongside various larger mammal carnivores in the area similarly prove to be a sign of concern for some reason or other.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Need one guess the obvious results of the attempt by a pair of phorusrhacos to hunt six glyptodon?
- Didn't See That Coming: The team is understandably caught off guard when, despite how they were supposedly already extinct by this point, they catch sight of phorusrhacos in the area.
- Disapproving Look: Colette directs one of these towards Linda without Linda noticing; a result of Colette clearly not approving of Linda showing herself to have been more than a little too invested in her hopes of Arlo successfully being accepted amongst the larger apatosaurus herd.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Or more accurately, an early bird namedropping. Judging by a seeming throwaway line from Alice during her conversation with Adrian, her friends from Prehistoric Earth, Will and Matt, are confirmed to have made the jump from that story to this one, and could very well already be amongst the Prehistoric Park research division alongside Khatin.
- Enemy Mine: A massive group of various herbivore species willingly gather together in fear alongside several carnivores when they all end up trapped together by a raging fire.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Most of the animals that either heavily resemble or are closely related to certain modern day animals are shown to behave fairly similarly to said animals, with the notiomastodon serving as the Pleistocene Santa Cruz elephant equivalents, the toxodon behaving fairly similarly to hippos, the local horses and deer proving the analogues for zebras and deer or antelope, the arctotherium (and to an extent the megatherium) behaving fairly similarly to modern bears, the protocyon and theriodictis behaving like modern jackals and wolves, the wingegyps and gymnogyps behaving no differently from modern vultures, and the smilodon behaving (much like in Walking with Beasts) like modern day lions. And with the exception of their explicitly carnivorous diet towards the local larger herbivores, the phorusrhacos behave fairly similarly to modern day ostriches. And even the macrauchenia and xenorhinotherium behave somewhat similarly to llamas.
- Feathered Fiend: The phorusrhacos, wingegyps, and gymnogyps all prove to be this to varying degrees.
- Fire Means Chaos: A terrible wildfire is occurring at the very end of the mission when Drew, Alice, and Adrian rescue a particularly large number of animals before returning home to the park.
- Foreshadowing:
- With continued rising tensions between Jack and Leon, it is entirely likely that things could eventually come to a head between them like it did in Prehistoric Earth.
- Jack is seen working with the Morrison Formation species of ornitholestes for the sake of both helping Khatin and the research team observe their behaviors and someday working to train some of the 'raptor' dinosaur species to come after ornitholestes the way he did with several such dinosaurs in Prehistoric Earth.
- Hope Spot: For a brief moment, it seems that maybe Arlo will be accepted after Gertie prevents Bron from chasing him off without even being allowed the chance to request permission to join. But then it all goes downhill when Gertie doesn't stop Bron the second time he decides to try to scare off Arlo.
- Honorable Elephant: The notiomastodon rescued in this mission all seem fairly amicable and friendly. Nonetheless, the five-member group of bachelor adult males are kept in a separate paddock from the larger herd just in case.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Implied to be the case with the smilodon, who are discovered by the time Drew, Adrian, and Alice visit their home time to rescue them to have been thoroughly dethroned from their potential former position as top predator of the area by virtue of both competition from stronger predators such as bears as well as gradually decreasing numbers of prey they can successfully hunt and eat. Solidified powerfully by the sight of an immensely exhausted and half dead pride of them that are subsequently tranquilized and rescued.
- Huggy, Huggy Hippos: While not truly hippos, the toxodon seemingly fulfill the spirit of this trope by both showing off several behaviors displayed by modern hippos as well as choosing to run and flee from a smilodon duo that attempts to hunt instead of trying to fight.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Adrian voices both how Leon used to feel this way before befriending Adrian and Drew and his suspicions of Leon still fearing going back to this state.
- Interspecies Friendship: One of these forms between Arlo the apatosaurus and Shorty the brachiosaurus after the former is rejected membership amongst the larger apatosaurus herd.
- Know When to Fold 'Em:
- Despite having superior numbers, a pack of theriodictis that attempt to steal a freshly killed macrauchenia from a pair of phorusrhacos choose to stand down and leave when the sheer size of the two birds causes them to decide not to risk a fight.
- Another pair of phorusrhacos similarly choose to stand down over the course of first a failed attempt at hunting glyptodon and a failed attempt at stealing a freshly killed toxodon from a pair of bachelor smilodon brothers (although in the latter case they at least manage to put up a decent fight beforehand).
- This same pair of smilodon brothers likewise back off and surrender their kill to an adult male arctotherium once the bear makes it clear that he has the advantage in size and strength.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Drew ends up splitting up from Adrian and Alice so that they group can simultaneously investigate noises made by possible rescue-worthy animals positioned in two opposing directions, with Drew coming across two bachelor smilodon and a flock of gymnogyps fighting over a carcass while Adrian and Alice come across a pair of phorusrhacos attempting (keyword being 'attempting') to hunt six glyptodon.
- The Load: This chapter makes it clear that the majority of the Prehistoric Park staff view Leon as this; and that Leon himself is well aware of this matter.
- Mama Bear: A literal example is amongst the would-be victims of the fire. She's even introduced desperately shielding her two cubs underneath her body.
- Mighty Roar: Played straight with the smilodon and arctotherium.
- Mythology Gag: The finale for the episode, in which a large number of animals are rescued from a massive wildfire, is almost exactly like a similar scene for the finale of Prehistoric Earth chapter Ten To Midnight.
- Oh, Crap!: Appropriately how the rescue team reacts when, immediately after loading up an entire tranquilized smilodon pride onto the back of their jeep, they become aware of a large pack of protocyon, plus two mated pairs of wingegyps, gathered right behind them that are eager to make a meal out of them and the tranquilized cats.
- Panthera Awesome: Smilodon populator are the primary target for this mission.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: Josephoartigasia are amongst the animals rescued in this mission.
- Ship Tease:
- Signs of this are shown to start between Jack and Colette, with Jack noticeably feeling quite flustered when he remembers how he's come to start finding Colette attractive not too long after noting how he personally thinks she' more naturally solitary and strongly preferring to be left alone than haughty.
- Potential signs are also shown of Adrian developing a small crush on Alice over the course of a talk they have together over the course of the mission while Drew's not around.
- Shout-Out:
- This episode is heavily based off of the original Prehistoric Park episode Saving The Sabertooth, while also including a couple elements of the Walking with Beasts episode Sabertooth.
- Several animals rescued in this mission are named after characters from The Emperor's New Groove. Examples include the very first rescued arctotherium being named Kronk, a lone female wingegyps that accompanies Kronk being named Yzma, a mated pair of macrauchenia being named Kuzco and Malina, and one of the toxodon being named Pacha.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Unlike their counterparts in Walking with Beasts and one half of their counterparts in Prehistoric Earth, both bachelor smilodon brothers (named Carlos and Raul in this continuity) are successfully rescued and brought back to the park alive.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Signs of growing tensions between Jack and Leon are very much present over the course of their interactions in this episode.
- Vile Vulture: Largely averted with the gymnogyps and wingegyps that serve mostly as Circling Vultures around various local predators. Four wingegyps that accompany the protocyon pack, however, actively pursue Drew, Adrian, and Alice alongside the protocyon in the latter's efforts at hunting and killing the rescue team for the sake of also feasting upon the tranquilized pride of smilodon that they are in the midst of transporting at the time.
