Two weeks after the velociraptor mission, Drew and the rescue team travel to the Yixian formation to rescue the famed small feathered gliding dromaeosaur microraptor. Meanwhile, back at the park, the park staff find themselves dealing with having a massive group of incredibly unhelpful temporary workmen who may or may not be involved with a far bigger plot against the park by a disgruntled Percival.
- Anachronism Stew: Downplayed, but several animals from the mission - Microraptor, Ikrandraco and Eoazhdarcho - are known from the Jiufotang Formation, not the Yixian Formation.
Word of God stated that this was because Jiufotang was comparatively uninteresting when it came to feathered dinosaurs and a desire to diversify the pterosaurs. - Bad Boss: Percival pays the temporary workmen he's commissioned to serve as his spies with insultingly low wages due to viewing them as a means to an end.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Chinese dinosaurs have a colour scheme derived from the four elements.
- The carnivores are generally varying combinations of reddish-brown, orange, yellow, grey and black - fire.
- The aquatic animals are varying combinations of blue, along pastel shades of green (e.g. teal), grey and purple - water.
- Most of the herbivores are varying combinations of browns and greens, with an emphasis on muddy or earthy colours - earth.
- Most of the pterosaurs are white, sky-blue or yellow, with an overall emphasis on light colours - air.
- Chekhov's Volcano: One of the first things about the environment that Drew, Jack, and Adrian take note of after arrival is a large volcano, which ends up erupting in the finale. Truth in Television, as the environemnt really was volcanic.
- Everyone Can See It: As much as he may still so far be in denial over the matter, Leon clearly must feel something strong about Yolanda when even the temporary workmen seem to be under the impression that he fancies her...
- Liquid Courage: Downplayed. Two of the workmen decide to drink a can of beer each to steady their nerves before telling Kyle one of their colleagues got super drunk and climbed into the Velociraptor paddock. They get a minor reprimand for this, due to the circumstances.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Once the park staff allow him the opportunity for as much, the hired foreman of the temporary workmen, Kevin Drake, is all too happy to make a deal with the park staff that will allow him an excuse to switch allegiance to them instead of Percival so as to get better pay than the 'peanuts and piss level wages' that Percival is choosing to give to him.
- The Mole: Percival placed spies in some of the workmen to keep him updated on the goings-on at the park (including information on Jack's dromaeosaur studies). However, they respect him as much as anyone else does - not at all - and are happy to switch teams for some money.
- Mythology Gag: Shares a title with the Prehistoric Earth episode of the same name, and even features several events and lines of narration and dialogue (even if altered somewhat) from that very same episode. Furthermore, according to Word of God, the orphaned male zhenyuanlong juvenile is set to be named after one of the mei long from the former fanfic.
- Named After Somebody Famous: One of the caudipteryx is named after the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang (the Real Life inspiration for the emperor in ''Mulan) and the alpha male of the sinornithosaurus flock is named after Sun-Tzu.
- Neutral No Longer: Kevin Drake the foreman is initially lacking in motivation to really make any effort to overtly support Percival or the established prehistoric park staff due to feeling it will be safer to be an Accomplice by Inaction for his unruly 'underlings' so as to avoid running the risk of getting dismissed by filing complaints against Percival or trying to rein in said underlings. But once he manages to strike a deal with Kyle and Nikolai that effectively buys him insurance against getting dismissed by Percival, he is very swift to get the unruly workmen in line.
- Only in It for the Money: All the Novum workmen are this - and proud of it. They are very quick to get in line when they get a better offer than Percival's.
- Raptor Attack: Downplayed in that the 'raptors' in question are accurately sized and feathered as well as possessing of a more realistic level of intelligence. Nonetheless, the velociraptor pack are more than willing to attack one of the temporary workmen when said workman rather stupidly climbs into their paddock and tries to pick a fight with them. Similarly, a wild pack of likewise accurately portrayed zhenyuanlong prove quite happy to surround and threaten the rescue team over the course of an encounter the pack has with them.
- Shout-Out:
- To Mulan: One of the beipiaosaurus is named Chifu, one of the bolong is named Ling, one of the caudipteryx is named after the Real Life Chinese emperor that serves as the inspiration for the emperor character, one of the dongbeititan is named Chien, the alpha male dilong is named Mushu, one of the liaoningosaurus is named Yao, the alpha male of the zhenyuanlong is named Shan Yu, and the very first pair of incisivosaurus rescued are named Mulan and Shang.
- To Avatar: The Last Airbender: One of the bolong is named Smellerbee, one of the dongbeititan is named Pipsqueak, one of the jeholosaurus is named (in a roundabout fashion) after 'the Duke', one of the liaoningosaurus is named Sneers, one of the yixianosaurus is named Longshot, the alpha male and female of the yutyrannus pack are named Ran and Shaw, their son is named Iroh, one of the juvenile psittacosaurus is named Toph, and the rescued mated pair of ikrandraco are named Aang and Katara.
- To Wish Dragon: The omega of the dilong pack is named Long and two of the incisivosaurus are named Din and Li Na.
- Mushu's mate is named Sisu.
- Mushu's brother is named Shenron.
- One of the microraptor is named Guido.
- Finally, the supersaurus matriarch rescued all the way back in All Creatures Great and Small is confirmed to be named Woodstock.
