History Fanfic / PrehistoricEarth

* AlwaysABiggerFish: The huge eurypterid Pterygotus killing the alleged Big Bad of the episode, Brontoscorpio. Nikolai even exploits this in the final act of "The First Steps"; releasing the female Pterygotus into the Brontoscorpio tank to scare them off.

* DidntSeeThatComing: NO ONE (not even Leon and Theodore) was at all expecting to find a large species of extinct spider within the Carboniferous period.

* TheMagicGoesAway: The whole point of the series is to rectify that.

* CrazyEnoughtoWork: Easily applicable to a large number of Jack's plans (at least the ones that work anyway).

* SpidersareScary: Don't get Leon wrong, he likes all animals in general. But even so, he's not ashamed to admit that he's more than a little unnerved around spiders.

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Leon and Jack, and perhaps even Drew.

** Furthermore, Kyle Taymor is basically John Luthor as a head zookeeper instead of a police captain.

* HypotheticalCasting: Nathanoraptor has commented that he sees Creator/ScarlettJohansson as Linda Eberhart, Creator/IdrisElba as Kyle Taymor and Creator/DaisyRidley as Alice Denham. He's also quite partial to the idea of Ivana Baquero as Collete and Nicola Peltz as Yolanda. He has also found appeal in the idea of casting Tom Holland as Leon Gilbertson.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: ''Haikouichthys'', ''Anomalocaris'' (which is rarely seen outside non-educational media), ''Astrapsis'', ''Megalograptus'', ''Isotelus'', ''Cephalaspis'', ''Brontoscorpio'', ''Pterygotus'' (same case as ''Anomalocaris'') and ''Cameroceras''

* HypotheticalCasting: Nathanoraptor has commented that he sees Creator/ScarlettJohansson as Linda Eberhart, Creator/IdrisElba as Kyle Taymor and Creator/DaisyRidley as Alice Denham. He's also quite partial to the idea of Ivana Baquero as Collete and Nicola Peltz as Yolanda.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Becomes a major point of drama for Drew in regards to rising hostility between Leon and Jack in "Life in Transition."

** Linda Eberhart is an expy of Kelly Foster.

The basic premise is simple: Zoologist and adventurer Drew [[TimeTravel travels back in time]] to [[BringItBackAlive bring back]] various creatures from prehistoric eras, whom he and his team then place in the titular park. While episodic in nature, the series did have an overarching plot, as the issues of many animals took several episodes to resolve.

** Later played for drama in "Life in Transition" when Drew becomes aware of a Dunkleosteus's presence after he sees it chomp on and kill a stethacanthus before turning its attention towards him.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: The main creatures in Phase One; the largest being Hepetet. But unlike most examples of the trope, this one managed to win the sympathy of the Park workers, simply because it was just that big that it lost its creepy factor.

* ScrewThisI'mOuttaHere: Invoked by Alice after a close encounter with a Hyneria in "Life in Transition." Adrian, knowing that the fish qualifies for Drew's 'no species left behind' policy, vetoes this idea.

* ScaryScorpions: Whilst ''techinically'' averted, it is important to note that, of all the creatures in the series, it's the various sea scorpion species that receive the most sinister descriptions.

* BadAss: Nikolai.

'''''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12068276/1/Prehistoric-Earth Prehistoric Earth]]''''' is a fanfiction by Drew Lycunizki and Nathanoraptor, which serves as a crossover between the ''Series/PrehistoricPark'' and ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' franchises.

* FluffyTheTerrible: One of the park's Anomalocaris is given the terrifying name of . . . Squishy. Word of God states that this was deliberate.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Haikouichthys, Anomalocaris, Megalograptus, Brontoscorpio, Cameroceras, Pterygotus, and Atalaspis. And those are just among the first animals to!
* FluffyTheTerrible: One of the park's anomalocaris males is given the terrifying name of . . . Squishy.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Kyle's response after the arrival of the pterygotus.

The basic premise is simple: RealLife zoologist and adventurer Nigel Marven [[TimeTravel travels back in time]] to [[BringItBackAlive bring back]] various creatures from prehistoric eras, whom he and his team then place in the titular park. While episodic in nature, the series did have an overarching plot, as the issues of many animals took several episodes to resolve.

The show is, in essence, similar to Creator/DiscoveryChannel's much less famous ''Series/DinoLab''.

**

* SeldomSeenSpecies

* TyrannosaurusRex: The man himself, but his smaller cousin, ''Albertosaurus'' also makes an appearance.

* TimeTravel

* AnachronismStew: A common mistake: including the Chinese dino-bird ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife Microraptor]]'' among the Yixian fauna when it was really from the a male ''Tyrannosaurus'' fights and kills a female ''Tyrannosaurus''.

* BadAss: Matilda the female ''T. rex'', and Martha the mammoth in the finale.
* BadassBookworm / ButtMonkey / HospitalHottie: Zoologist Nigel Marven, head-keeper Bob and head-vet Suzanne respectively; they are the main human characters in ''Prehistoric Park''.

* BigDamnHeroes: Happens several times in the last episode. Martha the mammoth saves the young elephant from Matilda the ''T. rex''. Nigel leads Matilda away before the fight escalates. Then, just as Matilda is about to catch up with Nigel, the ''Deinosuchus'' lunges out of the water at Matilda, barely missing, giving Nigel enough time to reach safety and lock Matilda into a paddock.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The show has been described as the ''Series/CrocodileHunter'' with dinosaurs (and a whole lot of other creatures).

* FeatheredFiend: ''Troodon'', ''Incisivosaurus'', and ''Mei'', though [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology the troodonts were depicted with only a thin feather coat]].
** Averted by ''Microraptor'' and ''Ornithomimus'', which are portrayed as being quite harmless and are safely transported and kept at the park.
** From the true birds' side, ''Phorusrhacos''.
* GiantFlyer: Pterosaurs, though these aren't technically of the giant variant. Despite this, the show didn't miss the opportunity to play out the classic scene of a sea monster lunging out of the water and dragging one down. This paleoart-trope is played straight ''and'' subverted at the same time in the Supercroc episode: the giant sea reptile is not the classic [[StockDinosaurs ichthyosaur/elasmosaur/mosasaur/pliosaur]] but the giant alligator ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife Deinosuchus]]'' (note that this may be TruthInTelevision, since modern saltwater crocodiles ''do'' live in the sea as well).
* InfantImmortality: Averted. A juvenile ''Ornithomimus'' is killed by a ''Tyrannosaurus'' and a juvenile ''Parasaurolophus'' is killed by a ''Deinosuchus''.
* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The format of the episodes. While Nigel are millions of years in the past trying to catch a prehistoric creature, the park crews in the present are trying to put together and suitable habitat for the creatures he had captured.
* MegaNeko: ''Smilodon''.
* MyCarHatesMe: Averted, barely. A couple of occasions have required Nigel to get his truck out of the way of some charging beast. Each time the vehicle only starts at the last minute because RuleOfDrama.
* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: ''Deinosuchus''.
* PlotHole: When Nigel and Saba arrive in prehistoric times too late to save the ''Smilodon'' cubs, they just mourn. Hello, time machine, anyone? This applies to other episodes too, like the first, when Nigel has to act really quick to avoid getting killed by the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous. He could easily have gone back in time to a few days/weeks/months earlier.
** Maybe Nigel and Saba were worried that, if they used the time machine to "try again," [[TemporalParadox they'd run into themselves from the original timeline.]]
** Also possible that the time portal isn't that accurate and they've no guarantee that they could pinpoint that time/space again.
* PrehistoricMonster: Averted, though many large predators do appear to be quite nasty.
* PteroSoarer: Largely averted by the ''Nyctosaurus'', which is fairly accurate for its time (it is never really shown doing anything other than flying however).
* RhinoRampage: ''Elasmotherium''.
* RuleOfCool: The purpose of the keepers was just to "resurrect" the coolest animals. One of the most remembered scene is, obviously, the two most iconic prehistoric giants (''T. rex'' and the woolly mammoth) ''fighting each other''. This time ItMakesSenseInContext...
** A woolly mammoth that was recovered from near the time of its extinction, but was somehow coexisting with a [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife cave bear]] which was extinct way before mammoths; however this is [[{{Lampshade}} lampshaded]]/[[HandWave handwaved]] by Nigel who says to the cameraman "I'm sorry, I believed cave bears were already extinct...this is an exciting discovery!")
** The main example had to be, however, the ''Triceratops'' vs. ''Tyrannosaurus'' fight in the first episode.
* SavageWolves: In the same episode as the cave bear incident, when Nigel tries to keep the weakened mammoth Martha alive, a pack of wolves turn up out of freaking nowhere in the night, with GreenEyes of doom, shouting and barking, hoping to kill her. Nigel chases them away.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: ''Nyctosaurus'', ''Elasmotherium'' (instead of the "classic" woolly rhino, ''Coelodonta''), ''Eosipterus'' (the pterosaur from episode 3), ''Incisivosaurus'', ''Mei'', ''Toxodon'', ''Crassigyrinus'', ''Pulmonoscorpius''.
* ShoutOut: Aside from being the name for the young ''Triceratops'', Theo is also the name of Nigel's RealLife son.
* StockDinosaurs:
** ''Tyrannosaurus'', the "main" dinosaurs of the show, named Terence and Matilda.
** ''Triceratops'', named Theo.
** ''Parasaurolophus'' appears in the sixth episode, in the classic "main prey" role (but this time the duckbill is food for the giant alligator ''Deinosuchus''). Many more hadrosaurs lived in the same habitat in RealLife (''Corythosaurus'' and ''Maiasaura'', to name merely two examples), but they were probably judged "not as cool".
** ''Ornithomimus'': They have a major role in the story, and are portrayed in a non-conventional way: as duck-like filter feeders (this was a popular theory at the time among scientists, but now [[ScienceMarchesOn is largely discredited]]). The genus chosen is ''Ornithomimus'' (again they did the research, since it was the only ostrich-mimic dino which really lived alongside ''T. rex'').
* FluffyTheTerrible: The park's T.rex twins have the truly terrifying names of...Terrence and Matilda!
* ToServeMan: The ''T. rex'' ''immediately'' choose to chase Nigel just after seeing him, despite all the ''[[StockDinosaurs Ornithomimus]]'' available in that moment... (To be fair, Nigel would've been easier to catch than an ''Ornithomimus'', although a ''Tyrannosaurus'' probably wouldn't know that and, in any case, he wouldn't have provided as substantial a meal.)

* TimeTravel: Is done with a pair of poles that create a portal between them. The animal is then lured into the portal.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Nigel has a whole team and base camp with him back in the Cretaceous, but we only see his last-minute rescue of the T. rex chicks. We can only assume everyone else got back safely off-camera.

'''''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12068276/1/Prehistoric-Earth Prehistoric Earth]]''''' is a fanfiction ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' franchise, to which this show can either be seen as a SpiritualSuccessor or a SpinOff. In turn, the hit ScienceFiction series ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' can be viewed as a very loose successor to ''Prehistoric Park''.

* Always a Bigger Fish: The huge eurypterid Pterygotus killing the alleged Big Bad of the episode, Brontoscorpio. Nikolai even exploits this in the final act of "The First Steps"; releasing the female Pterygotus into the Brontoscorpio tank to scare them off.

* BearsAreBadNews: The [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife Cave Bear]] in immediately chase Nigel just after the latter entered in his refuge.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: The main creatures; the largest being Hepetet. But unlike most examples of the trope, this one managed to win the sympathy of the Park workers, simply because it was just that big that it lost its creepy factor.

* CainAndAbel: A fight between the ''T. rex'' siblings ends with Matilda nearly killing Terrance. Nigel separates them afterward.

* CoolVsAwesome: In the series finale we have a standoff between a ''Tyrannosaurus'' and a woolly mammoth. Unfortunately it's cut short before any actually fighting happens.

* {{Expy}}: Several expies

* BigCreepyCrawlies: ''Arthropleura''. But unlike most examples of the trope, this one managed to win the sympathy of the Park workers, simply because it was just that big that it lost its creepy factor.

* TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed: In the first episode Nigel goes back 65 million years to collect two Tyrannosaurs, hours before the asteroid hits. It's true that he collects animals that are about to die anyway to avoid altering history too much, but would it have hurt to have gone at least a month before the asteroid hit?
* EatsBabies: ''Tyrannosaurus'' and ''Deinosuchus''.