History Headscratchers / TheLandBeforeTime

* The problem with that is Chomper's parents are pretty heavy even for a plesiosaur like Elsie to carry. Young dinosaurs the size of Littlefoot are one thing, but a full-grown T-rex, let alone two, would be a rather heavy load for an Elasmosaurus to carry across the sea. She'd have no trouble getting Chomper across, but his parents would be far more difficult.
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[[folder:If Littlefoot is a crossbreed of an Apatosaurus and a Brontosaurus, why does Ali look exactly like him?]]
* Is it ever actually stated that Littlefoot is a crossbreed? [[ScienceMarchesOn Keep in mind that]] ''[[ScienceMarchesOn Brontosaurus]]'' [[ScienceMarchesOn was still considered synonymous with]] ''[[ScienceMarchesOn Apatosaurus]]'' [[ScienceMarchesOn when the tenth movie was released]], so the [[ALizardNamedLiz wordplay]] involved in Bron's name doesn't mean much.

Perhaps the first movie had some easy to miss [[TimeSkip time skips]] to skip over the days nothing important happened and just cut ahead to the next main event in the children's journey.

In the first movie, we only see one scene in which they sleep. And everything they go through happens in rapid succesion, implying that they were traveling for maybe 2 or 3 days tops. Yet, "Stone of Cold Fire" suggests it must have been longer than that. After all, in the time it took Littlefoot and friends to reach te valley, the adults also formed a mixed herd (which can't have been easy considering the whole "everyone sticks to his own kind" rule), had a falling out over leadership that led to Pterano taking a part of the herd with him with disastrous results, and eventually they reached the valley before their children did.

* Why didn't Littlefoot's grandparents look for him after the great earthquake in the first film? [[note]]Unless the sauropods that [[DeletedScene fell down the opening chasm]] were his grandparents, that is.[[/note]]
** We're shown a huge split that goes as far as the eye can see (or at least what the camera follows), I always figured that the Littlefoot's grandparents ''couldn't'' find a place to cross immediately, and by the time they did it had been so long they would have a much higher chance meeting Littlefoot and his mother at the Valley then trying to backtrack since that's where they were all headed and Littlefoot's mother knows the way (and taught it to her son). And littlefoot does find his grandparents at the Great Valley, he rushes up to them at the end of the original film.
** They also don't know Mother is dead, since she dies after the earthquake. They assume Littlefoot is with her, and if they are separated they will probably find each other and therefore all eventually meet up in the valley.
* How can the Great Valley possibly support so many migratory herbivore dinosaurs? Its shown to be big, let's be generous and say its about the size of the Grand Canyon, but even that pales in comparison to the outside world they've all just arrived from.
** Well one of the earlier ideas was that it was actually {{Heaven}}, which would explain why everyone is able to be included.
* A minor nitpick from 'The Great Valley Adventure'; when talking about going to the sinking sand to play, Cera insults the others' cowardice by calling them "a bunch of eggs". Considering that they have the term baby and in fact use it later in the film, isn't that like insulting someone by calling them a zygote?
** That makes sense, considering there are things even a baby can do that an egg can't.
** Could also be that she's basically insinuating that they're useless and just going to sit there and do nothing. Similar to calling someone a "lump on a log"
** Maybe for them, being called an "egg" is a far worse insult than being called a "baby"?
* Something this troper noticed in the TV series: why can small mammals suddenly talk to the dinosaur characters? Anyone who remembers Tickles from the 4th movie can probably see my point.
** Perhaps it's a case of learning the language, similar to how Chomper speaks both Leafeater and Sharptooth
** Another possibility is that Tickles, much like Spike, simply doesn't speak much (if at all)
* Who's older, Littlefoot or Shorty?
* Chomper returns to the Great Valley in the TV series. How did he and his parents get off the island after the land bridge was destroyed by the earthquake?
** Maybe Elsie took them for a ride back to the mainland, like she did with Littlefoot and his friends at the end of 'The Mysterious Island'?
** The problem with that is Chomper's parents are pretty heavy even for a plesiosaur like Elsie to carry. Young dinosaurs the size of Littlefoot are one thing, but a full-grown T-rex, let alone two, would be a rather heavy load for an Elasmosaurus to carry across the sea. She'd have no trouble getting Chomper across, but his parents would be far more difficult.
* If Littlefoot is a crossbreed of an Apatosaurus and a Brontosaurus, why does Ali look exactly like him?
** Is it ever actually stated that Littlefoot is a crossbreed? [[ScienceMarchesOn Keep in mind that]] ''[[ScienceMarchesOn Brontosaurus]]'' [[ScienceMarchesOn was still considered synonymous with]] ''[[ScienceMarchesOn Apatosaurus]]'' [[ScienceMarchesOn when the tenth movie was released]], so the [[ALizardNamedLiz wordplay]] involved in Bron's name doesn't mean much.

* How much time passes in-universe over the course of the series? Based on the seasons that go by in the sequels and the TV series, it's implied that it's several years (perhaps at least 5-7?), yet the young dinosaur characters don't seem to age much or grow bigger in that time. Even in the last installment, they're still much smaller than the adults, when realistically, most of them would at least be adolescents, if not full-grown, by that time.
** Presumably just another example of NotAllowedToGrowUp, which is hardly a trope unique to this franchise.
* So why exactly do the other adults act like Chomper is a time bomb and would attack his friends when he's older? There's no reason he can't act as security for the Valley. I'm sure a full grown T-rex would give most sharpteeth pause for thought. Or he could eat the corpses of leafeaters that die of old age, or mercy kill them when they are on their deathbeds. There's plenty of ways for Chomper to eat meat without attacking his friends.

** Presumably just another example of NotAllowedToGrowUp, which is hardly a trope unique to this franchise.

* How much time passes in-universe over the course of the series? Based on the seasons that go by in the sequels and the TV series, it's implied that it's several years (perhaps at least 5-7?), yet the young dinosaur characters don't seem to age much or grow bigger in that time. Even in the last installment, they're still much smaller than the adults, when realistically, most of them would at least be adolescents, if not full-grown, by that time.

* How much times passes in-universe over the course of the series? Based on the seasons that go by in the sequels and the TV series, it's implied that it's several years (perhaps at least 5-7?), yet the young dinosaur characters don't seem to age much or grow bigger in that time. Even in the last installment, they're still much smaller than the adults, when realistically, most of them would at least be adolescents, if not full-grown, by that time.

* Why do Dinah and Dana have brow horns when Cera has only a nose horn and Dinah and Dana are younger than Cera?

* If Littlefoot is a crossbreed of an Apatosaurus and a Brontosaurus, why does Ali look exactly like him?

* A minor nitpick from 'The Great Vallay Adventure'; when talking about going to the sinking sand to play, Cera insults the others' cowardice by calling them "a bunch of eggs". Considering that they have the term baby and in fact use it later in the film, isn't that like insulting someone by calling them a zygote?

** Maybe Elsie took them for a ride back to the mainland, like she did with Littlefoot and his friends at the end of 'The Mysterious Island'?

** Maybe Elsie took them for a ride back to the mainland?

** Elsie took them for a ride back to the mainland?

* Chomper returns to the Great Valley in the TV series. How did he and his parents get off the island after the land bridge was destroyed by the earthquake?

* Who's older, Littlefoot or Shorty?

* Something this troper noticed in the TV series: why can small mammals suddenly talk to the dinosaur characters? Anyone who remembers Tickles from the 4th movie can probably see my point.

** Maybe for them, being called an "egg" is a far worse insult than being called a "baby"?

* A minor nitpick from 'The Great Vallay Adventure'; when talking about going to the sinking sand to play, Cera insults the others' cowardice by calling them "a bunch of eggs". Considering that they have the term baby and in fact use it later in the film, isn't that like insulting someone by calling them a zygote?