The film focuses on the fauna of the Early Miocene Epoch (20 million years ago) in what is now the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument of Sioux County, Nebraska, U.S., with the following genera being officially confirmed
to appear:
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Main Animals
Daeodon
adult male
The largest carnivore in the ecosystem and the biggest member of the now-extinct entelodonts, a group of superficially pig-like animals that are most closely related to hippos and whales.- Eats Babies: The Daeodon in the teaser makes its first appearance preying on a Moropus calf.
- Full-Boar Action: A given considering that the trailer sets up Daeodon as a fearsome predator and one of the leads of the film.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Daeodon looks like what you'd get if you attached a vaguely hippo-like skull on a bison's body. Like hippos, Daeodon had the ability to open its jaws quite wide.
- Prehistoric Monster: Downplayed if only because the film's Daeodon doesn't look as monstrous and off-putting as other notable entelodont depictions like the Walking with Beasts' one, and it's still ultimately depicted as a regular animal - albeit a pretty intimidating looking one - just trying to survive.
Moropus
adult and calf
The largest herbivore in the ecosystem, with powerful clawed forelimbs and a member of the chalicotheres, a now-extinct group of animals related to horses, rhinos, and tapirs.- Gentle Giant: At least judging from the teaser trailer, they live in small herds and want nothing more than to be left alone to eat in peace.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Moropus vaguely resembles a giant tapir with the neck and head of a horse, with body patterning inspired by young tapirs and okapi.
Supporting Cast
Daphoenodon
A trio
A mid-sized carnivore and an early representative of the amphicyonids, which as the common name ("bear dogs") implies were most closely related (though not ancestral) to both modern canines and bears. Megalictis
A mid-sized carnivore from the mustelid (weasel) family, resembling a giant version of a wolverine.
Menoceras
male (left) and female (right)
A small rhinoceros about the size of a large pig, with males bearing two small horns side-by-side at the tip of their snouts.- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Aside from the arrangement of the horns themselves being unusual among rhinos, the fact that they're a male-only feature makes them particularly strange.
- Fun Size: Relative to other more familiar rhinos both extant and extinct, Menoceras are quite small. (And just look at the way they sit!)
Palaeocastor
A small rat-sized member of a now-extinct lineage of fully terrestrial burrowing beavers.
- Fun Size: They're beavers but miniature.
Paractiornis
Parahippus
A relatively mid-sized horse, with adaptations representative of the family's transition to open grasslands.
Promerycochoerus
A stocky pig-sized semi amphibious herbivore of the now-extinct oreodonts that, despite somewhat resembling a small hippo, are most closely related to camels.
Stenomylus
A trio of Stenomylus
A small gazelle-like camel.- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: They are early camels that have come to resemble gazelle through convergent evolution.
Syndyoceras
A mid-sized ruminant herbivore with two pairs of horns. Though it resembles modern deer and antelopes, it belongs to a now-extinct family known as the protoceratids, who are believed to be most closely related to the chevrotains or "mouse-deer."
Andrias matthewi
A giant salamander, part of the still-alive genus Andrias
