Recaps of and tropes specific to each short film in the Dinosauria series.
Some specific tropes titles are spoilers, so read with caution.
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"Old Buck"
The young challenger and the titular old buck square up
75 million years ago in what is now Alberta, Canada, an old male Styracosaurus must defend his territory and status as herd leader from a young rival male.- Agonizing Stomach Wound: The young Styracosaurus male suffers a particularly brutal example of this. He doesn't suffer the full effect though...
- Animal Reaction Shot: The fight between the Styracosaurus gets so intense that even the Daspletosaurus is visibly surprised by the old male's finishing move.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Averted. The old Styracosaurus fatally injures his opponent and leaves him to the Daspletosaurus.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Styracosaurus social hierarchies (at least for the males) are very decidedly based on who is the best fighter.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: The old bull Styracosaurus calmly returns and rests post-fight at the very end of the film, his fresh wounds still bleeding.
- Cool Old Guy: The old buck himself, which his younger rival learns the hard way during their fight to the death.
- Deadly Closing Credits: The film cuts to black as the Daspletosaurs trio move in on the losing male Styracosaurus, sealing his already painful fate.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The color scheme of this film is largely a monochrome black and white, accented by various tones of red to highlight the atmospheric sunset, the old male's frill color, and the blood of the fights.
- First Blood: After the first major engagement of the fight, we get a long shot of the ground and the old male's feet with a drop of blood falling in front of him.
- Non-Standard Character Design: At least for the adult male Styracosaurus featured; each one has its own unique number and arrangement of frill horns, horn shape, and even patterning and coloration.
- Rugged Scar: The large Daspletosaurus has a series of scars across its face.
- Victory by First Blood: The first fight in the film (and teaser) establishes that Styracosaurus fights are not inherently death duels. The main fight then subverts this for dramatic tension and shock value.
"Our Frozen Past"
Winter in Alaska's Prince Creek
69 million years ago in what is now Alaska, a mother troodontid and her offspring struggle to survive during the harshest time of the year: the polar winter.- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- Pachyrhinosaurus is depicted with a partial covering of fur-like downy feathers, a common paleoartistic design for this creature during the 2010s per the discovery of feathery basal ornithischians like Tianyulong, Kulindadromeus, and the early quilled ceratopsian Psittacosaurus. This is in spite of direct evidence that the larger, later ceratopsians like Triceratops and Centrosaurus were covered in relatively prominent scales, which many argue should be applied to Pachyrhinosaurus as well.
- Also, the feathers found on the above mentioned specimens were not downy, but quill-like (essentially just the hollow shaft of a feather), and were only found on the lower end of the dorsum or tail. So far, it is still unclear whether or not Ceratopsians (and most bird-hipped dinosaurs) had advanced feathers at all.
- This applies to a lesser degree to Nanuqsaurus, also depicted here as having a full-body fluffy coat in lieu of lacking any skin impressions. This generally isn't considered as bad as Pachyrhinosaurus due to Yutyrannus providing precedent for large tyrannosauroids in cool climates to be fully-feathered. Even if it was feathered, it likely didn't have the white and grey coat the specimens in the short have, as the Prince Creek formation didn't have enough year-round snow to justify the adaptation. Though, Nanuqsaurus may have had different coats for the summer and winter, with the white-grey pattern shedding off in the spring.
- In general the setting is depicted as an Arctic taiga when in reality it was more of a weird temperate forest. The "Making Of" video fully admits this, making this an intention artistic license.
- It is unlikely troodontids were voice changelings; discussions on dinosaur intelligence aside, it didn't have a syrinx, a feature crown group birds use to make sounds more complex than hissing.
- Pachyrhinosaurus is depicted with a partial covering of fur-like downy feathers, a common paleoartistic design for this creature during the 2010s per the discovery of feathery basal ornithischians like Tianyulong, Kulindadromeus, and the early quilled ceratopsian Psittacosaurus. This is in spite of direct evidence that the larger, later ceratopsians like Triceratops and Centrosaurus were covered in relatively prominent scales, which many argue should be applied to Pachyrhinosaurus as well.
- Chekhov's Gun: The mother troodontid is shown early in the short to be able to mimic interesting sounds she hears in her environment. When her initial efforts to repel the Nanuqsaurus from her nest fail, she uses that mimicry to cry out like a juvenile Pachyrhinosaurus, drawing the herd in to scare off the tyrannosaurids.
- Eats Babies: The Nanuqsaurus attack the troodontids' nest in hopes of eating the defenseless chicks. They get one despite the mother's best efforts.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Every dinosaur in this episode is based on a modern day arctic animal, which makes sense considering dinosaurs would've fit the same niches as mammals do today
- The Troodon is based on coyotes or arctic foxes, due to living in a cave-like den with its young and having to rely on its speed and intelligence to survive against larger predators.
- The Pachyrhinosaurus are clearly based on bison, due to living in large herds and being violently protective of their young. They even resemble them in shape and colour.
- The Nanuqsaurus are based on polar bears, due to their white plummage and pitch black skin, excellent sense of smell, and only living in pairs at the most.
- Feathered Fiend: A Nanuqsaurus (fully feathered as described above) ominously appears outside of the troodontids' cave at the end of the episode teaser while the mother is away. It's expanded in the full film that the Nanuqsaurus pair followed the mother troodontid back to her nest after she spotted them while on her hunt.
- Mama Bear: The mother troodontid does her best to fight off the Nanuqsaurus who want to eat her babies. She succeeds with one.
- Raptor Attack: Averted with vengeance with the troodontids. They are fully feathered, have the correct wing shape, look and sound extremely bird-like, and most notably, do not live in packs.
- Summon Bigger Fish: The mother troodontid uses her Voice Changeling ability to imitate the call of a juvenile Pachyrhinosaurus, drawing the herd to her nest to scare off the Nanuqsaurus trying to eat her chicks.
- Voice Changeling: The mother troodontid displays the ability to closely mimic interesting sounds she hears in her environment, like icicles falling into snow as seen in the trailer. She uses this to summon the Pachyrhinosaurus herd to her nest to drive off the attacking Nanuqsaurus.
- Wintry Auroral Sky: Downplayed; there are hints of green and purple in the sky, but a proper aurora borealis isn't shown.
"A More Ancient Spring"
A lambeosaur looking for love
75 million years ago in what is now Alberta, Canada, a male Lambeosaurus prepares for the new spring breeding season.- Artistic License – Paleontology: The short portrays hadrosaurs as monogamous; in fact the plot hinges around a Lambeosaurus' grief over losing his partner and desperation over getting a new one. It is generally agreed that hadrosaurs were most likely polygamous note like deer and other ungulates since they have similar sexual dimorphism.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: The short opens with the Lambeosaurus' mate being killed by a Gorgosaurus, followed by scenes of other dinosaurs building nests in preparation for the breeding season.
- Downer Beginning: The short opens with the male Lambeosaurus discovering his mate has been killed by a Gorgosaurus.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The Gorgosaurus male doesn't kill the female Lambeosaurus out of spite, but so he can present a gift to a potential mate.
- Pale Females, Dark Males: Most male animals are contrasted with pale female ones. A possible exception might be the Gorgosaurus, in which the female (inferred by it being the recipient of a food offering) is darker than the male.
- Second Love: The male Lambeosaurus finds an unattached female at the end of the short, the two resting together after starting to build their nest.
- Social Ornithopod: The central focus is on a mixed herd of hadrosaurs gathering during the breeding season, with a Lambeosaurus as the showcase dinosaur.
- Time-Passes Montage: The sky flickers from blue to purple to yellow several times through the midpoint of the short while the male Lambeosaurus rests, signifying that several days go by before he hears the call of a female again.
"Sea and Sky"
A Geosternbergia faces dangerous seas
85 million years ago in what will become Kansas, a flock of Geosternbergia must brave dangerous waters and hungry predators if they are to secure food for themselves.- Awesome Underwater World: Marine reptiles and sharks aside, the sea floor is depicted as exceptionally vibrant for a Cretaceous marine setting. Large plants, possibly primitive flowering plants, form kelp-like forests in the sea bottom, rising high into the water column.
- Covers Always Lie: The thumbnail shows the male Geosternbergia being attacked by the Tylosaurus underwater. This never happens in the film proper.
- A second Tylosaurus can be seen lurking in the shadows in the thumbnail. Only one Tylosaurus is seen in the short hunting the Geosternbergia.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: :If you look closely, you can see that one of the Geosternbergia in the mostly female flock is actually a juvenile male.
- Everyone Lives: None of the Geosternbergia featured are killed, either by sharks or the patrolling Tylosaurus.
- Giant Flyer: Geosternbergia, natch, though the male is much larger than the females and all are also shown to be competent swimmers as well. Indeed, the animals spend most of the short either on land or diving underwater like gannets or penguins, downplaying their volant nature as much as possible.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: The male Geosternbergia has a golden head and crest. This is in line with the sexual dimorphism these pterosaurs had... but also clearly marks him as the protagonist.
- Land, Sea, Sky: Per
Word of God, the story has this trope as part of its act structure—Act 1 opens with the flock watching nervously from the cliffs (Land), then Act 2 features the alpha male diving into the water while narrowly escaping the predators (Sea) and finally Act 3 has the triumphant climax where the alpha's narrow escape inspires his flock to finally take flight themselves (Sky). - Large and in Charge: As with the real animal, the male Geosternbergia is much larger than his harem of females. Doubles as a case of Huge Guy, Tiny Girl.
- Non-Indicative Name: There’s pterosaurs, mosasaurs, and two species of fish but absolutely no dinosaurs in this episode of the Dinosauria series.
- The One Guy: The alpha male is the only male member of the Geosternbergia flock. Or so he thinks, as there's a juvenile male hiding among the females.
- Polyamory: The many female Geosternbergia are at least implied to all be the lead male's mates.
- Sea Monster: The Tylosaurus, a bigger threat to the Geosternbergia than the sharks. The pterosaurs themselves are also uniquely (and accurately) portrayed as aquatic predators diving after their prey like auks.
- Secondary Sexual Characteristics: The female Geosternbergia are smaller, less colorful and have much smaller crests than their male counterpart.
- Threatening Shark: A small pack of Cretoxyrhina are shown patrolling the cliffs. However, the Tylosaurus is treated as the bigger threat.
- Who Will Bell the Cat?: The Geosternbergia flock needs to go out to sea to feed, but a Tylosaurus is patrolling the waters below and none of the pterosaurs are willing to be the first one to go in and risk getting eaten. Ultimately the alpha male goes first, successfully dodging the mosasaur and giving the other Geosternbergia the confidence to set out.
"The Last Tyrant"
The end of an age
A Tyrannosaurus pair raise their clutch of eggs: and then the K-T extinction event hits.- After the End: Focuses on the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the end-Cretaceous after the asteroid strike.
- Animal Jingoism: The mother Triceratops has a T. rex bite mark on her frill, implying she was previously attacked by the very same female T. rex in the past.
- Carnivores Are Mean: Averted: the T. rex comes to the lake to drink, and the herbivores are understandably wary: however, she is not interested in fighting, and simply drinks in peace and departs.
- Cartoon Creature: According to the making off video the small Mesozoic birds are a mosaic of Cretaceous enantiornitheans. They are imaginary and dubbed "Madeupornis birdi" ("Made-up bird bird").
- Colony Drop: The asteroid that ended the age of dinosaurs, of course.
- Covered in Scars: The male T. rex has scars on his face consistent with the bite marks of another T. rex. The Edmontosaurus and the Triceratops at the watering hole also have healed bite wounds from a T. rex, highlighting their wariness of the female T. rex coming to drink.
- The Day the Dinosaurs Died: Focuses on the day the K-Pg impact put an end to the Mesozoic era.
- Death of a Child: The Tyrannosaurus clutch of eggs that perish in the cataclysm, complete with a tearjerking scene of a stillborn baby tyrannosaur still curled up within its broken egg.
- Distant Finale: The very end has the Tyrannosaurus mother's fossilized skull being exposed from the rock where it was entombed until the modern day, followed by several shots of modern birds and fossils in museums, revealing how the dinosaurs' legacy lives on.
- Downer Ending: The asteroid hits, and the dinosaurs (the non-avian ones) go extinct.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The mother Triceratops at the watering hole has a T. rex bite mark on her frill, suggesting she is the same individual the female T. rex was shown hunting in the epilogue segment.
- Hope Springs Eternal: The asteroid hits, and the dinosaurs go extinct. But, as a few juxtaposed shots show, a legacy of them lives on to this day: the birds. And shots of fossils, with montages of the past four episodes in the middle, show that they may be gone, but they certainly aren't forgotten.
- Monstrous Cannibalism: Subverted. It's implied that the female T. rex has scavenged the corpse of her mate who has died in the impact, but it's not played as a Kick the Dog moment but rather highlights her desperation and makes her situation more tragic and sympathetic.
- Passing the Torch: Shots of a crow perched on the T. rex skull, and later of ducks and swans, hint at the dinosaurs continuing to live on through their descendants, the birds.
- Prehistoric Monster: Averted with the T. rex couple. The female is shown peacefully drinking from a stream ignoring the herbivores, while the male guards the nest and protects their eggs. The female does end up cannibalizing the dead male's carcass after the asteroid hits, but it still plays off in a sympathetic and tragic, rather than monstrous, light.
- Please Wake Up: The baby Triceratops can be seen desperately trying to wake its mother after the asteroid hits.
- Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Subtle, but the male T. rex is shown to be slightly smaller and leaner than the bulky female and has more prominent brow ridges.
- Smash to Black: When the asteroid hits, the entire horizon lights up. The two Tyrannosaurus huddle down as a deep rumbling gets louder and closer over several seconds... and then the screen abruptly goes dark and silent.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Of sorts, as we see the main protagonists of the last four episodes after their segments ended, showing Old Buck continuing to lead the herd, the mother Troodon guiding her chick to a new home, the male Lambeosaurus with a new hatchling, and the Geosternbergia flock migrating, led by the old male: concluding with shots of their fossilized remains at a museum.
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Woobie Species: All of the dinosaurs. Panicking, desperate to survive, and grieving their families that died, with special mention to the female T. rex, who appears to even be weeping tears of blood as she dies.
