The diversity of life on isolated lands is showcased.
The Hateg Island segments contain examples of:
- Adam and Eve Plot: A variant. The segment ends with a male and female Zalmoxes adrift together on a natural barge sailing away from Hateg Island, with the implication that they'll survive long enough to make landfall somewhere else and have offspring. Attenborough's narration speculates that they may establish a new population that may, with time, eventually evolve into a new species.
- The Cameo: We get our first ever close-up of an adult Alcione at the beginning.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Downplayed with the above-mentioned Alcione. Its fossils are only known from North Africa, but as present-day seabirds tend to have fairly wide-ranging distributions it's not too unreasonable to speculate that the same may have been true of nyctosaurid pterosaurs (especially seeing as Hateg Island wouldn't have been terribly far from North Africa at the time).
The Tethyhadros segment contains examples of:
- Death from Above: A flock of Hatzegopteryx descends on the Tethyshadros herd and tries to eat some of them and their babies.
- Eats Babies: A flock of Hatzegopteryx are shown hunting the younger Tethyshadros once the larger adults manage to give them the slip in the trees.
- It Can Think: As shown when they hunt the Tethyshadros, Hatzegopteryx are smart enough to flush out prey co-operatively.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: One of the calves hiding among the saplings makes a run for it, alerting the Hatzegopteryx of its location.
- Social Ornithopod: Tethyshadros are seen browsing in a herd.
- Spiders Are Scary: The camera lingers on a spider spinning its web before the Hatzegopteryx arrive. It is a harbinger of it, even it doesn't harm anything.
The Maevarano segments contain examples of:
- Always a Bigger Fish: The Masiakasaurus menaces the Adalatherium nest, but it falls prey to a hungry Madtsoia.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Downplayed with the Madtsoia. While on one hand it's in a forboding sight, it does act as an Accidental Hero to the Adalatherium by eating a predator.
The Antarctic segment contains examples of:
- Fragile Speedster: Morrosaurus faster than its predators, but it still needs to tread carefully against them, as they can overpower it with superior numbers.
- Zerg Rush: A pack of three Imperobator's hunt down the Morrosaurus. Attenborough notes that while Morrosaurus is faster, the Imperobator have numbers on their side.
The Hatzegopteryx segment contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: After the main male manages to drive away the younger intruder, he realizes that the female he was courting has suddenly vanished. When he assumes that she got bored of him and left, the female suddenly appears from the vegetation of the small island and shows she watched the fight and got impressed by the strength of the older male against his opponent, ending up mating with him.
- Behemoth Battle: The older male and the younger newcomer male who tries to take the female he was courting for himself start fighting with each other. The older male ends up winning with ease.
- Mating Dance: On a tiny island, the male Hatzegopteryx performs a spectacular display to attract a female, creating a dance floor on with lines in the sand, branches, and a Tethyshadros carcass, and then showing off his massive wings and colorful head crest.
