- Common Knowledge: Prior to the 2019 description of Suskityrannus hazelae (first discovered in the '90s), various sources (including, at times, The Other Wiki) identified the raptors from the Zuni Basin segment as Dromaeosaurus, Deinonychus, or Saurornitholestes, even though none of them lived anywhere close to 90 mya. It probably didn’t help that the raptor models were repurposed for the Saurornitholestes in Valley of the T-Rex (which reused many models and even scenes from When Dinosaurs Roamed America). After 2019 though, it has become more widely known that both the raptors and the little Zuni coelurosaur were actually based on the then-unnamed fossils of Suskityrannus (which are even shown during the talking heads segments), making them an accidental Decomposite Character.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Dilophosaurus in the Early Jurassic segment is pretty well-received due to having a more accurate design compared to its depiction in Jurassic Park (1993), not to mention its cool yet terrifying vocals.
- Funny Moments:
- The Allosaurus ambushing the Ceratosaurus is this due to the Ceratosaurus's cries sounding like high-pitched screaming in contrast to its deep threatening sounds made earlier in the program.
- The way the Nothronychus (earlier described as looking like a half-plucked turkey and walking like a pot-bellied bear) moves when running must be seen to be believed
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- He Really Can Act: Played With. John Goodman was already known and beloved as a great actor with a portfolio spanning drama, comedy, family-friendly fare, and everything in-between, but he does a splendid performance with his narration for a paleo-documentary, sounding dignified and respectful not unlike Kenneth Branagh's famed turn as the narrator of the Walking with… franchise. Goodman is fondly regarded by many paleo fans as a rare example of an A-list celebrity narrator who isn’t distracting in their part and turns in a great performance to boot.
- Narm:
- Enter Allosaurus, the top predator of the Jurassic, hunting for prey... and uttering arguably the most pathetic, impotent vocalization in the entire show. The fact that its high-pitched screams sound similar to the painful screams of the Ceratosaurus doesn't help.
- The T. rex's Mighty Roar also fells very Narm-y given how shrill and strained it sounds, like the dinosaur is in pain (granted, the first time we hear it is when the mother T. rex gets hit in her injured leg). You'll also notice that it's the same sound effect used for the crippled Apatosaurus at the end of the Jurassic segment.
- As mentioned above, the otherwise horrific forest fire is briefly interrupted by the sight of the Nothronychus running in the silliest way imaginable. Granted, given the morphology of therizinosaurids (very short legs coupled with a big pot belly), they obviously weren't made for running.
- Nightmare Fuel:
- All of the large theropods, except for Nothronychus.
- The Dilophosaurus roar is one of the most memorable things about the show thanks to being metallic, like its from some terrifying robot. Though for some, it's actually a Most Wonderful Sound.
- While they might not have aged well, the raptors were an early example of how feathered dinosaurs could be quite terrifying. Their blackish-red plumage combined with pale faces and piercing yellow eyes give them a very creepy and ghoulish appearance.
- The asteroid impact is appropriately spectacular as it is terrifying. Real-life footage from nuclear detonations is used to show forests being obliterated or battered to hammer in how terrible this catastrophe was. The massive wall of fiery destruction soon reaches South Dakota, and the Tyrannosaurus family looks up from their kill to gape at it before fleeing in terror, along with the other herbivores. But it's all in vain, and they're going to die a terrible death in the fire.
- Special Effect Failure: Quite a number:
- When the Rutiodon lunges out of the water, its tail goes above the surface, but there aren't any splashes or ripples.
- As the "Syntarsus" pack prowls the forest, one shot has them walking in air.
- The Dilophosaurus mother eating the Anchisaurus corpse is actually the reversed footage of her killing the animal, thus the Anchi's head rises up into the mouth of the predator by itself. You can also see the reversal clearly by looking at the Dilo.
- For a single shot before an intruding Dilophosaurus arrives to steal the Anchisaurus kill, the blood that stained the face of the mother is gone.
- As a young Triceratops playfully rolls through the vegetation, its neck-frill passes into the ground.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- The series completely skipped the Lower Cretaceous, which could have been a good chance to show some of the fauna of the time such as Acrocanthosaurus, Tenontosaurus, or Deinonychus. The most likely reason (besides time and budget) is because it would have felt redundant, as they already had a large allosaur and a dromaeosaur in the cast (even if the latter turned out to be a misidentified tyrannosaur), and going with the Zuni dinosaur allowed them to also include a therizinosaur.
- The Western Interior Seaway (which split the continent in two for most of the Upper Cretaceous) is only paid lip-service to in the penultimate segment, when it would have been interesting if we got a segment focused on the well-documented marine megafauna that inhabited the inland sea around 85-80 million years ago, like the iconic pterosaur Pteranodon, the mosasaur Tylosaurus, the long-necked plesiosaur Elasmosaurus, and the man-sized, aquatic Toothy Bird Hesperornis (the last one technically being a dinosaur).
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ymmv/WhenDinosaursRoamedAmerica
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