The Land Before Time series bears countless inaccuracies in its depiction of the Mesozoic Era. The following lists contain the various inaccuracies sighted by fans.
The series itself[]
- An article in Animation Magazine covering The Land Before Time suggests that the series takes place at the end of the Mesozoic (phrased as "the late prehistoric era"),[1] which correlates to the Maastrichtian age of the late Cretaceous Period (72.1 – 66 million years ago); consequently, many of the animals featured are misplaced, both in time and space. Within the main cast, examples include:
- Littlefoot, his grandparents, his mother, Bron, Pat, Old One, Ali, Ali's mother, and Rhett the Apatosaurus (hailing from the Tithonian stage of the late Jurassic period, 152 to 151 million years ago).
- Petrie, his mother, and Pterano, the Pteranodon (despite P. longiceps living in the late Cretaceous, it lived in the Santonian age, from 86 to 84.5 million years ago).
- Spike, Tippy, Tippy's Mother, and the Spiketail Leader the Stegosaurus (Stegosaurus lived, roughly, in the same time span as Apatosaurus.)
- Most theropods, most notably dromaeosaurs (referred to as "Fast Biters" in the television series), lack feathery coatings likely present in many coelurosaurian theropods. However, the series' portrayal of Tyrannosaurus being featherless is somewhat accurate, as a paper published in 2017 suggested large, advanced tyrannosaurs mostly. if not wholly lacked plumage.
- In early films, theropods, most notably tyrannosaurs, are often shown standing and walking in a tripodal pose, with pronated, "kangaroo" hands, whereas modern understanding of dinosaur anatomy dictates that theropods stood and walked with its body approximately parallel to the ground (although theropods are sometimes shown with this posture in some scenes). Though the issue of tripod dinosaurs has largely (though not entirely) regressed, the issue of hand pronation persists into recent films.
- Ceratopsians, sauropods, stegosaurs, and ankylosaurs throughout the franchise are depicted with elephantine forefeet. They are also frequently portrayed with low-hanging tails, when they should have elevated tails.
- On occasion, sauropods (notably Littlefoot's grandparents in certain scenes) can be seen up to their abdomens in water. The hypothesis that sauropods were primarily aquatic was debunked long ago, even before the films came to be. However, the prospect of sauropods going into the water at all is not necessarily inaccurate, as it is possible that they would have sometimes entered water to cool off, as large terrestrial animals (e.g. elephants) do today.
- Similarly, hadrosaurs, or "Swimmers", obtain their names from their largely marine lifestyles within the series. Hadrosaurs are not known to have been aquatic, or even semi-aquatic.
- Conversely, in instances when theropods are shown in deep water, they are almost always shown as extremely incompetent swimmers. Fossilized tracks, believed to have been left at the bottom of bodies of water, have been found that suggest that theropods were perfectly capable of swimming to some extent.
- Ornithopods and ceratopsians were the only two major dinosaur groups that were able to properly chew their food; however, in The Land Before Time, other groups, such as sauropods and theropods, are shown chewing. This would have been impossible for these groups in life.
- Most sauropods are incorrectly depicted with nostrils on the top of their heads. Though sauropods' nasal openings were between their eyes, their nostrils were at the front of their snouts like most other dinosaurs.
- The series' portrayal of Apatosaurus has some noteworthy mistakes.
- Their tails are incorrectly shaped. They should be very long and whip-like.
- The skulls of most Apatosaurus characters and background characters are shaped like that of a Camarasaurus, when they should be shaped like the skull of Diplodocus. The only exception to this are Littlefoot's parents, whose heads are shaped more like that of a real Apatosaurus.
- The necks are rather thin. Real Apatosaurus, along with Brontosaurus, possessed very muscular necks. Also, while this is fairly recent, some paleontologists have suggested the necks might have possessed two rows of keratinous spikes underneath, based on an idea the necks were also used as weapons due to their muscular build.
- The armor of Ankylosaurus is incorrectly designed. It should not have large spikes protruding from its sides and its armor osteoderms should be more smoothed and variable in size.
- Most ankylosaurs in the films are portrayed with splayed limbs, when they should have their legs held underneath their bodies like all dinosaurs.
- Similarly, ceratopsians and stegosaurs are shown having their front legs sprawled like in outdated portraits, instead of having them erect.
- Ceratopsians, stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, and hadrosaurs are primarily given no keratinous beaks, like in outdated portraits.
- Nearly all reptiles throughout the franchise are depicted with having small ridges on their backs, even when the real animals do not possess anything that would suggest the presence of a ridge.
- Tyrannosaurus and its relatives would have had rugosities or bosses on the skull, in contrast to the franchise's typically smooth-faced tyrannosaurs. Similarly, several dinosaurs in the franchise, including Tyrannosaurus, have boxier skulls than their real life counterparts.
- Petrie and his kin are often shown eating tree stars or other greenery throughout the series, while real Pteranodon were more likely to have consumed fish. They also would have had webbed feet, as they were strong swimmers as well as flyers. It should be noted, however, that this inaccuracy is only introduced in the sequels-- the original 1988 film does not mention Petrie's diet.
- The Pteranodon in this franchise are far smaller than their real life counterparts.
- In general, pterosaurs throughout the series have several inaccuracies.
- Beginning in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, pterosaurs are depicted as largely bipedal. The skeletons of pterosaurs were built to accommodate quadrupedal locomotion on land, not bipedal.
- Most of the pterosaurs seen in the franchise are somewhat lacking in pycnofibres, the fur-like structures that covered the bodies of the real animals. They are usually portrayed with a body covering (given the darker shading), a ring of fluff around the neck, and a naked head, similar to modern-day vultures. The only exception to this is Dimorphodon, which is depicted with a full coat of them in The Land Before Time.
- Pterosaurs generally have thin, un-muscled necks as opposed to the robust necks of real pterosaurs.
- Most of the dinosaurs, with the exception of some of the more recently designed creatures, are seen with noticeable ears, when in reality, a dinosaur ear was just a hole on the side of its head.
- Most hadrosaurs in the films are seen primarily walking on two legs. While they could do this in real life, hadrosaurs were most comfortable on four legs, only standing up on two legs in order to run away from predators. All the hadrosaurs are also portrayed with visible fingers, when in reality the fingers were embedded underneath the skin and fused into a hoof-like structure.
- The tail spikes of stegosaurs are portrayed pointing upwards, rather than sideways.
- The Stegosaurus are depicted with rather short necks, but since a mostly-complete specimen was described in 2014, it has been known that their necks would have been relatively long in life.
- Several ornithischian dinosaurs are depicted without extensive cheeks, although there are exceptions such as on the Iguanodon.
- Struthiomimus and Ornithomimus ("Egg Stealers") were most likely not dedicated egg-thieves, as depicted in the films. They should also be covered in ostrich-like feathers, with wings covering their arms.
- Feathered dinosaurs are shown having their wings ending at the wrist. In real life, the wing is all the way attached to the second finger.
- The Pachycephalosaurus seen in the series are generally seen walking more upright. In real life, like with most bipedal dinosaurs, Pachycephalosaurus walked completely parallel to the ground. They also have large forelimbs with four-fingered hands, when they should have small forelimbs with five-fingered hands like all pachycephalosaurs.
- Tar pits are seen throughout many of the Land Before Time films. However, tar pits didn't form in the Mesozoic era. They first formed in the Cenozoic era, the age of mammals. They are also usually shown as a big pool of tar, however real tar pits had a layer of water or sand over the tar. A more accurate choice would have been quicksand or mud, which is known to have trapped several dinosaurs in Mesozoic times.
- Large swathes of grass are often depicted in the series. Though the presence of grass in the first place is not inaccurate by itself - grass has existed since the Cretaceous Period - grasslands did not begin to form until the Cenozoic era.
- Several creatures in the films possess prominent lumps between their arms. If they are intended to be breasts, their presence is a glaring inaccuracy - mammary glands are exclusive to mammals.
- Several creatures in the films are heavier-set than their real life counterparts, with thicker tails and pronounced stomachs.
- Most dinosaurs in the films also have flexible tails even though in real life, most dinosaur tails were not flexible.
From The Land Before Time (1988)[]
- A Dimetrodon is seen shortly after Littlefoot, Ducky, and Petrie befriend each other. Dimetrodon lived during the early Permian period, from 295 to 272 million years ago, long before dinosaurs came to be. The Dimetrodon is also portrayed with a forked tongue akin to a snake's or a monitor lizard's, something the real animal never had due to its close relationship with mammals. Furthermore, new studies show that the tips of the animal's spines would be exposed and could be seen outside of the sail. In addition, Dimetrodon could have been somewhat more mammalian in appearance than in the film and could not have a lizard-like gait. However, the creature is referred to in concept art as a "fin-backed lizard" rather than a Dimetrodon, so it is possible that it may be a fictional species.
- It is highly unlikely that the "Bonehead" dinosaur Pachycephalosaurus, shown pursuing Cera, was openly predatory. However, some scientists have proposed that P. wyomingensis was omnivorous due to the shape of its teeth. Perhaps noting this, one of the novelizations depicts the attack as a revenge strike in response to a previous slight.
- Similarly, the Pachycephalosaurus are also depicted with sharp, dromaeosaurian claws on their feet and hands. In reality, pachycephalosaurs had small claws, unlikely to be of much use. This is fixed in later appearances.
- Petrie is seen climbing a tree in this film. The anatomy of real Pteranodon does not indicate that they would have been capable of doing such a thing.
- The main characters are seen hatching out of their eggs in under a minute, while real animals usually take several hours to hatch. This was probably done to speed up the pace of the movie.
- Tyrannosaurus is not believed to have been able to jump the way Sharptooth is shown jumping in the film. This may have been based on Ceratosaurus jumping in a Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien film/documentary about animals, including dinosaurs, The Animal World (1956).
- Sharptooth is seen standing and walking up straight. In the 21st century, it is understood that theropods like Tyrannosaurus stood and walked with its body approximately parallel to the ground (although Sharptooth is sometimes shown with this posture in some scenes).
- Rooter looks little like a real Scolosaurus, having a nonexistent stubby horn on his snout and two spiky prongs on his tail club, akin to early depictions of the animal. In real life, Scolosaurus would have been identical to Euoplocephalus (which it was formerly synonymous with) but with longer, downward-facing horns.
- The Dimorphodon in this film have no teeth, a smaller head and beak, and lack the diamond-shaped vane on the tip of the tail that the real animal had.
- The Diplodocus have tails are too short and lack the whip-like shape. Interestingly, the Diplodocus in this film are depicted having beak-like mouths (omitted in later appearances), which have been recently confirmed to be possible in sauropods.
From The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure (1994)[]
- Beginning in this film, Spike (a Spiketail) is, oddly, consistently depicted without a thagomizer.
- Chomper, the baby Tyrannosaurus, should have a more slender skull and body, and possibly a layer of down. He's also missing a dewclaw on each foot, in contrast to his parents.
- A sort of prosauropod is depicted during the film's opening narration. It is shown in a tripodal stance, when it actually held its spine horizontally. It is also shown with theropod-like hands with three long fingers, when real had vaguely human-like hands with five fingers and a claw on its thumb.
From The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving (1995)[]
- More anachronistic main characters:
- Hyp, the Hypsilophodon (from the Barremian stage of the early Cretaceous, 130 to 125 million years ago).
- Mutt, the Muttaburrasaurus (from the Albian and Cenomanian ages, in both the early and late Cretaceous, 112 to 96 million years ago).
- Nod, the Nodosaurus (Nodosaurus lived in a similar time span to that of Muttaburrasaurus, 100 to 97 million years ago).
- The film's Velociraptor are depicted as almost identical in appearance to the raptors from Jurassic Park, far more closely resembling large featherless Deinonychus than any known Velociraptor species. In reality, Velociraptor had a long skull with a narrow snout, was the size of a turkey and had feathers covering a good portion of its body (including wings and a tail fan).
- Hyp and his father hardly resemble real life Hypsilophodon. They are very large for their species, and have rigid, defined underbites. Hypsilophodon was, in reality, not much larger than a medium sized dog, and had a small beak. Impressions from other, similarly sized ornithischians also suggest that Hypsilophodon was covered in a layer of spiny down.
- Mutt looks more like a generic hadrosaur than a Muttaburrasaurus, the iguanodont genus that he is based on. However, it is now believed Muttaburrasaurus would have been bipedal and not have a thumb spike, like how Mutt is portrayed.
- The Iguanodon design is missing the prehensile "pinkie" used for grabbing, and its iconic thumb spike is less pronounced than in real life. These mistakes persist in later appearances.
- The dromaeosaurs depicted in the opening narration are significantly less feathered than their real life counterparts, only having a set of quills running down their necks. As with the Velociraptor, they should be much more extensively feathered, with wings on their arms and a tail fan.
From The Land Before Time IV: Journey through the Mists (1996)[]
- Main character anachronisms:
- Dil, the Deinosuchus (Deinosuchus is only known from the Campanian stage of the late Cretaceous, 80 to 73 million years ago).
- Ichy, the Ichthyornis (Ichthyornis lived from the Cenomanian up until the Coniacian, 95 to 85 million years ago).
- A plesiosaur appears as a Swimming Sharptooth in the film. Non-pliosaurid plesiosaurs are believed to have primarily eaten small fish, and they would have been very unlikely to have attacked a Deinosuchus like Dil in the manner the one in the movie does. It is also able to lift its entire neck and much of its body out of the water, while the real animal, and all plesiosaurs in general, could only lift their head out of the water before gravity and their weight pulled them back down.
- Ichy, the Ichthyornis seen in this film, lives far away from the ocean and tries to attack small dinosaurs, while the real animal was a seabird and ate mostly fish, though it would likely have scavenged washed-up carcasses if necessary.
- Archie, the Archelon seen in this film, lives in a cave far away from the ocean, the location where the real animal lived and found its food, and is depicted as being able to hide in his shell, which is something Archelon is unlikely to have been been able to do. He is also temporally misplaced; Archelon lived in the Campanian stage of the Cretaceous, around the same time as Ichthyornis.
From The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (1997)[]
- Bizarrely, Chomper is depicted with three fingers, as opposed to two as in The Great Valley Adventure. This error persists into future installments in the franchise.
- In reality, it unlikely that a pair of Tyrannosaurus, together with a baby, could survive on a small island, as there wouldn't be enough prey to sustain them, especially with another apex predator competing with them for food and water.
- Elsie, the Elasmosaurus in this film is depicted raising her entire neck and body out of the water. The real animal, along with most plesiosaurs, was only able to lift its head out of the water, before gravity and its weight pulled it back down.
- She is also depicted as being able to bend her neck with a range of motion that would snap the neck of the real animal.
- She is also depicted with a shark-like fin on her head, something that is completely unknown in the real animal.
- She is also depicted with flat teeth. The real animal had sharp teeth. This was probably done to make her look less fearsome.
- The Sharptooth Flyer seen in this film is seen carrying Ducky with one of her hind limbs. This is impossible, as pterosaur feet were not at all built for grabbing objects.
From The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock (1998)[]
- Anachronisms:
- Doc, the Diplodocus (D. carnegii lived in the Kimmeridgian stage of the late Jurassic, 154 to 152 million years ago.)
- Mrs. Maia, the Maiasaura (Maiasaura, though a product of the late Cretaceous, lived in the Campanian age, around 75 million years ago.)
- The film's Allosaurus has multiple problems:
- It is depicted with only two visible fingers. This can be considered a highly elementary mistake, as the real dinosaur's three fingers are one of its most notable traits. It is also portrayed with only three visible toes, missing the dewclaw on the ankle.
- However, it is shown with three fingers and four toes in some scenes. It is unknown as to whether the two fingers and three toes were intended, or the three fingers and four toes
- Aside from a fleshy ridge surrounding its eye, the Sharptooth's head is shaped like that of a T. rex. The real Allosaurus had a curved, sloping, relatively thin skull. It should also have a pronounced, horn-like crest in front of each of its eyes.
- It is depicted as being the same size as a T. rex, when it would have been smaller in reality.
- However, the large size of this Allosaurus could have been based off of Saurophaganax, a larger dinosaur that was a close relative of, if not a species of, Allosaurus.
- It is temporally misplaced. Allosaurus lived in the Kimmeridgian and Turonian stages of the late Jurassic, from 155 to 150 million years ago.
- The Euparkeria depicted at the beginning of the film looks almost nothing like its real life counterpart, bearing a closer resemblance to a temnospondyl than a quadrupedal theropod.
- It is depicted with only two visible fingers. This can be considered a highly elementary mistake, as the real dinosaur's three fingers are one of its most notable traits. It is also portrayed with only three visible toes, missing the dewclaw on the ankle.
From The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire (2000)[]
- Anachronisms:
- Sierra, the Cearadactylus (C. atrox lived in the Albian stage of the early Cretaceous, 112 million years ago.)
- Rinkus, the Rhamphorhynchus (Rhamphorhynchus lived from 150 to 148 million years ago, in the Tithonian stage of the late Jurassic.)
- Sierra is seen grasping Ducky with one of his hind limbs. This is impossible, as pterosaur feet were not at all built for grabbing objects. He also lacks the keel that was present on the beaks of actual Cearadactylus.
- Rinkus is much larger than a real Rhamphorhynchus, which was only crow-sized.
- Rinkus' tail has been shown to be extremely flexible. In reality, Rhamphorynchus had a stiff tail that enabled it to make more agile turns in flight.
- The Kentrosaurus should have spikes protruding from their shoulders.
- The Rainbow Faces, which are almost certainly intended to be coelurosaurs of some sort, are depicted with scaly skin. Most coelurosaurs - with the notable exception of large tyrannosaurids - were almost certainly covered in feathers.
- The Styracosaurus have much shorter nose horns than in real life, and their distinctive spiked frills does not quite match what the real animals had. They are also the size of the Triceratops in the series. These errors persists into future installments.
- In a story told by Grandpa Longneck, explaining the elders' distrust of Pterano, a Deinonychus pack is said to be responsible for the massacre of an entire group of dinosaurs led by the pterosaur. Their depiction is inaccurate for multiple reasons:
- They are depicted without any sort of feathers. This is somewhat excusable, as the film was likely produced prior to the discovery that most dromaeosaurs were covered in feathering.
- They are, bizarrely, depicted with only two fingers. All known dromaeosaurids are known to have three fingers. They also have only three toes, lacking dew claws on their ankles.
- It is almost certain that a large pack of Deinonychus would not have been capable of taking down the amount of dinosaurs implied in the scene, let alone dinosaurs such as Ankylosaurus and Styracosaurus. They are also able to take hits from a club tail without injury, something that would have shattered their skulls.
- They are far bigger than real Deinonychus, being the size of a Utahraptor or an Achillobator.
- Quetzalcoatlus had a larger head and shorter wings than the one in the film, It is also now known to be a terrestrial macro-predator.
From The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water (2002)[]
- The Elasmosaurus seen in this film have the same shark-like fin on their heads as Elsie, which the real animal didn't have, Their tail is also longer than the real animal.
- Seahorses are seen in Mo's Home, despite the fact that seahorses didn't evolve until the Neogene period of the Cenozoic.
- The film's Liopleurodon is larger than the real animal. This is likely a reference to the 1999 documentary, Walking With Dinosaurs, which erroneously portrayed the animal as 25 meters long, or 82 feet.
From The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration (2003)[]
- The Compsognathus seen in this film are depicted without feathery coats, which can be inferred by its relation to the definitively feathered Sinosauropteryx.
- Sue, a Supersaurus, is only slightly bigger than Littlefoot's Grandparents when in real life, Supersaurus was far larger than Apatosaurus.
- The back osteoderms on the Saltasaurus seen in this film appear to be more like spots than scale-like structures. These errors persist into further appearances.
- The Amargasaurus seen in this film have relatively short, straight spikes on their necks, forming dual sails. The neck spikes of Amargasaurus were very long, and projected backwards slightly. Whether or not the neck spines of Amargasaurus formed keratinous spikes or dual sails, or if they supported a muscular ridge, is controversial. The film's depiction of Amargasaurus also has a neck that is considerably longer than that of its fossil counterpart.
From The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers (2007)[]
- After the Universal logo is shown in the opening, the continents merge back into the supercontinent, Pangaea. Pangaea existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, whereas the events in the franchise take place during the late Mesozoic era.
- Guido, the Microraptor character introduced in the film, has a number of issues:
- He is depicted with a toothless, parrot-like beak with nostrils close to the eyes. Actual Microraptor heads were much more similar to those of other dromaeosaurs, being slender with sharp teeth.
- He is shown with teal and green feathers, whereas recent studies have inferred that Microraptor was an iridescent black, similar to a crow or raven.
- He is depicted with wings on his arms, and his arms only. One of the most defining features of Microraptor is that it bore four wings, on both its arms and its legs.
- He is depicted with a humanoid body plan. The real Microraptor had a bird-like body as with every other dromaeosaur.
- He has an anisodactyl foot plan and lacks the raised toe-claw on his feet.
- He has four, clawless fingers instead of three.
- A pair of plesiosaurs depicted in the song 'Flip, Flap and Fly' are depicted no teeth. No plesiosaurs are known to have been entirely toothless.
- The Spinosaurus depicted in the film has multiple issues, largely due to having been superseded by discoveries made after the film's release:
- It is depicted as a fast, agile runner. Actual Spinosaurus had very short legs proportionately, and were unlikely to have been very gainly on land.
- Because of its short legs, it may have had a more upright posture, with the neck held vertically like a duck or a pelican.
- Its skull is reminiscent of Suchomimus, lacking the real animal's nasal crest and the kink in its premaxilla (upper jaw).
- Its nostrils are located on the tip of its snout, when they should be near its eyes.
- It is, akin to the series' Deinonychus and Allosaurus, depicted with only two fingers and only three toes. Real life Spinosaurus had three fingers, with a large claw on the first finger, and four toes, with a dew claw.
- Its sail is similar to that of a Dimetrodon, and is not a rectangular shape. Its tail is also not any different from that of other sharpteeth - it should be much taller and thinner, like a newt's tail.
- It is depicted as a terrestrial predator in a barren, dry environment, whereas the real animal was built more for hunting aquatic prey and is primarily known from rocks preserving lush marine ecosystems. Even at the time the film was made, it was known to have been a fish-eater, though it may have occasionally hunted small dinosaurs and pterosaurs like the one in the film does (fossils from other parts of the world indicate that other spinosaurs did eat other dinosaurs and pterosaurs at least occasionally).
- Finally, it is temporally misplaced. Spinosaurus lived from 112 to 97 million years ago, during the Albian and Cenomanian stages of the middle Cretaceous.
From The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends (2007)[]
- The Yellow Bellies carry only a very vague resemblance to the dinosaur Beipiaosaurus, which they are explicitly stated to be in promotional materials, for various reasons:
- Their claws are much too short. B. inexpectus was a therizinosaur, a type of theropod dinosaurs known for having very long, sharp claws.
- Yellow Bellies carry a striking resemblance to the recently extinct Dodo, while their real life counterparts own a body plan much more resemblant of related ornithomimids and tyrannosaurs, resembling an avian bear to a degree.
- Though correctly depicted with feathers, their feathers are depicted as being restricted to their rumps and the tops of their heads. They should be fully covered in hair-like plumage.
- Oddly, the Yellow Bellies completely lack a tail, aside from a "ponytail" of feathers sprouting from their rumps and a stump in the rear that has the feathers.
- The Yellow Bellies have four fingers on each hand, instead of just three like in real life. They also have only three toes, lacking the dew claw which touches the ground. Their hind feet are also quite elephantine; they should be much more birdlike.
- Last but not least, they are also temporally misplaced: Beipiaosaurus inexpectus lived in the Aptian stage of the early Cretaceous, 124 million years ago.
From the TV series[]
General[]
- Ruby and the other Oviraptor are too large for their species (closer in size to Citipati than Oviraptor), and are somewhat lacking in feathers. They are also portrayed with four fingers when they should have only three. Ruby and the other Oviraptor skulls are also far too wide
In the Episodes[]
- The nondescript pachycephalosaurs seen in the episodes "The Cave of Many Voices" and "The Great Log Running Game" are depicted with only two digits per limb; actual pachycephalosaurs had five fingers per forelimb and four toes per hind limb.
- In "The Cave of Many Voices", Chomper states that Red Claw won't notice the gang if they stay still. In real life, Tyrannosaurus rex had extremely good binocular vision and could see its prey even if they weren't moving. This is likely a reference to the 1993 film Jurassic Park, where the T. rex suffers from the same limitation, and Red Claw begins to use his nose to sniff them out anyway.
- The heavyset blue and green fast biters seen in "The Lonely Journey" are depicted with no feathers and no dewclaws.
- Near the end of the episode, "The Spooky Nighttime Adventure", the characters encounter a creature they have been hunting for the bulk of the episode, named "Hidden Runner", who turns out to be a beaked creature that resembles a nonspecific maniraptoriform dinosaur. If he is in fact intended to be a maniraptoriform, he should be covered in feathers, not naked green skin.
- The plot of "The Amazing Threehorn Girl" revolves around Spike falling into a hole and being worshiped by a colony of Ceratogaulus, or horned gophers. The Ceratogaulus in question are temporally misplaced; they lived in the late Miocene and Pliocene epochs of the Neogene period, not at the very end of the Cretaceous period.
From The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave (2016)[]
- Etta the Pteranodon is portrayed as a sizable character, with a large crest. These two traits are only known from male Pteranodon, even though Etta is a female. Oddly, she is the only female Pteranodon in the series with such a crest. She also has four fingers on each of her wings, when she should only have three.
- She also (perhaps curiously, given their presence on the series' other Pteranodon) completely lacks pycnofibres. She also has prominent shoulders, a prominent collarbone and cheeks.
- The Carnotaurus featured in the film has several inaccuracies:
- It is depicted with visible fingers. C. sastrei, alongside most other abelisaurids, did not have visible appendages on their forelimbs, with their arms having severely atrophied at some point during their evolution. Similarly, it is depicted with three fingers; actual Carnotaurus had four fingers.
- Its arms are depicted as being longer than in real life, and the arms face forward instead of being pulled backward like in the real animal.
- It is depicted with large, forward facing horns, while the real animal had short horns which faced either upward or sideways, depending on the depiction.
- It is depicted as large and stocky, while the real animal was smaller and had a leaner body to allow it to run faster.
- In the movie, it is far more agile than it probably was in life.
- Both the Featherhead Sharpteeth (referred to as Allosaurus by a storyboard artist) and the Carnotaurus have very "shrinkwrapped" skulls, being depicted with visible antiorbital fenestrae and no lips. This is a practice that has been highly contested in recent years.
- Though confirmed to be a Nothronychus by official media, Wild Arms is much smaller than the real creature. He also has short, fingernail-like claws as opposed to long, sharp claws, as well as scant feathers. He's also missing the dew claw which touches the ground.
- The ornithomimids shown being chased off by the horned sharptooth should have feathers, and only three fingers, as opposed to four.
- At the beginning of the movie, a T. rex and a Stegosaurus are shown fighting, perhaps referencing a segment in the 1940 Disney film, Fantasia. In reality, they lived millions of years apart, even longer than the time distance between T. rex and humans.
Anachronisms[]
Many of the creatures seen in the films and television series are anachronistic, as they didn't live in the Late Cretaceous period where the franchise is presumably set. This section lists all known anachronisms in order of the time period they actually belong to.
Paleozoic[]
Jurassic[]
- Allosaurus
- Apatosaurus
- Archaeopteryx
- Brachiosaurus
- Brontosaurus
- Compsognathus
- Dimorphodon
- Diplodocus
- Kentrosaurus
- Liopleurodon
- Opthalmosaurus
- Rhamphorhynchus
- Stegosaurus
- Supersaurus
Earlier in the Cretaceous (pre-Maastrichtian)[]
- Amargasaurus
- Archelon
- Beipiaosaurus
- Cearadactylus
- Chasmosaurus
- Corythosaurus
- Elasmosaurus
- Ichthyornis
- Iguanodon
- Lambeosaurus
- Microraptor
- Muttaburrasaurus
- Nodosaurus
- Nothronychus
- Ouranosaurus
- Pteranodon
- Scolosaurus
- Spinosaurus
- Styracosaurus