History ComicBook / AgeOfReptiles

* ItsPersonal: The ''Deinonychus'' pack has a grudge against the ''T. rex'' family for stealing a kill. The grudge also extends the other way when the ''Deinonychus'' pack steals all the ''Tyrannosaurus'' eggs [[spoiler: and kills the baby ''T. rex]].

* PteroSoarer:
** All of them are bipedal, lack sufficient pycnofibres and many of them suffer from the typical MisplacedWildlife, MixAndMatchCritters and AnachronismStew, even worse than the dinosaurs in the stories.
** The flock of ''Dsungaripterus'' that attack that unfortunate ornithocheirid are being unrealistically violent towards it.

* ''The Journey'' (2007), following a huge herd of dinosaurs as they migrate to warmer lands.

''Age of Reptiles'' is a comic series 'written' (you'll see why later) and illustrated by Ricardo Delgado, and published by Creator/DarkHorseComics. It follows the lives of dinosaurs in prehistoric times.

* AllThereInTheManual: The names of the characters in "Tribal Warfare", including ones that only appear for a single page, are shown in the supplementary pages and don't come up in the story itself (since there's no text at all). Character traits of each individual ''Deinonychus'' is also given in more detail.
* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: "Tribal Warfare" gives extremely vibrant colour patterns to the dinosaurs. This is {{Exaggerated|trope}} with a herd of ''Parasaurolophus'', which have individually different colours, resulting in a veritable rainbow of neon dinosaurs. Later stories drastically toned down the colour palettes.
* AnachronismStew:
** ''Tribal Warfare'' has some species meeting that would have been separated by several million years.
** The other two stories generally avert this (except for a few examples that only people really into dinosaurs would be able to spot), depicting animal life that would have lived together in the roughly the same time and place.
* AnimalsNotToScale:
** ''Tribal Warfare'' features brachiosaurs the foot of which alone is about ten feet long, resulting in an animal which would be at least ten times the size of the largest real sauropods. And from the bones seen in the ElephantGraveyard, it seems this isn't even close to the biggest one!
*** To a lesser extent, the dominant ''Tyrannosaurus'' in the same story is stated to be fifty-three feet in length, which is about ten feet longer than the largest known ''T. rex'' in reality.
** The tusked crocodilians depicted in ''Ancient Egyptians'' are stated to be ''Araripesuchus'', which would make them several times larger than the real animal, which reached up to six feet in length (while these seem to be closer to six ''metres'').
%%* AnyoneCanDie
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology:
** No matter how cool it looks, raptors could not eviscerate other dinosaurs with jump kicks.
** Some of the dinosaurs' behavioral traits and designs (such as the ''Ceratosaurus''' chameleon camouflaging skills) probably aren't close to reality.
** The supplementary commentary included with "Ancient Egyptians" identifies the aquatic crocodilians in the story as ''Estemmenosuchus''... which is a horned synapsid that lived during the Palaeozoic Era and completely unrelated to crocodilians.
* ChallengingTheChief: Happens among the ''Deinonychus'' pack in ''Tribal Warfare'' and [[spoiler:the pack leader kills the challenger]].
* ChameleonCamouflage: The ''Ceratosaurus'' in ''The Hunt'' are depicted with this ability, although it doesn't render them truly invisible. It's a bit of a departure from the otherwise mostly grounded approach to the setting.
* ChekhovsGunman: The small mammal in ''Tribal Warfare''. He's introduced being chased by the baby ''Tyrannosaurus'' but appears in the last frame of the story [[spoiler: eating the last surviving ''Tyrannosaurus'' egg]].

* CycleOfRevenge: The feud between the group of Raptors and Tyrannosaurids in ''Tribal Warfare'' starts with a KillSteal by a ''Tyrannosaurus'', then the raptors steal their eggs in revenge, then the ''Tyrannosaurus'' kill a bunch of raptors in revenge, rinse and repeat. It ends with all but one ''Tyrannosaurus'' dying, who is then confronted by a ChekhovsGunman.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The raptors in ''Tribal Warfare'' decide that [[BullyingADragon stealing (and presumably eating)]] all of the eggs belonging to the family of the ''T. rex'' that stole their kill is a fair punishment. Naturally, things escalate from there.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Tribal Warfare'' is drastically different from the following stories in visuals and tone, playing much looser with scientific accuracy, having far more vivid character designs, slightly more anthropomorphism, and a more cartoony art style.
* FantasticFaunaCounterpart: The dinosaurs in ''The Journey'' are given colour patterns strongly based on some modern animal (mostly African species). The hadrosaurs are coloured like zebras, the ornithomimids like ostriches, the ankylosaurs like rhinos, the titanosaurs like giraffes, the pachycephalosaurs(?) like Thomson's gazelles, the ''Triceratops'' like hippos, the dromaeosaurs like jackals, and the mosasaurs like orcas, among others.
* GiantWallOfWateryDoom: [[spoiler: At one point a tsunami strikes.]]
* {{Gorn}}: The dinosaurs tend to die very messily, and the predators spill tons of blood. In ''Ancient Egyptians'', a group of ''herbivores'' get in on the act when [[spoiler: they messily stomp a predator to death]].
* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted in ''Ancient Egyptians'' with the ''Paralititan'' herd, who like to stomp carnivores they encounter without provocation.
* ItCanThink: Implied with some of the dinosaurs. In ''Tribal Warfare'', after the ''Deinonychus'' pack [[spoiler: steals the ''Tyrannosaurus'' eggs and leap a gap that the pursuing ''T. rex'' can't]], there are two panels where they seemed to look back and laugh at the ''T. rex''.
* ItsPersonal: Every miniseries but ''The Journey'' involves at least one grudge:
** Tribal Warfare: The ''Deinonychus'' pack has a grudge against the ''T. rex'' family for stealing a kill. The grudge also extends the other way when the ''Deinonychus'' pack steals all the ''Tyrannosaurus'' eggs [[spoiler: and kills the baby ''T. rex]].
** The Hunt: The ''Allosaurus'' ([[AllThereInTheManual named Santo in the prologue]]) has a grudge against the ''Ceratosaurus'' pack for killing his mother. [[spoiler: When the ''Allosaurus'' kills the ''Ceratosaurus'' pack leader, it's revealed the ''Ceratosaurus'' had a mate and offspring, who just witnessed the ''Allosaurus'' kill their mate/father]].
** Ancient Egyptian: The female ''Spinosaurus'' struggles to forgive the male when he kills her babies from a previous ''Spinosaurus''. While they already have a hatred of predators, the alpha male ''Paralititan'' has a grudge against the male ''Spinosaurus'' for injuring his foot and the ''Carcharodontosaurus'' for killing one of his babies.
* MamaBear: All dinosaur mothers, such as the ''Allosaurus''' mother in ''The Hunt'' and the ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' mothers in ''Tribal Warfare'' and ''The Journey''.
* MeekMesozoicMammal: "Tribal Warfare" features a primitive primate-like mammal as a ChekhovsGunman in the ''Tyrannosaurus'' nest. It's easily chased off even by a ''T. rex'' baby, but it gets the last laugh in the end. When [[spoiler:the last surviving ''Tyrannosaurus'' returns to the nest after the FinalBattle, he discovers the mammal eating the last egg.]]
* TheMigration: "The Journey", unsurprisingly enough, centres around one of these, following a huge, multi-species herd of dinosaurs on an annual trek south for the winter.
* MisplacedWildlife: ''Tribal Warfare'' contains many species that would never have met each other in real life, owing to barriers of geography or time.
* MonsterIsAMommy: The ''Tyrannosaurus'' in ''The Journey.'' She's introduced savagely attacking a baby ''Triceratops'', but we soon see that she has babies of her own.
* MonstrousCannibalism: The ''Deinonychus'' pack after several are killed by a ''Tyrannosaurus''.

* NobodyPoops: Averted. Keeping with the semi-realistic tone, random animals are shown urinating or defecating with no effect on the story (although in the case of pee, this falls under ArtisticLicense since it's probable dinosaurs didn't have liquid urine).
* OhCrap: Various dinosaurs display this when they realized they're about to be attacked or, in one memorable case, [[spoiler: swept away in a tsunami wave.]]
* PinkMeansFeminine: The female ''Spinosaurus'' in ''Ancient Egyptians'', which is unusual because usually its males of an animal species that are more colourful.
%%* {{Phlegmings}}

** While you could argue that they were simply being territorial, the flock of ''Dsungaripterus'' that attacked that unfortunate ornithocheirid were being somewhat unrealistically violent toward it.
* PunnyTitle: ''Ancient Egyptians'' refers not to the inhabitants of ancient Kemet, but the ''Spinosaurus'' and other dinosaurs who lived there a hundred million years earlier.
* RuleOfCool: This is a comic book series depicting only dinosaurs after all.
* ShownTheirWork:
** The ''Tylosaurus'' seen in ''The Journey'' has a forked tongue, which real life mosasaurs most likely had due to being related to varanids and snakes, and in some panels it can also be seen with palatal teeth.
** In ''Ancient Egyptians'', when the male ''Spinosaurus'' encounters the previous chicks of the female, he immediately kills them, as this is what a male trying to bring a female to season in real life would do.

* SlashedThroat: The ''Deinonychus'' raptors in ''Tribal Warfare'' are fond of using this trope as a coup de grace.
* SuperPersistentPredator: The ''Ceratosaurus'' pack has apparently been hunting the ''Allosaurus'' for so long he grew up from a chick into an adult. It eventually proves to be their downfall as he gradually [[TheHunterBecomesTheHunted turns the tables on them]].
* TooDumbToLive: One of the ''Carcharodontosaurus'' pack that attacked the ''Paralititan'' herd and made off with some of their babies, later tried to sneak past the herd by walking right next to them '''with a baby Paralititan's corpse in its mouth'''. The herd [[spoiler: proceeds to surround the ''Carcharodontosaurus'' and [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge gruesomely stomp on it until its head and body have ''footprints'' in them]]... [[CruelAndUnusualDeath though it doesn't die until awhile after they stop stomping it]].]]
* VillainousRescue: Just as the baby ''Alamosaurus'' is about to be eaten by a mosasaur, [[spoiler:the female ''Tyrannosaurus'' attacks it]]. {{Downplayed}}, though, because [[spoiler:the rex's offspring are also in the line of fire when the mosasaur attacks]].

* YouKilledMyFather: The main ''Allosaurus'' in ''The Hunt'' attacks the ''Ceratosaurus'' pack because they killed his mother. [[spoiler:At the very end, when he kills the last ''Ceratosaurus'' by feeding it to a pod of plesiosaurs, it turns out that the ''Ceratosaurus'' was a father.....and that his mate and children just watched the ''Allosaurus'' kill him. He chooses to spare them to prevent the same fate from befalling him]].
* ZergRush: This is how raptors are portrayed hunting in ''The Journey'', as dozens of them simply rush the herd at once, bringing down some animals through sheer numbers, even if several of them end up killed in the process. They even manage to bring down a full-grown ''Alamosaurus'', although at least one gets crushed under it.
** One of the ''T. rexes'' in ''Tribal Warfare'' falls victim to this in the FinalBattle against the ''Deinonychus'' pack.

* ''Tribal Warfare'', in which a pack of ''Deinonychus'' feud with a group of ''Tyrannosaurus''.
* ''The Hunt'', following an ''Allosaurus'' as it is hunted by a small pack of ''Ceratosaurus''.
* ''The Journey'', following a huge herd of dinosaurs as they migrate to warmer lands.
* ''Ancient Egyptians'', following a ''Spinosaurus'' setting up shop in a swamp oasis.

The strangest aspect of ''Age of Reptiles'' is that it [[SilenceIsGolden uses no sounds.]] The dinosaurs do not talk, nor are there written sound effects or narration. It stands on the art alone. The Discovery Channel documentary series ''Series/DinosaurRevolution'' was initially intended as a loose adaptation of the series with Ricardo Delgado serving as one of the creative leaders of the animated vignettes.

** In ''Ancient Egyptians'', when the male ''Spinosaurus'' encounters the previous chicks of the female, he immediately goes into KillEmAll mode on them, as this is what a male trying to bring a female to season in real life would do.

* StockDinosaurs: Variously averted and played straight. The dinosaurs are never identified in-story, though.

* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: "Tribal Warfare" gives extremely vibrant colour patterns to the dinosaurs. This is taken UpToEleven with a herd of ''Parasaurolophus'', which have individually different colours, resulting in a veritable rainbow of neon dinosaurs. Later stories drastically toned down the colour palettes.

* RealityEnsues: In ''Ancient Egyptians'', when the male ''Spinosaurus'' encounters the previous chicks of the female, he immediately goes into KillEmAll mode on them, as this is what a male trying to bring a female to season in real life would do.

* ShownTheirWork: The ''Tylosaurus'' seen in ''The Journey'' has a forked tongue, which real life mosasaurs most likely had due to being related to varanids and snakes, and in some panels it can also be seen with palatal teeth.

* MamaBear: All dinosaur mothers, such as the ''Allosaurus''' mother in ''The Hunt'' and the ''TyrannosaurusRex'' mothers in ''Tribal Warfare'' and ''The Journey''.

** One of the ''T. rexes'' in ''Tribal Wafare'' falls victim to this in the FinalBattle against the ''Deinonychus'' pack.

* DisproportionateRetribution: The raptors in ''Tribal Warfare'' decide that ''BullyingADragon'' stealing (and presumably eating) all of the eggs belonging to the family group of the ''T. rex'' that stole their kill is a fair punishment. Naturally, things escalate from there.

* {{Gorn}}: The dinosaurs tend to die very messily, and the predators spill tons of blood. In ''"Ancient Egyptians"'', a group of ''herbivores'' get in on the act when [[spoiler: they messily stomp a predator to death]].

%%* MonsterIsAMommy: The ''Tyrannosaurus'' in ''The Journey.''

* ShownTheirWork: The ''Tylosaurus'' seen in ''The Journey'' has a forked tongue, which real life mosasaurs most likely had due to being varanid lizards.
%%* SilenceIsGolden

* TooDumbToLive: One of the ''Carcharodontosaurus'' pack that attacked the ''Paratitan'' herd and made off with some of their babies, later tried to sneak past the herd by walking right next to them '''with a baby Paratitan's corpse in its mouth'''. The herd [[spoiler: proceeds to surround the ''Carcharodontosaurus'' and [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge gruesomely stomp on it until its head and body have ''footprints'' in them]]... [[CruelAndUnusualDeath though it doesn't die until awhile after they stop stomping it]].]]

%%* {{Xenofiction}}
* YouKilledMyFather: The main ''Allosaurus'' in ''The Hunt'' attacks the ''Ceratosaurus'' pack because they killed his mother. [[spoiler:At the very end, when he kills the last ''Ceratosaurus'' by feeding it to a pod of plesiosaurs, it turns out that the ''Ceratosaurus'' was a father.....and that his mate and children just watched the ''Allosaurus'' kill him]].

* ''Tribal Warfare'', in which a pack of ''Deinonychus'' feud with a group of Tyrannosaurus.

* AnyoneCanDie

* MonsterIsAMommy: The ''Tyrannosaurus'' in ''The Journey.''

* {{Phlegmings}}
* PteroSoarer: All of them are bipedal, lack sufficient pycnofibres and many of them suffer from the typical MisplacedWildlife, MixAndMatchCritters and AnachronismStew, even worse than the dinosaurs in the stories.

* SilenceIsGolden

* {{Xenofiction}}

* BigDamnVillains: Just as the baby ''Alamosaurus'' is about to be eaten by a mosasaur, [[spoiler:the female ''Tyrannosaurus'' attacks it]]. {{Downplayed}}, though, because [[spoiler:the rex's offspring are also in the line of fire when the mosasaur attacks]].

* CycleOfRevenge: The feud between the group of Raptors and Tyrannosaurids in ''Tribal Warfare'' starts with a KillSteal by a Tyrannosaurus, then the Raptors steal their eggs in revenge, then the ''Tyrannosaurus'' kill a bunch of raptors in revenge, rinse and repeat. It ends with all but one ''Tyrannosaurus'' dying, who is then confronted by a ChekhovsGunman.

** Ancient Egyptian: The female ''Spinosaurus'' struggles to forgive the male when he kills her babies from a previous Spinosaurus. While they already have a hatred of predators, the alpha male ''Paralititan'' has a grudge against the male Spinosaurus for injuring his foot and the ''Carcharodontosaurus'' for killing one of his babies.

* AnachronismStew: ''Tribal Warfare'' has some species meeting that would have been separated by several million years.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: No matter how cool it looks, raptors could not eviscerate other dinosaurs with jump kicks.
** Some of the dinosaurs' behavioral traits and designs (such as the Ceratosaurus' chameleon camouflaging skills) probably aren't close to reality.
* BigDamnVillains: Just as the baby ''Alamosaurus'' is about to be eaten by a mosasaur, [[spoiler:the female Tyrannosaurus attacks it]]. {{Downplayed}}, though, because [[spoiler:the rex's offspring are also in the line of fire when the mosasaur attacks]].
* ChallengingTheChief: Happens among the Deinonychus pack in ''Tribal Warfare'' and [[spoiler:the pack leader kills the challenger]].
* ChekhovsGunman: The small mammal in ''Tribal Warfare''. He's introduced being chased by the baby Tyrannosaurus but appears in the last frame of the story [[spoiler: eating the last surviving Tyrannosaurus egg]].

* CycleOfRevenge: The feud between the group of Raptors and Tyrannosaurids in ''Tribal Warfare'' starts with a KillSteal by a Tyrannosaurus, then the Raptors steal their eggs in revenge, then the Tyrannosauruses kill a bunch of raptors in revenge, rinse and repeat. It ends with all but one Tyrannosaurus dying, who is then confronted by a ChekhovsGunman.

* ItCanThink: Implied with some of the dinosaurs. In ''Tribal Warfare'', after the Deinonochys pack [[spoiler: steals the Tyrannosaurus eggs and leap a gap that the pursuing T-rex can't]], there are two panels where they seemed to look back and laugh at the T-rex.

** Tribal Warfare: The Deinonochys pack has a grudge against the T-rex family for stealing a kill. The grudge also extends the other way when the Deinonochys pack steals all the Tyrannosaurus eggs [[spoiler: and kills the baby T-rex]].
** The Hunt: The Allosaurus ([[AllThereInTheManual named Santo in the prologue]]) has a grudge against the Ceratosaurus pack for killing his mother. [[spoiler: When the Allosaurus kills the Ceratosaurus pack leader, it's revealed the Ceratosaurus had a mate and offspring, who just witnessed the Allosaurus kill their mate/father]].
** Ancient Egyptian: The female Spinosaurus struggles to forgive the male when he kills her babies from a previous Spinosaurus. While they already have a hatred of predators, the alpha male ''Paralititan'' has a grudge against the male Spinosaurus for injuring his foot and the Carcharodontosaurus for killing one of his babies.
* MamaBear: All dinosaur mothers, such as the Allosaurus' mother in ''The Hunt'' and the ''TyrannosaurusRex'' mothers in ''Tribal Warfare'' and ''The Journey''.

* MonstrousCannibalism: The Deinonychus pack after several are killed by a Tyrannosaurus.

* YouKilledMyFather: The main Allosaurus in ''The Hunt'' attacks the Ceratosaurus pack because they killed his mother. [[spoiler:At the very end, when he kills the last Ceratosaurus by feeding it to a pod of plesiosaurs, it turns out that the Ceratosaurus was a father.....and that his mate and children just watched the Allosaurus kill him]].

* {{Gorn}}: The dinosaurs tend to die very messily, and the predators spill tons of blood. In ''"Ancient Egyptians"'', a group of ''herbivores'' get in on the act when [[spoiler: they messily stomp a predator to death]].

* MamaBear: All dinosaur mothers, such as the Allosaurus' mother in ''The Hunt'' and the Tyrannosaurus mothers in ''Tribal Warfare'' and ''The Journey''.

* ItsPersonal: Every miniseries but ''The Journey'' involves at least one grudge:
** Tribal Warfare: The Deinonochys pack has a grudge against the T-rex family for stealing a kill. The grudge also extends the other way when the Deinonochys pack steals all the Tyrannosaurus eggs [[spoiler: and kills the baby T-rex]].
** The Hunt: The Allosaurus ([[AllThereInTheManual named Santo in the prologue]]) has a grudge against the Ceratosaurus pack for killing his mother. [[spoiler: When the Allosaurus kills the Ceratosaurus pack leader, it's revealed the Ceratosaurus had a mate and offspring, who just witnessed the Allosaurus kill their mate/father]].
** Ancient Egyptian: The female Spinosaurus struggles to forgive the male when he kills her babies from a previous Spinosaurus. While they already have a hatred of predators, the alpha male ''Paralititan'' has a grudge against the male Spinosaurus for injuring his foot and the Carcharodontosaurus for killing one of his babies.

* AnyoneCanDie

* ShownTheirWork: The mosasaur seen in one story has a forked tongue, which real life mosasaurs most likely had due to being varanid lizards.