History Main / LostWorld

* ''Film/UnknownIsland'' from 1948.

* Zeetha of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' is a native of the Lost City of Skifander. Unfortunately, she was ill during the journey from Skifander to Europa, and [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20041103 doesn't remember the way back]], and everyone else who might have a clue seems to be dead. Sometimes at Zeetha's hands.

* The ''Land of the Lost'' series details the adventures of the Marshall family (father Rick and his children Will and Holly), who are trapped in an alternate universe or time warp inhabited by dinosaurs, a primate-type people called Pakuni, and aggressive humanoid/lizard creatures called Sleestak.
The [[Series/LandOfTheLost1974 first iteration of the show]] was a TV series released in 1974, but there was [[Series/LandOfTheLost1991 a remake series]] made in 1991, and [[Film/LandOfTheLost a movie]] made in 2009.

* Creator/TheAsylum also adapted ''The Land That Time Forgot''; in their version, made as a {{mockbuster}} version of ''Film/LandOfTheLost'', the Land that Time Forgot is a sort of cosmic eddy.

* The ''Series/LandOfTheLost'' details the adventures of the Marshall family (father Rick and his children Will and Holly), who are trapped in an alternate universe or time warp inhabited by dinosaurs, a primate-type people called Pakuni, and aggressive humanoid/lizard creatures called Sleestak.

* ''Franchise/DocSavage'': Savage encountered several {{Lost World}}s, the most significant being the lost Mayan kingdom that provided him with the gold necessary to carry on his crusade. Several of these {{Lost World}}s are also [[CityOfGold Cities Of Gold]].

* The ''Literature/AlcatrazSeries'' of books takes this trope UpToEleven: something like half the Earth's surface is made up of {{Lost World}}s called the Free Kingdoms where all sorts of magical and nonsensical things exist. They only go unnoticed because almost all the world's books, maps, and other sources of information are controlled by [[MilkmanConspiracy an ancient conspiracy of Evil Librarians]] who [[TheMasquerade don't want you to learn the truth]].

Modern works that use this trope are usually set in a previous time, or use AppliedPhlebotinum to HandWave how the area has remained undetected by modern technology. Examples include AWizardDidIt, or the location is contained in a PocketDimension. Creator/CSLewis went so far as to argue that much ScienceFiction, especially of the [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleofScienceFictionHardness softer varieties]], could be considered Lost World stories JustForFun/RecycledInSpace since too much of our planet has been explored in the present day to make them plausible on Earth. As such it's something of a staple in the PlanetaryRomance sub-genre.

Modern works that use this trope are usually set in a previous time, or use AppliedPhlebotinum to HandWave how the area has remained undetected by modern technology. Examples include AWizardDidIt, or the location is contained in a PocketDimension. Creator/CSLewis went so far as to argue that much ScienceFiction, especially of the [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleofScienceFictionHardness softer varieties]], could be considered Lost World stories JustForFun/RecycledInSpace since too much of our planet has been explored in the present day to make them plausible on Earth.

* ''TabletopGame/Yugioh'' The Dinosaur type has a dedicated field spell actually called Lost World, wich is depicted in such a way. In Duel Links, there is even an unused line calling it "the land where dinos never went extinct".

Modern works that use this trope are usually set in a previous time, or use AppliedPhlebotinum to HandWave how the area has remained undetected by modern technology. Examples include AWizardDidIt, or the location is contained in a PocketDimension.

They are usually found in remote locations, such as the center of large and barely explored continents (like DarkestAfrica or TheAmazon), the polar ice caps, or mysterious islands. They are often home to [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis lost civilizations]] with amazing LostTechnology, or to [[LivingDinosaurs prehistoric animals that have managed to survive unchanged]] -- aside from the fact that they [[PrehistoricMonster suddenly find humans delicious]]. Some Lost Worlds are [[EverythingTryingToKillYou almost ludicrously dangerous]] and populated by fearsome monsters, and still others are {{Magical Land}}s where AllMythsAreTrue. Prone to being destroyed by [[ApocalypseHow volcanic eruptions, floods, quakes, and/or bombs]] [[CataclysmClimax at the end of the book/film/series]], with the protagonists barely escaping.

* Creator/AmicusProductions adapted Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' novel ''Literature/TheLandThatTimeForgot'' into a movie in the 1970s. [=Doug McClure=] starred.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'' uses one to fit dinosaurs into the post-extinction ice age: the dinosaurs survived in an underground lost world.

* Creator/RobertEHoward's SolomonKane encountered some of these in DarkestAfrica. In particular, "The Moon of Skulls" featured a lost city that is all that remains of a once-vast empire which began as an outpost of {{Atlantis}}.

** Halfway correct. Those continents/islands aren't visible because until the middle of the game, they weren't even on the same physical plane as the landmasses that the player is exploring. After the destruction of a certain dimensional generator, the space time barrier separating those landmasses that were 'on the other side' are now accessible. An individual/ships can still pass from one 'plane' to the other with the proper technology; this is offhand referenced a few times throughout the game.

* ''Manga/CageOfEden'' takes place on an island populated with anachronistic monsters. Birds from fifty million years ago, wolves from ten thousand years ago...and of course, they all want to kill the humans.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'': Paradise Falls is a partial invocation of this trope. It's not particularly hidden, as Carl and Russell are able to find it with little more than a lot of balloons and a pocket GPS navigator.Not to mention it's TruthInTelevision as the falls and its location in Venezuela is an almost exact replica of Angel Falls, the highest known falls which are in... Venezuela. In addition, the tribes who live near the real Angel Falls claim there are strange creatures at the top of the tepui and therefore never go visit it. This actual legend gets a haughty reworking in the film by implying that it has remained unsettled because [[spoiler:the AxCrazy Charles Muntz has been killing off any other explorers who've visited the area]].

** The eponymous location in ''Film/TheValleyOfGwangi'' is crawling with dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and even cute primitive horses.

* ''Literature/{{Dune}}'': The Known Universe is used by Creator/FrankHerbert to refer to the known areas of space inhabited by humans in an AbsentAliens setting. TheEmperor of the Imperium holds the title of Emperor of the Known Universe, the exact extent is never explain but Herbert refers to it as a "multi-galactic empire", yet when GodEmperor Leto II sees that humanity had stagnate, he arrenges for The Scattering to happen upon his death literally making humanity go out of its comfort zone and explored the rest of the unknown universe.

* The underground empire of K'n-yan in Hazel Heald's short story "The Mound" (revised, if not entirely ghost-written, by Creator/HPLovecraft).

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' the entire Milky Way seems to be more or less known, but leaving the Milky Way or, as it's called "going over the Rim" is as mysterious as stepping into AnotherDimension to the point that only the more advanced life forms (up to the level of EnergyBeings) dare do it.

* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' the outer worlds in the edge of TheVerse (a groups of relatively close star systems, as the show has no FasterThanLightTravel) are basically this. Aside from abusive warlords, oligarchs and criminals, the most dangerous thing are [[TechnicallyLivingZombie cannibalistic homicidal maniacs known as Reavers]] who are said to [[GoMadFromTheRevelation going mad]] after they went outside the Galactic rim into the "Abyss" of space. Although the truth is that [[spoiler:they're an experiment GoingHorriblyWorng]].

** The main plots of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' and ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' is the exploration of the other two unknown quadrants, the Gamma and Delta respectively. In the first case thanks to a newly discovered stable wormhole, in the second due to the ship getting lost in there. Of course for the natives of those quadrants is the other way around.
* Wherever the hell ''Series/TowerPrep'' is. It gets sent into this territory because it is full of flora and fauna that shouldn't coexist near each other, and the constellations don't match up with anywhere in North America.

* {{Atlantis}}, the mythology of which at least predates Plato. A small continent made of seven concentric rings that allegedly sunk beneath the ocean. The Ur-example of literally countless lost, missing, or floating continents in Western culture.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'': The Lost Plateau is a great pillar of stone rising in the remote depths on the Beastlands, and those who found their way to it report hearing noises and seeing shapes upon unlike anything else in the plane. The plateau's top is a wide, shallow bowl covered by thick jungle and sloping down to a lake in its center, and is home to thriving populations of dinosaurs -- creatures otherwise entirely absent in the plane -- and a reclusive tribe of green-furred beastmen. There's a great deal of rumor and speculation about it, including the theory that the plateau was raised by ancient powers or the plane itself to create a last haven for the vanishing creatures living there.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Zendikar is an entire world of this, complete with mystical artifacts, hidden ruins of ancient cities and temples and [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom horrible death at every turn]] for everyone from [[{{Mooks}} Goblins]] to ''[[PhysicalGod planeswalkers]]''. [[spoiler: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that it doubles as the [[EldritchAbomination Eldrazi's]] [[SealedEvilInACan can]].]]

* Gaia's Navel in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' is at the center of an inaccessible island (you have to be flown there). It's basically 65,000,000 B.C. from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' in the modern day -- it even has a younger {{Expy}} of Ayla, Leah, who joins your party [[spoiler: and is implied to be her mother]].

** In ''VideoGame/UltimaV'', a cavernous Underworld complete with shipwrecked sailor and lost expedition. In ''[[VideoGame/UltimaVI VI]]'' we learn that there's an entire civilization even ''deeper'' underground. [[spoiler:Well, "underground" from OUR perspective. They live on the opposite side of a flat Earth.]]

** Halfway correct. Those continents/islands aren't visible because until the middle of the game, they weren't even on the same physical plane as the landmasses that the player is exploring. After the destruction of a certain dimensional generator, the space time barrier separating those landmasses that were 'on the other side' are now accessible. Note that an individual/ships can still pass from one 'plane' to the other with the proper technology; this is offhand referenced a few times throughout the game.

* The ChristmasSpecial ''WesternAnimation/RudolphsShinyNewYear'' features a few variations of this trope in the Archipelago of Last Years. Where the old AnthropomorphicPersonification of the year goes to retire, they choose an island to live in and TimeStandsStill for everyone in that island. The island where One Million B.C. lives is {{Prehistoria}} of course, and a YeOldenDays year lives on a MagicalLand.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Fangface}}'' episode "Dinosaur Daze", an earthquake at the Grand Canyon unleashes a UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex from BeneathTheEarth. Later, [[TheProfessor a professor character]] speculates that an entire Lost World might exist down there, where other dinosaurs might roam.

* Creator/AmicusProductions adapted Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' novel ''Literature/TheLandThatTimeForgot'' into a movie in the 1970s.

* A recurring trope in the films of Creator/RayHarryhausen.

** The Vaults of Orv, the deepest level of the [[BeneathTheEarth Darklands]] far below the surface of Golarion, consist of a series of enormous caverns, each with its own unique (and often quite hostile) environment. Unlike the rest of the underworld, they were made artificially by an advanced race far in the past to serve as arks or experiments of some sort. They’re quite varied, ranging from the nation-sized geode known as the Crystal Womb to the subterranean peaks of the Midnight Mountains to the enormous Sightless Sea. The closest match to this trope would be Deep Tolguth (once connected to the surface Tolguth by long since collapsed tunnels), a tropical cavern full of jungles and swamps home to giant insects, dinosaurs and other monsters, as well as orc and human cavemen and a city of hostile LizardFolk. [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/mediawiki/images/8/8e/Orv_monster_battle.jpg An illustration of it]] shows a giant ''Tyrannosaurus'' fighting a tentacled monster in the jungle.

* Franchise/DocSavage encountered several {{Lost World}}s, the most significant being the lost Mayan kingdom that provided him with the gold necessary to carry on his crusade. Several of these {{Lost World}}s are also [[CityOfGold Cities Of Gold]].

* [[DeathWorld Henders Island]] from ''Literature/{{Fragment}}'' plays this so literally it hurts.
* Creator/JulesVerne's ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth''

May contain a CityOfGold. Overlaps with HollowWorld, with the internal and external surfaces losing knowledge of each other. CityInABottle can happen as well, if the Lost World is cut off from the outside world.

** "Gorilla City", with its own phlebotinum ("invisible force fields") used to hide it, and populated by ''[[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys telepathic apes]]''. It's appeared on TV in both ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''.

** Distills this trope into a place known as the "Savage Land." It is a tropical jungle ''in the middle of [[MysteriousAntarctica Antarctica]]'' filled with strange creatures, prehistoric beasts, warrior tribes, incredible civilizations and other great pulpy stuff.
** It was in fact created by aliens.
** Marvel similarly had a dinosaur-inhabited island which Skull the Slayer tried to civilize while simultaneously fighting off an AlienInvasion.
** This was actually Earth's distant past, accessed by a time warp created by aliens.
** Likewise, Monster Island is the home of the Mole Man, a frequent foe of the ComicBook/FantasticFour. Its location seems to fluctuate between the Bermuda Triangle and just off the coast of Japan, depending on writers' whims.
** The Mole Man and his monsters have vast underground passageways all across the Earth. Quite possibly two Monster Islands?

May contain a CityOfGold. Overlaps with HollowWorld, with the internal and external surfaces loosing knowledge of each other. CityInABottle can happen as well, if the Lost World is cut off from the outside world.

* It is implied in the ''Film/SuperMarioBros.'' movie that dinosaurs have escaped from the parallel dimension into our world and humans into theirs throughout history, which would make the parallel world a sort of "Lost World".

This can happen in RealLife, when the Lost World had been isolated for millennia due to some geological feature which makes travel in and out too bothersome to attempt: the 3 miles wide crater of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Bosavi Mount Bosavi]] is a textbook case, as it had been thoroughly explored just in 2009, [[TruthInTelevision which ended with discovery of at least forty previously undescribed species]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Fangface}}'' episode "Dinosaur Daze", an earthquake at the Grand Canyon unleashes a TyrannosaurusRex from BeneathTheEarth. Later, [[TheProfessor a professor character]] speculates that an entire Lost World might exist down there, where other dinosaurs might roam.