History Main / MeekMesozoicMammal

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' TV series: In the episode "Stranger From the Mysterious Above", Spike encounters a colony of ''Ceratogaulus'' or horned gophers ([[AnachronisticAnimal which are actually from the Cenozoic, not the Mesozoic]]) that mistake him for "The Big Wise One" from their legends. They later ask him if he could deal with the "The Great Hideous Beast" that's been terrorizing them... which turns out to be a ''Microceratus'' not much bigger than them or Ducky.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' TV series: In the episode "Stranger From the Mysterious Above", Spike encounters a colony of ''Ceratogaulus'' or horned gophers ([[AnachronisticAnimal which are actually from the Cenozoic, not the Mesozoic]]) that mistake him for "The Big Wise One" from their legends. He later finds out that they are being terrorized by what they call "The Great Hideous Beast"... which turns out to be a ''Microceratus'' not bigger than them or Ducky.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTimeIVJourneyThroughTheMists'' downplays this with Tickles, a ratlike mammal. While she is prone to fleeing away from larger animals like the rest of her kind, she has a moment of bravery when she saves Ducky from being eaten by [[FeatheredFiend Ichy]] and [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile Dil]].

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTimeIVJourneyThroughTheMists'' downplays this with Tickles, a ratlike mammal. While she is prone to fleeing away from larger animals like the rest of her kind, she has a moment of bravery when she saves Ducky from being eaten by [[FeatheredFiend Ichy]] and [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile Dil].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'': In the first film, a recently-hatched Ducky briefly chases after a small, shrew-looking mammal.

Since MostWritersAreHuman and ReptilesAreAbhorrent, it's easy to sympathise with our distant ancestors. In fiction, non-fiction, and {{Speculative Documentar|y}}ies alike, they're usually portrayed as underdogs whose potential is yet to be unleashed as they cower beneath their [[PrehistoricMonster dinosaur overlords]]. This trope may have risen to popularity in The80s, when OneMillionBC became a DeadHorseTrope coupled with the Dinosaur Renaissance influencing popular culture, establishing dinosaurs as superior land creatures for their time.

Since MostWritersAreHuman and ReptilesAreAbhorrent, it's easy to sympathise with our distant ancestors. In fiction, non-fiction, and {{Speculative Documentar|y}}ies alike, they're usually portrayed as underdogs whose potential is yet to be unleashed as they cower beneath their [[PrehistoricMonster dinosaur overlords]]. This trope may have risen to popularity in The80s, when OneMillionBC became a DeadHorseTrope coupled with the Dinosaur Renaissance influencing popular culture.

Since MostWritersAreHuman and ReptilesAreAbhorrent, it's easy to sympathise with our distant ancestors. In fiction, non-fiction, and {{Speculative Documentar|y}}ies alike, they're usually portrayed as underdogs whose potential is yet to be unleashed as they cower beneath their [[PrehistoricMonster dinosaur overlords]]. This trope may have risen to popularity in The80s, when the [[OneMillionBC concept that
non-avian dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles lived with prehistoric humans and large mammals]] became a DeadHorseTrope, coupled with the Dinosaur Renaissance influencing popular culture.

Since MostWritersAreHuman and ReptilesAreAbhorrent, it's easy to sympathise with our distant ancestors. In fiction, non-fiction, and {{Speculative Documentar|y}}ies alike, they're usually portrayed as underdogs whose potential is yet to be unleashed as they cower beneath their [[PrehistoricMonster dinosaur overlords]]. This trope may have risen to popularity in The80s, when the [[OneMillionBC concept that dinosaurs lived with prehistoric humans and large mammals]] became a DeadHorseTrope, coupled with the Dinosaur Renaissance influencing popular culture.

Since MostWritersAreHuman and ReptilesAreAbhorrent, it's easy to sympathise with our distant ancestors. In fiction, non-fiction, and {{Speculative Documentar|y}}ies alike, they're usually portrayed as underdogs whose potential is yet to be unleashed as they cower beneath their [[PrehistoricMonster dinosaur overlords]].

Since MostWritersAreHuman and ReptilesAreAbhorrent, it's easy to sympathise with our distant ancestors. In fiction, non-fiction, and {{Speculative Documentar|y}}ies alike, they're usually portrayed as underdogs whose potential is yet to be unleashed as they cower beneath their [[PrehistoricMonster dinosaur overlords]]. In RealLife, this wasn't the case, as they were quite a diverse and successful group back then, with swimmers, gliders, and burrowers among their ranks. Some of them were so big and fierce that they even ''ate'' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repenomamus dinosaurs.]]

* Were-mammals in the world of ''Art/BeastFables'' revere a Moses-like figure called [[https://www.deviantart.com/nazrigar/art/Weretober-2022-Ancient-Werebeasts-Part-1-934319591 the Torch Bearer]], a ''Didelphodon'' who led their ancestors to safety away from the [[KingOfTheDinosaurs Tyrant King]], [[ImpliedTrope implying]] that other mammals at the time were meek.

** Averted with the other mammals, though, who are much more confident when meeting the 'saurs.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'' episode "Tiny's Tiny Friend" introduces Cindy ''Cimolestes'', a possum-like mammal who's terrified of the local dinosaurs (and ''Pteranodon''s), including the herbivores. Tiny convinces Cindy that she and her siblings are no threat, and they eventually become friends. Averted with the other mammals, though, who are much more confident when meeting the 'saurs.

* While all the vertebrates in ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'' are mammals, the original draft features an era called the Mouseozoic that resembles the Mesozoic. The largest animals at the time resemble dinosaurs, but there's a group of small hamster-descendants that have changed little from their ancestors called neomice, that were mostly noctural and low on the food chain.

* {{Discussed|trope}} in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons''. Blathers describes ''Juramaia'' (one of the collectable fossils, a mammal from the Jurassic) as being small and nocturnal so it could hide from dinosaurs.

Since MostWritersAreHuman and ReptilesAreAbhorrent, it's easy to sympathise with our distant ancestors. In fiction, non-fiction, and {{Speculative Documentar|y}}ies alike, they're usually portrayed as underdogs whose potential is yet to be unleashed as they cower beneath their [[PrehistoricMonster dinosaur overlords]]. In RealLife this wasn't the case, as they were quite a diverse and successful group back then, with swimmers, gliders, and burrowers among their ranks. Some of them were so big and fierce that they even ''ate'' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repenomamus dinosaurs.]]

* The page-spread about dinosaurs in ''Literature/GuinnessWorldRecords 2011'' mentions that 115 million years ago, the number of mammal species was increasing, but their size was restricted due to the dominance of dinosaurs.

* ''WesternAnimation/SixtyFourMillionYearsAgo'': The documentary short centres around a primitive mammal surviving at the end of the Late Cretaceous (which, in reality was about 66 million years ago, not 64). Even the smallest dinosaur shown, the ''Ornithomimus'' is a threat to it, and the narrator states how the dominance of the dinosaurs prevents mammals from growing larger or diversifying beyond tiny insect-eaters cowering in their shadows.
* The ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'' episode "Tiny's Tiny Friend" introduces Cindy ''Cimolestes'', a possum-like mammal who's terrified of the local dinosaurs (and ''Pteranodon''s), including the herbivores. Tiny convinces Cindy that she and her siblings are of no threat, and they eventually become friends. Averted with the other mammals, though, who are much more confident when meeting the 'saurs.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': One CouchGag depicts the evolution of Homer, starting from a single-celled microorganism and ending with his modern self. His counterpart from the Mesozoic is a small rat-like mammal who is hunted by a ''T. rex'' that resembles [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart]]. The chase ends with Homer hiding into a hole, enabling him to not only escape the predator, but also to survive the meteor that wipes out all dinosaurs.
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The Mesozoic is commonly called "the Age of Reptiles" because the largest animals at the time (and the largest land animals of ''all'' time) were all reptiles, from non-avian dinosaurs on land, pterosaurs in the sky, and mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and ichthyosaurs in the water. Around the same time as the first dinosaurs in the late Triassic, the first true mammals evolved, but due to reptiles occupying all the large niches, they rarely reached a metre long.

Since MostWritersAreHuman and ReptilesAreAbhorrent, it's easy to sympathise with our distant ancestors. In fiction, non-fiction, and {{Speculative Documentar|y}}ies alike, they're usually portrayed as underdogs whose potential is yet to be unleashed as they cower beneath their [[PrehistoricMonster dinosaur overlords]].

In RealLife this wasn't the case, as they were quite a diverse and successful group back then. Some of them were so big and fierce that they even [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repenomamus ''ate'' dinosaurs.]]

In RealLife this wasn't the case, as they were quite a diverse and succesful group back then. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repenomamus Some even preyed upon dinosaurs.]]

In RealLife this wasn't the case, as they were quite a diverse and succesful group back then. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repenomamus Some even preyed upon dinosaurs]]