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Evolution's Winners
Eoraptor
One of the first dinosaurs, it is the star of the first part of the episode.- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The male has bright blue stripes on his head, while the female has a bright blue 'fin' on her tail.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: While they end up losing most of their clutch, they ultimately outlast the Saurosuchus.
- Mama Bear / Papa Wolf: Both of the parents are involved in raising their young, as several Probelesodon find out, to their dismay.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The hatchling is definitely this, but even the parents manage to be cute.
Ischigualastia
A dicynodont, it represents the reptiles that ruled before the dinosaurs, most of which will ultimately die out.- The Cavalry: A herd of them does in the Saurosuchus, inadvertedly saving the Eoraptor family.
- Monster Munch: One serves as this for the Saurosuchus.
- Sole Survivor: Of the trio that confronts the Saurosuchus, only one survives. However, only one dicynodont corpse can be seen when they show the aftermath of the battle.
Saurosuchus
- Big Bad: Is this for the first segment, although it isn't evil, just hungry.
- Hungry Menace: The only reason it antagonizes the rest of the cast is out of hunger.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Kills an Ischigualastia in his first appearance; in his final appearance, a trio of the dicynodonts manages to kill him.
- Lightning Bruiser: Unlike Postosuchus, this guy is very fast.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Because of this, it leaves the protagonist Eoraptors alone after the male accidentally throws a Probelesodon into the Saurosuchus's mouth.
- Villainous Valor: Goes out swinging and is confirmed to have taken at least one of his assailants with him.
Gigantoraptor
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The males are spectacularly colored.
- Didn't See That Coming: The male was not expecting the ground beneath him to cave in.
- Here We Go Again!: The episode ends with several males beginning their own mating dances, with the focus male hastily moving to restart his.
Cryolophosaurus
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The males are bright orange and yellow, while the females appear to be light blue (the lighting makes it hard to tell).
- Downer Ending: The 'villainous' male succeeds in defeating the heroic one, decides to have his foe's eggs for lunch, claims his rival's mate as his own, and, as a final insult, rips off the heroic male's crests, ensuring that he will never get the chance to mate again.
- Karma Houdini: The villainous male gets away with all of the suffering he put the heroic one through with only a few scratches from their duel. But...
- Karma Houdini Warranty: He's swarmed by mosquitos in the final segment, which are still attacking him several hours later.
Tylosaurus
- Curbstomp Battle: The sharks didn't even stand a chance.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Loses most of her brood, but ensures that the last two will be safe from predators for the foreseeable future.
- Mama Bear: Do not mess with her children. Several sharks learn this, to their detriment.
- Monster Is a Mommy: She's introduced while giving birth.
- Sea Monster: Mosasaurs are a real-life example.
Cretoxyrhina
- Bullying a Dragon: Word of advice: don't eat baby mosasaurs when mommy is around.
- Hungry Menace: The reason they eat the babies.
- One-Hit KO: One of the sharks is disintegrated when the mother mosasaur attacks him.
- Sole Survivor: Based off the number of sharks shown attacking the babies vs the number the mother kills, it appears that one of the sharks escaped death. Alternatively, it could've been Killed Offscreen.
Glacialisaurus
- Butt-Monkey: The protagonistic male is this: gets evicted from the herd, finds himself in the sights of the villainous Cryolophosaurus from the third segment, is swarmed by mosquitos, ending up losing his footing on a log and taking a long fall into a muddy lake...
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In the end, though, he survives and is able to not only return to his herd, but become its new leader (the Crylophosaurus chased off the former leader, and his mud-bath protects him from the mosquitos).
- Laser-Guided Karma: The alpha male evicts the heroic male from his harem for trying to woo a female. He ends up being chased off by the villainous Crylophosaurus from the second segment, allowing the heroic male to claim the alpha's harem as his own.
The Watering Hole
Broken Jaw
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: He's green and yellow, with a white stripe on both sides of his head.
- Friendly Enemies: After the Torvosaurus dies, he has this relationship with Woodstock. Probably has something to due with the fact he saved her son.
- Handicapped Badass: Woodstock hits him in the face with a Tail Slap, giving him his signature wound. He eventually repays her by biting off the whip end of her tail.
- The Protagonist: He's the main character of the second episode.
- Taught by Experience: When he goes for round two against Woodstock, he makes sure to avoid her tail. In fact, he makes a point of biting it off, so that he'll never have to deal with it again.
- Villainous Rescue: Downplayed on the villainous part - he's protagonist of the episode and he isn't evil, but he's still a predator. He saves Woodstock's son from the Torvosaurus by biting his throat, though it only does superficial damage. Given that the Torvosaurus had evicted him from his Spot under the tree, it's likely he did it purely for vengeance.
- The Worf Effect: Is easily outmatched by the Torvosaurus. Justified, though: he's much smaller than his foe.
Woodstock
A female/male Dinheirosaurus, and the deuteragonist of the episode.- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Has a bright red neck.
- Ambiguous Gender: The narrator doesn't specify her/his gender. Them being a male could be evidenced by their bright colors compared to the duller females that travel with them, but it could be possible that Dinheirosaurus in this show live in matriarchal herds like elephants.
- Handicapped Bad Ass: Downplayed: Losing the whip end of her/his tail effectively removes any usefulness it has as a weapon, but she/he can still crush most predators under her/his own weight, as the Torvosaurus learns, to his detriment....
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted, BIG TIME: she/he gives Broken Jaw his signature injury because he annoyed her/him.
- Humiliation Conga: Not only does she/he lose the whip end of her/his tail, she/he ends up getting tipped over by the Torvosaurus. though the ''Torvosaurus'' soon finds out that was a bad idea.
- Laser-Guided Karma: As a juvenile, she/he shatters Broken Jaw's lower jaw. As an adult, Broken Jaw bites off the whip portion of her/his tail.
- Logical Weakness: Her/His whip-like tail is able to break bone with a good strike, but grabbing it close enough to its base will cancel out any force it has. Furthermore, the whip-portion is also easier to break off than the rest of the tail.
- Mama Bear / Papa Wolf: If you try to eat her/his son, she/he will flatten you. The Torvosaurus learns this the hard way.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Once the Lusotitan drink the watering hole dry, Woodstock and her/his herd leave, as they need to go search for more water. She/He appears to say goodbye to Broken Jaw as she leaves, as does her/his son.
Woodstock's son.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin- Handicapped Bad Ass: Has an injured foot, making him an easy target for predators. Still holds his own against the Torvosaurus.
Ptweety
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: He's bright yellow.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Rhamphorynchus was a nocturnal coastal hunter, so Ptweety being up during the day and being far from the ocean is rather questionable. He's also lacks pycnofibers.
- Only Friend: Is this to Broken Jaw, tough it's for pragmatic reasons on both ends: Ptweety gets a free lunch, while Broken Jaw gets clean teeth.
- Punny Name: The spelling of his name.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Sylvester.
- Shout-Out: To Looney Tunes character Tweety the Bird.
Sylvester:
An Ornitholestes.- Artistic License – Paleontology: Lacks feathers, but this is because of budget reasons. Also, Ornitholestes is only known from North America, but this episode is set in Portugal...
- Butt-Monkey: Cannot hunt successfully at all. To be fair, the only other member of his kind shown in the series ended up losing its heading to Broken Jaw's mom.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Ornitholestes fossil remains are only known from North America, while the episode takes place in Portugal, Europe.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Ptweety.
- Shout-Out: To Looney Tunes character Sylvester the Cat.
- Shown Their Work: Lacks a nasal horn.
Torvosaurus
- Always a Bigger Fish: The bigger fish in question, he ends up scaring Sylvester into running away, saving Ptweety from becoming an easy meal.
- Butt-Monkey: Although he manages to evict Broken Jaw from his resting spot, he's definitely this overall.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: As explained in further detail in Prehistoric Monster below.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He bit Broken Jaw in his genitalias and constantly preyed on Miragaia herd. This (combined with him trying to eat Woodstock's son) eventually results in dinosaurs of the watering hole teaming up to take him down, Woodstock killing him by getting him flattened and finally Broken Jaw eating his dead corpse as revenge for the injury he caused him.
- Monster Munch: An entire herd of Miragaia serves as this to him. He ultimately ends up becoming this to Broken Jaw.
- Prehistoric Monster: Deconstructed. He's every bit as loud, violent, and aggressive as one would expect from this trope, but it ultimately works against him. He ends up botching an easy kill because his aggression costs him the element of surprise, he's considered a menace by everyone, to the point they gang up on him, and his attempt to fight Woodstock ends up getting him flattened.
- Red Is Violent: He is red colored vicious predator.
- Stealthy Colossus: Manages to ambush a baby Miragaia without being noticed until the attack happens. Paleo fans everywhere rejoiced at the sight of such an accurate attack.
- The Worf Barrage: His attempt to hunt Woodstock's son ends with him getting killed after everyone gangs up on him. He does manage to knock Woodstock on her side, though.
Survival Tactics
Anhanguera Family
A mother Anhanguera and her offspring.- Abusive Parents: The mother. She tries to teach her babies to fly by physically tossing them out of the nest and cares very little if they get hurt or die in the process. When her youngest succeeds and proceeds to passive aggressively mock her, she responds by pushing him out with implied intent to kill.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: They're bright and colorful.
- Ambiguous Gender: The parent is presumed to be female, but the babies are unclear. The youngest (who acts as the protagonist) is usually agreed to be male, though.
- The Dog Bites Back: The youngest baby manages to get one in on his mother for all the grief she's caused him.
- Expy: Continuing with the Looney Tunes comparisons, these guys appear to be an allusion to Beaky Buzzard and his family, though the Beaky analogue himself is smarter than his counterpart while the mother is more malicious.
- Jerkass: The mother's not pleasant.
- Karma Houdini: Unlike most other antagonistic characters, the mother gets away with everything she does scot-free.
Protoceratops Bull
An old male Protoceratops, who ends up adopting an orphaned calf on his journeys.- Big Sleep: His segment ends with him getting ready to sleep in a Proceratops graveyard, effectively being this trope without showing the actual death.
- But Now I Must Go: Once he gets the calf to a herd that can protect it, he goes on his way. He doesn't have much further to go.
- Cool Old Guy: Adopts and protects an unrelated Protoceratops calf until he finds a herd for it to join, apparently because it's the right thing to do.
- Dying Alone: Ends the episode curling up to sleep one last time amid the skeletons of dozens more of his kind.
- Miles to Go Before I Sleep: The end of his segment has him curling up in an area absolutely filled with other Protoceratops skeletons, all but outright stating he's come there to die of old age.
Rahonavis
- Shout-Out: His colouration and feather crest is one to Woody Woodpecker.
- Voice Changeling: It mimics the Beelzebufo's croaks to lure them to the Majungasaurus babies pursuing it.
Baby Majungasaurus
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Getting eaten by a giant frog is not a very pleasant death.
End Game
Stumpy
- Handicapped Badass: He's missing an arm, but when most of the killing is done with the jaws, that doesn't affect him at all.
- Papa Wolf
