Fanfic / Prehistoric Park Reimagined

Prehistoric Park: Reimagined is a fanfiction by Nathanoraptor (one of the writers of Prehistoric Earth) and A-LionGleek.

The basic premise is simple: Zoologist and adventurer Drew travels back in time to bring back various creatures from prehistoric eras, whom he and his team then place in the titular park. But mostly it's about lonely nobodies hanging around and pretending they have friends. While episodic in nature, the story does have an overarching plot, as the issues of many animals take several episodes to resolve. And several personal issues and arcs that several major characters had to deal with also take multiple episodes to be resolved. Serves as both a straight (sort of) Prehistoric Park fanfic, and as a reboot of Prehistoric Earth (complete with the entire cast of Prehistoric Earth).

Although the story is written as if it tells the story of a real park, it contains many obviously sci-fi inspired elements, such as the mysterious time portal, the workings of which are never explained.

As of August 2, 2020, it has received its first spin-off, Prehistoric Park: Extras, which serves as a behind the scenes look at what happens at the park in between the missions in the main story. And according to the authors, there are more spin-offs planned.

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The work and its assorted spin-offs provide examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Cass and Tina Cheng's parents prove an emotional variant of this due to them openly encouraging the divide between their two daughters, actively working to pit the two against each other, and more often than not favoring Tina over Cass.
• Accidental Passenger: In the chapter South of Heaven, a combined group of acleistorhinus, captorhinus, kahneria, and rothianiscus end up getting brought to the future for display at the titular park completely by accident when, at a time in which the rescue team happen to have their backpacks lying around unzipped on the ground, the animals in question crawl inside in curiosity to see if there's anything inside that they can eat, only for the rescue team to reclaim their bags and zip them closed while the animals are still inside. From there, the animals end up trapped inside the backpacks until the rescue team return home to the safety of the park, at which point they end up in ideal position to join the other rescued contemporary animals from their home period amongst the park's repertoire.
• Action Dad: Several animals amongst the ones rescued are fathers and more than capable of defending themselves and their offspring.
• Action Girl: Colette Dubois has successfully made the jump from Prehistoric Earth to here, and she's still every bit the tough as nails ass kicker here that she was in the former story. Alice is similarly capable of taking care of herself over the course of missions.
• Action Mom: As common as the Action Dad appears to be amongst the animals, there are also multiple mothers amongst the rescued animals that are more than capable of defending themselves and their offspring.
• A Day in the Limelight: The spin-off Prehistoric Park: Extras serves as this for several characters during behind the scenes events at the park in between missions. And there are several chapters in the main story that allow versions of this to occur for various characters to different extents.
• Adaptation Expansion: Several characters' backstories are given more focus and expansion here then they were in Prehistoric Earth. Drew, Adrian, and Leon in particular are given more background as to how they first met and became friends, as well as just what the latter two were up to prior to getting hired to work at Prehistoric Park, something that had been originally planned for Prehistoric Earth, but has since been refitted for this story. Likewise, several other plotlines that had previously ended up scrapped after receiving a small amount of buildup in Prehistoric Earth currently show signs of unfolding in full over the course of this story.
• Adaptational Context Change: In Prehistoric Earth, Jack said to Drew during The First Steps how jokes were his coping mechanism and that his philosophy was to try to find the humor in any situation whenever possible after Drew asks him why he acts the way he does. In Extras chapter Truce, he instead tells this to Leon over the course of a talk they have to establish a truce after their Teeth-Clenched Teamwork almost gets Drew killed (or at least maimed) over the course of Devils of the Deep.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Drew is far more caustic and abrasive here than his Prehistoric Earth counterpart.
• Adaptational Karma: In Prehistoric Earth, Cynthia received precisely zero real comeuppance for any of her less pleasant actions despite having near the end proven willing to risk blatantly obstructing the titular park's efforts at foiling the villains' plot just for the sake of maintaining a secret that was at that point no longer necessary to maintain. Here, she very swiftly receives due punishment from the narrative after engaging in some of her potentially less savory actions^note she is swiftly placed on thin ice in regards to her employment after getting the rest of the staff at their wit's end through her efforts at bossing them around, and later falls victim to a vicious sandstorm not too long after she and Drew had gotten into a very ill-timed argument in the middle of a mission.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: Unlike in Prehistoric Earth (in which she first made her debut in the 3rd to last episode of 'Phase 1'), Cynthia has to wait until all the way in the 'Phase 2' premiere before finally being introduced into the fold.
• Adaptational Location Change: In the original Prehistoric Park series, the titular park is indicated to have been set up somewhere in Africa. In this story, the park is located in Florida. Furthermore, in a downplayed example, the titular park from Prehistoric Earth was located on a nameless island off the coast of Florida. Here, Prehistoric Park is on mainland Florida not too far away from the city of Sarasota.
• Adaptational Name Change: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, Half Tooth is once again named Broken Fang. Furthermore, the mesothelus spiders from Walking with Monsters are called megalorachne in this continuity (something that was initially considered being done in Prehistoric Earth before getting scrapped for the sake of simplicity), with one individual in particular that could be considered a counterpart for Pumpkin instead ending up named Neith (a name that was likewise originally planned for her Prehistoric Earth counterpart before then co-writer Luczynski had it changed to Pumpkin). Likewise, Incursio the arthropleura is renamed Felix in this continuity. And finally Cynthia has her surname changed to Knightley rather than Night.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In Prehistoric Earth, outside of a couple Pet the Dog moments, Cynthia was largely a run of the mill Alpha Bitch who eventually became an even more run of the mill Good Is Not Nice spy agent who largely held No Sympathy for Alice and Will when they expressed how Keeping Secrets Sucks, had a healthy dislike for Jack even after finding out he wasn't The Mole she was tasked to expose and foil the plans of, largely acted very self-assured and borderline disrespectful towards everyone not named Drew or Theodore, and was perfectly willing to maintain secrecy over the truth behind her being hired to work at the titular park at a point where doing as much was at best no longer necessary and at worst would be potentially obstructive to efforts at finally putting a stop to the plans of the story's villains. Here, she treats the majority of the park staff with respect, makes a genuine effort at befriending and mending fences with Jack after initial distaste towards him, and largely has considerably more sympathetic reasons behind her less palatable actions (which even then are nowhere near as borderline Hate Sink worthy as her worst actions in Prehistoric Earth).
• Adaptational Personality Change:
  • Drew is much more caustic and abrasive here than he was in Prehistoric Earth. In contrast, Cynthia acts considerably less self assured and egotistical than she did in Prehistoric Earth.
  • Adrian is considerably more aloof and quiet compared to The Generic Guy he was in his previous incarnation.
  • While still 100% a Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold possessing Kindly Vet, Yolanda is considerably more of a spitfire in this continuity than she was in Prehistoric Earth.
  • The dimetrodon in Prehistoric Earth all behaved similarly to cats and tegu lizards. Here they behave more similarly to alligators and komodo dragons.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In Prehistoric Earth, Cirrus formed a bond with Linda the veterinarian. Here, he shows signs of forming a close bond with Adrian, a character that his counterpart in the former fanfic never really interacted with all that much, whereas Linda largely appears to have only interacted with him as much as was absolutely necessary over the course of his receiving veterinary medical care from her.
  • Speaking of Adrian, he was also shown in Prehistoric Earth to at least seemingly start to become close friends (at the very least) with Alice before ending up Demoted to Extra (while also never interacting with Will or Matt). Here, it is heavily implied that he has a small crush on Alice and has explicitly become good friends with her as well as with both Will and Matt.
  • Furthermore, Alice and Jack were never really seen interacting all that much (if at all) with Yolanda in Prehistoric Earth (although the former was at least revealed to have known enough about her to successfully answer questions about her that Leon ended up asking at one point later in the story). Here, both Denhams are confirmed to have become close friends with her.
  • Downplayed with Matt's friendship with Will and Alice. While he was claimed by the narrative to be close friends with them in Prehistoric Earth, his noticeable lack of prominent time in the spotlight in that story (brought about by behind the scenes strife that occurred during the writing process) made said close bond with them come across as an Informed Attribute. Here, however, the noticeably larger amount of time prominently in the narrative spotlight he gets this time around makes it very clear that he's 100% exactly the kind of close friend to Will and Alice that the narrative of this story claims him to be.
  • Kaisumi Ishiara was only present in Prehistoric Earth for a single short scene in which she didn't even speak. And during that scene, she only interacted with Will, Jack, and Colette, but also showed no real sign of viewing them any more differently than any other coworker at the park. In this story, however, she is a very close friend with Will and Matt, has a strong acquaintanceship with Alice, and may or may not be privately harboring a small crush on Jack.
  • Cynthia treated Jack with a decent degree of distrust and antagonism throughout most of her time in Prehistoric Earth due to suspecting him of being The Mole, and still came to view him as her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis even after getting it confirmed that he in fact wasn't in fact the hidden enemy she was looking for. Here, while she initially treats him with considerable antagonism during their first mission together as a nod to their dynamic in Prehistoric Earth, she ends up being far nicer to him in subsequent appearances and even ends up finding Jack as her first real friend amongst the park staff.
• Adaptational Species Change: Cirrus is a quetzalcoatlus in this continuity instead of an ornithocheirus. Similarly, Vhagar and Balerion the allosaurus are a pair of torvosaurus instead.
• Adapted Out: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, neither Nigel Marvin, Bob Arthur, or Suzanne McNabb are anywhere to be found.
• Alpha Bitch: In The Importance of Being Leon in Prehistoric Park: Extras, such a character named Fiona Winters is revealed to have, alongside Jerk Jock Billy Summers, been amongst Leon's worst tormentors in middle school before he befriended Drew and Adrian.
• Always a Bigger Fish:
  • A subtle example in Novum Initium - even before the arrival of the Amphicotylus and Diplosaurus float, the Ceratosaurus are notably cagey about approaching the injured Apatosaurus, which turned out to have been previously attacked by a Saurophaganax.
  • Played straight in both Red in Tooth and Claw and Oozing from the Pit. In both episodes, it is made clear that the smilodon are being out-competed by the bigger, stronger, and tougher local arctodus and arctotherium.
  • Exploited in Return of the King and Oozing from the Pit when recordings of the vocalizations of a larger and more superior predator are used to scare comparatively smaller predators for the sake of rescues.
• Always Someone Better: As much as he considers Drew his friend, Leon also at times feels rather envious of how he's often considered 2nd fiddle to him as well by most other people. Cass Cheng is also The Unfavorite to her parents compared to her older sister Tina. Likewise, Cynthia was often negatively compared to her own older brother Alister when she was younger.
• Amphibian Assault: Several species of prehistoric amphibians rescued in Alien Empire and South of Heaven prove fairly dangerous and even attempt to attack the rescue team and other park staff members (albeit, for realistic reasons such as territoriality and hunger). And even some of the less aggressive species are handled with appropriate safety precautions in mind in the event that they are venomous or poisonous.
• Amphibian at Large: Several species of gigantic prehistoric amphibian are rescued over the course of the park's adventures, with examples including mastodonsaurus, proterogyrinus, and eryops (among others).
• Amusing Injuries: Quite a large number of these end up inflicted upon Spiny the juvenile dimetrodon over the course of his doomed to fail attempts at hunting Larry the petrolacosaurus.
• Androcles' Lion: Diego the smilodon is first brought back to the park after Leon just barely manages to save him from getting killed by Smokey the arctodus. Months later, after Leon has spent enough time in his company and personally cared for him long enough for the two of them to form a bond, Diego ends up (even if incidentally) returning the favor by jumping into fighting a rematch against Smokey in time to save Leon.
• And the Adventure Continues: The end of Novum Initium (the first 'episode') makes it very clear that there will still be plenty more adventures to come for the park and its crew.
• Angry, Angry Hippos: While not truly hippos, the estemmenosuchus rescued for the park do display similar behaviors and fulfil a similar environmental niche in their home time, with the narrative describing them as animals that are not to be messed with lightly.
• Animal Jingoism: The ever so famous natural enmity between coyotes and wolves is shown to have hints of being present between the dire wolves and Pleistocene coyotes at the park.
• Animals Not to Scale: Quite a few of the animals are significantly larger than they were in real life.
• Animal Stampede: A combined herd of Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Barosaurus end up taking part in one of these as a result of a pack of Allosaurus hunting them. Various other moments of this likewise prove ideal opportunities for rescue multiple times in future missions, with a large majority of the stampedes having an elderly or similarly slow moving animal at the very back of the group that ends up unable to make it through the portal before dying horribly.
• Appropriated Appelation: Jack's mocking nickname for Leon^note Dolittle is unambiguously confirmed in Prehistoric Park: Extras to be the inspiration for Leon's plans to use the 'broadcasting device' to improve his standing and skill.
• Artistic License – Paleontology:
  • Largely averted. For the most part, all the animals and environments are as up-to-date as possible on current accepted knowledge.
  • Played straight in that the phorusrhacos turn out to be present at the same time and place as smilodon populator, just like in the original Prehistoric Park series. Lampshaded by Adrian and Alice in the chapter. Word of God has admitted this was done for Rule of Cool.
• Ascended Extra: Matt, Kaisumi, Khatin, Linda, Kyle, Nikolai, and Collete, plus multiple rescued animals, all get considerably more prominent roles in this story then they ever did in Prehistoric Earth.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Right as Alice is working to reassure Jack on eventually finding animals to rescue while working separately from Drew, Leon, and Adrian during Novum Initium, she is interrupted mid-sentence by the sound of Ornitholestes squawking while hunting.
• Attack Hello: If they're not already in the midst of battling or eating something at the moment in which they're introduced, a large number of carnivores featured in this story first get introduced when they burst out of hiding to attack something.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Kyle, Linda, and Khatin were heavily motivated to accept Theodore's offer to work at Prehistoric Park by the chances to work with real extinct prehistoric animals alive and in the flesh. This also proved a key motivator for Adrian, Jack, and Alice's accepting the same offer.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • As irritating as Jack can sometimes be to her, he is still Alice's brother, and she's understandably both worried whenever he's in danger and relieved whenever he turns out to be ok.
  • Similarly, despite their rivalry and how their parents openly encouraged the divide between them, Cass and Tina Cheng likewise still love each other.
• Badass Creed: "No species left behind."
• Bad Vibrations: The arrival of multiple gigantic herbivorous dinosaurs in Novum Initium were heralded by seismic vibrations in the ground resulting from their footsteps. And on a more sinister note, the arrival of Big Al and the rest of the allosaurus fragilis pack at the Hell Creek main herbivore paddock during Hell's Labyrinth is first heralded by the sight of Jurassic Park style ripples in a puddle and feeling of appropriately strong seismic vibrations.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: Just like his counterpart in Prehistoric Earth, Drew ensures the female arthropleura that gets rescued stays in the same area as him long enough to be sent through the portal by 'bronco riding' it in a clearing completely surrounded by a raging wildfire.
• Battle in the Rain:
  • Almost occurs between Jack and Leon onboard the Ancient Mariner during Devils of the Deep before their becoming aware of Drew being in severe danger convinces them to put their rivalry aside in time to save him and put any continued enmity on hold.
  • Played straight, on the other hand, with multiple animals that end up viciously fighting each other over the course of the Big Storm Episode Hell's Labyrinth.
• Bears Are Bad News: Arctotherium are amongst the animals rescued in Red in Tooth and Claw, and they are naturally (and quite understandably) treated as dangerous animals to be careful around. The arctodus in Oozing from the Pit likewise prove beasts for the team to be wary around, as do the cave bears and steppe brown bears rescued in Ice Time.
• Beary Friendly: Out of all the prehistoric bears rescued, Kronk the arctotherium is by far one of the most affable and easy to work with, largely acting like a lovable goofball who's more than happy to spend every waking minute joyfully feasting upon honey. That being said though, he's still capable of being dangerous if seemingly denied or interrupted from eating his food or when under the effects of a Hate Plague. Baloo the cave bear is also a very affable and friendly individual underneath his grizzled and scarred outer appearance so long as he's in a good mood and around people he trusts (such as Will or Alice).
• The Beast Master: Adrian has proven to be a minor case of this with several birds and pterosaurs. Jack himself is also working to become this with the rescued raptors (as in the velociraptor relatives) by training them to view him as their alpha ala Owen Grady.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Animals with weaponized tails (i.e. stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, glyptodonts, and even actual scorpions like pulmonoscorpius) are understandably ones that the characters make sure to behave carefully around.
• Beware of Vicious Dog: Over the course of Red in Tooth and Claw the theriodictis prove quite vicious and menacing towards their planned prey. Likewise, the protocyon rescued in the same mission likewise prove a dangerous threat to the rescue team and a tranquilized pride of dangerously malnourished smilodon populator.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Percival Richardson, a genuine Big Bad in Prehistoric Earth, is reduced to a minor nuisance in this continuity. Unlike his counterpart, who was able to run laps around Theodore and the park staff for multiple months without them being remotely aware of the shady business he was sponsoring at the expense of innocent prehistoric animals, everyone at the park and Novum in this version of continuity are all too aware of how Percival has plans for the park and its animals that they wouldn't agree with, and his first truly serious effort at getting his rejected ideas greenlit anyway ends up blowing up in his face as a result of his own Bad Boss attitude towards the people he was relying upon to help assist him in his efforts.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Alien Empire introduces several prehistoric ones such as arthropleura. However, much like in the original Prehistoric Park series, the sheer size of the arthropleura in particular ends up instead decreasing its creep value and earning it respect and awe from the people instead of fear. Similar creatures end up rescued in South of Heaven as well.
• Big Damn Heroes: The rescue team naturally pulls this off multiple times towards both the animals they rescue and each other, as well as occasionally towards other staff members back at the park as well. And there are plenty of times in which the animals and other staff members end up returning the favor.
• Big Good: Theodore Richardson currently appears set to reprise this position from Prehistoric Earth.
• Big Sister Bully: Keeper Cassandra Cheng's older sister Tina is heavily implied to have been this while they were kids, with some of Tina's unpleasant tendencies towards Cass remaining in place by the time they both start working at Prehistoric Park. And much like in the original Prehistoric Park series, Matilda the t-rex ultimately becomes this to her brother Terrence.
• Big Sister Instinct: As in Prehistoric Earth, Alice has this towards her younger brother Jack.
• Big Storm Episode: Phase 1 finale Hell's Labyrinth involves the park having to resolve a power failure and multiple animal escapes resulting from said power failure over the course of already being beset upon by a vicious hurricane.
• Both Sides Have a Point: While both of them act like complete jerks towards each other in varying capacities, Leon and Jack both bring up stingingly valid points against each other over the course of their clashes in Devils of the Deep:
  • On Jack's end, Leon hasn't necessarily demonstrated much evidence of actually being competent at the work he's been hired to do outside of decent skill at handling a noise broadcasting device and his treasure trove of knowledge on various types of animals, has at least twice fallen victim to unpleasant situations that could have easily been avoided by someone more skilled, and ultimately served a comparatively minor role in rescuing Yolanda from the crassigyrinus during the events of South of Heaven that would have ultimately amounted to nothing if Andrias the proterogyrinus hadn't been released into the crassigyrinus pool as well in time to scare them off.
  • On Leon's end, however, Jack himself has a history of blindly charging into situations without thinking or planning even when then there are genuinely safer options for courses of action immediately available, doesn't have much room to criticize Leon for 'using a crutch' in lieu of actual skill via his noise broadcasting devices when he himself similarly does the exact same thing with his insanely good luck, and seemingly never thanked him for helping to save Yolanda from the crassigyrinus.
• Braving the Blizzard: Within minutes after arriving in the Ice Age for the very first time during Ice Time, the rescue team, plus Will and Nikolai find themselves set upon by a vicious blizzard that forces them to undergo an Involuntary Group Split and go trekking along through the chaos to find shelter.
• Breather Episode: Building Bridges serves as this immediately after the Drama Bomb of an episode that is Devils of the Deep. Similarly, some of the Extras chapters help serve as this after particularly intense and exciting 'episodes' in the main story.
• Bring It Back Alive: Naturally the goal for the rescue team to apply to as many prehistoric animals as possible over the course of their missions for the park.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Nikolai, Colette, and Horace are actually very decent and nice people underneath their tough and no-nonsense exteriors. Similarly, Einstein the pachycephalosaurus and Dermot the doedicurus are very playful and friendly animals despite their own tough and intimidating exteriors.
• Brutal Bird of Prey: Several rescued prehistoric vulture species prove somewhat aggressive compared to others. The teratornis duo in particular still prove unnervingly aggressive even after they've been successfully rescued and settled into their new home at the park.
• Campfire Character Exploration: In All Creatures Great and Small, one of these unfolds in which Drew, Leon, and Adrian reminisce over how they were before they met and befriended each other (and Leon privately thinks to himself over some of his own personal stresses and angst).
• Canon Foreigner: A couple speculative pterosaurs, as well as a few speculative small animals, make appearances in the Morrison Formation during Novum Initium. And more speculative animals show up in subsequent missions. Furthermore, many brand new characters created out of whole cloth for Prehistoric Park Reimagined without having at all been present in Prehistoric Earth are also present in this story, as are several other characters that were originally planned for Prehistoric Earth before later ending up refitted for Prehistoric Park Reimagined.
• Carnivore Confusion: Averted, as this being a zoo, even the most dangerous carnivores are taken care of.
• Chekhov's Gun: A dead placodont that Jack and the Ancient Mariner's crew fishes out of the Triassic Swiss ocean ends up proving unintentionally useful as bait for a large combined flock of eudimorphodon and preondactylus as well as intentionally useful as bait for a pod of cymbospondylus.
• Circling Vultures: In Red in Tooth and Claw, a mated pair of wingegyps cartellei are seen circling in the sky over a duel between a single female arctotherium and a mated pair of megatherium, hoping to feed on the scraps that remain in the event the bear defeats the sloths. Likewise, the presence of various other wingegyps cartellei partnered up with other large carnivores in the area likewise prove a sign for concern, with the only exceptions being the starving pair that are seen alongside the equally starving pride of smilodon populator. Similarly, in Oozing from the Pit, a flock of neophrontops americanus are quick to descend upon a dead mammoth that had previously been the subject of a fight between a sleuth of arctodus and a six-member group of American cheetah, as are a pair of teratornis upon a badly wounded and exhausted American cheetah. Played with in the case of multiple other prehistoric vultures and condors found trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits by virtue of their own doom being at risk of unfolding alongside that of the other animals that are trapped alongside them. And even after their rescue, the two teratornis prove highly aggressive.
• Colony Drop: The infamous KT-Event asteroid successfully strikes the earth right on schedule over the course of Return of the King.
• Continuity Reboot: While technically a Prehistoric Park fanfic, it's also more of a reboot for Prehistoric Earth.
• Cool Boat: The Ancient Mariner. Doubly so considering it used to be an ordinary cargo ship before being eventually repurposed and upgraded after years of disuse for the sake of serving as the official Prehistoric Park rescue ship.
• Cool Gate: The time portal, just like before.
• Cool Old Guy: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, Theodore Richardson qualifies.
• Crazy Enough to Work: How Drew's plan for rescuing the Allosaurus pack and the combined herd of Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, and Barosaurus turns out to be. Several other plans similarly fit this nature over the course of the missions that follow.
• Creepy Centipedes: Subverted in regards to Felix and Melancholia the arthropleura. While they do manage to startle Drew and his team in their introductory scenes (with Melancholia even managing to give Drew quite the wild ride over the course of his efforts at bronco riding her into submission in time for rescue), they are both fairly friendly Gentle Giant types who end up losing their creep factor thanks to their size instead of getting it enhanced by said size.
• Cruel Coyotes: Downplayed with the Pleistocene coyotes rescued for display at the titular Extinct Animal Park. While the entire pack (especially their leader Dag), are perfectly happy with teasing and antagonizing the dire wolf pack that lives in the paddock next door to their own paddock and also not above trying to cheat in combat in order to gain an advantage in combat against them, they flee with their tails between their legs the instant the dire wolves have a fair chance at fighting them.
• Cruel Elephant: Awareness of this trope is enough for the park to make sure to keep all the adult males amongst the rescued prehistoric pachyderm species largely separated from the females and youngsters, just in case. And in light of just how territorial a solitary adult bull woolly mammoth behaves over the course of his first encounter in Ice Time, these safety measures prove quite wise indeed.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A variation unfolds when a pair of Ornitholestes ends up trying to defend their kill from getting stolen by an entire pack of Stokesosaurus. By virtue of superior size and sheer numbers, the Stokesosaurus manage to easily drive off the Ornitholestes without any actual combat taking place despite brief resistance from the Ornitholestes. A very similar such situation also occurs between another pair of ornitholestes and a pack of aviatyrannis in the very next mission. Even more similar situations likewise occur in future missions.
• Cuteness Proximity: Yolanda proves herself highly susceptible to this whenever she's around young baby animals.
• Cute Owl: The La Brea owls rescued in Oozing From the Pit prove somewhat adorable.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • As in Prehistoric Earth, Nikolai is heavily implied to have had one of these during his time in the Spetsnaz. And it is later revealed in Prehistoric Park: Extras that he became heavily shaken by all the death that unfolded around him during his time in the Spetsnaz (either through him personally or indirectly killing people or his comrades dying at his side while he was helpless to do anything to save them) to the point that he chose to leave the service, only to then end up spending a large amount of time Drowning His Sorrows due to feeling directionless and with no idea what to do with his life. It wasn't until his first meeting with Theodore that he was able to finally turn his life around and start over as The Atoner at Prehistoric Park.
  • Leon fell victim to a lot of teasing and time as a social outcast in school due to his autism (while also suffering from inability to understand why he was so different due to all the teasing occurring before he was diagnosed).
• Deadly Dust Storm: A vicious sandstorm comes down upon the rescue team over the course of their mission in Passport to Hell, very nearly killing Cynthia in the process.
• Dead Pan Snarker: As in Prehistoric Earth, Alice Denham proves to be this. And while not quite to the same extent as Alice, Jack and Leon have occasionally thrown a good zinger or two every now and then.
• Death Glare: Happens more than once when characters are either annoyed, offended, or likewise displeased.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: An elderly male Apatosaurus is successfully weakened into stumbling on its side (subsequently rendering it helpless to further defend itself) after falling victim to multiple swift bites from the Allosaurus pack.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Played for drama in regards to the Cheng sisters. Tina in particular has been raised to believe that her current dysfunctional bond with Cass is perfectly acceptable due to such dynamics being quite commonplace and viewed as the norm in Vietnam (where their grandparents were from).
• Devious Dolphins: While not quite truly dolphins, a pod of cymbospondylus briefly gives Drew and Jack an unpleasant experience near the end of New Blood.
• Didn't See That Coming: Drew, Alice, and Adrian are understandably surprised when they unexpectedly discover phorusrhacos still being alive in Pleistocene Bolivia alongside smilodon populator despite said birds supposedly already being extinct long before the time of smilodon populator. Drew, Leon, and Adrian are likewise caught completely off guard when they end up coming across an undiscovered species of prehistoric spider during their adventure in Carboniferous period Scotland.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons:
  • Invoked via how several individual prehistoric animals amongst the park's roster of rescued animals end up named after dragons.
  • Later played with in the form of an in-universe newly discovered giant oceanic species of choristodere (called dracosuchus appropriately enough) with appearances that heavily evoke the general image of an oceanic dragon.
  • The spinosaurus are described in their debut mission in ways that heavily evoke the appearance of a dragon.
• Divided into Disaster: In Devils of the Deep, Drew chooses to have Leon and Jack accompany him on the mission to rescue the dunkleosteus while Alice and Adrian stay behind at the park. Unfortunately, this proves to be an ill-fated decision since Leon and Jack are still in a period of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with each other, and with neither Alice nor Adrian around to help mediate and keep peace between them, they end up arguing so often over the course of the mission that they very nearly fail to notice Drew in danger in time to save him from getting eaten or maimed by a foursome of dunkleosteus due to being too busy arguing.
• Doofy Dodo: The dodos rescued prove a downplayed case of this. While they aren't necessarily stupid, they are portrayed as utterly lacking in any sense of fear or concept of danger to the point of being perfectly willing to challenge animals visibly larger and tougher than themselves to fights. And as a result, they are one of the two animals that serve as the story's animal based comic relief.
• Double-Meaning Title:
  • The very first mission after the prologue is entitled Novum Initium. This can be easily interpreted as both the beginning of the rescue missions for the sake of the park as well as the rescued animals receiving the beginnings of a new life in the future outside their home time. And of course, there's also the fact that this is the proper beginning of this new story after Prehistoric Earth.
  • Phase 1's sixth mission is entitled Return of the King, which serves as both a nod to the t-rex being the primary rescue target as well as a Shout-Out to The Lord of the Rings.
• Dreadful Dragonfly: Mostly averted with the meganeura. For despite their appropriately large size for the trope, they don't end up causing any trouble for anyone outside of being difficult to capture. Nonetheless, there are metal nets in place to discourage them from landing in any of the other animals' exhibits in the Carboniferous Dome, just to be safe. Likewise averted with the even bigger meganeuropsis from South of Heaven.
• Enemy Mine:
  • One useful strategy the gang manages to figure out is to get entire groups of carnivores already fighting each other over a single source of food to charge together after the gang or the food when it looks as if the food is about to be stolen by the gang.
  • In the finale of Red in Tooth and Claw, a massive wild fire proves enough to get several carnivores to huddle in fear alongside a massive number of herbivores.
  • Kaa the dinilysia, Duke the dromaeosaurus, and Jack are shown to be mutually hiding in a log in fear of a t-rex family during Return of the King.
  • Averted by a float of pholidogaster in Alien Empire. For despite the fact that they are all mutually at risk of getting killed in a fire that is rapidly heading their way, they all start fighting each other over which one of them gets to go into the water they plan to use as a shelter first. Fortunately, this allows them the opportunity to be easily brought through the portal to the safety of the future by the rescue team.
  • An elderly sphenacodon initially plans to fight a small pack of comparatively younger sphenacodon who wish to steal his kill...only for them all to be willing to team up to prevent the kill from getting stolen by Rommel the dimetrodon.
• Escaped Animal Rampage: Averted with the compsognathus that escape over the course of New Blood due to said escapes proving more of a minor nuisance than a serious threat (though it is nonetheless a relief when future escapes are successfully prevented at the end of the episode). Played straight, on the other hand, with the male torvosaurus when it escapes its recovery pen after a routine check-up during Return of the King, as well as for several other escaped animals in later episodes.
• "Eureka!" Moment: After a brief moment of hissing like a snake in irritation over his unpleasant status as a resident No-Respect Guy during his Day in the Limelight chapter of Prehistoric Park Extras, Leon ends up having an epiphany over just how he could use his malicious nickname from Jack as a means of inspiration on how he can improve himself.
• Extinct Animal Park: Prehistoric Park houses multiple prehistoric animals rescued from extinction via the time portal.
• Failed a Spot Check: Kyle's not considering the possibility of the compsognathus being capable of swimming results in an oversight that unwittingly provides the little dinosaurs with a free escape route from their exhibit over the course of New Blood.
• Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: As explicitly planned by Nathanoraptor, many of the extinct animals take on roles and behaviors similar to many modern day animals. This is lampshaded in South of Heaven when the rescue team points out how a sphenacodon engages in a hunting style similar to that of a modern day komodo dragon.
• Feathered Fiend: All carnivorous dinosaurs featured so far have feathers. The phorusrhacos and multiple other later rescued species of terror bird also prove themselves to be this, as do the majority of the species of prehistoric vulture.
• Fiendish Fish: Multiple species of large carnivorous fish prove rather dangerous animals to encounter for the rescue team and park staff, with examples including dunkleosteus, onychodus, and eusthenodon.
• Five-Man Band: The rescue team is solidified into this over the course of Phase 1, with the confident and excitable Drew serving as The Leader, the similarly excitable but comparatively higher attention spanned Jack serving as The Lancer, the quiet but physically capable Adrian serving as The Big Guy, the resident animal expert Leon serving as The Smart Guy, and the usually Only Sane Woman Alice serving as The Heart.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, the Denhams, with the reasonable and serious Alice as the responsible sibling and the excitable and thrill seeking Jack as the foolish sibling.
• Foreshadowing: During his A Day in the Limelight chapter in Extras, Drew muses about the one romantic relationship he ever had, which ended up failing and is the one true regret he has. The girl he was in said relationship with is this story's version of Cynthia, who makes her debut in Season 2.
• Frazetta Man: An entire tribe of such hominids are discovered to exist in this story's universe over the course of Ice Time. In true form for this trope, these beings, known as Kzamm in the language of the story's neanderthals, are explicitly ape-like as well as so incredibly brutish and savage as to prove a source of gobsmackingly vast fear to both animals and more comparatively peaceful early hominids alike. Ironically, in an unnerving inversion of the trope, the Ape Men of this story are also amongst the most advanced and intelligent of the creatures encountered in the story by virtue of them having a basic understanding of tactics, an incredibly unnerving and distressing language, and even the knowledge of how to cure meat.
• Full-Boar Action: While not truly boars, the entelodon rescued in The New Giants prove very much not worth getting on the bad side of, with one of them managing to critically injure a hyaenodon that attempts to engage in a badly timed attack upon it. And even the staff at the park rightly treat them as creatures to be careful around.
• Gentle Giant: Several of these appear amongst multiple different prehistoric species, particularly amongst the herbivores. Although that's not to say that the herbivores are without ability to be dangerous. And even invertebrates like the arthropleura are not immune to receiving this portrayal.
• Gentle Giant Sauropod: Several appear in the first mission - the target is Brachiosaurus. More appear in subsequent missions, and even prosauropods prove not at all immune to this portrayal. At the same time though, the narrative also makes clear that these animals are perfectly capable of causing mass damage and being dangerous in their own right if in the right mood for as much.
• Giant Flyer: Cirrus and the rest of the quetzalcoatlus rescued are naturally this. And so are the meganeura and meganeuropsis. And of course, there's also Hannibal and Imilce the argentavis.
• Giant Spider: The undiscovered prehistoric spider species introduced in Alien Empire are massive, with a single female being at least the same size as Leon's head.
• Gone Horribly Right: It is revealed in the 'Extras' episode Of Packs and Predators that the dire wolf and Pleistocene coyote enclosures were designed to be connected together with only a single electrical fence expertly hidden by naturalistic foliage keeping the two enclosures separate, all for the sake of additional chances of natural behaviors and stimulation for the two separate species by virtue of their natural enmity. Unfortunately, with just how close the two species are living together in this set up, it isn't long before Alice and Tina notice that the pack's respective alphas are meeting at the separating boundary to snarl at and antagonize each other as if willing to potentially fight.
  • Arguably, signs of this even showed up in the main story by virtue of a design in the compsognathus exhibit that allowed for a natural stream to continue flowing freely through said exhibit also ended up proving an unwitting free escape route for the compsognathus for a while.
• Good Parents: Multiple animal parents prove to be this.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Yolanda and Linda are both blonde, and are kindly vets.
• Hate Plague: Multiple carnivores amongst the park's animal repertoire end up infected with a mysterious virus that causes them to act unnaturally aggressive and violent while also becoming bloodshot eyed and frothing at the mouth.
• Headbutting Pachy: Two juveniles amongst the pachycephalosaurus herd rescued in Return of the King are shown engaging in a playful mock tussle in their home at the park. And during the Big Storm Episode Hell's Labyrinth, all the adults are shown to ram their heads against the Morrison formation allosaurus pack over the course of the latter group's attempts at invading the Hell Creek main herbivore paddock.
• Heinous Hyena: An entire pack of cave hyenas are encountered (and subsequently rescued for the park) by Alice and Will in Ice Time. And they certainly give off a very fearsome vibe over the course of said encounter.
• Hidden Depths: A large number of the human characters at the park prove themselves to have this in some way or other.
• Historical Domain Character: In Oozing From the Pit, the rescue team is present to witness the funeral of the La Brea Tar Pit woman.
• Honorable Elephant: Notiomastodon are amongst the animals rescued in Red in Tooth and Claw, and they all appear fairly amicable and friendly. The American mastodons and Columbian mammoths rescued in Oozing from the Pit similarly prove to be like this, as do the majority of the woolly mammoths rescued in Ice Time. The adult males, naturally, are kept separate from the rest as needed though, just in case.
• Huggy, Huggy Hippos: While not truly hippos, the toxodon and kibokosuchus both engage in very hippo-like behavior (with the latter even having vaguely hippo-like heads) and are fairly amicable and easy to work with.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: Downplayed with Leon. He wants more to prove that he's at least competent enough to be worth getting hired as a keeper at Prehistoric Park.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Leon very much was like this when he was younger before he got partnered up with (and subsequently befriended) Adrian and Drew. His fears of returning to this state prove a powerful motivator to avoid losing them. Jack himself is also heavily implied to have been like this before he started working for Novum and that he likewise values the friendships he's since gained enough to be very careful to avoid running the risk of losing them.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
  • Via Hypothetical Casting, Nicola Peltz and Dev Patel (who portrayed Katara and Prince Zuko, respectively, in The Last Airbender) both have roles in Prehistoric Park Reimagined as 'main cast member' Yolanda and comparative minor character Mohinder respectively.
  • Joivan Wade and Mark Sheppard are both amongst the hypothetical cast after having worked together as series regular Victor Stone and reoccuring character Willoughby Kipling in Doom Patrol (2019).
  • Similarly, Ana de Armas and Katherine Langford are both amongst the hypothetical cast in relatively minor roles after having previously worked together in Knives Out.
  • And furthermore, major character Will and minor aquarist character Laura were previously close allies in I Am Number Four.
  • And speaking of Will, he'd also previously been Steve Woodward's nephew in Stormbreaker.
• Improbable Infant Survival: So far, all baby, juvenile, or similarly young animals directly encountered by the team have been safely brought through the portal and prevented from dying.
• Incompatible Orientation: Leon, who is bisexual in this continuity, used to have a crush on the straight Drew.
• Indy Ploy: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, Jack shows signs of favoring this kind of ploy. Drew also proves highly willing to resort to this kind of plan. Even Leon manages to occasionally pull off one of these during some of the missions.
• Insistent Terminology: Once again, Theodore is quite insistent that Drew allow them to be on first name basis.
• Insult of Endearment: Drew likes to refer to his friends and other underlings as D-Bags.
• Interspecies Friendship:
  • One of these ends up forming between Arlo the apatosaurus and Shorty the brachiosaurus after the former is rejected membership amongst the larger apatosaurus herd.
  • A symbiotic version of this is present between the wingegyps cartellei and various carnivores from the Pleistocene Santa Cruz area.
  • By a certain definition of 'friendship', versions of this have formed between some staff members and animals.
• Jerk Jock: In Leon's backstory that gets expanded upon in The Importance of Being Leon during Prehistoric Park Extras, one such character named Billy Summers is revealed to have, alongside Alpha Bitch Fiona Winters, been one of Leon's worst tormentors in middle school prior to his befriending Drew and Adrian.
• Jumped at the Call: Just about all the major staff members at Prehistoric Park did this when offered the chance to work at the park by Theodore.
• Killer Rabbit: Averted with the compsognathus. They do not swarm anyone like piranhas the way they do in stuff like Jurassic Park. In fact, they're only considered a minor nuisance at worst whenever they escape, and in fact seem more curious and intrigued by humans than vicious. Nonetheless, Leon does point out to be careful with them since they could at the very least still be capable of giving painful bites.
• Kindly Vet: Linda Eberhart and Yolanda Hall have made the jump from Prehistoric Earth to this story, and they are exactly as kindly here as they were in that story. Newly introduced fellow vets Harry Carver and Bethany Williams also qualify (although the latter can also be rather firm at times when the situation requires as much).
• King of Beasts: The American lions rescued in Oozing From the Pit prove equal parts fearsome and majestic as they are introduced viciously hunting a herd of bison antiquus (and are also implied to be Always a Bigger Fish to both the American cheetah and teratornis long before they're actually physically seen) and the resident alpha male of the rescued pride is first introduced confidently strutting his way over to a freshly killed bison the lionesses have killed. The rescued cave lion duo are also treated with considerable respect by Leon, who even names them Simba and Nala for good measure.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After the Brachiosaurus herd puts up sufficient resistance, the Saurophaganax pack that attempts to hunt them decide in dismay to leave them alone and patiently drink from the nearby water. A pair of Ornitholestes likewise decide to give up trying to defend their kill after a pack of Stokesosaurus that wish to steal said kill call their bluff and prove to have the advantage in sheer size and numbers. In fact, multiple carnivores show signs of knowing when to back off when the circumstances make this approach seem the wisest course of action.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Gets utilized more than once over the course of Novum Initium. Compared to some examples, these instances get carried out without the usual drawbacks. Gets utilized again in various other missions that follow.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Allosaurus prove to be this, managing to relatively easily keep pace with a stampeding herd of sauropods while also successfully dealing multiple swift bites in a row to their chosen targets. The Saurophaganax also prove this by virtue of how fast they prove able to move in their efforts at hunting the Brachiosaurus herd. And plenty of other animals prove to be this as well in subsequent missions.
• The Load: Much like in Prehistoric Earth, Leon initially starts out as the least competent member of the rescue team. Fortunately, again much like in Prehistoric Earth, he manages to become considerably more skilled and confident in his work over the course of sufficient time and practice.
• Lower-Deck Episode: The spin-off Prehistoric Park: Extras serves as more of a behind the scenes look at what goes on at the park in between missions.
• Loud of War: Blowing through airhorns proves a common strategy in first attracting carnivores' attention (particularly that of some of the larger ones) and then getting them enraged enough to end up rushing right through the portal in their subsequent efforts at chasing or lunging at the rescue team members responsible for the noise.
• The Magic Comes Back: As per usual for a Prehistoric Park story, the whole point of the time portal and park is to bring back the lost animals of the past and give them a second chance.
• Malicious Misnaming: Jack's nickname for Leon, "Dolittle".
• Malicious Monitor Lizard:
  • While not truly monitor lizards, the carnivorous pelycosaurs (such as dimetrodon, secodontosaurus, and sphenacodon) show behaviors similar to komodo dragons and other monitor lizards and can act very aggressive.
  • Similarly, Geronimo and the other palaeosaniwa rescued in Return of the King can show off some highly aggressive behavior if provoked.
• Mama Bear: A very literal example is first seen in Red in Tooth and Claw amongst a massive crowd of animals rescued from a fire in the form of a single adult female arctotherium desperately working to shield her two cubs from the blaze. Naturally, she and her cubs are successfully brought through the portal to safety. Multiple other animal mothers likewise prove very protective of their offspring.
• Mammoths Mean Ice Age: The very first mission set explicitly in the ice age naturally has the famed woolly mammoth itself as the main rescue target.
• Meanwhile, in the Future…: As is to be expected, the mission episodes are formatted this way; with Drew and the rescue team adventuring in the past while everyone else at the park handles whatever issues pop up there while the rescue team is out getting more animals.
• Megacorp: Novum serves more or less as the equivalent of InGen in this continuity.
• Mighty Roar: Largely averted with the giant carnivorous dinosaurs, which have all so far been heard hissing, snarling, bellowing, and growling instead of roaring. The prehistoric bears and big cats, on the other hand, play this straight. Leon himself learns to weaponize this via use of a specially designed broadcasting/recording device. And Alice herself briefly gets in on the act of similarly weaponizing this trope through use of a recording as well in time to save an American cheetah from getting killed and eaten by a pair of teratornis.
• Mission Control: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, Theodore Richardson decides upon the mission targets and passes the news of these decisions along to Drew, who in turn allows it to be passed along to the rest of the rescue team, plus all other appropriate park staff, as needed.
• Moment Killer: Duke the dromaeosaurus manages to incidentally prove himself this by virtue of his amused sounding squawks he makes during at least two moments of Ship Tease between Jack and Colette.
• My Car Hates Me: In the climax of Alien Empire swamp water that has managed to somehow get in the engine of a jeep the team brought with them causes the vehicle to stall at an immensely inconvenient time.
• Mythology Gag: Several of these are present in relation to the original Prehistoric Park series, the larger Walking With franchise, the Extinction World mythos, and the original Prehistoric Earth fanfic.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Several of the animals rescued end up named after famous people (or in one case, a famous weapon) in history.
• Named by the Adaptation: The two bachelor smilodon brothers in Red in Tooth and Claw (equivalents of a similar pair in Walking with Beasts) are named Carlos and Raul in this continuity.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: In Novum Initium, the Ceratosaurus pack that tries to take the lone apatosaurus in quick sand as prey have to contend with a float of Diplosaurus and Amphicotylus. Several species of small terrestrial crocodilians encountered by the Denhams in a denuded Jurassic forest also prove a bit of an annoyance in getting through the portal as well. Several more speculative small terrestrial crocodilians similarly prove an annoyance to capture in All Creatures Great and Small. Even phytosaurs and rauisuchians get in on the act in New Blood, as do several temnospondyls and other large amphibians in Alien Empire. And there are plenty more crocodilians that prove troublesome or vicious to deal with over the course of subsequent missions.
• The Nick Namer: Jack is up to his old tricks with this in this story just like he was in Prehistoric Earth, with Drew being nicknamed 'Fearless Leader', Leon getting nicknamed 'Dolittle', Adrian getting briefly referred to as 'Tall, Dark, and Asian', and Linda getting referred to as 'Doc'. And of course, he also occasionally calls Alice 'Ally'.
• Noble Bird of Prey: Whilst there are many birds of prey among the animals brought back, Hannibal and Imlice the Argentavis, in a rare vulture example of this, are the straightest examples.
• Noble Wolf: Whilst many wolf-like canids appear, Nero the dire wolf and his pack are the straightest examples of this trope, being portrayed as majestic, albeit fierce, creatures, bonding closely with Jack and Collete and playing semi-heroic roles in both "season" finales.
• Noisy Nature: Averted. None of the animals that have vocalizations appear to use them any more often than any modern animal would do so.
• No-Respect Guy: Leon proves to be this during his time viewed as The Load. Horace, Cass, and all their fellow keepers amongst the hoofstock and ornithischian keeper divisions also serve as this amongst this all the staff in general.
• Oh, Crap!: Considering just what the rescue team and park staff are working with, this understandably occurs more than once.
• Only Sane Man: Canon Foreigner Mohinder Chandra proves to be this amongst the sauropod keepers by virtue of him being considerably more humble than his considerably more prideful and egotistical colleagues in this division. Likewise, Alice and Adrian serve this role in the rescue team in comparison to the Kirk-Spock-McCoy style trio of Drew (the reckless and short attention spanned leader), Leon (the desperate for approval scholar), and Jack (Alice's thrill seeking and excitable younger brother).
• Opposites Theme Naming: Felix and Melancholia the arthropleura (the former being named after the Latin word for luck and the latter being named after a feeling of intense sadness and despair that is arguably amongst the furthest emotions one could feel from lucky) and Santino and Demona the allosaurus fragilis (with the former having a name derived from the Italian word for 'saint' and the latter having a name derived from the word demon (while also being named after a character that more than deserved such a name).
• Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: Several speculative prehistoric creatures are implied via physical appearances and the featuring of anomalies in a chapter of Extras to serve as the basis of several cryptids and fantastical creatures In-Universe (with several tribes of ape-men being implied to be responsible for sightings of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti (plus the Australian yowie), a speculative aquatic Australian marsupial being implied to be responsible for the legends and sightings of the bunyip, and a vaguely dragon-like species of giant ocean going choristodere being implied to be responsible for the legends of Sea Serpents (as well as potentially sightings of Nessie and other lake monster cryptids).
• Outrun the Fireball: According to Word of God, the rescue team and the t-rex family manage to do this without even realizing as much in the final scene in the Cretaceous period during Return of the King. Specifically, after a brief bit of difficulty in getting the portal open while off balance and trying to avoid getting dust in their eyes and mouths from the KT-Event induced apocalypse going on around them, the rescue team finally manage to open the portal, at which point they successfully convince the t-rex family into running through the portal right after them. Literally seconds after the two groups have vanished into the future and the portal has closed, a gigantic shockwave of fire comes roaring right through the now empty area where they'd been standing.
• Panthera Awesome: Smilodon populator are amongst the animals rescued as of Red in Tooth and Claw. Smilodon fatalis, homotherium, American cheetah, and American lion likewise join the rescued animal repertoire in Oozing from the Pit. And while not quite true cats, scientifically speaking, the rescued thylacosmilus and patagosmilus in Of Scales and Feathers somewhat fulfill the spirit of this trope. And there are still plenty of other prehistoric big cats that end up qualifying in some way or other.
• Perilous Prehistoric Seas: Nature Is Not Nice in the world of Prehistoric Park, and the oceans that the rescue team visit over the course of their missions, fraught with vicious predators, are no exception:
  • In Devils of the Deep, Leon very nearly gets an arm bitten off by an onychodus, a titanichthys almost collides its full bulk against Leon and Jack while they're distracted with an argument, and Drew very nearly gets killed or maimed by a foursome of dunkleosteus over the course of a violent thunderstorm.
  • In Sea Serpents, the rescue team finds themselves having to rescue a pod of birthing zygorhiza from a combined group of basilosaurus, otodus angustidens, and dracosuchus.
• The Peter Principle: Drew's incredibly reckless behavior, preference to act in the moment, and overly strong passion for the animals and little else, while incredibly useful for his job as rescue team leader over the course of rescuing prehistoric animals in the wilds of the past, cause him to be less than ideal for his secondary position as park manager by virtue of causing him to ignore issues going on at the park and doing nothing to resolve them until someone's already either hurt or inconvenienced, handle his managerial paperwork at a snail's pace, and shirk off his more 'conventional' manager type duties to his underlings at the park as a result of them not being directly related enough to the animals and rescue missions to maintain his interest. By the time of the story's second 'season', its gotten bad enough that his superiors at Novum have begun working behind his back on finding people to serve as co-managers that can cover for his weaknesses.
• Pike Peril: Averted with the lepisosteus species rescued in Return of the King due to their not being in the midst of hunting at the time of their rescue.
• Piranha Problem: Likewise averted with the megapiranha, who don't act any more voracious than their modern day counterparts. But even so, they're still shown in the narrative as being fairly voracious in eating a strip of bait meat that gets dropped within their reach.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Jack, just like in Prehistoric Earth.
• Precision F-Strike: Anytime a character is explicitly heard swearing, it's easily noticeable, and done for good reason.
• Prehistoric Monster: Averted, though many large predators do appear to be quite nasty, and even they are treated more like regular animals than exaggerated movie monsters.
• Quick Sand Sucks: A lone young male Apatosaurus is found stuck in quicksand by the rescue team after already getting grievously wounded via a bite to his back from a Saurophaganax, before then ending up also at risk of getting eaten by a pack of Ceratosaurus and a combined float of Diplosaurus and Amphicotylus. Thankfully, he is saved. There is also an adult Apatosaurus that gets found in quicksand later; only this one is already long dead and being feasted upon by two flocks of scavenging pterosaurs. Furthermore, a massive number of animals are found struggling to get free from the La Brea tar pits during the Pleistocene period during Oozing from the Pit.
• Raptor Attack: Mostly averted - the dromaeosaurs (and other small theropods) are accurately portrayed as feathered and bird-like. However, many of them are slightly oversized compared to the real animals. And while the troodonts are described as being very difficult to train compared to the dromaeosaurs as a result of high intelligence and immensely strong willed and independently minded personalities, they are nonetheless portrayed as no more inherently dangerous than any other ordinary animal, with even the time that the pectinodon act more aggressively than normal being justified by being under the affects of a Hate Plague.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Theodore and all the park heads of staff prove themselves this to varying capacities.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Played with in that the creatures in question aren't so much evil as they are merely carnivorous, but the spirit of the trope is present in some carnivores' colorations.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The dimetrodon and allosaurs rescued all have blood red eyes.
• Related in the Adaptation: In Prehistoric Earth, Percival had no real connection to Theodore apart from being a member of the Novum board. In this story, he is Theodore's nephew (complete with the requisite Age Lift).
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: There are several animals amongst the park's repertoire of rescued creatures that end up named after figures from various mythologies.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted. This being a zoo, and one that very much wishes for dinosaurs to be amongst the rescued extinct animals, reptiles (including, naturally, dinosaurs) are very much allowed amongst the park's animal repertoire. Furthermore, awareness of this mentality allows those who directly work with the reptiles amongst the park's animal repertoire to feel great pride in their position as a result of working with creatures they know damn well to be a subject of great fear and distrust to a sizable number of people.
• Resurrect the Wreck: The Ancient Mariner was initially a cargo boat used by Novum during the company's earliest years of existence, only to end up left to spend years in the company shipyard without use as a result of Technology Marches On while the majority of the other former cargo boats ended up either sold to other companies or sent on a one way trip to the scrapyard. By sheer luck, the boat that became the Ancient Mariner was still in the Novum shipyard when Theodore found it and decided it would fit the purposes of his plans for the then newly thought up Prehistoric Park perfectly, at which point he had it upgraded and repaired in time for the rescue team to make good use of it for the park's rescue missions.
• Rhino Rampage: The elasmotherium and coelodonta rescued for the park both prove quite happy to charge violently towards anything that incurs their wrath. Several rescued species of brontothere, while not truly rhinos, prove similarly menacing creatures to deal with when in a bad mood.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Nemo the juvenile nothosaurus. Also, a large number of baby animals amongst the rescue roster qualify as this, particularly to Yolanda.
• The Rival: Cirrus and Zephyr the male quetzalcoatlus view each other as this. And so do Nero the alpha male dire wolf and Dag the alpha male Pleistocene coyote. Not to mention so do Smokey the arctodus and Diego the smilodon fatalis. And just like in Prehistoric Earth, Jack and Leon initially start out as this towards each other.
• Roar Before Beating: Many of the carnivores engage in this (even if several of them are technically bellowing or hissing before beating instead). Some of the herbivores also engage in a bellow before beating before making attempts to scare off perceived territory intruders.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: The josephoartigasia are considerably larger than modern day capybaras, with the largest of the adults being the size of a fully grown adult hippo.
• The Runt at the End: The vast majority of the stampeding animal herds that end up chased through the portal contain single elderly individuals at the very back that are unable to keep up in time to avoid getting viciously killed by whatever carnivorous animal happens to be chasing them.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Leon and Adrian, the former considerably more so.
• Savage Spinosaurs: Largely averted since the spinosaurs encountered are largely portrayed as just animals trying to survive. That being said, the spinosaurus encountered by the rescue team over the course of the mission in which the species is rescued due prove particularly eager to try to take a bite out of Drew after he causes both a carcass they wanted to try to eat and a pair of carcharodontosaurus that they'd been fighting for the right to eat said carcass due to being especially hungry at the time. And as a result, they also prove temperamental enough to very swiftly go charging at the rest of the team when goaded into doing so via loud noises.
• Savage Wolves: Nero and his pack prove quite vicious in their struggles to escape from the La Brea Tar Pits as well as in their eventual proper conflict with Dag and his pack. Various other wolf species encountered similarly prove not the kind of creatures one wants to be off guard around.
• Scary Scorpions: Played with. The pulmonoscorpius are described in relatively unnerving ways and played for suspense in the very first scene that features them. But otherwise, they're not portrayed as being any more deadly or vicious than any other real life scorpion. Drew does still get a few painful (though thankfully non-lethal) stings from some of them though in the second scene featuring them. Similarly, while not truly scorpions, several species of sea scorpion get some fairly startling introductions when first featured, but ultimately prove no more dangerous or violent than any other animal, with the pterygotus in particular even proving to be gentle giants!
• Scavengers Are Scum: Averted. For as described in PP: Extras 'episode', The Skies, vultures are actually quite intelligent, and scavenging requires a surprisingly large amount of mental hard work.
• Sea Monster: Largely averted. The ichthyosaurs and other aquatic animals featured are portrayed more as realistic animals than anything else. Doesn't mean they can't occasionally give the protagonists a hard time though.
• Sea of Sand:
  • Averted in South of Heaven, which portrays the Permian period environment as a relatively lush environment with multiple rivers and lakes, a small expanse of woodland, and even genuine snow.
  • Plyaed straight, on the other hand, with the Permian period desert in Passport to Hell which, aside from a few rock formations, is largely portrayed as a vast expanse of sand.
• Self-Deprecation: Of sorts. In Extras chapter Soothing Seas, aquarist Laura Allen points out how very annoying it would likely be to be constantly trailed by a camera crew every day while working with animals that they're still figuring out how to properly take care of now that they exist in modern times (a subtle Take That! against this very element occurring in the original Prehistoric Park). Similarly, another Extras chapter features security guard Peter Farnsworth making a lighthearted dig at how most of the fences for the enclosures in the original series were made out of wood, and thus of hardly ideal design to keep their planned inhabitants contained.
• Ship Tease:
  • A subtle example occurs as early as the 1st mission; Leon briefly directs a slight glance out of the corner of his eye towards Yolanda (his love interest from Prehistoric Earth) directly before a staff meeting, whereas Yolanda directs a subtle look of clear intrigue his way when he passes a copy of the animal dossier he created for the mission to Nikolai over the course of the same meeting. More (and much less subtle) ship tease unfolds between them over the course of South of Heaven and beyond.
  • Signs of this also start to show between Jack and Colette (themselves an Official Couple in Prehistoric Earth) in Red in Tooth and Claw when Jack finds himself feeling attracted to Colette when she happens to drop by to watch him practice his hopeful future raptor training work with the Morrison formation ornitholestes species. Further such ship tease ensues between them in Oozing from the Pit and beyond.
  • Judging by some potential subtle hints from Adrian, it is possible that he might be fostering a small crush on Alice. And judging by some potential hints from Will, so might he.
  • Horace the hoofstock keeper and Cass the ornithischian dinosaur keeper show signs of a potential future romance over the course of their interactions in The D-Bags.
• Shout-Out: Enough to have its own page!
• Shown Their Work: This fic so far largely incorporates as much up-to-date information from the scientific community on the appropriate animals and time periods as possible. Furthermore, Nathanoraptor has also made it clear that he plans to try to incorporate behaviors showcased by modern animals into the behaviors of appropriate dinosaurs whenever possible.
  • The large theropods do not roar - instead, making crocodilian hisses, rumbles and bellows. This is something that this fic's predecessor got wrong.
  • The vocalizations made by the California tapir are actual noises modern-day tapirs make, complete with the correct context being given for specific vocalizations.
  • The chapter The Skies in Prehistoric Park: Extras makes a point on how vultures, contrary to what most media would have you believe, are among the most intelligent of birds.
  • As pointed out by Drew when he, Jack, and Alice notice snow amongst the landscape in the Permian Period during South of Heaven, the Permian period occurred while the Earth was in the midst of an ice age, which means that snow is actually not as out of place in this time period as most media would have one believe.
  • Forestock the harpactognathus is depicted as flight-capable right from hatching, as pterosaurs were believed to have been in real life.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man:
  • When Cynthia first met Drew in high school, one thing that particularly stood out about him to her was that he was one of the only students that liked and respected her for who she was instead of immediately comparing her negatively to her older brother Alister. This, naturally, proved a heavy contributing factor to her eventually falling in love with him and temporarily being his girlfriend.
  • While Yolanda first got attracted to and interested in Leon by his quirkiness and knowledge, she eventually began gradually falling in love with him when he started gradually letting down more of his walls around her and allowing her to see the brave, loyal and funny person he was underneath his seemingly wary exterior. And the fact that their friendship first started really getting solidified after he bravely dove into action to save her from getting killed and eaten by crassigyrinus certainly helped.
• Slippery as an Eel: While shown to engage in a vicious post bite thrashing behavior similar to that of a shark, the onychodus also engage in a lunging ambush style of hunting similar to the kind used by some modern species of eel (complete with having a body that makes it look largely like an eel with a couple of features similar to those of coelacanths and sharks). And as demonstrated by the conger vetustus and congeris brevior rescued in a later mission, genuine prehistoric eel species can be plenty vicious and dangerous to handle as well.
• Sluggish Sloths: Zig-zagged in regards to the prehistoric giant ground sloths. On the one hand, they can swing their arms (complete with viciously sharp claws on their 'hands') very swiftly in the context of a battle. On the other hand, they are otherwise described as moving in a very slow shambling gait.
• The Smart Guy: Leon once again serves as this to the rescue team, with Khatin himself likewise once again arguably being this amongst the park's heads of staff.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Averted with the diablophis rescued in Novum Initium, and also with another pair of snakes in All Creatures Great and Small. Also averted with Kaa and her fellow dinilysia in Return of the King as well as for the phlegethontia in Alien Empire (which, while not truly snakes, still closely resemble snakes sufficiently enough for this trope to be capable of being used against them). And while enough to startle the team when first encountered, the newly discovered (in-universe) giant Miocene Amazon boa species in Of Scales and Feathers similarly prove no more aggressive and antagonistic than any other snake, with the one time they actually try to attack the rescue team being a result of them being understandably startled by them as a result of vibrations that the team has deliberately set off upon the ground to attract their attention.
• Social Ornithopod: Multiple ornithopod dinosaurs are amongst the animals that get rescued, and all of them are seen traveling in herds (sometimes even alongside some species or other of non ornithopod herbivorous dinosaur).
• Spared by the Adaptation: Unlike Walking with Beasts (in which both brothers ended up dying horribly) and Prehistoric Earth (in which only Raul survived long enough to make it to the park), both bachelor smilodon populator brothers (named Carlos and Raul) in this story successfully make it to the park alive. Terrence and Matilda also have both their parents make it to the park alongside them this time around instead of being orphaned via their father abandoning them and their mother getting killed like in the original Prehistoric Park.
• Spiders Are Scary: As unnerved as Leon can be by multiple different types of invertebrate, he is not at all ashamed to admit that spiders are the only ones that he is truly unambiguously terrified of.
• Spinosaurus Versus T. rex: Over the course of phase 2 finale Breakout, Tut the spinosaurus and Terrence the t. rex engage in a brief clash after the latter disturbs the former's efforts at hunting for catfish in the moat between the park's entrance zone and the main exhibition areas. Since both of them are simply animals acting on instinct over the course of being outside their respective paddocks and in unfamiliar territory over the course of having escaped during a mass breakout, neither is portrayed as particularly heroic or villainous. And while Terrence is able to deal some decent blows against Tut, and also receive unexpected later assistance from his majungasaurus companion Mahazatra, it's made clear that, by virtue of his larger size and higher number of years of combat experience, Tut would be the clear winner...if the fight hadn't subsequently gotten brought to an abrupt end by the unexpected arrival of Uilleam, who proceeds to bewilder them into ending their duel by trying to challenge them to fight him.
• Stable Time Loop: Without even realizing as much, Drew, Leon, and Adrian manage to unwittingly allow Mauritius to be discovered and the dodo's eventual extinction they themselves come to rescue the dodos from to become capable of happening in the first place after the men who first set on the island on the date of its discovery catch sight of the light from their portal going off at the moment they depart back to the future.
• Stalker with a Crush: Yolanda ends up going so far as to watch Leon admiringly from afar in hiding places while undergoing her initial onslaught of considering and realizing how her feelings for him have developed since they first became friends.
• Stealthy Colossus: Several giant carnivorous dinosaurs manage, despite their massive size, to not get noticed by their planned prey (or the rescue team) until they're within one or two feet of lunging out of hiding.
• The Stoic: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, Nikolai gives off this impression over the course of the staff meeting.
• Stunned Silence: According to Theodore, this is how the Novum Board reacted when they were shown the Time Portal in action.
• Summon Bigger Fish: When Leon's efforts alone aren't enough to keep the crassigyrinus float at bay long enough for the other staff to bring the emergency rope in time for him to get Yolanda out of their pool, Adrian allows Andrias the proterogyrinus to enter the crassigyrinus pool, scaring them long enough for the rest of the staff to arrive and throw down the escape rope.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Played for Laughs in regards to Spiny the juvenile dimetrodon. He will stop at nothing to try to hunt and eat Larry the petrolacosaurus. Unfortunately, his efforts more often than not end with him suffering one embarrassing injury after another rather than any semblance of success in his goal.
• Swamps Are Evil: Downplayed with the Carboniferous era swamps. While not necessarily evil, it is nonetheless made clear that the environment of this era was at least dangerous in its own right.
• Take That, Critics!: Both the main story and the spinoff Prehistoric Park: Extras have each featured at least one subtle lighthearted jab at writer!Drew Luczynski's needlessly harsh and mean spirited slamming of how Prehistoric Earth ultimately turned out in his opinion.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The phase 1 dynamics between Kyle and Nikolai largely involved the two of them at best tolerating each other, with it taking a near disaster unfolding at the park to get them to finally bury the hatchet. Similarly, Leon and Jack spend the entire first half of phase 1 bickering and generally having a low opinion of each other before their almost getting Drew killed or maimed by a dunkleosteus as a result of a particularly ill timed argument between them, plus the subsequent punishment they have to undergo for as much, causes them to work to mend fences and improve their working relationship.
• Temper-Ceratops: Zigzagged to varying degrees throughout the story. In Return of the King, the trope is downplayed in that the adults aren't shown to be particularly temperamental over the course of this 'episode', but at least two of the juveniles are shown taking part in a mock tussle in their home at the park. However, the trope is relatively strongly implied in Extras chapter A Little Taste of Heaven in which at least two of the triceratops (an adult named Toppsy and one of his daughters; named Cera) are revealed to be fairly temperamental in the spirit of this trope. And furthermore, the combined herd of nasutoceratops and yehuecauhceratops rescued in The D-Bags prove quite eager to defend their offspring and fight off a pack of teratophoneus trying to hunt them. And then the triceratops and torosaurus both prove very much capable of acting as aggressive as they're usually portrayed to be over the course of defending themselves against the Morrison formation allosaurus pack during the mass animal escape that occurs in Hell's Labyrinth.
• Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Tyrannosaurus rex is the main target for Return of the King, and an entire family is successfully rescued and brought to the park during this mission. Over the course of the story, the species is presented as both fearsome and awe-inspiringly majestic, with the entire rescued family proving themselves The Dreaded Knight of Cerebus to both the rescue team and the majority of the herbivorous dinosaurs from Cretaceous period Hell Creek as a result of their carnivorous diet and just how vicious they prove in their hunts before showing off their more gentle and peaceful side while feasting alone together at their lair before being rescued just in time from being killed in the KT event. And during their time at the park, adolescent female Matilda starts acting particularly fearsome over the course of the antagonism that eventually develops between her and her brother Terrence, who himself starts showcasing a particularly high amount of the more noble aspects of the species' portrayal, all while their parents Tyrannor and Rexy continue to display more of a balance between both portrayals. Several other tyrannosaur species rescued for the park prove similarly majestic and terrifying in equal measure over the course of their rescues.
• That's No Moon: In New Blood, a young prosauropod learns the hard way that a supposed group of logs lying around near a large lake is actually a float of mystriosuchus. Another float of logs in Return of the King similarly turns out to be a float of brachychampsa.
• Theme Naming: Pops up multiple times in the names given to various named animal characters. The themes involved range from elements of the weather, to famous people or weapons, and even obvious Shout-Out related names.
• These Hands Have Killed: Nikolai is well aware of how many people he's killed or ended up watching die while he was helpless to do anything over the course of his time in the Spetsnaz, and his desire to be The Atoner over this proves a major motivator for his accepting Theodore's offer to work at Prehistoric Park.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Happens every now and then, usually right before a particularly risky or unpleasant plan or event unfolds.
• Those Wily Coyotes: Averted with the Pleistocene coyotes in Oozing From the Pit due to being too busy trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits, whimpering and barely conscious from pain after rescue, and later happily feasting on sheep carcasses they've been given for feeding in their new home at the park to engage in any stereotypical wily coyote behavior. Played straight, on the other hand, later in the story as well as in the spinoff Prehistoric Park: Extras.
• Threatening Shark: Zigzagged. The shiver of small and seemingly quite docile lonchidion in Return of the King, similarly of relatively low threat shiver of xenacanthus rescued in South of Heaven, and the more curious than threatening gogoselachus and stethacanthus in Devils of the Deep are aversions, and so is a shiver of otodus auriculatus that prove largely content with peacefully sharing a large offering of chum with a group of pterosphenus that were already eating said chum prior to their arrival. The dunkleosteus, however, despite not being true sharks, prove dangerous enough to at least fulfill the spirit of this trope. And while a shiver of otodus angustidens are portrayed as menacing predators, they are nonetheless no more vicious and violent than any modern day species of shark.
• Time Travel: Naturally how the entire premise is able to work, courtesy of the time portal.
• Too Much Alike: A key reason behind Cynthia and Drew's breakup in the past is how, at heart, they are both incredibly headstrong and rebellious people who hate being told no. And this key similarity, combined with their respective personality differences, caused their relationship, while initially fairly loving, to also be incredibly volatile and fraught with frustration.
• Tough Armored Dinosaur: Several such animals are rescued over the course of the story, with examples including famous ones like stegosaurus and ankylosaurus as well as lesser-known species such as gargoyleosaurus, hesperosaurus, and denversaurus. All of them are portrayed as formidable animals that neither the rescue team, nor carnivorous animals, are willing to mess with without good reason (even if some of them are more explicitly described this way than others).
• True Companions: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, Drew, Leon, and Adrian. They became close friends after meeting each other for the first time in middle school. From there, they remained this way all the way through college and briefly working together at a pet store, drifted apart over a couple years that followed as they worked to pursue their own paths, and then eagerly accepted the chance to work together again when offered the opportunity to work at Prehistoric Park. Similar dynamics likewise prove to be in existence between Alice and her three young researcher companions and between Jack and his four fellow reptile/amphibian specialists.
• Two Girls to a Team: As of "Phase 2", the rescue team has Cynthia on the team alongside Alice.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Several of the animals that form close bonds with park staff members demonstrate personality traits very similar to ones possessed by the humans they bond with.
• Undying Loyalty: Leon proves to have this towards Drew.
• Vile Vulture: While many vulture species appear in the titular park, Rocco and Laverne, the teratornis pair, whilst not evil per se, are the straightest examples of this, portrayed as rather aggressive and pugnacious. Hannibal and Imlice the argentavis avert this trope - whilst they are fierce and menacing, ultimately, they're more Noble Birds of Prey.
• Wham Line: The following line from Jack at the end of his conversation with Nikolai in Alien Empire:
  Anyways, you're wrong. People don't like me - they just laugh at my jokes. There's a difference. A big difference.
• Wham Shot:
  • The sight of an actual Jurassic landscape, complete with real, live, flesh and blood dinosaurs, instantly serves as this when Drew, Leon, and Adrian look through the portal for the very first time. Understandably, it's enough to put any doubts they had over whether Theodore was telling the truth about the portal firmly to rest.
  • Similarly, the sight of the phorusrhacos (officially recorded as being already extinct in the time and place the team visits in Red in Tooth and Claw) and megalorachne (a species undiscovered in the fossil record in-universe) prove understandable surprises for the rescue team.
  • At the very end of Extras chapter The Anomaly, the readers are treated to the sight of a naturally occurring time vortex appearing, and then eventually disappearing, somewhere in the wild Florida landscape.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: As much as he loves all animals in general and is appropriately the resident animal expert of the rescue team, Leon is not ashamed to admit that there are multiple types of invertebrate that quite honestly unnerve him (with spiders in particular being the only ones that he's 100% terrified of).
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: The Ornitholestes are explicitly described as having yellow eyes, as are the prehistoric vultures, canines, and big cats (among other carnivores).
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Happens more than once.
• Yowies and Bunyips and Drop Bears, Oh My: Over the course of the 'premiere episode' for Phase 3, which takes place in Pleistocene Australia, the rescue team encounter a tribe of ape men distinctly based upon the yowie and rescue an aquatic marsupial heavily based upon the bunyip (which they ultimately end up officially named in-universe).