Paleo ARK is a machinima series made by UpFromTheDepths using the game engine of Ark:Survival Evolved.
The series centers around the various creatures that inhabit the mysterious ARKs; Each one having a unique tale ranging from basic survival to a Coming of Age Story. All filming is done in the style of documentaries, more specifically a well-known documentary about prehistoric beasts, Walking with Dinosaurs.
The first episode premiered in 20 April 2018. Paleo ARK can be viewed through this link
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Volume 1 consists of:
- Episode 1: Heavy Claw
- Episode 2: The Limits of Tyrants
- Episode 3: Little Thieves
- Episode 4: Saurian Journey
- Episode 5: Mother Ferocity
Volume 2 consists of:
- Episode 6: The Loudmouth King
- Episode 7: The Longest Night
- Episode 8: The Way Back Home
- Episode 8.5: Thagomizer
- Episode 9: Snowbound Part 1 - Call of the Mammoth
- Episode 10: Snowbound Part 2 - Fur & Fang
``ARK Ecology`` is a small spinoff of Paleo ARK with each episode being a few minutes long. These are released between the larger Paleo ARK episodes while those are being worked out to give the audience something to look forward to. Ecology spotlight #1 featured ARK Genesis's Magmasaur, with the Bloodstalker winning the poll for Spotlight #2.
Episodes that have yet to be released are:
- Full Yellow Jacket
- Devil's Maw
- Argo and the Last Brachiosaurs
- Warpath
Future "Ecology" and other short episodes are planned
- Flight of the Dragonkin
- Up A Creek
- The Aberrant Depths
Additionally, Paleo ARK episodes/Ecology shorts are planned for upcoming creatures in the ARK Additions: The Collections mod by Garuga123.
The series contains the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: The scene during "The Loudmouth King" with the Titanosaur chased by the Giganotosaurus was meant to be a preview to the next episode, "The Harder They Fall" but UpFromTheDepths later cancelled the aforementioned episode. Go to Paleo Ark Trivia page for more information.
- Alas, Poor Villain: "The Limits of Tyrants" proved to be melancholic no matter who wins when one of the antagonists die and his mate roars in grief. Even worse in the Immediate Sequel that they actually have a child and all they've been doing is ensuring its survival.
- Always a Bigger Fish
- In "Heavy Claw", the poor Baryonyx is driven from his home by his bigger cousin, the Spino.
- The Deinosuchus that menaces the young Rex in "Mother Ferocity" is later seen being eaten by the Giganotosaurus.
- Barbatos was originally the king of Ragnarok but a coordinated tribe of humans with mounts (a Rex, a Spino, and a Paracer) and weapons are able to out-maneuver and over-power him.
- Animal Stampede: Happens in "The Loudmouth King' when animals flee from Barbatos, who wanted to kill an Allosaurus duo. Initially the stampede consisted of Triceratops, Styracosaurus (reskinned Pachyrhinosaurus from the ARKaeology event), Morellatops, Iguanodon, and Chalicotherium, but Utahraptor, Diplodocus, and the aforementioned Allosaurus were also forced into the stampede when it caught up to them.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Downplayed. While the Giganotosaurus in "Mother Ferocity" is quite larger than it's real-life counterpart, it is nowhere as big as the video game's.
Word of God states that they altered/reduced the size of the Giganotosaurus and made it only larger than a Rex by 20%. - Babies Ever After:
- The surviving Raptors have two infants at the end.
- The Iguanadon pair from Episode 4 mated and had babies.
- Big Bad: Yellowjacket is the closest thing that can be considered one as he appears in several episodes, mostly antagonizing the other animals.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Bloodstalker, which has an ecology spotlight video where it tries to hunt a Baryonyx.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- The tribe of humans, with their Rex, Spino, and Paracer, unintentionally saves the two Raptors from the Loudmouth King.
- Goliath rescues an Iguanodon family from Deinonychus and not long after, he prevents a pack of Carnotaurus from attacking the infant Diplodocus.
- Bittersweet Ending: In Episode 7, Goliath is finally killed during his battle against the Acrocanthosaurus. However, his legacy lives on through the young Diplodocus, now full-grown, he saved, who stands up to some Carnotaurus.
- Book Ends: "Mother Ferocity" ends like how "Limits of Tyrants" ends. Both Roberta's mate and her child fought Triceratops. but unlike the former, Roberta's child kills his opponent and won.
- The Bus Came Back: The Baryonyx from the first episode reappears in the Ecology Spotlight "Bloodstalker", being hunted by one only to be saved by Spinosaurus.
- Disney Death: The Iguanodon is washed ashore, seemingly dead. Thankfully, it gets up and walks away.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: Anyone who disturbs Barbatos will suffer his wrath.
- Dramatic Irony: The Baryonyx's life is saved from the Bloodstalker by a Spino whose kind is the reason it fled from its home.
- The Dreaded: Barbatos is a feared Yutyrannus who no animal wants to mess with.
- Dwindling Party:
- The pack of four Raptors are reduced to two after Barbatos killed the others.
- All but one of the Direwolves died.
- Earn Your Happy Ending:
- After a long and perilous journey, the two Iguanodon are finally reunited.
- Argo successfully returns to his colony.
- The End... Or Is It?: The Spino has killed the Bloodstalker but unbeknownst to it, the latter's pack is not far behind.
- Enemy Mine: Roberta, her child and the tribe of humans come together in defeating the Giganotosaurus.
- Expy: Argo is this to the main Ornithocheirus from Walking with Dinosaurs. Unlike the latter, Argo has a happy ending.
- Heroic Sacrifice: One of the Direwolves takes a Cryolophosaurus with it to protect its remaining pack member.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: The premise of "The Loudmoth King" where Barbatos the Yutyrannus, the ruler of Ragnarok, fell from power, being tamed by a human tribe with a Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Paraceratherium. Episode 8 briefly shows him after he had been tamed, looking defeated.
- Immediate Sequel: "Mother Ferocity" takes place shortly after "Limits of the Tyrants".
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: A Triceratops stabs a Rex leaving it a fatal wound that resulted in its death.
- Involuntary Group Split: Two Iguanodon got separated from each other after an Allosaurus attack.
- Last Stand: In "The Longest Night", tired, old and outnumbered, Goliath prepared himself for one final battle. When morning came, he took down one of his assailants before he passed.
- Lost Food Grievance: The Troodon starts attacking the Pegomastax for stealing its meal.
- Mama Bear: Roberta and the mother Magmasaur.
- Morton's Fork: The Iguanodon is trapped. It can either face the pack of hungry Raptors or face the equally hungry Rex. It eventually chooses to just leap from the waterfall.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Throughout the series, various prehistoric crocodilians and crocodylomorphs, such as the giant alligatoroid Deinosuchus and the mostly terrestrial Kaprosuchus, prove to be fierce predators that menace the protagonists of works. Baryonyx and Spinosaurus also qualify to a lesser extent, due to having similar ecological niches and head shapes to crocodilians, but being equally fierce dinosaurs nonetheless.
- P.O.V. Sequel: "Way Back Home" reveals that Argo was flying by over where the previous stories had occurred. Argo even gets antagonized by Yellowjacket.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Yellowjacket successfully kills Goliath but not without suffering losses of his own; Ember, a red Acrocanthosaurus who was his pack-mate, is dead.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Magnus, a black tusked mammoth, goes on murdering nearly an entire human tribe for the murder of his mate and unborn children.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Red Carnotaurus' cronies immediately bolt after Goliath comes.
- Shout-Out: Episode five, fitting its title, uses music from Saurian.
- Unsportsman Like Gloating: The Pegomastax mocks its would-be pursuer Troodon atop a piece of land centered on the river which the latter can't go across. However, this ultimately costs the Pegomastax's life as a nearby Kaprosuchus ambushes and kills it.
