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Welcome to Prehistoric Kingdom - TV Tropes

️Mon Mar 18 2024

Welcome to Prehistoric Kingdom is a fanfic by Flameal15k. It is the sequel to Prehistoric Park: Returned from Extinction and is a crossover between Prehistoric Park (though it takes many elements from the show's Spiritual Successor Prehistoric Kingdom) and Walking with Dinosaurs.

Having successfully completed Phase 1 of the now renamed Prehistoric Kingdom, Nigel is now setting his eyes on both new targets and breeding populations of the species he already. But that's not the only thing going on at the park...

The story also has a spinoff called Prehistoric Kingdom: Off the Books, focused on what happens between the chapters of the main story. On January 27, 2025, the second spinoff, Prehistoric Kingdom: Inside Their World, was published. It focuses on what happens in the park from the eyes of the animals that live in it.

This story and its spinoffs provide examples of:

Adaptational Backstory Change: Returned from Extinction established that the park was originally founded by Nigel and Tristan's father, Tiberius. Here, it's Tristan's mother Ai that had a larger role in the park's foundation, and there is a much larger group of backers for the park.
Adaptational Location Change: "Supercroc" from the original series was set in Cretaceous Texas, with the fauna shown implicitly specifying the location as the Aguja Formation. Due to Adaptation Expansion, part of the episode's plot is shifted to the Kaiparowits Formation in Utah at the same time period.
Adaptation Expansion: There's a lot of new elements in play that weren't in the original show or the fanfic's immediate predecessor.
- The original version of Supercroc only featured a couple of misplaced animals from what is supposed to be the Aguja Formation (specifically Albertosaurus, Nyctosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Troodon, and the target animal, Deinosuchus). The prior story's version added in all dinosaurs known form the formation, including the hadrosaur Angulomasticator, the ceratopsian Agujaceratops, the ankylosaur Panoplosaurus, and a currently unnamed tyrannosaur which the story refers to as Agujatyrannus. In this story, while the mission happened offscreen, it also had Nigel visit the Kaiparowits Formation in Utah to rescue a second species of Deinosuchus, as well as all the animals living in that formation.
- There's one rescue that wasn't specified in the original that happened here, albeit in the backstory - Nigel rescued Scelidosaurus from Early Jurassic England. The animals it was rescued with were the plesiosaur Attenboroughsaurus and the pterosaur Dimorphodon.
- At the time "Containment Breach" was first posted, the Terrariums/Mini-Exhibits in Prehistoric Kingdom were restricted to only allowing dinosaurs in them, and only Archeopteryx or Microraptor at that, while the confimred lineup for later inclusion consisted of Compsognathus, the fish Tiktaalik, and Yi qi. Said chapter added three original species to the list: the gliding reptile Icarosaurus, the terrestrial crocodilian Hallopus, and the mammal Didelphodon.
- On the human side, most of the present day characters had little to no backstory and minimal Character Development. Here, the ones who made the jump from the original have a bit more character — Michelle, at least, is confirmed to be a live streamer.
Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Tristan and Michelle got a fair amount of Ship Tease in the original story, but never went much further before the story came to an end. Here, it is made explicitly clear that they were in a relationship sometime prior to Tristan joining the park.
Adaptational Species Change: A double example - in Dinosaur Sanctuary, the dinosaur that injured Kaidou's arm and caused him to take security measures more seriously was Ichigo the Allosaurus. Here, the former was a Yutyrannus while the latter was a panicked titanosaur.
Anachronism Stew: Generally avoided by the author, but one scene in "The Terrible Heads" has Cassandra listening to the song "Hold Them Down" from EPIC: The Musical. While the song in question was song in almost its entirety on TikTok, the portion she is singing is the opening verse of the song, which wasn't unveiled until the release of the final album, The Ithaca Saga, on December 25, 2024.
Canon Welding:
- The main chapters of the story combine Prehistoric Park and Prehistoric Kingdom by establishing that the latter is a rebraning of the former, with Prehistoric Park acting as the flagship location for a planned franchise of Prehistoric Kingdom. Later chapters weld in the events of Dinosaur Sanctuary by making Ichirou Suma a member of the park's governing board.
- The breakout caused by the titanosaurs in Prehistoric Park is combined with the Ichigo Incident from Dinosaur Sanctuary as the event that injured Kaidou and Yamaga, albeit the latter lives in this story.
- Ai's first focus chapter in Off the Books reveals that the events of Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster are canon to this story, with Ai being the protagonist of the former and her husband Wyatt being the protagonist of the latter. Bernard is revealed to be one of the park's backers alongside Emma, while Nancy is one of the older keepers (and also Bob's wife). Additionally, while how Nigel and Wyatt met in the last story wasn't given much explanation, Ai met Nigel while working at Goodwin House when the latter came over to give a lecture.
Didn't See That Coming: Karin and Kaidou acquit themselves well trying to contain Smerg, being careful to keep quiet when approaching him, try to avoid making noise when tranquilizing him, and even after successfully hitting him with a dart, putting both distance and a barrier the animal can't climb between themselves and the escapee. Unfortunately, it turns out that Smerg is an actual dragon, and thus has a way to attack them even while behind the fence.
Extinct Animal Park: The newly rechristened Prehistoric Kingdom is the successor to Prehistoric Park which was already an example of this trope. However, this is given a small deconstruction in that unlike in the original series, it would be difficult if not impossible to release some of the extinct species back into the wild, so the park will be the only place in the world they will be able to survive and potentially thrive.
First-Episode Twist: The first chapter ends with a titanosaur that had previously disappeared in a strange light when Nigel was trying to corral it into the portal reappearing out of an anomaly in the present, mainly to show new readers exactly how weird this story can get.
Foreshadowing:
- At the end of the chapter "Pains in the Head", Ai asks a worker to check on some newly hatched Titan Beetle grubs, with a facility meant to house them being mentioned in the first chapter of Inside Their World. Titan Beetles have never been successfully bred in captivity in reality, but are well known as an Explosive Breeder species in Planet Zoo, which is a hint that Ai, who is noted to have been the first person to breed them in captivity, is actually the protagonist of said game.
- When Kaidou and Karin first see Suzume while trying to contain Smerg, they notice that she's wearing a firefighter's uniform, which she claims is part of the standard equipment for dealing with a breakout by this species. Considering what exactly Smerg is and what he can use for attacks, there's a good reason she's wearing said uniform.
Ignored Expert: In Chapter 9, the more experienced workers wave off Suzume's concerns regarding Smerg, believing her to be a Naïve Newcomer letting her status as one of the animal's handlers get to her head. This comes back to bite them when Smerg is revealed to be an actual, fire-breathing dragon, and she was the only one to get a safe distance away from his fire breath after they put a fence between themselves and the theropod. They only survive because she goes back to save them.
Improbable Taxonomy Skills: Downplayed compared to the original - while Nigel is able to figure out the exact species of some animals that he rescues, he admits in the first chapter that the sheer number of titanosaur species in Cretaceous South America precludes him from accurately knowing which ones he encounters while trying to rescue Carnotaurus. Him knowing the one megaraptorid that he encounters is Maip is also justified because said species is the last of its kind known from the fossil record, so with the paleontological data available to him, there is nothing else it could be. That being said, the after chapter notes usually list the animals rescued for reader convenience.
Know When to Fold 'Em: An Anteosaurus stalking a group of Moschops in "The Terrible Heads" abandons its hunt once one of the herbivores notices the predator before it is in striking distance.
Misplaced Wildlife: From the first chapter, the only animals rescued that are known from the La Colonia Formation (where Carnotaurus was discovered) are Carnotaurus itself and Coloniatherium. The rest of the cast is pulled from similarly aged formations in South America, as none of the other dinosaurs from the formation would be named until 2024. This is amended slightly in "Land of Giants", which reveals that an unknown variety of titanosaur and abelisaur were also rescued, with the end of chapter notes confirming that they are Koleken and Titanomachya, the aforementioned dinosaurs described in 2024.
Never Smile at a Crocodile:
- In addition to the park's already present Deinosuchus, "Land of Giants" sees Nigel and his team having to face a group of Astorgosuchus trying to eat a baby Paraceratherium. Fortunately, the crocodilians are distracted by a mob of angry Parentelodon long enough for the baby's gigantic mother to show up and scare them all off.
- "The Flesh Eating Bull" also features several species of terrestrial crocodilians from the group notosuchia, with one of the larger species, Baurusuchus, being one of the more aggressive animals in prehistoric Argentina.
Noodle Incident: There was an accident at the park some time in the past that resulted in the death of one of the staff, but the details on it are sparse. All we do know is that the event traumatized Tristan and some of the other staff, with the former breaking up with his girlfriend due to refusing to share details with her about what had happened and further refusing to seek professional help for said trauma.
One-Steve Limit: Averted - In addition to Nigel himself, another Marvin is mentioned in a one-off scene in "The Terrible Heads", asking a coworker why they need to add snow to a Permian exhibit^note.
Passing the Torch: The Central Theme of the early chapters - many of the staff have been working at the park for an implicitly long period of the time, but as Prehistoric Kingdom prepares to open, they need to hand things over to a larger team that can handle the challenges of running the day-to-day operations of a giant safari park.
Predators Are Mean: Consciously subverted, as the carnivores encountered in the past aren't portrayed as being good or evil. Many comedy moments come from the carnivores being normal creatures, only for their behavior to catch the park staff off guard in the most hilarious ways possible.
Sequel Goes Foreign: The original series focused almost exclusively on creatures from North America due to the author wanting to focus on each of the continents sequentially. Here, the first mission takes Nigel to Cretaceous South America to rescue Carnotaurus. The list of chapters posted at the end of "Land of Giants" emphasizes this, with South Africa, Mongolia, Niger, Egypt, Morocco, Russia, Colombia, and England all listed as future destinations alongside part of North America.
Setting Update: The original Prehistoric Park was set during the decade it was filmed - the Turn of the Millennium. This story (or at least the present portions of it) happens in early 2022, per Word of God.
Small Taxonomy Pools: As with the previous story, intentionally defied with extreme prejudice - the first chapter alone features dinosaurs from the relatively obscure groups elasmaria and megaraptora, as well as multiple varieties of South American land crocodilians, which hardly ever show up in fiction.
Soft Reboot: Due to the final chapter of the previous story confirming that it was part of a Massively Multiplayer Crossover with several of the author's other works, this story serves as a slight reimaging of the original, mainly so that it fits better with the rest of the verse. So far, for example, the only member of the younger cast to appear is Tristan, and he only seems to be a member of the staff as opposed to planned heir to the park.
Spared by the Adaptation: A comment by Karin in "The Care and Feeding of Giants" indicates that Ichigo the ''Allosaurus'' is still alive in this story.
Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Defied - the only Tyrannosaurus shown so far, Jane, is introduced lazily lying on her side while being cleaned of parasites, and views the keepers watching her with more curiosity than aggression. Her reappearance in A New Generation downplays the trope - she doesn't do anything terrifying, nor does her mate Terence, but their very presence puts the gathered humans and extinct animals on edge.
Xenofiction: Inside Their World is told from the perspective of the animals living within the park, with mininal effort to athropomorphize them.