^ Well, it makes no less sense than the fact that Littlefoot's mother evidently hadn't even told him about the Great Valley until that day. Also, considering that the dinosaurs traditionally didn't associate with one another, and in this time of hardship appear to be rather widely dispersed across the land, perhaps the issue of knowing the names of different speciesóeven one's ownóisn’t that important. It also seems likely that Littlefoot's mother and grandparents are the only longnecks he has ever known. (I would think that, had they met any others, they would have chosen to travel together in a larger, safer herd.) If you lived in a world without books, TV, or long-distance communication, having never known anyone outside your own family, and were also very young, do you think it would occur to you to ask your family what your species was called? (I certainly don't remember my parents ever telling me, “...and we are called humans”.
)
Also note that Littlefoot didn't know what kind of dinosaur Ducky was when he first met her, and Petrie was the only other creature whose species Littlefoot identified, so maybe he HASN'T been taught much about other kinds of dinosaurs. Come to think of it, it was also Cera who screamed “Sharptooth!” when said tyrannosaur first showed up, and the next time she mentioned him, she referred to him as “
a sharptooth”, which has me thinking that maybe Cera was simply identifying Sharptooth’s species when they first saw him, but Littlefoot assumed that “Sharptooth” was the predator’s name. I admit it sounds rather unlikely, as you’d expect that Littlefoot’s mother would have at least taught him the name of the most dangerous type of dinosaur, but then, the argument for why she hadn’t told him the name of his own species may apply here as well.
