Petrie's species

[Malte279]

Roger in the Flip, Flap, and Fly Thread:

Pheh, the people giving the press release don't even know what Petrie is.  What does that tell you? Pterodactyl may be a well-known name, but its still wrong. You'd think they'd at least know what dinosaurs are in the film.

Actually that is something nobody eber seemed to be really certain about.
There are quite a few land before time books which name Petrie a Pterodactylus. His size too would indicate that origin.
His uncle of course bears a strong resemblance to a Pteranodon. His mother is difficult to identify with certainty. That crest on Petrie's and his mother's head (note that unless Petrie's crest is going to develope, gender can't be the point to make a difference) doesn't make them look too much like Pteranodons. We only ever see distinctly older relatives (sibilings I guess) of Petrie in the first movie (there are some of his size and age while there are some distinctly taler than him, but smaller than his mother), none of them bears a clear resemblance to Pterano or Pteranodons in general.
Crests have caused confusion in Ducky's case already. The same problem that applies to her applies to Petrie (those crests didn't usually grow from the middle of the occiput but were rather extensions of the nose- (or should I say beak-) -bridge).
Also not even Pterano's size doesn't match that of a fully grown Pteranodon. In my opinion all claims about Petrie's species have to be accepted with a certain reservation.

[action9000]

I base my information on what the actual LBT DVDs mention, first-hand in the extra features.
The North American edition, at least, has a section inside "Littlefoot's Playhouse" where brief bios of all the characters are available, including their species.  In this description, they specifically describe Petrie as a pterodactyl.  I'm just assuming that the producers of the extra features are a reasonably credible source, as I admit to not knowing my paleontology as well as I should.

[Malte279]

Such official sources however sometimes describe Ducky as a Parasaurolophus, sometimes as an Anatosaurus, and sometimes as a Saurolophus. Personally I think the Saurolophus would come closest to her. She can't be a Parasaurolophus as her crest doesn't match that species (also we see both old and young Parasaurolophuses during the LBT 4 song "Grandma's lulaby", and they look nothing like her). In this case not even the official sources are relieable. As for Petrie, I'm positive that I have read him being called a Pterodactyl in some and a Pteranodon in other sources (e.g. the sing along song video names him a Pteranodon).

[Petrie.]

If anything, at least we don't see "brontosaurus" or "brachiosaurus" (for Littlefoot) on the dvd covers anymore....(I hope).  I've seen both...the brontosaurus was on my vhs cover from about 1990, and the brach one from my dvd cover (not the anniversary release).

If its any different, did anyone catch how they spelled "stegosaurus" in the Jurassic Park embryonic lab?    :  Seems that we've yet to successfully work all of the factual bugs in dino films.

[pokeplayer984]

Hey, I've been thinking about this myself as of late, (considering he's in my fic and all, and I want to get his species as right as possible.) and I've come to the startling conclusion that he might be a mix of two different flyers.  Which ones, I'm not sure of at the moment, but I am leaning towards Pterodactyl and Pteranodon.

[Petrie.]

Perhaps ask Don Bluth.  http://www.donbluth.com  Who would know better than the creator?    Find out what those animators were drawing....or supposed to be drawing.

[Malte279]

I doubt though that even there we will get a definite answer. Whenever I asked questions there that went a little more into the detail of plot, characters etc. I got rather evasive or no answers. LBT doesn't seem to be a movie Bluth and his team hold in dear memory, so their enthusiasm about answering questions about it is limited to a certain degree. By all means ask, but even if there is an answer (some kind of answer is very likely) I'm not sure it will be a definite one or one in accordance with everything we have seen so far. My best guess is that the original movie meant to make Petrie a Pterodactylus. There is not a hint indicating anything different. If it wasn't for Pterano (Don Bluth and his team had no affiliation whatsoever with any of the sequels and won't answer any questions on them) from LBT 7 there would be little doubt about Petrie's species.

[buba]

I think that when they where mading first movie they where not thinking many about species wery much becaouse many problems at filming movie. Don Bluth didnt like dinosaurs when he was a child (he learned something about them when he was mading Land Before Time).
Becaouse that I think that they made characters little "bad" , but they didnt want to change them in the future.

[Malte279]

I think that when they where mading first movie they where not thinking many about species wery much becaouse many problems at filming movie. Don Bluth didnt like dinosaurs when he was a child (he learned something about them when he was mading Land Before Time).

Yes, I read something along the same lines. With all our highly interesting "scientific" theories we must never forget that the land before time was never ever be meant to hold some far reaching claims on being scientifically unimpeachable (wa are talking about talking dinosaurs here  ). If it comes to the genre there are some clearly utopian elements overshadowing "science" in LBT. Now the design of the dinosaurs and Petrie's look are certainly not part of the utopian aspect of LBT (he's not that pretty  ) but with science being abandoned to a certain level for the sake of this utopism I don't suppose they would have given toooo much thought on absolutely genuine looking dinosaurs (who were of course meant to look cute in the first place).
George Lucas originally planed LBT to be a movie with puppets acting for the dinosaurs rather than making it a cartoon. For the look it might have become something similar to Jurrassic park with possibly a little more cute and anthropomorphic faces or maybe rather a less advanced version of Disney's Dinosaur. I suppose that had that idea been accepted there might have been more attention to the aspect of science. Nevertheless I think I'm glad they went for the cartoon version.

[pokeplayer984]

Speaking of Disney's Dinosaur, I find it to be THE worst Disney film ever made.  When I was done watching it, I was like, "Why did we even watch this in the first place?" I don't think Disney could've made a movie that was even worse than this.  I hope they have learned from this mistake. (Even a kid didn't find it good for crying out loud!)

Petrie's look are certainly not part of the utopian aspect of LBT (he's not that pretty )

(No, though it is rumored that a certian swimmer finds him rather handsome. )(Sorry, I couldn't resist. )

Okay, after alot more debating on my mind, I'll go with Pterodactylus for Petrie's species.

[Petrie.]

Visually and auditory, Dinosaur is astounding.  The plot leaves much to be desired, unless you are not familiar with LBT....then it might get some followers.

I think Malte proved himself well....    Pterodactylus it can be.