Dinah and Dana already have three horns...

The Anonymous Person · **on:** March 03, 2013, 10:28:35 AM

I'm not sure if a topic like this was made or not, and if so, I apologize.

Those of you who have watched "The Secret of Saurus Rock" probably know Cera's little...pests know as Dinah and Dana. Of course, in my opinion, I'd be better off without them.

However, if you look at the two of them closely in the movie (as well as the cover), you can see that they actually have already gotten their three horns. When has that suddenly happened?! Can anyone come up with theories over why Dinah and Dana already have three horns?

DarkHououmon · **Reply #1 on:** March 03, 2013, 11:15:18 AM

I don't really think they were pests. They were cute and funny to watch, from what I recall. They're just kids, so I can't call them 'pests' because I don't feel they deserve to be called that.

As for their horns, I don't know. It's probably just the way they were designed. There was probably little thought going into it. The best explanation I can think of is it might be a birth defect.

jansenov · **Reply #2 on:** March 03, 2013, 11:21:53 AM

Well, that's obvious. Dinah and Dana are true threehorns, while Cera is a different ceratopsian. The egg clutch from which Cera and her sisters hatched was not Topsy's and his wife's own. They just stumbled upon it in the wilderness, and adopted the children.

Now here's
here's an older thread that discusses this issue, where I think almost everything's been said on that topic.

The Anonymous Person · **Reply #3 on:** March 03, 2013, 03:57:42 PM

@DarkHououmon: It was simply my opinion on whether or not they were 'pests'. I apologize if I offened anyone.

@jansenov: Thanks for that information...oh yeah, and the thread.

Ducky123 · **Reply #4 on:** March 03, 2013, 04:01:06 PM

Quote from: jansenov,Mar 3 2013 on 10:21 AM

Well, that's obvious. Dinah and Dana are true threehorns, while Cera is a different ceratopsian. The egg clutch from which Cera and her sisters hatched was not Topsy's and his wife's own. They just stumbled upon it in the wilderness, and adopted the children.

Now here's
here's an older thread that discusses this issue, where I think almost everything's been said on that topic.

If I'm not mistaken someone wrote a fanfiction basing on the thought that Cera run away from the Great Valley after she found out about, what jansenov mentioned

I haven't read this story, just heard smth. of this...

Anyway, my opinion of Dina & Dana already having their threehorns is similar to jansenov's
I don't think it's a birth defect...

Kor · **Reply #5 on:** March 03, 2013, 10:40:35 PM

I assumed they were a different species, or sub species, then Cera is, though considered three horns. Maybe something like neanderthals to modern humans, or donkeys, horses & ponies.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #6 on:** March 04, 2013, 12:04:31 AM

Are Dinah and Dana both male?

Malte279 · **Reply #7 on:** March 04, 2013, 04:09:46 AM

To me the name Dinah always sounded female while Dana sounded like it could be either male or female. Just guessing though.

jansenov · **Reply #8 on:** March 04, 2013, 06:09:58 AM

I always thought of them as female. Not that it really matters for the plot.

StrutEggStealer · **Reply #9 on:** March 04, 2013, 10:25:14 AM

I loved Dinah and Dana in the sixth; they were so cute

Kinda reminded me of my nieces and nephews - going off to explore some great unknown and getting in huge trouble along the way. Very entertaining. IDK why people don't like them - is it because they can't talk? They're children! Nay, toddlers! Toddlers don't speak! And the little coos and blubberings don't count

Dosu2Dinner · **Reply #10 on:** March 04, 2013, 12:40:51 PM

I think its just a matter of different stages of development. Like in humans, presumably Dinah and Dana just developed their horns earlier than Cera did. That's the only explanation I can think of.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #11 on:** March 04, 2013, 01:55:47 PM

The reason I asked about their gender is that I was thinking the horn developmental stage depends on being male or female. Perhaps in the LBT universe, male threehorns develop their brow horns much earlier than female threehorns. If Dinah and Dana were male and if the "male threehorns get their two additional horns first" holds true in the LBT universe, then that would explain why Cera doesn't have her top horns yet while the twins, being much younger, do.

Tria's brow horns are smaller and thinner compared to Topsy's, but that may be due to a later growth. Cera's mother may have been older than Tria, thus explaining why her horns were just as big as Topsy's.

Sleeping-force's-inside · **Reply #12 on:** July 16, 2013, 06:23:00 AM

Well, the Land Before Time Wikia says that one of them is female, while the other is male... (sorry, forgot which is which) So that would make the gender-dependent issue a bit hard to defend :/

And considering how young they are portraited as being, I think either they are Lightning-speed growers or Cera is REALLY slow :/ But that could just be me...

Ducky123 · **Reply #13 on:** July 16, 2013, 11:17:14 AM

I'm pretty certain that they're a different species of Threehorns. If you compare Cera when she just hatched with Dinah and Dana in LBT 6 there are a few minor differences what of course might be due to different people working on the movies.
I always thought they're female... Dana is a common name here in Germany (and I bet in other countries as well) and Dina(h) is probably a female's name, too, though I never heard of a person named Dina(h)...

Blais_13 · **Reply #14 on:** July 16, 2013, 12:37:33 PM

To me this whole different species theory makes no sense at all.

Malte279 · **Reply #15 on:** July 16, 2013, 04:19:19 PM

Why not?

Sleeping-force's-inside · **Reply #16 on:** July 17, 2013, 03:21:45 AM

Quote

To me this whole different species theory makes no sense at all.

I think Blais' problem with this theory is that they are clearly stated to be grandchildren of Cera's father. How can they become - over one generation, no less - a new species? This would mean that CERA is a different species of her father, raising the question as to how THAT happened, considering he was so speciest in the first movie, I sincerely doubt he'd take care of someone else's nest he randomnly found...

Ducky123 · **Reply #17 on:** July 17, 2013, 04:25:41 AM

I agree that it doesn't make much sence at all but we know the Universal people and how they worked... they probably didn't care or weren't careful so Cera would be a different species than her dad and Dinah and Dana would be a different species than Cera and perhabs than Mr. Threehorn as well (don't forget that the Land Before Time is aimed at kids who wouldn't notice this issue).

Blais_13 · **Reply #18 on:** July 17, 2013, 06:33:11 AM

First of all I don't mind if somebody uses something like this in a fanfiction.It's his/her story.

But staying with the films,my first problem with this is that while It's answers one question(the horns) It raises even more questions.If they are not even the same species then why they are there?Where they came from?Why didn't we ever see a ceratopsian other then triceratops with three horns?We saw centrosaurus before,but not a single ceratopsian which resemble to a triceratops.Sure you can make up answears to these too,but we are getting further and further from what the movie gives us,and it becomes more like a fanfiction.

To me it's like saying that Han Solo was Darth Vader's real son,not Luke.They tried to hide Vader's son from Palpatine so hard that somewhere they made a mistake,and protected the wrong child.Han's sensibility to the force just got buried within him becose of the wild life he had.Without taking the numberous books/comics that were crated along the story into account you can't say that no it's 100% wrong,but it's obvious that the directors and writers of the story were not even thinking about something like this.

Also I just can't even imagine how the movie makers would think about something like this.For example:

man1:Hey,i got an idea!We could include some younger relatives of.......Cera!
man2:Ok,we could use them for the story.
man1:Let's make them a different species!
man2:Why?Well,ok,whatever.
man1:I think it's the best that we give them horns,but make not even a single hint about the specie during a film,and we shouldn't even show another ceratopsian that's look like a triceratops.
man2:??!!??

It's a kids movie.I doubt that a single kid would think about something like this from only two small horns.If the targeted audiance is not likely to realize it,then why the heck they would include it?I just see no point in it at all.

to answer the question I think DarkHououmon is right about it.In LBT universe male threehorns grow their other two horns earlier than females.The question is answered,and we didn't created more while answering it.As i said before i see no problem with the colors.Tricia was pink(and female without the other 2 horns),not orange.Their color also look prety close to Mr.threehorn's colors.

Quote

Well, the Land Before Time Wikia says that one of them is female, while the other is male

We are talking about the same wikia where you was able to read about LBT 14 like three times.The information can came from anyone,and i wouldn't call it a trusted source of information.

Malte279 · **Reply #19 on:** July 17, 2013, 07:05:09 AM

I'm not trying to impose any point of view and I consider this an interesting discussion rather than any sort of quarrel. I don't think an absolute and irrefutable proof for either view is possible which is why it is more of a gathering of points rather than the pushing through of one.
Dinah and Dana certainly do name Cera "aunty" and her father grandpa threehorn (in their language), but I don't think these names are necessarily refering to the legal family status but may just as well be simply affectionate name. Nowadays kids still often refer to good friends with aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa etc. as terms of endearment rather than literally. They are generally using relative terms freely in LBT (the reference to Ali's herd as "cousins" by Littlefoot's grandparents when there was no further indication of any earlier contact and the calling of Littlefoot's grandpa as "grandpa longneck" by Bron and Savo are further examples).
Adoption is known in LBT (Spike is the most prominent example) and adopted kids more likely than not would use the same terms for their adopted family as regular kids would. Since we did see younger specimen of Cera's kind in the original movie as well as sequels number 2 and 3 we know that they can very well look like smaller versions of Cera in terms of color and number of horns (Tricia as an indisputable half sister of Cera sports one horn, just like Cera, but is differently colored).
The total disappearance of Dinah and Dana (who if total part of the family would have been a must when Tria showed up) might also be explained by Cera and her Dad taking care of them temporarrily in a not-permanent absence of their actual parents.
We won't know for certain either way, but personally I think the assumption of Dinah and Dana being not literal relatives does allow for some makeshift explanations for plotholes the makers of the movies don't seem to have cared about much.