making them weak or foolish

[rosie]

Would you agree that the easy living in the great valley makes the dinosaurs weak and silly?why? Is it due to the lack of movement or predators? I am surprised there isn't overgrazing in the great valley with all those moving herds on spiketails and longnecks? I am surprised the writers didn't write about sharpteeth following the herds and them not avoiding them.

[Malte279]

My theory is that Sharpteeth don't really want to enter the Great Valley which would probably appear as kind of a "haunted" place for them (considering the number of them who were never to be seen again after entering the Great Valley or its close vicinity). I would not say that the dinosaurs in the Great Valley are more foolish than members of migrating herds, but rather that they might develop a different kind of knowledge at the expense of some of the knowledge that comes from traveling in a migrating herd. One thing we mustn't forget is that many of those who live in the Great Valley (Mr. Thicknose is the only certain exception though there must be more) used to be migrates too and would remember some of the stuff that they learned in those days. The knowledge which they learn in the Great Valley is probably that of sticking together no matter the kind and being more willing to shape their own live rather than accepting everything as unchangeable fate. Doc says that if there is a problem one should try to fix it and if you can't you might just have to move on. I think that the GV dinosaurs would be more inclined to fix stuff while the migrates would be more willing to move on.
As for the knowledge herd live provides I would consider Ali more likely to know for example about the plants which Littlefoot and the others don't know in LBT 5. Perhaps there is generally more of a survivor's mentality (and if necessary that of a "lone fighter") among the migrates while in the Great Valley there is probably more of a focus on the group, though there are occasional rifts among that group as well (primarily among the grownups who used to be migrates).
As for the Great Valley being overgrazed, you are correct if we apply scientific standards to it. My theory is that the Great Valley is greater than we realize and that we never ever got a total view of the whole Great Valley. Even the view we got in the original movie may be just a secluded section of the much larger Great Valley (see maps in the game project section for comparison). Volcanic activity may contribute to make the soil of the Great Valley particularly fertile. If indeed the Valley is as large as I presume it may be that the inhabitants of the Valley are sort of "short distance nomads" slowly moving through the Great Valley, relocating their nests time and again, and allowing parts of the Great Valley to regrow while they are grazing elsewhere.

[Kor]

I imagine some sharpteeth have stories of the Great Valley that are not pleasant since there the food fights back and wins.  Also the Great Valley is likely very large since in the episode the Spooky Nighttime adventure Mr. Thicknose mentions that the location the is going to is about at 2 day walk from where he is, so the great valley is quite large.   Petrie doesn't comment on it being near the mysterious beyond.    So I would assume that like Malte says the Great Valley herd does move around so they don't overeat any 1 area.

[Noname]

I would imagine that the valley is full of young (like the main characters), weak (Tria), and old dinosaurs (Mr. Thicknose) and that the defense of the valley would depend on a relatively small number of adult males to defend it. Of course, some older ones can fight (Littlefoot's grandfather), but this is likely the exception, not the rule.

And yes, many of the dinosaurs are probably fat, lazy, and in Tria's case, pleasure-seeking... but as long as the mountains protect them, as long as food holds out, and as long as there are at least some dinosaurs who can fight, they can afford to be weak/fat/foolish.

[Malte279]

You sure have a thing about Tria, don't you?
However, I'm not sure I would agree about Great Valley dinosaurs being weaker, foolisher, or fatter than dinosaurs anywhere else. The chance for the latter is of course higher in a place with ample food which most of the time is provided by the Great Valley, but throughout the entire series we've seen only very few characters (one of Ducky's siblings, in some scenes Cera (noticed how she got almost stuck in the treetrunk in LBT 6 while larger Littlefoot made it out without an effort?), and Spike) are deliberately depicted as fat. As for foolish, the day may come where knowledge about some parts of the world outside may be forgotten, but for the time being a high percentage of Valley inhabitants probably used to be migrants and would have some knowledge about the outside world. There are efforts to "teach" the kids by "educating" them (LBT 8) or tell them stories or answer questions. Besides there is this other knowledge of sticking together which seems to be more developed among the Great Valley dinosaurs than among the migrates. It is the same thing as with nomad versus settled human societies. Civilization may have pampered many humans and few of them would be able to live as nomads again (though for a while the GV dinosaurs do in LBT 5), but on the other hand they developed many things impossible to develop in nomad societies. Does that make settled societies more foolish than nomads? I don't think so. It is just another kind of knowledge and wisdom that is being developed.
I also don't see why settled live would make GV dinosaurs necessarily weaker than dinosaurs who live outside in the Mysterious Beyond. The more regular provision with food may even allow them to grow stronger than those who constantly have to fear that there will be nothing to eat on a particular day. It may "toughen" the outside dinosaurs more than the GV dinosaurs (who experienced the same but presumably not as frequent) but in terms of physical strength the lack of malnutrition is probably helpful.

[Kor]

And likely they Great Valley dinos could be larger then the farwalkers since they have a steady source of good nutrition, one of the reasons modern humans are larger then the humans of past eras times.  Some modern folks would be surprised to learn how short ancient humans and middle age humans would be compared to modern humans.

[Noname]

While they are better fed, the dinosaurs in the valley probably fight less, sleep more, and don't have as much battle experience as the dinosaurs who live outside of the valley.

[Malte279]

I suppose that not all too many dinosaurs outside the Great Valley would have too much "battle experience" either. If one individual dinosaur (outside a herd or larger group that is) is attacked by a sharptooth and has no chance to run away this would in most cases be a fight for life and death. Due to the better "equipment" a sharptooth has compared to most leafeaters (and due to the great likelihood of the element of surprise being on the sharptooth's side) I don't think all too many leafeaters would live to benefit from that battle experience. The special situation of the Great Valley (dinosaurs less likely to be caught by themselves and fighting together rather than scattering trying to make their getaway) results in sharpteeth being the once to run for safety which is probably pretty much unheard of in the Mysterious Beyond.