Actually it is an interesting question how vicious Hyp, Nod, and Mutt would have become if given the chance. What in case they had caught Littlefoot, Cera, Petrie, Ducky, Spike, or just one of them after the discovery of the waterhole. What would / could they have done anyway? How far would they have gone?
There is one land before time book and an audio play in which they capture Spike apparently for the mere sake of tyrannizing him and his friends. Other than preventing him from getting away neither the audio play nor the book give any details on what they actually wanted to do. In the audio play the image is created that they put Spike in a small ravine with only one exit and laid to rest at that only exit. A picture of the book sugests that they tied Spike with a vine.
As for Pterano, Rinkus, and Sierra they would have harmed others. They were just lacking the proper device to do so, but never ever got it. The main difference is that while Pterano thought his becoming the undisputed leader of the dinosaurs (by whatever means) would be beneficial for everyone Rinkus and Sierra only thought of their own advantage. While we cannot be sure what exactly they had in mind we may get a vague idea of Sierra's planning to feed the kids to the sharpteeth.
As for Pachys living on the mountains, they might have used the horns on their snouts to dig for roots. I always thought they were omnivorous - eating insects sometimes, you know...
I seriously doubt the Pachys in LBT were meant to stay where they were. With nothing growing around there wouldn't be many roots for them to dig up either, least of all in the mostly rocky terrain. It would also take a huge pile of insects to feed them. No, I really don't think those Pachys were meant to live where Cera encountered them. But perhaps the Pachy consider any place where they are "their territory", no matter how long they have been there or how long they are going to stay. So even if they didn't live where Cera encountered them, defending "their territory" may still have been a reason for their aggressiveness. Maybe Cera really bumped into a sleeping Pachy as suggested by one book. Any way, they were clearly overreacting
I think a Pachy pushed through the bushes next to Littlefoot just afterwards, but I haven't seen that movie in a while....as for the Struthios looking alike, that's a bit granted. I mean, they are the same species, you know.
Probably. Ozzy and Struth had distinct yellow respectively orange eyes (one of the points to keep them appart), the Struthiomimuses in that scene may have had both colors too. Anyway, as there was no real action or recognition on the part of the Struthiomimuses I guess it is very unlikely that Ozzy and Strut were among them. If they were it apparently didn't make any difference at all.
As for Mr. Thicknose I need to rake my memory. I
think (I have no 100% faith in my memory about this point) the information on a return of Mr. Thicknose came straight from Aria, which would make it more than a rumor. I'm not absolutely certain...
Okay, now I am. I checked out my old emails. In a mail of april 9th 2006 Aria wrote:
DORIAN PLAYS A RECURRING CHARACTER, "MR. THICKNOSE" ON THE SERIES!
So I'm afraid whether you like him or not Mr. Thicknose will recur in the series
Maybe he'll do better this time.
There are quite a few LBT books actually... Well, I suppose LBT coloring books are not what we are talking about, which gets the number down a bit.
The book by Jim Razzi is certainly the most elaborate and beautiful English adaptation of the original movie. The illustrationsin this book are by David Kirschner and Beverly Lazor-Bahr.
Around the same time as Razzi's book (that is the time the movie was in the cinemas) two other books were published. I think there were soft and hardcover versions of both of them, though I have the hardcover version of only one of them. The content is the same though. The books are titled "Friends in Need" and "The Search for the Great Valley". Both of them tell parts of the original movies story, but are not exactly complete. "Friends in Need" ends after Littlefoot and the others saved Cera from the Pachys. The reunion, the fight with the Sharptooth, and the reaching of the Great Valley are not included. In case of the Search for the Great Valley (which is by no means a sequel or prequel to "Friends in Need") the story ends with Littlefoot finding the Great Valley but turning back to lead the others there. Both books tell the original concept of the story according to which Littlefoot found the Great Valley BEFORE he returned to save Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike. In spite of their incompleteness the text of these books is more elaborate than in some later adaptations. They are illustrated with screenshots from the movie. Interestingly there are a few pictures of scenes which were cut from the movie later on.
Another 1988 book is more aimed at young children and is titled "Littlefoot's New Friends". It is made of solid carton rather than paper (thereby setting the pattern for at least five more land before time books with no direct reference to the movies which were published in later years). The text in this book is very short and simple, but the illustrations are also made by Mr. Kirschner and Mr. Lazor-Bahr and they look really beautiful. They didn't reuse the pictures for the Jim Razzi book. The story of the book is cut short to say the least. It is mainly Littlefoot meeting Cera, getting separated by the earthquake (sharptooth and the death of Littlefoot's mother are never even mentioned), meeting, Ducky, meeting Petrie, finding Spike, finding the Great Valley, and that's it.
A 1999 land before time book by Molly Goode tells the whole story of the original movie in rhymes. The book is clearly aimed at very young kids. It goes like this:
In the land before time
in an age long ago,
a dinosaur hatched...
and started to grow.
Littlefoot was the name
of this dinosaur boy.
His mom was so proud,
for he gave her great joy
Littlefoot's mom
watched as he grew
Grandma and Grandpa
watched over him too.
Well, you get the picture. Critical parts of the story (e.g. the death of Littlefoot's mother and the quarrel with Cera) are very much downplayed as not to provide anything a kid might find scary. The illustrations of the book are not from the movie, but by Beverly Lazor-Bahr. The pictures are however in this "later style" in which all character have knobby knees and Petrie looks like a sick, ancient bat (I wonder if Mr. Lazor-Bahr is the one who invented that "sacrilege".
Another softcover adaptation from the same year has illustrations of Mr. Lazor-Bahr too. They have the same look of the characters, but at least the landscape around the characters looks better. The text is not nearly as elaborate as in the 1988 books, but still slightly above the level of many land before time books with no direct reverence to the original movie which tell stories in really exteremely short and simple sentences. This book sticks to the movie's version of the Great Valley discovery.
Apart from these there is a respectable number of land before time books not directly related to the first movie, or any of the movies at that.
In Germany there are four different books on the original story plus a translation of "Friends in need". I will never forgive the translators of that book that they actually did translate Littlefoot's name (which is not done in any other book and certainly not in the movie). I suppose there must have been a translation of "The Search for the Great Valley" too, but I expect the edition was only a few hundred or thousand books, so they are extremely rare...
I'm not sure if those German books or those not refering to the movie are of any interest to you.