How did Littlefoot know what Cera was

[Animeboye]

One thing that really confused me was that at the beginning of the movie, right after Littlefoot first meets Cera, Littlefoot asks his mom "what a longneck is". Yet, in the same conversation, he refers to Cera by her species name. How is it that Littlefoot knew what Cera was but he didn't know what he was? Seeing as how he had been raised by his mother and grandparents, you'd think that he'd know what a longneck is. And considering the very likely possibility that Littlefoot had never even seen a threehorn before that day, it would seem even less likely that he knew what Cera was.

[Malte279]

I suppose it can be argued that it is easier to think of names for someone else where the special features (three horns) seem to be more striking. According to one audio play which I have Cera was the first other dinosaur kid he ever met. It seems rather plausible if she was. And if indeed it was the first time he ever met a representative of another talking species Littlefoot may have never thought about how to call himself, his parents, and his mum as he just saw nobody to differentiate their kind from. Just guessing of course.

[pokeplayer984]

I'm sure this is a moment that shows just how smart Littlefoot really is.  It all has to do with the little sentence that was said.

"Threehorns never play with Longnecks."

And since he was referred as the Longneck, he naturally assumed that Cera was the Threehorn.

Though how he never knew he was a Longneck, I can't figure out that one. :

[Animeboye]

Though how he never knew he was a Longneck, I can't figure out that one. :

Agreed. Considering that Littlefoot had grown up around other longnecks, it just seems very unlikely that he wouldn't know what he is.  Littlefoot's family could have educated him on the different races and such(I wasn't even considering that when I posted this topic    ). So let's say that they did teach Littlefoot what a flyer, a spiketail, and a threehorn are. Did they somehow just forget to tell him "Oh, yes, and we are called longnecks"? That's what I don't get.

[Pangaea]

^ 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.

[Malte279]

There is also the chance that Littlefoot is actually a lot younger than we always take him to be. We always assume that several years passed between the hatching scene and the next one. However, we know that the dinosaurs of LBT can grow very fast (Spike being the best example) and that they have rather surprising language skills (at least if we take the sequels and Chomper into account). So perhaps Littlefoot really hadn't ever seen any other dinosaur before and just hadn't had enough time to think about his own species in the few days or weeks his life may have lasted up to that point (it would also be a reason as to why he didn't know about the Great Valley until then.

[WeirdRaptor]

Well, if one thinks about it: three horns. Therefore, Threehorn. The dots couldn't have been that hard to connect even for a young child.
Now, Littlefoot figuring out how to kill the Sharptooth is where I get really impressed with him considering how young he is.

Littlefoot: "Yes, we willl lure the offendering carnivore to the shallows at the edge of the deep using live bait. Starving, he will not be able to resist even small treats like ourselves. Then we shall finish him off using that large boulder directly above to make him plummet into the deep, where he will not be able to swim with those nigh disproportionately smalls forarms of his. Now hand me my violin, Watson!"
Sharptooth: "Littlefoot, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!"

[Animeboye]

Okay...so if "the dots were easy for a child to connect" then why didn't Littlefoot figure, "Hmm, I have a long neck so I must be a longneck!"?

[WeirdRaptor]

A longneck is normal for Littlefoot, so he might not have considered it long. He might have thought of Cera's as short and stumpy.

[Animeboye]

Then why did he ask his mom what a longneck is? If it was normal to him then he would have no need to ask her.

I'm just having a difficult time believing that Littlefoot had no idea what he was and yet he knew what Cera was. Maybe if he was raised by threehorns then yeah it would be plausible but he was raised by freakin' LONGNECKS! Members of the same species of dinosaur as him! For him not to know that he was a longneck would mean one of three things:

1. Littlefoot's mom and his grandparents were horrible teachers

2. Littlefoot's incredibly dense.

OR...

3. The question was asked to explain to the viewer what Littlefoot is.

And we know from the films that Littlefoot's a smart kid and that his grandma and grandpa are smart too. Also if they were looking to explain what Littlefoot is, they could have done it a number of ways to make it more believeable. For example, when Littlefoot first meets Ducky, she could have just asked him, "You are a longneck, are you not?" Or even when Littlefoot bumps into Rooter.

*Littlefoot bumps into Rooter*

Rooter: Hey! What's going on here?

*Finds Littlefoot crying behind him*

Rooter: What? A longneck kid?

[WeirdRaptor]

I said it was probably because he did not think of his own neck as long. That's how it would be normal for him. As for the name of their species not being formally introduced to him before by his mother and grandparents: they had slightly more pressing matters to worry about and it probably just slipped their minds.

[Malte279]

Or maybe he really was a lot younger than we usually assume him to be (as laid out above). If indeed he was just a couple of weeks old and hadn't met any other dinosaurs before there is a good chance that he hadn't bothered much thinking about the own identity so far. Who am I, what am I, where do I come from, and where am I going, are all important questions, but not necessarily the first questions a child that has still a whole world left to explore would ask and wonder about. Perhaps Littlefoot just hadn't had the time to bother about those questions before.

[Kor]

It could be that offscreen as they were walking they may have seen some dinos in the distance, but not close enough to talk so Littlefoot may have learned about a few types that way.  Maybe they saw some threehorns in the distance, and some flyers, offscreen and he asked his mother and parents what they were.

[action9000]

I think the answer is simply this:


Littlefoot did not know what a Threehorn or a Longneck was.

Mr Threehorn then says "Threehorns never play with Longnecks."

Littlefoot then proceeds to ask his mother, "What's a longneck?"

With this newfound information, Littlefoot concludes logically that Cera was a "Threehorn", based on the previous two conversations.

In short: Littlefoot is intelligent enough to understand the concept once one example is shown to him.

[Ptyra]

Littlefoot: "Yes, we willl lure the offendering carnivore to the shallows at the edge of the deep using live bait. Starving, he will not be able to resist even small treats like ourselves. Then we shall finish him off using that large boulder directly above to make him plummet into the deep, where he will not be able to swim with those nigh disproportionately smalls forarms of his. Now hand me my violin, Watson!"
 

You just won twenty Internets !

I agree with everyone else about the matter, but I also noticed how incredibly quick he is to learn. Obviously, he never knew what a treestar was when his mother found it. He knew what it looked like, but he just didn't know its NAME.