The Gang's Ages

[Nimrod]

But how did he get the figure of 2 years specifically?

I don¥t know, but I saw, that they have in each film the same size. Without in LBT 1. I find it a bit strange :unsure:

[Manny Cav]

The only thing LBT 11 tells us in terms of size is that in a flashback near the beginning of the film, Littlefoot is unable to reach the tree sweets, whereas at the end of the film, Littlefoot is able to. However, how much time that this tells us has passed is not  clear. Let's hope that we can find a way to add these little hints up.

[Nimrod]

well, I agree with you excactly, but it could also be, that the dinos have to be small, cause it¥s much nicer for kids to understand. But I don¥t really know

[Weather_lord_7]

Well, here's my guesses, in my own opinion.


Littlefoot - 10

Cera - 10 or 11

Petrie - 8 or 9

Ducky - 10 or 11

Spike - 6 or 7

Chomper - 5

Feel free to guess if you like.  

[Manny Cav]

I'd put all of them around the same age, give or take a few months or whatever, except Chomper and Ruby. Chomper was born sometime after the rest of the gang, and I'm not sure about Ruby.

[lbt/cty_lover]

I would agree with Manny Cav. There might also be an explanation to why they never change in appearance, but I must get into science mode.

Give me a second. Okay, physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy. I'm in science mode now. Prepare for scientific overload.

For the body to change in age, there must be hormonal activity. If there is a deficiency in hormones, then the body will not change as rapidly, which can make an individual seem younger than they really are. Therefore, my theory is that the gang has a damaged pituitary gland, specifically the ones that supply the body with hormones that cause the rapid growth that is known as adolescence.

[Mornai]

Maybe they didn't want them to age because that would probably cause the children that love the movie/sequels/TV series to not watch it anymore. I don't think they have a "damaged pituitary gland".

[lbt/cty_lover]

That is my scientific explanation. If that was logical. However, since it is illogical, your suggestion makes a lot of sense.

[Kor]

They are animated characters and a lot of animated characters never age.  Also most newspaper comic characters.  Not sure if any remembers peanuts but you know how old Charlie Brown should be by now?    I just ignore the gang not aging since that is quite natural for animated characters.

[landbeforetimelover]

I would guess that none of the gang is over 12, but none of the gang is under 8 either.  If I were to make an educated guess, I would guess closer to the 12 range because of their maturity in difficult situations, regardless of their speech patterns.  If you don't correct a child when they say "me want", then they will most likely continue to say that until they reach the age when they realize "hey, wait a minute.  Why do I say me when everyone else says I?"  I believe that age is realistically around 14 or so.  If you wish to argue on this matter, I would point out that the gang has been in virtual isolation except from the occasional visits of others and it seems to be a fact that correct grammar doesn't seem to matter very much in their world.

[Coyote_A]

The question is: how long can different species of dinosaures live? I guess, they just have a long childhood period.

[landbeforetimelover]

According to experts, Trex's live around 65-80 years and apatasaurases live around 40-50 years.  Of course, we have no clue how these so called experts reached their conclusions.  They might as well just be opinions or guesses which have no more basis in reality than any speculations we might make in this thread.

[pokeplayer984]

We are even unsure how long it takes for a dinosaur to reach the point of maturity where they can have children of their own.

I will say this about Malte's first response.  To make it completely accurate when we base it on plant life, we need to figure out exactly how rich the soil is and whether or not it holds special nutrients to make those trees grow faster. (For all we know, it could have the same nutrients as Miracle-Gro Plant Food.) So we can't even be sure if your logical explanation is accurate.

It is also questionable how long it takes them all to talk.  For all we know, it could be different for each and every species.

There's even the unknown factor of when Petrie was born.  For all we know, he could be the oldest of the gang.

As for now, there's really far too many factors involved to make an accurate guess.

However, I would indeed say they are under 12.  Remember though, this is just a guess.  I could be wrong myself. -_-

[landbeforetimelover]

For all we know, he could be the oldest of the gang.

You'd think he would've argued with Cera in LBT 5 when she claimed to be the oldest of them all them.

[pokeplayer984]

For all we know, he could be the oldest of the gang.

You'd think he would've argued with Cera in LBT 5 when she claimed to be the oldest of them all them.

Though a part of me thinks she lied about that this whole time for one reason or another.  That smile of her's just seemed to say something to me.

[Malte279]

Does the guess that none of the Gang is under 8 years but not over 12 include Chomper and Spike? They are characters well suited to ruin every age theory. There age may differ by just a few days, seeing that the only "official big time leap" takes place after Littlefoot's birth and before his first lines. If we assumed all of the characters to be no younger than 8 years after that time leap Spike and Chomper would have been alive and kicking in their eggs for for that time! No way to make that theory reasonable. But if Chomper and Spike are to be regarded as 8 year olds in later sequels and the TV series that would make Littlefoot and the others (with the possible exception of Petrie) about 16 years old (when does puberty start for dinosaurs?).
In general I suppose it will be a futile endeavor trying to find a reasonable explanation for something that is just "done that way" to appeal to the audience (and personally I prefer it that way from having the characters grow up; but that is a contested point of view), but so long it won't be taken too seriously, here is my theory:
We never actually learned how much time passed in the "official big time leap". We tend to apply human time standards and think that five, six, or even eight years must have passed. But looking at the astonishing linguistic abilities of some LBT characters (Ducky says "Mama" just minutes after she hatches and before she has been addressed herself by anyone) it might take much less time for LBT characters to reach Littlefoot's state of development. For all we know it may be that just one or two years passed in that "official big time leap". This would not explain the no longer visible physical development of the characters (some of whom would in real live grow by several kilogram every day), but it would explain why the development between Spike and Chomper on the one and the others on the other side is not accounted for. If Littlefoot and the others were just two or three years old in the first movie it would leave more time for the events of the other movies (LBT 3, 5, 8, and 11 in particular). Nobody ever proved that LBT character development is linear to the development of a human child

As for the regrowing of plants, even on very rich soil a forest would realistically take many years to regrow into something like its original state. It is another example that our standards of time and development cannot be applied one to one to the land before time.

[Kor]

I could do a long post, but I like shorter ones, more of my current style.  So instead I'll take a line from a show that some of you have likely seen or heard of.       If these things start to bother you just repeat to yourself like I use to:  

 "It's just a show, I really should just relax."  


It's likely impossible to judge ages and time passing since they script writers ignore it themselves in certain extents and ways.  The great valley regrows but the gang are not older.  Spike hatches and quickly becomes his current size.    

I do my best to ignore the passage of time stuff and just enjoy the show, though I do notice it and other things.  I just say to myself that same thing and focus on enjoying the show.  

 "It's just a show, I really should just relax."  

[Malte279]

"It's just a show, I really should just relax."

That was my point exactly when I introduced my theory like this:

In general I suppose it will be a futile endeavor trying to find a reasonable explanation for something that is just "done that way" to appeal to the audience (and personally I prefer it that way from having the characters grow up; but that is a contested point of view), but so long it won't be taken too seriously, here is my theory:

We mustn't take any attempts to combine the land before time with science too serious. That is not to say that it can't be fun to try to mix it, but not if we take it serious enough to argue about questions like the location of the valley, or the species of a character, in a hostile manner.
There are some aspects of the land before time that are not supposed to be explained in a rational manner. There are some things that ought to be just accepted the way they are as the lack of logic does not hurt the story itself, while in cases where land before time becomes self-contradictory it is something we can complain about with some justification.

[Kor]

I guess one could also say, that there is a big of magic about the water in the Great Valley, or some of the water from the fountain of youth trickles into water of the valley and those that drink from it stop aging or physically maturing.  Farwalkers who drink from it have the save thing that happens to them and it can continue if they drink from it on a regular bases, such as once a year.

[pteranofan]

If I'd compare him to human years, I'd say Pterano seems like a 30-to-32-year-old.