An unidentified species of colorful bird is seen at the very
beginning of the episode.
In this episode, Tana is wearing a blue lodestone necklace she does
not normally wear (though it disappears and reappears in various
scenes throughout the episode). Conveniently so, as Greg is able to
make use of one of the stones late in the episode to make a compass
to help him and Tana find their way out of the swamp.
Katie reminds her worried mother that her father built the very same kind
of glider he's built now with the flying club back home.
John reassures his friends and family that he's logged 1500 hours in
sailplanes (another term for glider).
As in
"Pteranodon",
the cave dwellers refer to a Pteranodon as ardok.
John performs an Immelmann in the glider, which he describes as a
half-loop and a half-roll out of it at the top. This is an accurate
description of the aerobatic maneuver, named for its inventor, Max
Immelmann, a German WWI pilot.
The creature Tana refers to as a goko appears to be the extinct
giant ground sloth.
At 11:40 on the DVD, the giant sloth appears to walk right on top of
the glider's launching carriage without breaking it!
Greg, Tana, Digger, and Glump become lost in what the cave dwellers
refer to as the Great Swamp.
The beast seen at 13:05 on the DVD may be a Megacerops, from the
Late Eocene epoch.
It is true that lodestones are naturally magnetic and have been used
since ancient times as compasses. Lodestones are normally black or
brownish-black though, not blue as seen here.
The cave dwellers refer to east as the direction of morning and west
as the direction of night. This is obviously because the sun comes
up in the east and sets in the west.
John compares the Great Swamp to the Everglades.
The
Everglades are a large region of tropical wetlands on the
southern tip of Florida.
At 16:30 on the DVD, we see what Katie later refers to as a
mastodon. Mastodons are an extinct species,
related to elephants,
from the Miocene through
Pleistocene epochs in North and Central America.
At 16:33 on the DVD, Katie's mouth disappears from her face!
Gara refers to mastodons as "longnose" and the particular individual
that threatens the children as Gondo.
Unanswered Questions
While flying in the glider, John and Gorok spotted a
possible trail leading out of the valley. John later says it
looks like a 60 or 70 mile trek. At the end of the episode,
Gorok tells the Butlers his family will help them. So did
they ever attempt the journey? Is it really a way out of the
Valley of the Dinosaurs?
Memorable Dialog
prophet of doom.wav
you express my sentiments thoroughly.wav
we are
birds.wav
the wrong side of bed.wav
we may have to paddle something.wav
longnose Gondo.wav
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