| “ | Last time, we swam and rescued the first giant whales. This time we go back 25 million years to rescue the beasts of a much dryer world and even rescue the biggest land mammals of all time. | „ |
| — Allen, opening narration | ||
The Big, the Bad, and the Ugly is the third episode of Series 3 and the thirtieth episode of Prehistoric Earth: A Natural History.
Synopsis[]
The team goes back to Late Oligocene Mongolia 25 million years ago to rescue the largest mammal to ever walked the earth. At the same time they also rescue other animals such as entelodonts, chalicotheres, and even the top predator of the time.
Plot[]
At Prehistoric Earth, the mission of rescuing prehistoric animals have pressed especially with many of the new coming mammals that Allen and his scientific team have rescued. He then heads to the elephant enclosure to check on the park's resident African Elephant herd who were grazing on grass. He then went to the sauropod enclosure to check on the park's largest animals the sauropods as Allen drives his jeep up towards one of the park's Borealosaurus grazing on treetops before looking down at him and giving a low growl. Allen notices that millions of years after the dinosaurs became extinct mammals started to become bigger with one of them eventually becoming as large as the sauropods themselves. This lead him to have an idea of what he will rescue on the team's next prehistoric rescue mission.
Allen heads to Joanna in her office and informs her that he is planning to rescue the largest land mammal to ever walk the Earth which is a large hornless rhino called Indricotherium. He compares the large mammal's size to a modern African Elephant and then the size of a full grown Diplodocus and shows her that Indricotherium was 3 times bigger than an elephant and even rivals sauropod dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. He and the prepares to leave so they can bring Indricotherium back to the park from Mongolia 25 million years ago in a time when mammals grown to enormous sizes. The team opens the portal and head into Late Oligocene where they found themselves in a canyon at nighttime where they eventually found what they were looking a large female Indricotherium who was about to give birth. She eventually gives birth to a healthy male calf, however the mother was attacked by large carnivorous mammals called Hyaenodon who were attracted by the sounds and smells of her labour.
The team watches as the female Indricotherium protects her calf while fending off the Hyaenodons by using her massive legs. The next morning after the female Indricotherium saw off the Hyaenodons, Allen and the group watch as the calf gets up on it's feet learn how to walk. When the team explores the canyon they came across a knuckle-walking chalicothere related to horses called Chalicotherium who was feasting on leaves by hooking down a tree branch with it's claws. After the team watches the calf drinking milk from his mother, they follow the mother to a waterhole where she was have a drink. When the team arrived at the waterhole they spot a small predatory mammal related to bears and dogs called Cynodictis drinking at the waterhole with her cubs until they were scared away by a large pig-like entelodont called Entelodon who also came for a drink.
The female Indricotherium soon arrives and drinks the water from the waterhole. Soon the team spots another Entelodon arriving at the waterhole and prepares to fight the other who was already at there, as the female Indricotherium leaves. One of the Entelodons' uses it's jaws to grab the other one's jaws which causes deep bleeding wounds on the competitor. The team sets the portal to get the Entelodon back to the park, but the pig-like animal attacks Allen's daughter Crystal before she was rescued by her father as they get the Entelodon back to the park. After getting the Entelodon back to the park, the team heads back to the caynon where they saw the male Indricotherium calf not moving thinking that it was dead.
However Allen accidentally steps on a twig which frightens the calf and realizes that he was playing dead, a survive strategy to avoid the attentions of predators when his mother is absent. A week later the mother Indricotherium and her calf leaves the canyon as Allen and the team following them. Once they reached the open plains they found more Indricotherium roaming the landscape. The calf explores the land, however he was confronted by a Cynodictis whom her cubs were nearby and thinks the calf is a threat. The team gets the Cynodictis and her cubs back to the park so they would in the safety of the 21st century.
Later the team watches the mother Indricotherium smelling a pile of dung to know what other animals are in the area with her calf copying her. However a juvenile Indricotherium arrives which was the mother's previous calf which she repels him. Allen tells Rebecca that when an Indricotherium is about 3 years old the bond they had with their mother would be broken and chases them away. Sometime later the team spots a group of Chalicotherium feasting on leaves from tree until the set up the portal and gets the chalicotheres to the park. However a Hyaenodon was stalking until runs up to one of the Chalicotherium and kills it by biting it's neck with it's powerful jaws.
As the Hyaenodon eats the carcass, three adult Entelodons arrives to steal it's kill. The Hyaenodon tries to fight off the entelodonts but gives up as the Entelodons feasts on the Chalicotherium carcass. The team gets the three Entelodons and three juveniles back to the park, before heading out to rescue Hyaenodon. Eventually they found a pack of Hyaenodons and rescues them. They now go to rescue the female Indricotherium and her calf and arrives in the middle of the dry season as the animals of the Oligocene live in a seasonal world. The team found the female Indricotherium who hasn't found water for days and not produced milk for her calf and rejects him from suckling.
That night, they follow both the mother and her calf who were looking for water and were eventually joined by an older female Indricotherium who was doing the same thing. Soon they found a small lake where they eventually drink to keep them hydrated especially the calf who was also easing his thirst while waiting for his milk. The two adult females and the calf rests for the night while the team sets camp so they would have a proper sleep. The next morning, the mother Indricotherium receives an early call from her calf who was still starving and responds which allows her calf with some milk. The team opens the portal and gets both the female and her calf along a few other Indricotherium back to the safety of the park where they put into the Giraffe Enclosure as the park's largest mammals.
When Allen heads to the Tyrannosaur Enclosure, he spots the Tyrannosaurus siblings Terrence and Matilda about to fight as they were now at each other throats and he calls for staff members who brings a large water tanker truck and shoots water from a watercannon mounted to the truck to seprate the two siblings. They move the two T-Rex to holding pends as staff members builds a dividing wall to keep the siblings apart. Allen knows that the only animals that would have been large enough to kill an adult Indricotherium would be large dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus. Allen knows that predators like Hyaenodon were also the top predators of other places such as North America which they also shared with entelodonts. He goes to Joanna's office where he informs her that he is now going to rescue the entelodonts and Hyaenodons of North America.
When they arrived, the team came across a nimravid called Dinictis who was hunting for food. They bring them back to the present along some North American Bear-Dogs called Amphicyon. After rescuing a few Oligocene camels called Poebrotherium and Oligocene rhinos called Subhyracodon, the team then spots multiple Poebrotherium. They then rescue the next creatures before an American species of entelodont called Archaeotherium approaches them. The group gathers multiple Archaeotherium to the park. The Archaeotherium then charged ferociously to the enclosure. Soon they spot a large entelodont called Daeodon who was searching the landscape for food.
Allen sets the portal so he and the team came get the entelodont back to the park which they rescued a few of them and takes them back to the safety of the park. Eventually they spot some Subhyracodon. The Subhyracodon are then rescued into the Giraffe Enclosure. The Hyaenodons then saw the bait (consisting of raw chicken and steak instead of Subhyracodon) which the team rescues and puts them into their enclosure once they get back to the present.
Allen's friend Shaun heads down to the sauropod enclosure to study the weight of the park's largest sauropods Argentinosaurus which a herd was rescued from Mid Cretaceous South America 100 million years ago so he can compare it to the weight of other animals at the park such as modern elephants and the Paraceratherium that Allen rescued. He uses lorri weighing pads to weight the sauropod's massive size. Shaun puts the weighing pads together as one of the herd members walks toward him. The sauropod steps on the pads and Shaun get 92 tons on his computer as much as 30 African Elephants. He compares the weight of Agrentinosaurus to the weight of a Paraceratherium and shows that the large mammal weighed only 15 to 20 tons much less than most of the sauropods.
| “ | Next time, we go into the seas of prehistory again for the last time. In this case, we will rescue the largest and most lethal shark the world had ever seen. | „ |
| — Allen, closing narration | ||
Characters[]
Animals[]
- Amphicyon
- Archaeotherium
- Chalicotherium
- Cynodictis
- Daeodon
- Dinictis
- Entelodon
- Hyaenodon
- Paraceratherium
- Poebrotherium
- Subhyracodon
- Mercyhippus
Time[]
Late Oligocene - 25,000,000 BC
Gallery[]
