Prehistoric Emergence (Web Video)

"Human..."

"The prehistoric creatures now haunt the ocean, the land, and the sky. Nowhere is safe."

Prehistoric Emergence is an Analog Horror Web Video series by AZUNStudios.

A series of informative PSA videos by GPAC (Global Prehistoric Affairs Commission) explain and monitor the sudden reemergence of wildlife long-thought to be extinct, from sea monsters, to flying reptiles, to land-faring dinosaurs.

The episodes thus far include:

The series is available to watch on YouTube.

Provides examples of:

Action Survivor: Private Grey, the more experienced GPAC field operative in "Vessel of Terror," reveals to Patch during their heart-to-heart that he was a civilian survivor of the Montana T. rex massacre before joining the organization. At the end of the episode, he takes on the Utahraptor pack that killed Patch and wins, surviving at least long enough to be retrieved by GPAC.
Analog Horror: The first four videos take the format of low-budget emergency TV broadcasts. "Beast of the Earth" combines with found footage in the form of a commando squad's body cam footage followed by research logs.
Animalistic Abomination: The Dabbah appears to be a mutant T. rex stalking the wilds of Montana. It has feathers and various colors on its body, hunts alone while the other T. rexes hunt in packs, can silently sneak up on a human in spite of its size via "fleshy footpads", it weighs 15,000 Ibs despite supposedly just being an infant, it never sleeps, it took an abnormal amount of sedatives to pacify it, it seems to know when it's being observed through surveillance technology (and may or may not be causing it to malfunction), and it talks.
Artistic License – Biology: Megalania and Thylacoleo are depicted as decimating Australian kangaroo populations when they're reintroduced because they had no defenses against them. However, both species went extinct very recently in geological terms (in the late Pleistocene), and actually coexisted alongside modern kangaroo species. In fact, it's believed both predators died out in part because they were poorly suited to hunting animals like kangaroos after the larger prey they targeted went extinct. Then again, maybe it's not just humans who've gotten too used to these things not being around...
Bait-and-Switch: At the end of "Tyrant Lizard King," the narration states that previous videos were mistaken about Dunkleosteus being the first apex predator, and that something implied to be even more fearsome than it has emerged in the ocean. The new creature is Anomalocaris, which, while an apex predator in its ecosystem, was a shrimp-like arthropod that preyed on molluscs and thus poses no threat to humans.
Cats Are Mean: "Beast of the Earth" introduces Smilodon to the menagerie of prehistoric threats, and the broadcast notes that it's possibly the most dangerous species to re-emerge yet (no small feat when the list also includes such superpredators as Otodus megalodon and T. rex).
Climate Change Allegory: It's said that the holes in the ocean are causing water levels to rise (no doubt importing water from the past), and the various creatures coming in through the holes are causing ecological devastation, including hunting modern species to extinction, deforestation from herbivores, and the possible introduction of an unknown pathogen via a Wooly Mammoth in the Toronto Zoo.
Creator's Culture Carryover: In My Prehistoric Roommate, there are elements that show that, despite being supposed to take place in Lyon, France, the creators come from the United States rather than France.
- For example, the pesticides used by G.P.A.C to get ride of meganeura and arthropleura, including Arthur herself, don't have their composition being revealed to the public. France, due to it being part of the European Union, has strict laws about the use of pesticides against pests, including banning the use of some of them, like Acetamiprid, there.
- In the episode itself, Lyon, France, was shown to be a suburban place, with houses similar to the ones found in North America. In real life, Lyon itself, similarly to Paris, is a metropolis, and looks like this instead.◊
- When Antoine Leroux was arrested by G.P.A.C officers, and Arthur getting killed by them, one of them, when getting interviewed, never mentions the implications about owning prehistoric animals at home. France, compared to many countries, including the United States, has laws that require getting licenses to own some non-domestic species in some contexts like in zoos, or as pets.
Cub Cues Protective Parent: In "Vessel of Terror" two GPAC agents encounter a juvenile Triceratops, which Command insists they execute even though it's no threat. But just before they shoot the mother charges in.
Dead-Hand Shot: In "Dire Encounter," Jason finds Ben's severed forearm with his discarded cell phone, shortly before being attacked by the pack of dire wolves that killed Ben.
Deadline News: A news crew are attacked by Hatzegopteryx in the field, with the reporter shouting at the cameraman to leave it as they run. While in "The Friendly Giant" the Dino Chaser keeps recording as the Behemoth catches her.
Deconstruction: The Jurassic Park franchise gets deconstructed and is played for horror, particularly the ending of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and the events of Jurassic World Dominion. Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals returning to modern-day Earth would drastically alter Earth’s eco-systems and humanity would have a hard time getting used to not being the top predator on Earth anymore.
Elaborate Underground Base: Paradise Ranch is an underground scientific facility ran by GPAC to contain and study specific specimens in order to more closely observe them, hoping to find a cause for the holes.
Extinct Animal Park: The Toronto Zoo had managed to make due with the crisis by exhibiting a Woolly Mammoth in their care. Unfortunately the adult mammoth died of some unknown illness, and after several zookeepers got sick, one of them released the mammoth calf back into the wild.
Failed a Spot Check: The presenter of RaptorAI completely ignores the *many* Quetzalcoatlus in the upper right corner of the map.
Feathered Fiend: No Goofy Feathered Dinosaurs here. The Utahraptors are covered in feathers, wipe out a pack of dire wolves, and use their vocal mimicry to break into houses and lure human prey to their doom. While the Dabbah is a mutant T. rex that's implied to be an outright Animalistic Abomination.
Found Footage Films: The first part of "Beast of the Earth" is presented as the body cam footage from a GPAC commando team. "Dire Encounter" is the dashcam and phone video taken by a guy looking for a friend. While "The Friendly Giant" is a vlog.
Gaia's Vengeance: Implied to be a reason for the sudden reemergence of the various extinct species. Not only do many of the more predatory species attack humans unprovoked, but, in the case of The Dabbah and the second wave of azhdarchid pterosaurs, are changing to better combat humanity.
Gentle Giant Sauropod: Averted hard in "The Friendly Giant". As soon as Dino Chaser gets too close, the sauropod in question notices her, and immediately goes on the attack, first picking her up and dropping her, and then finishing her off with a vicious stomp.
Government Agency of Fiction: The Global Prehistoric Affairs Commission was founded to deal with the Prehistoric Emergence. At first they tried to close and contain the holes causing them, but as they became more frequent, they would focus on relocating people away from them when they appear and try to capture and contain whatever emergences.
The Great Serpent: The presence of giant, prehistoric snakes have led to India and Columbia to declare a national emergency. The Vasuki indicus in particular is shown to attack humans unprovoked, and many of the locals have taken to thinking it's a divine beast sent by Shiva to destroy them.
Herbivores Are Friendly: Subverted in "The Friendly Giant", the Dino Chaser thinks she's safe after seeing evidence that the Behemoth, an Argentinosaurus, is an herbivore. But after she gets too close it attacks and probably kills her. The woolly mammoth plays it straighter, though a specimen still indirectly kills several people via an unknown pathogen it contracted.
Honorable Elephant: The woolly mammoth is one of the few prehistoric creatures not considered inherently dangerous to humans (provided it's left unprovoked), though it's subverted when a captive specimen housed at the Toronto Zoo introduces an unknown pathogen that kills a number of zookeepers.
Hypocrite: The beings responsible for the reemergence wants to punish humanity for their greed, especially when they began hunting the Cameroceras for food. However, the prehistoric monsters they have been reviving have done much more damage to the environment and ecosystem than the humans.
Introduced Species Calamity: One of the problems caused by the prehistoric species is that they pose a danger not just to humans, but to the ecosystems they inhabit, from the Megalodon hunting species in the oceans, to the Quetzalcoatlus snatching up farm animals, and Megalania and Thylacoleo hunting the kangaroo population to near extinction.
Juvenile All Along: The mutant Tyrannosaur nicknamed the Dabbah, or "Beast of the Earth", became infamous for being stealthier and more intelligent than the rest of its kind. When GPAC finally captures the creature, they're shocked to realize it's still an infant, with implications that it might be an Animalistic Abomination.
Living Dinosaurs: A number of dinosaur species are among the extinct animals to reemerge.
Lost World: The first video implies that the holes causing the prehistoric weirdness in the series are sinkholes to places where these prehistoric species had been thriving untouched by time. As the series goes on, it becomes more and more obvious that there's a supernatural explanation going on.
Malicious Monitor Lizard: Megalanias (Varanus priscus) are among the extinct species to re-emerge, and together with Thylacoleo they manage to drive the native kangaroo population of Australia to near-extinction. Mosasaurus may or may not also count, depending on whether mosasaurs are more closely related to monitor lizards or snakes.
Meaningful Name: The Dabbah is named after a creature said to appear as a sign of the Day of Judgement in Islamic folklore.
Monster Whale: Livyatan Melvillei, natch; a relative of the modern-day sperm whale that's big and strong enough to bring down even a Megalodon. While their arrival is a net positive considering they can keep the Megs in check, it's noted that if they become overpopulated they could become an even greater ecological threat than Megalodon.
Never My Fault: Grey and Patch's superior grills the two men for identifying the wrong animal that has been responsible for the Shadow Valley killings even though said superior was the one who hastily called off the search and outright threatened Grey and Patch who wanted to confirm if that was true.
Perilous Prehistoric Seas: The first sightings of unextinct species appearing in the first episode are aquatic in nature, with further sea monsters appearing as Prehistoric Emergences start happening more frequently, including the Mosasaurus, Dunkleosteus, Megalodon, and so on.
Portal to the Past: The de-extinct species are the result of "big blue holes" that just randomly appear all over the world. At first they were found deep on the ocean floor and rendered all coastal regions into Perilous Prehistoric Seas. Then they started opening up on land and bringing land and sky-faring species.
Prehistoric Monster: Many of the prehistoric species to re-emerge are inherently considered extremely dangerous and portrayed as an improbably immediate threat to human civilization and present-day ecosystems. Potentially justified, as it's increasingly implied that at least some of the extinct animals may be carrying out the will of some unknown power masterminding a Gaia's Vengeance scenario against humanity, rather than acting on their natural instincts.
Savage Wolves: "Dire Encounter" takes the form of a found footage video filmed by a young man who finds the mutilated corpse of his brother savaged by a pack of dire wolves, only to become their next meal himself when he lingers too long by the body.
The Scourge of God: As prehistoric predators become harder to avoid, some have taken to thinking that the monsters are a form of Divine Punishment wrought onto mankind. Hindus believe that the Vasuki indicus is the mythological snake of its namesake^*, and the Quetzacoatlus was sent by Quetzalcoatl^*. The hidden video "A Message From Those Beyond Us" indicates that Sobek^* is involved as well.
Temper-Ceratops: "Vessel of Terror" features an aggressive female Triceratops who goes into full Mama Bear mode on a pair of GPAC operatives after perceiving them as a threat to her calf, forcing one of the operatives to gun her down in self-defense.
Terrifying Tyrannosaur: A T. rex is found in Montana, followed shortly after by reports of a pack of a whopping ''nineteen", with an astronomical human body count.
Terror-dactyl: The Quetzalcoatlus is a flying creature spotted in Texas and is considered one of the more dangerous creatures that had emerged. While they don't attack adult humans except in self-defense, children are fair game.
Voice Changeling: Utahraptors prove capable of mimicking human voices closely enough to open voice-controlled locks or lure in prey with calls for help. This is used against one of them when Private Grey speaks into Patch's walkie-talkie to distract it, allowing him to shoot it.
Warm-Hearted Whales: Heavily downplayed. While the Livyatan is definitely more dangerous than a modern sperm whale (what with its larger size and vicious bite), its arrival is considered a plus considering its presence lowers the sort of ecological damage the Megalodon could cause. That being said, it is NOT on our side, and it's noted that it could be a greater ecological threat than Megalodon ever was if overpopulated.
Wham Line: "Beast of the Earth" ends with the Dabbah opening its jaws and uttering a single word: "HUMAN".
The Worf Effect:
- Right before the introduction of Livyatan, we see a Megalodon... dead, sinking to the bottom of the ocean, with a huge chunk bitten out of it. The broadcast goes on to describe the whale's advantages over the Megatooth Shark in a straight fight.
- In "Vessel of Terror", the Utahraptors slaughtered an entire pack of dire wolves in what can’t have been more than 10 seconds, which serves to drive home the formers' status as even more dangerous predators.

Prehistoric Emergence

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Prehistoric Emergence

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