Where Would 'The Land Before Time' Be?

Rich paleontological sites, such as the Djadochta Formation in Mongolia (below via Rob Oo), would have been the 'Great Valley' in 'The Land Before Time' (above via Universal Pictures)

Giants ruled the earth long before recorded history. We got a glimpse of their cute hatchlings in "The Land Before Time," but there's just a dinosaur-sized bone of contention in the beloved 1988 film. 

Figuring out where its characters would have thrived begs the question: Is "The Land Before Time" (pre)historically accurate?

To borrow a line from the movie's OST, no, they did not really hold on together. The Apatosaurus and Stegosaurus, represented by Littlefoot and Spike in the Don Bluth classic, would have lived during the Late Jurassic Period, roughly 161.5 to 145 million years ago. They would have flat-out missed the rest of the cast. 

The likes of Cera (Triceratops), Ducky (Saurolophus), Petrie (Pteranodon), Chomper (Tyrannosaurus), and Ruby (Oviraptor) would have eaten each other frolicked together millions and millions of years later, particularly the Campanian to Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous Period, which lasted from approximately 83.6 to 66 million years ago. The entire period began as early as 100.5 million years ago.

So, where could the Great Valley in "The Land Before Time" be? 

Pipestone Creek in Alberta, Canada is one of the richest sources of Late Cretaceous fossils, giving the prehistoric mass grave the name "River of Death." Late Cretaceous remains have also been unearthed across Montana, specifically Bug Creek Ant Hills and the Hell Creek Formation, which spills into North and South Dakota.

Venturing farther, the Mongolian Gobi Desert is considered the world’s richest reservoir of dinosaur fossils. This paleontological treasure trove holds diverse remains across multiple eras, with a high concentration from the Late Cretaceous Period. From the Djadokhta Formation alone, paleontologists have unearthed everything from eggs to iconic species like the Velociraptor.

If you're looking for an era-appropriate home for Littlefoot, southern France would have been your ticket to a real Jurassic Park. The Angeac-Charente bonebed is the biggest excavation site of its kind in Europe, with numerous prehistoric finds including a two-meter thigh bone of a sauropod. (Was that you, Grandpa Longneck?)

Stretching from New Mexico and Idaho to Alberta, the Morrison Formation would have been another possible Great Valley location during the Late Jurassic Period. It's a bona fide "Konzentrat-Lagerstätten," yielding many articulated and semi-articulated skeletons as well as trackways.  

What if the asteroid that killed dinosaurs did not hit Earth? Would dinosaurs have evolved into humanoid creatures? That’s a question for another movie.