New Dawn (Episode 3.1)

New Dawn is the first episode of Series 3 and the twenty eighth episode of *Prehistoric Earth: A Natural History*.

## Synopsis

After having a six month long break, Allen and the team resume their rescue mission. This time they rescue animals that lived after the dinosaurs went extinct starting in Early Eocene Germany in a time when mammals were living in a world ruled by birds where he will rescue a mammal related to kangaroos called Leptictidium.

## Plot

Six months have past since the team rescued prehistoric animals following the mission to rescue the last dinosaurs which have now gotten use with their new surroundings. Allen walks to the Tyrannosaur enclosure to check on Terrence and Matilda, the park's two T-Rex siblings and the offspring of Sue who were rescued from Late Cretaceous Montana, 65 million years ago as staff members feeds them a large chunk of meat. Allen then looks around at many of the modern mammals that are present at the park and even some of the park's first primitive mammals such as Didelphodon and knew that mammals survived the great extinction that eradicated the dinosaurs.

As Allen, Joanna, Rebecca and a few staff were having an Italian lunch consisting of Spaghetti & Meatballs and a side of garlic bread, Allen tells his boss that he is deciding to resume his mission by heading into the Early Eocene to rescue the mammals that were living in a world covered by forest where he will rescue a small mammals related to kangaroos called Leptictidium. One night the portal somehow opened and allowed a pair of large snakes called Titanoboa to the park from the Mid Paleocene, 60 million years ago, however staff members capture the snakes so they can put safely into their enclosure.

Later as staff members builds the enclosure for the Titanoboa pair, Allen and the team along with Allen's daughter Crystal (whom had grown in the last six months) gathers their things and heads through the portal and arrived in a forest of the Early Eocene, 49 million years ago right on the spot that will become Germany. Allen explains to Rebecca that a lot change since they were in the time of the dinosaurs as it is much hotter world and forest was found all over the Earth after the planet recovered. They soon spot a small meteorite that hits the ground as they encounter different kinds of weird and wonderful animals such as a Leptictidium.

Soon they spot a large carnivorous bird called Gastornis which chases a female Leptictidum back to a fig tree. The large bird had a large scar on it's face and recognizes Allen which his dog Caine fights with until he spared the Gastornis' life. That morning they head to the fig tree where the female Leptictidium and her offspring resided as they watch her prepare herself for hunting. The team follows the small mammals as she hunts for lizards and frogs in the early morning as reptiles and amphibians are cold blooded until mammals who are warm blooded. As they rescued a group of anteaters called Eurotamandua they came across another Gastornis who was heading to her nest where she laid an egg.

A second Gastornis appears and the two birds fight as the team keeps an eye on the female Leptictidium who was still hunting for insects. They follow the small mammal towards a lake where Allen and his group stumbles across a large semi-aquatic mammal ancestral to whales called Ambulocetus. Allen decides to dive into the lake with Rebecca to follow the Ambulocetus who swims through the lake like an otter. As they swim through the lake and rescue an Eocene species of crocodilian called Kentisuchus, Allen and Rebecca discover that the lake bed contains huge quantities of volcanic gas that could suffocate animals from miles around if enough of the gas would escape. They watch the Ambulocetus preparing to ambush a small primitive horse with hoove-like toes called Propalaeotherium that came down to the lake for a drink.

The Ambulocetus tries to attack the small horse but fails, as he tries again to hunt prey that come down to the lake. Allen and Rebecca returns to the team and watches as the Leptictidium and her offspring take a rest as the forest was too dangerous for hunting insects and frogs. Later that day around noon, the team return to the Gastornis nest where the egg inside was starting to hatch giving birth to a Gastornis chick. However this only attracted a colony of a large species of ant called Titanomyrma which attacks and eats the Gastornis chick as the team gets parts of the colony through the portal and into the park's insects enclosure. Later that afternoon, Allen and the group stumbles across a small herd of Propalaeotherium foraging for grapes on the forest floor, until they spot a Gastornis nearby preparing to attack the herd.

The Palaeotherium herd spotted the large bird and flees into the forest. During the late afternoon, the team watches the Leptictidium and her young get ready for hunting. The young Leptictidium watches their mother's examples and learn how to catch insects that dwell in the forest. Around dusk, Allen comes across the Ambulocetus again preparing for another ambush as the large whale-like mammal puts his jaw to the ground to listen for prey dwelling nearby. The team goes back to the Propalaeotherium herd so they could be rescued as the small horses were still eating grapes on the forest floor and are less alert. The Gastornis was not too far away getting ready to attack the Propalaeotherium herd.

All of a sudden, the Gastornis attacks the herd and kills one of the members by shaking it to side-to-side with her sharp beak before feasting on it. The team gets the Propalaeotherium back to the safety of the park and prepares to rescue Gastornis. Allen and the group return to the nest where the Gastornis found her offspring killed by the Titanomyrma colony. The team gets the female Gastornis back to the park with a male Gastornis they found in the forest. After rescuing the two Gastornis, Allen and the team goes to rescue the Leptictidium and her young which they manage to get through the portal and into the park as they go to rescue the Ambulocetus.

That night, Allen and the team spots a group of nocturnal primates called Godinotia whom some were looking for insects in trees. The team gathers a few Godinotia for the park and gets them to the park's primate enclosure. Heading back to the lake, Allen spots a small predatory mammal called Lesmesodon coming down for drink only to get killed by the Ambulocetus. After rescuing a few Lesmesodon for the park, the team gets ready to rescue the Ambulocetus and get him back to the 21st century. However a massive earth tremor suddenly appears and large amounts of volcanic gas erupts from the lake suffocating every animal in the forest.

The team quickly puts their gas masks on as Allen puts an air filter mask on Caine and sets the portal so they could get the Ambulocetus to the park. After getting the Ambulocetus back to the park, the team calls him Nate and put him into the whale enclosure with a female Ambulocetus, the team also rescued and calls her Mal. Later Allen goes to check on the park's resident Ornithomimus which one of them have laid a large clutch of eggs and would hatch into the first baby dinosaurs in 65 million years. After that, Allen tells Rebecca that he visited the Early Eocene before with his wife before she died and when Caine was a puppy and tells that his dog came through the portal and into the forests of the Eocene and got lost. He also tells her that when he and his wife were attacked by the Gastornis that Caine fought during their mission, the puppy attack the bird and leaving the scar on the bird's face and decided to adopt him and that was how Caine became his dog.

Allen tells Rebecca that his dog is different not only to other dogs, but to most animals as he is capable of making moral decisions something that is usually not seen in animals and mostly seen in humans.

## Animals

* Ambulocetus
* Eurotamandua
* Gastornis
* Godinotia
* Kentisuchus
* Leptictidium
* Lesmesodon
* Propalaeotherium
* Titanoboa
* Titanomyrma