The film opens with an Iguanodon mother forced to abandon her nest, with only one egg surviving a carnivorous Carnotaur attack. The egg is taken by an Oviraptor, who drops it into a river, and finally is taken by a Pteranodon to an island inhabited by lemurs, who name the baby dinosaur Aladar and raise him as their own. As an adult, the island is destroyed by a meteor shower, with only Aladar, his grandfather Yar, his mother Plio, his best friend Zini, and his sister Suri surviving the destruction of the island by swimming to the mainland.
The family meets a multi-species herd of dinosaurs led by the Iguanodon Kron and his lieutenant Bruton, who are on a journey to reach “The Nesting Grounds,” a valley believed to be untouched by the devastation of the meteor impact. Aladar and the lemurs befriend a trio of elderly dinosaurs: Baylene, a Brachiosaurus, Eema, a Styracosaurus, and Url, Eema's dog-like pet Ankylosaurus. Aladar also develops romantic feelings for Neera, Kron's sister but she is uninterested. The herd arrives at a lake they’ve relied on for past trips, but it has dried up. Aladar saves the herd from dehydration when he and Baylene eventually dig up the trapped water beneath the ground. Aladar and Neera eventually fall in love after Neera sees Aladar helping the dinosaurs (especially the elderly ones) survive; however, Bruton, having been sent by Kron to find water upon arrival at the lake, returns injured by a pair of Carnotaurs, who have been stalking the herd. Kron evacuates the herd from the lake bed in a rush, leaving Aladar, the lemurs, the elderly dinosaurs, and the injured Bruton behind.
The small group recuperates in a cave during a rainstorm, with Bruton eventually befriending them. When the Carnotaur pair attacks, Bruton’s loyalty is proven when he sacrifices himself to kill one of them as the others escape to the depths of the caves. Upon reaching a dead end, Aladar begins to lose hope, after repeated failures and the loss of Bruton. His friends all join in breaking down the dead end, stabilizing his confidence. The dead end actually leads to the breeding grounds, where Eema sees that the old entrance – where the herd has gathered on the other side – has been blocked by a landslide.
Aladar rushes to find the herd on the other side being directed by Kron to climb the rocks, but when he suggests the alternate route he found, Kron battles him for leadership of the herd. Neera defends Aladar from her brother, and leaves with Aladar and the herd following. The surviving Carnotaur confronts them, but Aladar rallies the herd to drive it off by standing together and scaring it off with intimidation. The Carnotaur spots Kron climbing the rocks alone, and is followed by Neera and Aladar as it charges to kill the former leader of the herd. In the ensuing fight, Kron is killed by the Carnotaur, but a brave Aladar is able to push the predator off a cliff to its death. Aladar and Neera lead the herd back to the Nesting Grounds, where the two eventually mate and have children, and the lemurs find more of their own kind. Plio narrates the ending, wishing for their story to be remembered in history.
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