PBS' Dinosaur Train Ends In A Dark Time Loop, Says One Fan Theory

In the PBS cartoon "Dinosaur Train," produced by The Jim Henson Company of Muppets and "The Dark Crystal" fame, a family of Pteranodons raise a T. rex named Buddy (voiced initially by Phillip Corlett). As dinosaur experts know, these two species lived in different time periods. Rather than hand-wave this inaccuracy, however, "Dinosaur Train" exists in a world where dinosaurs can travel to different eras on the titular Dinosaur Train. While this premise is predominantly a means to educate its preschool-aged audience about dinosaurs, some older viewers have extrapolated some wild implications, including a couple of users online who think the show might exist within a dark time loop.

On a subreddit dedicated to conspiracy theories about children's cartoons, u/ManchurianWok linked and added to a theory on the blog Underfold Comics suggesting that Buddy is his own father. According to this theory, Buddy eats his closest Pteranodon companion, Tiny (voiced by Claire Corlett), once he grows older and becomes unable to suppress his carnivorous nature around her. On the Dinosaur Train, he returns to the heyday of the T. rex in the Pteranodon era's future.

There, of course, a meteor strike eventually wipes out all dinosaurs. By that point, Buddy and a T. rex named Annie (Erika-Shaye Gair) have an egg nearly ready to hatch. To save their child, they transport the egg on the Dinosaur Train to be raised by Mrs. Pteranodon (Ellen Kennedy). This egg, the theory argues, hatches into none other than Buddy.

On Reddit, users discussing the time loop theory proposed some additional scenarios that might arise within this world of a time-traveling train. For example, u/Foot0fGod suggested that the Dinosaur Train's conductor is constantly trying to circumvent the meteor that causes all dinosaurs to go extinct but is unable to do so.

Meanwhile, author John Shieldsmith published an extensive fan theory on Fatherly attempting to get to the bottom of just how Buddy's egg ended up in Mrs. Pteranodon's nest. Rather than suggesting it was dropped off by Buddy, making him his own father, Shieldsmith thinks that the Pteranodon mother stole the egg from a T. rex family in retaliation for a T. rex harming a Pteranodon. While the egg was intended to feed her Pteranodon babies, it ended up hatching, leaving her with no choice but to raise the child she once intended to become food.

On the general subreddit for fan theories, a user whose account has since been deleted floated both a version of this theory and the possibility that Mrs. Pteranodon's kids are the result of an affair with a T. rex. Of course, the probability that any of these ideas could be canon is effectively zero. But the fact that this young children's show revolves around a couple of altogether absurd plot points has people coming up with some dark implications perhaps a little more often than usual for a preschoolers' show.