Prehistory (meaning "before history", or "before knowledge acquired by investigation", from the Latin word for "before," præ, and historia) is the span of time before recorded history or the invention of writing systems. Prehistory refers to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it can refer to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing.
In Disney's Fantasia in The Rite of Spring segment, it is the period of dinosaur existence and the various types of dinosaurs that roamed the Earth before the impending extinction of them all.
