- "Great Hera! Another dinosaur in the department store!"
- ―Wonder Woman
 | |
| Dinosaurs | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Dinosauria |
| Notable appearances: | The Lost World; Godzilla; Land of the Lost; Jurassic Park |
| 1st appearance: | Film: The Lost World (1925) |
Dinosaurs are an extinct breed of reptilian animal that dominated the Earth from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous. Fossil records show evidence of their existence dating back more than 230 million years. More than 1,000 species of non-Avian dinosaur are known to have existed within the 160 million years between the Triassic and Creataceous periods. Dinosaurs went extinct around 65 million years ago, the reasons behind which are still hotly debated among paleontologists. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved within theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period. Some of them survived the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, including the ancestors of all modern birds. Consequently, in modern classification systems, birds are considered a type of dinosaur — the only group of which that has survived to the present day.
In fiction[]
In terms of science and adventure fiction, dinosaurs have played a major role in various stories going back to the very beginning of the genre itself. One of the most provincial attempts to present dinosaurs in a film setting was in 1925 when Harry O. Hoyt directed the action-thriller The Lost World. It was the first full-length feature film to utilize stop-motion animation in the creation of its creatures.
Dinosaurs enjoyed notable exposure in the foreign markets as well. During the 1950s, Japanese director Ishirō Honda made movie history when he presented the world with the possible after-effects that atomic testing can have on the animal kindom. A mutated dinosaur trounced its way across Tokyo, Japan in a 1954 film called Gojira, though western audiences will come to know the creature better by its more popular moniker - Godzilla.
In the US markets, dinosaurmania rose to new heights when director/producer Steven Spielberg captured the world's imagination with his film adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel Jurassic Park. Spielberg's special effects crew pioneered new processes in computer graphic animation to create the look, texture and feel of his dinosaur super-stars.
The Dinobots from The Transformers.
The Transformers multimedia franchise featured a team of dinosaur robots called the Dinobots. The Dinobots were a group of Transformers who were a sub-group of the Autobots. They were bipedal quasi-sentient robots who transformed into alternate forms resembling prehistoric Earth dinosaurs. The Autobot inventor, Wheeljack, discovered some dinosaur fossils that they had found in a cave and pitched the idea of building robot dinosaurs to serve as front-line combatants in their ongoing war against the Decepticons. Optimus Prime approved of the idea and Wheeljack created the Dinobots, patterning them after animals of the era. The original three Dinobots were Grimlock - the leader, who took on the form of a Tyrannosaur, Slag - who took on the form of a Triceratops, and Sludge - who assumed the form of a Brontosaurus. Their intellect and speech patterns were based on those of an animal and as such, they were predatory creatures with an instinctive primal need to fight.
Species[]
Includes some of the more popular breeds of dinosaur featured in science fiction media.
Apatosaurus[]
Allosaurus[]
Godzillasaurus[]
Pliosaur[]
Nimrod, a baby Pliosaur from Surface.
Pliosaurs were amphibious dinosaurs that existed during the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods. They were characterized by their long, slender necks, round bodies and fore and hind flippers. In fiction, Pliosaurs are the central subject of the NBC television series Surface. In the show, it is theorized that a verterbrate sub-genus of the Pilosaur survived into the modern era, making it's habitat in volcanic sea beds in the Northern hemisphere. These mutated pliosaurs actually had clawed feet instead of flippers. Baby pliosaurs, such as the animal named Nimrod, are born from eggs and are about the size of a common house cat upon hatching. At adulthood, these creaturese are immensely huge with a jaw radius capable of swallowing an entire fishing trawler in one bite. Both Nimrod and various adult versions of the mutant Pilosaur were seen in each episode of the show. However, the adults were not fully seen until the end of the series.
Pteradon[]
Pteradactyl[]
Stegosaurus[]
A Stegosaurus, or Stegosaur, is a species of dinosaur from the late Jurassic period. They existed between 150-155 million years ago. Stegosaurs have been characterized as four-legged quadrupeds that were herbivores. They had large bony plates that ran laterally down the exterior base of their spine. Like all dinosaurs, the Stegosaurus has long been extinct. Popular fiction however, will occasionally showcase situations wherein dinosaurs from the Jurassic era are still alive, or through the wizardry of science, have been recreated. The most notable of which is the Jurassic Park film series. In the second film in the franchise, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the character of Sarah Hardy is a paleontologist who travels to the island of Isla Sorna where she observes a pack of Stegosaurs in the wild.
Styracosaurus[]
A Styracosaurus, or Styracosaur, was a type of dinosaur that could only be found in the Savage Land - a place where all manners of creatures that would otherwise be extinct continued to live and thrive. Styracosaurs were quadrupeds noted for having a large horn atop their brow, which was ideal for defense and for goring prey.
Triceratops[]
Triceratops is an extinct genus of herbivorous dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one of the last-known non-avian dinosaur genera, and became extinct in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago. Bearing a large bony frill, three horns on the skull, and a large four-legged body, exhibiting convergent evolution with rhinoceroses and bovines, Triceratops is one of the most recognizable of all dinosaurs and the most well-known ceratopsid. It was also one of the largest, up to 9 meters (29.5 ft) long and 12 metric tons (13 short tons) in weight. It shared the landscape with and was most likely preyed upon by Tyrannosaurus, though it is less certain that two adults did battle in the fanciful manner often depicted in museum displays and popular images.
Tyrannosaurus[]
Dinosaurs of note[]
| Name | Film/Series |
|---|---|
| Gorosaurus | Godzilla film series |
| Titanosaurus | Godzilla film series |
| Winky | Animal Man |
Appearances[]
Film[]
Television[]
- Beast Wars: Transformers: Double Dinobot - Velociraptors
- Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
- M.A.N.T.I.S.: Ghost of the Ice
Comics[]
- Adventure Comics 61
- Animal Man 54 - Winky the Triceratops.
- Cavewoman Jungle Jam 1 - T-Rex, Pterodactyls and Raptors.
- Cavewoman: Gangster 1 - T-Rex; Dead T-Rex; 2 Velociraptors.
- Cavewoman: Raptorella 1 - Raptorella's velociraptors.
- Cavewoman: The Movie 1 - Tyrannosaur; Velociraptor and a T-Rex movie prop.
- Jungle Action 1 - T-Rex vs. a Brontosaurus.
- Ka-Zar the Savage 13 - Pterodons.
- Ka-Zar the Savage 14 - Styracosaurus.
- Ka-Zar the Savage 15 - Styracosaurus in flashback.
- Klyde & Meriem 1 - Several pterodactyls, 1 tyrannosaur, 1 velociraptor
- Secret Origins Vol 2 14
- Showcase 20
- Star-Spangled War Stories 90
- Ultimate X-Men 1 - Flying dinosaur and a dead dinosaur in the Savage Land.
- Ultimate X-Men 2 - Flying dinosaur in the Savage Land.
- Uncanny Inhumans 1
- Vampblade 3 - Alien dinosaurs
- Wonder Woman 148 - Duke of Deception's dinosaur illusions.
External Links[]
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