History Film / Dinosaur1985

* TheDayTheDinosaursDied: The movie ends with the asteroid hitting, and shows the catastrophic aftermath - with the carcass of an ''Edmontosaurus'' lying in a dead forest, and another starving ''Edmontosaurus'' [[TearJerker bellowing in anguish over the disintegration of her eggs]].

* EvilEggEater: A ''Struthiomimus'' stealing ''Hadrosaurus'' eggs from a nest while the mother isn't present. Its helped by having a snake-like appearance and movements, especially in its slit eyes. It does get its comeuppance, in a fashion, when two ''[[RaptorAttack Deinonychus]]'' pursue it and bring it down.

* MisplacedWildlife: ''Hadrosaurus'' is shown living alongside ''Struthiomimus'' and ''T. rex'', and by extension ''Deinonychus''. It actually lived on a seperate landmass entirely, specifically eastern North America, then a large island called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia_(landmass) Appalachia]] bordered by a large sea that divided Cretaceous North America at the time, and the latter three lived on the other side in what's called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramidia Laramidia]]. Though as stated under AnachronismStew, the animated sequences were meant to elaborate on points made in the documentary, so it's possible these scenes were not meant to be taking place within the same geographical location.
* PapaWolf: While a juvenile ''Hadrosaurus'' is out searching for food with its parents, it is sighted and nearly attacked by a ''Tyrannosaurus rex''. Luckily, the parents hear its cries and come to its defense, with the father facing the theropod and [[TailSlap knocking it over with its powerful tail]].

** Similarly, it is unknown how long it would have taken for an ''Hadrosaurus'' eggs to hatch (or any dinosaur's, for that matter).

* TailSlap: How the [[PapaWolf father]] ''Hadrosaurus'' defeats the ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', by using his tail to knock the predator to the ground. The tail of the ''Hadrosaurus'', by the way, weighs ''2,000 pounds''!

* WouldHurtAChild: A ''Struthiomimus'' is seen breaking into a ''Hadrosaurus'' nest and [[EatsBabies eating all but one of the eggs]].

* RaptorAttack: Two ''Deinonychus'' show up and kill the ''Struthiomimus''. All of their inaccuracies (including, of course, their complete lack of any feathers) are justified due to the fact that the documentary was made in 1985.

** Discussed during a segment where Reeve, along with paleontologist Bob Bakker, talks about how our knowledge of dinosaurs has evolved over the previous 150 years. While they were once thought of as slow-moving creatures that dragged their tails along as they moved, it is now known that they were quite agile and did not drag their tails, instead mainly using them for either balance or defense. Similarly, it was once believed that ''Brontosaurus'' (then synonymous with ''Apatosaurus'') was a swamp-dwelling animal that fed on watercress plants and that it was the largest dinosaur in existence, when it is now known that it was a land-dweller that fed primarily on conifer needles, and its status as the largest was upended following the discovery of the ''Supersaurus'' before that genus' status was in turn upended by sauropods from Argentina.

* MisplacedWildlife: ''Hadrosaurus'' is shown living alongside ''Struthiomimus'' and T. rex, and by extension ''Deinonychus''. It actually lived on a seperate landmass entirely, specifically eastern North America, then a large island called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia_(landmass) Appalachia]] bordered by a large sea that divided Cretaceous North America at the time, and the latter three lived on the other side in what's called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramidia Laramidia]]. Though as stated under AnachronismStew, the animated sequences were meant to elaborate on points made in the documentary, so it's possible these scenes were not meant to be taking place within the same geographical location.

* MisplacedWildlife: ''Hadrosaurus'' is shown living alongside ''Struthiomimus'' and T. rex, and by extension ''Deinonychus''. It actually lived on a seperate landmass entirely, specifically eastern North America, then a large island called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia_(landmass) Appalachia]] bordered by a large sea that divided cretaceous North America at the time, and the latter three lived on the other side in what's called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramidia Laramidia]]. Though as stated under AnachronismStew, the animated sequences were meant to elaborate on points made in the documentary, so it's possible these scenes were not meant to be taking place within the same geographical location.

* ScienceMarchesOn:[[invoked]] Discussed during a segment where Reeve, along with paleontologist Bob Bakker, talks about how our knowledge of dinosaurs has evolved over the previous 150 years. While they were once thought of as slow-moving creatures that dragged their tails along as they moved, it is now known that they were quite agile and did not drag their tails, instead mainly using them for either balance or defense. Similarly, it was once believed that ''Brontosaurus'' (then synonymous with ''Apatosaurus'') was a swamp-dwelling animal that fed on watercress plants and that it was the largest dinosaur in existence, when it is now known that it was a land-dweller that fed primarily on conifer needles, and its status as the largest was upended following the discovery of the ''Supersaurus'' before that genus' status was in turn upended by sauropods from Argentina.

* ScienceMarchesOn:[[invoked]] Discussed during a segment where Reeve, along with paleontologist Bob Bakker, talks about how our knowledge of dinosaurs has evolved over the previous 150 years. While they were once thought of as slow-moving creatures that dragged their tails along as they moved, it is now known that they were quite agile and did not drag their tails, instead mainly using them for either balance or defense. Similarly, it was once believed that ''Brontosaurus'' (then synonymous with ''Apatosaurus'') was a swamp-dwelling animal that fed on watercress plants and that it was the largest dinosaur in existence, when it is now known that it was a land-dweller that fed primarily on conifer needles, and its status as the largest was upended following the discovery of the ''Supersaurus'' before that genus' status was in turn upended by sauropods from Argentina. On a meta level, the special itself runs afoul of this trope with regards to its portrayal of the [[RaptorAttack smaller theropods]], who are now believed to have had feathers.

* ExcitedShowTitle: ''Dinosaur!''

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs

* StockDinosaurs: Most of the genera featured in the documentary are fairly well-known to dinosaur enthusiasts, including ''Brontosaurus'', ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', and ''Deinonychus''.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: ''Hadrosaurus'' is the genus that the film's hadrosaurs belong to according to [[https://dinosaur.vhx.tv/ promotional materials]], which besides being the namesake of the group and the first of its kind to be discovered, ''and'' the very first dinosaur named in North America, isn't all that well known among the general public.

* AfterTheEnd: The final scenes with dinosaurs are set in a [[TearJerker heartbreaking]] view of the wasteland the Earth became after the asteroid impact. The sun is blotted out, decreasing temperatures and killing plant life, and even the last few dinosaurs left alive are slowly starving to death.

* MisplacedWildlife: ''Hadrosaurus'' is shown living alongside ''Struthiomimus'' and T. rex, and by extension ''Deinonychus''. It actually lived on a seperate landmass entirely, specifically eastern North America, then a large island called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia_(landmass) Appalachia]] bordered by a large sea that divided cretaceous North America at the time, and the latter three lived on the other side in what's called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramidia Laramidia]].

* ScienceMarchesOn:[[invoked]] Discussed during a segment where Reeve, along with paleontologist Bob Bakker, talks about how our knowledge of dinosaurs has evolved over the previous 150 years. While they were once thought of as slow-moving creatures that dragged their tails along as they moved, it is now known that they were quite agile and did not drag their tails, instead mainly using them for either balance or defense. Similarly, it was once believed that ''Brontosaurus'' (then synonymous with ''Apatosaurus'') was a swamp-dwelling animal that fed on watercress plants and that it was the largest dinosaur in existence, when it is now known that it was a land-dweller that fed primarily on conifer needles, and its status as the largest was upended following the discovery of the ''Supersaurus'' before that genus' status was in turn upended by sauropods from Argentina.

%%* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs