History Main / ArtisticLicensePaleontology

** [[http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2011/04/science_meets_mokele-mbembe.php This]] April Fools' joke on Blog/TetrapodZoology sets out to "prove" that old-school dinosaurs are correct after all, and contains a number of jabs at some infamous fringe groups.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''Manga/DragonBall'' features characters who either have the ability to fly or have a flying device with them. Convenient enough, there are some pteranodons or other prehistoric fliers around. Is someone still unable to fly? No problem, just bring in the ''T. rex''. To be fair, ''Franchise/DragonBall'' has a whole lot of other weird stuff so that the pterosaurs and such fit right in. Given that there are also canon dragons wandering around, it's likely it's just a RuleOfCool alternate Earth. Not featured in the manga, in the anime though? In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', there are the same dinosaurs...on ''Namek''. Which could be intended to imply that Kami brought them with him to Earth. Though given the relatively small size of his spaceship, he could only have brought eggs.
** Another error is Toriyama's design of the ''Tyrannosaurus''--first off, it has what look like horns on its head--now there MIGHT be tiny brow ridges over its eyes, but the design he used is completely off. Secondly, ''Tyrannosaurus'' had tiny arms with two fingers--he seemed to have based the arms on ''Allosaurus''. And fourth, it is much too big. ''Tyrannosaurus'' would be 12-13 meters long (42-45 feet) and 4 meters high (13 feet), yet are drawn nearly 20-30 meters long and 10 meters tall.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has at least one island with dinosaurs, not that this is out of place given the rest of the world. It's surprisingly more biologically accurate than ''Anime/DragonBallZ'''s dinosaurs.

* Dr. Dinosaur in ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' claims that "mammal energies" traveled back in time and granted him super-intelligence while wiping out all the rest of the dinosaurs, and then he built a time machine out of rocks, fronds, and crystals to travel to the present and get revenge. His inaccuracies (such as lack of feathers and presence of a larynx) are largely justified however, when Robo points them out and dismisses Dr. D's story as absurd, assuming he's just a genetic experiment based on a ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' dinosaur rather than a real one. In general, it's a RunningGag that Dr. Dinosaur works his science by AchievementsInIgnorance, which means his appearance is more or less in keeping with it.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* ''[[ComicBook/XenozoicTales Cadillacs and Dinosaurs]]''... look at the title. If you're ''expecting'' accuracy from a series involving dinosaurs coming back several hundred years in the future, ''why are you even bothering?''
* According to one ComicBook/{{Chick Tract|s}}, the dinosaurs escaped the great flood by getting on the Ark with all the other animals. Unfortunately, the flood destroyed much of the plant life, and the reduced oxygen levels made them sluggish and slow. They were ultimately hunted into extinction by human hunters who considered "dragon meat" to be a delicacy.
* Jack Kirby did a very brief series called ''Devil Dinosaur'' that was clearly about having fun more than being accurate. There's a friendly "devil beast" (theropod of some sort; it's probably for the best it isn't identified) fighting against ferocious ceratopsians and a ''carnivorous Iguanodon'' (what.), while coexisting with cavemen.
* The storyline of ''ComicBook/{{Dinowars}}'' revolves around dinosaurs escaping into space to avoid the ice age, growing into a highly evolved civilization, and then returning to Earth to [[TakeOverTheWorld reclaim what is rightfully theirs]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Marville}} #4'', [[http://4thletter.net/2009/03/the-marville-horror-part-4-stay-with-the-tardis-damn-it/ oh]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weAVXVE6rwc boy]]. For starters, it is set on the "Jurassic ''Park''", not "Period".

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': A lesser-known villain is "[[http://marvel.wikia.com/Vincent_Stegron_(Earth-616) Stegron the Dinosaur Man]]", a ripoff of more stalwart villain The Lizard. The [[StevenUlyssesPerhero rather-too-conveniently-named]] Dr. Vincent Stegron steals the lizard formula from Curt Connors and (somehow) infuses it with dinosaur DNA, transforming himself into a half-man, half-''Stegosaurus'' creature... which also has a taste for human flesh and is often depicted with sharp, pointy teeth. Stegron's plots have included:
** Bringing dinosaurs back to life from their skeletons in museums, despite the fact that dinosaur skeletons in most museums are A) held together with wire, and B) are fibreglass replicas of fossils, which are bone-shaped rocks, or C) even if they're the authentic article, are bone-shaped rocks. Rock contains remarkably little genetic material (''i.e.'', none).
** Attempting to free the world for dinosaurs by having hundreds of humans in New York conveniently start acting more animalistic and killing each other... using a magic piece of meteorite that he found in a jungle. A particularly glaring error in that story arc (as if the main plot weren't glaring enough) was where a modern lizard is regressed by exposure to the meteor and turns into a ''Velociraptor''. Lizards are not descended from dinosaurs, nor are they closely related to them. If it had been a mutated pigeon, it would have been reasonably accurate, relatively speaking, but for a lizard it's on the same scale as showing a human somehow "regressing" into a water buffalo or a dolphin. Given that Stegron himself is weakened by the cold and speaks in SssssnakeTalk, the writers clearly assumed dinosaurs were typical reptiles.

* ''Blog/TheTyrannosaurChronicles'': Mostly averted. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Layla Oviraptor, who mentions that Desdemona Deinonychus and Larry the Tyrannosaur [[DyeingForYourArt shaved off their feathers]] so they could star in ''Franchise/JurassicPark''.

* [[http://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/coming-soon-to-your-screens-dinosaur-hyperbole/ Several]] [[http://theropoda.blogspot.com/2011/09/planet-theropoda-revolution.html paleontologists]] have satirized the sensationalist nature of typical dinosaur documentaries on their blogs as well.
** [[http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2011/04/science_meets_mokele-mbembe.php This]] April Fools' joke on Blog/TetrapodZoology sets out to "prove" that old-school dinosaurs are correct after all, and contains a number of jabs at some infamous fringe groups.

* Lampshaded in ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale''. Cecil initially refers to ''Pteranodon'' as dinosaurs. Later (after being re-identified as pterodactyls) Cecil is informed that ''Pteranodon'' and pterodactyls are not in fact dinosaurs.
** [[DoubleSubversion Doubly subverted]] in a much later episode. Lauren, like Cecil, refers to ''Pteranodon'' as dinosaurs. Kevin immediately informs her that ''Pteranodon'' are not dinosaurs. [[DontBeRidiculous They're arachnids]].
* The ''Website/{{Brainpop}}'' minigame "Life Preservers" explicitly states that birds are dinosaurs but are dinosaurs themselves. [[http://albertonykus.deviantart.com/art/Why-Birds-are-Dinosaurs-193639479 This makes absolutely no sense]]; even though birds can fly and are the only dinosaurs alive today, there's no objective reason to consider birds special compared to other dinosaurs in this regard. You'd think an educational website would know better.

* {{Parodied|Trope}} in ''WebAnimation/{{asdfmovie}}'', where a sauropod keeps calling itself a Stegosaurus.

* TV tropes itself is guilty SmallTaxonomyPools which categorizes creatures that are not dinosaurs as well. This also leads to the funny contradiction in the subsection UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs.

** In another strip, he was seen writing a letter explaining the brontosaur/apatosaur controversy to a cookie manufacturer that used the former term in the "Fun Facts" of their dinosaur cookie boxes. He then immediately tries to blackmail them into sending him 12 free boxes of cookies. However, he doesn't suggest advertising an another fascinating fact about dinosaurs, such as "''Heterodontosaurus'', whose fossils were found in early Jurassic rock in South Africa, was one of the smallest plant-eating dinosaurs at about 9 pounds. However, it was unique in having three different kinds of teeth (hence its name, which means 'different-toothed lizard'). It had incisors for nipping, canine teeth for stabbing, and back teeth for chewing; many mammals have such teeth, as well".

* Speaking of the third film, ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs'' has some inaccurately designed dinos and two made up pterosaur species (one is a stereotypical "pterodactyl" with a ''Pteranodon'' crest and ''Rhamphorhynchus'' tail, the other resembles oversized ''Pterodactylus'' or toothy ''Quetzalcoatlus'', and both are scaly and have only one wing claw), as well as their sizes being way larger than the real counterparts.

* Speaking of the third film, ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs'' has some inaccurately designed dinos and two made up pterodactyl species, as well as their sizes being way larger than the real counterparts.

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'':
** Subverted: Gert has a pet genetically engineered dinosaur named Old Lace. Everyone calls her a "raptor" and she does look ''exactly'' like a ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' raptor (Identified as a ''Velociraptor'' in the film, but very similar to the later-discovered ''Utahraptor''). However, as soon as Victor joins the team he points out that it is a ''Deinonychus'', and raptors as depicted in ''Jurassic Park'' do not exist. Old Lace is still incorrectly depicted as featherless, but is nonetheless referred to as a real species with a plausible (for time-traveling, MadScientist-filled comic books) reason for existing. Also,
** Played straight: During the ''Runaways''[=/=]''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'' crossover, the young supers find themselves hit by a mini-blizzard. While the humans quickly shrug it off, Old Lace is rendered practically catatonic, and almost dies, because she's "cold-blooded". However, it was John Ostrom's study of ''Deinonychus'' which largely brought on the "Dinosaur Renaissance", which drastically altered the scientific and popular conception of dinosaurs. This renaissance has ultimately resulted in, at the very least, a consensus that some dinosaurs (such as ''Deinonychus'') were closer to modern, warm-blooded birds than to modern, cold-blooded reptiles, physiologically speaking.
** It's also worth mentioning that Old Lace wasn't "born" in any sense, but was genetically engineered in the ''83rd century''. Anything odd about her appearance or physiology pales in comparison to her having a telepathic link with Gert.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': A lesser-known villain is "[[http://marvel.wikia.com/Vincent_Stegron_(Earth-616) Stegron the Dinosaur Man]]", a ripoff of more stalwart villain The Lizard. The [[StevenUlyssesPerhero rather-too-conveniently-named]] Dr. Vincent Stegron steals the lizard formula from Curt Connors and (somehow) infuses it with dinosaur DNA, transforming himself into a half-man, half-''Stegosaurus'' creature... which also has a taste for human flesh and is often depicted with sharp, pointy teeth. Stegron's plots have included:
** Bringing dinosaurs back to life from their skeletons in museums, despite the fact that dinosaur skeletons in most museums are A) held together with wire, and B) are fibreglass replicas of fossils, which are bone-shaped rocks, or C) even if they're the authentic article, are bone-shaped rocks. Rock contains remarkably little genetic material (''i.e.'', none).
** Attempting to free the world for dinosaurs by having hundreds of humans in New York conveniently start acting more animalistic and killing each other... using a magic piece of meteorite that he found in a jungle. A particularly glaring error in that story arc (as if the main plot weren't glaring enough) was where a modern lizard is regressed by exposure to the meteor and turns into a ''Velociraptor''. Lizards are not descended from dinosaurs, nor are they closely related to them. If it had been a mutated pigeon, it would have been reasonably accurate, relatively speaking, but for a lizard it's on the same scale as showing a human somehow "regressing" into a water buffalo or a dolphin. Given that Stegron himself is weakened by the cold and speaks in SssssnakeTalk, the writers clearly assumed dinosaurs were typical reptiles.
* 150,000 years ago, the title character of ''ComicBook/{{Rahan}}'' (a very well known caveman in France) encounters dinosaurs and sees them as survivors of a very distant past. It's not as outlandish as some of the other examples on this page. Still, Rahan's people are modern-looking Europeans in a time when modern humans had not yet left Africa, Rahan virtually invents every technology from rafts to windmills, and the MisplacedWildlife includes anything from lemurs to gorillas to ''Smilodon'' that look just like Charles R. Knight's art.

* Dr. Dinosaur in ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' claims that "mammal energies" traveled back in time and granted him super-intelligence while wiping out all the rest of the dinosaurs, and then he built a time machine out of rocks, fronds, and crystals to travel to the present and get revenge. His inaccuracies (such as lack of feathers and presence of a larynx) are largely justified however, when Robo points them out and dismisses Dr. D's story as absurd, assuming he's just a genetic experiment based on a ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' dinosaur rather than a real one. In general, it's a RunningGag that Dr. Dinosaur works his science by AchievementsInIgnorance, which means his appearance is more or less in keeping with it.

* ''ComicBook/{{Marville}} #4'', [[http://4thletter.net/2009/03/the-marville-horror-part-4-stay-with-the-tardis-damn-it/ oh]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weAVXVE6rwc boy]]. For starters, it is set on the "Jurassic ''Park''", not "Period".
* In ''Tyrannosaurus Rex'', while there's dinosaurs and humans living together, the raptors are coated in feathers.

* Jack Kirby did a very brief series called ''Devil Dinosaur'' that was clearly about having fun more than being accurate. There's a friendly "devil beast" (theropod of some sort; it's probably for the best it isn't identified) fighting against ferocious ceratopsians and a ''carnivorous Iguanodon'' (what.), while coexisting with cavemen.
* ''ComicBook/JurassicLeague'' makes no attempts at scientific accuracy whatsoever. The main characters are intelligent, anthropomorphic, talking [[HollywoodPrehistory dinosaurs who live alongside cavemen]] and have superpowers. One of them, [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Supersaur]], is from space.

* A lesser-known ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' villain is "[[http://marvel.wikia.com/Vincent_Stegron_(Earth-616) Stegron the Dinosaur Man]]", a ripoff of more stalwart villain The Lizard. The [[StevenUlyssesPerhero rather-too-conveniently-named]] Dr. Vincent Stegron steals the lizard formula from Curt Connors and (somehow) infuses it with dinosaur DNA, transforming himself into a half-man, half-''Stegosaurus'' creature... which also has a taste for human flesh and is often depicted with sharp, pointy teeth. Stegron's plots have included:

* ''Comicbook/{{Marville}} #4'', [[http://4thletter.net/2009/03/the-marville-horror-part-4-stay-with-the-tardis-damn-it/ oh]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weAVXVE6rwc boy]]. For starters, it is set on the "Jurassic ''Park''", not "Period".

** This is exaggerated with some of the prehistoric Zoan Devil Fruit users in the Beast Pirates crew. Sasaki, who has the power to turn into a ''Triceratops'', is able to fly like a helicopter by spinning his bony frill. Queen, who has the power to turn into a ''Brachiosaurus'', is able to shoot his head, neck, and tail out of his body to become a giant serpent. King, who has the power to turn into a ''Pteranodon'', is able to use his head like a slingshot, pulling his crest back to build up tension and releasing it to launch his beak forward at high speed. They all claim that this behaviour was typical of their species in ancient times. The utter absurdity of these is lampshaded.