History Main / DinosaursAreDragons

* ''TabletopGame/RuneQuest'': Dinosaurs are mutated descendants of dragonewts, themselves a species of neotenic dragons, who have let emotional imperfections drive them away from the path towards full dragonhood and trapped them permanently in flesh.

* ''VideoGame/HalfMinuteHero'': Subverted. In the Princess 30, the princess learns that a Dragon Scale can cure her father, so she kills a dragon-like monster and gives the scale to him, but it doesn't work, and then it is explained the monster was a dinosaur, not a dragon.

* ''Series/Danger5'': The dinosaur Ilsa fights can breathe fire.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' has the Paradox Pokémon Roaring Moon, Koraidon, and Walking Wake who are all part Dragon-type, and all have either saurian postures or protofeathers in line with more modern dinosaur depictions.

* ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'': At the end of ''High Rhulain'', Captain Cuthbert kills a gigantic StockNessMonster called the Slothunog, and is referred to as a dragonslayer.
* In ''Literature/TheTimeBender'', the dragon owned by the Giant Lod, who is threatening the kingdom of Artesia, turns out to be a dinosaur. In fact, there's two: a friendly Iguanodon, and a much more hostile T-Rex.

* ''Series/Danger5:'' The dinosaur Ilsa fights can breathe fire.

The older version of the trope is gradually becoming more and more discredited as it filters into the pop-culture consciousness that dinosaurs, really, were just another kind of animal. The newer version comes at the issue from a different angle: now it's more like Dragons Are Dinosaurs. Quite a few anthropologists are now suggesting that many of the legends of fantastic beasts were based upon misinterpreted fossils. This may also tie into recent depictions of FeatheredDragons -- as it's a well-established fact by now that some carnivorous dinosaurs were birdlike, feathered animals (in fact, it's currently understood that dinosaurs would be better described as big proto-birds than as big reptiles, to the point that modern biologists actually differentiate between "avian dinosaurs" and "non-avian dinosaurs" rather than between birds and dinosaurs), dragons associated with them may be given feathers of their own as a result.

* ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'': In the story ''He-Man and the Lost Dragon'' a ''Stegosaurus'' that Skeletor’s minions released from a lost valley was initially mistaken for a dragon.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the [[Recap/OnePieceLandOfWanoArc Wano Country Arc]] ultimately reveals that the Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit eaten by X Drake (the X is pronounced Diez) which allows him to turn into a Dinosaur is the ''Ryu Ryu no Mii, Model: Allosaurus'' (''Dragon Dragon fruit, Model: Allosaurus''). Apparently, the Ancient Dragon models allows you to turn into dinosaurs, as several top commanders of the Beast Pirates also have Dragon Fruit Models, such as King who can turn into a Pteranodon, Queen who turns into a Brachiosaur, and Page One who turns into a Spinosaurus. This is a reference to the fact that in Japanese the word for Dinosaur, ''Kyoryu'' (恐竜), contains the character, ''Ryu'' (竜), which means dragon. [[spoiler:Ironically, this is not the case with the ''actual'' eastern dragon fruit eaten by Kaido, which is a Mythical Zoan Fruit, the ''Uo Uo no Mii, Model: Seiryu'' (''Fish Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon''). The name being Fish instead of Dragon is most likely a reference to the famous legend of the Koi fish that swam up a waterfall and transformed into a dragon when it reached the top and passed through the Dragon Gate. This is especially true when you remember that the main method of entering the island of Wano itself is by using giant koi to travel up a massive waterfall.]]

* Close variant: as referenced above in ''Literature/TheCrocodileGod,'' [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} precolonial Filipino folklore]] views ''crocodiles'' as dragons... [[SeaMonster of the sea-serpent variety,]] being an Asian country instead of European. Seeing as the Philippines is full of saltwater crocodiles (the species routinely reaches 15-17 feet long, and the largest living saltwater croc was caught in the Philippines) who are notoriously aggressive and [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile often prey on humans,]] one can see why "giant man-eating reptile" led to "dragon" for the ancient tribes.

** The Dinobots' trademark attack is fire breath; Slag (the Triceratops) actually has "Flamethrower" as his official assigned function. (Well, at least they're robots.) The ones in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' also breathe fire and are made from animatronic dinosaurs, but they aren't suppose to have it; it's something Megatron, who was working with an unwitting Sumdac, added so they would have weapons.

* ''ComicBook/DinosaursVsAliens'': One of [[AlienInvasion the alien invaders]] referred the dinosaurs as dragons after facing the consequences of their first attack. Considering how [[GeniusBruiser smart and strong]] the dinosaurs are, the alien invaders are right about calling them dragons.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' has the Paradox Pokémon Roaring Moon, Koraidon, and Walking Wake are all part Dragon-type, and all have either saurian postures or protofeathers in line with more modern dinosaur depictions.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' has the [[AnIcePerson Ice]]/Dragon-type Frigibax, Arctibax, and Baxcalibur, based on the ''Spinosaurus''. The Paradox Pokémon Roaring Moon, Koraidon, and Walking Wake are all part Dragon-type, and all have either saurian postures or protofeathers in line with more modern dinosaur depictions.

* Young Earth Creationists are very adamant that legends of dragons were inspired by historic encounters with dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Needless to say, this is disputed by theologians, paleontologists, historians, geologists, and every other natural science.

** Another creationist, Duane T. Gish, suggested ''Parasaurolophus'''s crest enabled it to breathe fire in the book ''Dinosaurs by Design'' (pictured in the trope image) similar to how a bombardier beetle can shoot boiling chemicals from its abdomen, going on to suggest that the Biblical Leviathan was a ''Parasaurolophus''. Anyone who bothered to actually read The Bible will quickly notice a ''Parasaurolophus'' looks absolutely nothing like the crocodilian or serpentine Leviathan (this is a particularly odd lapse from creationists who base their view on ''Biblical literalism'').

*** Recent billboards for the Creation Museum have been using dinosaurs to attract children and parents to the venue. Among the dinosaur signs is a fire-breathing dragon.

*** Recent billboards for the Creation Museum have been using dinosaurs to attract children and parents to spend money at the venue. Among the dinosaur signs is a fire-breathing dragon.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterInMyPocket'': ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' breathes fire. Thanks to TheWikiRule, it can be identified as "''[[http://monsterinmypocket.wikia.com/wiki/Tyrannosaurus_Rex super-heated plasma from his mouth, known as atomic breath.]]''"

* ''Art/RealisticPokemon'': Many of the Dragon-types are depicted as dinosaurs, including Haxorus (though it's already based on dinosaurs), Druddigon, Reshiram and, if you choose to get technical, Altaria, which as per its original inspiration is simply a bird.

** If you choose to get technical, Altaria could qualify, seeing as it's a bird (and birds are dinosaurs) that also happens to be Dragon-type.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'': The {{Legacy Boss|Battle}} Dragonlord is a giant, purple-skinned ''T. rex'' with wings and horns that breathes fire (and later, casts magic). Especially visible in its attack animations.
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'': Axe-wielding, fire-breathing crested tyrannosaurs can be found as enemies. One ([[MonsterIsAMommy Lizzie]]) can even be recruited.

Dinosaurs are Dragons may be considered a subtrope of PrehistoricMonster, which talks about the pop-portraits of general prehistoric life. See also OurDragonsAreDifferent, FierySalamander, HereThereWereDragons, GiantFlyer, ReptilesAreAbhorrent, PteroSoarer, and (naturally) ArtisticLicensePaleontology.

* ''VideoGame/ExtrapowerGiantFist'': The [[PteroSoarer Ptero Soarers]] of Magarda Volcano spit fire, naturally.

* ''VideoGame/TimeSlip'' have a couple of dinosaur-based bosses, notably a giant PteroSoarer and a gigantic frilled dinosaur that looks closer to a dragon. Both of them are capable of breathing fire at you for some reason, though they're likely bio-weapons created by the Tirmatian aliens.

* ''Manga/YuGiOh'': Dragons are dinosaurs... sort of. Rex Raptor (Dinosaur Ryuzaki in the original) has a Dinosaur themed deck. However, his two strongest monsters, Serpent Night Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon, are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin dragons]]. (And in his second duel with Joey later, he adds Tyrant Dragon to his deck.) Possibly justified as dragons are not affected by the arbitrary dinosaur weakness, and Rex may even be exploiting the confusion here. This is likely because there were too few dinosaur cards at the time the character was created to make a full deck, so obviously the next best thing is dragons.

** Rex specifically notes that the Serpent Night Dragon and the Red-Eyes Black Dragon are his special rare cards (he won the Serpent Night Dragon at a tournament), which makes them an acceptable exception to his dinosaur-themed deck. He's just showing off by having them -- and ends up losing both anyway.