History Main / DumbDinos

** Zig-zagged in "Extinct Possibility", where Darkwing's party go back millions of years to discover dinosaurs were fully sapient. Despite having technology, civilization, and architecture, the dinosaurs do many things "backward" compares to modern man (e.g. using stone-wheeled vehicles on inflatable rubber roads), which Darkwing deduces it why they went extinct.

* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': Stegmutt is an anthropomorphic duck turned into a ''Stegosaurus'' by a DevolutionDevice. He's a DumbMuscle minion of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]], Dr. Fossil (who himself is an aversion, an EvilGenius duck turned into a ''Pteranodon'' who keeps his intelligence), until he does a HeelFaceTurn and becomes Darkwing's gentle, but still dumb ally.

* ''Series/MyWorldAndWelcomeToIt'': In "The Human Being and the Dinosaur," John tells Lydia a fable about the two title characters. In it, he characterizes the dinosaur as being stupid and the human as being smart.

** Averted in "Days of Future Future" where resurrected dinosaurs and pterosaurs kept in zoos are intelligent enough to understand and obey orders, perform tricks in front of patrons, and make use of human-made material (''T. rex'' even sleeps with a teddy bear while wearing a nightcap).
** Played with in the final segment of "Treehouse of Horror XXIX", where senior citizens transform into dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles due to being infused with their DNA. While they do go on a rampage and kill some people, they retain their personalities and ultimately can be reasoned with.

* Mindlessly aggressive and stupid dinosaurs were stock villains in UsefulNotes/{{the Golden|AgeOfComicBooks}} and [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver]] Ages of comics -- revived or surviving dinosaurs have fought the Human Torch, Franchise/TheFlash, [[ComicBook/SuicideSquad the early Suicide Squad]], Franchise/WonderWoman, Franchise/GreenLantern, [[{{ComicBook/Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] and Franchise/SpiderMan, among others. Both the DC and Marvel universes have surviving dinosaur populations which are neither friendly nor intelligent.

* ''Franchise/TheSimpsons'':

* ''Film/OneMillionYearsBC'': The dinosaurs constantly fight the native cavepeople and one another in situations where normal animals would back off.

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* ''Series/TheLostWorld2001'': Discussed and deconstructed. In an early scene, Prof. Summerlee gives a lecture explaining that dinosaurs went extinct because they were too slow and clumsy to compete with mammals, which [[ScienceMarchesOn was the scientific consensus when the series is set]] - the meteorite impact theory had not yet been developed. However, when the {{bold explorer}}s finally make it to the Plateau, they peacefully interact with a few of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, finding them well-adapted to their environment and fairly intelligent, and, in an AdaptationalAlternateEnding, the explorers [[spoiler: ultimately decide to protect the Plateau by [[TheWorldIsNotReady keeping its location a secret from the rest of the world]]]]. There's a rather pointed defiance of this trope in the handling of a ''Pteranodon'' chick, whose egg the party bring back to London with them as proof of what they've found, but the hatchling escapes; in the book, the narrator assures us that, being such a clumsy, badly-evolved flier, the creature won't make it as far as Dover, but the miniseries shows us that it does indeed manage to fly all the way back to the Plateau (sure enough, it's now believed that most pterosaurs were good flyers and ''Pteranodon'' in particular was capable of long-distance travel over sea, like the modern albatross).
* In ''Series/LandOfTheLost1974'', most of the dinosaurs that the Marshalls meet aren't particularly smart, and fewer are particularly friendly.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Discussed in ''Earthshock'' in a scene featuring all the then current TARDIS crew except Adric, whose absence would have fateful consequences later in the story:

* While the featured dinosaurs subvert it, ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' gives this treatment to the non-saurian rauisuchid ''Postosuchus'' and dicynodont ''Placerias'' in the first episode ("New Blood"), as both are depicted as lumbering and ungainly relics from a bygone age that can barely move at a snail's pace and are destined to be supplanted by the "superior" dinosaurs like ''Coelophysis'' and ''Plateosaurus'', much in the same way mammals were once viewed in contrast to dinosaurs. ''Postosuchus'' in particular was a fast ambush predator and a strict biped that was a very real threat to contemporary dinosaurs.

* Dinosaurs in ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' don't come across as particularly intelligent for the most part. In one cartoon a ''T. rex'' is shown to have poor grammar, and in another a group of dinosaurs are laughing at a mammal as it begins to snow. Yet another has a ''Stegosaurus'' explaining that the prospects for long-term species survival are poor because the dinosaurs have a brain the size of a walnut.
* The dinosaurs in ''[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvin and Hobbes]]'' come across as dim and helpless in the case of the herbivores, and violent eating machines in the case of the carnivores (except for the one time [[RuleOfCool they were in fighter jets]]). Justified in that the strips reflect Calvin's imagination, not real life, and this is how he imagines dinosaurs to be.
* Played straight in [[https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/1934-may19-this-curious-world-william-g-ferguson.jpg this 1934 cartoon from]] ''This Curious World'', which claims that the dinosaurs' lack of brains hastened their extinction.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'': Bob the Dinosaur is one of the strip's few consistently nice and well-meaning characters, but [[DumbIsGood also one of the dumbest]].

* In the German poem ''Der Ichthyosaurus'', the dinosaurs became extinct because they grew decadent, got drunk, and had affairs.

[[folder:PuppetShows]]
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''Series/BetweenTheLions'', in which Heath the Thesaurus is one of the smartest characters on the show.
* In ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'', the dinosaurs are portrayed as stupid but mostly likable and well-meaning. On the other hand, they are responsible for their own extinction. Ironically, one of the characters in the show who averts this trope is a ''Brontosaurus'', a common victim of this stereotype.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]

* In Imaginext's dinosaur toy line, the herbivorous dinosaurs, the "ecovores", are portrayed as being able to cooperate and live in peace with humans. The predators, on the other hand, are StupidEvil villains who destroy the environment ForTheEvulz.

* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon'': The herbivorous dinosaurs in both games don't bother to defend themselves from predators, even ones much smaller than they are. Averted in the second game with the carnivorous theropods ''Utahraptors'' and ''Stokesosaurus'', who are smart enough to need enrichment items and like to paint.
%%* ''VideoGame/PrehistoricIsle'': Most of the enemies and bosses are rampaging dinosaurs.

* In ''Dinosaur Adventure 3-D'', none of the dinosaurs are treated as sapient aside from TheHero, a ''Parasaurolophus'', his ''Pteranodon'' sidekick, and the baby dinosaurs they hatch (although only the former two speak). The others are presented as more animalistic, including the ''T. rex'' villain. Oddly, while other carnivorous dinosaurs are present in the story and are treated as part of the setting's ecosystem, only the ''T. rex'' is portrayed as an outright villain.
* ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'': The dinosaur enemies throughout the series are violent and not particularly bright. Crush and Gulp, Ripto's minions, are both DumbMuscle and the former doesn't know how to operate a portal, although they are [[SuddenlyVoiced given the ability to talk]] in later games. Ripto himself is smarter and more competent than most, but is an IneffectualSympatheticVillain.

* ''WebAnimation/ReverseJurassicPark'': Inverted. The dinosaurs are intelligent and humans are feared as stupid, ferocious monsters.

* ''WebAnimation/DinosaursTerribleLizards'' features heavily stylized dinosaurs (along with a pterosaur and an ichthyosaur) that obliviously wander the landscape, blunder straight into trouble, or inadvertently inconvenience everyone else.

* ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld1991'': Yoshi is childlike and good-natured, but dim. The other dinosaurs in the setting are stupid and predatory toward the native cavemen in a departure from the games.

* ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'': Steggy, from "Prehysterical Pet", is a rodent-sized alien ''Stegosaurus'' who is normally intelligent, but when he starts growing in size due to eating Earth food his brain doesn't grow along with his body and his mind reverts to an animal-like state, which is also what happened with the stegosaurs and sauropods from his homeworld that came to Earth during the late Jurassic period. Both his intelligence and small size are restored when he eats the food he brought with him from his planet.
* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': Stegmutt is an anthropomorphic duck turned into a ''Stegosaurus'' by a DevolutionDevice. He's a DumbMuscle minion of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]], Dr. Fossil (who himself is an aversion, an EvilGenius duck turned into a ''Pteranodon'' who keeps his intelligence), until he does a HeelFaceTurn and becomes Darkwing's gentle, but still dumb ally.

* ''WesternAnimation/DinkTheLittleDinosaur'' follows the variant with sapient and friendly herbivores and stupid, vicious carnivores (with the exception of a nonthreatening ''Compsognathus'' and a [[CarnivoreConfusion vegetarian]] ''Deinonychus'').
* ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'': Doc, Squat, and Kutter from ''The Terrible Thunderlizards'' are a trio of incompetent special forces operatives who are tapped to kill a couple of cavemen before they can evolve into modern humans. They aren't very good at it. The other dinosaurs, however, are shown to be fairly intelligent, particularly the ''T. rex'' General Galapagos, who is constantly angered and frustrated by the trio's antics and failures.
* ''WesternAnimation/DinoSquad'': Played with. While the main characters are humans who can change into dinosaurs (and one pterosaur) at will, and both their mentor and archenemy are hyperintelligent ''Velociraptors'' (who inexplicably gained the ability to change into people), the animals exposed to the villain's chemicals and "reverted" usually become extremely aggressive and mindlessly violent -- regardless of the animal's previous disposition. However, only the main characters (in their transformed states) and the ''Velociraptors'' are considered "perfect dinosaurs".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'': One episode features the Stimpysaurus, a sauropod described as one of the largest dinosaurs and the stupidest creature that ever lived. When Ren hears this, he makes Stimpy hand over his MedalOfDishonor. The Stimpysaurus itself unknowingly stepped on a Renosaurus, attempted to live in a tree smaller than it (getting struck by lightning as a result), and met its end by sticking its head in a tar pit. What do you expect from a creature that is based on and named after [[TheDitz Stimpy]]?
* ''WesternAnimation/KryptoTheSuperdog'': Subverted. In one episode, Ignatius, Lex Luthor's pet iguana, goes back in time assuming this trope, planning to make himself the king of the dinosaurs with his superior intelligence. The dinosaurs turn out to be both intelligent and not very impressed by Ignatius, especially when he tries to steal ''T. rex'' eggs.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': Baloney the Dinosaur, a parody of [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]], is overly friendly and cheerful to the point of being annoying, especially towards the Warners. He is also so dimwitted that he doesn't realize he's being tormented even after getting anvils dropped on him.

* In "We Were Trapped in the Twilight World", a 1961 Creator/JackKirby story set in HollywoodPrehistory, dinosaurs are depicted as lacking a sense of memory because of their stupidity, allowing the protagonists to escape a ''T. rex''.
* This trope [[https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/turok-young-earth-dinosaurs-21.jpg?w=370&h= comes]] [[https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/turok-young-earth-dinosaurs-18.jpg?w=370&h= up]] in ''Young Earth'', an [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology educational]] back-up comic to ''ComicBook/{{Turok}}: Son of Stone''. The dinosaurs in the actual comic are of the standard violent-monster variety.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Tor}}'' comics had similar back-up comics with [[https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/dino-comic001.jpg unflattering descriptions]] of the dinosaurs.

* In ''Creator/LennyHenry and the Quest for the Big Woof'', {{God}} says He created dinosaurs and couldn't remember why, so He dropped an Ice Age on them. He regards the fact none of them thought of inventing skiing as evidence they were all morons.
* ''ComicBook/TheWarThatTimeForgot'': The dinosaurs are generally stupid and extremely violent, attacking the human soldiers stranded on their island indiscriminately. The one aversion is Dino, a giant pterosaur who imprints on the protagonists and sides with them.
* ''ComicBook/JeffHund'': Parodied when a gigantic pyramid-shaped craft appears in orbit over the moon. When the titular protagonist boards the craft, he finds that it's crewed by giants wearing armor with car motifs, who reveal themselves to be sentient dinosaurs and very intelligent (if a bit too fond of boozing). They're descended from a group of Earth-born dinosaurs who predicted their species' impending extinction by meteor and built the pyramid as an escape vessel (according to their researchers, a perfectly built pyramid of sufficient mass will reverse gravity and essentially fall into the sky). Now they're returning as they usually do every few million years because Earth is the only place where they can hatch their eggs. When Jeff protests that dinosaurs could never have been that smart due to their walnut-sized brains (as proven by their small craniums), the dinosaurs laugh at him and says that "only a complete idiot would keep something as important as the brain in their heads!" They keep theirs safely tucked away in their chests under the rib cage, thank you very much.
* Mindlessly aggressive and stupid dinosaurs were stock villains in UsefulNotes/{{the Golden|AgeOfComicBooks}} and [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver]] Ages of comics -- revived or surviving dinosaurs have fought the Human Torch, Franchise/TheFlash, [[ComicBook/SuicideSquad the early Suicide Squad]], Franchise/WonderWoman, Franchise/GreenLantern, [[{{ComicBook/Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] and Franchise/SpiderMan, among others. Both the DC and Marvel universes have surviving dinosaur populations which are neither friendly nor intelligent.

* ''ComicBook/{{Dinosty}}'': The sapient dinosaurs are selfish, thoughtless, and cruel tyrants who rule over human beings, hunting them for food and for fun.
* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'': Played with by Dr. Dinosaur. On one hand, he wields advanced technology and is one of the few villains who [[NotSoHarmlessVillain regularly gives the title character a run for his money]]. On the other hand, he's also [[GeniusDitz stark raving bonkers]].

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/WereBackADinosaursStory'', the pre-anthropomorphized dinosaurs, Rex in particular, are portrayed as stupid and mindlessly violent. Even Elsa and Dweeb, a ''Pteranodon'' and ''Parasaurolophus'' respectively, which wouldn't be much threatening in real life. They are later returned to this state by the film's BigBad. How intelligent they are when evolved is up to debate, as they all behave like extremely innocent three-year old kids. Granted, [[TheHero Rex]] and [[WomenAreWiser Elsa]] are a tad more eloquent than [[TooDumbToLive Dweeb]] and [[FatIdiot Woog]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', the herbivore protagonists are sapient and can talk, but the villainous "Sharptooth" can't. Even [[TheVoiceless Spike]] ''can'' talk, [[ElectiveMute but (usually) chooses not to]], and other ''Stegosaurus'' in the setting are intelligent. Sequels portray the situation as less Sharpteeth being stupid and more that they have a separate language from the herbivores, with the sympathetic Sharptooth Chomper as bilingual. [[AllThereInTheManual As depicted in the film's novelization]], the Sharptooth in the original film ''was'' intelligent and a particularly sadistic one who killed for fun more than food. The villainous ''Struthiomimus'' pair in the [[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTimeIITheGreatValleyAdventure second film]] can and do talk to the protagonists, and other bilingual predatory characters, like Ichy and Dil in the [[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTimeIVJourneyThroughTheMists fourth movie]], likely can't be bothered to have conversations with their prey. This trope gets referenced in the first movie when Cera insults Littlefoot by saying that "[[FantasticRacism I hear long necks have very small brains]]."
** Additionally, the trope is played with in regards to the adult dinosaurs of the Great Valley. While they're [[CivilizedAnimal fairly civilized]], they also tend to be rather insular, small-minded, and occasionally [[XenophobicHerbivore downright xenophobic]] (with these traits being on full display with Cera's father, Topps). Such shortcomings often prevent the dinosaurs from solving any problem that happens to befall the valley, [[AdultsAreUseless leaving it up to the child protagonists to find a solution]].

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
* In ''Film/KingKong1933'', the dinosaurs are stupid and violent, attacking humans for little reason. This includes the herbivores. This was taken to an extreme in Creator/PeterJackson's [[Film/KingKong2005 remake]]. A huge herd of brontosaurs panic and go on an AnimalStampede due to the approach of a pack of Venatosaurs (dromaeosaur descendants), clumsily running into canyon walls, falling off of cliffs, tripping and tumbling over each other, and in general harming themselves ''far'' more than the predators they're running from ever manage to (To be fair, this sometimes happens with modern stampeding animals). Not to be out-dumbed, the predatory dinosaurs all single-mindedly try to eat every other living thing in sight. A young ''Vastatosaurus rex'' goes after Ann even though it's already carrying half of the remains of a freshly-killed ''Foetodon'' (a large, scavenging land crocodile) in its mouth. This was part of the film's more artistic side: the dinosaurs are stupid because that's what they were perceived as in 1933. (This is also why none of the dinosaurs have feathers and why the ''Tyrannosaurus''-like vastatosaurs have three fingers instead of two.)

* ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'': The evolved, sapient dinosaur-people are generally portrayed as more violent, crude, and stupid than their human counterparts, and their world is a {{dystopia}}n hellhole.
* While the trope is mostly [[AvertedTrope averted]] in the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' film series, ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' plays this trope straight by showing multiple carnivores (''Baryonyx'', ''Allosaurus'', ''Carnotaurus'', and ''T. rex'', specifically) [[SuperPersistentPredator hunting in the middle of a volcanic eruption]], when they realistically should be panicking and trying to escape. Though in this case, it would probably be justified by them being desperately hungry.
* In ''Film/TheLastDinosaur'', the title character, a ''T. rex,'' is of the "mindless eating machine" variety, consistently attacking humans as opposed to its natural prey in the LostWorld and occasionally targeting inanimate objects.

* ''Film/TheValleyOfGwangi'': Gwangi the ''Allosaurus' is of the marauding-monster variety, leaving an elephant he kills uneaten before targeting humans. To be fair though, he was largely rampaging at that point in a way that a confused animal removed from the environment he is most familiar with would act. And the fact that he left the elephant he killed uneaten could easily be explained by him either just not being hungry and trying to get away from the creature or being confused by the sight of prey movement still unfolding around him immediately after he's killed the elephant [[RealityIsUnrealistic similarly to how modern day predatory animals have at times behaved in similar situations]].
* ''Film/TheCraterLakeMonster'' features an [[StockNessMonster amphibious plesiosaur]] who crawls onto land to hunt humans, continuing to attack even when seriously hurt and facing severe resistance.
* ''Film/TheGiantBehemoth'': The Behemoth in particular is very sick and wants to reach shallow water, but makes no effort to avoid populated areas or encounters with humans when doing so, even when it is attacked.

* In ''Literature/{{Astrosaurs}}'', the dinosaurs are intelligent enough to build spaceships and leave Earth before the meteorite hits. However, the carnivores are [[PredatorsAreMean usually portrayed as violence-prone, evil, and stupid]] while the herbivores are intelligent and generally friendly. Ironically, the hero of the series is a ''Stegosaurus'', a common victim of this stereotype.
* ''Literature/DetectiveDinosaur'' of the series of the same name is a CluelessDetective, and DaChief, a ''T. rex'', isn't much better. His pterosaur partner, however, is a HypercompetentSidekick.
* ''Literature/ASoundOfThunder'': The ''T. rex'' is portrayed as a more-or-less mindless monster who attacks the time travelers even when badly wounded. It's described as monstrous and devoid of all emotion, but also as a majestic awe-provoking wonder.

* ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912'': The assorted prehistoric animals come off this way, including the pterodactyls, ''Iguanodon'', and ''Megalosaurus'' -- they are portrayed as backwards, grotesque, and inferior creatures who need to be subjugated for progress. The pterodactyl is utterly incapable of surviving in the modern world when it escapes capture, and a ''Megalosaurus'' attacks the protagonists even after it has recently fed on an ''Iguanodon''. The ''Iguanodon'' themselves are harmless and helpless creatures who put up no defense against the megalosaurs or human interlopers, and the pterodactyls receive an unflattering portrayal as drab, ugly, and disgusting monsters. Since the book was one of the first appearances of dinosaurs as characters in popular fiction, it was the TropeCodifier for many pre-Renaissance portrayals. For example, because the dinosaurs are so stupid and slow, they die slowly and can take a lot of damage in the meantime.

* The dinosaurs in [[Creator/PoulAnderson Poul Anderson's]] "Wildcat" are so stupid that they are incredibly difficult to kill, staying active enough to fight even after grave injuries. The carnivores also do not recognize carrion as food, [[ScienceMarchesOn something demonstrably false in the fossil record]].
* ''Literature/RaptorRed'' averts the trope, portraying the dinosaurs' intelligence as realistically as could be allowed given information available at the time, and all of them are perfectly functional in their habitat. [[ShownTheirWork The book was written by one of the paleontologists behind the Dinosaur Renaissance.]]
* Both the original novel and [[{{Film/Carnosaur}} film adaptation]] of ''{{Literature/Carnosaur}}'' portray carnivorous dinosaurs as overly vicious and bold, going out of their way to kill humans and attack public spaces with no provocation. While they were created by a MadScientist to do just this, there's no evidence that he tampered with the DNA to make them more violent. To be fair, the novel does better on this front than the films do, and is an effort to mesh a monstrous portrayal of dinosaurs with Renaissance-era information -- the dinosaurs are agile, warm-blooded, and smart enough to be threatening. The film version, on the other hand, portrays the dinosaurs as straight-up mindless monsters.
* In ''Danger in Dinosaur Valley'', a ''Diplodocus'' is smart enough to learn baseball from watching human time travelers. He then uses this knowledge to help his family fight off a villainous ''T. rex''. On the other hand, the ''T. rex'' itself is an eating machine who shows no intelligence or stealth in hunting.

* In "The Dechronization of Sam [=McGruder=]", the title character, a time traveler, observes that dinosaurs do not have memories and carnivores can be avoided simply by hiding. This is a relatively late example in serious fiction, written in 1970 and published in 1996.
* Inverted in "Dinosaur on a Bicycle", where the protagonist is a sapient dinosaur who initially thinks ''mammals'' are the stupid ones, since in his universe they never achieved full self-awareness.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov: "Literature/DayOfTheHunters" and "Literature/BigGame" -- an intelligent race of dinosaurs who developed guns killed off the rest and eventually each other for sport. The dinosaurs' self-destructive ways [[NotSoDifferentRemark are explicitly compared to humans']].
* In ''Tyrannosaurus Drip'', the ''Parasaurolophus'', including the title character, are intelligent but the ''T. rexes'' are stupid bullies.
* An InvokedTrope in ''Homchen'' by Creator/KurdLasswitz, where the birdlike antagonists encourage the dinosaurs to evolve spinal brains instead of their heads, to keep them as obedient DumbMuscle. When one dinosaur and one mammal show signs of becoming too smart, they plan to put the dinosaur at the head of an army that will wipe out the mammals and then see to it that he comes to a martyr's death.
* ''Starring T. Rex!'': This trope is discussed extensively along with PrehistoricMonster in an analysis of dinosaurs in film and popular culture.
* In the AlternateHistory story ''Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo'', the dinosaurs are dim and vicious but are also able to be domesticated and used as weapons.
* ''Literature/DinosaurPlanet'': The quasi-alien dinosaurs fit the stupid, swamp-dwelling model of dinosaurs.
* ''Tim, Defender of the Earth'': Tim, the title character, is a genetically altered ''Tyrannosaurus'' of human intelligence. His childlike mentality is not because he's stupid but because he's only thirteen, grew up in an underground lab, and is fairly new to the whole "Defender of the Earth" thing.
* In ''The Trouble With Tyrannosaurus Rex'', the herbivores are friendly and sapient while the ''T. rex'' is a stupid, brutish bully.

* In ''The Death Collector'', the BigBad creates and trains a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot zombie cyborg dinosaur]] to act as his [[TheDragon Dragon]]. He specifically chose dinosaurs to experiment with because of their lack of intelligence and brute strength compared to humans -- while the one human subjected to the same procedure eventually regains his sense of self and rebels, the dinosaur shows no capacity for this and must be destroyed.
* In Louise Lawrence's post-apocalyptic young adult novel ''Children of the Dust'', the inhabitants of a government bunker are compared to dinosaurs because they are making no attempt to adapt to the changed conditions following the nuclear attack, instead focusing all their efforts on restoring Britain to how it used to be. A generation later, the bunker is running out of resources, forcing the people who live there to seek help from the now largely mutated outsiders.

* The ''Tor'' comics had similar back-up comics with [[https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/dino-comic001.jpg unflattering descriptions]] of the dinosaurs.

* Stegron the Dinosaur Man, a lesser-known member of [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man's]] RoguesGallery and a MadScientist who was transformed into an anthropomorphic ''Stegosaurus'' and has the ability to control dinosaurs. While he isn't stupid ''per se'', he isn't exactly considered a top-tier threat. Spider-Man considers him to be little more than a low-grade knockoff of the Lizard, in fact. He's generally only seen just often enough for Marvel to keep the copyright on him from expiring.

** Rudy the ''Baryonyx'' and the mother ''T. rex'' in ''[[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnofTheDinosaurs Dawn of the Dinosaurs]]'' are portrayed as a fair bit smarter than most -- the ''T. rex'' eventually befriends the main characters while Rudy is smart enough to hold a mutual grudge with Buck.

Dinosaurs: slow, moronic, only existing to eat and [[TheDinosaursHadItComing destined to go extinct as they couldn't cope with their changing world]], due to their brains being no bigger than a walnut. Slow, lumbering brutes with poor reflexes and even poorer movement... and heaven help you if you run into a carnivore, because they've only got one thing on their mind: eat.

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs: The various dinosaurs in the ''Literature/TheLandThatTimeForgot'', ''Literature/{{Pellucidar}}'', and ''Literature/{{Tarzan}}'' novels by are feral and unintelligent. The telepathic and highly intelligent Mahars, descended from pterosaurs, are an aversion, although they suffer from a strong case of BlueAndOrangeMorality -- they legitimately see nothing wrong with hypnotizing and enslaving other species, which they don't see as sentient. This is because they are completely deaf and can only communicate through their own telepathy.

* ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' provides a very early pre-dinosaur example with an oversized and overly violent ''Ichthyosaurus'' and ''Plesiosaurus'' fighting each other to the death. Though in Creator/JulesVerne's time, [[ScienceMarchesOn their depictions would have been considered accurate.]]

* ''Series/TheLostWorld2001'': Discussed and deconstructed. In an early scene, Prof. Summerlee gives a lecture explaining that dinosaurs went extinct because they were too slow and clumsy to compete with mammals, which [[ScienceMarchesOn was the scientific consensus when the series is set]] - the meteorite impact theory had not yet been developed. However, when the {{bold explorer}}s finally make it to the Plateau, they peacefully interact with a few of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, finding them well-adapted to their environment and fairly intelligent, and, in an AdaptationalAlternateEnding, the explorers [[spoiler: ultimately decide to protect the Plateau by [[TheWorldIsNotReady keeping its location a secret from the rest of the world]]]]. There's a rather pointed defiance of this trope in the handling of a ''Pteranodon'' chick, whose egg the party bring back to London with them as proof of what they've found, but the hatchling escapes; in the book, the narrator assures us that, being such a clumsy, badly-evolved flier, the creature won't make it as far as Dover, but the miniseries shows us that it does indeed manage to fly all the way back to the Plateau.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': The various dinosaurs and Mesozoic reptiles generally aren't very bright compared to the mammal protagonists, and most of them can't talk. Cretaceous and Maelstrom in ''[[WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown The Meltdown]]'' are more brutish and hungry forces of nature than characters, while Rudy the ''Baryonyx'' and the mother ''T. rex'' in ''[[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnofTheDinosaurs Dawn of the Dinosaurs]]'' are portrayed as a fair bit smarter than most -- the ''T. rex'' eventually befriends the main characters while Rudy is smart enough to hold a mutual grudge with Buck. Dromaeosaurids, particularly the three flying raptors from ''[[WesternAnimation/IceAgeCollisionCourse Collision Course]]'' (believed to be ''Dakotaraptors'' by fans and [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]], although real ''Dakotaraptor'' couldn't fly) appear to be the only non-avian dinosaurs who are sapient and capable of speech. Even they, with the possible exception of [[MinionWithAnFInEvil Roger]], aren't too bright, genuinely believing that they can avoid an impending mass extinction through flight and deliberately trying to sabotage the main characters' efforts to stop it. [[spoiler:They do, however, eventually realize that they won't survive either and pull a HeelFaceTurn.]]

** It could be assumed that had the rejection of the dinosaur-bird link in the 1920s (which led to this trope becoming more widespread for much of the 20th Century) never happened, [[InSpiteOfANail there still would have been a widespread belief that dinosaurs were unintelligent or "bird-brained"]]. It would be not as bad though; birds were still viewed as active, agile, and alert compared to other reptiles, so non-avian dinosaurs would have been seen the same way[[note]]It's quite telling that dinosaur depictions from before the 1940s show them as quite active and swift[[/note]].

** It could be assumed that had the rejection of the dinosaur-bird link in the 1920s (which led to this trope becoming more widespread for much of the 20th Century) never happened, [[InSpiteOfANail there still would have been a widespread belief that dinosaurs were unintelligent or "bird-brained"]]. It would be not as bad though; birds were still viewed as active, agile, and alert compared to other reptiles, so non-avian dinosaurs would have been seen the same way.

* Migratory dinosaurs and pterosaurs are routinely shown as quite adept at navigation; "Deserts" has a herd of hadrosaurs navigating by the stars, while in "Badlands", a ''[[ToughArmoredDinosaur Tarchia]]'' has developed a "mental map" of a network of canyons. "Badlands" also has a herd of ''Isisaurus'' traveling through the volcanic hellscape of the Deccan Traps to lay their eggs, in what seems like a suicidal move, but is shown to actual be an extremely viable strategy - a blanket of DeadlyGas on the ground will keep out predators, but the giant Isisaurs are tall enough to avoid breathing it, the volcanic heat provides perfect incubation for the eggs, and by the time the eggs hatch, the change in seasons has thinned out the gas and most of the hatchlings are able to make it through.
* In "Ice Worlds" , a troodontid dinosaur - generally considered to be among the smartest of the dinosaurs - is shown making simple use of tools to deliberately spread a forest fire, just as some kinds of hawks do today, in order to flush out prey. "Forests" has a similiar scene of an ''Atrociraptor'' using a smoking branch to kill parasites in his feathers.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': The various dinosaurs and Mesozoic reptiles generally aren't very bright compared to the mammal protagonists, and most of them can't talk. Cretaceous and Maelstrom in ''[[WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown The Meltdown]]'' are more brutish and hungry forces of nature than characters, while Rudy the ''Baryonyx'' and the mother ''T. rex'' in ''[[WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnofTheDinosaurs Dawn of the Dinosaurs]]'' are portrayed as a fair bit smarter than most -- the ''T. rex'' eventually befriends the main characters while Rudy is smart enough to hold a mutual grudge with Buck. Dromaeosaurids, particularly the three flying raptors from ''[[WesternAnimation/IceAgeCollisionCourse Collision Course]]'' (believed to be ''Dakotaraptors'' by fans and Website/TheOtherWiki, although real ''Dakotaraptor'' couldn't fly) appear to be the only non-avian dinosaurs who are sapient and capable of speech. Even they, with the possible exception of [[MinionWithAnFInEvil Roger]], aren't too bright, genuinely believing that they can avoid an impending mass extinction through flight and deliberately trying to sabotage the main characters' efforts to stop it. [[spoiler:They do, however, eventually realize that they won't survive either and pull a HeelFaceTurn.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld1991'': Yoshi is childlike and good-natured, but dim. The other dinosaurs in the setting are stupid and predatory toward the native cavemen. This is a departure from the games, as noted above.

* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': Stegmutt is an anthropomorphic duck turned into a ''Stegosaurus'' by a DevolutionDevice. He's a DumbMuscle minion of the VillainOfTheWeek, Dr. Fossil (who himself is an aversion, an EvilGenius duck turned into a ''Pteranodon'' who keeps his intelligence), until he does a HeelFaceTurn and becomes Darkwing's gentle, but still dumb ally.

* The "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenonychosaurus#The_.22Dinosauroid.22 dinosauroid]]" was developed by Dale Russel as an aversion, a design for what a hypothetical sapient dinosaur (specifically a ''Stenonychosaurus''/''Troodon'' descendant) would look like. The design is subject to some ScienceMarchesOn, as well as criticism for the assumption that a sapient species would [[MostWritersAreHuman inevitably develop a humanoid body plan]], leading to more [[http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/files/2012/10/Cevdet-Kosemen-Avisapiens-dinosauroid-Oct-2012-Darren-Naish-Tetrapod-Zoology-600-px-tiny.jpg birdlike dinosauroids]] in later speculation.

* Zigzagged on ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet''. A lot of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles featured are depicted as not very bright, but still fully capable of getting by in their own environment. In the first episode, a colony of ''Tethydraco'' seem oddly apathetic to a ''Phosphatodraco'' wandering around the beach eating their young, for example, but a pod of ''Tuarangasaurus'', seeing another of their kind being menaced by the mosasaurid ''Kaikaifilou'' while trying to give birth, come to her aid, driving the larger predator away, with Creator/DavidAttenborough's narration explaining that the entire pod - who are probably all related - benefit from working together for mutual protection, and have the social intelligence to see that. In a later episode, a troodontid dinosaur - generally considered to be among the smartest of the dinosaurs - is shown making simple use of tools to deliberately spread a forest fire, just as some kinds of hawks do today, in order to flush out prey.

* ''Film/TheLostWorld'': The dinosaurs follow standard movie dinosaur behavior in constantly attacking humans and other dinosaurs for no reason. Special mention goes to the ''Brontosaurus'', who rampages across London despite being an herbivore. Granted, it was most likely rampaging out of panic from suddenly ending up in an unfamiliar environment, which is helped by the fact it was fairly calm when left alone in its natural habitat. On the other hand, there is a sympathetic moment for a mother ''Triceratops'' looking after its young. This is a very early example that predates fossil evidence of parental care in dinosaurs.

* ''The Lost World'': In a miniseries adaptation, the trope is deconstructed -- while the team goes in with this attitude and the allosaurs are still dangerous, the protagonists interact peacefully with other dinosaurs, the prehistoric creatures are well-adapted to their environment and fairly intelligent, and [[spoiler: the protagonists ultimately decide to spare the plateau where the animals live]].

* While the featured dinosaurs subvert it, ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' gives this treatment to the non-saurian rauisuchid ''Postosuchus'' and dicynodont ''Placerias'' in the first episode (“New Blood”), as both are depicted as lumbering and ungainly relics from a bygone age that can barely move at a snail’s pace and are destined to be supplanted by the “superior” dinosaurs like ''Coelophysis'' and ''Plateosaurus'', much in the same way mammals were once viewed in contrast to dinosaurs. ''Postosuchus'' in particular was a fast ambush predator and a strict biped that was a very real threat to contemporary dinosaurs.
* Zigzagged on ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet''. A lot of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles featured are depicted as not very bright, but still fully capable of getting by in their own environment. In the first episode, a colony of ''Tethydraco'' seem oddly apathetic to a ''Phosphatodraco'' wandering around the beach eating their young, for example, but a pod of ''Tuarangasaurus'', seeing another of their kind being menaced by the mosasaurid ''Kaikaifilou'' while trying to give birth, come to her aid, driving the larger predator away, with the narrator explaining that the entire pod - who are probably all related - benefit from working together, rather than simply hoping they're not the one to get eaten. In a later episode, a troodontid dinosaur - generally considered to be among the smartest of the dinosaurs - is shown making simple use of tools to deliberately spread a forest fire, just as some kinds of hawks do today, in order to flush out prey.

** It could be assumed that had the rejection of the dinosaur-bird link in the 1920s (which led to this trope becoming more widespread for much of the 20th Century) never happened, [[InSpiteOfANail there still would have been a widespread belief that dinosaurs were unintelligent or "bird-brained"]], though it would be not as bad (for example, dinosaurs would have been consistently portrayed as active, agile and alert much earlier).

However, in settings where the dinosaurs are sapient, it's likely that the carnivores will be on the receiving end of the trope because PredatorsAreMean. Sympathetic herbivores may also fall under DumbIsGood. The biggest exception to this rule is usually dromaeosaurs, who are almost always portrayed as [[EvilGenius neither dumb nor good]] -- the RaptorAttack trope originally came about in an attempt to avert this one. Pterosaurs are also less likely to be victims of this trope, and have [[PteroSoarer their own set of stereotypes]].